9 Importance of a Name

"I see. What's special about that academy?" As Myra had no idea of all the academies, it could not hurt to get more information about them. After all it would be a place she would likely stay for quite a while. Finding a good place would be really important.

"It's one of the top academies in the city. Our dad is an instructor there too, so we might have a slightly better chance to get in. They also don't discriminate so much between nobles and commoners and even though the training is hard, you learn a lot and people are treated equally, well for the most part."

"Dad said with the northern border seeing more and more magical creatures and bandits there, it won't help to have all these people from the other academies, who only get taught theory and a bare minimum of the practical stuff. We will soon need more people who make a change, not more of those sitting on their asses doing nothing." Liam added to the information his brother already provided. He seemed rather emotional about it.

"Yeah, as Liam already said, it can't hurt to have more people who defend the borders instead of sitting inside the city doing nothing. We've had a cousin who lived in a village not far away from the border, before they were attacked by bandits. It wasn't a pretty sight and there were barely any who survived. Silverspire Military Academy might have a harsh training regime, but they also frequently let their teachers and students get out there and get some real experience. Luminos is a peaceful country, everyone knows that, but it doesn't mean we let our fellow kinsmen get slaughtered while doing nothing."

"Sounds like a good place to learn a lot. Maybe I should try to get accepted there as well."

Myra decided this seemed as good a place as any other she might be able to find. At least she might even know someone there who could explain a little bit more about the world. She still felt totally unprepared for any of this, but at the same time she was really excited about all the new things to learn.

They had to wait a little bit longer before the people sent by the academies as well as some officials finally arrived. Myra could quickly tell who among them would be the type of person 'to sit on their asses and do nothing' as Liam put it and who seemed to be serious about it. Some of those seniors had an aura only those who had seen many battles would have. Others... well they completely lacked anything of that sort.

It was funny to see those battle hardened warriors who were sent by a few of the academies getting impatient as they had to listen to all the things those city officials had to say. They looked as if they could barely hold themselves back from strangling the people who held those long winded speeches.

Then it finally started and one by one the young girls and boys were lining up to register their names. They would also have to make an oath of some sort that they are not here to spy on or sabotage the country in any way. While the academies were open to everyone, even foreigners, no one wanted for anyone from another country to use the information and skills they learned here against their own countrymen.

The first part of the examinations was all about written tests. None of them seemed hard for Myra, but seeing as it was just one of the first steps she did not expect it to be overly hard. Once completed those who passed were lined up again for the next parts.

Myra stood together with Nell and Liam in a line, waiting for their turn.

"Hey rabble, I look forward to seeing you fail and beg for scraps!" not far from them some kids from the Dunn family tried to provoke them. It might even have worked if Myra would not have put her hand on Nell's shoulder and told him to calm down.

"They are so not worth it, just forget about them."

They watched, as the boy who wanted to cause trouble stepped up, haughtily announced his name as 'Rivald Dunn' for all around to hear and then showed off his magical abilities with the earth element.

Myra had to admit, that this Rivald's talent with earth magic was far better than any of those people of her village who trained in it, but it was still not enough for her to be impressed. While he threw out a lot of power for a 14 year old, she also noticed that his skill was still far from sufficient when it came to using that power efficiently. If she tried, she would likely be able to achieve the same effects with only a fraction of the same power used.

"So much wasted power, what a fool." she said more to herself than to anyone else, but it did not take long for many people to stare at her. They all thought she was just some arrogant kid, not knowing anything about magic, but still talking big.

Soon Nell and Liam got the chance to show their abilities. They had no special name and Myra never asked about their talents, because it seemed rude to do so, but she was still nodding at their display of skill. While Nell seemed to train as magical knight and had a decent understanding of handling a sword, Liam showed his skills as a mage, surprising Myra with his rather offensive style, using fire in a way rather unlike his usually shy personality.

She was not certain what gave her the knowledge to judge their skills, but it seemed yet another intuitive action that she could not really explain.

In the end, both boys got their wish and were accepted into the Silverspire Military Academy and it was soon her own turn.

"State your full name and then swear the oath that you will not use the knowledge gained to cause harm to Luminos while touching the crystal." The official asked her, not unlike all of the others before. Myra stepped up held her hand on the crystal and spoke her name.

"Myra Elení Aer" the crystal started glowing in a soft blue color, confirming the truth of her words. She just wanted to start with the oath when she suddenly noticed the strange changes around her.

All the chaotic voices and all the talk close by seemed to have died down. There was an area of pin-drop silence spreading out like a wildfire in a dry forest.

Even the official in front of her seemed to be frozen like a stone statue.

Not sure what was wrong and without any further information what to do, Myra continued with the oath by herself, hoping that the official would wake up from his stupor soon.

"Did she just say her name is Aer?" someone behind her whispered and his question was soon answered. "Yes, I heard it too, when did the royal family have a princess with the name Myra though, especially such a pretty one? Did they hide her or something?"

Finally the official started to react again. "Your highness, it makes me happy to have you join us in this round of the academies' examinations." He had a smile on his face, trying to hide his nervousness and his confusion, but it was easy enough to tell that this was something he did not anticipate at all.

At the same time Nell and Liam who stood a little further away looked at each other in shock.

"Did we seriously have a chat and eat snacks with a princess?" Nell mumbled and Liam just nodded not really believing it himself.

Myra on the other hand was totally confused. She had never even seen someone from the royal family, let alone being a princess herself. What implication did her name have exactly and why would it lead to all of them thinking she was a princess?

No one gave her enough time to think it through slowly, there was also no one she could just ask right away. She just followed the official to show her skills and did her best to act naturally.

"Your highness, is there any magical affinity you have and any magic you would like to show us?" the official carefully asked. He had a good idea of the royal family's skill with wind magic, but he did not dare to assume that this girl in front of him would be the same. What if she was some outcast with the bloodline, but without any ability?

"Mmn." Myra just nodded, but did not explain any further causing the official to get even more nervous.

"What magic would you like to show us?" he inquired further after some time of not getting anything more specific. "Elemental magic? Non elemental magic?"

"All of them." Myra simply answered him, still not sure how this process worked exactly. What if the academy wanted some specific magic? Liam was skilled in fire magic, but maybe they only needed a limited amount of fire mages? As she had no idea about how they all picked students, she might as well just show off all of her skills. Hopefully it included something that would get her accepted.

"A-All of them. Sure. You ... you mean all seven types of magic?" confirming it with yet another nod, Myra just decided to show all her different magic abilities at the same time.

She created a small ball of flame in midair, turned it into a raging fire by adding a gust of wind magic, doused it all with water magic, only for it to freeze into an icicle. The icicle then turned into an earth spike still hovering in the air. She enchanted it with an illusion to make it change color, like a rainbow, before she turned around, letting the earth spike drop behind her back. A burst of aura could be felt and she caught the spike with her hands without even looking. Only a few people would notice this part as being divination magic as it was so subtle. At the very end she used dimensional magic to teleport the spike onto the examiner's little desk.

To a person who had no idea of magic, none of what she did looked awe inspiring. None of her spells were big or showy, the strength used was minimal and there were barely any fluctuations of magical power surrounding her. Those skilled however all held their breath during her demonstration.

It was rare to see someone use magical power this young so efficiently. It was not something that could be learned quickly and required a lot of experience. Neither was it easy to reduce the magical fluctuations to a very minimum. In an ambush this skill might become very important.

One didn't even have to mention, that she used not just one, but all seven of her magic types with such ease and elegance, that it was hard to find even master mages who were as comfortable with their own magic.

"An exceptional performance. I thank your highness for showing us your magical ability."

Myra flinched when she was called 'your highness' again but soon continued on showing her weapon skills. No one expected her to show any knight skills after she already had a substantial amount of experience as a mage, but they were as much impressed with her knight abilities as they were with her magical ones.

For all the other candidates, the representatives of the academies would all speak out on their own if they were interested in someone. It was not that Myra's talents were not exceptional, actually they were much better than all the candidates before her, but none of these representatives dared to be the first to step on this political battlefield.

They had no idea what the royal family planned for her and no idea how to deal with a princess who suddenly came out of nowhere.

"Senior! We have to invite her to our academy." Nell mumbled to the one in charge, seeing that no one wanted to be the first to invite the young lady.

For a moment, the rough looking teacher who was responsible for inviting new talents to their academy looked at Nell and wanted to scold him for making a bad joke, however when he saw the honest and serious face of the boy he changed his mind. 'Invite a princess with such a heaven defying talent? Would this not upset the royal family?' he pondered for a moment longer before steeling his heart. 'To hell with it, might be about time we get someone who might actually make a difference.'

"Silverspire Military Academy invites her highness Myra to join our academy. While we will not be able to provide you the same benefits other academies might give you, with such an exceptional status, we are proud about the fact that we are second to none in the whole empire when it comes to practical expertise and application of what we teach."

A smile could be seen on Myra's face. Before any of the other representatives could even make their own offers, she stepped down from the stage and moved over to the place where the new students of the Military Academy were located.

"I accept, thank you a lot for your invitation." Myra smiled at Nell and Liam, happy to have been accepted as well.

This might have been the first time in history that such an unexpected thing happened during the examinations. Some people still discussed who the young princess might be and who her parents could be. It was not rare for mages and magic knights to have children after hundreds of years. All they knew was that even though she was an adorable girl that would grow into a real beauty when she got older, she did not look similar to any of the royal family members.