The Magister’s office wasn’t too far away but the walk felt like it was interminable with the long silence that stretched between Ada and the mage named Eilin. Whenever Ada brought up a question or pointed out something interesting she noted such as a statue or a particular building, Eilin would either ignore her or inform her that this was no time for any question to be answered. In Ada’s view, the mage clearly didn’t want to talk to her at the moment and used the lack of time as a rationale for not answering. Whether that was due to a fundamental dislike of Divines or disgruntlement that Ada finished her test with relative ease was unclear to Ada. She might be a goddess but she was terrible at reading people’s minds. In fact that was something which Ada has always thought a mystery — why some people seemed to take an instant liking to her whereas others took the opposite perspective. That felt true growing up and she felt the same was applicable in this world.
I suppose everyone has their own agenda and personality no matter what world you’re on. Maybe it’s actually easier to understand here on Urth. One social axiom here might be that mages as a general rule dislike the gods. It’ll be a rare individual such as Ruciella who doesn’t possess such obvious prejudice.
“Watch where you’re going!” Eilin suddenly said as Ada almost bumped into her.
She realized that the mage had stopped in front of the door of a large oval stone building with a circular dome. The stone itself looked old but not extremely remarkable. However, the circular door was an intricate work of craftsmanship, standing tall and solid, made of a dark weathered wood with a smooth texture. It looked old but well-preserved. Carved into the surface was an intricate geometric pattern of circles within circles connected by crisscrossed lines. The two door handles were large circular metal rings forged from an unknown golden alloy.
Eilin rapped on the door three times. There was the sound of shuffling and what sounded like heavy books being placed somewhere. A muffled shout could be heard from within. The mage sighed. “It should only take a minute. I do not believe that the Magister would have thought the test would be over so soon.”
“This building looks impressive but it is only one story right?”
“You have eyes. Yes, it is only one floor.”
“That confuses me a little. I would have thought the Magister’s office would be situated at the top of the highest tower here,” Ada remarked.
Eilin looked at her as if the goddess was an idiot. “For someone who passed the initial test, I had thought you had a little more intelligence. Now I’m starting to have my doubts again. Why would you expect his esteemed self’s office to be in the clock tower? The noise itself would drive anyone mad.”
“Well, now that you say the clock tower is the tallest, I’m going to have to rethink that assumption. It’s the stories you know.”
Eilin’s eyebrows perked up. Her previously bored expression changed to that of curiosity. “Stories?”
“Stories of spellcasters in towers abound. For instance, they’re prevalent in Dungeons and Dragons but probably predates that as well. You probably have no idea what I’m saying do you?”
Eilin shook her head. “You are certainly a strange one. Perhaps you speak of more mysterious knowledge that the Divine has chosen to hide from us. Your type loves to have your secrets.”
“Uh, I wouldn’t call it hiding from you and this isn’t any great revelation. Probably some stupid game and TV tropes. Nevermind, I’ll just keep quiet until the door opens.”
The timing was fortunate for the door creaked open to reveal a rather short balding man with an extremely long, extravagant beard, dressed in robes that glowed faintly. The outfit and the beard matches what I expect but he’s barely 5 feet tall. That part doesn’t fit the physical description of the role of the head of a magical academy.
“Eilin, what are you doing here? I thought you were administering the test for the stray Divine.”
Eilin stifled a sigh and did not choose to reply immediately. Ada suspected that the mage was immensely annoyed at the Magister’s oversight of Ada’s presence.
“I believe I see the young lady I see beside you. She must be a new student of yours that you were recommending to see me?”
Stolen story; please report.
Ada stifled a chuckle. She had no idea whether this man was pretending to be clueless but if he was he was a good actor. He continued in a ramble. “Well, you see, I am currently in the middle of an experiment and I cannot see your student right now. Maybe you can have her come another day. I believe that tomorrow might be fine. No, not tomorrow. I remember I have to be supervising that new shipment of runestones all day. We only get those once in forever you know. I’ve no idea who pulled what string to get all of those delivered just now but I will not complain. Where was I? Next week sounds good but the week after that would actually be even better. Less classes and less meetings. Nothing going on that week as you probably also know. How about it Eilin? Does end of the school week at precisely one hour before sunset on the week after next work?”
Eilin has calmly waited for the Magister to finish before she replied. “Magister, that will work for the new student but I did not come here now to talk to you about this. Ada here standing by me is not the new student. She is that Divine who has passed the test.”
Upon hearing the word passed there was a look of interest in the Magister’s eyes as he turned his head and stared at Ada. His jubilant mood suddenly turned somber. She felt extremely uncomfortable being scrutinized like this. She felt like she was like a lab specimen examined under a microscope. Ada cleared her throat. “I hear that I’m supposed to take another test here. Can we go inside or is that not allowed?”
The mage also cleared his throat. “Of course, Divine One. My apologies for my lack of propriety. Any such discussions is best done in private. Please follow me.”
Eilin gestured for Ada to enter ahead of her. Ada stepped inside onto an extremely soft carpet. Her shoes were mostly open sandals so parts of it tickled her feet like a soft caress. Not synthetic but maybe they don’t have the technology to develop synthetic carpet here. Wool probably.
Her eyes scanned the room quickly — bookshelves of books lined every wall with heads of various animals affixed to several wall mounts and other indescribables encased in glass jars placed neatly on the shelves. There were several tables piled high with more books and strange looking devices. Some of them looked like floating mechanical arms and they were putting books from the shelves on to the tables whereas others did the reverse. It looked like a well-organized strange library. The dome was made of glass and was above her head in the middle of the room letting in plenty of the morning sun. The center of the room also contained a massive desk and eight very comfortable looking armchairs arranged in a circle around the table. In the corner were several silk screens which she assumed covered the personal living area of the Magister. The interior of the building was spacious and luxurious but she was surprised to note that the entire rotunda was just a single room.
“Divine One, let us get ourselves acquainted. Please, sit here,” the Magister gestured at a chair closest to the mounted head of an animal reminiscent of a wolf with wild eyes and open mouth showing its fangs. It looked very real to the point of being disturbing.
I have no idea if that wolf will suddenly re-animate and attack me. Who knows what these mages are capable of? Ada also really didn’t like the expression on the creature’s face. Time to exert my rights as an influential guest here. She pointed at the furthest chair from the creature instead. “If you don’t mind, I think I will sit over there instead.”
The Magister looked at her curiously. “Divine One, I had assumed you will accept the seat at the head as honorable.”
Ada chuckled in a manner that she hoped did not sound awkward. “I consider myself a pretty modest gal so I think it’s best that you take that seat rather than me. Also, please stop calling me Divine One. Master Eilin here doesn’t and I don’t think you need to either. You can just call me Ada.”
The Magister nodded. “Lady Ada, certainly, if that is your wish. Eilin is someone who has her own concepts of respect but you will find that for most of us addressing a Divine with the proper title is important.”
Hearing this, Eilin barely contained a snort. Ada felt slightly amused. She had thought that the Magister would be treating her the same as Eilin but maybe he was just better at hiding his distaste. He did just scrutinize her as if she were a very interesting bug.
After they were all situated, the Magister waved a hand and suddenly a cup of water appeared in front of each of them. On Earth, a magician of the non-magic variety could have performed this trick so who was to say that this wasn’t just a sleight of hand here? Magister pointed at the water. “Lady Ada, I know you Divines do not need to drink or eat but some of you do so for pleasure. This here is the finest spring water on the continent imbued with magical properties that cover all the base elements.”
“I thank you for your hospitality but I am fine right now,” Ada replied with a smile. If the Magister thought that she can be poisoned, she wasn’t going to give him that opportunity.
“Lady Ada, that is fine. Shall we start?”
“You’re going to make the room dim and then I’ll be teleported into a pocket universe to begin another trial?”
“Lady Ada, forgive my colleague for the manner of conduct she chooses to do things. The answer is a resounding no. We are simply going to have a nice chat. It is rare for any Divine to visit an Academy. In this case, even rarer since you appear to be a Divine we have not heard of before. Do you not agree that reaching a fair understanding between you and our Academy is a much better method of seeing where this will lead you? As long as you answer all our questions honestly I think this would be an easy test for you.”
Ada nodded. “I think I can do that. See how our goals are aligned and all that. So ask away. What’s your first question?”
Eilin chose at this moment to jump in. “What are you a goddess of?”
Ada frowned. Should I tell the truth or should I lie? And if I lie, will they know and I fail this test?