Looking outside the carriage, I saw Dralett in all its glory. I only stayed in the other city, Karia, for a few days and I didn't explore it even the slightest.
I already thought that Karia was big but looking at the capital from this distance it was gigantic, so that was the difference between a city and a town.
"Cities are much bigger than I'd imagine," I thought to myself.
Awestruck I gazed at it for a while and the Magister, who was sitting opposite me, must have noticed that it caught my interest.
"Never sick of the sight," he got closer to the window, "have you ever been to Dralett?" He asked while sticking out his head from the window.
"No, never thought I would. Can you tell me a bit about the city?"
"I don't know," he said unsure, "I don't know that much about things that don't interest me," he got back into the carriage, "as you will, I learned about history in school but that was many years ago so I just forgot most of it already. I think the histories of nations and cities are quite boring," he stuck his tongue out like he just ate something bad tasting. "I can't blame anyone if they're interested but it's just not for me but don't tell anyone, it'll be a hit on my reputation."
I closed my eyes and groaned quietly, I can't believe that a man like him has such a high-ranking position.
"You told me multiple times about what I will learn when I'm in school, can you at least tell me about that? What exactly will I be learning?" I asked, trying to get any information from him.
He sat upright, "oh, you know, the general stuff. We don't give courses on reading and writing, if you think your skills are lacking then you'll have to work on them during your off time. The main thing you'll learn about is science, like mathematics, the study of nature, and philosophy. Geography and history too, which I, as you know, slacked off on. And literature and grammar. You can also choose optional courses, like music, art, or other languages if you want to learn some."
"None of these are related to magic," I said surprised.
"It's just the first part of your education. During your first year, you won't actually physically do magic."
"Anything about religion?"
"No. We did once, but the church didn't like that we taught about other religions so we were forced to drop it, and then we threw out the whole subject."
"But I can go to church if I want to, right? I went there once every month with my parents and I'd like to continue if I could."
"We don't prohibit religious practices. That would be quite cruel. Some members may look down upon them but in the end, we're a school, not a dictatorship. We won't tell you what you can or can't do in your free time but sometimes you have to forgo religion for the guild or the other way around if you're really serious about either of them."
With that said, it was the last serious conversation I had with him until we reached the city, in the meanwhile the Magister made complex loops and swerves with water in the air and I started to read another book about magic because yesterday I had already finished the first one I started to read.
One of the most important substances made from magical power, the official name being arella, was strange in itself. The stronger it was the heavier it got but the volume could be all over the place. You could fill a bucket with the blueish gelatinous substance and it could be as heavy as rocks or cotton depending on the wizard.
"That's why the Magister said that he wanted to weigh the pot after I had poured some into it," I realized.
As we rode into the city it had a different feeling than Karia had. Instead of lots of shouting and horses pulling carts, the people seemed to have a grace to them, an elegance that I never saw anywhere else. The streets were paved with clean cobblestones and were wide enough for two carriages to be side by side on it at the same time.
I was sure that this has to be a richer part of the city.
"Have you ever dreamed of coming here?" Eeming asked as we stepped out of the carriage when we had reached what I thought was another one of his residences.
"No, to be honest, most of my dreams were much smaller than this."
"That means at least one was as big as this."
"Sure," I agreed uncaring, his reasoning wasn't sound but would there have been a point to say anything different?
This fortified mansion was similar to the other one in almost every way, even some of the paintings were the same, some had slight differences from the other ones but still, almost identical and credit where credit is due.
You can't expect an artist to capture the same image twice in a row perfectly.
Or maybe you actually could?
I heard once that some paintings are done magically. I wouldn't have the slightest idea how, but that must have been rare.
When would you meet someone who is an actual artist and a mage at the same time?
"Will I be staying here?" I asked looking over some small figures displayed in a case.
"No, you will get your place. Something more to the tune of a student, so don't get too comfortable here. Actually you're here at perfect timing, the next academic year begins in three weeks. You have almost an entire month to do whatever you want before you need to get down to business, if you get what I mean," he raised his eyebrows, smirking, "a young man such as yourself needs some freedom before being chained down. Enjoy life a little."
After we had gone into his study, he explained, "this is how it's going down. I'll give you housing but not in this part of town, just a step-down from it. Most new mages, like you, come from parts like that. Not the absolute highest in rank but still pretty high. You'll live on your own, and you'll get an allowance each week and nothing more. If you so choose, you can get a job somewhere but I don't think you will have the time for it. We can see how that plays out in the future. You're always welcome here but for large parts of the day I'm not here, so you can turn to… mystery man number one," he tried to build up the suspense drumming his fingers on the table, "Vaunn!"
The Magister gestured to the door and it opened.
"Hello," Vaunn greeted.
Eeming went closer to me and whispered, "I don't know why but he always insists on riding his own horse and not the carriage, he was just some hours away from us, kind of like a bounty hunter. Scary, right?"
It wasn't, just kind of strange but not the same kind of strange the Magister was.
How come a man his age behaves like this?
There must have been a select few who would find this charming but most would distance themselves from someone like him.
I cannot imagine he would have many friends that are his age like him or even any at all.
"He can help you out whenever I'm not here, but don't rely too much on him. You have to be independent."
I thought he was likely relying on Vaunn all the time, but he was advanced in age so it was reasonable that he did.
"Let's go, you'll want to see where you're going to live, take your things with you."
We went outside and traveled through the city on foot. The decline of living conditions was noticeable because the mansion got smaller and smaller, still giant as far as houses go for any normal man but not to the highest of society.
We had gone for three minutes without talking before the Magister began talking, like a dam that just broke.
I thought that he was the type of person who couldn't keep quiet if he wanted to say something.
In the stream of words that come out of his mouth talk about some of the landmarks this city had were included.
It was natural that he did tell me about them.
This was the city in which he spends most of his time, but how come he knew nothing about its history?
Did he tell me that he knew nothing about it just to be humble?
We reached a house that was similar in size to the inn I had stayed in, "great, eh?"
"And I'll live here alone?"
"Trust me, you'll want the space. Let's go in," he waved for me to step inside.
The interior was fairly barren in comparison to his house, with no banners nor paintings of any kind, just a normal table with normal chairs and some cupboards, the necessities.
"I haven't been here in forever. I'd rather stay in the other one, you can see why," he justified.
"This is much more than enough," I looked around.
Going into the kitchen I saw the pots and kettles were hanging over the fireplace but there was no food around.
"You'll find all the things that are normally in a house, bit dusty I'd imagine, been a while since the last time someone cleaned up. Maybe I should hire someone to keep up this place?" He said to himself.
He rummaged around in his coat pocket again and pulled out some money, "here's the last of this week's allowance, five coins. Bit meager, don't you think? A loaf of bread costs a whole one. Well, you figure something out. Oh, and come over tomorrow. We'll fill out all the paperwork, boring I know but necessary."
And with that he left, I was alone again.
At first, I didn't know what to do. I had no money complaints anymore. With over fifty coins at the moment and an extra thirty per week, I didn't have to search for a job. I had no connection to anyone except Eeming and Vaunn here but I didn't want to go visit them, I'll be there tomorrow anyway.
Other than reading I didn't have many hobbies, I never had this much free time either, always having to help out or do other kinds of work at home. But now that I had a week of free time during the ride here and three extra weeks now I didn't want to continue reading.
My final decision was to go to church.
I wondered, did this one have a rather stout priest too?