The woman giggled. “We were brought in to help set everything up and do the crowd control. The supposed wizards are in the tent, playing with balls.”
“What?” Danny blanked.
“Balls, orbs, whatever. The measurement thing is a table with a bunch of balls on it.”
“Oh,” Danny nodded.
“Next.” a weary voice called out from within the tent.
Danny looked at the woman. She giggled again and gestured him into the tent. Danny went in and found two people, the first was an old man in a tweed suit, with greying hair, and glasses. The second was a younger man in a tweed suit. They both sat behind a large wooden desk which was inlaid with a series of crystal orbs. The young man had a laptop in front of him. “Uh, g’day.”
“Hello, I need to see some government-issued ID,” the young man said.
“Sure, why?” Danny asked, fishing around his pockets for his wallet.
“We’re recording everyone’s measurements for statistical purposes, part of our deal with the government.”
“Oh, okay.” Danny handed his proof of age card over to the man. He didn’t have a driver's licence.
“Come and put your hand on this.” The old man gestured to a large clear orb sitting at one end of a large wooden desk laid out before him. Danny felt like he was in a fortuneteller's tent at a carnival, but he guessed the old man wouldn’t be happy to hear that. Danny cautiously stepped forward and raised his hand toward the large orb. “What’s it going to do?”
“It’s going to pull the mana out of your body, gently. This will measure how much mana you have in your pool. It will then run your mana through some elemental diodes, this will let us see where your natural affinities lie. Now please put your hand on the orb.”
Danny did as he was instructed and placed his hand on the orb. He suddenly felt something being drained from him and he immediately pulled away. The old man sighed. “It will feel a little strange, but I assure you it will do no harm. You will feel a little tired afterwards.”
Danny nodded and timidly placed his hand on the orb again. This time he didn’t pull away as he felt something being pulled out of him. The orb began to change colour, at first cloudy, but soon turning a colour that made Danny’s blood run cold. A glowing orange he had seen far too frequently lately began to fill the orb.
Danny quickly looked at the old man, but his eyes were fixed on the orb. Is that the colour of mana? I thought it would be blue. The draining sensation continued and soon the old man’s face did change. His eyebrow arched in what looked like surprise. His expression morphed into shock as the orb began to take on a denser orange colour. “STOP! STOP! REMOVE YOUR HAND FROM THE ORB!”
Danny flinched back, his hand coming with him. The orange glowing mana began to spread along a channel in the table toward the other orbs. As the mana hit them they also began to change colour, turning into separate colours. Blue, Red, Brown, and White. These orbs also began to rapidly take on a denser shade of their respective colour. The old man cursed and slapped the table with his palm. A thump resounded in the tent as the orbs all suddenly drained of their colour. Danny suddenly felt something filling him back up, a space within him he had never felt before.
“What happened?” The younger man asked. Danny was wondering the same thing, clearly, something had gone wrong.
“This young man needs a proper test, not this roadside farce of one. Mark him down for an abnormal amount of mana, orange at that, and a potential for a high affinity, and make sure he has an appointment at the academy. I need to make sure this lump of junk didn’t break.” The old man got down on the floor and began tinkering with the bottom of the table.
The younger man looked surprised but began typing away frantically on his laptop. Danny wasn’t sure what to say so he just stood there awkwardly. “What’s your phone number?” The man asked. Danny gave it to him. The man eventually looked up from the laptop. “Okay, firstly, congrats, you have a larger than normal mana pool, which means you need to get some special testing done to properly measure it. You’ll receive a text for an appointment at the academy later today, Dant-”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“-Danny.” Danny cut the man off.
The man shrugged and gestured to the back door of the tent.
Danny left the tent surely looking much the same as many who’d left before him. He checked his phone and found there was already a text waiting for him. He had a meeting in a few hours at the large academy which lay hidden in the middle of the city. It wasn’t a far walk from his house and he was pretty tired, so he decided to catch a bus home and try and get some sleep.
As he lay on his blanket his mind processed what had happened in the tent. The old man didn’t seem shocked to see his orange mana, which told him something. He could only interpret that mana was likely that colour, or perhaps came in different colours. The elemental diodes, as the man had called them, showed different colours as they filled. That told him that mana could probably come in different colours. He did make the younger man note the colour though, which meant it likely signified something.
Danny tossed and turned on his improper bed, more accurately described as the floor, and decided that ruminating wouldn’t help him. He tried to get some sleep. It was elusive at first, but soon his tiredness bested his raging curiosity and he was carried off to sleep. The last thought he had was that he’d forgotten to set an alarm. That was also the first thought he had as he snapped awake. He reached for his phone and realised he’d slept hours past his scheduled meeting. He had three missed calls from an unknown number. He dialled them back.
“Hello, I have some missed calls from this number,” Danny sheepishly said when the call dialled through.
“What’s your name?” A feminine voice with a European accent answered.
“Uh, Danny Skala.”
“Danny, Danny…” the person on the other end seemed to be looking through a list. “Is Danny your first name? I’ve got a Dante Skala here.”
Danny winced. “I go by Danny.”
The woman clicked her tongue, “Okay, I’ve put that on the system. You missed an appointment here at the academy.”
“Sorry, I worked overnight and fell asleep.”
The woman paused. “Okay. Can you get here in 15 minutes? I have an opening.”
“Done. I’ll be there shortly.”
“Wonderful, see you soon Danny,” the woman replied with an audible smile.
Danny decided to have a very quick shower and put on some of his more presentable items of clothing, taking a note from the two maybe-wizards he met earlier. Danny threw on some chinos, a dress shirt, and an unstructured blazer that he only wore to important events he no longer was invited to. He didn’t have any dress shoes and settled for a pair of mostly clean vans. He then took off out of the townhouse. The academy was only a ten-minute walk from his place, far less than that if he was sprinting full-pelt.
Thanks to his newfound cardio, he ran the entire distance without even breaking a sweat. I really need to check back in with the hospital, when was that appointment again? He decided he’d worry about it after his current meeting. He found the doors to the large building open and entered. He found himself in a massive foyer, decorated with old-world treasures. Tapestries, paintings, and statues filled the space, making Danny think the foyer wouldn’t be out of place in a European castle.
The foyer was packed with people milling about, not many of them were dressed like the two he’d met in the tent. He searched around the room and found that every doorway and staircase that led out of the foyer was blocked by someone dressed in brown coats, tweed suits, or earthy-coloured formal garb. Wizards are nerds. That was all Danny could think.
There was what seemed like a receptionist's desk at the far end of the foyer and Danny decided that was his best course of action. Apparently, everyone else who was clearly trying to learn whatever they could about the building had the same idea. A rough line had formed and the receptionists were making quick work of it. Soon Danny found himself before a neatly dressed young man. “How can I help you today?” If the young man was exasperated by the flood of people, he didn’t show it.
“I have a meeting, uh, five minutes ago.” The line had eaten his time.
“Danny Skala?” The receptionist asked looking at a note on the desk in front of them.
“That’s me.”
The receptionist pointed at the grand staircase that dominated one side of the foyer, “Head up there and take a right. Ms. Kovalenko is waiting for you.” The receptionist signalled to one of the two gentlemen standing at the base of the staircase and received a nod in return.
Danny made his way over to the staircase and was let past the two apparent guards. Other people in the crowd made to follow him but were briskly turned away by the well-dressed gentlemen. Danny shrugged and continued up the staircase.