Magiana Imperial Academy - Volume 1: Path to Greatness
Chapter 9: December: Holiday Cheer

December had begun, the air was colder than ever, and snow had began to fall, covering the campus of Magiana Imperial Academy with a white blanket. At the beginning of the month, all of the students were given a scarf, mittens and earmuffs to keep themselves warm while outside.

Gym class was not longer held outside, and moved into the large building that was right next to the track and field. Solely because they couldn’t be outside didn’t change what the students did in gym. Sometimes they played futsal, at others volleyball or basketball; every Friday students were allowed to either play dodgeball or sit and watch. These days were particularly chaotic. Coach Frazier had them use soft balls to avoid any injury, but people threw the balls as hard as they could in hopes that the spherical cushions they chucked would cause some harm; the multicolored balls were whizzing everywhere.

Phillip had improved a lot in his Potion Brewing since his first class. He spent more time observing the ingredients and instructions they were provided to avoid making mistakes, which paid off. Miles was making progress as well, but at a slower rate. Victoria still bragged, much to everyone’s chagrin. Some of them blamed Phillip for it all, and he couldn’t replace anything wrong with that; it was his fault, after all. He didn’t pay them any mind, though.

One Tuesday after leaving Professor Black’s class, he and Miles saw Professor Draut outside of the Professor Windsor’s class, waiting for the students to leave. Professor Windsor seemed unhappy to see him there, unlike the last time.

“And what do you think the two of them are up to?” Miles inquired.

“That’s for them to know, Miles.” Dominique said as she passed them. “Just ignore it; it’s probably not important.”

“Not important? I think it’s important. Think about it, Professor Windsor didn’t exactly seem happy when he came around and they closed the door when they spoke. Seems important, doesn’t it?”

“Fine, go ahead and play spy, Miles.” She said. “Just don’t go and get yourself caught.”

“Which should be impossible with how many people are walking around.” Phillip said.

Miles opened his mouth to say something, but the loud sound of everyone’s voices quickly shut him up. Grumbling to himself, he followed the two of them. His spirits were quickly lifted when he looked outside at the snow.

“Now that I think about it, the Week of Life is coming up soon, isn’t it?”

“It’s next week, Miles.” Dominique said, a bit upset with his forgetfulness. “Are you looking forward to it?”

“Yeah, but I think I might stay at the school, see what it’s like to not be at home for the holidays for once.”

Passage between Earth and Magiana - done through the same sort of magic Professor Wilson showed them during the tour - led to the transfer of many customs and ideas, like the Week of the Haunt. The Week of Life, taking place in the last week of December, was first established when a Magianan returned from Earth and began spreading word about Christmas. All life on the planet is celebrated during the Week of Life, as opposed to the life of a single individual. Like Christmas, presents are given to family members, but during the Week of Life, it was a means of telling them that you appreciated them for being alive. Boarding shools like M.I.A give students the option to stay on campus during the break.

Like during the Week of the Haunt, the school was decorated for the holidays. As opposed to the orange and black that lined the walls at the end of October, white and blue streamers were strewn about. Enchanted seeds that went throughout their entire life cycles in a matter of minutes were floating right underneath the streamers. Right underneath those, banners with images of people going from being a crawling baby to a child, teenanger, adult, and senior with a cane were placed.

That night the common room was full of gleeful chatter while the students spoke about their holiday plans. Some went on about how their families would have people over, or go abroad. The older students were discussing things that they’d do with their friends, independent of family. Even though there wasn’t danger in people hearing (since there’d be no chance of family replaceing out) the upperclassmen mainly spoke in whispers.

“I’m staying behind,” Miles repeated to the others. “A bit curious about what it’s like not to have the family around during the Week of Life.”

“If you say so.” Lloyd said. “After three months of school, I could use a break.”

“Me and everyone else who stays still get a break.” Miles said, grinning.

“That’s not what I mean. Phillip, Trevor, what about you guys?”

“I’ve decided to stay,” Phillip said. “Like Miles, I’d like to see what it’s like, spending the Week of Life away from the castle.”

“I just don’t want to go home.” Trevor solemnly said.

The other boys glanced at him, slightly concerned over his simple, but oddly depressing response. Just not wanting to go home made it seem as though there was something wrong.

“Uh… everything alright, Trevor? Any real reason you don’t want to?” Lloyd asked.

Trevor stared at them for a bit before nodding. “I just don’t want to, but everything is fine.”

“Alright, if you say so.” He replied, not entirely convinced.

“Aw, you’re going home to be with your sister; that’s so darling!”

“What is she going on about now?” Miles angrily asked, looking over at Victoria and her friends.

“Yes, I know, I know!” Dominique cried. “Keep it down, please!”

“I’m sorry, but it’s so selfless of you. You’d rather be here, but can’t bear the thought of your sister being home without you. Much more noble than others, who are denying their family their company during such a time of year!”

“So I take it you’re leaving?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Is it just me, or was she insulting us?” Miles asked.

“She probably was.” Phillip said. “Just ignore her. Okay?”

“I replace that kinda hard to do with how loud she is.” He said, irritated.

Victoria quieted down, and the four went back to talking, but they were shortly interrupted once more. A loud shriek caught the attention of just about everyone. A girl ran over to a window and put her hands on the glass, pressing her face up against it.

“A unicorn!”

Several others ran over to join her, talking excitedly. When that window became too crowded, spectators moved to other windows.

“Looks like Azure finally decided to show himself.” Isaiah said, walking over to one of the windows.

As the crowds grew more and more, Phillip and the others couldn’t help but go over to the windows and see what all the commotion was about.

A handsome white unicorn with a golden horn was eating from grass that was poking out from beneath the snow. When most of the grass was gone, the unicorn reared up and brought down its golden hooves. When they made contact with the snow, a small patch of land was immediately filled with grass and flowers, from which Azure began to eat once again.

“Wow!” Exclaimed Kylie. “I didn’t know that Unicorns could do that!”

“Not that many people do. After all, people don’t see unicorns often, let alone at a time like this.” Isaiah left the window and began towards the door. “Don’t watch him for too long; he doesn’t like it when people look at him like that.”

Hearing his words, Phillip, Miles, Lloyd and Trevor left the window and the unicorn outside. Miles didn’t sit back down where they did before, instead going off over to Isaiah.

“What’s he doing?” Lloyd asked. “I don’t see much of a reason to be talking to a prefect.” He returned a few minutes later, and Lloyd asked why he left.

“Isaiah is the captain of House Sloane’s Magi Marauders team. I wanted to ask him about the team. I might be able to get on the team next year, but since the Junior Magi Marauders World Cup is next year, I’m sure they’ll be strict with who they let on.”

“How’re you planning on getting good enough to get picked?” Phillip asked.

“Isaiah’s staying home during the Week of Life. We don’t play during gym outside because of the snow, but the house teams are free to do what they want.”

“Are there enough members on the house team for them to practice during our week off?” Lloyd asked. “I mean, there are only seven players, and it’s not like there will be enough of them staying.”

“Isaiah told me that there should be enough players to practice, even if they’re not all from the same house. He said that I could join in on a few of the practices if I want.”

“Well, good luck with that, Miles.” Lloyd said.

Phillip woke up on Saturday morning when birds chirped outside of the window. He sat up and rubbed his eyes sleepily. He got up and made his bed before drawing back the curtains. A small amount of light was coming through the window, accompanied by birdsong.

He could hear the others snoring, some louder than others. Getting his things, he left for the shower room.

When he was done freshening up, he waited for his other roommates in the common room so that the four of them could head down to breakfast together. While he waited in the (rather empty) common room, sitting at one of the tables, he heard someone sit down as he read. Glancing up, he saw Victoria glaring at him. He ignored her and went back to his reading.

“Ignoring me, are you? I thought that you were raised better than that.” She said coldly.

Phillip marked his page and put down his book. He looked right into her blue eyes with as much intensity as she was.

“Then are you trying to say that you were raised in a barn? You didn’t say ‘good morning’ to me, either.”

“As a man, you’re to greet me.” She said.

“Yeah, I think you’ve got it wrong, I was never told that I had to be the first to greet someone. You’re just thinking of an excuse to tick me off, aren’t you?”

She looked offended, but Phillip could tell she was putting on an act. “And why would I do that?”

He wanted to speak, but stopped himself. He didn’t want to bring up the fact that he called Victoria a know-it-all lest he make her even more angry. He sighed and forced a smile.

“Good morning, Victoria.”

“Good morning to you as well, Phillip.” She replied, a bit more docile.

He picked up his book again and pretended to ignore her. As he immersed himself in his story, he was able to for a while.

“Come on, Phil.”

When Miles patted him on the shoulder, he was brought back to reality and put the book down. There were still others in the common room, but who exactly was there had changed. He marked his page again and tucked it under his arm so he could take it with him to breakfast.

Like the common room of House Sloane, the dining hall was quite empty compared to the weekdays. Unlike weekdays, when chefs placed plates on the house tables for the students to pick from, food was kept in buffet warmers on a table that was brought out specifically for weekends. The food was kept out the entire day so the students could eat as they please instead of at predetermined times.

Miles brought back a large plate of food from the buffet warmers, full of food people wouldn’t usually eat during breakfast. The others had piled pancakes, waffles, sausage, bacon and others things on their plates.

“What are you doing?” Lloyd asked as Miles cut into his hamburg steak.

“What? I’m not in the mood for ‘breakfast food’.”

As they ate, Headmaster Goude stood over at the staff table, as he did whenever he made announcements.

“Good morning, everyone!” He called. “Today, at one, we will be holding an interhouse snowball fight as another Sports Day! All who wish to participate should be at the field by one. We shall see you there!”

“Snowball fight, huh?” Miles threw a glance at the Lychester table, smirking. “He’d better play.” He shoved another piece of hamburg steak into his mouth.

At one in the afternoon, Phillip and Miles went over to the field. There were a lot of people there, talking enthusiastically. A wide grin crossed Miles’s face when he saw Reginald talking with his fellow Lychesters. Miles began rubbing his hands together maliciously.

“Perfect... perfect…. I can’t wait to nail him in the face with a clump of nice, cold, snow.”

There were four tall pillars of ice that each had a colored baton standing on top of them. If someone were to connect the four pillars, they would form the shape of a diamond.

They spotted a lot of people sporting House Sloane’s armband and joined them. On top of the pillar they were crowded around, Phillip saw that the baton was the same colors as the Sloane wolf: blue, black and white.

Looking around, Phillip spotted Terra with everyone from House Bryne and Luna a little ways away from Reginald. He noticed Dominique and Francisca coming over from the castle. The twins had a short talk and Dominique joined the rest of the Sloanes while Francisca remained.

“Your sister isn’t going to play?” He asked as she joined the group.

Dominique sighed. “She’s afraid that she’s going to screw something up and lose it for her house. I don’t know how that’d be possible, though.”

The student body continued to chatter gleefully as more people joined Francisca, where they’d likely be watching from, since the bleachers were covered in snow. They were left to their own devices for some time until the snow near the spectators began floating and putting itself into the shape of a tournament podium. There was a portion in the middle pushed up, where the first place winner would stand. The other portions on each side were equal in height.

The headmaster stood on the center portion, with the four heads of the houses standing next to him. They were all bundled up like the students.

“Good afternoon, everyone!” He shouted happily. “As I said earlier in the dining hall - and as the prefects told everyone who wasn’t there this morning - we’re holding an interhouse snowball fight for Sports Day today. Your objective,” he pointed to the baton on the pillar nearest to him (the Crowlin pillar). “Is to knock off the batons at the top of these pillars. The house whose baton stays up the longest gains sixty points. The house in second place gets forty-five, then thirty, and finally fifteen.”

“For each person you hit with a snowball, you earn your house one point!” Professor Windsor exclaimed, holding up his index finger.

“This is awesome,” Miles said. “We’re getting rewarded for hitting that jerk with snowballs.”

“You have fifteen minutes to fortify your pillar however you see fit!” Shouted Professor Black. “If you want to build your defenses with Caster Magic, go ahead and do that!”

The students were let free and they began building. The older students, who were more experienced, used their magic to build high towers to surround the pillar while the younger students just built mounds of snow.

Miles, Lloyd, and a few other Sloanes, actually built snowmen, using their magic to accelerate the process, even if it was just a little bit. Victoria began scolding them when she caught them.

“Hold up, alright?!” Miles yelled. “I have an idea. I’ll get some of the others to make a snowman around me, see, and have them harden the snow so it doesn’t break when I walk. I’ll be able to blend in with the snowmen and snipe the others. Genius, right?”

Victoria sighed, facepalming. “Fine, fine. Your plan doesn’t sound totally harebrained.” She stalked off.

Professor Black warned them when they had five minutes left, and some of the upperclassmen circled Miles and a few others, turning them into faux snowmen as he told Victoria. They did it in a concealed area of their fort to prevent the others seeing what they had planned.

After finishing on one final mound, Phillip looked around at what the others did. The Lychesters had conjured high towers that left their baton well defended; the Crowlins built a low wall that was just tall enough for their members to throw over; the Brynes had the most interesting fort, a miniscule mansion blocked their baton and a number of ice sculptures were in front of it as if they were hedge gardens on the front lawn.

Professor Wilson and a tall blonde woman wearing a brown parka, Professor Greenwald as Phillip was told, walked around the field, throwing what appeared to be paintballs into the air. Waving their wands and shouting, “Separate!” the two made distinct lines to tell everyone how far they could go without getting too close to have an unfair advantage. The lines were color coded, just like the batons.

“Be sure to stay within your boundaries, everyone!” The two said.

“One final rule,” Professor Acre shouted, seeing that some of the student had bags similar to hers. “No Substance Magic is allowed during this match! If you brought your wand and supplies, please give them to a friend on the sidelines.”

A number of them groaned and walked over to the onlookers, handing their things over. When they returned, Professor Black held a whistle up to her mouth.

“Alright, everyone! This may be for points, but remember to have fun!” She blew the whistle, signalling for the game to begin.

People did one of two things: dive behind the walls they built to protect themselves or start making snowballs and throwing them to get a few easy points. Phillip, who hid behind one of the mounds, was only able to tell which snowmen were his housemates because they wore shoes.

“Are you going to survey a bit more?” Trevor had sat down next to him, clutching two snowballs.

“Um, well....” He took one of the snowballs. “Thanks.”

He looked over the mound for a second before being forced to duck again. After a flurry of snowballs flew by overhead, he took the chance to look again and quickly took aim, throwing the ball right across the clearing as hard as he could.

He had a fantastic time, and he could tell that the others could as well. Everyone was screaming euphorically as they tossed snowballs and hid behind their snow walls. Miles and the other fake snowmen remained still for a bit before springing into action. Just as they suspected, the others were caught off guard, and House Sloaned earned a plethora of points from their barrage. They stood still again, making it difficult to distinguish the real from the fake, just like before they moved.

House Crowlin was the first to have their baton knocked over, but their wall did what it was intended to do; there weren’t many from House Crowlin that got hit by snowballs. House Bryne fell next; the roof did a good job of defending the baton, but it was inferior to the towers of the Lychesters and Sloanes.

“It’s just us and the Lychesters left.” Phillip said to Dominique behind one of the mounds. “Think we got a chance to win this?”

“Their towers are better than ours, that’s for sure. They’re taller and there are more of them. It won’t be easy, but it should be possible. Some of the others have been scouting, trying to replace any blind spots in their defenses.”

“Any luck?”

“Not yet.” She said. “Miles has been skirting around, but he hasn’t been able to see any chinks in their armor.”

“That’s not good. We can’t just sit here and wait for them to replace something.”

“But we can’t hide the entire time while they get more points. I’m going to risk it. If you want to stay here and wait until more information comes in, that’s fine.”

She left him, and he followed shortly thereafter. There was no point in staying put, Phillip thought. Just like he was told, the towers blocking the Lychesters’ baton were were tall and plentiful; it wouldn’t be easy getting past them. A snowball hit Phillip square in the face, wet and freezing. He wiped the remains of it off and saw Reginald roaring with laughter.

“How’d that one feel, prince?!” He cried. “Not too sure how I feel knowing someone who can’t see something rushing at their face will be running our planet someday!”

Reginald was pelted by two snowballs; one hit him in the face and the other the side. He wiped them off, looking uncomfortable because of the cold. He looked in the direction of the snowballs and Phillip did as well. One came from Victoria, who glanced at Phillip before flouncing away. The second didn’t come from a Sloane, but Luna, who gave Reginald a very disapproving look before beginning to throw snowballs at the enemy again.

Just like how Reginald laughed at Phillip, people began laughing at Reginald. He wasn’t avenged like Phillip was, however. It didn’t matter, though. The game finally ended when the Sloane baton flew to the ground and landed in the snow. As the Lychesters were cheering over their victory, Reginald smirked smugly at the Sloanes.

“Looks like I got the better of you again, prince.” He said. “Better luck next time.”

As he strutted off of the field, Phillip glared at Reginald, wanting to throw another snowball at him. He saw some people bent down and form another snowball when Professor Black blew her whistle.

“The game’s over! No more throwing!”

With agitated cries, they dropped the snow and began leaving the field as well. One of the snowmen walked over to Phillip, and the snow broke off of him in clumps as he did, revealing Miles. He seemed angry as well.

“I don’t get that guy.” He said. “Why does he need to act like that all the time?”

“I don’t know, but it’s actually starting to get on my nerves.”

The two followed the rest of the Sloanes back to the house where they sat in the common room, talking about the match. Miles was having a lot of fun giving Phillip detailed accounts of his time as a snowman, hitting the others when they least expected it. He quickly forgot about Reginald’s gloating as he spoke. A few hours later, people grew weary of the topic of the snowball match, changing the topic back to the Week of Life, which was only a few days away.