“E4, checkmate.” Otto said.

“Huh. Huh?!” Eos exclaimed, quickly counting the squares on the board. “A pawn checkmate!”

“Indeed.”

Sigurd came up to the chess game, “What's the record now?”

“I forgot long ago.” Otto replied.

“2 to 273 to 63” Eos said, “Wait no.. 274.”

“And your studies?” Sigurd asked.

“They’re going well.” Eos replied, dismissively.

“And your magic?”

Eos fell completely silent for a moment. “You know…” She meekishly said. “It’s the same…”

“Hey, Varen, when’s her third year exams again?”

“2 weeks. Her grades have been suffering too: A+ in magical theory, F- in practice.”

Sigurd thought for a moment. “What abou-”

“I’ve discussed it with Volken. He said if it keeps like this, he’ll inevitably be helping her anyways, so he might as well let time run its course.”

“What spell have you been trying to cast?” Sigurd said, turning back to Eos.

“Balls of Light. Since I started school I’ve just been trying to cast Balls of Light, it’s still not changed.” Eos said, her frustration clear through her voice.

“Balls of Fiery Light. Novice fire spell.” Sigurd said, “It’s a fairly good spell to start with. From nothing to casting, it should take about two years on average. Given your school and your awoken- and Apepi- maybe 9 months?”

“What does Apepi have to do with it?” Eos said, things her parents said flashing in her mind.

“It’s just that…” Sigurd said, clearly thinking carefully about how to say what they mean, “The Apepi lineage aren’t made of natural mages, like Atum or Khepera.”

“My…” Eos began, deciding for her sake it was better to not think of them. “But it’s been over two years.”

“Indeed. It would imply some fundamental misunderstanding of yours in regard to glyphs. Mind explaining to me how you think casting works?”

“Well, first you focus hard on the spell, then you draw the sigils out with your hand while saying the sigils aloud and… bam! It’s cast.”

“I mean, she’s got it down.” Johann piped in.

“How’s… your student doing, Johann?” Sigurd asked.

“He’s amazing as he should be.”

Sigurd nodded. “Johann, do you know anything that might be the issue?”

“You have to make sure you're focusing on the spell. Do you mind showing us an attempt again?”

“Sure.” Eos said, “Not like I’ve not done that before.” Eos began to repeat the movements she’d done thousands- tens of thousands most likely- of times before. She focused hard, making sure her hand movements and speech was flawless.

Nothing happened.

“A bit shaky,” Johann said, muttering, “but the spell should still be cast.”

“Were you focusing on the spell?” Sigurd asked.

“Of course!” Eos said, “It just doesn’t work!” She stomped on the ground hard.

“Hey- hey,” Varen said, “It’ll be okay.”

“It’s not okay!” Eos shouted, “I’ve been trying for years!” Her emotions had boiled over from the prompting. All the adults had their focus pinned on her, but she didn’t care. “Nothing I do ever works! I’m going to fail out and then what? Be homeless? Run away again? Get stolen off the streets because I’m just that pathetic?! People judge me on my eyes, I have a bad bloodline, my family is dead! Nothing is ever good enough, and nothing I try ever works!”

Eos, with tears streaming down her eyes and the heat of blood across her face, saw the blurred faces of everyone else. For a moment, her emotions calmed, and she crumpled into a sobbing mess.

“It’ll be okay, you’ll be okay.” Varen said, attempting to calm Eos down. He knelt down to hold her.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“How’s your… weapon fighting class going?” Sigurd asked Eos.

Breath hitching in her chest, Eos tried to form a sentence. “H-Hopo-Hopology is fine.” Eos replied, before breaking out in tears again, “But t-that won’t matter if I fail out from Glyphs.”

Donovan was next to try to comfort Eos, “Hey! That’s good to hear, you could always join the guard! We’re always willing to take students from such an elite school…” Donovan’s voice became meek, “even drop outs..”

Eos’s crying was only renewed after hearing the end of the sentence, and she buried herself in Varen’s arms.

“It’s not that bad.” Varen said, attempting to placate the child, “I mean, I can’t use magic and look at me.”

Eos, once again, sobbed harder.

“Oh Light, Varen, you're horrible!” Gwendolyn said, “Let me take care of her.” Gwendolyn positioned herself to take care of Eos, and Varen moved out of the way and the responsibility on to her. “And to think, you have all the knowledge of a teacher! At her age too!”

Varen whispered to Sigurd as an aside, “What did I do wrong?”

Sigurd shrugged, “I was gonna suggest she become an adventurer.”

“Ya know Sigurd, this is all your fault.” Johann said nonchalantly.

“Oh please, sorry for caring about her.”

“Sigurd,” Johann started.

“We all care about her, you know that.” Amiran said, keeping his voice hushed as well.

Otto joined in on their conversation, “I mean, she’s just frustrated. She doesn’t know what's going wrong or what she’s doing.”

“I know that.” Sigurd said.

“Just because you don’t have a charge like us,” Otto said, motioning to himself and Johann, “doesn’t mean you can make kids cry.”

“The entire guild is my charge.” Sigurd said boastfully.

“And the youngest members of the guild are, what, 15?” Amiran asked, deflating Sigurd.

“Yeah, and she’s 10.” Johann mocked Sigurd.

With Gwendolyn cooing Eos towards calm, Varen was the next person to speak to her, “Do you remember my friend I talked about before? When we first met?” Eos shook her head, and Varen continued, “He’s a professor right now- he’s not teaching your year, but he is the makeup professor for your year.”

“Makeup professor?”

“Every year has one, but generally kids don’t slip behind and stay enrolled. It’ll be his job to help catch you up to everyone.”

“But that doesn-”

“It will. He’s a really good teacher. Harsh, but good. Awoken too, was… a Navy Seal?” Varen asked, looking to Otto for confirmation. Otto nodded. “A Navy Seal for the USA in his past life, circa… 2060s I think. I promise he’ll teach you magic even if nobody else can.”

Eos tried to wipe her tears away.

The day of third year exams came quickly. Rhawn had decided that for the practical part, not only would it be completely public, but also would be done in order of proficiency. Eos was the only elf in the latter half. In fact, she was the last to go- Filos was to go right before her, as she was also unable to cast.

First to go was Tuel. As an elf, he’d proven to be Rhawn’s favorite. There were murmurings that Rhawn would take him in for private tutoring, ultimately for the kid to be a strong member of the guards. His casting took everyone’s breath away- quite literally, but only for a moment, as a small vortex sucked in all the dust in the room, before expelling itself as in a burst of musty, stale air.

Alana was second, a dance of fire as her practicum was done without any glyphs, as if the control of fire was second nature to her. She was by far the most popular girl in class, due to her skill and, well, class.

After about a half dozen kids, it was Lillian’s turn: she simply did a child’s water spell. After pouring a glass of water on a paper, her spell pulled the water from the damp paper back into the glass.

Gen was swiftly afterwards. For her spell, all she did was lift a small mound of dirt upwards with an earth spell, a weaker version of Amulree’s spell that Eos has seen nearly every day since she came here. The clump of dirt was about as small as Eos’s fist.

More swiftly than she would have liked, it was everyone but the last two had gone- the only two unable to cast. It was on Filos to go first.

“I’m feeling confident.” Filos whispered to Eos before going up, “I got it down a week ago. How about you?”

Eos didn’t know how to respond. She wanted to cry. She was trying, but she hadn’t done it. Everyone else is succeeding, but not her. “I think I’ve got it..” Eos said, lying through her teeth.

Filos went up to the front of the lecture hall before Rhawn had to even call her out. “I’m ready!” She shouted. Standing in front of the class, she began to draw sigils in the air. They appeared- light red, nearly pinkish lines drawn out by her fingers. The entire time, her face was beaming. Eos recognized the sigils. She couldn’t not. They were the exact same sigils she had attempted to draw every day.

Once the spell was completed, a singular small ball of flickering light appeared, ephemeral and gone within a blink. But Eos saw it.

“Very good, very good.” Rhawn said, “You’ve proven absolutely capable.”

“Thank you,” Filos said, with a small curtsy, “And thank you for your teaching.” Filos came back up, and, looking at Eos, changed her seat. She sat next to Lillian and Gen, a few seats away from Eos. Eos could hear them congratulating Filos.

“Lastly, Eos AuSkoll Apepi.” Rhawn announced. Eos shrunk in her seat. “Eos?” He repeated, as every eye was drawn towards her. Steading her will, she stood up, and walked with false bravado to the center of the room.

“I’m ready.” She said. Steeling her nerves, taking a small breath, she lifted her arm. She had confidence: Her understanding of the spell was complete, her movements were approved by mages much better than her, and her speech was good enough. She had been practicing this spell for years with tutelage of a mage years more advanced than her.

She was completely, absolutely, unavoidably confident in her inevitable failure.

Amulree sat on the edge of Eos’s bed, Eos buried in her pillows, her voice impossible to hear as Eos’s sobbing and hitching prevented her voice from traveling beyond the pillow.