5 Unwanted Help

Chapter 4 – Unwanted Help

Before I could find a chance to talk Alkon out of his decision to help me, the teacher returned with a group of familiar faces. It was not only the by now slightly irritated looking prince but also the upstart girl with her friends or rather followers! My luck was the worst.



"This should be enough," the teacher decided as soon as she had reached our group. "We should be going now. Has anybody of you any questions?"



For a moment, it looked as if Alkon wanted to raise his hand and address her, but luckily he decided against it after thinking about it again. I couldn't help but breath out in relief.



"That's good then. Please follow me for now. We have prepared some of the classrooms for the tests."



After explaining this, the teacher led us out of the hall that was still drowned in noise as countless men and women of all ages tried to make their voices be heard. She showed us the way to a building nearby that was at least slightly more silent, making it somewhat bearable.

This new building looked far smaller than the large hall we had just left. It only had one floor and a slightly pitched roof which used the same large copper plates I had seen before, here, however, they were much older. The course of time and especially the weather had long since given them a beautiful turquoise color.

The walls of this school building had been erected with the same sandstones that had been used for the great hall, here, however, they looked far nobler thanks to the dark wood surrounding it like frames. It remembered me of an old half-timber house, though it obviously was much more modern and solid.

When we entered the building, I realized it had the shape of a square or edged ring, with a large inner courtyard to hollow it out. While the later was perfectly shielded from the views of anybody passing by the building, as soon as we had entered we were greeted by large windows allowing you to watch anybody who trained here.

Right now, a group of students or rather candidates for enrollment were gathered on the courtyard. They fought duels with each of them facing one opponent and two teachers watching each and every one of their moves.



«They are giving scores for style? I can use that!»



"Looks like we have to test your magic capabilities for now."

"We will fight too?" Alkon asked.



Alkon's voice revealed his dejection. He didn't seem fond of this part of the Academy's tests but by far preferred the ones for magic instead.

It obviously was the same for me as magic both allowed me to easily cheat and didn't come with any risk of my clothes getting messy enough to reveal what I was hiding – though I had made sure they wouldn't.



"It only is a test of strength, essentially," the woman tried to reassure him. "There is nothing to be afraid of."

"I'm not afraid!"

"Oh? Let's test you first, then!"

"What?!"



I could hear snickers coming from a few of the girls and boys surrounding us, but most of them seemed to be relieved instead. Only the prince didn't care at all – and me of course. Why would it matter to me who I would fight against? As long as I lost, everyone would be fine!



"This room should be free," the teacher mumbled to herself before opening a door to one of the eight classrooms surrounding the training ground.



The room itself was rather vast, but it didn't have more than thirteen seats and tables to choose. One of them stood in front of a large chalkboard and several cupboards and was obviously meant for the teacher, the other twelve were evenly spread in the room in four rows with three tables each. Alkon immediately chose for a seat in the middle, sat down and pointed at the neighboring desk.



"Sit next to me," he demanded, "I can help you then."



«He really meant it.»



The teacher waited for a few minutes for us to sit down and stop talking before she opened a nearby cupboard. Without losing a single word on explaining what she was doing, she selected six small wooden chests and placed them on her desk. Each of the chests had a large rune carved into its front, which additionally had been painted in the colors representing one of the six elements they were dedicated to.



"Please take out your invitation letters for now," she asked us.

 

I pulled out the envelope I had stuck into my vest before, opened it and placed the invitation onto the desk. A part of me wished to tear it apart this very second, but I knew that wouldn't help me in any way. There would just a new one arriving a few days later and I would certainly lose the chance to freely decide on which school I want to enroll to.

 

«Damn it.»

 

While I still was still busy thinking about all the possible ways to rid of the curse that had come upon me in the form of this single sheet of paper, the teacher placed just another one of them on my desk.

The paper had a long, empty line for my name on it and a chart that listed all six elements of magic. After testing me, the teacher would probably write down my hopefully poor results in the empty space right next to the runes.

 

"Does this burn?" I heard myself ask.

"I am sure you will be fine, Sera," Alkon tried to calm me down. "No need to give up so soon!"

"I'm not giving up."

"That's the spirit! Much better, pal!"

"..."



After she had distributed all of the sheets, the teacher went back to her desk and picked up the first of the six chests. It had a roundish, silver-colored rune on it which symbolized the element of light.

"I will appraise your potential for light magic first," she explained. "Light magic is used mainly for healing purposes, and is thus considered the most valuable of all elements."

She opened the chest and pulled forth a more or less ball-shaped stone that, too, had the rune for light on it. This time it was painted on rather than carved, but the color and shape remained the same.

The teacher chose the boy sitting closest to her for her first test. She put the stone in the palm of his hand and instructed him to close his eyes and concentrate. The boy took a few seconds to decide on a more or less relaxed posture before he breathed in deeply.

"Good. Now imagine your mana moving into the palm of your hand, and into the stone. You will feel it as a wave of warmth"

It didn't take him long to figure out what to do. Feeling and moving your mana was something that could be considered to be one of the basic requirements needed to enroll in any of the schools, so he obviously had exercised it to some extent. I, too, had learned how to do it, though I would use that knowledge to do the exact opposite: I would hide my magic!

The stone in the hand of the boy didn't change in color, size or anything. It just sat there, on the palm of his hands. The teacher could only sigh before writing down the negative result. He had no potential for light magic.

It was the same for the two girls sitting next to him, and the boy sitting on the other side of Alkon. He himself tried his hardest to do it better. He pulled up his legs to sit cross-legged, closed his eyes and concentrated. Pearls of sweat were forming on his forehead as he tried to move the mana towards his hand and into the stone.

It worked. I could clearly see that it did, everybody could. The silver light coming from the stone was faint, but as the lighting in the room was rather dim it could still be seen easily.

"Well done, mister..."

"Alkon."

"Ah, thank you. You can consider yourself lucky, Alkon. If you work hard enough, you will be able to use healing magic."

A slight smile grew on her face as she wrote down a big 'C' next to the symbol for light. When she then picked up the stone and placed it into my hand instead, I couldn't help but feel bad for her. Maybe I had the potential for light magic, maybe I didn't. I would never find out, at least not today.

«Sorry, teacher~»