Their seating arrangements took some time to find, the sheer number of rows playing tricks on the mind. Seats were sectioned off by a clear, plastic divider. Affixed to the divider was a wooden attachment on its side one could easily pull out to write on. When Val did so, it came out with a stack of blank paper—most likely filled with words on the other side—and a pen.
The urge to flip it over was intense. 'Just a peek,' a voice in the corner of her mind would say. 'To hell with that,' Val would reply back. Not with her mother's cure on the line.
Murmurs washed over the arena, like the soft pop of oil before it turned hot. From her vantage point, she witnessed participants of all kinds tussle with their exam sheets. They leaned over to those adjacent to them, saying one thing.
The papers were blank.
"Idiots," Caro said.
A faint chuckle reached Val's ears, its source the man clad in ceremonial robes a good 200 meters away. How she'd heard his quiet amusement, Val had no clue.
While hard to tell from where she sat, it looked as if the man dusted off his clothes and stood. "Five years ago, all those who flipped their papers would've been well on their way out by now."
As he raised his hand, the sound of a snap boomed.
Val was dunked underwater, like someone clicked mute on the world around her. The low hum of the heaters vibrating and the muttering of participants became an eerie mime, existing without sound.
Despite that, her mind immediately went towards how such a spell worked.
You could throw boulders at someone, sure. You could burn someone's jacket with fire, believable. You could pull the air out of someone's lungs, painful, but capable of happening.
Yet how would one steal a person's hearing? Did they stop the sound waves from hitting a person's eardrum or did the spell directly nullify the eardrum's ability to vibrate? Or maybe, it affected the auditory nerves directly. If so, was it reversible?
The man snapped again, answering her question. Val's hearing rushed back, her sigh of relief paired with the actual sound of releasing air.
He walked forward, planting his hand on the guardrail meant to prevent spectators from plunging into the arena below. "In this arena, one in twenty lacked the common sense necessary to listen to simple instructions. That's one too many.
"Soon, some of you will have the ability to call upon lightning with a wave of your hand, the ability to cause rain at your cry, the ability to heal the sick at your touch—do you know how dangerous it would be to let you run rampant if you cannot understand the rules of this land? I'm sure some of you have already seen the repercussions of letting these fools go on to the next trial."
The memory of the air mage's attempt at mugging her came to the forefront of Val's, a shiver running down her spine at the thought of thousands of mages doing the same to defenceless people. 'He's right…'
"We have this trial due to those who think they're above the rules. They are, in fact, not. The awakening of one's element is a privilege in this country, not a right." Everyone, including Val, wilted as his stare roamed the auditorium. "Now wait until I say so this time. In silence. I like my mornings peaceful."
He swivelled on his feet, his robes twirling at the action, and took a seat on one of the nearby empty benches.
As each minute passed and the wait stretched, the knots tangled in Val's stomach doubled, her thoughts spiralling without control. The Laws seemed a living, breathing thing, choosing who would be more impervious to its rules compared to the other. Rich, powerful, talented—those of certain categories poked holes against its supposed impenetrable bar of information, Captain Rhodes might as well confirmed it yesterday.
Would the trial admin care? What if they asked questions she had no answer to? Like the rumoured Paths of a mage, or the speculated disciplines of magic? What of the differences between the Central Essences?
The silence in the arena spurred her thoughts, all contemplating one thing or the other.
Val gasped as unknown, glowing letters bloomed on the page in vertical lines of script. 'By the saints, enchantments? On paper?' The mysterious sentences settled a moment later. When it disappeared, words she understood appeared on the paper. The exam, it seemed, was always in front of them. 'Just hidden.'
She couldn't say it was inexpensive, but it sure was clever.
The man in ceremonial robes stood once more, attracting eyes with his movement alone. "Your window closes at noon, giving you all three hours to complete the exam. Raise a hand when you are finished and I'll inform you of your next set of instructions. You may begin."
Before Val could catch a glimpse of her exam, a knock on her divider had her turning right. Caro made a zipping motion over her mouth. She then grinned and raised a thumbs up for good luck. Val smiled in response, the knots lodged within her stomach detangling themselves at her friend's silly antics. Her smile broadened as she glanced at the first page. 'This is the bare minimum to know.'
Glancing back at Caro to see how she was taking it, she met face to face with an opaque divider, unable to catch even a silhouette. She did manage to catch the last of enchantments disappearing at the corner.
Shaking her head, Val focused on her exams.
[Name the ranks defining a mage and state how they are classified.]
Val allowed herself a smile as she wrote.
'Novice'
'Adept'
'Magus'
'Magister'
'Archon'
'A common mistake people make is attributing the rank of a mage to the amount of aether residing within their aetherial vessel because of how we classify the 15 tiers of all aether creatures. In reality, the ranks are attributed to certain steps a person has made on their journey as a mage.'
Val questioned how the system had worked—well what little of the system she knew with the Laws of Secrecy around. What exactly did those steps signify? How did it widen the gap between those who took it and those who failed to follow through? At the end of the day, she wasn't here to change the rules, she was here to pass the exam.
She continued the test without any hiccups. The exam was the barebones of what any prep graduate should know, ranging from the difficulties of Oz's Aether Creature Tiering System to the definition of Artificers and their five classes. The last question put Val's rapid-fire pace on still ice, however.
[Define an artifact.]
It was an odd inquiry, with nothing to do with the elemental arts. Knowing the existence of the Aether Artifact Allocation Committee, though, unveiled a little of what the question was getting at.
There was only one line of info allowed to the word artifact, the rest hidden behind the Laws of Secrecy, and Val wrote it down word for word.
'A channel, be it a weapon or jewellery, manmade or a nature-born treasure, of immense abilities.'
Glancing at her wrist to check the time, she forgot they confiscated her belongings. The sparse amount of people still left within the arena told her she was one of the last few to finish. She reviewed her paper thrice and raised her hand once satisfied. By the time she blinked, the man donned in ceremonial robes appeared right in front of her, his clothes billowing as if a natural breeze flowed.
"Heavens!" Val flinched back. Now up close, she could tell he was of Auricean descent, his loose brown hair and peach skin tone giving it away. He held out a hand. "Exam?"
Still in shock, Val could only hand over the papers in silence. He looked over her sheets, nodding here and there before making a satisfied sound. "Looks good to me. Wait in room 215, we'll tell you what to do from there."
He vanished once more, Val not able to get a reply out.
How nice.