-Amelias PoV-
"And you're sure you'll be fine?"
"Mom, I'm just going across the channel and then taking a bus to the Clock Tower. Stop Worrying."
Amelia hugged her shawl closer around herself and pouted at Micheal as he stood nearby. Seagulls cried overhead and were framed against a cloudy grey sky. She got up off the bench she was sitting on and walked over to her son, opening the shawl just enough to wrap him in it as well causing him to hunch over a bit. Thankfully he didn't try to move away as she hugged him. He had grown into a fine man and she couldn't help but be proud of him. Suddenly she realized that he had a solid 6 or more centimeters on her when he was standing up straight.
"Its my job to worry."
Micheal sighed and gave her a side hug under the shawl as a cold wind blew by them both causing her to shiver through the woolen shawl. Micheal adjusted their position so that he was breaking the wind for her and she smiled.
She briefly thought back to the past 7 years since she had gotten her son back. There had been ups and downs but through it all her son had turned into a remarkable young man. A very single but still remarkable young man.
She shook her head pulling herself out of her memories and looked back up at her son. She reached up and ruffled his sandy blonde hair eliciting a mutter from him as he tried to flatten it down in response.
"Now tell me what you're going to do when you get into the clocktower." Amelia said sternly.
"Mom, you, Desmond and Arneheart have been repeating this plan to me verbatim for the past two weeks. I can go through it in my sleep by this point."
"I don't care. Tell me the plan."
Micheal sighed and leaned his head back closing his eyes
"First thing I'm going to do is go up to the registrar and hand them the letter of recommendation that that bastard Brevontile-"
"Lord Brevontile and watch your langauge." She said poking Micheal in the ribs.
He rolled his eyes and continued, "Right, 'Lord' Brevontile. I'm going to give admin that letter, let them read it, then when they accept it as valid, set me up with a student ID. My lodgings, utilities, and everything was sorted a month ago by you, 'Professor' Arnehearte, and some new magus family who had a spot open up in the dorms."
"The Velvets. And less snark." She chided as a horn could be heard coming through the fog across the channel. Micheal pulled himself out from under the shawl to begin to walk to the pier his luggage trailing behind him and Amelia shivered as she wrapped her shawl around herself, "and be nice to your roommate! Also if you get a girlfriend I expect to be told!"
Micheal was already walking towards the pier but turned around to give her a look of steadfast disapproval. She winked and waved at him as he got in line with his luggage. She looked back up at the cloudy sky and took peace in that Micheal wouldn't do anything stupid on his first day…she hoped.
She wandered over to the edge of the dock and looked out over the channel northwards towards the United Kingdom. She frowned thinking back to her first day in the clocktower…and how that went. Suddenly feeling nervous she fast-walked back to the pier only to watch Micheal climb the boarding ramp to the ferry.
He caught her eye and walked to the outer railing of the ferry, leaning against it. He cocked an eyebrow at her as she huffed and tried to put her hands on her hips only for a breeze to get under the shawl causing her to immediately pull it closed around her.
"I feel like I don't need to say this but I feel like I have to: Don't do anything stupid. Don't feel like you need to 'defend' me or your father, and please don't get into a fight on your first day."
"You do know I know what you wound up doing on your first day right? Something about ticking off three older students and then bending all three of them over your proverbial knee in the sparring room?"
Amelia felt her heart sink and was about to ask where he heard it when the ferry horn sounded and it began to pull away. She walked alongside it speeding up as it started going faster
"Be safe! Be sure to write! If you get a girlfriend you will let me know!"
She reached the end of the pier and waved as the ferry entered the fog watching as Micheal waved back grinning at her.
She stood there for a bit just listening to the waves before shivering in another cold breeze and walking back to her car.
###
-Micheals PoV-
Micheal stayed at the railing until the pier and the coast of France faded into the fog. He sighed, put his hands into his jeans, and walked over to where his suitcase was. Grabbing the handle he walked over to a bench and sat down. He pulled a book out of his backpack and cracked it open to where he had left off. It was a book on the magical history of Britain and the Clock Tower. He had read this book front to back several times but just needed something to do for the two hours or so it would take to get across the channel.
A while later he heard seagulls overheard again and closed the book placing a bookmark where he stopped. He stood up, stretching slightly, and began to walk towards where he'd be disembarking. He frowned as he felt himself pass through a bounded field. He idly wondered if he should try and trace it but thought better of it.
As the ferry began to slow down as it approached the dock Micheal made his way to the gangway to get off of it. As he got onto the pier the first thing he noticed was the smell. Wrinkling his nose he shook his head and walked into the United Kingdom for the first time. He made his way to the immigration station and showed all the necessary documents which, Several minutes later, a few stamps, and a bus pass later, had him riding into central London. He tried his best to not be a tourist but he found himself staring at the city that passed by him anyway. While the Lafaire mansion wasn't in the middle of nowhere the town it was at the outskirts of was not the biggest. It had just gotten a mall about a year ago and THAT was a whole thing.
He shook his head and mentally went over the plan again. He might have been snarky with his mom about it but now that he was actually in London and going to the Clock Tower he thought it would be prudent to go over it again.
As he was finishing up his third mental run through of the plan the driver came over the intercom and announced that they had arrived where Micheal needed to get off. Grabbing the carry handle of his suitcase and shouldering his backpack he got off the bus and walked a few paces before taking immediate notice of the illusory wall offset from the standard entrance to the building.
Well that and the two clearly magically armed guards posing as tourists nearby. Walking towards them one of the guards took notice and Micheal felt as though he had just walked through a wall of static and as quickly as it had occurred it passed. The guards gave him a once over and then waved him through.
Micheal stepped through the wall and was immediately surrounded by at least a hundred people who looked like they all belonged in the late 18th century. Overwhelmed for a brief second he walked forward and bumped into someone without realizing. As he was about to apologize the person he had walked into turned around with a look that made Micheals apology wither in his throat.
"...I see they let anyone in nowadays. Entertain me peasant. What dunghole did you crawl out of?"
He had made it five steps into the Clock Tower and he already wanted to slug someone.
"My Apologies. I will be better about noticing in the future."
"Are you implying I'm somehow not noticeable? Me? How dare you."
This was said with such venom that Micheal took a slow breath to calm himself down before answering.
"I need to be somewhere. Goodbye."
"Clearly he needs to go back to whatever hole he crawled out of. I shudder to imagine the hag that spawned him." Came a second voice.
Micheal froze and turned around to face the owner of the second voice slowly feeling his mana respond to his anger.
"What did you say you 18th century reprobate?"
"Oh he has a tongue on him." Crowed someone from nearby who had been watching all this happen.
"I'll have you know I am the heir to the com-"
"Yeah I don't really care. I'm sure if you could shit gold you'd brag about that too but you shit brown just like the rest of us peasents. Don'tcha?"
"You dare talk to your better that way?"
"If you're whats considered 'better' then clearly I'm unmatched." Micheal said dryly watching the other man slowly turn red and inflate like a balloon. "I mean I'm not the one that looks like an embarrassed puffer fish right now."
Suddenly the man rushed him but Micheal dodged easily causing the man to stumble a bit. He narrowed his eyes as Micheal flipped him off and yawned.
"You. Me. Fighting ring. 15 minutes."
Micheal shrugged.
"I mean sure if you wanna get your ass beat that badly." He smirked as the man grew like a puffer fish again before walking off.
"...okay now that that's done. Where the hell is the fighting ring."