The past week passed by in a blur for Relenah. While she was busy learning as much as she could about the city from her father and brother, her mother was also teaching her how to take care of herself when she was in the city as well as basic etiquette. Whenever she had any free time, she spent them continuing her magic training.
She was currently sitting near the lake again, this time instead of using her magic, she was training her control in order to further restrict her other elements. After having a deep conversation with her father and mother, they came to the conclusion that she would use water as her main element since she was more familiar with it than her other elements.
Her parents also told her that water was best for her in terms of defense as well as offense. She couldn't really say anything against that since she herself has trained using her water element to create shields as well as icicles meant for offense.
Other than that, her brother, Oberon, has also been doing intensive training on his own. Since Oberon has always followed their father whenever he went to the city, Oberon knew more about the city than she did. This was also one of the reasons why her parents were slightly okay with letting her go to the city.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to focus on the elements surrounding her. It took a while, but after extensive training, she was finally able to suppress and hide her other elements. Based on what her father said, when students were enrolling into the magic academy, they had to undergo an aptitude test to find out what element they were as well as how strong their connection to that element is.
Her father didn't say much about the aptitude test since not many knew about it and it was kept hidden from most of the public. The test itself though was conducted inside the academy, meaning only the teachers and students were able to see what was happening inside. Before the students were allowed inside the academy, they were to test to see if they had any magic in them.
This way, those that didn't have any magic would be turned away and would not have any chance of even going through the academy gates.
Releasing her breath, she could feel the magic flowing inside her were mostly water elements. With another deep breath, she was finally able to close the lid on her other elements. This was a technique she figured out on her own. Whenever she used her magic, she would always see the elements coursing through her body, hence she thought up the idea of suppressing the other elements from coursing through her body to hide them.
Opening her eyes, she looks down at her hands to see a mild azure glow. Smiling to herself, she got up from her sitting position, "Success!"
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"You're so heavy," Relenah grunted, looking down at her brother who was holding onto her hands for dear life.
"Whose idea was it to fly to the city?!" Oberon shrieked in fright when he felt himself move up and down. "Fly straight, damn it!"
Looking down at her annoyingly loud brother, Relenah had half a thought of dropping him into animal poo, the other half was contemplating dropping him into a lake.
"Stop complaining. Also, stop moving, you're heavy enough as it is! If you keep moving like this I might just 'accidentally' drop you!"
Oberon stopped moving after that.
Their parents wanted them to take a horse cart to the city at first but after some thought, Relenah thought it was not a good idea since she and her brother were going to different academies, then the horse cart won't have anyone to take care of it since none of them can bring it into their academies. Their father volunteered to send them to the city but then Oberon refused, saying their mother would be left alone for far too long. All four of them couldn't go since the cart wasn't big enough to fit all of them.
After thinking about it for a while, Relenah suggested the idea of flying near the city and then walking the rest of the way towards the city. Their parents were against the idea at first but after poking her brother a few times, Oberon finally opened his mouth and agreed with Relenah's idea.
Which brings us to Oberon's current nightmare.
"Fly higher! Why are you getting closer and closer to the trees?!"
Letting out a loud sigh Relenah looks down at her brother again, "My fault, but then again, getting poked by the trees might not make any difference to you since you seem to always have a stick up your butt!"
Oberon let out a few more colorful words which her mother would've pulled his ear off if she heard him say it.
"Stop your whining okay? We're nearing the edge of the forest; I'll be landing soon and then we'll walk the rest of the way there."
Oberon let out a grunt but nonetheless, he finally quietened down and stopped moving.
As soon as they were near the edge of the forest, after making sure no one was around, Relenah slowly descent and let go of her brother when his feet touched the ground. As soon as she landed, she circulated her magic in order to hide her wind element back into its box.
Oberon stares at his little sister in silence. He still felt indignant at the fact that he was carried like a living breathing pinata the past hour.
When he saw the green glow that was surrounding his sister disappear, he nodded his head in amazement. No matter how many times he's watched his sister suppress her power, it was still amazing to see her do it in front of him.
"You managed to suppress all of them?" Oberon asked.
"Yep, they're all secure now. There shouldn't be any leakage. I'm just hoping the aptitude test is gullible enough not to sense my other elements," Relenah grumbled.
Oberon knew that it was a big risk, for his sister to enroll into the magic academy. But like their parents said, she needs to learn magic from an actual teacher that way she could protect herself in the future. "If anything happens, find me immediately and we'll fly back to the cabin, take mother and father, and run to a different kingdom," Oberon said seriously.
Relenah lifted her head and stared at her brother who suddenly sounded mature at that moment. She could see that he was being one hundred percent serious. Nodding her head, she replied, "I know, father already ran through various scenarios with me. I'm guessing he also did the same with you?"
Oberon nodded his head in reply, "He and I discussed it before he came and told you."
Taking a deep breath, Relenah adjusted the strap of her bag and gave Oberon another glance before slowly walking towards the city gates that were a twenty-minute walk from where they were standing.
Looking at his sister's back, Oberon also adjusted the straps of his bag before falling in step behind her.
Silence followed soon after. Other than the sounds coming from their boots when they step on stray pebbles, it was relatively quiet. Suddenly, they would hear the sound of horse hooves from behind them.
Turning around, Oberon saw a big cart heading their way. He quickly grabbed Relenah's shoulder and pulled her to the side just as the horse galloped past them.
Coughing at the dust storm created by the galloping horse, Relenah felt annoyed but didn't say anything as Oberon started pulling her towards the city gates again. This was one of the things her mother stressed at her to remember, "Keep your emotions under control. Before you didn't have to suppress your elements so it was easier to control, but now that you're suppressing them, it will probably be harder. You should try your best in avoiding conflict if possible."
Taking deep breaths like her mother taught her, she could feel her annoyance quickly dissipating. Looking straight at the road again, she continued walking beside her brother towards the city gates that were no more than five minutes away from them now.
After the guards identified Relenah and her brother, they let them enter through the gates. As soon as Relenah walked through the gates her eyes widen when she saw an incredibly bustling street. There were many different smells of food floating in the air.
There were also many different colored cloths hanging up at several stalls. Looking around, she also saw stalls that were selling magic stones. Oberon pulled Relenah pass all the stall vendors which snapped her out of her daydreaming.
"You should stop getting distracted. I'm dropping you off at your academy first since, frankly speaking, I don't trust you be able to get there without getting lost or distracted," Oberon stated as a matter of fact.
Relenah could feel her cheeks turning red at what her brother said, "I'm not that clueless, I can find the academy on my own."
"No, you can't," Oberon said frankly.
"And why is that?" Relenah rolled her eyes.
"You've never even step foot inside the city, how would you know where the academy is?" Oberon raised an eyebrow at her questioningly.
After seeing how her brother was looking at her, she grumbled to herself and let her brother lead her to the magic academy since, frankly speaking, she really didn't know where the academy was. In fact, her brother was somewhat right, she might even get distracted by all the numerous stalls around them and will most probably get lost if she were walking alone. Then again, it's not like she was going to admit it to her brother!
After walking for a while, Relenah noticed that the amount of stall vendors lessened considerably and now they were surrounded on both sides by tall buildings made of brick. After reading the signs hanging above several doors, she managed to understand that these were probably slightly more expensive shops meant for those with more money.
She was now glad her mother taught her how to use money. Since she's never went to the city and her family has lived alone in the woods for most her life, she hadn't been exposed to shopping as her other family members have.
She was busy looking at a shop that read, "Magical Items", when she suddenly felt her face hitting her brother's back.
"What was that for?!" Relenah grumbled as she rubbed her nose.
"We're here," Oberon ignored his sister's dramatic reaction.
Relenah looked up at the building in front of her and what she saw blew her mind away. The magic academy was huge. It also looked colorful. Even from outside, she could see that the academy was extremely beautiful.
"I'll take my leave then," Oberon suddenly snapped her out of her reverie.
"Okay, please take care on your way to the knight academy," Relenah said seriously.
Oberon saw his little sister showing a rare serious face and couldn't help himself from patting and rubbing the top of her head. "You should focus on your aptitude test instead of me. Like I said, I've been in the city before."
Before Relenah could barrage her brother with bad words for messing up her hair, he was already walking away while nonchalantly waving his hand at her.
Huffing, she turned around and started walking towards the academy gates.
Once she was in front of the gates, she could see that there was a weird looking ball atop a table in front of the academy gates. In fact, there were several of those balls. When she saw the people lining up placing their hands on the ball, she was surprised to see them light up. Afterwards she watched as they were allowed to walk through the gates.
She guessed this was the primary test that people had to take to see if they had magic or not. Although most people would already know if they had magic after they reach a certain age, some people were still hopeful and would try to take the test anyways, just in case they had powers but they just never noticed.
She had asked her brother if he would ever want to take the test and he said he already took it when he went to the city with their father a few years back. This was also one of the reasons why he wasn't that surprised when their father had asked him to go do knight training instead of going to the same academy as her.
Relenah turned her head and saw where the line ended, she stepped up behind the last person and slowly waited for her turn. It didn't take long since all they had to do was touch the orb. So only ten minutes passed before Relenah was standing in front of the weird looking ball.
Taking a deep breath to curb her anxiety, she slowly placed her hand on top of the ball. Her ball glowed like all the others did, but for some reason, it was brighter, which caught her by surprise. The teacher in front of her had a serious look on his face.
"It seems you have a very strong connection to your magic," The teacher commented seriously.
Relenah gulped and tried to make her existence as small as possible.
"You passed, go through," The teacher waved his hands.
Relenah took this opportunity to quickly flee from there.
Letting out a long sigh, Relenah could finally calm down her erratic heart.