Chapter 19 : A failed exam

Spring was coming to an end in a few days but most importantly, it was “exam day”. Nikolaï had prepared himself the best he could and he was walking to the auditoriums with the help of one of his crotches.

Those rooms were underground, like Nikolaï residential area even if they weren’t connected by the same corridors. He had needed to pass by the Tower atrium before taking the stairs opposed to the ones he had been coming from.

This part of the underground Tower had several areas used for duels, practice and other kinds of events like today's examination. Students could rent some of those rooms (mostly the ones for duel and practice) but the rest was limited to Tower’s official business only. Auditoriums were into this part.

Nikolaï walked over the first corridors and arrived at a point closed by metal bars. There was a door in it, opened and next to him a desk with four Tower scribes. They were easy to spot, wearing brown robes with the Tower blazon on them.

Nikolaï approached and handed the letter he had received. Nikolaï himself was wearing a grey long coat above his regular clothes, as it was tradition for an Aspirant. The coat stopped at Nikolaï's knees, it wasn’t tailed for his proportions and had seen better days. Under it, Nikolaï was wearing a vest with a pin on it holding a small coloured ribbon. The ribbon colours showed what region he was from and the pin had his family crest.

On the coat, a badge was also pinned and it identified him as Aspirant of the 1st Circle. Even if Nikolaï had his Ether shattered and lost his ability to cast spells in Expert Orsana's experiment he never lost his title officially so for the Tower he had stayed an Aspirant of the 1st Circle.

“_ Bring Aspirant Orwood to the second door on the right.” Said an employee to another after checking Nikolaï’s paper.

Nikolaï followed his guide and let the letter to the scribe. Behind the “second door on the right” was a room, around 30 steps long for maybe 25 steps large. Opposite the door Nikolaï passed through there was a stage with a small backdoor next to it. The stage was for the examiner, it was high enough to reach Nikolaï’s hip and on it lay a long desk with three chairs behind it. In front of the stage was an empty space where the tested could “perform” and a large path coming from the main door leading to it. On either side of the passage, 30 chairs had been placed, facing the stage. Five Aspirants were already sat in them, waiting at apparently random positions.

Before Nikolaï could seat too he needed to register for his test and talked to another employee standing next to the door and behind a standing desk. After identified himself and explained what he required to perform his demonstration the employee gave him a number. The number was the order of passage and Nikolaï looked for the chair attributed to him.

He sat down with the other early students and waited. Above them, to Nikolaï’s right, there were also two people waiting but they were not directly involved in the tests. They were on a balcony half the width of the room and were here as an audience.

Examinations were a peculiar event in the Tower. They happened regularly but not all students were tested at each time. The Tower had divided them to make the event easier to organise. Professors took turns acting as examiners as part of their duty but some always found a way to avoid the bother if they were influential enough.

The auditorium Nikolaï was in, was one of the three rooms that shelter tests today. Apparently, they were all connected by their back doors to some kind of warehouse from where employees could bring the necessary material.

Every auditorium had also a balcony for the public, which had surprised Nikolaï the first time he had to take a test. At that time he had thought that the examiner would be on the balcony.

Aspirants of the 1st Circle to 3rd Circle were grouped together for tests and so some Arcanists or influential Aspirants were going to those events in order to assess potential recruits or rivals. It was in keeping with an old tradition whose purpose had been to allow Arcanist to find the right disciple but now he had evolved into a grimmer purpose.

Recruiting disciples or assistants was now done by more political channels than a demonstration of talents. Some influential families still looked at low-level Aspirants for potential followers but the majority of the public was just coming to gather intel.

There was a paradox of passing a test to prove your capacity while being careful not to show too much of your potential to your peers. Nikolaï had never been truly in this case, his lack of affinity had biased the way upper students had looked at him but he saw it happen to others. The same year he had started there was a gifted girl who had shown great disposition in Aqueous Arcane and after a particularly successful examen, things went sideways for her.

More advanced Aspirants claimed books that she tried to rent in the library and peers joined her on expeditions in the gardens to sabotage them. None of them attacked her directly but bit by bit they made sure that she couldn’t progress. Because of her talents, the Aspirant had fallen in front of the crosshairs of influential families and it cost her almost everything.

The girl had been finally pushed away from the Tower after a failing test 6 months after the one that doomed her. She had left after having painfully raised to Aspirant of 2nd Circle when she would have clearly the potential to go beyond that if she had been left alone.

While Nikolaï was trying to remember the name of the girl and wondered what she had become, time passed. The room gradually filled up until no chairs were free. At the proper time, the door next to the stage opened and three Arcanists entered. The Aspirants stood up and saluted them while they were taking place. The 6 persons audience did the same, their salute varying depending on their own status.

The three juries were professors and Nikolaï lost a bit of colour when he saw the last one. One was an Arcanist of the 4th Circle but the two others were Expert and the one closing their entry was not the less than Expert Orsana himself.

***

The morning before the examinations Arcanist Julius and Arcanist Amos were in their master's laboratory. Arcanist Amos was in the first room organizing the last notes made by Expert Orsana and Arcanist Julius was in the second room, the reserve, and was inventorying it.

The laboratory was made of three rooms and the last one was where Expert Orsana was doing most of his experiments. It was the most secure one and Expert Orsana didn’t bring his assistants with him every time. It was currently the case but Expert Orsana hadn’t been inside long when he came back to the first room, where his desk was.

He put a new pile of papers on Arcanist Amos desk without a say but she knew that meant that she had to make clean copies of it. Most of the time Expert Orsana didn’t even say which part was important and was telling his assistants that it was part of their jobs.

Expert Orsana was clearly not in a good mood so Arcanist Amos didn’t comment and started reading the notes.

It was Julius who broke the silence when he came back from the storage room, which had to be crossed when going to the experiment one.

“_ Master we still have enough material to try again the experience from yesterday, do you want them to be prepared ?” Asked Arcanist Julius with his special ass-licking tone.

“_ It won’t be necessary.” Answered Expert Orsana. “I have once again examiner duty this afternoon.”

“_ It’s an outrage that such an important person like yourself had to waste his time on those matters.” Commented Arcanist Julius with the same tone.

“_ It is indeed.” Said Expert Orsana whose ego felt flattered.

Sure it was his duty as a professor to occasionally take the role of examiner but as an Expert, he had often played the superiority card on other professors to make them volunteer as his substitute. Normally Orsana had only to do it every 3 or 4 times but things had changed after the ‘incident’.

As a punishment, Master Arcanist Drahan had required Expert Orsana to act as an examiner for a year in order to repay the Tower. To him, it was the last item of an insulting list of things he had to suffer. He hadn’t lost his titles but many of his privileges had been temporarily revoked or limited. Until the year was completed he could only perform his research on Arcanic creatures which were harder to procure than willing students.

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Expert Orsana was infuriated to have his research slow down like this and in his opinion unjustifiably punished. He had already paid compensation for his mistakes and was feeling unfairly treated by the Master Arcanist but couldn’t go against the will of the Tower Master.

“_ Master I think something in the list of today's students could interest you.” Said Arcanist Amos while bringing a paper to her Master.

“_ What is it ?” Asked a doubtful and annoyed Expert Orsana.

“_ As you ask we kept a distant eye on the ‘survivor’ and his test is today.”

“_ Oh.” Said Orsana with curiosity. “Did his requirements have been reviewed ?”

“_ Yes as you wanted them and I made sure he was processed by your jury.”

“_ Excellent assistant Amos, excellent.” Said Orsana while reading the list of names. “Today could finally be the day where we take care of this splinter and move on.”

Arcanist Amos gave a satisfied look to her fellow assistant who responded with a nauseous smile. Arcanist Julius was the best at rubbing their Master the right way but Arcanist Amos was better at bringing what he wanted.

***

Nikolaï sat back at the same time as the others. His heart was beating fast for other reasons than test anxiety. Since Nikolaï arrived in the room his paranoia had made him look at the balcony every time there was a movement up there. Every time their door had opened he had pictured one of Orsana’s assistant entering. Sent by its master to look for him but he hadn’t thought about the man being there himself.

Nikolaï wanted to believe that it was a coincidence but he didn’t want to have his hopes up. He did his best to avoid eye contact with the Expert to focus on what he had to do today.

Expert Orsana had sat on the left of the desk, close to the back door. The Arcanist of the 4th Circle had sat in the middle and it was he who opened the “ceremony”. It was a tradition that the lowest level was the one to lead this kind of event, it was a way of expressing that the higher levels weren’t to be bothered by details and the lower level had to take care of it for them.

The lowest level had to call for the students and mostly interact with them but when it was time for deliberation they were the last to talk.

The tests started and Nikolaï found a way to distract himself from the presence of Expert Orsana when the second person on the list was tested. The Aspirant had completed his 1st Circle and to prove it a round stone had been brought to him.

It was called a Ranking stone and when an Aspirant was putting his ether inside it displayed a Sigil to determine the density of the person's ether and its quantity. It wasn’t made to be a precise tool but it was enough to judge the overall power of an Aspirant and which Rune it had. The more powerful the person was the more bright and subtle the Sigil was.

Nikolaï took a look at the stone with his Third Eye. It was the product of Forgerune and Nikolaï had a few rocks which came from the stomach of a mongoose that could be used to create a similar object.

Each time an Aspirant was tested Nikolaï watched carefully and because more than half of the present were using the stone he had a dozen occasions to look at the Sigil.

“_ Aspirant of the 1st Circle, Orwood Nikolaï.” Called the Arcanist.

Nikolaï stood up and shuffled a few Aspirants with his crutches as he was trying to reach for the alley. He went through and moved to the area with an uninsured footing. He was clearly displaying signs of elementium poisoning but he hadn’t been the only one today. Many desperate students were trying to close their gap of power to the last minute.

Some people whispered in Nikolaï passage, his history with Expert Orsana hadn’t left the minds yet.

“_ Today ! Aspirant Orwood.” Half-joked the other Expert.

“_ Sorry Expert Ridelt.” Answered Nikolaï who tried to accelerate his path.

Expert Orsana's eyes narrowed as Nikolaï finally stood in front of them and saluted. He recognized the signs of poisoning too but he wasn’t a common Arcanist and was pretty sure Nikolaï had abused of air elementium. He quietly looked at the piece of paper in front of him where informations from Nikolaï previous tests were written and he confirmed that Nikolaï had a small affinity to air elementium.

“_ What requirements have you decided to prove ?” Asked the Arcanist.

“_ Spells demonstration.” Answered politely Nikolaï.

“_ Right.” Started the Arcanist as he was looking for Nikolaï on his list. “You need to perform a level 1 and a level 2 spell.”

As they were speaking two objects had been brought by tower employees from the back door. They both were on small wheels and the first one was a simple altar with ten candles on it. The second one was a dummy with hay coming from his rough fabric.

Nikolaï had already specified what he was going to do when he registered, the fact that the Arcanist asked him was part of the ritual in a way. Nikolaï had confirmed it and the altar was put 6 steps away from him and the candles lit up.

When the Arcanist had declared what Nikolaï needed to do Expert Ridelt had taken a look at the files and seemed to be slightly confused.

“_ My first demonstration will be from the Sky Arcane, it is the level one spell : Air Hole.” Advertised Nikolaï as he tucked his crutches under his arms and turned to the altar.

“_ You can begin Aspirant.” Said the Arcanist after looking at his two neighbours for confirmation.

Nikolaï joined his hands and focused on the targets. A few seconds passed in absolute silence and Nikolaï finally started. He aimed at the altar with the circle formed by his hands and a Sigil appeared between them.

The flames of the candles flickered and extinguished themselves as the spell created a momentary vacuum around them.

Nikolaï breathed out loudly in the silence and stopped focusing. An employee approached the altar to check on the candle and showed one finger to the jury as to say that one candle wasn’t properly extinguished.

“_ Nine out of ten, the spell is considered passable.” Said the Arcanist.

He gestured for the employee to move the altar and the dummy was put in its place but closer to Nikolaï.

“_ My second demonstration will be from the Impalpable Arcane, it is the level two spell, Spectral Sword.” Said Nikolaï with a more shaky voice.

The rest of the room was a bit more excited as the Arcanist was telling Nikolaï to begin. Not many level 2 spells had been performed today so it was understandable that people showed interest.

Nikolaï joined his hands like before and focused as silence was falling. He cast his spell and the sword appeared out of the circle from his hands but it flickered and disappeared. Nikolaï cleared his throat awkwardly and resumed his position. He had two more tries before being interrupted so he kept his focus. He cast the spell once again and the sword blinked again but didn’t vanish.

The sword moved up and slowly approached the dummy before performing a diagonal slash and collapsing. The rough fabric had been cut from the shoulder to half of the gut and a bit of hay felt on the ground.

Nikolaï held to his crotches and turned to face the examiners. The Arcanist didn’t say anything and turned to the person at his left, Expert Ridelt. Because it was the final deliberation the higher-ranked Arcanist was questioned first and because Expert Ridelt and Orsana belong to the same Circle it was decided by how long they had the title.

“_ Your Air Hole is barely passable.” Started Expert Ridelt. “Even the extinguished candles were still emitting smoke, if they had properly suffocated by the vacuum of your spell it would not be the case. As your Spectral Sword, it showed signs of instability even if it was tangible enough to cut the surface of your target.”

The Expert had been hard but rather fair throughout the day. Every time, he had started with hard critics before his conclusion.

“_ But knowing your situation I will agree to validate you.”

Nikolaï did a good job at keeping a straight face and so was Expert Orsana. He knew Expert Ridelt had evocated Nikolaï’s situation in a way to embarrass him. The two men were not allied, no Experts were truly friends with each other but Expert Ridelt was one who enjoyed Orsana's demise even if they weren’t direct rivals. Expert Ridelt was an Alchemist, one of the few who was receiving the teaching of Master Arcanist Drahan and he had been hard to enter this circle.

Everybody turned to Expert Orsana, he was the next one who needed to speak and he was carefully prepared his words.

“_ Expert Ridelt is right and I am personally glad to see someone who didn’t let himself down when facing difficulty. Tenacity should be rewarded and in that optic, I will personally recommend Aspirant Orwood to the 1st floor.”

The announcement made some noise in the crowd and some even tried a few claps to Expert Orsana's generosity. The 1st floor was reserved for Aspirant of the 2nd Circle or Aspirant with special treatment.

The last professor didn’t say much and just like that Nikolaï’s test was finished.

“_ Thank you for the patronage, especially to you Expert Orsana.” Said Nikolaï as he saluted.

Nikolaï kept his composure and went back to his chair while another student was called.