Finally, the male nodded and stepped back. "Okay, then," he said. Sky raised a shaking hand to check his work. The wig was in its proper place.
"Thank you," she said in a small voice. A ghost of a smile, the first she'd seen in a long time, graced the male's lips. Sky's heart gave a wild lurch.
"You're welcome," he said. Then, he turned his attention to his right wrist. He pulled back the sleeve of his uniform, revealing an interesting bracelet. It had a thick, brown, leather band and a large, diamond shaped, flat stone. One half of the stone was gold; the other was clear. Between the stones was a black rectangle object. When he pushed the black piece, something nebulous shot out of the stone. The amorphous nebula hung in the air. Colors of yellow, gold, white, blue, and grey flicked across its surface. The whatever colors swirled together and spread apart into a uniform circle, which Sky could barely see the male's face through.
"Skylar Maren, first year," the male said. Sky noticed how his eyes were fixed on the ethereal circle. Suddenly, Sky saw words emanating from within the sphere, but the letters had a backward arrangement. She recognized her own name and blurted out, Skylar Maren, human, first year, that's me! What is that thing? What does RA mean?" The male fixed her with another piercing looked, and she fell silent. She watched as he pushed the black object again. The circle expanded, and the words displayed on it changed. It took her a minute to realize that her application from the MAT had appeared. The male hit the lower gold half of the stone. The screen shifted, so the second page of the form appeared. Sky glanced back at this ruddy creature and noticed his frown deepening. He hit the gold half of the stone again. The words within the circle changed and read, "End of file." She couldn't help but notice the flashing red font. He pressed all three stones simultaneously, and the circle vanished.
"Very well, Skylar, I am Aven Gothego. Come with me," he said. Aven turned and walked towards the school. Sky hastened to follow him.
"I prefer Sky. Where are we going?" she said.
"I am taking you to get your 'uniforms and books and things,' so you can go to class. You've missed the Chancellor's speech by the way. It's the second day of classes already."
"Oh, okay. Let's get to it then."
Sky felt as if the world had suddenly shifted on its axis. Aven was actually helping her, and this stupefied her. Sky's entire body went numb, and her eyes burned while she tried to comprehend it. She thought Aven was muttering on about rules and regulations, but the rest of his statements were lost on her.
Aven stopped, turned, and saw the confusion on her face. Sky felt his presence, and a tear traipsed down her pink cheek. Aven's face clouded when he noticed that single teardrop glistening upon her skin. As he momentarily transfixed upon the watery droplet, his eyes became like emeralds again.
Until this moment, only two people in the entire course of her life had ever helped her, Mr. Ahl and Uncle Gladion. However, it had been years since she'd seen either one of them. She had only met Uncle Gladion one time, and that meeting didn't go well. Although they had gotten closer over the years as they exchanged letters, her circumstances hadn't allowed her to visit. On the other hand, Mr. Ahl had been the owner of a bookstore that she had frequented regularly, but he disappeared when she'd turned eighteen. Although his bookstore remained opened, she hadn't seen him since. Up until recently, she had gone to his bookstore every chance she got to borrow the books that were still there and to see if he was back from wherever he had gone.
"You're going to help me?" Sky asked, meeting and holding his hard gaze as another tear slipped out.
"Yes," Aven replied. In a closed off tone, he continued, "it isn't worth crying over. Tears don't do any good unless someone wants something from you, and even then, they will only elicit false sympathy and false, unreliable friends. Now, stop and come on." He moved again, and he did not wait for her to catch up. Sky wiped her eyes, swallowed against the hard tightness in her throat, and hurried to keep up with his long strides.
Week 1 Day 2 Loren 7:55 am
Sky looked at the solid, dark colored wood door to the classroom, room 204, and took a deep, steadying breath as she prepared to open it. She had decided that this would be her class. It was where she belonged. She tugged at the black jacket of her uniform adjusting it for the umpteenth time.
After Aven had helped her get uniforms and a room assignment, he'd left her in the entrance way of the castle before several glowing panels, which contained school and grade wide student rankings. The results from the MATs, class schedules, and class assignments were listed for public scrutiny. Sky remembered Aven's instructions to find her name on one of the latter lists and to go to that class.
However, finding her name was easier said than done. It took her twenty minutes to even figure out how to check the class assignments. Then, it took another twenty minutes to verify that her name was not on any of the lists. She didn't understand what was going on.
Once she was certain that her name was not listed, she had originally thought to join class 1-S because it had the lowest number of students, but luckily, she thought to check the schedule first. Class 1-S only had four hours of magic practice a day. Sky knew she was decades behind the other students, so she needed more practice than that. Creatures lived for hundreds of years, depending on their races. They only requirement for entry to the school was that they had to have reached their maturity. This meant that even the youngest creatures would be between thirty and forty. Most of them were far older. With money and access to tutors from a young age, most of the creatures had experience with magic and had already practiced regularly. For them, this school was just perfunctory.
Sky needed a class that met for longer than four hours. She needed to study at least as much as the creatures in order to not fall further behind. She found a class that met for eight hours, which she thought matched her MAT results. Also, her results were not posted, she knew that she had broken a thirty-caliber tester, which meant her results were high.
So here she was, outside of room 204, class 1-ES1.