Part 1: Charlie
Getting Quinn and Balder registered was a quick process. The real pain came in getting classes sorted out. This was a magic school, yes, but the keyword there is school.
Luckily, it was about a week before school started. Unluckily, we were joining 6 years after most students. Not so much a problem for the twins, the village was well educated, but kind of a big deal for me, seeing as I have no clue how to read this world's writing.
The Headmaster started out by giving us some tests, just to figure out where we were at. It was a room right next to his office. The shape and size of the room were what I was used to from back home, but the walls were a light teal color. There were a few rows of desks, five in total, and five desks in each row. We all took the tests at the same time for efficiency, but I doubted I would do well. His secretary(I might have forgotten her name, don't tell) handed them out, and what do you know; I still can't read. I wrote down nonsense in English, stuff like 'Well, sometimes, yes, but definitely not always', and 'No, bill and ted would never turn their backs on each other. The characterization shows that they think of each other like brothers'. After finishing about half an hour before the others, I just sat there, bored.
We got the next test pretty soon after we finished.
"What, no break?" I asked the secretary.
"No, as some of the tests will take you some time, and they have to be done as soon as possible," she responded in an almost apologetic tone. Almost.
"Cool, cool," was the only comeback my boredom could think of.
When we got the next test, I was surprised. I could understand the numbers! And the shapes! It was simple algebra and geometry, stuff I learned in 8th grade. There were a few characters I couldn't understand, but considering I'd seen them in words, it was pretty easy to deduce that they were variables. I also finished these ones a full hour before the twins did. I even got a dirty look from Mr. Mistletoe as I walked past him to hand in the test.
The next test looked like it was chemistry, but since that was a bit more reliant on language, I couldn't really do anything. If only I had been able to show off how much smarter I was again. It went basically the same as the first one, having to sit for a while before the others finished.
Once we were all done with that last one, the secretary stood up and motioned for up to get up instead of handing us another written test.
"We will now test your magic potential and physical abilities. Follow me, please." she said before exiting the room."
All three of us sighed in tandem.
"My head hurts, this is too much for me," Balder said holding his head, clearly exasperated.
"All in a row, with no break. They must want us to suffer." Quinn told us honestly as she slumped over.
I wasn't really tired mentally as the only test I could understand was the math one, so I just said "Yeah," in response. "But, hey, at least we can stop thinking hard now."
"Way to stay positive, really glad at least one of us is enjoying ourselves." balder spat back. For some reason, I felt like he didn't mean it.
"Please no snark, Balder. I'm too tired right now." Quinn told her brother.
"Hmph, whatever." he turned away, ending the conversation.
Quinn, the one in the middle turned towards me and said "Sorry, he's just tired."
"No worries, it's fine," I assured her. I couldn't get mad at him after what I had done, so it really was fine in my book. "But I'm just kind of surprised I still took the tests with you, to be honest."
"Why are you surprised? Does your country use some other alphabet but the same language?" she asked with what I could tell was genuine interest.
The mention of my home county got me a bit down, but I couldn't just ignore her.
"Well yeah, actually." When I said this, she looked a little shocked. I leaned into her ear and whispered "Don't tell anyone, but I'm from another world." I made a smug face as I pulled back.
"Really!?" she whisper-shouted back.
"Totally. And we don't have magic either, just our brains and measly muscles." I confirmed, still whispering.
"Then how does anything get done?! There's no way humans could survive without any magic at all, the entire species would just get dominated by monsters!" her tone had somehow evolved into a soft yet angry basically talking.
"Shhh, she'll hear you!" I whisper yelled to calm her down.
"The hell are you two conspiring about over here?" balder butt in, joining in the whisper conversation.
"That's a secret, brother," Quinn said slyly, like she would never tell him and she wanted that fact to eat at him. I guess twins could be even more venomous than normal siblings.
"I'll walk in the middle if you keep that up, Qi."
"We're here, children." the secretary told us, clearly trying to hide her annoyance. 'Can't tell if that's directed at the principal or us whispering. Her tone does kind of annoy me, though' I thought to myself.
We walked into the room before the secretary. This room was the same size as the last one, but this time instead of desks, there was one counter in a circle around the entire room, with the only entrance into the middle being right in front of the door. In the center of the room was a clear crystal covered in runes on top of a pedestal.
"You will be taking a basic magic control test in here." She walked around to the far side of the room. "You will stand here and focus your magical energy, or mana, into the crystal as best as you can. Quinn will go first."
She stepped aside as Quinn walked around to the receptionist.
"Ummm, how exactly do I do that?" Quinn asked after a moment of staring at the ball.
"Imagine that you're touching it with your soul. Try reaching out and touching it with nothing but your imagination," she explained.
I followed along with the instructions so I would know how to do it, but I stopped myself when it started to glow purple. I was glad her attention was on Quinn.
"Ok, I'll do what I can," Quinn said, determined. She then stared at it so hard, it looked like she was trying to set it on fire with nothing but her mind. Seeing her stare so hard made me realize how piercing her blue eyes were, and then how bright her blond hair was. When she suddenly reached out her hand and closed her eyes, I realized I was staring. I turned my attention towards the crystal ball. It was glowing a pale yellow, and it was about as bright as a candle.
After a moment, her concentration broke, and she let out a sigh.
"Not bad." The secretary assessed. "Considering this is probably your first time with magic."
"I'll take it. Beat that." She looked directly at balder at that last part.
"It'll be easy, I can tell." He responded with considerable snark. He switched places with his sister and went right into a deep focus.
It took him a second longer than Quinn, but he did get it. The light was the same as his sister's, but it looked a shade brighter.
The light vanished as soon as he gave Quinn a smug look, though.
"Good job holding it steady."
'I don't remember her being so mean this morning, do I?' I asked myself.
"Cut it out, children." the secretary interjected before Balder could defend himself. "Charlie, it's your turn now."
As I walked around to the point, the secretary went into a closet in the corner of the room. After a quick moment, she came back out with a foggier crystal ball.
"What's that for?" I asked, now thoroughly confused.
"The Headmaster told me of your 'circumstances', so as to preserve the quality of our equipment you will be using a more diluted channeling device," she explained.
"Hey, I could hear those air quotes, you son of a clutch," I said as she switched what was apparently a different channeling device for the clear one still on the pedestal.
"Regardless," she started, brushing off my statement entirely, "you will be using this one."
"Whatever you say, boss." I started off by looking at the ball. Looking at this one actually made it feel like something was pulling the front of my brain towards it, very similar to when the Headmaster used magic. I closed my eyes and focused on that sensation. When I tried to push back on that sensation, I could suddenly visualize the entire room. It wasn't quite like seeing it, because there was no light or color or anything, my eyes were still closed, after all, it was more like I could feel everything in the room to some degree, knowing all sides of it at once. I could also sense the people in the room, and weirdly enough, they did seem like they had some color. The twins had the same color that showed up in the ball, that dim, pale yellow. When I tried to focus on the secretary, her light wasn't dim, but a bright, powerful blue. It even looked like it was flowing back in on itself soon after leaving her physical presence. I would have looked at it longer, had it not suddenly disappeared.
"Focus on the task at hand please," she said, clearly flustered. I opened my eyes to see the secretary momentarily holding a face somewhere between embarrassed and startled.
"Yeah, sorry." I apologized quickly. I hadn't considered she might know I was snooping around.
I closed my eyes again, and this time I turned my attention towards the orb. Its light was swirling entirely within it, but I couldn't tell what color it was. It looked like everything, and nothing at once. 'I might be a novice, but even I can tell that this thing has some potential. I wonder how they- wait, no no no, I'm here to do something, not just ponder.' Catching myself before I sat there for hours just thinking, I finally started to push some force into it.
The pit of my stomach started to feel like it was being lifted up, and some new energy that I could tell was deep inside me began to rouse with it. I pushed it into the ball, but there was some resistance at first. I, of course, pushed harder. Now I could 'see' the inside of the ball, and it was being filled with the same energy that was inside of me. The resistance suddenly rose tenfold, trying to push me back out, but I was holding on. It kept getting harder and harder to push my way in, but I wasn't going to lose to some inanimate object. I turned all the energy I had to the orb, which made me lose the rest of the room. Something was pushing me to prove myself, so I didn't hold back. I couldn't hold on for much longer, however, as it also started to get 'slippier', so to say.
When I finally totally lost it, I took in a deep breath, just then realizing I'd been holding my breath. I also noticed all three of the other people in the room holding me down.
"Woah there, guys! Even though we both know I'm popular, you can't just all pile onto me." I joked to hide my confusion.
"This isn't the time for jokes! Look what happened to the room!" Quinn looked scared as she nearly shouted at me.
As they got off of me, I looked around the room. Nothing was left on any shelves or the counter, or the few tables at the edge of the room, but shattered and spiraling towards the center of the room, right where the pedestal used to be.
'This is too similar.' was the only thought in my mind. I subconsciously tried to push everything away, to get it away from me. And who would have thought that it did. Every loose object, every piece of broken glass, hell, even the books started falling at the wall. Once It all slammed into the wall, I realized what had happened and stopped my own magic.
All three of them looked terrified. But I couldn't tell if it was at me or for me. I knew I probably deserved it.
Part 2: Steffany
I brought the 3 children from the country into the break room to rest. They're in there because the control test wasn't supposed to be that physically or mentally draining. They were also in there because of the wards it had all around it. How was I supposed to know that the 'special case' that the Headmaster told me about would be that powerful yet unstable? I marched to his office to give him a piece of my mind.
I slammed open the door and looked right at him. He slowly looked up from his paperwork after a moment, and just sighed. He had been unusually tired the past few days, but that wasn't an excuse for the mess up.
"What the hell was that about!?" I asked him as calmly as I could.
"You're gonna have to be more specific." He explained back.
"What the hell is up with that kid's skill? You said he probably hasn't had any interaction with magic in his life, not that he would be as skilled as an early third core student! And what was up with that mana flow?! As soon as he started to push his focus, it covered every square inch of that room, and he had more to spare the entire time! Not to mention how chaotic it was just past the surface!"
"Hey, hey, slow down, it could have been worse." He stopped me before I started asking even more questions about the boy.
"What do you mean 'it could have been worse'?!" Now the questions were directed at him.
"Well, that's technically a state secret at the moment, but we're about to go public with it. Want to hear it?"
'A state secret? How is something so clearly a very big deal be a state secret?'
"Maybe. How serious is it?"
"Well, it's what led to dear old dad's death," he said simply.
My jaw dropped. "The thing that killed the 'Immortal King of Time!' Wasn't it just age?"
"No. It was a countrywide spell that lasted a week. All of us nobles were part of it, but it took his soul to pull off."
"What? I didn't notice any spell that strong in the capital, and definitely not for a week."
"And to answer that quasi-question, what country is this?"
It only took a split second for me to realize what he was getting at.
"How are you not dead too?! Something that absurd would surely take more than one man's life!" I couldn't get over my surprise.
He looked sadly out of the window. "That's just my dad for you." A smile sprouted on his face, despite the context behind the words.
I left him alone for a moment. I could tell his face was turned away from me for a reason. After a moment in silence, he wiped his face and turned around to face me again.
"And you're probably wondering how that relates to the boy, right?"
I only nodded.
"Well, it really just has the same root cause. Something to do with the nation of Gravity. We've received messages from the kingdoms of Space and Ice respectively. You know our relations with Fire, so nothing from them, though."
"But what was in the message?" I pushed him back on topic.
"Right, my bad. So, something big happened. Like, world-class threat big." He stopped for a moment to let that sink in. And I honestly needed it.
"And?" I pushed him on after I had my bearings.
"To be honest with you, that's about all we know. I planned to have an expedition go to check it out. The magic was so thick it could have harmed the less gifted kids. The new kid, the one you were talking about, will probably have to go with." It seemed like he was about to get off topic again.
"Well, what little information do we have?"
"Just a name that both Space and Ice agreed on."
"What was it?" I could feel the anticipation building, and he probably knew that.
"The Week of Weightlessness," he said. "That's what they called it."
Part 3: Quinn
Everyone was quiet as we sat. Me and my brother sat at one end of the room on a bench behind a table, and Charlie sat on the opposite side of the room on the floor. Balder had a look of pure hatred as he stared at Charlie. I had different feelings than him. I wanted to know why he looked so lost. He wasn't the kind of lost you get when you go too far into the woods. He looked like he had lost his very soul.
We sat in silence for some time. I wanted to ask him what was wrong, but I just couldn't say it. 'Why do you look so lost? What happened?' I genuinely didn't know what was making him so sad. The thing to break the silence was the secretary, suddenly opening the door. I jumped a little at her unexpected entrance.
She looked around the room until she saw Charlie. In the politest tone I had heard from her yet, she asked him "Would you mind coming with me? You are going to finish testing separately."
He sullenly got up and walked over to her. "Ok." was his only response. They walked out of the room without anything else being said.
"I don't like that guy." Balder put bluntly.
"Really? I don't think I noticed." I responded with a twinge of annoyance. "Why does he have to be so mean?'
"Well, I'm not trying to hide it."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why are you so mad at him? What did he do to deserve it?"
"You saw what he did. You had to see all that."
"But he didn't mean to. He was just as hurt by it as we were."
"Which is another thing that makes me mad. Why does he care about us, he only stayed a night there, and he cried like he watched his baby get kicked in front of his eyes. He has no right to mourn with us!"
"Maybe he's just a kid too. Maybe he misses his home. He's not from here, you know."
"That doesn't make me sympathetic enough to forgive him. To me it looks like he's staying here just to hurt you more, just to-"
He cut himself off in the middle of a tirade.
"I shouldn't need to explain myself!" he said. "You should listen to me, I can tell he means no good."
"And I shouldn't need to explain why he doesn't deserve that. You should be listening to me, he deserves empathy too!"
"I'm not arguing with you on this. I know I'm right." He finished with a huff.
"Hmpf, fine then." I wasn't going to push it anymore, it was clear he wouldn't listen.
And fortunately enough, the secretary came in a moment after we were done.
"It's your guy's turn now. Let's go," she said, leaning on the door frame and clearly very exhausted. Now annoyed, I stood straight up and walked to her without waiting for or even looking at Balder. As soon as he was next to us, the secretary took us downstairs and outside, past a large open area covered in nice-looking tables and chairs.
The space outside was also nice and you could tell it was well kept, despite the about-to-set sun. We were standing on a stone platform that went all the way to the back of the building. 'Woah,' I thought. ' That's longer than the village was by a bit.' The border of the school was clear because of the trees surrounding it in a clear line. There was also a brick building on the outside corner, though it was too far away to tell what it was for.
"Attention back here, please," she said, catching my attention again. I looked at her and noticed the knee-high box she was standing behind and the stairs leading to the second floor to her left. It was normal looking, closed with and handles on the sides. "You are going to pick this box up as far as you can. Simple as that. Try not to use magic, however. You can go first." she pointed to me.
It seemed simple enough. I couldn't tell what kind of spell was placed on it, but there must have been. "Ok," I said. "Easy enough." I walked over to it, and she backed away to give me space. It didn't feel like anything was in it initially, and it felt light when I had just picked it up. It started to get heavier the higher I got it, However. I could only get it to the bottom of my stomach, however, and I could tell I had made a weird face with how much I was straining myself. Whatever.
I started to drop it, but it got lighter again when it was lowered.
"Good job," she said as she wrote something down on a thin board I hadn't seen till now. "Now you can go."
Balder walked over in much the same way I did, and he braced better to pick it up. He quickly got it to his waist, but the weight clearly started to add up after that. With obvious effort(and a funny, dumb facial expression), he got it to his chest before giving in.
"Splendid," she said to him, again writing something down on the thin board.
She continued with a few other tests, some magical, some not. Everything felt boring now, though, like I couldn't enjoy them. Things were awfully quiet and boring without Charlie there.
Part 4: Charlie
I don't think I deserve their forgiveness. The logical part of me is saying that it's not my fault, that I didn't actually do anything, but I just couldn't let it go. This is what was on my mind as I sat in the room I had been given. It was a boring room, with nothing really in it. I mean, yeah, there was a bed and a dresser, even a desk and chair, but that hardly counts.
I was a little exhausted after the last few tests, but that was more physical exhaustion than mental. So, to pass the time, I tried to practice magic.
Just because it freaks me out doesn't mean it isn't cool, so I don't want any feedback on that one, alright?
'Well, I did do a pretty crazy spell the second I got here, right? I wouldn't think there's a reason I can't replicate it now.' Having thought that, I sat against the wall on the bed. After crossing my legs and closing my eyes I started to focus. I could feel the energy inside me, and I could move it around based on where I was focusing. I tried to focus it on myself, to push myself against the wall. Nothing happened. 'Alright then, test number one, subject me, is a bust. Can I get it to work on other things, then?' I turned my attention to my dark blue sweatshirt, which was draped over the chair.
I could picture it in my head, and I could quasi see it, but I couldn't focus the energy on it. It was difficult to push it that far. The energy started to wander the further it got from me. It kind of felt like trying to hold something heavy on top of a long stick, but the heavy thing is loose and I can only hold one end, at the very end. I raised my hand towards it as a test, taking video games into consideration this time. This did make the magic flow towards it like I wanted it to. 'Noted. Kinda dumb-looking troupe works.' I thought to myself.
I pushed the flow of my magic into and around it, like I was grabbing it with an invisible hand. Through the quasi vision, I could tell it started to move a little. Knowing that I was doing something, I pushed more energy around it. With the connection there, the magic started to flow easier and easier. I noticed the small pulling sensation that was steadily, but very slowly, growing, but my train of thought was cut off with a light 'thump' and soft sensation. The sweatshirt had hit me in the face.
"How comical," I muttered to the empty room. I picked the sweatshirt off of my face and threw it to the other side of the bed. "I need to train on splitting my focus then? Or maybe just staying focused on the thing I'm doing instead of how it feels."
Now with an idea I'm going to pretend I had right away, I focused on the sweatshirt again. Sticking out my hand right away, I did the same thing. It proceeded the same way, but now I was paying attention. When the sweatshirt starts falling at me, it looks like it's going kind of slow. Not super slow, just a little slower than you think it would fall. I caught it easily. Sitting unmoved I started thinking 'Is my reaction time faster, or am I just not pulling hard enough? That said, what is my power? That first spell seemed like the world had literally turned on its side, but nothing around me changed, so maybe gravity? It could also be bog-standard telekinesis though, can't rule that out. Or, can I?' with a new idea, I set forth determined.
I held my hand out, palm up and fingers like I was holding a ball. After quickly readjusting my posture, I let out a deep breath and closed my eyes. I pushed my focus into the center of the imaginary ball I was holding. Trying to condense it as much as I could I pushed more and more magic into it. There wasn't something I was pushing it on to, it was just open air. Through the quasi vision, I could see something more tangible start to form in the middle of the imaginary ball. I opened my eyes to see what I had done, but I couldn't actually see anything. I could still tell it was different from the surrounding air with the quasi vision, but nothing physical. With a sigh, I pulled the magic back to me. (What? That saves mana, and as far as I know, it's not harmful. (I got the idea from a book, in case you were wondering.)) At that same moment, I felt a light gust of wind against my face and hand.
'With that evidence, gravity does seem the most likely,' I thought. 'I don't know much about gravity, but from what I can remember it's just a force that pulls all particles towards each other. That would explain the weird spider-sense thing. It would also explain that light breeze when I stopped pushing it together.' I put the pieces together in my mind as I sat by myself.
'But wait, is that like a branch off of earth magic or something? Basically every magic system I've read about has had the base elements, and then more specific stuff was just offshoots. I honestly have no clue what you could get gravity from, except, again, maybe earth. I'll have to ask about that at some point.' Yes, I do realize that I have all these questions, but I'm not embarrassed. I was basically born yesterday, as far as this world is concerned.
'Well, no use dwelling on things that I can't answer right now. Something I can dwell on is that weird quasi-vision. Assuming my magic is gravity, that would be me seeing the gravitational pull between all atoms. I wonder how far I can push that?' Having a new goal in mind, I closed my eyes and focused.
Just closing my eyes I could "see", but upon closer inspection, it didn't actually go that far out. I figured that I had better get more control over my mana first, though. Even just pushing enough to my sweatshirt just a few feet away was difficult.
If I thought hard about it, I could change my perspective. Whether that be pushing it further from my body or turning it independent of my head I could do it. 'Wait, can I see my own mana flow too?' I piqued my own interest. I turned my attention to inside myself, and so I wasn't just looking down, I put my perspective a few feet in front of my face. Think third person in a game like M*necr*ft.
"Holy sh*t," was the only reaction that felt fitting. I could kind of see most people's flows of mana, even though I wasn't paying that much attention out of courtesy. And I know that I looked right into secretary without a second thought, okay? Hindsight is 2020, and I was caught up in the moment.
But I digress.
My mana was flowing and circling not just internally like other people's had been, it was completely overflowing into the area around me. And not only that, but deeper below the calm surface it was raging and violent, the depth the calm went rising and falling with each deep breath I took.
"I'm surprised the headmaster didn't attack me the second I was in the city walls. I would've," I thought out loud. 'Unless he couldn't, or didn't, detect it, that is.' I added internally.
'What is with that flow, though? I wonder if this would work.' I started trying to push mana into my own flow like I had with my sweatshirt, but it just assimilated back into it like I had with the air ball.
'Damn, that's a bust,' I accepted regretfully. 'Yet another thing to add to the list of questions.'
Having accepted that, I turned my attention back to expanding my detection range. Turns out spreading it out thinly instead of pushing it into one thing was much easier. With a steady, deep inhale and exhale (that is to say deep breathing), I managed to push my perception through the entire building. I could probably have gone further, if not for the splitting headache it gave me. Seeing literally every detail of every nook and cranny was too much to take in. 'At least I'll never get lost,' I reassured myself, massaging my temples.
After I stopped hurting so bad, I went in for a second set. The brain is a muscle to be trained too, after all. Something caught my attention, however. Someone with a shiny grey(chrome really) aura was approaching the room.