Olly Briggs

The aptitude test was finally upon him, everything he had worked for all came down to this moment. Olly nervously scanned the auditorium, finding similar anxieties reflected back at him in his competitors' faces. This did not calm his nerves. There were perhaps five hundred or so people around his age, or slightly older, present, all awaiting the start of the test, all looking anxious.

They were in the largest auditorium in Occaigh, where the aptitude test always took place. It was located in the second borough, which was known for its performing arts and education. As Olly took in the grandeur of the auditorium, noting its very old-world feel with its gilding and red velvet splendour, he wondered what the Academy looked like. The Elite Academy of Advanced Principles wasn’t in Occaigh, it was in Donnol, so Olly wondered if it was even more impressive.

He had recently researched some of the other academies in the area. Occaigh had its fair share of professional academies, and he wanted to have a back-up career in case the acceptance of the Cartographers', or one of the other magical Guilds, didn’t pan out. He had learned that many of them did use aptitude testing scores as well, and that was why Occaigh liked to be at the epicentre of the testing process. It was a smart strategy. It kept Occaigh competitive with a large population of professional designations by pooling talent.

The Guild's headquarters were also spread out, each claiming a major city for themselves, so Occaigh needed to maintain some competitiveness. The Cartographers belonged to Bilson; the Conductors to Donnol; the Controllers to Aspir; and the Labourers to Ghaburm. He similarly wondered if they each had a specific style.

The distracting thoughts were welcome, but he came back to reality as he locked eyes with another candidate who looked to be near tears. On average, only about one hundred candidates were selected through the aptitude test to enter the Academy, between all four magical Guilds. Not everyone with magical ability scored high enough to pass the benchmark, and not everyone who scored higher than the benchmark had magical ability. Everyone only got one chance to succeed. The selections wouldn’t actually come out for another week, after the exams were graded, so there would still be a painful waiting period. Even with that, Olly just wanted the test itself to be over. Either he passed or he didn’t, but once he walked out of these doors at the end of the test it would be firmly outside his control. He could live with that after the last four months of cramming and worrying.

Besides, these were steep odds, and he didn’t like betting on underdogs.

As if sensing his restlessness, Eli rested his hand on Olly’s shoulder; Olly was grateful for the comfort. He felt like he had to suppress a shiver from a perceived chill in the air. The nervous energy was getting to him, and try as he might, he couldn’t shake it.

Suddenly, a poshly dressed man took the podium at the front of the room and a hush fell over the crowd. He was tall and clean shaven with sandy hair that was greying at the temples. He wore a brown tweed suit, with a pocket watch tucked into his inner vest pocket.

“Good evening candidates, parents, guardians and esteemed guests. Please allow me the honour and privilege of welcoming you all here today to the Elite Academy of Higher Principles’ aptitude test. This is truly the most exciting day of the year, when we are able to witness firsthand the beginnings of our newest candidates. My name is Franklin Byrne, Grandmaster of the Cartographers’ Guild and headmaster of the Academy for this academic year. Together with my colleagues Abigail Garcia, Alzira Silves and Oleg Shevchuk, we are thrilled to see this year’s cohort, of which we intend to select the best and brightest,” he explained, conveying an air of haughtiness.

Eli leaned in close to his left ear. “Don’t let it get to you,” he muttered.

Olly knew what he meant, he was already intimidated by Franklin’s apparent esteem of the potential Academy candidates. Or was it the inherent disdain for those who would not qualify? He couldn’t tell, yet.

Tarry Bennett took the stage next to address the crowd.

“While we will begin shortly, I would always like to remind each and every candidate that the results imparted here today do not reflect your value as a person or as a member of this society. These are ancient systems that play a valuable role in our society, but they are not the only means of contribution. Not everyone will display a magical aptitude, and that is by no means a character flaw. Everyone here today has an equal opportunity to play a fundamental role in our society, and just by virtue of attending this aptitude test you will have already caught the attention of other, equally important non-magical Guilds. I urge you to take your results lightly and to not presume to bear the weight of failure where there is none.”

Olly appreciated his words, and he swore he saw a hint of discontent spread across Franklin’s face. The disagreement between the two men was palpable. This did not endear him further to the Cartographers’ Guild; their track record was not good. So far, of the three Cartographers he had encountered, only one, Delilah, was in his good books.

After Tarry wished them good luck, he exited the stage and the head proctor addressed the crowd. “The test will begin in 15 minutes. You will go to your assigned hall and find your assigned seat. The examination paper is face down on the desk and you may only flip it once the proctor in your room gives permission to do so. Anyone caught prematurely looking at the paper will be escorted out and their exam will be destroyed. Anyone caught cheating will similarly be escorted out with their exam destroyed. Once the written component is over you will proceed to the back of the room where you will be led by a proctor in small groups to take the magic sensitivity test. Once you have completed that assessment, your aptitude test will be complete and you may leave. As of right now, your fifteen minute warning has begun, please make your way to your assigned room.”

Olly turned to Eli, feeling ill. The other candidates were similarly conversing with their accompanying guardians.

“Hey, good luck kid, you’ll do fine. You’ve worked hard for this,” Eli said confidently.

Not for the first time, Olly wished he had his uncle’s confidence. “Thanks,” he mumbled.

Eli clapped him on the shoulders and turned him around, pointing him in the direction of his room.

With a deep breath, Olly made his way to the correct room, and found his seat as quickly as possible. There were about fifty chairs in the room, so he determined that there were ten other examination rooms. It was interesting how split up they were, and this was different from how Delilah had described it to him. She had said that they all wrote the test in the main auditorium together, not in smaller chambers. He clasped his hands on the desk in front of him, trying to control the tremble in them. He chanced a glance around him, taking in the competition around him. There was a very proper looking boy to his diagonal left taking a seat. He was wearing what looked like a crisp private school uniform and seemed to be looking around disdainfully.

Olly avoided his eyes as they swept towards him, feeling cowardly about it as he did so, but he didn’t need any additional negative feelings thrown his way. There was a girl seated to his immediate right that he made eye contact with in the process. She gave him a friendly wave and he couldn’t help but wave back, feeling slightly uplifted.

“I’m Sarah,” she offered, unprompted.

“Olly,” he responded, trying not to give away his nerves.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Nice to meet you Olly. Is that short for something?” she asked in a way that suggested familiarity.

He paused. “It might be, not sure actually,” he admitted. He wasn’t sure why he felt comfortable sharing this with her but there was something about her that made him open up.

She cocked her head and smiled in a way that suggested she was amused, but he didn’t get the sense that it was at his expense. He found himself smiling in spite of the impending test.

A proctor stood up at the front of the room. “Your examination will commence in sixty seconds, please remain silent until that point. When the clock counts down to zero you may flip over your test booklet. Anyone caught turning it over even a second too soon will be promptly removed. You have been warned.”

“Good luck Olly,” she whispered.

He was too jarred by the cold announcement to respond properly, and could only manage a garbled, incoherent noise. Before he could properly process the passage of time, the clock reached zero. The sound of hundreds of papers flipping broke him out of his reverie and he scrambled to open his booklet.

The aptitude test had begun, there was no turning back now.

He forced himself to concentrate, remembering the lessons Delilah had gone through with him. The test seemed suspiciously short compared to some of the practice exams they had worked through together; there were far fewer pages.

He decided to take a look through the whole test before fully committing to answering them, as Delilah had taught him. The first couple pages of questions were pattern-based math problems, followed by a section of critical analysis of written passages with multiple choice questions. There seemed to be five short essays after the multiple choice. Very peculiar. She had taught him to expect one or two, but that the test would largely be structured with multiple choice.

He wondered if she had led him astray, but from his peripherary he could see others hurriedly flipping through the booklet. Perhaps they had been all caught off guard.

In either case, he began his multiple choice in earnest. He always felt his scores with math questions were sub-par, and these ones were no different. He could handle critical reasoning most of the time and felt that was the area where his scores had improved the most through tutoring.

Some of the passages were fine, most were difficult. They were intended to make people display reason; there was one passage to read with four multiple choice responses, which all sounded like true answers at first glance. However, one was more correct compared to the others. Sometimes it took narrowing it down to two answers and guessing. It wasn’t a perfect method but it left him with a fifty percent chance of getting the right answer.

Any ones he got stuck on he circled to come back to afterwards. One in particular left his mind spinning.

The people of Flexibilis are raised with a sentimental attachment to the tunnel system. They can hardly be blamed for taking the tunnel system for granted when it is a mainstay within the world. However, despite the fanciful notion of tunnels leading to widespread passivity, when the risk to free passage is presented, people respond in an uproarious fashion.

The triumph of tunnels rendered old hardships obsolete, such that the current population cannot comprehend true hardship. Therefore perceived threats to the status quo awaken a disproportionately large negative response amongst contrarian members of the population.

The idea of tunnels and the tunnels themselves are not equal. Tunnels provide an equalizing force that not only permits, but encourages, widespread opportunities for advancement and profit, both individually and as a society. However, the idea of tunnels can provide a dangerous battleground for untrained minds. Therefore, the open access nature of tunnels should be carefully considered to ensure that their use does not lead to their downfall.

Which answer regarding the use of tunnels is most correct according to the passage’s interpretation:

a) Sentimental attachment to tunnels will lead to their downfall.

b) If contrarian members of society are providing a large negative response, it is only in response to a threatened the status quo.

c) If society poses a threat to tunnels, then the right to access tunnels may be reconsidered.

d) The tunnel system’s triumph over past hardship necessitates that tunnels should remain open access.

He frowned. This topic was oddly on the nose. In practice, the passages had been far less focused on real world issues. He considered the answers carefully. He crossed out a) immediately, determining that it was a stretch. The answer provided in b) wasn’t quite true either. Just because the passage was claiming that perceived threats awaken a negative response within contrarian members of society, it did not mean the opposite relationship was true. He crossed it out, less sure this time.

That left c) or d). Both were considering the same concept just in opposing viewpoints, either that tunnels should remain open access, or control should be tightened. He re-read the passage again. If the idea could be dangerous, and society could control that idea, then the right to access could be at risk; c) was the answer. The passage did tout the benefits of tunnels but did not make promises regarding maintaining those benefits, therefore d) was out.

He exhaled heavily. It felt wrong. Surely the Guilds, the very people charged with creating tunnels and maintaining tunnel access, would not mean to imply that regular tunnels should be closed off because people took them for granted. It certainly didn’t make sense to be on their exam, unless it was a trick question, and yet he couldn’t determine a better, answer, so he left it as c).

The other questions were challenging but he finally made it through to the short essays. They were basically scenarios that had ethical concerns or obligations to be identified. A series of “what would you do if” types of questions.

The first one was fairly straightforward, almost out of a practice exam. “What would you do if you caught someone stealing food to give to the less fortunate?” He wrote that entering a morally grey area in the name of performing a good deed did not grant moral superiority. He instead suggested alternative options such as offering them other, more sustainable, and legal, options to provide the necessary support. He didn’t spend much time on it, knowing he hit most of the points.

The next question gave him pause again; it another on the nose type of question. “What would you do if approached by the press regarding a natural disaster that recently took place at your work site?”

He ran through the steps in his head. Usually having honest conversations and referring people to the right resources were steps in the right answers. But this one he wasn’t sure about. His uncle had never enforced an “always tell the truth” type of environment, because the truth could be tricky. The truth could sometimes get you into more trouble, when instead staying silent, or in some cases, lying, could save your skin. Again, he didn’t believe this to be the right answer and surely felt like he would flunk, but following the “correct” formula felt too off here.

He decided to answer opposite to how he might normally respond, despite it leaving an icky feeling in his gut. He wrote in his answer; he shouldn’t speak to the press, and he should confirm with his supervisor, or at least, the current protocol in place, regarding information sharing. He even went a step further and suggested that there may be restrictions for press access that should also be confirmed, and if there were concerns with their presence they should be asked to leave.

Olly sighed heavily as he finished the question and checked the clock, panic rising as he realized he only had thirty minutes to complete the remaining three essays. Two and a half hours had gone by in a flash. Nobody had left yet and everyone seemed to be scrambling.

He was even less pleased with the quality of his remaining essays but when the buzzer went off he dropped his pen and flipped his booklet back over, immediately feeling a weight lifting from his shoulders. It was done. He never had to write an aptitude test again.

The proctors were swift in collecting booklets, and if anyone was caught writing after the buzzer their exam was marked with a red ‘X’. Olly was shocked at the audacity, but suspected desperation was at play. Surely they knew it wasn’t worth trying? However, that one mistake had cost at least a few people in the room their only shot at the academy.

The proctor took the microphone once more. “That concludes the written component of the aptitude test. You will now proceed to the magical testing room in a single file.”

However, as the proctor went to open the doors, a rumble was heard through the hall. Olly could feel it under his feet and gasps and screams seemed to break out around him. He immediately went into survival mode and searched around for an exit. Before anyone could react, the ground around them seemed to be upheaved.

Finally, the lights went out, shrouding them in absolute darkness, screams of terror ringing around him as he felt the ground give out underneath him.