“You are required to come up with something of your own, along the same lines,” Gordian said. “Something that actually benefits the school.”
Emily looked down at the floor. She couldn’t think of anything—offhand—that might actually benefit the school. The mentoring program was a good thing, but ... what could she do? More importantly, what could she organize that wouldn’t cut too much into her limited time? Everything she knew she’d needed, over the last five years, would be too difficult to implement for the entire school. And she doubted Gordian would let her implement some of her more radical ideas.
More experience outside the castle would be a good thing, she thought. She’d found herself hampered by a lack of proper experience. The Nameless World was nothing like Earth. And while she was the only student from another world, the upper-class students had little comprehension of the lives led by the lower-classes. But students already go out on work experience over the summer months.
“I understand that you might not have the time to find something suitable,” Gordian said, after a moment. “Fortunately, there is a project that you could implement without much additional work.”
Emily’s eyes narrowed. Gordian was unlikely to be doing her any favors out of the goodness of his heart. He might be pushing her to implement something he wanted, rather than something she’d devised for herself. Or he might be trying to ensure that she’d fail—or at least do something harmless. Or maybe he was just trying to keep her busy. He’d certainly tried to keep her busy last year.
“Whitehall has not competed in any of the dueling contests over the past two decades,” Gordian added. “Our failure to send contestants has ... weakened ... our position amongst the other schools. Many questions have been asked about our reluctance to take part in the noble sport. I believe that establishing a dueling club and running an in-house dueling contest would lay the foundations for a return to the dueling league. Ideally, we’d be sending an official dueling team next year and—perhaps—hosting a contest the year after.”
“I was under the impression that dueling had little in common with real warfare,” Emily said, carefully. She had dueled at Mountaintop—and fought both Master Grey and Casper—but both contests had been formalized. There were no rules in actual war. “I believe that was why Grandmaster Hasdrubal banned dueling circles.”
“There is some truth in that,” Gordian conceded. “But do we not play Ken even though it has nothing in common with actual life?”
He smiled, rather thinly. “No one would mistake a dueling circle for an actual war. But dueling is a game, not training for war.”
Emily nodded. Dueling—at least, the dueling she’d been taught at Mountaintop—was one-on-one. There were no teams, not in a formal duel. Each contestant won or lost by his own abilities. There were rules, strict limits on what spells could be used ... rules that had no place in war. Necromancers certainly didn’t bother to restrict themselves when they invaded new countries, not when there was nothing to be gained by holding back. She couldn’t help thinking that Grandmaster Hasdrubal had a point. Dueling taught bad habits for magicians who actually had to go to war.
Sergeant Miles is not going to be pleased, she thought, grimly. He’ll spend months teaching his students to forget everything they learnt in dueling club.
“You’ll be responsible for setting up the club and supervising the first set of contests,” Gordian told her. “You may request assistance from the staff, of course, but it may be held against you if it is something you should be capable of doing yourself. I suggest you model the club on what you saw at Mountaintop ...”
“If I can’t think of anything else,” Emily interrupted.
Gordian looked displeased. “If you can’t think of anything else.”
Emily shook her head, ruefully. She couldn’t think of anything else. And she had to admit that a dueling club—and contest—might be fun, at least for the younger students. She’d never cared for team sports, but that made her fairly unusual in Whitehall. They’d have a lot of fun drawing up dueling rosters and preparing for the interschool championships. But it was going to be a great deal of work for very little reward ...
Unless I can put it on my resume, she thought. It might work in my favor.
Her thoughts raced from point to point. She wanted to be a teacher, although she knew she needed to complete her mastery and gain more experience before anyone would consider her for a teaching position. This was a chance to gain experience, even if it was dueling rather than a more serious subject. Hell, it would be easier to teach dueling than charms or alchemy. She wouldn’t have to worry about screwing up the basics, ensuring her students couldn’t progress to the upper levels. Failing to master the fundamentals of charms, she knew from bitter experience, made it impossible to pass on to the more interesting levels.
“I’ll try and think of something,” she said, slowly. “How long do I have to decide?”
“You have a week to give me a proposal.” Gordian cocked his head. “If I accept it, you may proceed; if not, you’ll have less time to come up with something new.”
Or just accept the dueling club, Emily thought. It wouldn’t be that hard, she admitted privately. She could just copy the setup at Mountaintop for the club, then model the contest on the standard league rules. It might just work in my favor.
“I’ll let you know,” she said. She wished, suddenly, that someone had told her she might be elected Head Girl. A few weeks to think about it might have let her come up with something more interesting. “Do I still have to come up with a proposal for the dueling club?”
“You have to sketch out an outline,” Gordian told her. “But you don’t have to come up with a formal proposal.”
Good, Emily thought.
A thought struck her. Would it be cheating if I hired someone from the outside world to handle the club?
She shook her head, mentally. It probably would be.
Gordian cleared his throat. “There are a handful of other matters that we will discuss over the next few weeks.” He picked up another scroll and held it out to her. “Right now, your father has ... requested ... that we include you in Soul Magic classes. I have reluctantly granted this, as I believe you already have some basic training in Soul Magic.”
“Very basic,” Emily said. Aurelius—the original Aurelius—had shown her the basics, but he hadn’t taught her anything more. She’d assumed it was something she was going to have to study later, after she graduated. “I thought that only Healers studied Soul Magic.”