The hallway seems to go on forever before I finally reach the group of students in front of a door made of what looks like oak.

“Excuse me, but is this where they test to see if you can do magic?”

A short girl with long brown hair and wearing a fancy white dress turns around. “Why yes, it is.” She looks me up and down. “But from the way you dress I am sure you will surely fail. Don’t you know magic power avoids those without money. I don’t even think you can afford tuition here even if you do have magic power.”

I am shocked at the rudeness that is coming out of her mouth. I then look down at my clothes. “Tha… that…. Money has nothing to do with magic ability, my mom can do magic!”

“Oh really now? You shouldn’t lie like that; you should go ahead and leave before you get embarrassed.”

At these words my ears shift in a mixture of anger and hate for this human, peeking out of my hair.

“Oh my, this one is an elf!” The girl says. “Shouldn’t you be living in trees with the rest of your primitive kind?”

“Next please!” I hear coming from the door.

“Primitive kind?!” I pull back my fist about to swing and punch her in her stupid face, but I am stopped by someone large gripping my wrist.

“Elizabeth, is it not your turn to go inside and get your mana checked?”

I look up to see a large muscular human with short black hair, in full metal armor. He then looks down and smiles.

“And you little elf, should watch where your fists go, if you aren’t careful they will go to a place that you can’t come back from.”

I yank my hand back from the man as I watch him lead this Elizabeth woman through the door.

“Thank you Knight Siegfried, I needed to get away from this… primitive woman.”

My ears stand strait up and my face turns red in anger. “That human…. Elizabeth…. I … I..” I then slump down and start to cry. The various people around me start to gain some distance from me trying to avoid the uncomfortable situation.

“Beautiful elf girls shouldn’t be crying like that.”

I turn around, my vision blurry due to the tears but I can make out the beast man Shortclaw smiling dumbly. I quickly wipe away the tears trying to pretend I wasn’t crying.

“What are you doing here? Are you here to test your magic out too?”

“No” Shortclaw shifts around nervously. “The warrior tests are being delayed for a bit, apparently, something happened in the arena so all the people who haven’t done their entrance test have to wait an hour or so. Sooo…. I decided to come and see how your test is going. But from the fact that you are crying I guess it didn’t go so well?”

I shake my head my ears flatting down onto my head. “No…. just a human… being mean.”

Shortclaw’s fur stands on end. “WHAT IS THIS HUMAN’S NAME, I WILL KILL ANYONE WHO HURTS MY FRIEND!”

I raise my hands trying to get Shortclaw to calm down as the humans all start to cower in a corner. “No no no, Shortclaw stop! She is someone I have to take care of.”

Shortclaw freezes when hearing her words. “Oh… she… ummm…. Okay, but if you need any help, any help at all don’t hesitate to ask… we are friends.”

I smile at Shortclaw, the last of the tears seeming to disappear as he says friends. “Thank you Shortclaw, but if you want… I won’t say no to you staying here and talking to me while I wait for my turn to take the test.”

Shortclaw blushes again and looks down at his feet, the claws on his toes tapping the floor nervously. “I… I guess I can do that.”

Shortclaw and I talk more, we talk about our pasts and our family. I learn that his family have served in the local military for many generations. And how his older sister recently became an earth archmagi, his chest swelling with pride as he goes into detail how powerful she was. Then I told him about my family and how we lived near the cursed mountain. Shock filled his face as he explained that no normal people would go to it usually, but apparently recently there is a rumor going around that godlike weapons were stashed there during the war of the sundering.

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“Next!” I hear coming from the now open doorway. I look up to see no one in front of me, the people behind me looking annoyed due to I am not hurrying. “Looks like it’s my turn.”

Shortclaw nods. “Good luck!”

“Thank you.” I turn away from him and walk through the door, when I enter the door closes behind me. I am now in a large circular room with a large crystal, bigger than me by several feet sitting in the middle. Around it is several robed people. Behind them is two small wood doors.

The person in front of the crystal raises their hood. “Welcome, one who seeks magic! My name is Amy, I am the head magi teacher here at Flemmington. Before we start I must ask, what is your name?”

“Astrid… Astrid Thorn.”

Amy pulls out a large book and hums. “Oh here we are… Astrid… Thorn… 16… Elf… Ooooooo I haven’t had one of those in, five years? I am kind of excited now. Okay Astrid, have you ever tested for magic potency before?”

“No... that is why I was told to test it here.”

Amy chuckles then smiles. “Good, now come up to the crystal and I want you to put both of your hands on it and imagine mentally you are pushing it.”

I follow Amy’s instructions, placing my hands on the crystal and mentally envisioning I am pushing the crystal. After a few minutes the crystal starts to shine an emerald green.

“Hohoho… She does have an aptitude for magic, from the looks of it your base element is Nature magic. Pretty standard for an elf but still you have the aptitude.” She pulls her book back out again and writes down something.

I let go of the crystal and jump up and down giddily. “I can be a mage then?”

Amy closes her book and points at the door to the right. “Depends… that is only step one. The second step is to go through that door for the second test.”

I quickly go through the right door, heading down the hall to the next test, still excited to know that I have the aptitude.

“We have a lively group of children this year don’t we Amy.”

Amy turns around looking at the hooded man behind her. “That we do Steven, that we do. Now call in the next one it’s almost dinnertime.”

After a minute of walking I finally get to the next room. “How big is this campus?” I say as I walk in, seeing a large stadium sized room full of beds. The walls, roof and flooring seem to be made from a jet-black stone that seemed to sparkle in the light.

Another person in a heavy black hooded robe appears beside me like magic.

“Another one passed? We seem to have a big class this year. Go ahead and pick a bed and sit in it while we wait for the last of the people to get here.”

He points at a cluster of empty beds; I nervously go over to one and sit down. I take this time to scan the room, seeing a bunch of unfamiliar faces, and one I wish I didn’t know. Elizabeth was at the other side of the room sitting in a bed, her white dress hiding most of her body as she stared at me in shock. I grin upon seeing her face. I wave at her and yell across the room.

“Thank you Elizabeth, you just made my day so much better!”

After I get done yelling to Elizabeth the person in the heavy black hooded robe appears beside me again.

“Miss, I would prefer if you do not yell to your friends across the room, if you wish to talk you can choose a bed beside her.”

I nearly jump out of my skin when they appear.

“Oh shi… I mean no no no I am sorry I will be quiet.”

“Thank you, now what seems to be the last person is about to be coming through the door, we will be starting soon.”

The hooded robe person disappears before my eyes and reappears beside the dwarf that just came through the door. I get conflicted feelings of fear and fascination as I watch the dwarf fall, getting scared by the person. “Magic is amazing.” I think as he picks up and escorts the dwarf to a bed.

The hooded robe person then seems to teleport again into the center of the room. “Okay now that all of you are here we can get started. My name is Sheckith, I am a wraith, to be exact the beautiful Amy’s familiar, and I am a wraith.”

Voices erupt around the room.

“Silence! I am not a wild wraith and I am highly intelligent, from the looks of you all, a lot more intelligent than any of you.”

At this the voices only get louder in protest.

“We will not be treated like that, specially by a mere….”

“SILENCE!” Sheckith glows a bright red when he yells. “Anyone who speaks from here on out will automatically fail no matter who you are.”

After this everyone shuts up.

“Good… Now step two to see if you can become a magi, is… getting a familiar! Yayyyyy!” The wraith raises the sleeves on his robes in a sarcastically excited way. “Now to do that is very simple, even you mouth breathers can do it. All you must do is lay down in the bed, I will cast a spell on you all and your soul will be projected from your body to the area where a creature with a similar soul wavelength lives. You will then have five hours to befriend the creature if you don’t do it in five hours you will be put back into your body and you will automatically fail.”

“But isn’t that dangerous, is there a chance I will die?!” A young human boy with dirty blonde hair says, fear in his eyes.

Sheckith sighs and facepalms. “You… yes you little kid who just talked, out, shoo.”

The boy looks around confused. “What?”

Sheckith appears in front of him. “You failed already, you are that bad at being a mage, now get out.”

The boy tries to say something back but Sheckith puts a bony finger on the boy’s lips. “Shhhhhhhhhhh… shhhhhhhhh.”

The boy’s eyes seem to roll back inside his head as he collapses on the bed and Sheckith carries him to a door, he then drops him on the floor and rolls him through the door. “Can someone get housekeeping here? I think he peed himself.” Then he closes the door. “Okay now anyone else want to talk while I am trying to do my stuff, I don’t have all day to deal with you people.”

The entire room shakes their head agreeing in unison.

“Good good, because I swear to Gaia if Amy eats my dinner due to you children taking forever I am going to personally haunt you all. Okay now everyone lay down its time to hurry and get this done and over with.”

I lay down on the bed and close my eyes, a little scared but also excited. I then start to hear Sheckith again, he seems to be singing a lullaby but I don’t have enough time to hear much due to shortly after I hear it I seem to fall into a deep sleep.