"Pass," said the attendant in a trembling voice. The twins were shocked senseless, and that first boy looked like he could hardly believe what he was seeing, or rather, hearing. But there was no way for Eizan to look down on them with an imposing back; his ascent to the platform was too embarrassing! "Ahem..." the instructor cleared his throat after his ability to speak returned, "You can come down now." He felt the weakness in his bones as he stepped down from the platform, and the pain... The instructor was about to lead them onto the next phase when a wizened little woman of average height descended from the three-story building overlooking them onto the platform. The other children gasped at her display of control over air magic, discussing how many years it would take to ascend to such heights. But it was just so-so to him; he did not have any concept of magic whatsoever.
The instructor clasped his hands in greeting, "Elder Wei."
Once again, furious whispers arose among the children. Right now, he was too lazy to listen in. "Silence!" roared the instructor, and it did become the graveyard. "I will take it from here," the elder dismissed. He clasped his hands again and disappeared.
They were immediately separated according to how many drums they played. Eizan could see the envy in the first boy's eyes as he and the twins were put in a group. Out of the twenty children that made it, eight couldn't make a single drum beat, five could, and three had two drum beats. Agnes couldn't make it for the test, so just nineteen children underwent the test.
They followed the elder around the platform and into one of the buildings. It had a huge courtyard with humble furnishings, but Eizan was suddenly too tidy and sleepy to notice; he just wanted to find somewhere to lay his head. But the dorm was assigned only to the right, who failed to deliver, and five who had only one drumbeat to their name. The rest of them were still being led forward. Finally, they got to a smaller division with its own small yard inside that same building. It had a total of four rooms, two on either side of the yard. The twins were assigned a room; the first boy and another boy got a room. Then he and the remaining girl got a room each.
The elder passed them tokens with the insignia of the Tower on them. "This identifies you as an apprentice of the Tower," she explained. "This also helps the Tower keep track of your location and your improvement. Replacing it is not easy, so try not to lose it.
"There are three levels of apprenticeship: normal apprentices, as you are now, secondary apprentices, and core apprentices. Normal apprentices can only access the first level of the tower; secondary apprentices can access the second; and core apprentices can access the first, second, third, and fourth levels open to apprentices."
The other girl, other than the twins, raised the question, "How do we improve our levels?"
"Academic points," answered the elder, "you can get them through completing tasks and quests or fighting in the arena. However, to become a core apprentice, you must be under the tutelage of a grand elder of either of the three factions to even get a qualification to participate in the promotion test. Being a student of the grandmaster of the Tower automatically makes you a core apprentice; however, he hasn't accepted a student in years. Anything else you want to know, you will find out in your days in the Tower. Now, to your rooms!"
The room assigned to Eizan wasn't big, nor was it small. It was just the right size. In the wardrobe hung two forest green robes, some casual clothes, and bedding. Besides that, the room was bare; he didn't have anything to bring with him. He picked up a change of clothes and found his way to the bathroom. It was open and moist from the inside; it seemed someone changed his sentiments about keeping clean.
The person in the bathroom turned out to be the first boy. He threw his face in the opposite direction when he saw him come in. "Hello," he called out in greeting, but the boy was bent on ignoring him. "I am Eizan, and you?"
"Duobing. Jiang Duobing," the boy replied grudgingly. Eizan burst out laughing, saying, "I'm sorry. I was referring to you as the first boy, that first boy, and so on earlier. I apologize."
The boy snorted and left the bathroom in a hurry. He pinched himself harshly; he shouldn't have revealed that to the boy. As he washed, he felt his body go cold again, but it disappeared almost immediately, so he thought he must have imagined it. But he wasn't one to dwell on something for too long; if it was too baffling, he'd wait till it was made clear to him with time.