18 - First Test

It was Lyra.
Though it didn’t look like it at first. She was wearing a long, yellow nightgown and had some kind of brown clay plastered all over her face.
“There you are,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest and tapping her feet on the ground. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Did you fall in the mud?” Arielle asked her.
“No. It’s a greymint mudmask. It’s good for stress relief and also for my pores.”
“I see.” Arielle didn’t see how it relieved stress to have that much clay spread across one’s face. If anything, it would make her even more stressed. And it didn’t seem to be working well either. Ari couldn’t read her expression, but with Lyra’s rigid stance, tension oozed off her in waves.
“You still look stressed to me,” Ari said. “I don’t think the mask’s working.”
“Oh, it’s working. If it wasn’t working, I would already be steaming my hair off right now.”
“There’s a spell for that?
“I don’t mean literally,” she huffed. Now she sounded just like Celie. “I mean that I’m annoyed with you.”
“Me why?”
“Because look what you did!” She gestured behind her towards the clothes strewn on the floor, spreading from Ari’s bed to the center of the room. “I’m no stickler, but I really can’t stand such mess.”
Neither could Ari usually, unless she got preoccupied, which had happened with the spells.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’ll clean it up quickly.”
She recalled the cleaning spell and almost moved her hand automatically, but then she remembered that she didn’t have a wand, and she was conserving essences.
So she just walked into the room and began picking the clothes up by hand.
After watching her for a few seconds, Lyra joined her.
She helped her fold the clothes, and while Ari typically liked to fold her own clothes, Lyra did it in the careful, precise way that she appreciated, so she let her.
They were quiet, and Ari searched for something to say. How could she befriend this total stranger?
What would Celie do?
Well, Celie would probably say something to make Lyra happy. But what?
A thought occurred to her.
Elric had mentioned that friends were there for flattering and doing favors for each other.
Lyra was doing a favor for her now. So, she should flatter her.
It didn’t matter if it was a lie, as long as it made the other person feel good.
“Lyra?”
“Yes?”
“You look really nice with mud on your face.”
Lyra paused, stared at her for a few seconds.
Then she shook her head, going back to folding.
After they were done, Lyra showed her where to put her clothes. The wardrobe was perfectly sectioned into two, and Lyra’s side was arranged and color-coordinated with bright hues from just about every shade of the rainbow.
Ari’s was mostly brown and black.
“You must really like bright colors,” Ari commented.
“Yes,” Lyra said as she helped Ari pack the clothes in. “Makes life less depressing.”
“Dark colors are often more practical. It hides dirt, helps to camouflage against predators, and doesn’t make you look garish in a crowd.”
Lyra paused. “Well, maybe I don’t always want to be practical. Maybe I don’t mind being garish.”
She put the folded shirt on top of the pile with a little more force than necessary and said, “You can finish the rest on your own.”
“Yes. Thanks for the help.”
Lyra walked away as Ari continued packing her clothes, unaware of the looks she was being thrown.
After she was done, she went to sit at her desk again. She brought out her messaging scroll and was about to pen her first message to Elric when she noticed there was already a message there waiting for her.
Are you settling in well?
Elation filled her.
He’d written to her first!
She hurried to write back.
Yes, I think so. I managed to learn an adequate number of spells for tomorrow; however, I leveled up in the process. I don’t know how it happened since I didn’t earn enough points.
The response came sooner than she expected it.
It’s because there were already points in your reserve from when you were evaluated. It wasn’t at zero. Whatever you added on top of that was then enough to push you into the next level. It’s fine, and it won’t happen again. So just track your points more carefully from now.
Okay. Additionally, I accidentally used up my allotted massa allowance.
What how?
I learned one hundred and fifty-seven spells.
Why on Earth would you do that?
Ari was frustrated that everyone kept asking her that question.
Because they told me to learn as many spells as I could!
Don’t take things so literally, Ari.
I can’t help it. People should just say precisely what they mean.
Humans don’t work like that. Did you go to Dean Octavius?
Yes. He gave me a refill.
Does he suspect anything?
Ari thought about it.
I don’t think so.
That’s good. What about your roommate? Are you getting along with her?
Ari glanced behind her at Lyra, who was also at her desk, apparently studying. Her mouth soundlessly formed the words on the tome in front of her.
I’m not sure. She seems nice, but I don’t know if she likes me or hates me.
She likely hasn’t made up her mind yet. Give her time.
That was immediately followed by:
You haven’t said anything to offend her, have you?
I don’t think so. I tried to ask her to be my gopher, but she turned me down. However, she helped me with Faulkey, so I don’t know what she wants. She might be confused.
You asked her to be what?
A gopher. Someone who follows you around all the time and laughs at your jokes even when they’re not funny, and does whatever you want and never defies you.
I know what it is. Why would you ask her that?
She’s the one who asked technically. I told her that I wanted to make her powerful so we could be friends. She asked if I wanted her to be my gopher, and it sounded lovely, so I said yes.
Oh Ari…that’s not how you go about that.
It’s not?
No. It sounds like you were judging her for being weak and inferior to you. Even if you think it’s true, friends are supposed to reserve judgment on things like that.
I wasn’t judging her. I was simply stating facts. She’d already told me that she was weak. I was affirming her assessment and offering my help. I thought that’s how you make friends.
Elric didn’t write anything for a good while.
Elric?
Yes, I’m here. I’m going to send you a book by raven tomorrow that will help you. I probably should have sent it earlier, but I didn’t know the problem was quite this bad.
What problem?
Your social skills.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Yes, it’s fairly terrible.
Worse than terrible.
She frowned.
I thought friends were supposed to reserve judgment.
I wasn’t judging. I was simply stating facts.
I see. When will the book arrive?
By morning time. I’ll express it.
Thank you.
You’re welcome. Now, tell me, what on earth is a Faulkey?
They chatted for a few more minutes, during which he’d told her that he’d sent her family the messaging scroll and they should get it by the end of day tomorrow. That made Ari relieved. She wanted to talk to her family and ask Celie especially, about what to do about Lyra. Lyra and Celie felt like very similar people, and Celie would know what to say.
Ari missed them badly. But she didn’t dwell on it.
Right before they ceased communication, Elric assured Arielle that he would help her with her allotting the points tomorrow. Luckily the system had stopped alerting her so she didn’t need to bother about that tonight.
Instead, she opened her spell book, focused on memorizing as many spell forms as she could. As she did, she pulled the raw essences in the room with her wand, manually forming the shapes of the spell script so she could commit it to mind.
She was going to ask Elric for permission to do it, but decided not to bother him. It wasn’t like anyone could see her anyway, and if they did, they would simply assume she was using her processed mana.
Raw external mana was harder to move around, and it did not have the distinct glow of the charged particles. They didn’t bond with each other, of course, but she put them in the rough shape of the spell anyway, just to help her remember.
She studied tirelessly into the night, even as Lyra’s side of the room went dark. She kept going, reading spell after spell, until her lantern was the sole glow in the window for the entire building.

---

By morning, Arielle knew exactly six hundred and thirty spell forms. That was all she’d managed until she’d dropped off to sleep at her desk. She hadn’t even woken by the morning bell, and Lyra had to shake her awake and tell her, “Come on, we’re going to be late.”
Ari washed up groggily and got dragged to the cafeteria.
It was in one of the atriums of the main building, a large room with arched ceilings, tall stone-bound windows that overlooked the manicured grass and the sea beyond.
The breakfast itself was a refined affair. There was a stuffed duck, pillowy buns glazed with sugar and marzipan, an assortment of meats that had been soaked in cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and saffron, and even a lamprey pie.
Ari didn’t know what to make of this foreign selection. She had never had food like this before.
She approached a member of staff, a moustached man, who was overseeing the meal.
“Excuse me, do you by any chance have any bean porridge, eggs, rye, or quail?”
He shook his head.
She sighed as she glanced back at the luxurious meal on the serving table.
She supposed she would just have to get used to it.
After she filled her plate, she was faced with another dilemma.
Where to sit.
At the schoolyard, she’d sat alone during mealtimes.
Mostly, she didn’t mind it. She was used to the silence, and it gave her space to be with her thoughts without anyone interrupting. But after a while, she noticed that whenever she did try to sit with people, they would always move away and give her odd looks. So it seemed that sitting alone had marked her as some kind of social pariah.
Sitting alone forced her to be alone. She’d wished she’d known that before.
Anyway, this was new territory, and she had to establish the most advantageous grounds for lunchtime companionship early, by picking the right place to sit.
She scanned the hall.
Tables of people seemed to be divided by cohort. Of course, the most abundant cohort, Cohort 1, took up most of the tables, followed by 2, then 3, then 4. The fourth cohort only occupied one table, with Selena at the head of it.
The Calor Princess.
She was laughing at something someone had said, and even though only one person was talking to her, at least three other people were looking at her too, as though hanging on her very expression. Actually, quite a few people in this hall were looking at her.
Ari vaguely wondered why.
“Hey, Lyra! Over here!”
Ari watched Lyra walk from the breakfast line, carrying her tray over to a table made up of two other boys. The two boys were clearly twins with signature curly hair and freckles.
They grinned and launched into conversation immediately Lyra sat down.
Ari watched them a little longingly. She wondered if she could sit over there, but Lyra hadn’t invited her yet. The last time she had sat somewhere uninvited at her old schoolhouse, the girl had coldly told her, “Move.”
So she didn’t want to do it again.
She identified an empty seat and was about to sit there when she heard a soft call, “Arielle.”
She turned. It was Lyra gesturing her over.
“Come sit with us,” she said.
Arielle’s heart fluttered. She beamed.
“Thank you,” she said as she sat.
“It’s okay, I hate sitting alone too,” she said. “This is Landon and Louis. They’re from the Order of the Lotus sect.”
“You’re new?” Landon asked.
“Yes,” Arielle answered.
“Great,” his brother said. “Welcome to Erynwall.”
“Thank you.”
That seemed to be the end of his interest in her.
The twins continued talking to Lyra about some kind of bee that pollinated a mandrake and their experiment with nightshade.
Ari focused on just eating and listening.
That was probably for the best. She didn’t want to ruin this by saying the wrong thing again.
She would try not to talk much until Eric’s book came and told her the right things to say.
Soon enough, breakfast was over, and it was time for class.
Spell Casting and Crafting was held at the Luxarium, the shimmering crystalline building that Ari had been to yesterday. The classroom itself was a hall of tempered glass, and though sunlight poured in, it didn’t feel overwhelmingly bright, as though the glass panels themselves had bent and shifted to create the perfect amount of illumination.
Rows of heavy oak desks were arranged on one side, and on the other, a teacher’s desk and a hardened, black glass panel instead of a blackboard.
Ari walked in with Lyra, and Professor Valeria was already standing in front.
Her eagle-like gaze zeroed in on Ari, making her feel like she was under a light beam.
“Do you want to introduce yourself to the class or would you rather I make the introductions?” she asked as Ari slowed in her step.
Ari weighed the options. She likely shouldn’t talk so as not to put her foot in her mouth.
“You can do it,” she said.
Valerie’s expression didn’t change. “Have a seat for now. I’ll call on you later.”
As Ari went to take the desk next to Lyra’s, Professor Valeria called, “Riorke.”
“Yes?” answered a tall, muscular boy who was sitting at the back chatting with another dark-haired boy.
“To the front, please.”
He swallowed as he got to his feet, his miniscroll and wand in one hand.
He didn’t walk with any kind of urgency, as though hesitant to get to his destination.
When he stood there, Professor Valeria waited till the class had settled before she told him, “The spell is [Quick Switch]. Target those two smaller wall ornaments.”
Ari perked up. She knew that one. It was a spell that exchanged one item with another within a given region.
It was a Tier 3 single-stage spell, Calor and Luxa with a Massa anchor in the middle. Fairly easy to do.
However, Riorke heaved a heavy sigh as he waved his wand. “[Quick Switch].”
Nothing happened.
His dark-haired friend at the back snorted, and Riorke’s face flamed.
“I see you still lack focus, Young Lord Camhanach.”
“I’m trying.”
“Try a little harder,” Professor Valeria said.
He did it again, and this time the two wall ornaments exploded, startling everyone in the class.
“Riorke!”
“Sorry,” he said. “You know I can’t help it, Professor.”
“Yes, you can. You simply refuse to train.”
“I have trained.”
“I mean train your mind.” She shook her head. “I’ll come back to you later. I can’t afford to explode any more things.” She turned away from him and gestured with her chin. “Lyra, you’re up next.”
Lyra looked distinctly pale as she took her wand and miniscroll to the front of the class, as Riorke returned to his seat.
“Perform a [Minor Vitality] spell. On that plant right there.”
Lyra bit her lip, pointed at one of the vases in the corner, and said, “[Minor Vitality].”
Ari knew what was supposed to happen. The plant was supposed to glow, the leaves perking up.
Yet not even a breeze touched it.
“That’s a spell you’ve done before, Lyra,” Professor Valeria said.
“I know, Professor.”
“We’ve had extra sessions concerning this, and I’ve counseled you many times. You managed to get it right once. What’s stopping you now?”
“I don’t know, Professor.”
Ari did. Lyra had simply never let the bonds form. The essences had been slow to move, with the Vitae orbs pacing faster than the rest. Its assembly skimmed close to the six-second limit, but that wasn’t the true problem.
It was that before the bonds could form, Lyra had somehow let go of the essences, and they’d drifted away again.
“Your core strength remains too frail,” Professor Valeria said, and Ari nearly stuck up her hand to tell her that wasn’t the problem at all. Lyra’s core was a little weak, but she had managed to grasp the essences and move them into the right orientation.
Her only issue was letting go too soon.
She would have said all this if she weren’t trying her hardest not to talk and offend Lyra.
“Tell me, Lyra,” Professor Valeria leaned on one hip. “What do you suppose the problem is?”
Lyra shook her head. “All I know is that I’m trying my best.”
“I understand, but trial without progress is sometimes worse than no trial at all.”
“Yes, Professor, I know,” Lyra said in a low voice. “I’ll try harder.”
“Please do. Severance is just around the corner. It would be a shame to lose someone with your potential.”
If possible, Lyra paled even more.
“Brutal,” someone whispered behind Ari.
“That’s Professor Val for you,” someone responded. “She takes no prisoners.”
The Professor had Lyra try two more spells. She only managed the last one which was a Tier 1 [Windscribe] spell which allowed you to draw symbols in the air.
Lyra took a deep breath once she was done. She was a little shaky as she walked back to sit at her desk, looking down at her hands.
“You’re still awesome, Lyra,” one of the twins said, and she only offered a weak smile without looking up.
Riorke suddenly stuck his hand in the air.
“Ms. Valeria–”
“Professor Valeria,” she corrected.
“Professor Valeria, can’t I just–”
“No.”
“But you didn’t even let me-”
“Because I already know what you’re going to ask, and the answer is no. It will continue to be no every single time you repeat the question, so it frustrates me to no end that you keep asking.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I suppose you want to merely be an essence-bound Knight like your brother was, rather than a full-blown spell-casting mage. Not in my class. Not if I have anything to say about it. Don’t get me wrong, I won’t deny you have the skills to make an excellent Knight one day.”
Riorke grinned.
“But the limitation you seek to place on yourself will not serve you in the real world, as it did not serve your brother in his final battle.”
Riorke’s smile dropped. He flinched at that, looking like he’d been slapped.
The Professor seemed to realize that she had taken it too far, and gentled her voice. “What you need, Riorke, is to mentally unblock. Get extra guided meditation as I told you to. Add some relaxation exercises and learn to just focus. You can do it. You just need to believe you can.”
Riorke’s jaw flexed as he clenched his teeth. He didn’t look at the Professor as he nodded.
She nodded. “Okay, for the final testee of the morning, I’d like to invite our new student. Arielle Blacksoil.”
“Good luck,” a smaller boy seated next to Arielle shot her a smile, his two front teeth longer than the rest.
“Thank you,” Ari responded, gathering her wand, miniscroll and quill.
As she walked to the front, she hoped that they would call out one of the six hundred and thirty spells that she knew.
“Okay, Arielle,” Professor Valeria said when she’d reached the front of the room, facing the class. “I’m going to give three spells to complete. That gives me a better gauge of what your skills are than any stat sheet could.”
Arielle nodded. She had her wand in one hand and her miniscroll and quill in the other. The mini-scroll held some of the more complex diagrams that would have been hard for her to memorize.
Then she waited.
“The first spell is [Flashlight].”
Ari breathed a sigh of relief. That was one she knew, a Tier 3 spell. A controlled orb that was not quite as bright as [Flashblind], but had an adjustable level of light which she could also shift around at will.
Equation: Luxa 𝞪 + Luxa 𝞫 + 2(Massa 𝞪)
Shape: Luxa star combined with a massa ring.
“Do you know it?” The professor asked Ari.
She nodded. She put up a wand and whispered the spell.
“Good,” the professor kept speaking as Ari recalled the exact form in her head. “Now though it’s only a Tier 3 spell, [Flashlight] is deceptively complex and I expect you’ll get it wrong the first time, because it requires exceptional–”
Valeria’s words cut off when several people in the class gasped and pointed, making her turn to look at Arielle again.
The girl had a small ball of light balancing perfectly at the tip of her wand.
Valeria’s eyes flared.
“Sorry,” Arielle said, because she knew instantly that she’d done something wrong. “I should have waited for you to say ‘go’.”