"Very good! And what is it called when you say something honest, but your conduct is not very kind and the other party takes offense?" The young-looking teacher, Gaiya, asked as he twirled his long braid, reading from a page.
"Being rude!" The eight Verbatians students said together.
Calibri, Alexei, Kreia were among the lot, along with five other students.
The other five were students who'd spent quite a lot of time with Calibri over the years. They were children of Calibri's tutors and mentors, so naturally, each of them excelled in a skill taught to them and Calibri by their parents.
When they'd learned of Calibri's worsening state from Felix they decided that when their acceptance letters arrived, they would accept their offers.
Other than Calibri and Kreia, none of them had any thoughts of becoming the Grandmaster, but none of them could fathom the thought of Calibri living alone with strangers who would most likely mistreat him and torture him at every opportunity if they ever found out about his weakness.
And so, along with Calibri, they all stood at the entrance of the Verbatian territory, recapping how to behave amongst the other sects while they waited for Kreian and Felix.
"Excellent! And what is it called when you are too honest, and the other party feels uncomfortable because what you've said is undeniably true?" Gaiya asked.
"Being brutally honest!"
"Well done! And how do you avoid conflict with the other sects when they mock you?"
"We will laugh and walk away!"
"Somehow, I feel that may irritate them." Calibri said, tapping his lip.
"Ah, but Calibri, if someone had to tell you something you didn't like, would it not be better to laugh it off?" Gaiya responded, tapping his temple.
Calibri nodded, accepting the explanation with little resistance. He was really tired, but if he made others aware of it, his family would no doubt throw a fit and try to lock him up in a dungeon or tower to prevent him from leaving.
"I still don't understand why our honesty would be so abominable to them." Flora said, rubbing her pale cheek. She was a gentle-looking girl with a long braid decorated with small gemstones, the daughter of one of the Healers Calibri had studied under. "How is it irritating to hear the truth?"
"I suppose some people find the truth very annoying if it isn't a truth they like." Calibri said, stifling his yawn. "But you're right. They have strange customs. Don't they know that lying leads to conflict and disloyalty?" At the end of the sentence, a small grain of pollen drifted into his nostril and he let out a sneeze.
All eyes shot towards him.
"Is he going to faint?" Siegon, the son of Calibri's Sword Master asked. He was a tall and strict looking young man, with handsome features and passionate eyes. And at that moment, those eyes looked at Calibri like he was dying.
"What? No, of course not. There was a bit of pollen in my nose." Calibri said.
"You're suspicious, your Majesty." Siegon said, narrowing his eyes at him. "How convenient for pollen to fly into your nose when you've been looking pale all afternoon."
"Are you feeling unwell?" Kreia asked him, holding his arm.
"No, no. I feel perfectly fine. It really was a pollen grain. I'm not dying yet, please stop worrying." Calibri said with a laugh.
"But you're an endangered species that can expire at any moment." Rion, the oldest male(by a few months) amongst them said with a raised brow. He was only slightly taller than Alexei who was half a head taller than Calibri, and had long silver hair pulled back into a high ponytail. He was the son of one of King Trinity's royal advisors, a very tactical young man.
"That's brutally honest." Calibri said with a wince.
"Wait, is that not 'rude'?" Korra, a slightly shorter than average Verbatian girl, asked. She had a small, curious face with tendrils of hair framing her face and the rest of her hair pulled into a neat bun.
"I think it's brutally honest." Tea, her identical twin said. Tea had thicker eyebrows than her sister and a mischievous look about her. Her hair was tucked behind her ears and reached her ankles. The two girls were also daughters of a healer that mentored Calibri.
Rion blinked. "Your Majesty, did you find that brutal? That was not my intention. You are a rare endangered species seeing as only one of you exists."
"I'm uncertain, but I do feel attacked and vulnerable somehow." Calibri said.
Gaiya rubbed his temple, looking at the sheets of paper in his hand. To be completely honest, even he barely saw the difference between the terminology.
"Good morning, children!" Felix said as he appeared out of thin air in a flash of purple and silver. He looked to be in a jovial mood with his waist-length hair half up and half down, and he had a silver and diamond draping headpiece going from the front of his head to the back -Almost identical to the ones Kreia and Calibri had on.
Kreian appeared too, having a similar hairstyle. "Oh! We all chose to wear a similar headpiece today." Kreian noted, looking at his siblings.
Calibri nodded with a bright, dimpled smile. All the Verbatians had their usual display of gemstones and shiny objects in their hair or on their hands. The royal siblings however had several items of jewelry on that were only worn by their family, such as the gold and diamond teardrop earring on their left earlobes, a golden hoop earring on their left ear helix and right earlobe as a symbol of "Sworn Allegiance" to uphold the morals of their sect; a short gold necklace with an enchanted diamond pendant, and the two older boys wore a "Rite of Passage" golden hoop nose pierce on their right nostril. This piercing was done only when the royal child reached 22 and was placed on the side that the person dominantly wrote with. All four also wore a thin golden ring around the middle fingers of each hand.
"Well then, we should leave. Is everyone sure they've brought everything?"
Each of the students had packed all their belongings into a bag which had then been shrunk to the size of a thumbnail and safely put into their respective inner robe pockets. They nodded at the princes and Gaiya.
"Shall we leave then?" Gaiya said, going to stand next to Kreian.
Felix nodded and he lifted his right hand, swiped two fingers across the air to the right, then to the left, and then down, clicking his fingers in a precise snap at the end of the motions. A large glowing purple circle appeared below the students and suddenly they disappeared from the spot.
Moments later, they reappeared in an enormous hall. Other students and demonstrators were already there, talking amongst themselves.
The Verbatian group looked around for a minute. Thankfully the incantation on their eyes still held and the bright torches in the hall did not hinder their vision.
Kreia took a deep breath.
"We're here." She said. She was extremely anxious. Not solely because of going to the school. She was someone who was generally almost always anxious, another reason she didn't want to become the Grandmaster that she hadn't mentioned. But if Calibri knew that, she knew his resolve would become stronger, so she kept the information to herself and instead held his hand to comfort herself.
Naturally, Calibri already knew about her anxiety because of her breathing patterns and strange heart rate, but he kept this knowledge to himself to not make her feel weak, instead choosing to give her hand a small squeeze to comfort her as they looked around.
"Your majesty, do you still feel fine?"Alexei asked. Calibri linked arms with him. "Still fine, my dear Alexei."
"I pity them a little. They were offered places because Verbatium declined so many offers. I anticipate relentless torment from them out of spite and bitterness." Rion said.
"Imagine if all the Verbatium students accepted their offers." Siegon said.
"Imagine!" Flora said, covering her mouth. "Sir, has this occurred in the past?" Flora asked, and the rest of the students looked at Gaiya.
The young-looking teacher hummed, twirling his long braid. "Well, not that I know of. I don't think many Verbatians would want to study to become the Grandmaster. It's too taxing of a position. And there is the maximum acceptance of 8 from Verbatium because of the scores over the last few centuries. You children wouldn't know about this law because usually only those of the royal family are masochistic enough to accept anyway which is usually around one to two people."
"He's right, you are quite a masochist, your Majesty." Alexei snickered.
"Oh? And you followed me here because you were certain you'd only face puppies and cherry-blossoms?"
"You're by far the bigger masochist." Alexei said.
"No, you are."
"No, you."
"It's clearly you."
"It's most definitely you."
"Kreian!" A voice called. The group all turned towards it and a ridiculously handsome man with long black hair wearing black and periwinkle robes was approaching.
"Ning, lovely to see you here." Kreian said, greeting the man. "This is my twin brother, Felix. And these are my younger siblings Kreia and Calibri. This is Gaiya, who's been contracted to lecture on the Deciphering of Ancient Text and Runes. This is Alexei, Rion, Siegon, Flora, Korra and Tea." Kreian introduced and the people in question bowed their heads politely.
"Ah, it's a pleasure to meet all of you, especially the famous Calibri." Ning said with a smile.
The students looked at each other discreetly with raised brows and Calibri tilted his head. "You've heard of me, your Majesty?"
"Please call me Kreian, and yes, I have. From my brother. He should be around here, somewhere." Ning said, glancing around. "Anyway, Kreian, and – May I call you Felix and Gaiya?"
"Of course, so long as we can call you Ning." Felix said and Gaiya nodded along with a smile.
"Then can the three of you follow me. The demonstrators, lecturers, assistant teachers, and trainers have a meeting with the headmaster before the assembly and room allocation."
"And our children?" Felix asked looking at the Verbatian students.
"Well, the headmaster hopes that the students will mingle within this hour."
Felix nodded slowly and looked at the students. "This word, 'Mingle', is to converse with other people in the vicinity."
"Ahhhh." Some of the students responded. "Don't get into trouble." Kreian said to Alexei, Calibri and Kreia.
The four older men left, and the small group immediately turned to Calibri expectantly.
"You met a prince?" Kreia asked.
"And he talks about you to his OLDER BROTHER?" The rest of them chorused.