Andal was shown the way to the dorm where he would be staying. Mamma was split into several distinct sections based upon the kinds of magic that were usually represented there. One of those sections was the “religious section”. Which wasn''t meant to imply that everyone in there is still faithful to whatever source they got their power from, or that people in other sections are being less faithful for not being there. It simply means that these people have the brands of magic that have explicitly come via their religions in the past, and not through other means.
The TMAMMA worker brought him inside the dorm where six boys were playing cards at a table. The worker addressed the boys, "Attention, everyone. This is Andal, he just joined us. He is from Donfas, so make sure he feels at home here."
She turned to Andal, "Classes don''t start for another week, so just get yourself situated and make some friends. The girls'' dorm is just across the street. We have rules restricting flirting, but this dorm is normally pretty good about that. Here''s the key to your room. If you lose that you can get a new one, but there''s a long list of chores you have to do to pay for it. Your room number is written on it. So, I''ll just leave you to it! Have a good night Andal!"
"Thanks." He waved as she left the building, then joined the other boys at the table. They were slightly older than him, 14-16 years old, but he was told in the front office that there were kids as young as 11, and men as old as 21 here.
One of them pulled up a chair for him, "Sit here. I''m Frie, nice to meet you Andal."
"Thank you, nice to meet you Frie, hi everyone."
They all waved and said hello, then continued their game.
Frie asked him, "What kind of magic do you do?"
"Um, do you know what a Templar is?"
"Yea I do! I''m a Paladin! Those are supposed to be almost the same, Templars for Nishir and Paladins for Ratam!"
"Oh, really? Cool! So we can learn from each other! What are some techniques that you have figured out?"
"Well, I can make light come out of something I''m holding, that''s really useful at night. You?"
"I haven''t been able to come up with new kinds of magic, that''s pretty cool. I have found that if you make a shield in front of someone that''s moving, so that they crash into it, it''s a really good time to shoot a sword at them. And, if you shoot the sword through where the shield is then drop the shield at the last second, they really don''t know how to respond."
Frie had a blank stare, "Hmm?"
Andal added hand motions, since he wasn''t sure how else to be clearer, "When someone''s running at you, you can-"
"Are you talking about… actual fights?"
Andal looked around the table; everyone was looking at him now. "Yes?"
One of the boys set down his cards, "Have you killed anyone?"
"Yea, I''ve had to."
"How many?"
He started counting in his head, "35?"
That caused a variety of shocked responses from the group, "Wow!" "There''s no way!" "Show us!" "It''s definitely possible." "That''s more than me!" "You haven''t killed anyone Panlo." "Have too." "Shut up Panlo."
Frie asked him, "Why have you been in so many fights?"
Andal told them about the Haverdash, and they were so engrossed he ended up telling them the whole story from when they first landed at his town until now.
*
Word spread quickly of everything Andal had told them, and the student body was shocked to learn of the invasion of Southern Donfas, and how Hathor had fallen. Many of them had heard that some mass of people had immigrated to the coast, but they had assumed it was just an immigration problem. The staff already knew, they kept up with world events a lot better.
Classes came fast enough. That week flew by because Andal and Jeva were being overwhelmed with new information during it. Just talking to the people who had been there the year before or longer was immensely profitable. Apparently the differences between the different classifications of magic users came from two things, the "language of magic" they use, and tradition.
Jeva had understood this better, and she explained to Andal that when she cast her fireball she was actually saying a word in her head. Andal didn''t do this, but that was an apparent quality of the types with spiritual origin. In order to increase in the variety of spells they can cast they would have to learn the words and understand the language, but there are a base number of spells that they are innately taught by spiritual origin without having to know the words.
The expectations for them were laid out by the staff during that week. This wasn’t just a university, it was a military academy. In fact, Andal and Jeva had to sign something saying they could be drafted by the Tubarai army at any second to attend. They didn’t mind because, as Andal reasoned, Tubarai is going to get drawn into this fight with the Haverdash anyway. If they get drafted to fight the Haverdash, they’re just doing what they already were going to do.
There were exercise and training periods almost every day, which was doubly important for magic users because it increased overall energy levels. For most types of casters, magic took a lot of energy. Some magic casters were nicknamed “heavies”, like Templars and Paladins. That was because their magic took very little energy compared to other casters, so they could get away with carrying around bulky armor.
On the flip side, while they were required to maintain a high level of physical fitness, they could also get in trouble if they let their body fat get too low. Anything less than 10% body fat would get you punished. They weren’t scouts, which would be expected to be able to go hungry if need be. They were magic users, and they needed the reserve energy.
Before people split towards their specific classrooms there was a general class for all first years, which included people from a variety of ages. Jeva sat by Andal, and Panlo sat on the other side. They hadn’t actually talked much, but that was just Panlo.
The class was being a little raucous, but the teacher came in and immediately commanded the room with a booming voice, “Everyone be quiet and sit down, class is beginning!” He went to the podium and opened a folder, flipping through to the right spot. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"I am professor Tharow. Good morning." A handful of people said good morning back.
"It''s always exciting to have a new wave of magic users being prepared for service to Tubarai. Let me start breaking down the basics for you. Improving as a magic user involves four key components: your physical health, increasing your vocabulary in your specific magical language, adopting and perfecting the use of words you know, and then how to use what you can do in an actually strategic, practical, effective manner.
"Every kind of magic user has a language of magic, which is named after the magic user themselves. Apologies to our resident templar," he didn''t look at Andal, so he''d probably simply been told that there was a templar in the class, "but we in Tubarai refer to the language you use as the paladin language.
"For the most common branches we will have at least one professor proficient in that language. Some of you, however, might use languages obscure enough that we don''t have someone like you on staff. Do not worry, they''re all very good about the general process of learning languages, and can still help you greatly. That is not even to mention our extensive library, which has more than enough books written for any language. Now, before I shift the conversation, does anyone need something clarified?"
Nobody raised their hands.
"So the spiritual types have already been told why they can use some spells without words, and we don''t have any especially obscure magic users here? Excellent."
Andal raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"If Tubarai was to be attacked while we were still learning here, would we be pulled to the front? Or only in an emergency?"
The professor leaned on his podium, “Who would attack?”
Andal opened his hands like it was the most obvious thing in the world, “The Haverdash.”
He scratched his cheek, “I was afraid someone would ask that. The recent news spreading about this fighting in Donfas is worrying all of you, we are not concerned with the Haverdash, and you don’t have to worry about them.” He flipped a page in his folder as if to say that it was time to move on.
A different student sitting higher up blurted out, “Why not?”
The professor looked up in surprise, then he noticed the energy and attention of the room. They all were curious about these, “Haverdash.” He closed his folder and folded his arms. “Okay, I guess we’re on this topic now. Does anybody know anything about the Haverdash except that they are attacking Southern Donfas?”
One voice said, “They captured the City of Grace.”
“Yes, one of Donfas’s great cities. What else?”
Panlo spoke next, “They’re stronger and faster than humans, and they don’t feel pain, and they drink poison for pleasure!”
He pointed at Panlo, “And how would you know that?”
Panlo gestured to Andal, “Andal told us. He’s killed Haverdash.”
He pointed to Andal, and in the midst of his interrogation showed a kind of appreciation, “Andal, so you’re our resident Templar? What else do you know?"
“They lived on the southern coast over a hundred years ago, and then the king gave them land across the sea.”
The professor gestured for more, but Andal didn’t know what else to say. “As I thought,” he said, “nobody here knows about them. Andal, how long did it take the king of Donfas to raise an army to fight the Haverdash?”
“A year.”
“And it was a massive one, but doesn’t he have a standing army? Why didn’t he use that?” Andal couldn’t answer.
“They were busy. The problem with Donfas is that they’ve got one aggressor too many. None of the surrounding nations, including Tubarai, like them, and so they have to keep an eye on their neighbors. Then the Haverdash showed up, and they couldn’t handle it. Why don’t the surrounding nations like them? It’s because of what happened over a hundred years ago.”
He looked around the room and pointed for them to look at Andal, “Everyone remember that number? He said it. It’s when the Haverdash lived here.”
He placed his hands on the corners of the podium, “Actually, it started closer to two hundred years ago. Donfas was significantly smaller than it is now, and there were some nations that are gone now as their neighbors. Their chief rival was Haino, but they couldn’t gain any quarter against them. Donfas was mainly a country of plains, and then there was a hill country between Donfas and Haino, which extended about halfway into Haino. However Donfas tried to move, Haino would out maneuver them in the hills.
“To counter this, Donfas sought the help of native tribes living in the hill country between the two nations. They sought the help of several tribes, and a couple accepted the offered price, but only one played out. That was the Haverdash. They were a religious, traditional, druidic people. They knew how to manipulate plants like no other nation, and make things even at that point that we don’t understand.
"Because of this they were very agricultural, which naturally demands a very stable environment to be totally effective. If it weren’t for Donfas the Haverdash may never have left their hills, they would have stayed an isolated, traditional tribe of people. Then Donfas gave them an offer they couldn’t refuse: swaths of land, hordes of workers under their service, and new temples for their god, whoever that was, built in the likeness of great Donfas architecture that the Haverdash couldn’t replicate at the time.
“The Haverdash became scouts, but that didn’t last long. They were relentless, and they soon replaced the captains and lieutenants of the army. Haino fell quickly. They couldn’t handle the movements or the ferocity of the Haverdash. The soldiers under them, from Donfas, would fight in trances because of the Haverdash pre-battle rituals. The king could no longer separate those soldiers from their Haverdash commanders, because they had become dependent on them.
"Donfas didn’t stop at Haino though. There is a document claiming they were going to offer the Haverdash even more to fight for them against other nations also, but they withheld that offer because they realized they couldn’t have stopped the Haverdash from fighting if they tried. It had become part of their religion, which was rapidly becoming more intense, along with their lifestyle. At that point, maybe earlier, they had already started performing human sacrifices to complement the ritualistic rape of their captives.
“Soon after they had started warring against Tubarai, a young lady who had been captured wrote that she was going to be abused. At the last second, she recorded, the Haverdash threw her to the ground as if his patience had run out, and went to wash his hands. Thank goodness for that, but it does show how much the Haverdash had changed. They were so different from everyone else that they had started to find us disgusting to touch. Though, we had found them disgusting to touch for a while.” He coughed in an attempt to hide vulnerable emotion, “That lady was my grandmother, actually.”
He straightened his folder pointlessly before continuing, “The Haverdash became even more relentless. They were so insatiable for victory that they would often slip into a city ahead of their soldiers and poison the rulers with their masterpieces of toxicity they’d known even before the war, then lead their soldiers on a city in disarray. The way they performed sieges changed too.
"My grandfather had just escaped a city in time that had fallen under siege by the Haverdash. He never could deal with fogs after that, not after seeing the one that floated over his home and caused so much screaming. In case anyone wants to know why there isn’t any mention of a fog in the reports about the siege of Hathor, it’s because it wasn’t a siege at all. They conquered it in a few hours at most.
“Unsurprisingly, the people in Donfas grew to hate the Haverdash too. They were happy enough to take everything the Haverdash gave them, but their presence was objectively detestable. The king changed his original promise, and gave them the coastline. It was even more land in all, he said, and they were willing to work with him since they’d fought for him for so long. That wasn’t good enough though. As the population of Donfas boomed from all their wealth and the vast increase in their land, they started moving further South.
"They got closer and closer to the Haverdash, and envied that coastline, but the stench was too great for them to get too close. The Haverdash were getting even more zealous in their religious practices, and the king’s fear of them grew too great for them to be even on the same continent. With his great wealth he sent colonies across the sea and took distant lands, then told the Haverdash to go there. He made it sound as good as he possibly could, a whole new world, just for the Haverdash. He was successful, and they left.
“Now they’re back, and I can tell you exactly why. They were traditional, druidic people. They don’t want some distant land, they want the land they were promised first. But, you can bet they’ll be taking more while they’re at it. Why did I explain all of this? I hope I have driven home the point that Donfas caused this problem. They introduced the Haverdash to war, and now they’re paying for it. Nobody is going to help them, because we already faced the Haverdash, and now it’s their turn.”
The room was silent, and then Andal spoke, “They want to conquer the whole continent. One of their leaders told me that, before he killed my family.”
The professor opened his folder again and found where he left off, which was thankfully a much more mundane topic. He stood there with his finger on the page, then he told Andal, “If you want to fight the Haverdash, I applaud you.” Then he started reading from the page.