Jeb picked up his lute case, debating whether or not to bring it with him. “On the one hand,” he mused aloud, “I doubt that I will need it for a meeting with Dean Aquam. On the other hand, it doesn’t weigh that much.” After a moment of deliberation, he nodded and slung the case over his shoulder.
He looked at the rest of his possessions considered how secure he really thought his rooms were. Though he doubted that anything in his books were particularly novel to the Professors here, is still seemed better not to risk it. He buried all of his Primers beneath his clothes.
I guess I should stop putting off leaving my room, Jeb chided himself. He opened the door and stepped out into the dormitory. He was a little surprised to see that, despite the fact that there were at least a few dozen doors on the floor, no one else was exiting their room.
I hope I’m not late already, Jeb thought, walking a little more quickly. When he reached the dormitory’s reception, he looked for a sign that would lead him to the cafeteria. Not seeing one, Jeb took a breath and hoped that the Dean hadn’t lied to him when he said that the doors out would lead to the cafeteria.
“I would like to go to the cafeteria,” he said, letting the air out as he pushed open the door. In front of him was a long stone hallway that did not seem particularly familiar. Hoping that was a good sign, Jeb started walking down it.
A few minutes of walking later, Jeb began to hear muffled sounds of conversation. As he kept walking, the noise grew until it sounded like his hometown had during the harvest dinners. The smell of freshly baked bread began to fill his nose, and he smiled.
“Thank you!” he said under his breath, hoping the Academy could hear him. Jeb was hopeful that Dean Aquam would explain what he had meant by the Academy having minimal fixed geography. Even if he did not, though, it cost Jeb nothing to be polite to the potentially sapient building.
When Jeb entered the cafeteria, he looked around. There were a number of stations that each had a different dish or food. He paused, unsure what he was supposed to do. As he looked around, he saw Dean Aquam sitting and eating what looked like a bowl of broth. The Dean smiled and stood, making his way over to Jeb.
“Good morning, Jeb!” the Dean said. “I had not pegged you as this much of an early riser.” Before Jeb had the chance to respond, the Dean continued, “you seem a little lost. Access to the cafeteria is included with your tuition each term. There are trays and plates there,” he nodded towards a cabinet, “and you can take those to as many stations as you want. Any questions?”
“I don’t think so?” Jeb replied.
“Great! Please sit by me once you’ve gotten your food. The sooner we can get through the Regulations I need to cover, the sooner you can start learning the important content.”
“What’s the important content?” Jeb asked.
The Dean’s eyes glittered. “Magic,” he said, fading away like mist in the sun. Jeb blinked, confused. He saw the Dean sitting where he had been before standing up. The Dean waved, and Jeb waved back.
After standing around, trying to decide how to respond, Jeb shrugged. He was at the Academy. It made sense that the Professors would enjoy using their Magic. Jeb walked over to the tray cupboard and picked up a plate.
Before deciding what he wanted to eat, Jeb though it could be useful to see what all the options were. He made a quick loop around the room, looking at all of the different choices that the Academy offered its students. He saw plenty of familiar options, as well as a number of foods that he only recognized vaguely, if at all.
After finishing his lap, Jeb decided to have a small breakfast, just in case this was also something that he would end up going into debt over. He walked to the stand that had freshly baked bread and asked for a small loaf. Walking over to sit by the Dean, he gave into the impulse to grab an apple. That couldn’t cost too much, right?
Dean Aquam raised an eye at the small plate that Jeb brought back. “Now, I know that you have had a bad experience with your Censusmaster. That will not happen to you here. There is no one keeping track of how much you eat.”
Jeb flushed a little. “Oh,” he said.
The Dean cocked his head and stared at Jeb for a moment. “Are you going to get more food?”
“Can I?” Jeb asked. Seeing the Dean nod, Jeb jumped out of his seat and grabbed another plate. This time around, he filled his plate with a few eggs, some sausages and fruits, and a few of the dishes that he did not recognize. When he saw a tub of broth that looked like what Dean Aquam had been drinking, he grabbed a small bowl of it as well.
Sitting back down in front of the Dean, Jeb saw him smile. “I am glad you have an appetite. Too many young Mages think that they need to starve themselves in order to get the Class of their dreams.”
Jeb paused with a sausage halfway to his mouth. “Do I?”
“Hmm?” the Dean asked, pulling a spoon of broth to his mouth. “Oh, you almost certainly do not. There are very few Classes that require such sacrifices, especially at the lower Tiers. They are mostly for students who come in knowing the exact path they want their life to take for the next century.”
“Ah,” Jeb responded as he resumed eating the sausage.
“Do you mind if we begin the advising session now, or would you rather finish breakfast first?”
“I’m happy to start now!” Jeb replied. “What did you mean about the Academy having minimal fixed geography?”
Dean Aquam chuckled. “I am sure that you have already noticed. The building a door leads to is not constant.”
“Right,” Jeb nodded, “why?”
“What a fantastic question! Ultimately, the Academy has such dynamic geography because the Founders and first generations of Professors and Deans expended a lot of effort to make it so. And,” he held up a finger, “before you ask why they did, there is no answer.” The Dean frowned. “Sorry, that came out wrong. There is no single answer. While it is inaccurate to say that every Professor had their own reason for geography to behave the way it does in the Academy, it is mostly true.”
“Are there trends to their reasons?” Jeb asked.
The Dean nodded. “I would generally group the reasons into a few categories. First, there are the people who believed that a School of Magic should be a place of whimsy. Having doorways open to unexpected locations makes it harder to consider anything done here mundane. Another camp generally believed that being a Mage was fundamentally about control and rewriting reality. For them, the fact that you can and must choose where your doorway opens reminds you that Magic is about enforcing your own will against the world. The other largest camp generally thought of it as a safety precaution. After all, if the location of the dorms is constantly changing, it becomes far harder to kidnap young Mages as they sleep.”
“I’m not sure that I entirely follow all of those,” Jeb said.
“Does it answer your initial question, at least?”
Jeb shrugged. “I suppose that the Academy having non-fixed geography because it was created not to does answer the question, for all that it isn’t particularly satisfying.”
The Dean chuckled. “That is the nature of far too many answers to questions. Of course, if you want a better answer, you can always ask for more information at the Library.”
Jeb’s eyes lit up at the mention of a Library, and the Dean seemed to sense that.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Ah, before you can go to the Library, we need to discuss your schedule. Do you have your letters and numbers?”
“I think so,” Jeb replied. “Though obviously I do not know everything there is to know about mathematics or language.”
“There is an intake exam. When we return to my office, you can take it, and we can determine where you should go from there. How is your knowledge of the noble houses?”
Jeb gave a sheepish grin. “I thought we lived in a Republic,” he replied. “I really thought that we didn’t have any nobility.”
The Dean’s expression darkened. “Nominally, there are none. However, it is hard to find a better term to describe families who perpetually occupy the positions of power in the Republic, have more wealth, and almost exclusively marry within themselves to keep the power separate from the masses.”
“Doesn’t nobility usually imply some sort of legal benefit, though?” Jeb asked.
The Dean rolled his eyes. “That is true. Within the Republic’s laws, all are treated equally. However, a law which punishes sleeping on the streets affects the homeless far more than those with homes, does it not?”
Jeb nodded, beginning to understand. “Also, I suppose that the laws are only as fair as the people responsible for enforcing them.”
The Dean brightened at that statement, and Jeb frowned. Before he could say anything, though, the Dean spoke, “on that note, I do have some good news for you. I spent most of last night combing through old Academy bylaws and treaties between the Academy and the government. Two of them are particularly important for you right now.”
“Oh?” Jeb asked.
The Dean nodded and spoke a little more quickly. “First, as long as the Dean of your College is willing to certify that you are making a ‘good faith effort’,” he mimed the quotes with his fingers, “on repaying the debt, all interest is suspended while you are enrolled in the Academy.”
“That’s really nice!” Jeb said. He had quickly worked out that the compounding interest would bury him in debt, so the fact that it wouldn’t was nice. “What defines a good faith effort, though?”
The Dean waved him off, “there are a variety of legal standards depending on which opinion you read. That’s not the exciting piece, though,” the Dean said, eyes glittering.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Humdrum Human Age: 16 Class: Wizard Level: 2 Experience: 1365/202
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Total Statistic Load: 593 Physical Load: 223 Strength: 52 Dexterity: 53 Endurance: 54 Vitality: 55 Presence: 9
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Mental Load: 370 Intelligence: 73 Willpower: 80 Magic Affinity: 79 Mana Depth: 69 Charisma: 69
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Mana: 1755
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Glyph Attunement: 31 Least Shape Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Earth - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Lesser Shape Earth (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Shape Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Water - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Lesser Shape Water (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Hold Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Conjure Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Conjure Water - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Destroy Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Mud (Modified) Tier 2 Spell Attune Earth Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Water Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Water Mana - Efficient (Modified) Tier 2 Spell Attune Air Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Fire Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Sand Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Least Create Sand (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Attune Sand Mana - Efficient (Modified) Tier 2 Spell
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Bard Songs Known: 1 Lute Enforcement
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Skills: Meditation Spell Glyphing Gift of Gab Identify Soil Savvy Animal Handling Fertilizing Lute Playing Singing Musician Pollination Brewing Distilling Smithing Wood Identification Woodworking Soil Improvement Glassblowing Magic
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic Glyph Specializer
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)