Important, even fateful days happen in the life of every person. Some of these days are important in advance, while others become so at the last moment. If you know about them in advance, then the heart will beat faster in excitement, and the blows seem to be stronger, before their onset. And it also happens that a person himself will not notice the most important day of his life, will not attach any importance to it. Perhaps only later, looking back at his life and reflecting on the path he has traveled, he will decide that some day was actually not so ordinary as all the others.
The life of all magicians included many planned fateful days. A test for the presence of abilities at the age of seven, a school final exam, a test for the quality of these magical abilities at the age of fifteen. Then a series of exams, term papers at the academy, and becoming a real, certified magician, for which it was necessary to pass the latest and most difficult exam-UAC (unified academic challenge). Of course, there is nothing left of the challenge, these are still not those distant times when the life of a magician was not much more expensive than a human one.
One of these days crept up on Uriel quietly. the twentieth of August for a fifteen – year-old who passed the school exams of a magician could mean only one thing-finding out his magical abilities, predispositions and, possibly, limits. The guy didn't want to find out his limits. He was not keen on studying at school, having started as an excellent student, thanks to home schooling in the family of his father, a merchant of the second guild, he finished this stage of his life, getting by from three to four. The exception was biology - the love of his life. But to his regret, already six months before graduation, Uriel caught up with his teacher's knowledge. There was no new information to take from where and interest began to fade, so that in recent years he often lay in idle doing nothing.
Still, like any man, he was characterized by a desperate unwillingness to lose. Especially to lose in something that you can't influence. Having studied poorly and having a very weak body, Uriel believed that if he wanted to and put some effort into it, he would immediately catch up with his peers on any fronts, as the situation with biology convinced him. But the test of magical abilities is quite another. You can't train them, you can't pump them up, and even cheating was not available! To be incompetent would be a complete and total defeat. Its very nature would be flawed.
The only consolation for the young magician was that, in general, he did not want to be a magician. No, of course, he expected to finish the academy, but again, barely studying, and memorizing the minimum amount of information for passing exams. The life of a sorcerer is a constant self-improvement, everyone knew that. But there was also a certain percentage of magicians who completely betrayed this path and only earned their acquired abilities for a comfortable old age. Uriel wanted to do the same. Becoming a magician, he would have justified his father's hopes and would have lived a long and happy life without straining.
The sorcerer listened to himself. He was seized with jitters. Waves of some vague cold ran through his body, and his heart seemed to be pounding not exactly-slowing down, then accelerating. His room was dark and a little stuffy, but he was still lying under the blanket. He heard the footsteps of a man coming up the stairs. It must have been his father. The young man, without knowing why, pretended to be asleep. The door to the room opened after a short knock, a slightly overweight man of about forty entered through it.
- You will miss the whole ceremony, Ur. Get up, I know that you are not sleeping. Having watched you in bed so many times, it will not be difficult for me to distinguish between a deep sleep and eyes closed in senseless pretense.
- Yes, Father
The young man threw back the blanket and stood up. He was already dressed, since he had woken up a few hours ago, after which he walked around the room a little, did a couple of push-ups and sat down, then dressed and went back to bed. Now he was eagerly looking at all the smallest details of his room. He will not be in it until he graduates from the academy, or he will not be expelled.
- Well, let's go already, why did you get up? There are places ahead of you that are available only to a select few, and you can't take a step forward. - Joseph, Uriel's father put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed him hard-remember that I love you not as a magician and not as my future, but as my son.
– I love you too, Dad - the sorcerer turned to his father and hugged him – well, I'm off.
- don't forget to find a bride for yourself there.
- Absolutely!
Uriel left the house and went to the stables, taking one of the servants with him. After saddling their horses, they headed towards the branch of the mages Guild. The young man, by the way, was lucky that this department was in his city. Otherwise, he would have had to go to the capital. Why it would be impossible to go to the nearest branch in another town, he did not know, and he was not very interested. Arriving at a nondescript building against the background of rich mansions of nobles and merchants, standing almost in the very center of the city, Uriel dismounted and sent the servant back to his father. Of course, he would like to be accompanied by his father, but, firstly, it is not appropriate for a man to behave like this – not to leave his relatives one step at a time, and, secondly, his father did not like long goodbyes.
Several groups of his peers were standing near the entrance. He was well acquainted with all of them. After all, these were his classmates. After shaking hands with the guys and hugging a couple of girls, Uriel exchanged a few words with them and went inside the building. As he had just learned from the guys, there was a small queue inside, and they came out to get some fresh air. He did not want to communicate with anyone, and even more so to breathe the air. And he probably saw most of those present here for the last time for the next five years. All of them will get into different academies and different faculties.
It is worth saying in general what the training system of each young magician looked like. At the age of seven, all children in the empire were tested for the presence of magical abilities. However, at such an early age, the aura still continued to form and it was possible to find out only about their presence or absence. Then all potential magicians went to school. At school, no magic was taught at all. For the correct creation and application of spells, it was necessary to understand how the world works. To do this, the children studied mathematics, physics, chemistry, logic, biology and some other sciences, passing exams on them at the end of training. Wealthy parents also had the opportunity to study at home, only pay the money on time. Schools were free and compulsory for people with magical abilities.
After graduating from school, their almost fully formed aura was used to test their abilities and aptitudes for specific types of magic. The applicant is assigned a certain number of points based on the results of exams and magical abilities. Then the applicant chose one of the nine academies in accordance with the number of points. Probably, it was hard to say that the quality of education was different, but the level of prestige of the academies was very different.
Therefore, Uriel was thinking about which Academy to enroll in. He didn't expect to get into the First Academy. Given the estimates, it would be necessary now to show just the same abilities of a magical monster to get there. The Second and Ninth Academies would have been available if he had shown excellent abilities. The Seventh and Fourth – with good inclinations. In the last four, they took everyone.
Inside the building, there was indeed a small queue for one of the doors. The sorcerers were sitting on chairs along the wall and could not feel anything but nervousness. Someone's legs were shaking, someone's eyes were running, and one girl from a peasant family was shaking like an aspen leaf. Uriel took a ticket for himself and took one of the empty seats. The reception was quite fast. No more than twelve minutes were spent on one magician. No one went outside, either staying inside, or going further along the corridors of the building somewhere inside.
When it was his turn, the young man had almost calmed down. Uriel went to the door of the room and pulled the handle. There were three people in the room. One was sitting at the desk, holding a writing stick in his hand, and apparently was not a magician. The other two were standing next to a complex and asymmetrical pattern carved directly into the stone on the floor. They were wearing an unusual-looking and never seen before, but a beautiful black uniform. Each was about twenty-five years old, and taller than Uriel by a head. The guy thought it was funny that one of them had a hairstyle that looked like a bird's nest, so much were his black curls tousled.
In the room, which was quite spacious, there was indeed another door, where the applicants who had passed through the procedure went. Uriel would like to have his eyes caught on anything, so that he could stand a little longer and postpone the upcoming action. But there was nothing to see. The room was completely empty, there were no windows, and the walls were absolutely uniform and made of an unknown gray material, similar to a solid stone. Where the light came from in a room without windows was clear – the work of magicians.
- Come on, young man, stand on this empty space. - the hand of the "crow's nest", as Uriel called the magician to himself, pointed to a place free of lines in the drawing, for some reason it was not in the center of the drawing, but closer to the edge. – Don't worry, there will be no unpleasant sensations.
After waiting for Uriel to stand in his proper place, the magician turned to his colleague: "start this time with the parameters of the aura. It will be more important for him. we were told that he is interested in biology." The future sorcerer immediately became interested in how the test began with others. And how his favorite school subject influenced this. The pattern under his feet darkened, as if attracting light, which was surprising for Uriel, who for some reason expected the opposite-that is, the glow.
Then a completely new and strange feeling appeared. It was difficult to describe, like trying to explain to a blind person what color is. Probably one of the magicians was doing something with his aura. It felt like a light touch, but not to the body, but to something else. These touches also seemed to have their own smell, color and taste. The young man had two versions of the possible reasons for such feelings. Either the magician caused these feelings in him by his actions, or by recognizing the features of Uriel's aura, he himself unwittingly gave out some information about his own aura. It ended as abruptly as it had begun.
- the guy is strong. Only the reserve failed. Write down: Strength 91, flexibility 94, stiffness 89, elasticity 97, Hardness 95, Density 93, alpha reaction 88, beta reaction 96, reserve 58. Well, how do you like it, Vaclav? Already, he's better than you in everything except reserve.
- If the power depended only on the parameters of the aura, then magic would not be magic. And stop talking, start the second part of the ritual!
- May I ask, Mr. Magician?
- You can ask questions until he's finished.
The sorcerer conducting the ritual now approached some places on the drawing, froze for several tens of seconds, and then some colored lights appeared in front of him at the level of his knees.
- Have you measured my aura on a one-hundred-point scale?
- Yes. Are you very happy? That's right, you have excellent inclinations.
This was great news for Uriel. He was an ordinary schoolboy, but it seems that he immediately became an outstanding magician. Academies loomed in front of him, which he had never dreamed of getting into before!
- No need to think that you are some kind of unique. Try to remember two things: the first is that a hundred on this scale means only the best recorded result for someone who has not yet practiced magic. When he tested it - the "Crow's Nest" pointed to the second magician - everything was in the region of seventy. But now there is nothing below one hundred and forty points. The indicators of aura increase over time. Doubling is considered the norm, tripling is rare, and it is almost impossible to increase them four times. Secondly, knowledge and experience are more important than these numbers. As you can see, he works, and I command, even though we are classmates, and all my values are almost fifty lower. And the score of training duels is in my favor and with a large advantage.
Meanwhile, the second wizard is almost finished, trying to get out of the figure so as not to touch anything. In total, more than a dozen different points were already burning. Of course, the word burned here is not quite appropriate, there was nothing to burn here, it was more correct to say it appeared. And they were not points, but the manifestation of various types of mana. What struck Uriel, who did not know at all that this was a manifestation of different types of mana, was that one of the points did not emit light like the others, but on the contrary absorbed it. The space around her was much darker than in the rest of the room.
The lines on the floor, as if apologizing for the expectations that were not justified in the past, began to glow blue. The magician who conducted the ritual chuckled and the lights began to change in turn. Some of them lit up with more force, but most of them fell off. When the last green light almost flashed, they all disappeared, and the lines went out. This part of the ritual did not take even three minutes.
- Well, come to the table, now we will need to fill out the papers. Yeah, man, apparently your luck has turned away from you. Only mental magic, astral magic and light magic are above average, and only life magic is at the highest level. Elemental magic is the worst, the rest between the marks is bad and terrible. Uriel's heart seemed to skip a couple of beats at these words. - Given your reserve, you will not be able to create a fire tornado until you become a great mage. Although, considering your grades, it's not so bad. Apparently, it is written on fate to become the master of life magic.
- So, dear Uriel, - the man sitting at the table suddenly spoke up – According to your grades and abilities, you can enroll: in "life magic" in any of the academies, in "astral magic" in all but the First, Second and Ninth ... - the man talked and talked, but the young man no longer listened to him. He. Could. Have. Entered. The. First. Academy. Moreover, it was discovered that he had excellent abilities for the magic of life. It was a choice without a choice. How can you refuse the best, perhaps even in the whole world, academy? No way. Uriel did not refuse, interrupting the man and asking him to enroll him in the faculty of life magic at the First Academy.
- Okay, then sign a standard contract, go out through that door. You will find yourself in a corridor with different doors. You need the one on the far left with the number "1".
Uriel waved the proffered piece of paper without looking at it and went in the indicated direction.