The Night Rider

Chapter 16 - Apprentice

Nivara set aside her quill, cursing her ink stained fingers before sweeping her hand over the ink in a flash, turning the parchment from white to a bluish tinge. Expelling ink wasn't on her protocol today but neither was having to assess over fifty new recruits by hand. Mist was her only option now with the rest of her Trait threatened to submerge. That was the way it had to be.

"Next!" She called out in a loud clear voice, shuffling her papers to move to the last set of applicants for today.

Her stomach growled a threatening rumble, desperate to escape to the mess hall for an early lunch. She had to skip breakfast after that incident this morning with the two idiotic ex apprentices. The group of Abnormals, no exchange students had been sent to the infirmary soon after those who no longer accepted Ethros' leadership had been permanently vacated from the premises.

"Lady Nivara?" 

The Mist Maiden jumped, suppressing the urge to shudder as a pair of green eyes stared back at her. She shook her head and beckoned the young girl into the room. She had a confident smile on her face and was garbed in a familiar red shirt emblazoned with a golden dragon and a metallic skirt and shin guards which matched her chestnut hair. 

"Good morning, Regent Nivara. My name is Domino. I am a Fire Traited and this is my Knuckleburst dragon, Ripple." 

Nivara raised an eyebrow, noticing the dragon perching on her shoulder calmly, her amber eyes flitting about like stars. It was a russet red dragon emblazoned with streaks of gold and had a ruffled collar which rippled with flames like a fiery forest against a golden sun. Her mouth tweaked upwards, noting the apt name the girl had given her dragon. 

"Oathed or Agar?" She repeated for the thirteenth time that day.

"Oathed, ma'am. Since I was eight." Domino replied, her dragon wriggling with excitement or worry, she couldn't tell which.

Nivara coughed, not expecting the unlikely answer as she quickly filled in the form and covered the mistakes with her Trait.

"Very well. You may begin."

Domino gave a short bow as Ripple flew off her shoulder and gave their demonstration. It was a standard test to show what capabilities your Trait had be it through performance or combat anything was possible with the wide variety of grimoires. This test allowed the competitors to choose between becoming an Excelliair or a Mediator but right now Nivara had only been thinking about the clan instead of her Sixth Order. She had to rectify that soon.

Nivara's subdued expression flitted back and forth from her notes about each participant and what they had decided to use as apparatus. The candidates were allowed to bring the necessary items to enhance their Trait possibilities but some did decide to choose a more simpler technique of letting their partnership shine regardless of tricks or gimmicks.

Domino's performance was extremely polished, her Oathed was aiming blast after blast at her at high levels of strength and dexterity while changing size as swiftly as possible. Her eyes were focused only on the fire glinting in her eyes, summoning explosion after explosion to perfectly repel her opponent while showcasing both of their attack strengths and control.

"Huh. Knockback Trait. Interesting technique." Nivara noted, running her finger down the form to how the young girl of fifteen had explained her Trait.

She could create a variety of chain explosions with enough accuracy to counter a fire blast from one of the hottest firepowered dragons in Para Dormus without even the slightest flicker of hesitation. She had good eye contact and communication with her dragon but Nivara noted how her overconfidence caused her to cut corners with her footing, almost sending herself crashing to the ground several times.