Madam Quince arrived as the sun fell through Nick’s window. He sighed as he got

ready for the day. He checked his sphere of influence and noted the soft dashes of

magic already in use around his mental map.

He supposed that the teachers were getting ready for the day, or were already running

tests on the other kids.

He briefly wondered how his dormmates would do in their testing.

His mind turned to Crow for a moment as he checked to see he was put together. She

was already downstairs.

What could she do?

She was the only one of them that showed no sign of any affinity. Either she wasn’t

an elementalist like him, or her magic touched her in ways he wasn’t sure of.

Knowing that she knew how the market worked confirmed she could gather

knowledge in ways that no one else could.

And it meant that she might be right, and a Lord of Death was already on the grounds

and looking for whatever they wanted.

What did he want to do about that?

If he wanted to protect the other orphans until they could protect themselves, and by

extension, his new acquaintances, he would have to keep his temper under control

and not do anything to get thrown out without his magic. That meant being nicer to

Granny Bitter to start.

He didn’t know if he could be that under control.

“All right, children,” said Madam Quince as she looked over her gathered charges.

“We’re going over to the hall to have breakfast. From there, we will go over to the

assessment hall so we can see what you can do. Then we will tour the building, and

make sure you have your schedules for your classes. School books and uniforms will

be provided. Then we will have lunch. The afternoon until the dinner bell will be

yours, as will the time after the dinner bell.”

“Classes?,” asked Calliope.

“They will start the day after tomorrow,” said Madam Quince. “The headmaster

wanted you to have a few days ahead of the returning classes to get used to things.”

“Are you sure you want us moving through the school?,” asked Nick. “Only Will and

the brothers seem able to do things here.”

“Shut up you,” said Calliope.

“The Academy stands to help people with magic,” said Madam Quince. “Just because

your magic seems strange, doesn’t mean we haven’t seen a variant of it before. We

have been teaching a long time.”

“So you’ve seen something like what I can do before?,” asked Nick.

“Not yours specifically,” said Madam Quince. “But we have seen runic structure

building, faulty magical expressions, and some knowledge gathering things in the

past. I will have to see what I can do for you after your assessment.”

“Thanks,” said Nick. He looked at his inner checker. He had one thunder cracker,

forty charges, and one thousand spirit gold to spend. His sphere of influence still

tracked the soft pushes for magic across what it could reach of the school.

“I think we should be going,” said Madam Quince. She gestured for the kids to fall

in line behind her.

“My assessment is going to be short,” said Nick as he walked beside Crow.

“Mine too,” said Crow. “My ability is very limited.”

“So we’re thinking Will and the brothers should be the stand outs in the class?,”

asked Nick.

“Among us,” said Crow. “But not among their own specializations of fire and water

mages.”

“I only have one trick without being able to gather power,” said Nick. “If another

monster shows up, I hope it’s small like goblins.”

“We should see something else,” said Crow. “They don’t know how soon. Monsters

are usually afraid of invading a space controlled by magicians.”

“What can you do?,” asked Nick.

“I talk to things,” said Crow. She smiled at his expression. “It’s not something with

a lot of viability against traditional magicians, but it is just enough that I could use

it to be a hedge witch unless I lose my ability.”

“So neither one of us belong here,” said Nick.

“Steve is also in the wrong place,” said Crow. “If all he can do is memorize a set

number of spells, it would behoove the Academy to train him on the most powerful

spells they have and hope he doesn’t go mad with power.”

“I can see that,” said Nick. “He could build something like the airships we rode in on

with minimal effort as long as he can use the spell.”

“Exactly,” said Crow. “Then we can use that to fly around and help the helpless.”

“I never thought of that,” said Nick. He hid his eye roll behind his hand.

Crow smiled.

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They walked at the back of the group, away from their teacher and their fellow

misfits. They could see groups from other buildings heading into the main building

in front of them. They would be sitting at the back of the room again.

The kids walked into the hall. Madam Quince directed them to their table from

last night. Nick took his spot at the end, looking around. The students milled around

as they found places to sit with new or old friends. He spotted Bradley first. The

bigger boy looked lost before finding a place to sit.

He got up and walked over to Bradley’s table. The other orphan smiled when he

saw his testier friend in the aisle.

“Nick?,” said Bradley. “It’s good to see you. Where are you sitting?”

“With the misfits in the back,” said Nick. He indicated his table with a thumb.

“How’s things going for you, Bradley?”

“I can honestly say I don’t like it here,” said Bradley.

“Same here,” said Nick. “I’m stuck in place for a bit until I can figure out what I

want to do. If I go over the wall, I’ll take you with me.”

“Thanks, Nick,” said Bradley. “Have you seen Carol?”

“Not yet,” said Nick. “She was with the fire magician class last night. She’ll be

behind you I think if they haven’t already started their testing.”

“I’ll look out for her,” said Bradley. “I don’t like how they separated us. I only saw

Monty and Dominic this morning.”

“I want you to keep an eye out,” said Nick. “There might be some monsters under

the building somewhere. Don’t say anything about it to anyone, but I want you to

be careful if you leave your dorm alone in the middle of the night.”

“So the school isn’t as safe as they promised us,” said Bradley. “Typical.”

“Just be careful,” said Nick. “If you want to eat with us, you can. I don’t have a

problem with it.”

“I think I have to stick with the class to get this testing stuff over with so I don’t have

to live here with no way to talk to anybody,” said Bradley. “They won’t let us stay

here if we can’t pass. And they won’t let us go back home. I don’t want to be on the

street begging.”

“Who told you that?,” asked Nick.

“Some of the older guys,” said Bradley. He pointed down the row of tables. “They

said the school won’t let someone who can’t do anything stay.”

“That’s weird,” said Nick. “I can’t do anything and I am going through the

assessment too. The teacher says they will try to expand my spell work.”

“So you’ll be able to do more than shoot at things?,” said Bradley.

“It would be good to get one of those flying magic things if I could arrange that,”

said Nick. He moved his hand through the air to emphasize the point.

“It’s at the top end of a earth magician,” said Bradley. “You have to be able to build

something, and then be able to power it.”

“I would still love to do something like that,” said Nick. “Just killing stuff seems

so small now.”

“I know,” said Bradley. “Thanks for talking to me. I feel alone here.”

“We have free time after lunch,” said Nick. “You can hang out with us if you want.”

One of the teachers approached with a white suit, black tie, and school crest on his

breast pocket. He adjusted his glasses with thumb and index finger as he frowned at

Nick standing in the aisle.

“Why are you bothering my student?,” he asked.

“I was asking Bradley if he wanted to sit at my table,” said Nick. He indicated the

general direction of his seating. “There are only seven of us. An eighth would allow

us to post up Ring Em.”

“I think you should go back to your own table,” said the teacher. “We are going to

have breakfast, and then we are going to be working until lunch, and then we will

work after that.”

Nick put his hands behind his back. He could feel the charge building up to be

released through his fingers. He didn’t want to get mad and try to unload on a teacher.

He wanted an escape route first.

“All right,” said Nick. “I’ll see you around, Bradley. We’re in the old building in the

back if you want to visit.”

“Thanks, Nick,” said Bradley. “Let me know how you do.”

“It won’t be great,” said Nick. He waved as he walked away.

Madam Quince waited at their table with one eyebrow seeming to ask what that was

about. He smiled at her.

“I invited Bradley over to visit when he gets done with his testing and stuff assigned

by his teacher,” said Nick. “He’s an okay earth magician.”

“I see,” said Madam Quince. “So he is going through the assessments with the other

earth magicians?”

“Yeah,” said Nick. “He says he hasn’t seen anyone else from home so he doesn’t like

it here as much as he thought he would.”

“I have no objection to how he spends his free time,” said Madam Quince. “His

teacher is Master Cairn, who is a good earth magician, but wants to be the best, and

he drives his students hard so they improve under his watch.”

“He would be frustrated with our crowd almost instantly,” said Calliope.

“Thanks, Granny,” said Nick. He looked over the room for any of his other friends

from the orphanage.

“You’re being too familiar, Master Sever,” said Madam Quince.

“So everyone was scattered and put in different classes than with their friends,

Granny?,” said Will. She turned a jaundiced eye on him. He smiled as he lit up a

cigarette. “Different issues?”

“Yes,” said Madam Quince. “Some of the students are summoners, some are distance

specialists, some are body alterers, and so forth. The assessment will move them into

classes with similar skillwork. Obviously my class, you seven, is a catch all since

none of you quite fit in with the rest of the classes.”

“What do you teach, Madam Quince?,” asked Steve.

“I teach general preparedness, and some thinking about skills,” said Madam Quince.

“Because of the uniqueness of your students?,” asked Steve.

“And my own magic style,” said Madam Quince.

“I thought you were an air magician,” said Nick.

“I am,” said Madam Quince. “It is just as specialized as your ability. I call it the wind

blade.”

“Isn’t that pretty common?,” asked Felix.

“Yes,” said Madam Quince. “I will show you during your assessments. My ability

is why I was asked to teach you seven instead of an air magician class. I don’t

have the general skills needed to show what can be done.”

“How many misfits have you trained?,” asked Calvin. “I would love to be among

an elite number.”

“I have trained thirty classes of varying numbers over the years from start to

finish,” said Madam Quince. “The middle numbers fought for the school when

the Warlord attacked.”

“You were here when that happened?,” asked Felix.

“Yes,” said Madam Quince.

“They say you should have received a little more glory but didn’t because of your

mastery of one spell,” said Crow. “You could have had your own school.”

“To be a headmaster of an academy like this one,” said Madam Quince. She gestured

to take in the building beyond the hall. “You have to be a master of all four branches

of study, and have ten major spells under your control. I am automatically

disqualified because of my own uniqueness.”

“They say you would need a special dispensation for the position if you didn’t have

the qualifications,” said Crow.

“And I could not get one,” said Madam Quince. She made a face at an old ache that

couldn’t quite be quelled.

Nick felt bad for a second. He pushed the sympathy away. There was nothing he

could do for his teacher to help her get her dream. Thirty other classes had spent years

coming through, and none of them had been able to help her. He doubted the seven

of them could do anything, even if Crow and Calliope seemed to be taking this as a

personal insult.

He was more worried about more goblins roaming the halls with his friends in the

danger area.