Boom… boom… boom…

Tenthé lay awake in his pile of blankets, pondering his options, which were narrowing. He was running out of classes to take.

As usual, Bear was not helping. “I suppose you could try basket weaving,” he was saying. “And, of course, it’ll be less than a day before they kick you out of that, too. I don’t have a clue how you’ll do it, but you’ll figure out a way. You have a gift.”

Boom… boom… boom…

“My Gods, I have to give that woman credit! How long has she been going? Twenty minutes at least,” Bear complained.

At that moment, both of them spun to look at the window as the shutter was pulled back. A foot in a black boot stepped in, followed by someone in a Magister’s robe who turned to face them.

“Ah. There you are,” she said, “I think I was looking for you. Wasn’t I?”

She looked around. “Oh, this is very cozy, I quite like it.”

Boom… boom… boom…

“Although, I can’t say I share your taste in music. Do you mind?”

She sat in a chair that Tenthé didn’t have and started drinking a cup of steaming tea.

“I’m Magister Grenville. We’ve met. You’ve been negligent, missing two of my classes. How is this all going to turn out okay if you don’t make it to my class?”

She took a sip of her tea and a bite from a cookie, which she put down on a plate sitting on the small table next to her chair.

Tenthé and Bear looked at each other. Neither of them had seen any of these things appear. They were just there.

“Um... I, uh, we… we’ll be sure to be there today,” Tenthé blurted out. “Sorry ma’am, we didn’t mean to miss your class.”

“Oh, I know, but please make an effort. We don’t want to put this off for too much longer.”

With this, the Magister placed her teacup on the little table and stood, brushing some crumbs from her robe.

Looking around, she asked, “How do I get out of here?”

Both Tenthé and Bear turned to point at the ladder, then looked back at the Magister. She was gone, but the chair and table with everything on it remained.

A short time later, Tenthé opened the door to his room, revealing a glaring Elishua.

He held out a plate. “Want a cookie?”

After a pause, she grabbed one and took a bite, all the while scowling at him. Her expression turned to surprise, and she looked down at the cookie, then back to him.

“Mmm… They are good! Where’d you get them?”

“Magister Grenville.”

Munching on cookies, Tenthé followed Elishua to Tomas’ office, then, unexpectedly, continued past, delving deeper into the Magister’s realm. Passing through an impressive archway etched with glyphs, they entered a large chamber packed with seated Magisters eating breakfast. Obviously, this was their dining room. After giving him a moment to look around, Elishua guided Tenthé to a table near the front, where Tomas and the other senior Magisters sat. Tomas motioned that he take a chair next to his, while Elishua retired to sit somewhere in the back.

“Young man,” Tomas started. “It has been decided. If you eat breakfast here, then we feel there’s a good chance to maintain some continuity in the relationship between you and us.”

“Uh…”

“That means everyone’s more likely to remember you.”

“Oh.”

Across the room, he could see Mme. Destine arguing with someone, and in another, Magister Maguinis ate quietly with a few other hard-faced Magisters. They seemed to have forgotten the run-ins with him, which he suspected might be for the better.

Enough. He was hungry. Since there wasn’t a buffet, he was about to ask where the food was when a plate of toast, some juice, and a bowl of gruel materialized in front of him, along with some cutlery. He dug in. Like Magister, uh, he didn’t know his last name… the Magister for the old gods, had said, what was served to the students was better, but still, there was no comparison between this and what he’d had to eat before he came to the College.

As he finished, a side plate of bacon appeared beside his bowl. He took a strip and bit into it. This made up for everything else! In the student’s dining room, it was hard to get bacon before it was snatched up by whoever was closest.

While Tenthé was busy chowing down, Magister Tomas stood up and ahem-ed a few times until the noise died down.

“Good morning, my fellow Magisters. Today, I have asked this student, Tenthé, to join us. I have mentioned him before. Some of you may remember, but he is under a curse and we are trying a new approach to deal with it.

“This curse is very complex, but the gist of it is that without regular contact, you’ll forget that he exists. The issue is further compounded because, at the same time, you lose all interest in anything you have written about him. So much so that you will regard the notes as nothing more than garbage and destroy them.

“I, myself, have forgotten him at least once. Currently, how we compensate is to have under-Magister Elishua and the Envoy dog his footsteps and force me to remember.

“As you can guess, this approach is fairly impractical. We are working on better methods, but in the meantime, I have asked him to attend our breakfast to ameliorate the issue. This is only a temporary solution, in that holidays, or a few days’ absence, will break the cycle and we’ll have to start all over again.

“If anyone has any suggestions, they would be appreciated. Not now! Speak to me later.”

As the sudden hubbub died down, he continued. “Why are we going through all of this, you ask? The finding of the eighth sword of the Drachnaa circle, the maiden’s documents, and the discovery of the Temple of the Lost Gods were directly connected to the efforts of this boy. There are a few other, um… cases, which I shall leave unmentioned, but we think it is worth our while to break this curse.

“I’ll be talking with the Magisters for the classes Tenthé is scheduled to take. As you see, he is very young, which raises several issues, but please be patient while we sort them out.”

Magister Tomas bent down and whispered, “Show them Bear.”

Tenthé pulled the toy out and set it down before him. A mumbling rose, which became gasps as Bear stood up, took one look at everyone watching, then started stretching and posing. Tenthé noted that this “stretching” seemed to include a lot of toe touches while facing away from the audience.

“And, this is Bear.” Tomas declared. “He’s an odd creature, but as far as we have been able to determine, is the guiding spirit for the boy. To be honest, he is as crude as all Hells, but that may be part of the curse, as well.”

At this point he paused, then concluded with, “Thank you for your time. Please bear with us as we work on the solution. Um… no pun intended.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

With that, the Magister on the other side of Tomas stood up to present a few general announcements.

Tenthé had not really been paying attention. He’d found the bacon was continuously refreshing and had been stashing away as much as he could, both internally and in Pockets.

“Why don’t you just grab the plate, idiot!” Bear stage whispered.

“Didn’t think of that. What if it stops?”

“Hey, we’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Oh, yeah.”

Tenthé dropped the plate in a Pocket when he thought nobody was looking. Tomas leaned over. “Everyone does that,” he said quietly. “The plates keep working, even if you, uh… happen to take one of them with you.”

Across the room, Tenthé could see Elishua get up and stand by the door, signaling it was time that he headed to his first class of the day. This one was supposed to have been Combat, but now, he wasn’t sure. He grabbed Bear while he was in mid-moon, slipped out of his chair, and made his way to Elishua. She stepped into the hallway and stopped.

“We’ve decided to put you in History. It should be relatively safe. A lot of memorization, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for you. There’s also a great deal of reading, so we’ve added library periods to your schedule, which should provide enough time for Bear to dictate the assignments to you.

“We’re still looking into a class that will give you some exercise. You’ll need something or you’ll balloon up if you insist on eating the way you do. Tonight, look through the calendar, and see what you might like to take.”

That was a new concept for Tenthé. Up ‘til now, gaining weight hadn’t ever been a problem. Much the opposite.

As Elishua started striding down the hall, Tenthé jogged to keep up. Once they arrived at a classroom, Elishua stopped him as he was about to enter.

“Try to behave! At least, stick it out for a few classes before you cause any problems. My guess is that most of what is taught here will be new to you. I’m going to have to trust you for the moment because I have some things to do, but I’ll check on your, uh… progress. Do you promise to be good?”

Tenthé didn’t really understand. He was always good. It wasn’t his fault if the Magisters had no clue.

“Okay.” He agreed, after squirming a bit.

Elishua watched him go. In spite of the aggravation, she was starting to like the little guy. There was an innocence about him.

The work she had mentioned was to interview a person the investigators had found. There was an outside chance he was Tenthé’s father, but, same as everything else with Tenthé, it was complicated. She hurried off.

Tenthé stood in the back. Usually, he’d sit next to someone he knew, or, if that wasn’t an option, anywhere left open. Maybe there was some way to pick a “best” seat? He observed the room, seeing the cliques and loners, judging where the Magister would look, and any other thing he could come up with. This sort of situational awareness had been hammered into him in a lot of his training. Sometimes literally.

He decided that somewhere close to halfway down the tiers and toward the end of the row would keep him out of the direct line of the Magister’s gaze. He took his chosen seat, noting that since he was relatively short, he was hidden behind the taller students in front of him. Around him, no-one appeared excited to be here; in fact, the majority were arranging their chairs and cloaks to make snoozing more comfortable. A few had already dozed off.

He decided that bringing out Bear would be somewhat of a distraction, so the toy would have to use the third eye to remain unnoticed.

The clock glyph pulsed, there was a melodious “bong”, the doors closed, and the Magister strode to the dais.

“Hello,” she said. “I’m Magister Baeuerin, and this is History. “History” is an ambiguous term. It, in itself, gives little indication of what we are going to cover, but I shall remedy that shortfall.

“First and foremost, we shall delve into the history of our fine home, the City Proper. Many of you will be confused and embarrassed by what I am about to present. You’ve learned your own family histories and I can assure you they are, for the most part… completely fictitious.

She continued lecturing. “The City started as a haven for robbers. The story of them being defeated by the Hero Antisthenes is just that, a story. Additionally, if the documents we have aren’t complete fiction, they tell that he died childless, so it is extremely unlikely that any of you are direct descendants.”

The Magister’s abrasive manner seemed to have roused many of the students. An angry mumbling rumbled through the class and a few attention glyphs lit up.

“Hey, this might not be the snoozer I’d expected,” Bear opined.

“Yeah, the Magister seems to have annoyed a few people.”

Magister Baeuerin made some passes, and the glyphs were extinguished while a spell muffled the class.

Forcefully, she explained, “I deal with facts! I shall present research to back up my presentations, and, to date, no family history has held up very well. Feel free to dispute the results, but be prepared to learn that your umpteenth ancestor grunted, farted, and belched while stealing women and keeping slaves.

“And, I am going to set you some homework.”

At this, there was a general groan from the class. No matter how badly their honor had been besmirched, homework was the ultimate indignity.

“I want every one of you to gather together your family history, plus any other evidence you can dredge up, and we will discover how it stands up to a thorough examination.”

Tenthé pushed his attention glyph. It seemed to work. Maybe the Magister had simply silenced the complainers.

“Yes?” asked the Magister, “I’m sorry, I can’t see you very well.”

Tenthé stood. Not that it helped significantly.

“Oh, there you are. At least I can make out a bit of your hair. You’re Tenthé, aren’t you? I recall you from this morning.”

“Yes, ma’am. I want to ask: what if you don’t have a family?”

A titter ran through the class. To these wealthy scions, family was everything.

“We have a way to deal with that. I’ll bring an apparatus that looks at the foundation of your magic to reveal your ancestors. Although, that brings up a good point. I insist that anyone who wants to dispute my version of their history take this test. It helps me improve my data and will reveal if you really are who you think you are.”

Tenthé sat down, then stood again. “Excuse me, do you use alchemy? I have a problem, uh… I make it blow up. The Magister for Alchemy said I shouldn’t have anything to do with alchemy. He didn’t understand how I can explode things like I do.”

Magister Baeuerin laughed. “Well, that’s a new one! It’s wise of you to have brought it up. Yes, the common technique does come from Alchemy, but there’s an older method based in Nature Physics, which we can use. I suppose that means I’ll have to find a goat. You aren’t allergic to goats, are you?”

“No. Don’t think so.”

“Good! Then, any other questions?”

Another glyph lit up.

A student in the back of the room stood. “Um, ma’am, what happens if we discover that one of our parents, uh… isn’t our parent? You know, just asking.”

“Oh, this has happened a lot more than you would expect. We may find your parent, grandparent and so on, aren’t really yours. These results take a bit of time to process, and in the case of an issue like that, I will contact you and we can discuss what we should do. I have taken an Oath on the Honor of the College to keep my silence in these matters, else I wouldn’t be here. I’m sure I’d be the victim of an “unfortunate accident”.

“This class is more intended to look into ancient history. Not the scandals of today, but I have found if we don’t deal with the balderdash of family histories, we get bogged down. Once we have this cleared up, we will dig into the true history of the City, including disagreements with other cities and the incursions of the Horde.

“I strongly advise you to stick around to learn what I will present. If the past is any indication, we are approaching the time for another visit by the Horde and the more you understand, the better off you’ll be. If I might get ahead of myself: we view the Horde as a mob of unwashed barbarians, but that is doing them an injustice. Each occasion, they appear with a completely new method to assault the city, and I’m sure you know that the current situation with our Dreamer makes us particularly vulnerable.

“Those of you in Tactics will receive a much more detailed analysis of the Horde and its methods. My course is a general overview. Tactics looks at the specifics of what was done, what could have been done, and what we should do for the next incursion. It is no accident that these two courses complement each other.”

The Magister spent the rest of the time outlining what information everyone should gather, but none of this was applicable to Tenthé. He was excited, though. Maybe Magister Baeuerin would be able to tell him where he came from!

Joining the others as they exited, Tenthé found the Envoy waiting outside in the hallway.

“What, no fires, screaming, or magic being tossed around? Are you losing your touch?” she asked.

“That was a good class. I might find out about my family!”

“Well… perhaps. From what Elishua told me, most of the humans at the College have been through Magister Baeuerin’s process, but it’s geared to the big families here in the City. Once you get out into the farms, the information is less complete.

“I’m not sure about you. I have been informed that the school’s never had an orphan from the streets before. But, most likely, there’ll be something. Just don’t expect all your questions to be answered.”

Bear poked his head out, “Atta go, kitty! Stomp the boy’s hopes into the mud and piss on them.”

“It’s better to deal with what is, than with what isn’t.” she shot back.

Before Bear could come up with some pithy rejoinder, Tenthé stuffed him into his cloak.

“What’s my next class?” he asked the Trachteur.

“A library break, then you have lunch. I’ll show you how everything works.”

“Joy,” Bear whined. “Going to the library with a kid who can’t read. Probably we’ll find some picture book about a cat having a birthday party and you’ll want me to read it to you a million times.”

“Picture book? What’s a picture book?”

“Oh, crap! Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

Now Tenthé wanted to learn even more about this thing, a picture book.