Madam Quince took them from the assessment hall to the supply center. She got them

books and uniforms after some talk with the suppliers. She looked at the sky.

“I think we have some time to walk around the school before lunch,” said Madam

Quince. “Put your things away, and meet me back at the great hall.”

Nick trailed behind the rest of his group. He needed to go to the market and cut off

the sensitive hearing. Conversations dropped on him from anybody close by. It was

distracting him from the conversations he wanted to engage in.

Once he did that, he could ask Crow if she wanted to continue to be in the party with

him.

She had been a big help against the goblins. If anything else came out of the

underground, he might need her ability to pinpoint things.

His main problem was he didn’t have enough spirit money to buy equipment to help

him.

If he did have to take part in the school tournament, he would have to do his best to

put one of the other students down hard enough to get equipment and spirit money

to buy more equipment. The rest would depend on the way the thing was set up. He

doubted he would be able to use lightning from the sky if everything was inside.

If he could get fire sticks, that might be a way for Will to use his fire spells without

having to worry about smoking. And the sticks burned through things the short time

they were alive.

He had stuck two in a tree back home, and almost burned the forest down when they

wouldn’t go out like he thought they would.

Did he really think he stood a chance against real magicians? Even students should

be able to stop him with the right element at their command. His thunder cracker

wouldn’t pierce a competent shield.

If he caught them unawares, he might be able to put any single magician down. He

didn’t have anything in his repertoire to stop heightened senses other than the thunder

clap, so he might be exposed as soon as he tried to match up with one.

Maybe he should knuckle under and ask Granny Bitter what she thought.

He decided he would do that when every other choice had been stripped away and he

had nothing to lose.

Will and Calliope could ask her any relevant question they needed to know before

they engaged with their fellow students.

Their skills would allow him to pick places to ambush their opponents and take them

out of the fight. He had no doubt they could fight, but he doubted they could shoot

someone in the leg from yards away to take them out of the picture.

Nick stored his new books and clothes in his room. He went back downstairs. He

marked the market on his sphere of influence. He needed to turn the hearing off

before he went crazy. Even going back and forth from their building, he could hear

people complaining about this and that.

He entered the hall and walked down to the spot in the wall. He looked around, but

didn’t see anyone. He put his hand on the wall and opened the door to the market.

He walked down to the little room. He turned the switch off. He breathed a sigh of

relief as a name vanished in mid-talk. He looked at the party lines. He decided to keep

Crow in his party in case he needed her in the future.

She would be hurt that he cut her without asking if she wanted to be cut. He felt that.

It was better, and less embarrassing to keep her on as long as possible, and then cut

her when he decided to leave.

He didn’t plan to stay at the Academy after the tournament. And he knew he could

take some of the spirit money from winning and go over the wall before he could be

stopped. He just needed to be ready with starter supplies when he went.

He didn’t want to hunt all the way home from the school.

Maybe if he could horde real money, he could get a carriage home instead of walking.

A horse would be better, but he had never ridden a horse, and didn’t want to take care

of a beast in the wild. That would add on to the trouble of moving along without

helping him other than covering the ground faster.

Speed didn’t matter that much to him.

Nick stepped out of the market. The hearing would have given a warning in a fight,

but he would rather not hear the complaints that filled his mind from the others close

by. Now he had to find his class.

He focused on Crow and headed for her marker in his sphere of influence. He

doubted she had split from the class and was waiting patiently with the rest of the

misfits. He hurried to catch up.

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He spotted her white hair before he saw Calvin and Felix. They stood in the hall

together, but no one else was there. They seemed to be talking about the hall itself.

“Where is everybody else?,” asked Nick.

“They are ahead of us,” said Calvin, pointing down the hall. “We stopped to talk

about this hall. It was built with earth magic.”

“Most things are,” said Nick. Even in his tiny village, earth magic had built a wall

around the buildings, and most of the buildings themselves had stone walls.

“You don’t understand,” said Felix. “Most places you go to, teams of magicians build

large constructions like this. You can see the joints where two of them meet. We think

one man built this whole thing.”

“All of this went up at one time,” said Calvin. He lifted his hands in an arc over his

head.

“Is that important?,” asked Nick.

“If we meet the man who could do this, he would be one of the greatest earth

magicians who ever lived,” said Calvin.

“Maybe not the greatest, but certainly a power,” said Felix. “Most magicians would

not be able to do anything like this by themselves.”

“They say we have seen the man who did this on the first night,” said Crow. “I think

we should move along and catch up with the others. Madam Quince will want us to

stay with her for the whole tour.”

“It is impressive,” said Calvin. “I would love to do something like this if I had some

control of the earth.”

“We need to get control of our watery mastery first,” said Felix.

“One guy did this,” said Nick. “That is kind of impressive.”

“Kind of impressive?,” said Calvin. “What would it take to impress you?”

“A ham sandwich as big as my head,” said Nick.

“They say he built the whole school in one night,” said Crow. She made a wave of her

arm to indicate everything they had seen so far.

“Okay,” said Nick. “That is impressive.”

They found Steve questioning Madam Quince while Will and Calliope examined the

furnishings. Calvin and Felix rushed forward to join the discussion.

“Do you want to stay in my party?,” Nick asked in a low voice.

“I think so,” said Crow, keeping her own voice down. “There will be trouble ahead,

and we might need to talk faster than what I can do.”

“All right,” said Nick. “I had to cut off the hearing. It was irritating me.”

“Not used to hearing other people’s voices?,” asked Crow.

“No,” said Nick. “And I like my own counsel more than most.”

Madam Quince took the group through the building, pointing out classes they would

have to take to move on. A large library was down behind the classrooms. A set of

steps led to offices, and the faculty’s quarters.

Rooms were set aside for practical demonstrations. The assessment hall was under

those rooms, and led to the outside.

Nick doubted assessments would help him except to show him how to aim better.

It might help the others. Calvin and Felix might be able to fix their problems with

their spells switching so they could be pure water magicians, or able to work the

alternates in true spelling instead of having their water spells transform in midcast.

He wondered how testing would help Will and Steve. They were the other two

affected by the testing for general magicians.

He didn’t know what Crow could do. He doubted she could do anything with

elements. Who were They? He wondered if he should be scared about them and their

nature.

He wondered if They could use his sphere of influence like she could. Did they need

to?

How did he want to approach that question?

“What can you do as a magician?,” he finally settled on. It was simple, and direct. He

wanted to know but he didn’t know what she could reveal to him.

They might not like the question.

“I just talk and listen to the voices in my head,” said Crow. “It’s like a sphere of

influence made of people.”

“And they tell you things?,” asked Nick.

“More often than not,” said Crow. “Sometimes it’s hard to get their attention.

Sometimes it’s easy. Like now, they are interested in you because you are prying, but

if you weren’t here, they might be pointing out things about the building instead.”

“So if we weren’t talking, they wouldn’t be saying anything about me?,” said Nick.

“If you weren’t trying to figure out how they work, and what they tell me to help me,”

said Crow. She smiled gently. “I think when They want you to know what’s going on,

they will tell me, and I will tell you.”

“That seems fair and a little bit cranky,” said Nick.

“Much like you,” said Crow. She smiled wider at the words.

“I’m not cranky,” said Nick. “I just want what I want.”

“Doesn’t everyone?,” asked Crow.

Nick made a face to show he couldn’t fight that logic. He walked with her to join

the group. Madam Quince was pointing out some kind of lab to the rest of the group

for summoners.

“I thought summoners needed real animals,” said Calliope.

“No, they just need a base for their construction, and an element to build with,”

said Madam Quince. “Summoners are a specialized training area where most

generalists can’t move a summons, and most summoners can’t do general skills.”

“But a really good generalist can do both?,” asked Will.

“Yes,” said Madam Quince. “But you would have to be a really good generalist.”

Will shrugged.

“Are you really a good generalist?,” asked Calvin.

“I could be if I didn’t have to have an outside source for ignition,” said Will.

“That is the key to fire, the ignition. While I know a lot about shaping and immunity

and other things, but not being able to start a fire cripples me.”

“So if you could figure out how to ignite, you would be good enough to pass your

classes?,” said Calvin.

“Yes,” said Will. “Maybe there is something here that I can use to fix my talent.”

“There are classes on that,” said Madam Quince. “I don’t teach them, but most fire

magicians here are taught ignition by Mistress Herve. She teaches this as well as

her own classes of beginning magic.”

“So I will have to take her classes,” said Will.

“Yes,” said Madam Quince. “I plan to have you back for general classwork

afterwards.”

“I was good at that back home too,” said Will.

“Do you think one of the teachers can help us?,” asked Felix. He held up a ball

of water that turned into a light haze of heat as he shook it out.

“We have three very good water magicians on staff here,” said Madam Quince. “One

of them teaches alchemy also. I am sure they can help you.”

“What about the rest of us?,” asked Nick. He indicated Crow, Calliope, and Steve

with his hand. “None of us have any general spellwork to build.”

“I am going to have to teach you some things myself,” said Madam Quince. “You

four do represent things outside the norm. It has been a while since the Academy has

seen unique magic.”

“So we have a chance?,” asked Steve.

“I would say so, even if you don’t become master magicians,” said Madam Quince.

“You should still be able to increase your skills with what you have.”