CHAPTER 12: The Test

Once inside, he dropped on his bed, seeing his green egg in the exact place he left it on his bed before moving to fish his wand out of his pocket where he had stuffed it, 

Slowly, remembering exactly how he had stuttered in shock upon seeing the wand he was given by the headmaster, 

"A go..gold wand?" He asked as he wondered when exactly he stepped into the wonderful dream he suddenly found himself in, 

"See it as part of the final test to determine if you truly deserve to be in the academy," said the voice he heard in the lobby right before he was sent out of it, 

Staring at his new wand that was only given to students in their fourth year, Ashen couldn't help but feel undeserving, however, he decided to put it to good use,

Throughout the remainder of the week, he practised tirelessly visiting both the library and the training halls as he practised his spells to the best of his ability, however, nothing seemed to change as his already terrible spells became only slightly better…

"Delari...Incendio," yelled Ashen for the ninety-seventh time as he stood alone in the training hall, drenching in his own sweat instead of being at the cafeteria for dinner, 

"Delari...Incendio," yelled Ashen again, immediately after visualizing the result as best as he could only to watch as a small round ball of flame appeared and flew for a few seconds before flickering away, 

"Maybe concentrating on wind spells which is your element will yield better results," came a voice from behind him as Ashen immediately jerked to look behind him, only to be astonished at the sight of Wein who was the best friend to Makin, his worst bully, 

"I didn't know you cared…," Ashen said breathing heavily as he tried his best to stay calm even as Wein walked closer to him, until he stood right in front of him close enough to feel his breath across his face, 

"...and what makes you think I do?" Wein asked going as far as to brush the tips of Ashen's hair that managed the graze his forehead as they fell dangerously close to his eyes, 

"Well... it's nice to know you don't," Ashen immediately replied with a sense of urgency in his voice as he quickly stepped away from Wein while wondering what suddenly possessed him to act in such a way, 

"I'm off," Ashen said already moving towards the door when he suddenly heard Wein speak from behind which made him halt for a second at the entrance, 

"I wish you luck in the exam. You're going to need it more than you think," he declared in a somewhat confident tone, however, Ashen has already left and Wein was left in the second year training hall, alone.

On getting to his room, wanting to vent his anger at himself, the first thing Ashen felt the urge to do to throw his wand away and he had already pulled it out of his pocket aiming it for the wall when he suddenly paused right before taking a deep breath, 

"I need to have my head checked. How the hell would I explain a broken wand a day before the second-year exams. It's almost like I'm begging to be expelled," mumbled Ashen to himself right before smacking his forehead as hard as he could, with his right palm, 

*************

The day after was the test for second years while the other years had a completely different day,

Ashen was up early even though he barely slept at all throughout the night, as he couldn't stop thinking about the test and how truly terrible his magical powers were, 

Still, he got dressed, and was about to head out the door when he decided to pick the green egg he had been given as a good luck sign, 

Stuffing it in his pockets right before leaving his apartment, Ashen then headed out of the second year dormitory where most of the 150students from Class A, B and C were already gathered, waiting in anticipation for their headmaster, 

"I'm sure to be nothing less than among the top ten people in my class after this test. I'm so done being the eleventh rank in my class" boasted a boy with blond hair as Ashen heard him talking confidently amongst his friends, 

"That's good Allen. All the rest of us can hope for is not to drop to the bottom ten or twenties since no one knows what the criteria would be this time around," whined a dark-skinned girl standing beside her friend Allen, whom Ashen was sure was in his class and was closer to a ten than a twenty, 

He stood by the side observing everything about him when he and everybody else suddenly went silent the moment they noticed the presence of the Headmaster in their midst, 

"Good morning," chorused the students in unison, only for the headmaster to wave their greetings aside, 

"After the test, Anyone I consider unworthy would be immediately expelled while the rest of you would move on to your third year which is when you would be properly thought of as being official students of the school," the headmaster began in a loud and unhurried tone as his eyes fleeted over all the students, including Ashen who thought that he might have spent an extra second looking at him over the others, 

With curiosity and tempered anxiety, the second year students watched as their headmaster began weaving signs in the air while muttering under his breath as they easily began aware that he was in the middle of casting a spell, 

"You will receive all the information you need the moment you are teleported there and kindly keep in mind that where you're going is the real world. If you die there, then you are truly dead," explained the headmaster as quickly as he could seeing the folly of casting a huge teleportation spell without saying anything before it, 

"God's speed," he said underneath his breath with a snap of his fingers, watching them all disappear all in one go from his sight, 

"You'll all need it," he said with a huge sigh before bringing his right and to his long beard, slowly stroking it without seeming to be any kind of hurry whatsoever, 

"You're definitely too harsh on them," came a female voice from beside him right before she materialized into reality and could be seen, dressed from head to toe in blood-red that would make anyone wary of her and an innocent face, that made people want to do the opposite,

"The least you could have said was the location you were throwing them into. The mental preparation would have helped a few of them and increased their survival...at this stage, some of them would have life-long scars to remember the school by," she warned with a sad expression on her face that matched her tone, 

"If they pass the test, they are yours Aleesia, but until then they are mine...even if all you get are parts of them," Dramus replied as he slowly began to walk away from her and towards his office only to hear her shout at his retreating back, 

" Aren't you going to even check on them?" She asked with a worried look on her face as she thought of her future students, 

"I already left capable people in charge," was the only reply Aleesia got as Dramus continues walking away without looking back, 

"I sure hope they aren't who I hope it is," she muttered to herself in alarm right before snapping her fingers and disappearing in a flash from the academy grounds almost like she was never there, with no other intention but to peek at the test Dramus set.