Mazran struggled into wakefulness, a violent shaking pulling him away from the call of the void. He pressed his temple, throbbing pain washing over him in waves, his ears rang with an eerie tune, the world spinning out of control.
He tried thinking, only to find his thoughts dispersed.
A voice rang dull against his skull.
"Lo....a...e...look at me! You hear me. Follow my voice!"
Next came a slap. Then another.
And Mazran was there. Alert. All sensations came crashing back, overwhelming him with an overload of sensory input.
"Bwueh!" Mazran intoned, emptying the contents of his stomach onto the dark stone floor. The stench of his spew sent the surrounding crowds into retreat.
"Can you hear me? Hey! Hey!" He heard a familiar voice. Harken! Yes. Thats where he was. The ancient stone chamber. The spectre. He remembered.
"What...happened?" Asked Mazran.
"You looked into the eyes of an ancient spirit. That's what. Didn't I tell you to repeat after me. Why were you looking directly into its eyes?! You're lucky it was just a clone of the true spirit, otherwise you wouldn't be here." Harken said, patting my back, shaking my head.
"You all there?" He asked.
"Yes. Yes I....am here." Mazran replied, taking a deep breath. He looked at the dispersing crowd, murmuring in the background. The looks in their eyes as told him it was a common enough occurrence that they didn't seem bothered by it. They soon went about their own way.
Harken helped him up, hooking his arm with Mazran's, as he wobbled onto his feet.
"Come. Its the final stretch. A little more and then we're done." Cajoled Harken, pulling Mazran's haggard form off into the adjacent passageways. Twisting, turning across the vast open corridors, they came to a stop at a window carved into the beige coloured marble walls.
"Quarter...master." read Mazran, now stable enough to stand on his own two feet.
"Yes. The quartermaster." Said Harken, before leaning into the window and calling out.
"Kedu!"
"No need to scream my ears off, Harken. I'm here." A voice came from beyond. Mazran climbed the lining by the wall, holding onto the sill, to look within just as a door on the other side of the room rattled open. A rotund man in his twenties enter the room and took a seat by the window, before asking.
"Fresh meat? He looked into the Spectre's eyes didn't he?"
Harken nodded.
"Dumbass." Said the man, Kedu, handing Harken a slip of paper and a fountain pen.
"We'll need a novice set too." Added Kedu as he got off his seat and reached for a pile of identical rucksacks lined up by the wall behind him.
Mazran extended his arm and made for the form, only to slip off the already thin lining, hitting his chin on the window sill.
"Ouch!" He cried.
Kedu chuckled at his plight and advised.
"Just let Harken fill the form for you kid."
Harken turned to Mazran and asked, "Name?"
"Mazran Yivas."
"Yivas...like the mountain?"
"Yes. Like the mountain." Answered Mazran.
"Age?"
"11 and a half."
"11." Said Harken, correcting him.
"Any family illnesses?"
"No. My uncle had a weird twitch in his eye but I don't know if it counts?"
"It probably doesn't. I'll just put none here." Harken said, looking at Kedu, who just shrugged in reply.
"Blood type?" Harken continued.
"Red?" Mazran answered with some hesitancy.
"No. You don't know your blood type?" Asked Kedu.
Mazran shook his head.
"Are there many types of blood?" He asked.
"Yes. 6 types. Red, though, isn't one." Said Kedu. He opened a drawer on the side of the desk and pulled out a wooden box.
From the box he produced a queer device in the shape of an egg with a capped tube running out of its crown. To the open end of the tube, Kedu attached a pinprick and tightened the cap.
Standing up, Kedu leaned out of the window and made to grab Mazran's hand. But this time Mazran was prepared. He dodged Kedu's grasp and bolted away behind a pillar.
"What's with you people and grabbing hands?!" Mazran cried. If this kept happening he might end up developing a fear of hands and pointy things altogether.
"What a killjoy! Fine then. Do it yourself. Prick your finger on the pin and leave a drop of blood on it. It'll tell you your blood type." Kedu said, annoyed.
"Okay. But you keep your grabby palms away from me." said Mazran, slowly extending his hand towards the device.
"The whole reason we do it that way is because newbies get terrified by the needles and the blood and then struggle a bunch, making our job harder. You initiate a dozen novices and you'll start doing the same." Kedu explained.
With resolve in his eyes, Mazran pricked a drop of blood out of his finger and quickly pulled back his hands, lest there be more shenanigans.
The device made a ding sound and the quartermaster gave it a glance.
"Sho.. wash my bwud twype?" Mazran asked sucking on his bleeding finger.
"R4." Said Kedu..
"Uh huh? And what's that mean?" asked Mazran.
"It doesn't mean anything. It's just your blood type." Kedu answered, turning to Harken. "Write it down and submit the form. I'm sure you don't have all day to babysit the brat."
"Right you are." Harken replied and submitted the form.
After checking it once over, the quartermaster filed it into the records and brought out the small rucksack.
"Here. The novice set. Especial for you." He said, handing the bag to Mazran.
"I'm sure you say that to everyone that comes by here." Mazran retorted.
"Only the dumb ones." Kedu answered with a smirk.
"Come now. We don't have all day. To the dorms!" Said Harken cheerily, almost happy to be rid of Mazran.
"Yes." Mazran replied, taking a deep breath, "Let's go."
This was the beginning of his new life.
They exited the marbled administrative complex and entered the campus proper.
As they walked through the throngs of students, across immaculate tiled paths, Mazran couldn't help but revel in the sheer enormity and magnificence of the academy's infrastructure. Large lecture halls sprawling the land like dragons, flower gardens planted amidst the snaking paths every so often, creating a refreshing balance between man and nature. Then there were the laboratories. Two buildings in total, built into a wedge shaped cliff face, isolated from the campus by a chasm almost a dozen meters wide, standing as tall above as they went deep below, made entirely of glass, metal and some sort of pitch black stone that seemed to swallow all light that fell upon it. Shimmering blue lights faintly shone through the darkness of the great pit, reflecting off of the metal plates bolted to the chasm faces. They connected to land via a sturdy bridge, guarded by automata. Mazran couldn't help but run up to the edge of the chasm and peer deep within. He wondered what it would be like to jump off of the edge and fly down.
Harken noticing his curiosity, followed close and leaned by the guard rails.
"Wonder why they are separated from the campus by this pit?" Asked Harken.
Mazran nodded, unwilling to look away from the pit, hoping to see something hidden in the darkness.
"When experiments are conducted, sometimes...accidents happen. These accidents can range from a test subject getting loose to a radiation leak. In any case, the problem needs to be contained.
It also contains invaluable research on a variety of topics that thieves could target. Hence, the pit. Delightfully hollowed out and reinforced with Cryor Permian Alloy. Nigh impregnable from within. Protected by the gnomish automata from without. Whatever you are looking for down there, you won't find. Come let's go inside."
"For what?" Asked Mazran, looking up from the chasm.
"To test your affinities. Come on." Gestured Harken as he made his way to the gate.
Mazran climbed down from the rails and ran after Harken.
As soon as he entered the labs, the glass door slid to a close behind him, causing him to jump back in fright, sending him tumbling into Harken.
"It's just a door. Why are you so spooked? You looked into the eyes of an ancient spirit, but you are scared of an automatic door?" Teased Harken.
"N-no. I'm not scared. It just surprised me. That's all." Said Mazran, looking down in embarrassment, much to Harken's amusement. As Mazran looked all around at the grey white architecture like a curious animal inspecting its new home, Harken walked over to another set of doors and pressed a button, opening them.
"Get in." Said Harken and pressed another button inside, as Mazran walked into a room the size of wagon. As the doors closed behind him this time, Mazran didn't flinch. Then the room trembled as it began to move.
Once more Mazran panicked, clinging to Harken.
"Calm down!" Cried Harken.
"There's an earthquake and you want me to calm down?" Screamed Mazran.
Harken rubbed his face and explained.
"It's not an earthquake. This is an elevator."
Noticing the confusion on Mazran's face, he explained, "An elevator is a device that is used to lift or drop things and people up to different levels of the laboratory. You know how the labs are huge right?"
Mazran nodded as the doors of the small room, the elevator, opened and he rushed out.
"This," said Harken, walking out the elevator, "helps the researchers and professors avoid the stairs and get to work faster."
"So it's a big pulley?" Asked Mazran.
"That's an oversimplification but yes. It is a big pulley." Harken answered.
"Harken! Wasn't today your day off? What brings you .... oh, a new student? Here for the affinity test?" Asked someone behind him.
Mazran turned around to see a middle aged man with a goatee wearing a white coat and gloves.
"Yes. But professor Rarkent asked me to assist him with the admissions so here I am." Replied Harken with a shrug.
"And this is ?" Asked the man.
"I'm Mazran Yavis. Nice to meet you." Mazran introduced himself with a bow.
"Such a polite boy!" Said the man, "Come. Let's get the test done. We can use lab 5."
They followed the man past a corridor and to a room labelled J-5.
The man in the white coat swung his hands, opening the doors and strode in, leaving Mazran amazed.
He knew what it was. He had read the tales of heroic magi of the past.
Telekinesis!
"Mr. Ghazbi, why are you wasting your magic like this? You could have just opened the door like a normal person!" Said Harken, chastising the man.
"Just let me show off in front of the new students dammit! Once he begins learning magic himself, he won't have the chance to feel this sort of amazement." Replied the man, pouting.
Harken sighed and gestured at me to get in.
"See that crystal cube over there?" Mr.Ghazbi asked.
Mazran nodded.
"Put your hand in that opening."
Mazran walked up to the cube and looked at the narrow slit in its front face.
"Will my hand even fit?" Asked Mazran.
"It will adjust to your hand. Just push your fingers in." Said Mr.Ghazbi flipping a switch behind it.
Mazran complied and pushed his fingers in and sure enough, the crystal receded giving way for his hand to pass through. When he was upto his wrist inside, all of a sudden the cube contracted, trapping his hand inside as portrusions began to poke his hand.
"This'll hurt a bit, so bear with me here." Said Mr.Ghazbi and flipped another switch as a shock ran through Mazran.
"Yeyeyee...what was that?!" cried Mazran.
"Just a pulse. Relax. Here. Look." Said Harken, pointing to the cube which was now changing colors, splotches of light blue and black intermingled with lines of green and dark blue surfaced on it. A lens moved on top of the crystal cube and flashed a light, blinding Mazran for a moment.
A buzzing sound rang out and by the time Mazran recovered his vision, Mr.Ghazbi had pulled out a sheet of paper from a contraption beside the cube.
"Wind and darkness. Not a great combination." Said Mr.Ghazbi, handing him the sheet.
On it was a chart of sorts, only instead of lines, it showed in bars.
Mazran looked below it to find a list of affinities with percentages provided.
Elemental Affinity :
Wind - 34 %
Darkness - 21 %
Nature - 10 %
Water - 9 %
Earth - 6 %
Fire - 3 %
Others - <1 %
"So ... you said this wasn't a great combination. Why is that?" Asked Mazran.