"Oh? Can you describe what happened?" asked Rokkai with interest.
"We were coming from Sky City, and there were people pursuing us--"
"Ahem", Riza coughed. "Are those details necessary?"
Reeve shrugged his shoulders, while Eskaria yawned. He continued, "Anyway, his eyes suddenly changed color, and the entire forest almost burnt down."
"Is that so? What color was his eyes?"
"They were glowing with an orange color", replied Reeve, looking at Soren, who yawned as Riza nudged him.
Rokkai appeared to be thinking deeply. He finally shook his head, before asking, "Is there anyone else who showed any signs of magic?"
Everyone shook their heads simultaneously. Some minutes later, the silver haired lady they had met the previous day entered the office.
"You called for me?" she asked.
"Yes. I need you to test their magic aptitude, before we begin the registration. You see, not everyone is born with mana, and if you haven't awakened, we cannot tell if you have it. Therefore, before you're registered, we need to make sure you have the potential to learn magic", Rokkai spoke, the latter part was addressing Reeve and company.
Rizaneth frowned deeply. She never liked magic, well, she was taught to dislike magic when she was at the military academy. Therefore, she didn't want to participate in this … eh … test.
"As you wish", replied lady Kyrra, before she turned to look at Reeve and company. Her expression was neutral, it was hard to know what she was thinking, until she looked at Eskaria. At which point her neutral expression was replaced with a look of confusion. She managed to suppress her confusion, before saying, "Follow me."
The group stood up and followed her towards the testing hall. They were still yawning, but this time, Reeve was a lot livelier. He was finally going to be learning magic.
They arrived at the testing hall, which had four large crystals. These crystals were spherical, and they were as large as an average adult elephant. Inside the hall, there were four of these crystals, and each one had a milky white substance inside it. Besides the crystals, there was also a middle-aged man, who was wearing a purple robe.
"Good morning Professor Kyrra", greeted the middle-aged man, who was the caretaker of the hall.
"Good morning. I'm here to test these four", she replied.
"Is that so? Please proceed."
"This is the hall of crystals. As the name suggests, it simply houses crystals, and these crystals are the ones that let us know if you have mana. Now, is there anyone who has awakened?" asked lady Kyrra, after turning towards Reeve's group.
Everyone pointed at Soren, who yawned again, prompting lady Kyrra to frown.
"You look tired, do you need some rest?" she asked.
"No, we're fine", Soren and Reeve replied simultaneously, before turning to look at each other.
"Fair enough. You said you have awakened? Can you tell me what happened?"
Reeve went on to explain on behalf of Soren, who of course, didn't have the memory of what had happened when he awakened. The more lady Kyrra heard, the more her expression changed. It changed from puzzlement, to shock, and then finally, confusion. Well, the stages were visible to the group.
"I see… Anyway, now we know that he has the aptitude for the flame element. Therefore, there's no need to test your aptitude. There are four crystals in this hall. The first crystal measures magical aptitude, meaning it tells us what kind of magic you have an affinity to. The second crystal measures the amount of mana you have. In other words, it measures your potential", she paused.
She continued, "As for the third and fourth crystals, don't worry about them at this stage. They are used for the graduating classes. You'll know more about them if you successfully manage to enroll. So, who's going up first?"
Everyone exchanged looks. Rizaneth declined to participate in all the tests, as well as enrolling at the school. It wasn't that she didn't think she had magic … well… that was partly the case. She had been brainwashed to dislike magic at the military academy, and now that she was in a place where magic was taught, of course she'd refuse to learn it! Well, she did anyways.
That left Soren, Reeve and Eskaria. Since they knew that Soren had affinity for the flame element, he was excluded from the first test, which left Reeve and Eskaria.
Eskaria decided to go first. She walked towards the first crystal, the size of which she had a hard time believing. Someone had actually carved such a thing?
"Now, place your hand on the crystal. It will automatically absorb mana from you, and then the milky white substance will change color. The final color it shows is the magic affinity. Blue represents water, white represents wind, brown represents earth, and red represents fire", lady Kyrra explained, as Eskaria placed her hand on the crystal.
There was a brilliant flash of light from the crystal, and the color of the light changed rapidly until it was purple! Everyone else covered their eyes the moment the flash of light appeared, except Reeve, who saw a lot of light particles floating in the air. These particles were purple in color, and they all went into Eskaria's hand the moment she touched the crystal.
"Oh dear…" lady Kyrra's gloomy voice echoed in the hall. She could feel a headache coming on, but she wasn't much surprised, which was surprising to Reeve.
The light finally subsided, after Eskaria had removed her hand. Reeve could swear he saw the halo on her head flash with a purple color. Then again, maybe he was hallucinating due to lack of sleep. That's all the conclusion he could come up with, right now. Any other time, he wouldn't know what to blame for his hallucinations, but right now, lack of sleep became the unfortunate scapegoat.
"What does the purple color mean?" asked Reeve.
"Umm … I think only the principal can explain this matter."
"Does it mean she doesn't have an affinity to magic?" asked Soren, with an annoying yawn.
"No. If she didn't have magic, the crystal would not have reacted at all", lady Kyrra explained.