Capítulo 54: Chapter 52
After Makeda, who introduced a somewhat bashful boy about my age — apparently a genius in the rare branch of Light Magic as well as Alchemy — it was Cleopatra's turn.
She introduced a sweet, almost impossibly charming young girl whose age seemed anywhere between thirteen and seventeen. She somewhat resembled her great witch mentor and was dressed only a touch more modestly. According to the ancient Egyptian, this girl was a descendant of the Ptolemies, making her a distant relative of the queen herself. She was Coptic by heritage and a genius in the Egyptian variety of Dark Magic. And, well, it was also pretty clear that young Zakaria was quite gifted in certain other areas as well.
Baba Yaga presented a very self-assured boy, who, judging by his outfit, looked like he'd been pulled straight out of the Komsomol or another Soviet youth organization — which, I suspect, had already been disbanded. Interesting. And the old woman introduced him as a genius in the same area as me: combat magic.
Next came a certain Jingū, a Japanese woman who introduced an apprentice who was practically a Stereotypical Japanese Schoolgirl. Cute, modest… and from the looks of it, very much a Yamato Nadeshiko archetype. Miyoko's appearance was a near-perfect fit for this archetype of Far Eastern women. Her talent lay in spirit magic, which ordinary people would associate with Shintoism.
Wu Zetian presented a very confident dark-haired Chinese boy with strikingly good looks, as if he had stepped straight out of one of their novels. Out of a BL novel, to be precise. Just to be safe, I'll avoid turning my back on him. I'm only slightly shy of being bestowed with the honorary title of bishounen myself, so… yes, I'll be keeping my distance from Gu Minjing. His talent was in summoning and taming various magical creatures. Also typical for China.
Then again… I'm quite typical myself. What else would you expect a student of a combat and Dark Magic school to excel in?
Right…
"Well, since everyone's finished… well, nearly everyone — Morgana is missing again, but who's counting?" Semiramis sniffed dismissively, somehow managing to infuse that sniff with her entire attitude toward King Arthur's sister. "We'll now move on to the less formal part of the Gathering. Attendees may attend to their own matters, but as for the rest of us…" She swept her gaze over each of the great witches, who responded with surprised expressions. "I ask you to come with me. There's something we need to discuss. And let's give our apprentices some freedom to talk amongst themselves. I'm well aware of how you've terrorized these poor souls."
"We were educating them, Assyrian," corrected the Chinese woman, rising from her seat with the others. "You could have refused to participate in this whole venture."
"Oh, do you want to take my position as head of this serpent's nest, which is the very reason I have this opportunity?" replied the long-eared one with self-deprecating humor. "Be my guest. Perhaps a full Empress of all China could manage this better than some queen of Assyria."
"Don't twist my words," the Asian woman retorted, pressing her lips tightly as she followed the golden-eyed queen.
"Do whatever you wish, just don't get involved in any conflicts," Medea said, rising from her seat and glancing at me with a word of caution. "I don't know what they are by modern standards, but here and now, they are merely apprentices to other witches — and those witches will be the first to step in on their behalf if anything happens." She left to follow her… colleagues.
She didn't really need to say it — I'm not an idiot; I understand the risks. Like the heads of many pure-blood families, these ancient dames would step in not out of affection for their apprentices but to protect their own honor. If one of them were to die at the hands of a rival's student, rather than by some random accident (the typical "too bad they couldn't cut it"), that would be a direct blow to their reputation.
It looked like the other apprentices had also decided to follow Semiramis's suggestion and gathered around the vacant throne.
"No need for introductions, I assume?" quipped Yaga's apprentice, Yaroslav. From his expression, he was rather excited and didn't seem to have much patience.
"We can skip that part," replied the Japanese girl politely, though her face betrayed no readable expression.
"Agreed," the Chinese apprentice added, eyeing her with a hint of distaste but maintaining a decent facade.
"What shall we talk about, then?" asked another boy, one from Central America — Sergio, as his mentor, a witch who looked like an ancient Mayan, had introduced him.
"Magic, of course," Zakaria said, looking at him with a hint of superiority and a trace of condescension, as if questioning his intelligence.
In fact, that same doubt seemed to flicker in the eyes of at least half the others, who immediately focused their gazes on him. Myself included.
What kind of training did he have if he came out with a pearl like that?
"What area shall we settle on?" Siduri, Inanna's apprentice, spoke, glancing at her stone tablet. "Given how our mentors introduced us, the most common field seems to be the combat application of magic. Not exactly an academic topic, in my opinion, but at least it's something we all share."
Everyone immediately began nodding, apparently relieved that someone had taken the initiative to advance the conversation. After all, we only had two things in common — magic and our apprenticeships with one of the great witches. In everything else, we were vastly different from one another.
Alright, enough observing. I'd made my initial assessments, and putting on a show of aloofness, like a copy of the Colchian woman — silent and somewhat mistrustful of everyone and everything — wasn't for me.
"We should determine which ranking systems everyone here is familiar with so we can gauge each other's levels accordingly. Only then can we discuss topics like, say, strategies for dealing with particularly dangerous magical beasts," I said pleasantly, sliding into my favorite role as an informal leader.
"Couldn't you just say it simpler?" Yaroslav didn't miss a chance to comment, scratching his chin. "You want to figure out who's the strongest here; that's clear." His tone was blunt, but he wasn't wrong. Still, accustomed to such straightforwardness from Ivan, my expression didn't change; it remained open and friendly.
"T-that said, it's an interesting topic," Makeda's apprentice chimed in. "I study at Uagadou and am most familiar with the Ekinbad System."
"Quite an ancient system," the Coptic girl nodded respectfully, familiar with this system like me. It was created some seven centuries ago by an ancestor of Uagadou's current headmaster.
"I don't know about Africa, but at Fenghuang…" (a very fascinating and extremely secretive school of magic, by the way) "we prefer to rank by Confucius," Gu noted with a hint of pride.
Yes, Confucius was also a wizard. And just as eccentric in his time as Dumbledore was in ours.
"In my opinion, the Mahoutokoro system is the most comprehensive and covers all spheres of magic," Miyoko suggested with impeccable politeness, not a single muscle moving on her face. I marveled at how rigid her training must have been, given that, at this moment, she managed to outdo even me in composure, despite being less than half my real age.
Alright, it's my turn to offer something, now that an unspoken competition had started.
"Nevertheless, despite all the strengths of your systems, it is Durmstrang, of which I am a student, that is universally recognized as a leader in combat magic." I couldn't help but point out this fact, though it's more unofficial than official.
"Still, I must note that there is no formal confirmation of your claim," Siduri responded matter-of-factly, seemingly choosing not to participate in the discussion. At least, she hadn't yet proposed her own system, occasionally glancing at her stone tablet for reasons unknown.
"The Green Codex would be more suitable for ranking our strengths, considering we're looking to compare our abilities in hunting dangerous creatures," Sergio nodded toward me.
"Few are familiar with it, though. That's largely due to your school of magic," Siduri replied. "Mr. Gu and Ms. Miyoko… san? Did I say that correctly?" She looked at the Japanese girl.
"Yes, on both counts, Siduri-san." Miyoko gave a slight bow. The Chinese boy managed only a nod, wrinkling his nose a bit. Agreeing, for the second time, with a representative of his old adversaries clearly didn't sit well with him.
It seemed that Muggle conflicts among European nations hadn't affected wizards much, but among the Asians… things were different as always. Their wizards clashed heavily, and their presence was never hidden from the Muggle populace. If elsewhere in the world wizards kept a certain distance from non-magicals, in Asia, they didn't. That's why belief in the supernatural remains so widespread in those countries, with millions still taking it seriously even today.
After the Statute of Secrecy, little changed there. After all, it's hard to forcefully enforce laws on nations whose wizards outnumber the rest of the world combined… especially when they're isolationists to boot.
Meanwhile, the discussion, which had gradually turned into an argument, continued, though given the average age here, originality was scarce. Some of the Gathering's attendees listened in with amused smirks, but the apprentices, now increasingly heated, paid no attention.
The calm ones among us were myself — due to my maturity, albeit boring — and the evidently intellectual Siduri, who clearly didn't care about anyone's national pride. I only knew a bit of the gestural language used among Middle Eastern wizards, but we managed to communicate.
She wanted to move the discussion to means of combating magical creatures, of which there were plenty in the desert regions of the former Ottoman Empire (which, to wizards, had fallen only recently, especially compared to how long it had lasted). Many of these creatures affected the mind, which, interestingly enough, played into the region's many conflicts between different cultures and religions, making it a hotspot.
I gestured back that I'd be glad to help, but didn't want to antagonize the others by stifling them or shutting them down.
…Wait.
Hmm, maybe that's worth a try…
"I'm most interested in methods for countering the Sand Djukas," she whispered right away, skipping any preamble. "My mentor has no interest in such tiny creatures that pose no threat to powerful witches, but I'm very concerned. Their population is incredibly high, and many young wizards fall prey to their legilimency. As for ordinary people — the number of victims is staggering."
"Magical creatures with such rare abilities aren't widespread in the rest of the world," I immediately clarified, implying my limited expertise in this area. "But offhand, I can suggest several spells that counter human abilities in this branch of magic, somewhat reducing the difficulty of occlumency, which, as you know, is an extremely challenging field."
"Exactly; the latter is far too individualized," she nodded in agreement, glancing once more at her tablet for some reason. "Depending on the wizard and their way of thinking, they need to use different methods to build a strong defense. For this reason, I'd like to develop something that can neutralize the Djukas's abilities in a way that affects groups of people or certain areas. Targeting each of these creatures individually is pointless... Even if an area-wide spell like the well-known Bombarda hits them, some will survive and still reach the wizard's mind."
"Agile, resilient, prolific, and possessing a rare skill. Despite their small size, they've been classified as XXXX-level dangerous. And when gathered in large numbers, that rating rises by a full point, reaching the maximum. Nowhere else has such a phenomenon," I recalled.
"Exactly. They're a terrifying plague, but it seems you mentioned some Dark charms that work against people? The Djukas's method is similar, so it's quite possib — "
"Hey, youngsters!" Semiramis's familiar voice rang out as she led the other great witches through the archway they'd disappeared into a few minutes ago. "I have excellent news for you!" she announced with a suspiciously sinister smile. "We've decided it would be a splendid idea to showcase your abilities and prove your strength in the most direct way… with a few small tests and a little tournament!" Her grin turned into a full-blown smirk. "So, ladies," she turned to the younger witches in comparison to herself, "care to watch such an event?"
The question was clearly rhetorical… I glanced over at Medea. She offered a crooked smile, her eyes peeking apologetically from under her hood.
Great. I'd gotten myself into a mess again.
At least I wasn't alone in this one. Half the teens standing around also didn't seem too thrilled about being the main act in this "entertainment" for these ancient ladies.
But who among them… would bother to ask our opinion? Millennia-old women with terrible tempers who relish any diversion that might break up the monotony of endless centuries?
Also a rhetorical question.
Estado de energía semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Piedra de
Poder