124 Start of the Assessmen

Two days later Jayde arrived at the bustling city of Aeris. Walking through the northern city gates Jayde found the city of Aeris was a large, intricate, labyrinth of noisy, streets and alleys.Walking down the main street, she could smell the fresh batch of sweet and spicy rolls being baked. Numerous tantalizing scents waft through the breeze.

The street was bustling with wealthy, pompous aristocrats dressed in expensive robes in multiple bright colors, intermingling with young teenagers and merchants. Servants, dressed in cheap tunics, rush through the streets, eager to complete errands for their masters

Seeing how the people around her were dressed Jayde was happy that she had stopped in a small town before arriving at Aeris, Isha had warned Jayde that her leathers would stand out, so Jayde had purchased some common pants and tunics that were worn by middle-class families, as well as exchanged some gold for local coins. With Takara on her shoulders, Jayde strolled down the streets of Aeris taking in the sights.

On the side of the street were dozens of stalls. The stalls are covered with magnificently bright cloth. They sold everything from fish, meat, loaves of bread, shimmering jewels, shining metals, and weapons. Jayde stopped at one of the stalls and bought herself a honey roll. The roll was pure white and coated in sticky, sweet honey. Taking the roll Jayde asked the stall owner for directions to Damonia Institute of Magics.

Smiling widely, the old man was happy to give Jayde directions, giving him a copper coin for his help, Jayde ambled down the street, happily eating her honey roll.

Soon Jayde left the bustling streets behind and entered an area with manicured gardens, and large ostentatious marble and gold mansions. Beast drawn carriages covered the wide streets all heading in the same direction as Jayde.

Young excited faces peered out of the carriage windows. While their drivers screamed and cursed the carriages in front of them. Some of the more luxurious carriages had smartly dressed guards who jogged beside the carriages.

Jayde had been debating with herself to hire a carriage to take her to Damonia, as the school was located outside the city, but after seeing the jam-packed road, she figured it would be quicker to walk.

Exiting the south gate, Jayde followed a road until she came up to a wooden sign with three arrows, the arrow marked Damonia Institute of Magics, pointed to a small paved path that led away from the main road, Jayde could see small groups of people ahead of her.

Jayde followed the groups of young teenagers ahead of her, the winding path led them through a small forest, until they came to an open glade at the base of a mountain. The mountain was covered in a thick layer of mist.

A large group of young people stood in front of a raised pavilion, on the pavilion was a grey-haired man sitting on a chair, Jayde was too far away to make out his features. Next to the man was a massive glass hourglass, the bottom was three-quarters full of sand, the top only had a quarter of sand left that was slowing trickling down. To the left of the pavilion was a cornered off area with about thirty griffins.

Joining the throng of people in front of the pavilion, Jayde looked around her curiously. Most of the young people were garbed in tunic and pants similar to Jayde. Their faces showing excitement, nervousness and some were bored.

A clamor of noise behind Jayde made her turn around to see what was going on. Dozens of litters were been carried in by men dressed in servants garb. The litters were carried directly to the area with the Griffins.

Once the litters were placed on the grass, the doors were open and over twenty finely dressed young men and woman were helped out of the litters by their servants. The men and women walked over to the young man standing in front of the cornered off area. Many of them threw disdainful looks at the group of people standing in front of the pavilion.

Each one of the fancy dressed people, handed over a scroll to the young man, who opened the scroll, read through it, then called a servant over, who lead the person to a griffin.

"Lucky bastards," the young girl next to Jayde muttered.

Jayde turned to look at the young girl standing next to her, she looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old, with long black hair and soft grey eyes. While you couldn't call her beautiful she was pretty.

"What's up with them?" Jayde asked the girl.

The girl looked at Jayde. "This is your first time taking the assessment?" the girl asked.

Jayde nodded.

"Those are the sons and daughters of noble families, they are exempt from taking the assessment."

Turning to look at the wealthy nobles, Jayde could see that all of them had silver life disks, so while those young nobles were rich and powerful, they were also talented. Curious Jayde looked at the life disks of the people around her, most like her had their disks under their clothes, while those that did display them, all had bronze life disks.

The girl in front of Jayde had her life disk displayed, the bronze disk showed the red flame for fire and the green tree for wood. Interesting a dual attribute mage, Jayde thought.

Jayde was about to ask the girl about the assessment when the sound of multiple griffins taking to the air filled the area, the griffins flew into the mists and soon all had disappeared swallowed up by the thick mists.

Turning around to ask the girl about the assessment, Jayde saw that she had moved off. Shrugging Jayde watched as the sands from the top glass were slowing running out. Around her many of the young people had formed small groups and were chatting merrily away.

"By the gods we made it," an excited young man's voice exclaimed behind Jayde. Turning around Jayde saw two striking young men, both were identical, with golden brown hair and light brown eyes, their faces were red and sweat beaded their foreheads. It looked as they had run most of the way here.

"See Ash I told you were would make it," the young man who had just spoken before said turning to his twin.

"Nova if you hadn't been distracted we wouldn't have had to run in the first place," the boy named Ash said coldly to his twin.

"But Ash that was a yellow grade sword," Nova whined.

Jayde lost interest in the twins and turned back to face the pavilion, the sands had nearly run out. She could hear the twin arguing in the background.

Just then the last of the sand fell and the old man stood up. Walking to the front of the pavilion, he waved his hands and he wrote a rune into the air before him, after he injected his magic into the rune a powerful ward surrounded the area.

The old man then wrote a smaller rune in the air, which he invoked.

"Welcome to this year's assessment," his voice boomed out.

Jayde had taken note of both runes, committing them to memory. The second rune must be a small magic spell that can broadcast one's voice, she thought.

"This year Damonia will only be accepting fifty new students."

At the old mages announcement, a clamor broke out as the young men and woman all started talking at once, most in dismay or anger. Looking around Jayde estimated there must be four to five hundred people in the glade.

Lifting her eyebrows in surprise, Jayde hadn't realized that the competition was so stiff.

"Quiet!" The old man's voice thundered.

Instantly the group of young people fell quiet.

"Your first assessment is simple. Make it through the school gates before sunset. Those of you who don't make it, go home."

And with that the old man walked off the stage to the last griffin standing in the cornered off area, climbing onto the back of the griffin, the old man flew off.

With the old mages departure, most of the youngsters looked at each other in confusion. Some of the older people who seemed to know what was happening had already started pushing and shoving racing for the small mountain path.

The younger people, seeing that there were students already running towards the path, began to rush as well. The peace and calm in the area was shattered as everyone started pushing and shoving trying to push their way ahead of the people in front of them.

Chaos reigned as fights started to break out, some of the young people started to weave spells, while others drew weapons. Jayde was flabbergasted at how everything around her had suddenly descended into madness.

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Quote of the day

"There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them." -- Denis Waitley