Chapter 174: Beginning College

Chapter 174: Beginning College

As he usually did each morning, Jasper Fentrix, mighty mage of the Sedgewick Mage's Guild, slowly sipped his tea and read a novel until a bit past noon. The sign on the door clearly said "Examinations of Magical Aspects begin promptly at sunrise." Jasper felt it was the first test of a mage. If you didn't have the patience to wait four hours doing nothing, then you wouldn't make it through some of the more boring classes in the academy.

Opening his door that day, he was not happy to find that there were actually three applicants who were waiting patiently for him. Sighing at the unfairness of the situation, he brought them inside, sat two in his small lobby and took the first farm boy into his study. He made a great show of looking in the boys’ ears, measuring his cranium, and checking his hands. As he suspected, the hands were callused from work, the ears needed cleaning, and his cranium was unremarkable.

"It is doubtful, that you have any aspect for magic at all, but please put you hand upon the large crystal and we'll see if it reacts."Ñøv€lRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Ñôv€lß¡n.

The farmer's son did so, and the crystal proved Jasper wrong by glowing brightly and shooting out small sparks. "You seem to have the rare combination of Storm and Light aspects. Very strange. Have you done anything in your life other than hoe turnips."

The boy frowned at him. "Nothing wrong with turnips. My dad always says that. But yes, I killed the old wolf, the Chicken thief. Caught him tearing apart my coop and took his head off with my grandfather’s sword. Now I need to go become a Paladin. The sword says so."

Jasper nodded. That was a strong combination between humble beginnings and a heroic act. Along with the boy's twin aspect he was prime material for the Order of Paladins. He wrote out an appraisal of the boy, and sent him off to the capital. Then he decided to have another cup of tea. The cantrips needed for the appraisal always drained him. His small mana pool had hampered his studies at the academy, which is why he had ended up here in a small village no one cared about.

The next candidate was starting to fidget. It was a woman in her late 30's, dressed in the work clothes of one of the Baron's people. She stood and said, "Hi, I'm Miriam" she held out her hand, which Jasper declined to touch. He just stared down his nose at her.

Jasper took her by the arm and dragged her to the door. He had the uneasy feeling that if she had wanted to resist, she could easily over power him. Physically at least. But she didn't resist, seeming slightly amused by him, which just increased his annoyance. "This is not a place to come for testing unless you are going to attend college. And I will never be passing out spells like some crude Hedge Wizard. Good day to you ma'am, and good riddance!"

Slamming the door, he turned to the third applicant. She looked too well dressed for this town. Underneath a traveler’s cloak he saw that she was wearing a shimmering blue robe of expensive material. Some noble’s child with the presumption to already have purchased a robe for herself? Ridiculous. "Why are you here? And why are you wearing that robe? Robes like that are restricted to registered mages of the Academies and not for the untrained! Leave and desist from wearing it. You may come back tomorrow at 6 a.m. to be tested. Good day."

The woman stood, and Jasper found out that she was four inches taller than him. He disliked people that were taller than him. Another sign of how unfair his life could be. "That's about enough out of you." She snapped her fingers.

Jasper felt his lips press together and his throat tighten.

The woman stood and took off her traveling cloak. Another snap of her fingers summoned a long staff inset with several gems. A third put a stylish wizard’s hat on her head. "I wished to see for myself if the complaints about your methods were true or not. I'm satisfied that they are. It's ironic indeed that someone with barely enough mana to file the paperwork for the applications seems to feel he is the gatekeeper of who trains for magic and who doesn't. This will change."

She handed him a long scroll that unrolled down to his toes and across the ground as he broke the official seal of the Arcane Academy.

"Read through the scroll on your own time, I will summarize it for you: I am your new boss. My name is Belerianne Uftgarland and I have a dual aspect dealing in both Earth and Sea magics. I'm sure we'll get along splendidly while I prepare this Guild to upgrade to Level 1."