Conversation with Nora made me realise how little Sirius and I knew about our surroundings. While we had bookish knowledge about kings of the past, the actual people around us were basically strangers. Even the people that one would call family, felt alien to me. And Lady Maria felt the strangest. The things I knew about her weren’t much but I could draw a map of her life in my mind. The map, incidentally, was quite bizarre. Born as an orphan in the Neer Republic, went on to become the Master of Astral Clock Tower and one of the greatest sorcerers in the world. And yet, she left that position to become a professor. She left her position as professor as well, and now basically lives as a housewife.

Why would anyone do that? The road of her life has been a downward slope for many years.

“Well anyway, that Gate in the middle of the arena takes mana and creates an artificial world. It only works when Professor Sionn handles it himself though.” Nora said while pointing at the old man standing near the Gate. The old man’s face was wrinkly and his back was bent. He was standing with the support of a walking staff while closely scrutinizing the people taking the trial inside the Gate.

“How do you know so much?” Sirius asked while looking impressed at the level of knowledge Nora had.

“Everyone knows it. I mean, everyone who reads.” Nora said with a childishly haughty expression, “And Professor Sionn’s classes are the ones I’m most excited about. So I went ahead and read about him. I read about his life and even how he met his wife, Professor Sorsha. Do you know that a book says that Professor Sionn foretold my mother’s success when he met her for the first time. That is actually false. Oh, on the topic of my mother and reading, she says that I have an unhealthy obsession with books and talk too much while discussing them. For some reason, she thinks that too much reading would corrupt my mind even though it is very clearly false. I know she just wants me to learn-”

“What does Professor Sionn teach?” I asked the question to stop the unrelated tangent that Nora was going on. Most of the words she said had passed me like a blur and Sirius just seemed genuinely confused.

“He is the Master of Elements. He will teach us how to control the nature around us.” Nora answered excitedly, “I’ll finally be able to fly.”

“Oh, really?” Sirius’ eyes lit up at the idea of flying. He looked at me, mirroring the excitement felt by Nora, and said, “He’ll teach us how to fly!”

The children were quite excited at the idea of flying. They both just sat there and talked with each other about the things they would do after they learned it. Well, I was happy seeing that Sirius was making another friend. Sirius and Nora seemed comfortable with each other and their conversations didn’t feel forced unlike the girl sitting on the chair behind us…. Hope was watching us with an ugly frown on her face, but didn’t intervene.

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The sudden applause and cheer pulled my attention to the escren. My eyes fell on a boy that was standing in the middle of the forest, holding a little badge with two intersecting swords engraved on it. He was the one who had made it upto the badge out of the many aspirants. I couldn’t understand the criteria the aspirants were being judged on. If it was solely strength based, then why would they divide the aspirants into several smaller groups? Grouping everyone right from the beginning and then choosing only the best among them was a more viable option.

Well, my opinions originate from the comically limited understanding of the world and people in it. An academy as reputable as this must have its own ways.

The boy who won, walked out of the Gate while holding his badge above his head. The smile on his face was wide while he walked confidently. I noticed that his face felt familiar, even though we had never met before.

“Fynn!” Hope Woodrow stood up and hugged the boy called Fynn. After congratulating him, she turned around and introduced Fynn to Sirius.

“This is my twin brother Fynn. And Fynn, this is Sirius Frye.” Hope’s expression was light as she showed off her brother. There wasn’t a hint of the frown she wore a few moments ago.

“Mr. Sirius Frye, I had heard the news that you were here. It is an honour to meet you.” Fynn kept his badge inside his pocket and greeted respectfully, “Greetings, Lady Nora. It has been a while since we last met.”

Fynn Woodrow was wearing off-white coat with light embroideries of pink leaves. He looked quite sophisticated as he greeted us. After introducing himself to Sirius and Nora, he turned to me with a confused expression and said, “and you must be….”

“Mehr. I am a commoner.” I said.

“Wow. Clearing the two first trials, even though you’re a commoner, is an incredible accomplishment. Not many commoners can do that.” He looked at all three of us and said with a gentle nod, “I hope we all get along as classmates.”

A bit patronising, but that’s every Noble though. Seems like a nice person overall.

The badges that we had received after the first trial, buzzed in our pockets.

“Looks like it's time for you to go. May the eyes of Stars and Heavens be on you.” Fynn said as he moved to the side to make way for us.

“Buzzing badges gather around in front of the Gate.” The old professor declared with an unexpectedly strong voice.

We got up and walked in front of the blob of darkness that seemed to suck everything around it in. We waited for a bit as other people also gathered around us. Mumbles of excitement and apprehension were mixed together as everyone waited for it to begin.

“Greetings everyone. I am Sionn Innis, the Master of Elements. You will be entering the Gate for the last trial. Now, It doesn’t matter if you’re the last one remaining, or if you get the most eliminations. The most important skill that will be evaluated is presence of mind, followed by composure and then, somewhere down the line, is the battle strength. So, do not think about showing off too much, think about surviving. I’ll tell you the rules after you’ve entered the Gate, so get ready.”

The Professor spoke without stopping for breath as he poured down the information on us. His bent back did not do justice to the presence this man had in the room. As soon as everyone was gathered, we entered the Gate that stood in the middle of the arena.

It has been a while, hasn’t it? Fighting against so many people at once, I wonder how many years have passed. This trial…. will be very enjoyable.