Lindenburg University

Leum wore his glasses today. His eyes hurt from wearing his contacts for too many days and needed to let them breathe. Grabbing his lunch box that held his triple-decker turkey, cheese, mayo sandwich, and rice, Leum was out the door.

His holowatch read 07:40, August 16th, 2023. Leum had a fifteen-minute walk to work.

It was a brisk walk from Leum's apartment he was bumming at to his job at the University of Lindenburg. Passing by the excited college kids going to magic theory or training caused him some sadness in the beginning, but now that he has established a place where he has accepted that he will never have magic.

Lindenburg University was the best magic university on Earth. Located on the west coast of North America, Lindenburg boasted a population of eighty thousand students and thirty thousand professors and researchers.

Having grown used to the oversized training field surrounded by statues spouting water fifty feet in the air, and the magical beasts running and flying around with students holding on for dear life, Leum made it to Vanhallen Hall.

"Hey Leum!"

"What's up man?"

"What's the guest password of the day?"

After greeting colleagues and answering inquiries on his way to the service desk, Leum sat down and went through his morning routine of answering the ticket queue and taking calls.

Having worked at the service desk for a year and a half, he knew the university almost like the back of his hand.

At the age of twenty-one, Leum never awoke as a mage. Which wasn't too surprising. His parents were Agicks, non-magical people. Twenty percent of the human population throughout the solar system were Agicks.

Did Leum want to have magic? Heck Yeah! But even though he has accepted that magic was not in the cards for him, there will always be a tiny part of him that hopes, one day, any day, that he will awaken magic of his own.

"Leum, I need you to go check on room 504. It's Tabitha again, she wants to make sure everything is set up so nothing goes wrong when classes start in a few days." Leum's colleague popped up behind him.

"Gotcha, I'll head up there." I marked my holowatch as 'Staff Calls Only' and got up.

As I headed out the door I heard, "Who wants to bet she has not turned the computer on yet?"

"I'll bet lunch that she has the holo is on audio only."

Shaking his head, he made his way up the service stairs and swiped the holowatch to open the door. The university is peculiar about making sure its students and staff get enough exercise. So, they made the elevators cramped to make people take the stairs more. Three days from now there will be freshmen, freshies as the staff like to call them, lining up and crowding the elevators.

Grateful to be out of the office and standing, Leum passed by random professors and early bird students and found 504.

Knocking twice before entering, "Heard you wanted an extra hand?"

The brunette beauty turned around and exclaimed, "I am so sorry for making you come all the way up here, but it's my second-semester teaching, and wanted to make sure it went better than the first."

Tabitha is not known for being the best at using anything past a holo watch.

"No problem. Want to run through it a few times to make sure you have it down?" Leum had no problem helping her out. It did not hurt that she was only five years older than him and pretty.

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Adjusting my Lindenburg-issued ball cap, used to cover my receding hairline, Leum said, "I think you are good to go!"

"Thank you so much, I would have to go back to the whiteboard if it wasn't for the service desk." Tabitha sighed as she leaned back in her chair.

Walking out the door, "If you need any help, do not hesitate to call us!"

After making it inside the service stairs Leum muttered, "Glad I am not a student of hers."

This was not because of her technical prowess, or lack thereof, it was her attitude while teaching.

Last semester Leum had to help Tabitha because the classrooms' automated bot cleaner, abc for short, started up in the middle of class and would not respond to the holopad on the wall.

After being voluntold to go fix the abc, in the middle of fiddling with the cleaning times some students started disrupting the peace by poking fun at Leum being an Agick.

Tabitha did not like that AT ALL. The next thing Leum and the class knew they were all feeling pressure descend upon the room like gravity increased, and started sweating. Her aura was heavy enough to silence everyone and Leum paused his work because he could not withstand the pressure and fix the abc at the same time.

After everyone quieted down and Leum fixed the bot. Tabitha later apologized profusely for using her aura on Leum as well, not thinking about what it would do to him as a non-magician.

The rest of Leum's day went smoothly as he finished up his work and headed out.

"Bye everyone!" he waved.

"See ya tomorrow."

"Later."

Walking out of the building, Leum stretched upwards and made his way back to his apartment.

The practical training was still going on at five o'clock in the evening. Fire spewed from out of thin air, the earth rose and fell in waves, high-intensity fist fights, and more filled the practice field. Standing in wonder and amazement as always, Leum stood by to learn.

He obviously could not perform any of it, but Leum knew this was a scene that not many Agicks could witness.

Hearing a slight rise in voices to his left he turned to see the hunched back of a girl walking away from the jeers.

With a sigh, Leum thought, 'Must be another low talent. All the freshies attack them every year to bring themselves up.'

He decided to leave because of the ruined atmosphere and made the short trek home.