"Hey! Wait up!" Shouted a young boy, wearing the uniform for the Amine Academy of Magic and the Mysteries. He was running after one of his only friends, bumping into other students in the long hall.
"Sorry. Excuse me. Pardon me." He said every time he made contact with someone else.
"Hey, did you hear we got a new professor?" He asked as he finally caught up to his friend.
"Of course I've heard, do you think I live under a rock?" His friend replied, rolling his eyes.
"Do you know anything about it? Do you think it'll be a grouchy old man or maybe we'll actually get some eye candy?" He asked in rapid succession.
"Does it even matter Ryan, you'd have just as much a chance with either one. Ha." He said with a laugh, poking fun at his friend.
"Geez Ben, that was cold." Ryan said with a smile, not minding the jab.
Ryan Passwater was fourteen years old and the only son of a somewhat successful merchant. He was found to have a little bit of skill in magic, so his father spared no expense in getting him into the academy. Not wanting to disappoint his father, Ryan spent every day practicing and studying, limiting his social life greatly.
The only reason Benjamin and himself became friends was because they were assigned the same room to share. Well, it wasn't the only reason. Benjamin was also the son of a merchant, but was the fifth son. Luckily for him, his father had several connections within the nobility. This allowed Benjamin easy access to the academy, unlike Ryan. Ben was also fourteen years old, but was a few inches taller than Ryan was, making him appear older. They both had dark brown hair, but Ryan had green eyes as Ben had brown. When they walked together down the halls, if one didn't know any better, they could be mistaken as brothers, with Benjamin being the older one.
All the students were returning from midsummer break, some had stayed behind at the school, but many had left for their homes. The wealthier ones even traveled some, going to summer houses on the many lakes dotted around the area. The cacophony of children talking and shouting filled the halls as they made their way to their classes.
Ryan and Ben were no different, they were laughing and joking with each other as they walked towards alchemy class. Alchemy was their first class of the day, it filled the first two hours, with magic arrays afterwards. It had taken them most of the year to grow used to professor Arckroft, he was a very strict man. Now they would have to start all over with a new professor, underneath all the joking, they were both nervous to meet them.
They walked into class together, both expecting to see the new professor, but was surprised to see no one there to greet them. A few other students were already sitting behind their desks, about a dozen, but other than that there was no one. Shrugging their shoulders, Ryan and Ben both made their way to their assigned desks that were next to each other.
There were thirty desks in the classroom, five rows of six. They were on six tiers, the next higher than the last, allowing all the students a clear view of the front of the class. The front of the class had a large chalkboard hanging on the wall. Directly in front of the chalkboard was an alchemy station that was set up, but was currently empty.
As time passed by, more and more students filtered in, either by themselves or in groups of friends that were busy talking amongst themselves. Soon, all the seats were filled and everyone was talking about who the new professor would be, at a low murmur. Everyone was stealing glances at the large mechanical clock that was sitting in the corner, the minute hand was getting ever closer to the eight, marking the beginning of class.
"Do you think they'll show?" Ben asked Ryan, leaning over in his chair.
"I don't know, maybe they're just late?" Ryan said, still looking at the clock.
"Well, if they're not here by twenty after, we can leave right?" Ben asked, hoping for an extra two hours of free time.
"I don't kn…."
Before Ryan could finish his sentence, the chimes of the clock sounded out, indicating the beginning of lessons. Just as the second chime rang, a large oval, pitch black opening appeared in the middle of the classroom. It looked like a swirling vortex, blacks and dark purples mixing together and converging at the center, like a whirlpool. The students' mouths clamped shut and their eyes went wide, they had never seen anything like it. A slight breeze was generated from the vortex, causing them to have to hold their loose papers down, preventing them from blowing away.
Ripples started to appear on the vortex, disturbing the kaleidoscope of blacks and purples. Then, stepping out of the swirling vortex, was a man dressed in a plain black robe. He was holding a black, gnarled staff in his right hand that was just as tall as he was. His features were plain, not overly handsome, not ugly either. If you were to average out the appearance of a thousand people, that would be similar to what he looked like.
He took a few steps away from the vortex, snapping his fingers, it suddenly vanished from existence. The wind died down immediately, but no one paid it any attention, they were all staring at the man that had suddenly appeared before them. The final chime sounded out from the clock, the room was eerily quiet.
"Let's begin." The man in the black robe said in a deep voice.
He walked back towards the chalkboard, then began to write. White letters appeared one after another, spelling out 'Professor Kal'. He turned around to face the students, the chalk in his hand disappearing much like the vortex had before.
"I'm sure you can tell, but in case you hadn't figured it out, I'm your new professor of alchemy. My name is Kalcifer, Kal for short. Since the year is already half over, I want to get a feel for what you have learned thus far. I'll start out with a simple question. What is alchemy?" Professor Kal asked, crossing his arms and leaning against the table, facing the students.
A pretty young girl raised her hand, she was sitting in the front row. She had her dark hair in a tight ponytail, her back was straight, and her face had a light layer of makeup. Her name was Laura Cromwell, she was the daughter of a baron, and held herself as such. She kept perfect grades and never missed a class, she is what one would call a teacher's pet.
"You, yes you, the fat one." Professor Kal called out, pointing at a student that was sitting in the back, completely ignoring Laura.
The one he had called upon was a 'slightly' overweight young man named Clerance Hutchens. He was the first son of Duke Hutchens, and was always sure to let everyone know. The only thing he loved more than putting other people down, was food. The academy for him was just something that he had to do, he didn't take it seriously, knowing his father would pay for his grades anyways.
Hearing what the Professor had said to him, his face turned several shades of red, equal parts anger and embarrassment. Being the first son of a duke afforded him much respect, even from the professors of the academy. His mind went blank due to the fact that he couldn't process what was happening.
"Uh….umm...uhh." Was all that came out of Clerance's mouth, his hands balled into fists.
"That's not even close to being correct." Professor Kal exclaimed, shaking his head, not waiting for a proper answer.
"Alchemy, dumbed down for you, is the process of combining, transforming, or creating different substances. Now, anyone can perform alchemy, it's not hard at all, but creating something useful is a different story. To become proficient at it requires many years of experience, and many failed attempts. So, who would like to go first?" Kal said, waving his hand and populating the table that was behind him.
Beakers, burners, test tubes, all the required materials to perform alchemy appeared before the students. Kal had prepared beforehand, he placed anything that he would need inside his storage ring. He placed several different ingredients off to the side, he was going to have them make a very simple healing potion, something that would only take ten minutes to complete.
After a full minute, not one student volunteered. "What's the matter? No takers? What about you, you seemed eager to answer the question from before." He pointed to Laura.
She shook her head back and forth, her ponytail swinging along with the movement. "It's not that Professor Kal, Professor Arckroft never allowed us to perform it on our own. He would just demonstrate for us."
"And they called him a genius? How can you learn anything without actually performing it?" Kal said to himself, loudly enough for everyone to hear.
"No matter, come up here, today is your lucky day. I want you to follow these steps." Kal said, calling Laura forward and handing her a slip of paper.
She looked over the slip of paper, her mouth moving along with every word. The other students waited patiently for her to begin, they were curious to see how the best student in their year would perform. They couldn't see it, but her eyes went wide when she read over the ingredients needed. Mundane ones such as purified spring water was nothing, but when she saw that one hydra scale, along with two shoots of a bamboo that had been long extinct was required, she was shocked.
"Professor…." She started, looking up at him.
"What? C'mon, hurry up, it's just a simple potion, we don't have all day." He hurried her along, growing impatient.
She swallowed her words, nodded her head, and with shaking hands, started the process. In a large beaker, she started to boil the spring water. This part was the easiest, the recipe just stated that it only needed to be a rolling boil, not a specific temperature. The other parts were much harder, at least for her. It called for the hydra scale to be cut into long strips, grasping the sharp knife, she hesitantly cut into the ultra rare material. A hydra was an exceedingly rare monster, found only in the largest and deepest dungeons. A single scale would be worth as much as her father's manor, maybe even more. To cut up such a valuable ingredient almost made her sick.
Kal didn't bother himself with how his student was feeling, he just quietly observed her every movement. He noticed how shaky she was, making him shake his head. One needed to be fluid in their movements, not hesitating at all. With this particular recipe, it didn't matter so much, but with others, timing would be very important. Any delay in combining ingredients or variation in temperature would result in a failure, ruining all the ingredients used.
Finally, after twenty long minutes, Laura was finished with the potion. She let out a long sigh, sweat was visible on her forehead. She carefully handed the finished product over to Professor Kal, who took it casually with one hand, holding it up to the light. After scrutinizing it, swirling the contents around for good measure, he gave her his critique.
"Your movements are too jerky, I thought you were having a seizure at one point. The time you took to add the boiling water was much too long, although this particular potion is rather forgiving, taking too long on others would be disastrous. The strips were too wide, the bamboo was cut, not crushed like it stated in the recipe. All that said, this was your first attempt, so it is barely an acceptable result."
He handed her back the potion, then motioned for her to sit down.
"Is this alright? For me to keep this?" She asked him, looking at the light green liquid sloshing around the small glass bottle.
"Of course, you made it didn't you? Now sit down, you've wasted enough of everyone's time"