Hilda had no experience with politics. How could she know that the headmaster had enough power to level the City in one spell? How could she be aware of the fact that Duke Silverton could exchange every noble in the city, even the citylord with half an order. How should she know that Aktun Rafal was only a small man with no real power? All she knew is that Aktun Rafal had near absolut control in the city.
Would you sacrifice your family for uncertain personal safety, after you sacrifice your happiness to get things to work. Do you want the young girls to suffer the same or a worse fate that you have to endure, every time Rafal walks into the orphanage?
Hilda would never be able to do such a thing. Hilda is by no means a selfish person. Or she would have long since taken her own life to escape the fate Rafal subjected her to.
The silence in the room was heavy, that the sudden knocking at the door sounded like blaring cannons in everyone's ears.
"Who dares to knock at this door in the middle of a test?" the Headmaster growled and a dangerous light shone in his eyes. The door became transparent, but it had to be one way, because there was no reaction to it from the outside.
In front of the door stood a boy 14 Years old. He had arrived after Hilda and he had knocked on the door out of impatience, his arm was still held in knocking motion. The guard that had let them in, was in front of the door. He was arguing with a middle aged man ,obviously the father of the boy. Both father and son were dressed so extravagant that one would expect they were heading to the Royal Court to meet the King.
The Father had an orange glow. The sign of a magma affinity. A special affinity, but not extravagant. The son had a very faint orange hue in his yellow light.
The headmaster's eyes lit up in a red light at this sight. He was enraged by the behavior of these nobles. A formation appeared on the outside of the door as the boy was lowering his hand to wait if his knocking would get the intended reaction.
A lightning bolt as thick as a leg jumped out of the door and hit the boy square in the chest. I saw that the beautiful light around him shattered like glass as his life was extinguished on the spot. The headmaster's communication amulet began to light up but he ignored it. A few seconds later the vice principal appeared in the hall, looking at the closed door of the testing room and the lightning formation that had appeared on said door. His glance slides to the corpse of the young boy and the two adults that had frozen in their argument pointing fingers at each other and loose jaws hanging on their chins. The scene looked funny, but no one was laughing.
The principal looked at the overseer, "We need to keep both their true affinities a tight lipped secret. No one out of this room should ever know the truth. except the people the girls open up on their own accord," the headmaster looked at Jasmine. It might look cheap and there isn't much I can teach you about your affinities but would you like to become my personal disciple? You can ask anything you want."
"It would be my honor, but I would like to discuss everything in private, only the two of us as Master and disciple." Jasmine said before bowing formally towards the Headmaster.
"Of course, for security's sake, we will say that you are a quadromage. The four basic elements are already at your disposal so you should use them openly. Having four affinities at high-level is more than enough to attract anyones attention and will help us to hide your friend from the eyes of the world." the headmaster said before he turned to Hilda.
"The real question is how we shall hide you in plain sight while giving you the education you need to use your Nature affinity successfully." The headmaster fell into deep thought while massaging his chin.
"Hilda, before we try something far too complicated and crazy, what kind of magic do you want to learn?" Jasmine asked.
"I always dreamed about becoming an alchemist. I love nature and tending the garden has always been fun. Would it be possible for me to become an alchemist?"
"The perfect Alchemist has a fire, water, and life affinity. The life affinity is the next best after the Nature affinity and would be a perfect cover. I would need to find a decent Alchemist master. Ours is a good teacher but a bad alchemist, for general knowledge about medicine it is enough but to groom a true Alchemist I need another. It could also explain why I do not take you in as my disciple. I am a combat mage and I have only enough understanding of alchemy to buy medicine of decent quality."
"That would be really nice. It might take a year until I get a master Alchemist but it will only come into play in the third year. The first two years are basic education, you will both join the Magus Class." the Headmaster said to the few people in the room.
"We might even need to create a new higher magus class with a few of the most outstanding ones." the overseer said to the Headmaster. Who turned to him with a raised eyebrow, but it wasn't a topic he wanted to discuss in front of outsiders.
"We should head out now, I will see you two later when you officially join the academy. Have a nice day." Tha a tear in space opened and he walked inside appearing in the center of the entrance hall.
The small group of people walked out through the door right into the chaos that was raging currently inside the entrance hall.
I could see the headmaster talking to the Vice-headmaster, who was apparently explaining to him what happened.
The headmaster was a great actor. In a voice that boomed through the entrance hall he yelled: "What are you saying? A boy knocked on the door of the testing room while it was occupied? Never have I heard of something so preposterous. I am glad that he is dead. Another magicless fool with the arrogance of a dual elemental mage. We don't need trash like that in the academy anyway. If not for the royal degree I wouldn't even let such scum into the academy."
I didn't know exactly what happened after that, but as we were leaving we passed a woman that caught my attention.
She was a tall and beautiful woman with ash gray hair. She wore an elegant long dress, it was ordained with a brooch that showed a Dragon fighting with a Phoenix. For everyone who has never seen one of these people, count yourself lucky.
The symbol of a Dragon fighting a Phoenix is the identification mark of the Association of Magic and Crime Prevention short AMCP.
The AMCP is the organization you only like or admire if you are a magicless person who has never committed any offense against the law.
Every Mage who is fully trained has to be registered in the AMCP registry. Of course it has many pros, like easy access to Mage exclusive resources, among others.
The cons are that if you are not part of an institution or organization that has certain clearances, you have to disclose part of your research to guarantee the safety of your surroundings and their compliance with the law.
A mage's research is equal to the status of his wife. Forcing someone to disclose parts of his intimate life with his wife only to guarantee some paranoid freak can sleep at ease is disgusting.
Having the AMCP show up wasn't an ideal situation for the Academy at all.
I saw the headmaster's face grow hard and stone cold, as he watched the woman approach him. She greeted the Headmaster with a formal curtsy. And I could only hear her greeting before we walked out of earshot.
"Greetings Headmaster Stormheir. I do not want to be rude, but would you mind explaining to me the situation that happened here…"
Fortunately the headmaster's voice was audible for quite some time. We walked away from them but His voice only grew louder instead of fainter.
"You are more than rude. You are openly insulting me." There was hostility, rage and hatred in the Headmaster's voice.
"You know as much as I do about this Academy. How it was built and what purpose it serves. That you have the gall to ask me in public about this is already the peak of rudeness. All you AMCP bastards are too arrogant for your own good. Go back and tell Peterhouse that he can come over to discuss this situation with me, IN PRIVATE"
An explosion resounded from the direction of the academy but I wasn't able to tell what the reason for it was. I guess the headmaster forcefully removed the AMCP agent.
And this concluded my first visit at the Academy, after that we only headed back to the orphanage. Marius and Lina came over later that evening and kidnapped Hilda to take her to the theater, a really expensive pastime that normally only nobles could afford. Taking Hilda to a theater as a birthday present was a big present. They left me behind, after they had fed me and put me in my crib.