The following morning, Floris, Alvis, and Kathrina met with their mentor, Flare, who would be teaching them for the foreseeable future. Unknown to them, every student was hand-picked by their mentors for one reason or another.
Flare was a tall male wizard who wore red hooded robes and carried two staffs on his back. One was a curved dark wooden staff, and the other was a larger and longer white staff. The capabilities of these staves were unknown to the three students, but Kathrina knew enough about the magic world to know that mage staffs played a number of roles and could even boost a mage's power in a school of magic they're not skilled in.
Floris, Alvis, and Kathrina each sat on a bench in the courtyard behind the guildhall while Flare sat on the edge of the water fountain. The courtyard was a large open area that had stone paths acting as walkways around large areas of grass with the fountain in the middle of the yard. The fountain spewed water from the mouths of six large white dolphins that were circled around a woman who was presumably an important member of the guild at one point. The yard's several paths each led to the fountain, but also led to tucked-away areas that were hidden by large hedges.
Flare stared at his pupils for a moment, studying every detail about them as he sat on the fountain with his arms crossed. His stare was intense and a little intimidating to the three younger mages at first, but he was able to pick up every little detail about their persons, even the loose hairs on Kathrina's head. When he was finally ready, he spoke to his students, "So, we're all here at last. It seems that I've really got my work cut out for me with this group, though. We have a healer, an alchemist, and someone who doesn't know what his skills are yet. Well, that will hopefully change before too long."
"So, what exactly do you have in store for us, Flare?" Kathrina asked.
Flare looked at Kathrina as he responded, "First and foremost we'll be going over basic spell casting. I know that you're a skilled Restoration mage, Kathrina, but you'll need to know some more advanced offensive spells in case you ever find yourself in trouble." He then looked at the boys as he continued, "However, you two are where my interest really lies. You two have only just stumbled into this world from the swamps and have no experience with magic at all. Floris' experience with alchemy being beside the point. Teaching you two will be a challenge, to say the least."
"So....how do you plan to teach us?" Floris asked curiously.
"With patience." Flare answered, sighing quietly as he answered. "Learning magic isn't something that happens overnight. It requires intense dedication just to learn the most basic spells of any school of magic. Some people are more "attuned" to specific schools of magic based on bloodline traits. If someone is skilled with Illusion magic there's a good chance their offspring will have skill with that magic as well. This is something that can be passed down through generations; eventually reaching the point where someone may be naturally adapt at multiple schools of magic. We'll have to see if anyone in your bloodlines were spellcasters at one point."
"A-actually...I think we may already know the answer to that." Alvis said nervously. He and Floris looked at each other for a brief moment, then returned their attention to Flare before Alvis continued, "B-before we left our village, Floris' grandmother told us our parents were mages and had ties to the guild."
"Did she say what kind?" Flare asked.
Alvis looked down and shook his head, "No. She only told us they were mages, but nothing else."
Flare nodded as he thought quietly to himself. He didn't show any signs of it, but he was extremely relieved to know their parents were mages. He smiled under his mask and crossed his arms as he stared at the two boys, "Well, that made the job a little bit easier. Regardless, however, you two still have a very steep mountain to climb in front of you."
"So, what do we do first?" Alvis asked.
Flare lowered his head to look at his feet as he thought for a few moments, then looked up at the two boys before holding out his right hand and igniting a flame in the palm of his hand, startling and amazing Floris and Alvis at the same time. "First things first, we'll have to determine what kind of mages you two actually are and what kind of magics your relatives used in the past. What I'm about to tell you is unknown to the general public, but this is the simple truth: anyone can learn magic - regardless of their age." He then lowered his hand and directed his attention to Kathrina before saying, "Would you like to explain it, Kathrina?"
Kathrina looked at Flare with a hint of confusion on her face, but shrugged her shoulders before nodding, "Sure." She directed her attention to Floris and Alvis and said, "This isn't exactly an easy thing to explain, especially giving you two's predicament, but I'll try and make it as simple as I possibly can. Magic is not some sort of mythical power locked away to only a few people who can use it, but quite the opposite. You see, after countless generations, the human race developed what we call the "Blue Conduit". It's a system of magical tubes that run through the human body giving a person their ability to harness magic and cast spells. It's almost like a secondary blood vein system. Magic energy is pumped from the heart and is transferred throughout your entire body. All this being said, however, it's better for a mage to learn how to harness their skills from a younger age when their mind hasn't been fully developed."
"Which means that it's not impossible for you two to learn magic, but it will be more difficult." Flare interrupted, cutting Kathrina off.
Floris and Alvis looked at each other for a brief moment, then looked at Flare again, "So...how do we begin?" Floris asked.
"The most important thing to have is patience. You must train your mind and body simultaneously in order to achieve your goals as a mage, especially when starting at such an older age." Flare said, "While it's true there are members of the Mages Guild who do not possess any kind of spell casting powers at all, they are at a disadvantage if they ever hope to climb the ranks of the guild, which is why you want to focus on improving your spell casting skills as much as possible. Listen to me when I say this, the Mages Guild is not just a university that is dedicated to educational practices, we are also peacekeepers. If a group of rogue mages attacks innocent civilians, we're the first ones on call. The same goes for groups of outlaws who have mages in their ranks or even dealing with enemy military powers. You can go from being students in a classroom to being soldiers in the field in the blink of an eye. That is the very reason you want to advance your skills as quickly as possible."
"And just how do we do that?" Alvis asked.
Flare stared silently at the boys for a few moments, then leaned his head back with a sigh before saying, "I think some things are better demonstrated than explained." He then lowered his head to look at all three of his pupils before continuing, "Tomorrow morning we'll have test. There is one thing that I need to be certain of before I show you anything. Meet me just outside of town along the East Road tomorrow morning at six o'clock. You're dismissed until then."