On the plus side, I knew the basic structure of most of the questions, knowing which formulas to apply. On the minus side, there were a few truly baffling questions, and I wasn’t especially fast with some of the calculations.
Many minutes of frantic scribbling later, I’d just finished question six when I glanced in horror at the mostly empty hourglass.
Faster, faster, faster.
The last two answers were hardly better than guesses, but I managed to fill insomethingfor every question when the command came to put pencils down.
“Line up, single file, I will grade your quizzes.” The instructor stood at the corner of the black marble demonstration table in front of the blackboards.
With so many students, I assumed it would take the remainder of the period to correct them all, yet she evaluated each in a matter of seconds, directing each student in turn to write their own name, score, and specialization on the blackboard. Those with the mage specialization inredchalk. Some said elves were naturally more intelligent than humans, others that it was down to the superior schooling most had access to. Either way, I had to grudgingly admire the speed at which the instructor scored the quizzes.
I slumped into the hardwood backrest of my desk.I’d done a lot of work to get in. I expected a lot more work this semester. I hadn’t expected to get hit withthaton day one.
No pattern I could discern emerged as the right-hand edge of the blackboard filled in with names and quiz scores. My heart surged with every score below mine, then sank with each student noting their name above mine. I recognized a few names. Brenda slightly below mine, her friend the neko woman near the top, along with Lady Arazniros, and no idea where our disapproving trio scored as I hadn’t bothered to learn their names. When the last student returned to their seat, I judged my performance slightly above average.
The instructor disagreed, shooting disparaging glares at names marked in red chalk. And proceeded to lecture on the basics of geomagical theory for the next ninety minutes.
The bell rang.
I massaged my temples, doing the same to cramped, aching hands.
That was only the first class.
Events hit rapidly for the rest of the day. Classes, quick meals in the cafeteria, even physical training. The training area comprised martial training dummies, target ranges, gymnastics and sparring areas, even a lap pool. While I recognized the function of the rooms and equipment, a few of the constructs baffled me, such as that set of wooden poles at odd angles. Some sort of obstacle course? But I didn’t havetime to ask. I skipped rope, did a round of push-ups, sit-ups, a few minutes on the balance trainer, showered, and hit the next class. The warm water shower was a novelty. A luxury even. But there was no time toenjoyit.
The second and third days were more of the same. My schedule varied according to the day of the week, with most classes including a lab session that dragged them to as much as four hours. And there was homework.Lotsof homework. There was also academy service: work assignments in various areas around campus as a condition of the academy’s token attendance fee.
I encountered those few people I recognized, but there was no time for socializing, no time to get to know them better. I’d occasionally spot Cleggs or Brenda in the cafeteria, but though the food was good, time was short. Enough to eat meals without giving yourself a stomachache, not enough to speak more than a few words to friends.
Friends?
Maybe they would be friends in time, but for now I was lucky to remember names and a few details about them. The only one that I knew more about was Lady Arazniros. A life-and-death encounter aboard a sinking ship will do that. Despite our both sharing the mage specialization, we had only two classes in common, Geomagic and Basic Magic Constructs. The latter I was considerably stronger in.
Yet despite our longer history, Lady Arazniros was more a mystery than anyone else. A demand from House Greanderal to inspect my belongings for ‘contraband’ had been the only repercussion of the first day’s incident. The faculty adviser, Master Arel, had delivered it, along with an addendum from the academy dismissing it due to lack of jurisdiction. And a cryptic warning that I appeared to have displeased a powerful local family. I’d thanked him politely for it, but seethed internally. They’d tried to confiscate my luggage, then had the gall to demand it after I’d taken it back. Two hundred rope skips and six extra sets of calisthenics finally workedthatfrustration out of my system.
I extended my legs straight out, toes pointed, savoring the full length of a bed sized for elves. Cool moonlight bathed the room as I reclined in silence. Cleggs was out, somewhere. In fact, I’d never heard him come to bed. I picked up subtle sounds as my mind slowed from the day’s frenetic schedule. The lowthunk, thunk, thunkof the radiator. A few muddled words from a neighboring room. Footfalls of someone in the hall. I’d made it through three days, but it didn’t feel like any sort of accomplishment. I’d completed assignments required for the next day, that was it. I was keeping my head above water, but it felt like I drifted further and further from shore.
Lady Arazniros. Why did I keep thinking about her? It wasn’t like I had the time to daydream orfantasize. No, not fantasize. She was an intellectual puzzle, nothing more. She was curt, icy, and aristocratic. She’d refused my help. Aboard a sinking ship! Who does that? And why? What did she have against me?
I stretched my arms over my head, feeling the slight burn from the four sets of push-ups that afternoon. So nice to stretch all the way out like this.
She couldn’t have anything against me personally. Aboard the ship, we’d literally just met. The trade schooner I sailed on was responding to the clipper’s distress signal, so there was no chance I’d inadvertently insulted her on some previous…
What was she in the middle of?
We exchanged polite greetings, glances, and waves at the academy. Nothing more than what two casual acquaintances attending school together would do. Why did I keep staring at her legs? They were quite lovely, long and sleek, but notthatnice.
OK, maybe they were that nice. With that dress she wore when we first met, I couldn’t really appreciate them, but in the school uniform? Wow. Nice lips too, thick and full, even if she never showed emotion on them. A full smile with those lips would probably melt me.
Of course, there wereotherthings one could do with lips like that—go to sleep, Theo!
◊ ◊ ◊
Near the end of the week, I settled into a high-backed armchair in the dormitory’s lounge area aftersupper, looking forward to the weekend more than any time in recent memory. No recreation planned. Just getting caught up on homework would be pure bliss. I leafed through one of my notebooks for a few minutes before my eyelids grew heavy and my concentration waned. Just too much. The lounge area still looked like a hotel: comfortable furniture, a pair of hearths, ferns and tropical plants in marble pots. Cozy. Maybe a little too cozy at the moment.
I set notebooks aside and took out my channeling clock—a wooden case half the size of a book with magic gems set into various armatures. Set the clock to a certain configuration, and mentally direct the flow of magic to make the gems light up, go dark, or change colors. I could do a few actual, useful spells. Light a candle from a dozen paces away, that sort of thing. First-year classes were almost exclusively theory, but I didn’t want to get out of practice, and there was a mental calm that came from simple channeling exercises. A calm I desperately needed.
“Heya Teddy, how goes?” Cleggs plopped into the chair next to mine.
