Here we were, at the gates of a college I knew very well. I was never too interested in attending the college. I knew better. At least, I thought I did. I never did see myself as a very athletic, intelligent, savvy, or interesting person. I thought myself fairly average, comfortable with living out the same daydream most boys did. Protecting the innocent, rescuing young girls with my silver blade held at a bandit’s throat, dismantling entire squadrons of evildoers… the one dream Satsu would make sure never came true.
“Where are we?” I feigned ignorance.
“Calieu,” she said proudly. “It’s a huge college filled with magical creatures, studying mages, a whole plethora of topics to explore. It’s perfect for a bookworm like you!”
I don’t know where she got the impression I was a bookworm. I couldn’t recall ever walking around with one, talking about one, or anything of the matter. Is that something girls like her just assume of quiet, weird boys like me? I’m not sure, but I answered her the way she probably wanted.
“Even so. Me casting magic? I think I’d do a lot less damage as a knight.”
“You wouldn’t last a week as a knight.” She shooed away the proposition like a mosquito. “Give it a try, you’ll like it!”
“Magic, huh?” I held my palm out to look at it. I couldn’t conjure a thing yet, but if I decided to take this path I could manifest something immaterial and wholly deadly. “I… I’ll give it a try.”
“Yes!”
Satsu practically leapt for joy at my acceptance.
* * *
Satsu and I separated. A weird feeling. She had not left my side since I made my decision to become an adventurer. I was alone like a naked babe, left to wander the academy in a set of robes I could only just barely afford. With my books held under my arm, I journeyed through a long ornate corridor, the ceiling stood arched and the white marble floors brimmed with excellence. I trailed behind a small crowd of students pouring into a room for their first lesson. And mine.
I clasped the beam of the door as I entered, quickly and timidly locating a desk and seating myself. A couple of the students looked at me strangely but no one said a word. I took a table as far away from the crowd as I could. Yes, a table. I guess desks weren’t a thing in this academy. The window would be a nice way to dissuade people from sitting down with me. Or so I thought.
Three others came down to sit at my table. A lanky boy with black hair and robes similar to mine sat to my left. Across from me was a woman about the same height as me, brown hair and blue eyes. To my right a guy I could only describe as ‘cocky’ sat down, his robes dyed a red color unusual from the others in the classroom.
“Yo,” the guy to my right saluted with his pointer and middle fingers. “New here?”
I nodded.
“You’ll get into the swing of it. Mister Claristo has his way of making sure students participate. Doesn’t he, Tsuki?”
The girl across from me rolled her eyes. “Something like that.”
“Name’s Dave by the way,” he reached out his hand and I shook it with what I thought was a natural reciprocation. I hope they saw it that way. “That guy there, his name is Larule. Quiet, but sinisterly intelligent.”
Dave smiled and Larule shot a glare at him.
“So this is your group of friends or something?” I asked.
“Friends might be pushing it,” said Tsuki. “Partners, more like.”
“Why you still so cold? I thought I warmed your heart by now,” said Dave.
“Oh my god,” Tsuki whined. “Just sit down, Dave. It’s too early for this.”
Three loud, dull claps caught the attention of the class and with its demanding sound the students seated themselves.
“That’s Mister Claristo,” whispered Dave. “Just don’t get on his bad side and you’ll pass.”
“You’re mages already?” I asked bewildered.
Dave just smiled.
* * *
“The machine is sensitive. What are you doing? You have to treat it like a woman, be gentle.”
Tsuki raised an eyebrow. I stood beside as I awaited my turn. I wasn’t sure at the time since I had just met her, but I had the distinct feeling she didn’t like this man.
“Okay, get out of here, you’ve had your try.” Claristo practically shoved the failing student away from the machine situated at the center of the room. The student caught his balance but was clearly disappointed in himself, his lips sucked in as he fought back the tears. “Next!” Claristo made the demand like a drill sergeant, his voice clear but and rough like an old dwarf who swallowed a barrel of nails.
Tsuki stepped up to the upside down, diamond-shaped machine with grace. So much so that I swore she floated. Tsuki climbed few stairs leading up to the machine and looked to the cabinet to her right. Claristo waved his hand and the cabinets shut close. It rumbled and shook, the clanking and clacking of bottles and instruments threatening to break loose out of its wooden prison and spill upon the floor. Claristo waved his hand a second time and the cabinet went silent. The doors opened on their own and a wide array of different tinctures, chemicals, bits and pieces of creatures lied in wait.
“You may proceed,” said Claristo.
Only now could I see how thin and sullen Tsuki truly was. Her robes hid her small frame, the pads of the shoulders giving her a stronger than true appearance. Her arms peeked out from underneath her robes and keeping her hands distant from each in a symmetrical fashion, she moved her hands and bowed her head, reciting some strange incantation. A foggy mist of purples and sprinkled blues twisted and turned, coiling around the machine as if possessed.
“Lock,” said Tsuki. At the word, a blue light flashed from the tip of her pointer finger. If you blinked you missed it. She rested her arms and looked at her professor. “May I?”
“You may.”
Her palm held out, three bottles, two colored a vibrant, nearly florescent pink, and another filled with what I thought was ink, floated over to her. The bottles were small enough that she held each one between a set of fingers, pour them one by one into the small chamber at the base. She raised her hand up to the cabinet once more and two stranger objects made their way over to her through the air—a tuft of white fur that seemed to have a tail attached, and a deep red thorn long enough to pierce the heart and then some. Holding one object in each hand, Tsuki crushed the tail in her hand, a blue light emanating from the shattered remains. She tipped her hand and poured the pieces of, swatting away the remainder like dust. Tsuki neared the concoction and took a cautious whiff of it.
“What’s she doing? That’s not part of the test.” I whispered to Dave.
“Oh, it is. Just watch.”
Whipping out the thorn like a conductor’s baton, she moved it in all fashions. Figure eights, up and down, side to side, I couldn’t tell what she was doing. It was as if she was playing with the pot or singing to it, I don’t know which. She suddenly stopped and dipped the thorn into the soup. Nothing happened. She smiled and stirred the soup clockwise for at least a minute or two, tapped the thorn against the side of the machine every so often and sniffing it. She’d continue again and again until at last she set the thorn on a nearby table. Tsuki took the lid with both hands and shut it tight, moving the clasps into place so as not to disturb the concoction. She pressed four buttons. The third button twice, the fourth button once, and the first button last. Tsuki took two steps back and watched as the machine trembled and roared. Some of the students stood back, me being one of them. After a while the machine calmed and the students slowly came back to watch.
“I’m excited to see what you brewed, young witch,” smirked Claristo. The professor approached the door of the machine and bravely opened the hatch. I thought he was insane after what we just witnessed, but he opened it as if he were just rummaging through his drawer. He slipped on worker’s glove and held a vial between a set of tongs. Generously, he filled the vial to the brim, shaking it ever so slightly. Claristo approached a small cage carrying a muttrat, an unusually strong and dangerous type of rodent. Without any hesitation, he poured a few drops into the water dish of the creature.
The muttrat sniffed at the nearly clear liquid, a bizarre result from such thick, darkly colored substances. Two licks is all it took. The muttrat convulsed and within seconds the lower half of its jaw dropped to the ground. All of us watched in horror as the muttrat coughed up blood and black goo. It was as if it was melting. I didn’t feel like I was watching an animal die, but rather a candle melting away from an open flame. By the time it was over, only the small pinches of fur could have ever told us there was once a living creature there.
“Exquisite work,” complimented Claristo. “Your potions are as potent as ever. Marvelous. Truly.”
“Impressed yet?” whispered Dave.
Magic was a fascinating concept. Far more so than I had ever given it credit for. You could create potions to cure the wounded, poison the deadly. Command nature at will and summon forces beyond the imagination to do your every bidding. Never had I thought such a world was open to me.
“Yes,” I said, enraptured by the witch. “Very.”
That was when the door opened. A door I would later come to regret opening.
ns18.116.42.143da2
and then Add to home screen.