“I don't care what those wizards are up to in the desert. We send a few magical misfits there and we get court wizards in return. Do you know how helpful court wizards are? Hell, I would sell half of you for them. Who cares about a bunch of kids.”~Emperor Kasstalon Sisgr III, to his full court one week before his disappearance.
Bernin could tell it at least somewhat worked on the look of Kirrin's face. She just hoped it would stick.
“Who don't we sit down and I'll explain what's next.”
It took a while, but the words eventually made it through the filter and Kirrin's face immediately shot to hers. He instantly began to rattle off a series of questions.
“Really? What's going on? What's happened to me? What's going to happen to me?”
“Listen.”
One word, and a bit of power to be honest. Kirrin stopped rambling and actually started to listen.
“You're a wizard, mage or magically inclined. Depending on who you ask. Even if you weren't before. You are now. That realistically means one thing. You'll study and learn here. We, as in the university, will take care of you from now on. You will learn what your power is and how to channel it.”
“You will be given a room in a few days. There are other kids here. You'll meet them soon. There's a lot of other stuff, but don't worry about that too much. From now on, we will take care of you.”
It was strange to be on the other side of this. Years ago, she had been on the other side of this conversation. She looked at him, not breaking eye contact. She meant the words too. They didn’t all arrive the way Kirrin did, but almost no one arrived here without losing something.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
They had a lot of influence already, but changing society would take time. They had already come a long way though. Mages were no longer feared. They were no longer dragged and burned. No, now they were trained here. The ones who wanted even went back. She didn’t know how they were able to keep calm and deal with the drama that was court intrigue. Hell, even the bit of drama she had to deal with due to other mages was already a lot.
In her musing she had stopped paying attention. It was a bad habit she had picked up sometime during her training. Even thinking back to it now… No, Kirrin was the focus for now.
“...able to do that?”
She could infer what he asked, she hoped at least.
“”Maybe. Mages come in many flavours. The full definition will be explained to you later. Even within those boundaries there are a lot more flavours. What you can do will change depending on that. It will also depend on you. You may prove to be better at some parts of magic by nature, but you can train anything you want. It may just take more effort.”
“So, what flavour am I?”
Apparently she had guessed correctly. She padded herself on the back in her mind.
“I don’t know and unless you tell me, I likely won’t either. That information is usually pretty personal. Especially for those like us.”
“Like us?”
“Yes, we both got our powers due to someone else, something else. That makes it difficult to predict us. I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually. I’m going to leave you in the capable hands of the doctors here. Tomorrow, I’ll be going again.”
“You’re leaving? Where are you going?”
“I’m travelling around, I do actually have a job. You’ll learn about that too, if you want. Don’t worry, imagine everyone here as… uncles and aunts. We’re a big weird family here. More than a hundred strong. For now, listen to the doctors and teachers. When I get back, I want to see what your massive explosion looks like.”