“Ashara!”
The call from the examination room snapped all of the gathered students out of their respective deep thoughts and caused them to look around for the source. Dean Peran stood in the doorway of the audience hall, the same room where the Ceremony of Expectation had taken place.
A tall and willowy woman stepped away from the group, pacing forward with her head held aloft. Samuel caught a glimpse of the side of her face and noticed the great resemblance she bore to Archmage Ashara, the Divination master of the College. She was taller, and perhaps a few years older, so Samuel supposed that she was the teacher’s older sister.
A ripple of interested murmurs swept through the group as Peran held the door open a little wider for Ashara to step through, and the room inside was revealed. It was very different from the room they had all gathered into. For one, it was a fair bit smaller but still larger than a few people needed. They caught the barest sight of a circular platform in the middle of the room before Peran shifted to block their view.
“Bragg!” Peran barked, much louder than she needed to for the short distance between her and the crowd.
Samuel jumped as she said his name loudly, then shuffled forward, taking care not to trip on the hems of his long robes. Arthur had forced him to wear a much more elaborate version of his noble’s robes today, but at least the symbol of Arcana, stitched out in shining silver thread, was still there. It caused more murmurs as the others watched him enter the room after Ashara.
Samuel heard Peran call more names, but didn’t turn to see who would follow him in. Given that Ashara had been called first and he second, he supposed the dean was calling students by their last names in alphabetical order. Such a simple organizational method was typical of the Mage’s College, as it was easy to follow and track.
Ashara stepped onto the wooden platform in the middle of the room and went to stand in one of six smaller circles around its outer edge. Not wanting to appear as if he had no clue on the proceedings, Samuel took the circle to her right. She raised an eyebrow at him but turned to face ahead without comment. Samuel wondered if he should have stood to the left instead, but before he could change, a tall blond boy whose name he didn’t know stepped onto the platform and stood to Ashara’s left.
This cycle continued for three more names. Each stepped into the room without a word, casting a curious glance at the contents of the room before joining them on the platform. Samuel was interested, but not pleased, to see that Erik Kiinor stepped up onto the platform after the blond boy, and stood across from Samuel, meeting his gaze with apparent disinterest, despite the glare of anger in his eyes.
Samuel was privately thankful that they could not fight in the examinations, with so many teachers around. He didn’t know how much Kiinor had learned in their two months apart, and he didn’t think that a dangerous magic duel would be the way to find out. Sure, he had learned a great deal more in the time, not counting the tidbits of information and advice that Grimr would give him from time to time. Still, fighting was a waste of time, he felt. He was only interested in his studies.
Two more people joined them on the platform, and Peran closed the door to the room with a loud snap. Thankfully, Samuel avoided a small nervous start this time and kept his eyes on Kiinor. He didn’t want to look unsure of himself or confused right before the examination. To him, this week would be the proof he needed that moving away from Harlest had been worthwhile. If he could accomplish good scores in the exams, he’d be content.
“Turn around and face the walls,” Peran instructed them. They each did as they were told, and the dean continued. “You will notice that the decor has changed since you were last within these walls.”
And so it had. Before, it had been an auditorium large enough to seat several hundred. Today, it looked like the study of a rich old man who had no desire for organization or order. There were dozens of small tables scattered around the room, each topped with a haphazard pile of books and scrolls. A cluttered desk in the corner had a lit lamp that was much too close to a jumbled stack of papers for his comfort.
“You will each take one of these cards,” Peran stated, passing them out. “The card bears an image of the item you are searching for. Your task is to retrieve the item without leaving the circle you stand in.”
Unseen to the others, Samuel heaved a sigh of relief. This being their Divination exam, he’d expected something more suited to Master Ashara’s style. Using targeted magicks to find and locate objects. But then, a horrible thought occurred to him. This could be just as hard. In fact, as they weren’t allowed to move while drawing their selected items, it would be even more difficult.
“There are only two other rules.” Peran continued, her gaze sharp and stern as she walked around the circle they formed. “You may not damage or destroy anything else in the room during your task, and you may not sabotage each other’s efforts.”
Looking around at the hundreds of little glass ornaments and unbalanced stacks of similarly fragile objects, Samuel thought that she was asking nothing short of a miracle from them. The others, however, made no comment or complaint, but simply nodded, so he swallowed the question he’d been about to ask.
“You understand the assignment?” Peran asked, giving them all one more glance. After a few seconds of silence, she nodded. “Then progress at your own pace. You have ten minutes.”
Samuel’s mind flew into overdrive, blanking out everything else. He gave only half a thought to Ashara, who had immediately launched into a long and complex incantation and outright ignored the blond boy to her left, who was waving his long arms in some kind of complicated wiggling pattern. Trying his best not to panic, he thought furiously about how to complete the task.
Nothing in his classes had prepared him for this examination, he thought. Well, he had been taught something about pulling other items towards him in Travel, and Master Astori had always stressed to him that he should expect the unexpected, but in Divination-.
He opened his eyes suddenly, not even aware that he had closed them. Archmage Ashara hadn’t taught them anything in her class about bringing items to themselves. Sure, they’d learned how to locate objects, as that was one of the main uses of the school of Divination. But oddly enough, it had been his experience in Travel that would help him most.
To start with, he allowed his mind to relax, spreading the field of mana that he normally held close to his body out as far as he could manage. It passed by Dean Peran and his fellow examinees, and meshed itself with everything else in the room, falling upon the haphazard stacks for miscellanea like a paper-thin blanket. His mind was filled with a rough shape of each item that came in contact with his mana. It was a heady feeling, but it was too much.
Trying to gather his thoughts and remain focused, he began concentrating his mana onto a single object at a time, getting a clearer image of what each item was. He smiled to himself as he experimented with this new way of using mana as a replacement for some of his senses. All at once, he felt certain that he could do this task. Now he just needed to know what he was looking for.
Opening his eyes once more to glance down at the card, he received quite the shock. Ashara was already holding an item in her hands. It was a silver candlestick with a thick base. Even the candle that was slotted into the ornament was still burning. Ashara was staring down at it with an expression of muted glee. Neither Kiinor nor the blond boy had managed to retrieve their items, but Kiinor looked as though he’d just had a good idea. Pausing only to glare at Samuel, he started to mutter an incantation under his breath.
Looking back down at his own card, Samuel saw that it displayed a stylized depiction of an owl’s feather quill. Glancing around the room with just his eyes, he easily spotted more than a dozen quills. If he could have gotten closer, he’d be able to tell which one was the feather he needed. But as he couldn’t leave, Samuel needed to use the second part of his plan. Closing his eyes once more, he shifted his concentration back to the net of mana that was still in place.
It was quite a bit faster this time, he thought. He didn’t have to closely examine each item, as he knew that he was looking for a particular shape. He directed the mana in a wave around the room, only pausing for a second or two to make sure that a feather he’d found wasn’t the right size. In the end, it took him nearly 2 minutes, but he found two feathers that were the right size. Now was the challenging part.
He thought of the way his body had felt at the Ceremony of Expectations when he’d teleported onto the stage to save himself time and trouble. Now he imagined the process in reverse. Rather than forcing himself to disappear and reappear a certain distance away, he tried to surround the feathers in his mana and make them appear in his open palms. He’d learned quite a bit about magic during his nearly three months in Milagre, but it was only now that he realized how much he’d actually grown.
The two feathers he’d located appeared in his palm with a soft whoosh. Opening his eyes, he saw that the two feathers were nearly identical in shape and size, with the main difference between them being color. As Peran came to stand before him, Samuel wordlessly held up the owl’s feather that had been depicted on his card.
Peran raised an eyebrow and accepted the feather wordlessly. Samuel wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad reaction but decided not to press the issue. He’d succeeded on the task set for him, and that was all that mattered. He let out a sigh, wondering why he hadn’t expected formal education to be this exhausting. Then a loud shattering noise to his left broke him out of his thoughts, and he turned in time to see the blond boy stagger back, his robe peppered with pieces of shattered pottery. Judging by the card he held with his left hand, he’d tried to summon the pot to him with a spell, but it had dropped short and shattered at his feet.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Ashara, Bragg, and Kiinor, you may leave. Your Divinations examination is over.” Peran said in a crisp voice. The three of them nodded and stepped off the platform, heading to the exit in silence.
The rest of their classmates were waiting outside. There were a few faces that seemed to be almost tortured by boredom, but most looked intensely curious. As soon as Samuel, Ashara, and Kiinor appeared, they fired a dozen questions at them. They asked what the test was like, how hard it was, and if they had passed. Samuel made no attempt to comment or answer the torrent of demands, and Ashara and Kiinor seemed to feel likewise. The three of them walked away from the group, ignoring the many attempts to call them back.
The rest of the day, for Samuel at least, went fairly smoothly. He sat through a long hour writing an essay for Travel. Rather, he enchanted the quill he was given and had it write the essay for him, as he dictated to it. When the Travel Master Wembly came by his table and saw the quill moving on its own, Samuel thought he was going to be told off, but the teacher merely raised one eyebrow and offered a smirk, then continued on.
The practical examination for Travel wasn’t anywhere as bad as Samuel thought it would be. Like Divination, he was given a task to complete. That one had actually been quite fun. The teacher had told them that in order to pass the task, they had to go through a sort of obstacle course without touching the ground. The course had been set up in one of the grassy common areas of the College, and Samuel, after a refreshing break and short nap, had coped with the task well. The only student to pass before him had been Wembly’s own grandson, which didn’t surprise Samuel one bit.
It was as the day was drawing to a close that Samuel approached the door to his most anticipated examination, Transmutation. Master Astori was easily one of his most demanding teachers, a fact not helped by Samuel’s obvious interest and aptitude in the subject. Master Astori was always demanding Samuel’s best effort, putting more expectations on him than his peers. Samuel didn’t mind this, because it more than paid off in his studies, but if Master Astori held to his old pattern, this examination was sure to be a harrowing experience.
He finally reached the heavy oak doors to Astori’s classroom and knocked firmly. The door opened of its own accord, allowing Samuel access to the large classroom. No sooner had he stepped across the threshold, however, than the room became pitch-black, and the door slammed shut. Turning on the spot, Samuel couldn’t even spot the thin lines of light from the corridor outside.
He’s probably sealed it with stone, to make it completely dark. Samuel thought to himself. Just an extra challenge, I suppose.
Coating his hand in protective mana, Samuel summoned a small bright flame with which to see his surroundings. There were no desks out this evening. Instead, the classroom had shifted to become perfectly circular. In the exact center of the room as a cushion, surrounded by three circles large enough to hold a man. Each circle bore a different glyph, in some language that he didn’t recognize.
Guessing what his teacher had in mind, Samuel moved to sit on the cushion, facing one of the glyphs. It slightly resembled a surge of water contained in a clay pot, he thought. It seemed to radiate deep, burning energy that reminded him of Shigeru’s power. Looking to his left and slightly behind, the second glyph depicted a gem that sparkled, with fluid lines depicting the flow of power. That one was probably the easiest to decipher, Samuel thought. It was obviously linked to arcane power, as it was very similar to the universal sign for the arcane arts.
The third and final glyph was a little different, however. It was what looked to be a star with four points, surrounded by three circles. Samuel supposed that this was another type of power, having something to do with internal strength. He knew it would be a mistake to rush his first attempt and exhaust himself, so he allowed himself a few minutes of quiet contemplation.
By channeling his mana towards the arcane glyph, Samuel noted that he was able to actually fuel it like a rune, and the circle glowed slightly as his mana came in contact with it. He tried the same with the other two glyphs, but they failed to react. Frowning in thought, Samuel got to his feet again and moved to closer inspect the arcane glyph. The circle that housed it was attached to a thin line that ran in a full circle linking to the other two glyphs, but there were no lines leading outwards or inwards.
Interesting, Samuel thought to himself. If arcane power won’t activate these glyphs, what kind will?
He sat back down with a sigh. He knew that Astori would provide a true challenge for him, but this was unexpected. For such a patient and passive man, Astori was fond of his practical experiments involving large amounts of mana. That kind of method didn’t seem to be of much help here, however. Could this be another subtle lesson for him? Was this meant to teach him that there were other ways to accomplish what he needed?
He looked closely at the glyph of the clay pot, remembering the feeling he’d experienced when perceiving Shigeru’s power. Whereas his own power had been a cool cloak of energy, the swordsman’s entire body had been filled with energy, a slow-burning, dense energy. It had seemed to originate from the body itself, unlike mana, which came from the mind.
From the body, Samuel thought idly. Well, it’s worth a shot. I don’t want to be stuck here all night.
He closed his eyes and released the fire he’d used for light, allowing his senses, and his mana, to envelop the space around him. He saw as clearly as ever the room he was in, with its perfectly smooth stone and uninterrupted walls. Though he remembered exactly where the door had been, Samuel couldn’t detect any sign of it, nor the students in the building beyond.
He took command of his mana once more, bringing every aspect of it under his direct control. It swirled around him quickly as he harnessed it, actually creating a slight breeze that tousled his shaggy hair. Pursing his lips in concentration, Samuel tried to force the mana to compress further, attempting to condense it into a small little ball that would radiate that same slow, burning heat. As he forced it into a sphere with his will, something quite strange happened.
The ball burst, suddenly escaping his control. For the briefest of seconds, Samuel thought he had accidentally caused his mana to go chaotic, something he’d read about in one of the College’s tomes. But his fear was alleviated almost at once, as the energy that escaped from the ball flowed like a gentle, steady creek, surging back through his body. But this time, it felt very different. Instead of the cooling, almost electric power that it held before, it was like a warm pool inside his body.
Slowly, with much effort, Samuel began to work with this new energy, swirling it back and forth in his body. It seemed hesitant to leave the vessel that was his body, almost as if it knew that without him, it could not survive much longer. Letting out a sigh of exasperation, Samuel came upon one knee, placing his right palm against the glyph and trying once more to channel it. This seemed to do the trick, as the glyph began to give off a dim glow, much like the arcane glyph.
Smiling in satisfaction, Samuel sat back down on the cushion, staring at the two faintly glowing glyphs. Now there was just the third glyph, that strange four-pointed star surrounded by those circles. Though he knew it wouldn’t help him much, he tried to channel the more physical energy into the glyph. As he’d predicted, it had no effect at all.
Rolling his eyes, Samuel cast his mind back to Grimr’s explanation of his own power. It was gifted, he recalled. Ahya had granted Grimr his power so that he could serve as her guide, and as guardian of the world. Brushing aside the monumental implications of such a power, Samuel reflected that such a thing wouldn’t be possible to harness on his own. Besides, the glyph seemed to indicate some internal power. Surely an Ancient’s power, as something cultivated by a partnership with Ahya, wouldn’t qualify.
But if it wasn’t Ahya’s power, then what could possibly resonate with the third glyph? Arcane, physical, and something else. What else was there besides mages and soldiers? Was there really some other kind of power in the world that could rival these two?
Then, as suddenly as if someone had shouted it, the answer came to Samuel. There was a select group of people who practiced neither the arcane arts nor focused solely on training their bodies. Monks, priests, clerics, and prophets all had a power of their own, granted to them by their gods. Like an Ancient’s power, it was lent to them at first, but they grew that strength through meditation and quiet resolve, didn’t they? At least, that was how it had been explained to him by the few religious men he’d spoken to on the subject.
Soul. The word came to Samuel as if another had spoken it. Mind, Body, and Soul. These are the fonts of power.
And though he now knew what the answer was, he also knew he was no closer to achieving it. Try as he might, he couldn’t think of a single way to just invent that kind of energy in his body. To give himself a short break, and also to experiment with the new internal energy he’d created, he tried shifting both it and his mana, which had slowly started to regenerate, at the same time. It wasn’t too difficult, he realized. Now that he was aware of both, he was able to get them to work without too much difficulty.
His mind, the source, and master of his arcane potential, was housed in his body, after all. The two were always designed to work in harmony, and now that he knew where both lay, he had no trouble getting them to work. Idly, he pushed the two pools of energy apart, forcing the physical energy deeper into his body, while allowing his mana to collect in his head, fueling his wit and allowing him to think more clearly. Suddenly, just as the two energies managed to separate completely, he felt a strange hollow feeling in the places untouched by either.
He opened his eyes, shaking his head furiously to rid himself of the sensation. It was only then that he noticed that, somehow, he had moved. He was no longer sitting on the cushion. Instead, he stood inside the circle housing the final glyph, which was now glowing dimly. All three glyphs were now lit, and a strange light was wrapped around his body.
He blinked hard then, almost unwilling to believe what he was seeing. He was standing inside the glyph, but at the same time, he was seated upon the cushion, eyes closed in deep thought. Did he always look that foolish while concentration? No, he chastised himself. Focus. You can’t be stuck here.
He tried with all his might to reconnect to his body. Thankfully, the second he had the intent, he found himself opening his eyes once more, sitting back on the cushion. Now, however, his body was wrapped in a faint white aura of energy, pulsating outwards in a gentle flow. It was neither hot nor cold, and unlike the other two energies, it seemed to have no weight to it.
This is getting too complicated, he thought to himself. Time to finish this.
Standing up, Samuel raised his hands to either side. Looking back on this moment in the years to come, he had no idea why he chose such a peculiar stance, but it seemed to do the trick. He forced the three energies apart and directed each at its respective glyph. It was easily the most exhausting thing he’d done before that day, but the results were astounding. All at once, the glyphs became so bright that he had to cover his eyes. Once the light had faded, he lowered his arms to see that the room was lit once more.
“Well done, Samuel.” A voice sounded by the door, making Samuel jump. Astori stood by the now open door, looking highly pleased. He looked at each of the glyphs in turn, now quite blank and devoid of life. “You accomplished that much faster than I thought you would.”