The wagon I was riding in made its slow way to Argenkeep, the capital of Eryndor. I had 100 atlu, water, some stationery, and a sealed letter. I had expected it, but the confirmation that I would be going away to school was still shocking to hear.
It had all happened so quickly. A year after that conversation, a man had turned up at our house. He did another crystal test on me, and then I was forced to do a written test of some sort. I've forgotten most of the questions by now, but I figure that I must've passed since after the man had left, my parents had told me that I would be going to the Eryndor National Academy of Magic. In return, a decade of my life now belonged to the kingdom.
I had complained at this development, as was to be expected. I didn’t want to leave the town I was used to, and I definitely didn’t want to go spend the next couple years of my life in some unfamiliar place.
Hearing these complaints, my father called me to his workshop during the day. Oddly, my brother wasn’t with him.
This was one of the only times he ever spoke to me one on one as a father, and I still remember the scene as clear as day.
“Alric, you aren’t happy about the path we choose for you, are you?” He asked.
I nodded.
“Look- I don’t expect you to understand everything that’s going on right now. I wish that it didn’t have to be like this, but please just know that we’re doing this for you. Over a decade of work might seem like a lot, but I promise that it’ll be worth it, alright? You’re luckier than most to even have this option available to you.”
I was still worried, and I think my father could tell.
“Alric, so long as you do good things for others, they’ll return the favor. Remember that, and you have nothing to worry about.”
Not sure what to say, I simply nodded again.
Luckily, that was enough for my father. He let me go to think about what he had said.
Words could only do so much to reassure me, but my father’s words helped me push down my worries until after I left Windale. After that, there wasn’t much I could do that would change my fate anyways.
The journey took 2 weeks and countless different wagons, but eventually I made it to Argenkeep just after turning 14. Before this, I had never really traveled beyond the village. I had never seen so many people in one place before. The activity was almost overwhelming, and I took a second to collect myself before looking around.
Honestly, Argenkeep didn’t look too good to me. There was litter everywhere, the streets were loud with shouts of merchants and the chatter of passerb. It didn’t look too different from the trading square back home, except much bigger and more crowded. I stood still for a long while, processing the different environment.
Eventually, I decided that I would need to gather my courage and get to the academy. Looking around, I spotted a street vendor selling fruits. He looked friendly enough, so I walked over to his stand and asked:
“Do you know where the National Academy is?”
The look of disdain on his face surprised me. Looking back, my appearance definitely looked like one of a countryside peasant. His disdain should’ve been expected. But back then, I didn’t know that.
“Down the road, can’t miss it.” The merchant said curtly.
Put off by that encounter, I walked down the road to the academy.
There were three rings in the city of Argenkeep, kept apart not by fences or walls, but by the types of people you saw in them. The richest citizens kept toward the center of the city, near the castle, while the poorest citizens resigned themselves to the third ring. The academy was located in the middle ring of the city- not too close to the castle but also inward enough that there weren’t any homeless on the streets, and all the houses belonged to minor nobility or wealthy merchants. It was evident when I had crossed into the middle ring, as immediately the noises diminished to a reasonable level and the litter mysteriously dissappeared.
The actual academy was a cluster of old-looking buildings. Without the academy’s reputation, it would’ve honestly been quite ordinary.
Following my father's instructions, I made my way to the admissions office. The clerk looked extremely tired when I came up to him, which made sense considering that he had probably done this hundreds of times already. I handed him the letter.
“Looks good. Please place your hands on the crystal.”
It was another crystal, just like the one Vergah and the academy guy had used. The results were exactly the same.
“Good. Please go to room 111 in the boy’s dormitory. Make a left as you exit the building, then follow the path. The dormitory will be the first building to your right. You’ll find everything you need there.” The clerk said, handing me a key.
“Thank you.”
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The room was larger than the room me and my brother shared back home. Since there were two beds, I assumed that I would have a roommate. It seemed that he wasn’t here just yet. Next to the bed there was a desk with a textbook, stationary, a note, and a wand. There was also a dress robe on the bed. The other bed had the exact same items. I immediately went to pick up the wand.
Back in Windale, wands were a rare sight. Occasionally an adventurer with one would pass through, but that wasn’t very common. It wasn’t a very high quality wand by any means, only being made up of mid-grade wandwood. I doubted that its mana conductivity was rated above a 10. Still, I couldn’t believe that I had managed to end up with one. Next, I checked the note. It read:
Orientation will be at 12:00. Lyon Hall, room 5. Do not be late. All freshmen are required to wear red robes on school grounds.
It was at that moment that the door opened. A boy my age walked in, who I assumed was my roommate. Given his dress, he clearly came from the countryside, just like me. He didn’t say a word to me, but instead just put on the robe, took his wand, and walked out. I got a clear feeling of chilliness from him. I assumed he’d go to orientation- quickly changing, I decided that it would be best to follow him.
Room 5 turned out to be a large room with desks set up facing the front. There were around 30 kids in the class in total. I observed them as they slowly trickled in. Most looked like they came from the countryside, though there were a few minor nobility.
The teacher was the last one in the door. She appeared to be an ordinary middle aged woman, but there was a look in her eyes that made the chatter in the classroom stop immediately.
Seeing the room go quiet, she began her introduction.
“Good afternoon, class. You can call me Mrs. Genia. I will be your magic theory teacher for the next 3 years, and I will be in charge of this orientation. You’ve all been placed in the bottom class- 1D. We all know that life here wont be easy, but I do not ever want to hear about anyone who is not trying their hardest in this school. With the right education, I’ve known many great mages who have come out of this class. Is that clear?”
Nobody in the class moved a muscle.
“Good. Now, at this academy, there are two types of magic classes. First is magic theory, and the second is practical magic. You will also have non-magic classes in math, language, and history. In magic theory class, you’ll learn about the systems at work behind magic. In practical, you’ll actually perform magic. I’ve heard that kids here think that practical magic classes are more important, but this is false. Everyone here should remember that an understanding of magic is necessary to perform said magic.”
The rest of orientation went over school rules, schedule, and grading.
Afterward, we went to the dining hall for dinner. The dining hall was large, with enough seating to accommodate the entire school. I noticed that where you sat seemed to depend on your class, as the closer to the serving area you got, the more advanced the students became. My roommate was sitting alone in the very back, and I decided that it would be best to sit with him.
He didn’t seem to want to talk or anything, but I assumed that that was just how he usually ate. Anyways, it didn’t take too long for two other students to come over to our table. I recognized them as students from class 1D. They both had brown hair, but one was much taller than the other.
“You mind if we sit here?” Asked the taller one.
“No, feel free to,” I replied.
They sat down. The taller one seemed much more outgoing, introducing himself first.
“I’m Arnav, and he’s Chris. What’s your name?”
“I’m Alric.”
Arnav then turned his attention onto my roommate.
“What’s your name?”
There was no response.
Arnav asked again, and this time my roommate simply just left the table.
“What’s his deal?” Arnav asked me.
“I’m not sure. He hasn’t really talked to me yet either.”
“Oh, so he’s a quiet type. Don’t worry about it, he’ll come around eventually. Chris was a lot like that at first, right?” Arnav looked pointedly at Chris.
“I guess.” Chris looked much shyer than Arnav.
“Anyways, where do you come from?” Asked Arnav.
“I’m from Windale. It’s a small town on the eastern edge of the Seduri forest.” I told him.
“Wow, that’s way out in the countryside. Me and Chris are from Trotter. I think it should be around 4 days of travel south of Windale. I’m technically minor nobility, but I’m the 4th son, so that it barely matters. Me and Chris have been friends for forever- don’t worry, he’ll get less shy once he gets to know you better." Arnav responded, introducing him and Chris. He continued: "Anyways, why did you decide to enroll?”
“I don’t really know. My parents just told me to, so..”
Chris laughed, but not in a mean way. “Fair enough.”
We chatted for a while after that, until the end of dinner. When I left the dining hall that night, I was confident that I had two friends at school.
As it was still light outside, I decided that it would be best to explore the school a bit. I had originally written the buildings off as just old, but upon closer inspection they turned out to be much more interesting. Judging by how the stone looked, many of these buildings must’ve been older than most of the city itself. They clearly must’ve been very well built, staying up all this time.
There were a total of 8 buildings- the girl’s dormitory, the boy’s dormitory, Lyon hall, Clarke Hall, Hovner Hall, Kemp Hall, and the library. The buildings were fairly close to one another, but there was still a lot of open space between the buildings. Students were spread out across the open space, all their own small groups. Before going back to my room, I decided to stop at the library. It was smaller than all the rest of the buildings, but still held the largest amount of books I’ve ever seen in one place. I made a mental note to definitely come back later, in case there was anything interesting.
The first thing I saw when I got back to my room was my roommate hunched over his textbook. He had no reaction to me coming in. I decided to follow Arnav’s advice and leave him be.
Exhausted from travel and the first day, I gladly decided to go to sleep.