Hi, my name is Nicola Valentini, and I turned seventeen over the summer, so my parents are allowing me to attend a public schools. I know it’s not very exciting to most people but since my family is one of the Big Three running for mayor of Gadopilis, I was home schooled for all of my education. But now that I’m seventeen, I am allowed to attend High School. Not only that, but what I’m most excited for, is seeing which school of magic I fall into.

That’s right, my family is part of the Big Three, the biggest three Magicsmen families in the city. Since, I was home schooled I was only taught things like arithmetic, government structure, history and so on. I was a little on the sheltered side when it came to magic, not because my parents refused to teach me, it was just a custom that my grandfather enforces.

So I can’t wait to learn all there is about my class of magic.

As I step off the monorail, I take in the sight of the school for the first time. The structure was designed to be based off what I believe to be a medieval castle of about six thousand years ago. I mean I don’t know if anyone knows exactly what their supposed to look like anymore, but I’m pretty sure it’s spot on. The structure was roughly six stories high with towers at each corner. Everything was made of stones, and the walls were made to like serrated teeth at the top. There was a huge gate that led to the court yard of many other towers that pillared into the sky.

If there was any word for it, majestic came to mind as I gazed upon this glorious architecture, Fortuna Canyon View High or FCVH. Today was the first day of school; it was sorting day so there wouldn’t actually be any teachings today. We would be shown around the building, sorted into our particular courses, and paired with our roommate for the dorms.

First on the to-do list was to assemble in the court yard. It appears that everyone has gathered but it was just a few minutes before the sorting would commence. So there was a low roar of noise coming from the audience. Everyone was excited to see their friends they hadn’t seen all summer, lots of high fives and gossip everywhere. I felt a little left out but hey, whatever. I would make friends eventually; I would just have to just wait this one out.

A few moments go by the every goes quiet as a figure with the look of extreme authority walks in front of the crowd and demanded everyone’s attention, “Students, students. Silence. Welcome to Fortuna Canyon View High.” After a long speech about rules, how today will go, where to go and where not to go, he ended with the same phrase of welcoming us to FCVH.

I listened to the entire speech because I did not have a buddy to chit chat to like everyone else. Most of it blurred in my head but I did make sure where to go crystal clear. Magicsmen in the North tower, Humans in the East tower, Anti-magicsmen in the West tower and for extra information the staff was located in the South tower. I guess I was heading north.

The crowd split into three and I followed a group heading north. After walking across the court yard, we enter north building and into a lobby area, the room was massive with couches, snack machines, and coffee tables everywhere. In the back was a stairwell for the upper floors. The crowd stopped at the entrance for a moment, then started making their way to the stair well only to be halted by a man that was not there before.

He looked slightly older than our group, he had dirty blonde hair that slicked back like a mid-aged business man. He was dress head to toe in black, as was the rest of us, but it looked really new and well made. His cloak had an insignia on it; the insignia was a blooming yellow flower. Hmmm, this may indicate what his school of magic he was in.

“Oi listen, newbies. Welcome to North. The classes are all upstairs but before I can let you go to the professors, we gotta see what class you guys will be in. I was tasked to lead you to the

Dr. Halonen. He will sort you out. Follow me.” He swiftly turned around and walked a hallway and into a where an extremely pale man in a lab coat greeted us and led us one at a time to do physicals.

We were told to get in line outside of the room, luckily I was already close by when he made the announcement, so I was fifth in line. Go me. Each person took a few moments, so I guess he wasn’t doing full physicals. When it got to be my turn, I stepped in into the room and sat down on an open stool.

“Mr.?” Dr. Halonen he raised a question as he looked at his clipboard. Dr. Halonen was an older looking guy with black receding hair line and a scruff beard. His thin framed glasses gave him a wise like appearance. He had a squared jaw with a feint scar on the right side.

“Oh, Valentini. Nicola. seventeen”

He looked up in surprise, “Valentini? You’re Valentini’s kid? Nice to meet you, mind taking off your shirt?”

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At first I was thrown off by his question, and then I reminded myself that he was a doctor of sorts. Taking off my shirt and cloak, I was instantly aware of how cold the room was. I wonder what school of magic I would be in. Would I be a Conjurer? Ooh, maybe Transmuter or a Necromancer! I don’t think I would be a druid, but hey I would be the best druid I could be if I turned out to be one.

He pulled out various tools, such as a stethoscope and reflex hammer thing and got to work while striking casual conversation. “So, how is Fernando? I haven’t paid attention to the elections, are the Valentini’s winning?”

“Well, Dad is doing well as is Grandpa. No, we aren’t winning. The Yamada family is just barely ahead of us, but ever since that scandal a few years ago the Romanov family is put back for at least another election or two.”

Dr. Halonen put the cold stethoscope on my bare skin, making jump just a bit. After apologizing, “Your grandfather… Is he still making the family follow the old ways?”

“…Yeah.”

I got a quick look of sympathy from the doc and had he put his tools down and took off his glasses. “Alright you are physically healthy, now let’s check magical essence and I’ll send you on your way.” My heart skipped a beat with excitement; this will tell me which school.

When Dr. Halonen eyes blinked they changed from muddy brown to a radioactive green as he gazed at my chest seeming to look straight my heart. After a moment of silence it got awkward really fast, but I ignore it as I watched his face for a reaction. His suddenly furrowed and I frowned; something wasn’t right.

“You are a Valentini right?” He looked at me accusingly as his switched back to brown. As I nodded, he did as well; looking absolutely puzzled as well. “Since your grandfather is still head of the family, you may not know but magic is… Well it’s related to sin.”

“Sin?” I was completely perplexed.

“Yeah, the seven deadly sins to be exact. Notice how your grandfather and father are pretty envious of the Yamato family for being just little more influential over the people?” I nodded and he continued, “These sins are natural to Magicsmen, usually a magicsman is associated with one more so than the others, this affects what school of magic they’d be proficient in. The more they are associated with the sin, the more power that magic is.”

He went on as he began writing on his clip board, “As you know your father is a well-known transmuter and alchemist. Well, Envy pairs up the school of Transmutation. Allowing the user to change what he has to what he desires of his neighbors possessions. Anyway, doing a scan of your magical essence, I ran into a problem.”

I swallowed hard. “What is it doc? Is it bad?”

He scratched his chin, “Well it isn’t necessarily bad, rare but not bad.” He gave me an apologetic look and said, “You don’t have any essence at all, no properties, nothing. You aren’t any different from a human.”

My breath caught, the room got colder and I felt numb. This couldn’t be happening to me, no, no, no. Then my heart sputtered when I remember how this would affect not only me but my family as well. This would get leaked out, and it would cause a scandal. This would assure the Yamato victory in the voting. I would be exiled from my family, my life is just going to spiral out of control.

Dr. Halonen was seeing my panic attack unfold, I could see he wanted to console me but there were other students he needed to get to so I just swiftly exited the room without another word. In my brisk pace I saw other students gleefully talking as I made my way to the court yard. Since I had no magical essence I was unable to learn magic, therefor I was useless as a magicsman, and a useless magicsman was basically human. So I headed to the East Tower as I walked toward the building, I notice students excitedly exiting the building and was heading west.

Despite my crushing disappointment in myself, my curiosity got the best of me. I pulled one them aside as I passed a few. The guy I pulled looked unpleased I did so, but I didn’t care really. I asked him, “Why are guys going to the West Tower?”

A little confused at first, he quickly excused my ignorance, “Oh, you must be running late.

Well, even if you are human you can join the ranks of the anti-magicsmen. Of course since they are basically humans on steroids, we won’t be near as good as them unless we work three times as hard. Usually I wouldn’t do it, sounds like a lot of work. But I looked at my prospects…” He rambled on and on but I had long since quit listening to him.

Join the anti-magicsmen? Long ago, I would be a traitor, but we aren’t at war, so it doesn’t really matter. If I was going to be human I might as well be of the best there is. So I followed the group of six humans to the West Tower.