(Resumed) Solstice

[Emmett]

The conversation after carried a much more casual feel to it; I learned today that my former mentor Jacqueline had discovered she could cast Fire Magic accidentally by practicing a spell that condenses as much Æther as possible into a small volume before launching it out as an arcane bomb. She got really angry once, and her ball of Æthereal force became a ball of magickal fire. I laughed but quickly shut myself up on second thought: it would have been a classroom environment, and neither students nor teacher would have been prepared.

Ser Linn smiled softly, and I tried to ask him about his time as a student, but he just deflected and segued into a conversation about how the polish on the carriage was specially chosen and enchanted to mitigate against differences in temperature and wind. He explained how the winds got lighter the higher up you were, but heavier the faster you went, and how mountaintops were almost always frosty and a hell to survive on before I realized he had changed the subject again.

I guess you didn't become a quasi-political dignitary for nothing.

"We're gonna downclimb soon!" I heard a muted voice of Ser Feylance clearly trying to shout so we could hear him.

"Less dangerous, but let's hold on anyway just in case." I took my new instructor's words to heart and clasped onto the handholds for all they're worth. Barely half a minute after I did, I felt the rear of the cabin tilt up, and a constant pull to my left, toward the front of the cabin. I kept my grip, and at that moment I was in love with a literal pipe bolted into a wall. Linn was far more relaxed, gently holding his two handlebars while somehow still maintaining that spell sending Æther to Feylance.

The thought had occurred to me: Why did he specify that dreamers, i.e. non-wielders of Magick, carved in the circle? Was there a difference depending on who drew it? Was there an enchantment of some sort in effect? The circle seemed to work really well with Magick, which seemed to defy my expectation: didn't it take Magick to beget Magick or some such? Or was it some sort of political test of character, to see if I was different than the Etsies who had slowly risen into more and more power since making their debut at my home?

I figured it was a secret test. Suggesting that something seriously depended on who drew it to that extreme a scale, where the core function changed depending on who made it, would be giving ample recruitment ammunition to the Emissaries, and even Patrick was of the opinion that those jackasses needed to be stamped out and killed right then. There was also the fact that two plus two equals four, no matter who says it or why. You can't put two apples and two apples together and get anything other than four apples without doing something else in the interim; it just doesn't work that way.

Plus it wasn't like Ser Silver Linn was above trickery; he'd recruited me into the Colleges on the grounds that he saw something special in me, which turned out to be a hellsdamned lie since I was apparently worse than a ten-year-old. Methinks he just wanted me to rot.

I'll show him.

I squeezed on the handlebar, my deep-seated fury gnashing and thrashing in my stomach. Fuckers trapped me in a corner.

The descent to solid ground informed the descent of myself into...

A cold cell... Starvation with only the barest of meals to not die. Ghoulish deathly appearance. Name recorded as a sinner, liar, fraud, nobody, and delinquent. Even if I were to survive, I wouldn't find any work, nor be strong enough to do any. I'd probably be conscripted into some sort of military or police force, to work off the remainder of my debt, a fake debt legally put in force by an "educational" scam.

Air whistled out my teeth, and the drop in my guts ramped up, or well, down.

"Be advised, that one of the spells available to most of your new denizens' population is the ability to access thoughts." Ser Linn said, very unhelpfully.

I focused on his smirk, and then my jaws sprung into life. "So I don't even have to hide how twisted all of you fucking are, huh?!"

"Thank you for confirming your emotions toward us." My jaw dropped and my thoughts fell out of the carriage and crashed into the dirt below. "I just said we could. I personally would never do such a thing."

"Then why aren't you trying to punish me for acting out, huh? Isn't it inappropriate and blasphemous to speak out against your elders?"

"Inappropriate, yes. But suppressing a child's emotions is not how you teach it to perform Magick. In addition, inflicting this emotional turmoil upon you is part of my own... let's say assessment," Linn said, "So no, I will not fault you for something I did knowingly."

The carriage started tilting back up to level.

"Speaking of knowledge-" A crash of wood against ground interrupted Ser Linn's words, slamming us firmly into our seats, and prompting my tired arms let go from the rails of aerial safety. The carriage slowly drew to a halt, and the azure light in the spell circle extinguished.

"We have arrived." Ser Linn's staff leapt from the ground to his outstretched hand. "Ser Vise," he intoned, "We're here." He pushed off of his seat, and walked over to the rock in the front corner, jabbing it twice firm with the pointed butt of the stick.

He paused a moment, and raised his staff anew when amber light shone slowly out of the cracks, and the boulder shattered, revealing a messy-robed groggy older man climbing off the ground and back to standing.

"Finally back home?" the groggy Magus mouthed off.

"Indeed." Ser Linn turned around and, in one step, glided from the front of the carriage all the way out the back exit.

Wait. Why does the carriage have a back exit?! Isn't that an excellent way for bandits to sneak in?! I shook my head and regarded the tired teacher timely.

"Good Morning, Ser Vise," I said.

"Ah, shove it kid," he replied with a smile before climbing out the front exit.

I shook my head and stood up, my legs wobbling significantly beneath me. Each step was only slightly easier than the last, but in a decade, or minute for those who aren't afraid all the time, I managed to draw back the curtain, and step out to an empty field, parted by a road of cobbled stone leading up to a solemn fence, stretching in an arc far as I bothered to see.

"Why don't you take a look around and behold your new home in all its majesty?" Ser Linn asked. I shook my head briefly and stepped around to observe whatever it was he wanted me to see so badly.

I saw the cobbled road, and it cobbled all the way up to a proper, solid-iron gate, flanked on both sides by ivory-white stone walls and surrounded by a growing congregation of people, kept at bay seemingly by a lone dark-skinned woman. I directed my eyes upward to find the topmost sections of... a miniature castle adored in red on the left, and a similar one adorned in lime-green on the right. The stone walls themselves also arced, this time sharper, as it seems to be the inner wall, but it keeps rhythm with the outer fence.

I pivoted my attention back to the outer ring where I found myself, and observed a few stone houses and shacks here and there, much wider than those I was used to living in. One in particular stood to my left, a two-story warehouse-looking construct, with a faint something jutting out toward the outer fence.

And the people. There were several people of various statures all about. More near that giant two-story building than the remainder, but they were there. I could also see a flux of activity inside the inner circle. Everyone seemed to be wearing some kind of robes, and carrying at least one book. Patrick and I looked rather out of place.

"Quite a place, no?" Ser Linn asked, "The manses you see above the fences are the Fire College on the left and the Wind College on the right. Behind them, on the off-chance you can see them, lie the Earth and Water Colleges respectively."

"It's quite a change from a quiet village to a bustling seminary," Ser Vise piped up, clacking his oaken staff against the cobble. "I'll give you some time to adjust before we bring you into the crowd for your entrance examination."

"Hm, what is the entrance examination like?" I asked.

"Well," Ser Linn's smile curled again, his hands beckoning me to follow. "You'll get to see for yourself soon anyway, so little point in mentioning it now."

I sighed. As much as I wanted to punch his face in for being so aggravating, not only was I literally not going to be able to, but he was probably right. I was right about to go into it, and part of the entrance exam was likely not knowing what's in the entrance exam. Part of the point of an entrance exam was you only got one chance at it.

And one chance I was assuredly going to flunk. Here's hoping Ser Linn holds up his end of the bargain.

I swallowed my pride, my fear, my heart. I swallowed it all, and the background faded, just a little. A haze of emotion washed into my vision, filtering my senses from my emotion.

"Come on, let's get you in the crowd." Ser Vsup pushed softly on my back, and I marched, dread cloaking my steps, into the crowd, the crowd that I knew I would never truly belong in.

I stayed near the back of the semicircle of presumably-students, trying to make myself not seen, when I got a slight push from behind me.

"You're new, right?" the voice of a man not much older than me, in a plain light-green robe, said.

"Uh, um, yeah?"

"Newbies in the front. Makes it easier for Lienne to call on ya." He gave a soft push, and I shyly brushed past several people, making my way toward the front. I was sure I got quite a tonne of glares, being late, and new, and improperly dressed, the whole deal. I even thought I heard a "piss off" or similar.

Getting to the front, I saw quite a few more people not in robes, much like myself. A pretty strong number, all things considered. Twenty? Thirty? Fifty? I looked to my right and saw Patrick, who was scowling, trying to stab my eyes out with daggers from his own. His silence, however, brought a new frightful calm to me. Was he afraid? Was he scared?

I looked forward, and saw the woman, the deep pigment of her skin in stark contrast to her elaborate robes of crimson and orange. She was a bit shorter than I was in height, but her posture easily towered over the crowd gathered before her. Behind her stood the four dignitaries, and a few other older people, standing almost at attention with their posture.

"Attention!" the woman shouted, and all chatter ceased. I stood frozen, staring at the woman in a mix of admiration and terror. Even the wind around us died down, and morphed from a sharp cold into a warm draft.

The woman nodded and continued. "Excellent. For those who do not yet know, I am Ser Lienne, former Dean of the Fire College, and current Provost of Combat. I am also to my knowledge the foremost magickal duelist in the seminary, as well as the current arena champion, and yes those are different. You are all gathered here to witness the entrance examination for our newest wave of incoming candidates, or to participate as one yourself."

Ser Lienne swiveled her head around, eyeing the crowd before her, before clearing her throat. "If any candidate student doubts their abilities, or wishes for additional time to train, they are best advised to leave now. You have one chance to clear this examination, and the first segment is indeed practical."

A few hands raised at that moment, but Lienne held out her hand. "No questions!" Limbs slowly flopped down to their owners' sides. "To those current students who are observing, you will need to write reports on at least seven of the applicants, and how you would rate their performance on the first stage, and second if they succeed. This report is required to be turned into your professor if you're here for a mark, or to me if you're looking for early selections for expedition squads. Those of you participating, the entrance exam is in three stages, reflecting the three pillars of talent, power and knowledge. Failure at any stage will not see you matriculated and you will be sent home. Clear?"

I looked back. This was my last chance to maybe go hide somewhere, meditate, get some more skills, and come back another year.

All I'd have to do is turn around and leave. And I'd be free. But free to go where? I can't go home, I'm in a province I know nothing about, I'd be on foot without supplies or food, and I bet I wouldn't be taken back home on a flying Air Magic carriage, and even if I were, I'd just be killed as a deserter.

"You, distracted boy!" Lienne shouted and I whipped my head around to face her. "What did I say?"

"Three stages talent power and knowledge, fail any one and you fail the test and if you wanna leave do so now-"

"Are you afraid?" My throat caught my words and locked them away. What kind of question was that? Of course I was afraid! But I couldn't just say that, could I? In front of all of these people?!

"Yeah Emmy, are you afraid," Patrick sang, "Afraid to fail and rot in any of the hells~"

"Will you quit?" a fair-skinned woman in a simple shirt and skirt said.

"Ah, you misunderstand, Miss," Patrick said, "Emmy here is a fraud, who abandoned his responsibility of feeding his village to come here and lie about how he can see invisible magic. I'd be careful, I wouldn't want someone beautiful like you to get accosted or anything-"

"Shut UP Patrick-"

"Answer the question!" Lienne interrupted me before I could march on over and punch his face right off.

"What, you gonna lie about how you wouldn't?" Patrick continued, "Just like you lied about being able to see invisible magick when Aegis burned my home to the dirt?!" I could see the woman visibly take a few steps back from me, and I turned my attention back to Ser Lienne.

"Emi, was it?" Lienne asked blankly. I shook my head.

"Don't lie now that you've a reputation as a lecher~" Patrick sneered.

"It's Emmett," I said.

"You sure you'd trust this liar and pervert, Ser Lienne?" Patrick asked, in the most fake tone of respect I had ever heard.

"I will take this man at his word, thanks," Lienne replied blankly, "I have my own ways of discerning fact from fiction. Do not presume to advise me. Now then, Emmett, it was. Are you afraid?"

All eyes were on me, even from the current students. Patrick had certainly made sure of that. The snare drum in my chest rattled without cease. It was obvious now that I was, but admitting to that, with Patrick right there, ready to kill or torture me later, it really put a damper on things.

"You weren't afraid to betray your homeland," Patrick said, "Or maybe you're just afraid of the consequences."

"I need your answer."

I took in a breath.

"You were thinking of ac-"

"Y-yes," I said.

"-costing her," Patrick finished, smirking as the crowd gasped. "There you have it, Ser Lienne. He just admitted he's a threat to women."

There was no way that was going to work, right? ...Right?