Parts of the city flooded with the all too dangerously frequent mix of trundling feet across wide intersections and the speeding momentum of passing cars, around and on either side no matter where a person would veer their sense of focus, the most prominent and largest of the city's buildings advertised themselves in stylessly corporate attire or vanely built high end apartment buildings meant to please the eyes. You met an assortment of people, all types, shapes and sizes drifting towards the unnatural that they were concerningly growing used to.
The city square is what they'd come to know it as, beyond it, past the well built areas and down to its congested regions of residential, lesser affluent members of society were where constructs such as railway lines leading through the city's surface took prominent focus. It was an analysis brought about by the fact that where they needed to go made a detour through the underground stations littering the cities lower bases, halfway through touring the day life of Arken and it made increasingly less sense where a working academy would find itself situated. Easier however was finding out the location of the clock tower Ravinia had spoken of, towering in a centered piece of the city above everything else with no sizable equal, there was however, no entrance to it or much less a sign of life that'd warranted Ravinia's suspicions or past recollections that a magic association held a base in it.
Though of course, placing simple earthly thought into the matter was their first mistake that'd had them aimlessly wandering around on the surface till they'd had the gull to act like they'd lost their way towards the academy and needed assistance. For lesser suspicion or carelessly tripping into conversations and questions they couldn't answer, directions that lead anywhere that they felt should be widely known knowledge was a given to avoid. Though their first steps in asking for directions to the library and even here had been met with no issues thus far, a few hours prior, they'd found Brentley's paper an illegal piece of magical information, how illegal was unknown but illegal nonetheless.
Thomas was mentally making a mini map of the dozens of street sections, buildings and regions they'd visited thus far on the surface whilst traversing through a brightly lit underground station that stretched outwards far enough to consider itself its own mini city. The place stood brimming in small clothing stores, snack hours and food stalls whilst mixed in between the mingling presence of adults waiting for a train or children dressed in dark robes draping their bodies like grim ghosts.
"Looking at them, you'd think they'd garnered inspiration from another popular magic academy" Nera commented, half studying another newspaper they'd found in a news rack present almost anywhere frequented by people. Not that actual worldly news was of much interest(certainly not) but it seemed a lot less suspicious when secretly following one such academy student out of the station plaza and towards a flight of stairs leading deeper underground where the light systems seemed intentionally dimmed for atmospheric pleasantries.
"Historical value I guess?" Thomas chimed.
"You mean..like remembering what they used to wear back in the day?" She lifted her gaze from the newspaper, "Weird, though when are they never"
At this point they'd made it down the flight of stars that spiraled to a long corridor largely resembling a sort of cave system. Thankfully though the trek down the corridor was met with what they could only assume as academy parents, a small majority of adults not entirely dressed in attire quite similar to the few children saddled at their sides or in ample conversation with. The most telling quality was that they were young, eleven to twelve looking by the majority. After a further few minutes worth of walking, the student they'd been following had led them deep enough towards a part of the cavern-like, catacomb resemblance of the corridors to a region where it'd widened enough to fit a football field. It was lined in not lights but lanterns along the walls and the end of the place stood shielded off by a door made of strikingly well carved dark stone or a metal of sorts? The illustrations carved over its obsidian surface were familiar, fractured along its jagged surface like stained glass as if meant to house all six of them perfectly and without prejudice was, the sigils of the six god's the world's religion seemed so vehemently loyal to.
Thomas gave an amused click of the tongue, "Close, two up and a little religious though"
They followed forward as the child they'd been following pushed open the double doors and entered with leisure steps, the two made contact not a few seconds later and yet they suddenly stopped. Placing a firm hand on the sturdy looking door, Thomas exerted a force forward aiming to push it open which was met with no reaction from the construction. Frowning, he tried again, and again, then with both arms and a hard kick at its middle which all showed not even the slightest sign of budging.
Nera shot a dubious look between the door and Thomas' panting figure with a frown, "Crises, that child made it look so easy!"
"Are you really insulting me right now?!"
"No, I'm in very morbid shock of what'd happen if I find myself caught in a disagreement with this world's children" She placed her own hands on the door, "Two people now, come on"
They both pushed, now with the weight of two fully grown adults leaning against its body the structure should've groaned, slowly slid open or flung open entirely; what met them however, was the pride shattering realization that the structure itself, hadn't registered an ounce of their exertion as real..effort. The two were left exhausted, at least five more minutes of intense changes in strategy at using their combined weight had been done whilst another five was left deliberating over their physical health status. In ten minutes, they were utterly defeated.
The silent hallowed tomb of gothic architecture sat encased beneath earth for no other particular reason apart from a quieter mode of scholarly activities unmarred by the bustling chatter brought in from industrialization, though the train station stood not far from the entrance, a vast majority of its vibrations and noises caused from its passage stood muffled and silenced by both natural properties and the mystical. What significance it had was in the fact of how they'd approached everything thus far with the minds they had now, Nera shifted to stand after some of the lost strength had come back to her.
A pride completely shattered made for a more analytical approach to where they'd gone wrong, she gave the door a tentative look whilst narrowing her gaze, was it their perspective that'd been wrong? Come to think of it, this was a magical academy, right? Assuming what they stood before was indeed the true entrance to its confines then why wouldn't it have some mode of security?
A flicker of enlightenment flashed in her gaze as she gave the door a new look of feverish excitement, was it magical? Her gaze suddenly turned to her hands and a tingling sensation overcame her, of course not magical just emotionally enhanced. Slowly she placed a hand on the doors jagged surface and stared at it for a while, a moment passing before she lightly whispered the words:
"..Open.."
…
One minute..
One minute and thirty seconds
Two minutes..
Thomas gave her an incredulous look, frowning for a moment before bursting out in boisterous laughter, "Seriously, Nera? Fucking open? Hahaha, add the sesame for good measure!"
She flushed, "Any better ideas, genius?"
"Yeah it's called—"
The door shuddered and an incandescent glow shimmered off of its dark surface, sigils soon littered their view, warping into readable letters that shifted into two options: Redcrests academy of magic and enchantment/Arkens sorcerers association.
A smug expression grew along Nera's face as she turned towards him and back at the door, with steady hands bordering along the association's side of the text, she gestured there. They both watched in silence as the glow receded to nothing, replaced by its previous dark stature. Thomas narrowed a glance and placed his hands over the jagged surface and gave a light push, the structure groaned and let up with remarkable ease, as though the weight from before had disappeared without warning.
"Well, would you look at that"
"Focus on why we're here will you?"
She shrugged, "Lead the way, genius"
He scoffed, beyond the door was light. The two had become awfully accustomed to the sceneries of long hallways behind closed doors, perhaps there was a weird long inspired tradition of it spurred from old times; they couldn't know. They'd half expected one stretching on forever beyond the heavy door, surprising was it when their eyes glazed over a room of bright white with a short row of connected seats lined against the wall adjacent where they stood, a spinning fan spurred overhead whilst a low buzzing hum really settled the silence.
With purposeful steps encouraged by Thomas' brewing annoyance, they stepped through the door and across white tiling. Had it not been for the very obvious fact that what they stood in was most likely the reception hall to the city's magic association, a more prominent deduction was a psych ward. The place was silent, humming with the buzz of the fluorescent lights but destitute in any other form of life other than what seemed to be a person seated behind a pane of thin glass buried between the pages of a book. They gave the person a glance before walking up to them, it probably placed no further reaction in surprise when the woman, a bronze skinned individual with cascading dark hair and fingers ending in dark claws met them at the end of a deep ember gaze.
A light knock on the pane of thin glass grabbed the woman's attention as she lifted a slothful gaze from the book in hand, "How may I help you?"
Nera glanced over at Thomas, the latter groaning as an awkward cough slipped through his lips as he smiled wryly, "We're here for a magical evaluation and a..", he looked over at Nera who lightly nodded, "And erm..a mysterious paper we found"
The woman gave him a searching look, "A paper?"
"We can't understand its contents"
She must've not seen the issue as particularly her's to ponder too deeply on or perhaps didn't want to care at all because the topic shifted rather quickly to the magical evaluation test, "Names?"
"Nera Lunarora"
"Thomas Sickle" an incredulous glance passed over from beside him whilst the woman scribbled something along a piece of paper and lifted her gaze back at them, "Identity's?"
""We're foreign""
She gave them both a narrowed frown and bent below where the sounds of cabinet drawers filled their ears and two platinum plated cards were slid towards them, "Magical evaluations take place on the third floor, research of mystical materials should be on the fifth"
She shifted a glance between them, "And basic acquiring of identities should be on the same floor"
They gave a light smile and a nod, gently grabbing at the cards and walking towards the end of the room where an elevator door stood at its end. A few moments later they were inside the structures plainly interiored dark decor with gold accents, a thankful contrast to the sickening white room.
It wasn't without much surprise that any world barreling towards similar technology to their own, even over fifty years behind had an identification system, for all intensive purposes the foreign argument had dissuaded enough suspicions already, to say that they'd actually planned for it to work this far would be a gross overstatement of their logical abilities. Perhaps certain current worldly affairs had instilled a perverse disconnection between neighboring countries and beyond, from the history books they'd surfed, the world map stretched as far as six continents. The oaken woodlands, The west void's, the north and south everwinters, the central continent where The Slain Empire(their current location) resided and lastly, the dark continent. The first seemed predominantly ruled by elves whilst the others were an accumulation of vast others, the dark continent seemed ruled by the undead and a vampiric nobility whilst the west void's were home to a race they didn't take much interest in studying. All they could really denote was an interesting lack of some of these races ruling these continents present within the Empire.
The chime of a bell and sliding doors made way to the third floors awfully quiet demeanor and spectacular vastness, really, it was wide. An open, sand tiled room stretching for a distance that dwarfed the cave like entrance they'd witnessed before. The room was circular in nature and dome shaped at its tip which strikingly harbored a glass ceiling dazzlingly allowing light from outside and the gloomy scenery accompanying it to flush through its cathedral like visage, Nera's thoughts floundered over the fact when they were supposed to be on the third floor. In similar fashion, a flurry of doors sat at the edges of the dome, opposite of the elevator and halfway towards them in a sort of semicircle.
They took shallow steps forward and towards the flurry of doors lining half of the room where large golden plaques respectfully announcing the purpose of each door stood atop, with not much effort they found the middle door to house what they'd come for.
"So do we.." At Thomas' hesitance, she grabbed at the handle and swung open the door, "We go inside, your choice right?"
He glowered, "You wanted this too.."
"I stated nothing"
Two figures of dark coats and contrastingly coloured heads entered a room of dimly lit shadowed crimson walls and thin curtains leading deeper into its blood red bowels, it was sceptically mystic how the room was adorned, hanging from the ceilings were dangling accessories of runic symbology and nigh religious doctrine. The sigil of one of the six god's, specifically the God Of Wisdom hung listlessly in the middle of the room which stood littered in rugs and rags.
Mystic's weren't exactly their type of thing, granted they'd dabbled in the art as con artists but the technique of it was rather lackluster and sparsely believed. For one, a mystic could take one of two routes in their desires to grab your attention, expressively lie to you over an obscene possession of luck and future fortunes at your disposal or damn any future endeavors you might have and some shadowy creatures following your every move. It was by no means a mystery that most of them were liars and that wasn't going to make you any money, granted however the woman before them was supposedly magical so there was at least a fine level of trust.
"Not exactly children I see, intriguing.." The rasped voice of an old woman grasped the ears, in tickled startelement they were made aware of the presence of a person seated along the middle of the room. The place ahead of them, the middle of the room was void of items except for the rags bundled over its center. That bundle of rags and rugs had gained the decrepit formation of an old woman hidden beneath its shadows.
"Lost perhaps? No..you seek conformation of a pressing issue" Nera gave a skeptical frown but inwardly sighed in resignation, "This is supposedly the magic evaluation center, we…wanted to evaluate our own"
The woman was silent for a moment, grunting beneath her breath and whispering something more to herself yet still audibly heard, "Again I see a matter not of current interest to the intended, too fast, too fast. It'll come in due time.."
The rags shifted and with them came arms withered by the passing times, lost in pigment, covered in veins with skin seemingly brittle enough to yield to the press of slightly sharp nails. With their aged movements came a spherical construct from the shadows behind her, both of them silently groaned at the familiarity of the object and where things were going.
"When the God of Wisdom once walked with man, he'd spread his knowledge and secrets to the world through the lending of an item to his most trusted follower" She set the crystal ball down, "A sacrifice of his left eye. When High priest Orbelt had received the gift, too great for the mortal world and the eyes of one themselves, it transgressed to the form of a crystal ball"
She looked up and smiled between them,"Are you aware of that history?"
They shrugged, "Lightly.."
"good, very good!" she laughed like sandpaper rubbed against stone, "Many aren't aware of that fact, ah, historians you probably are? No, not quite, you dabble in mysteries but the dangerous kinds! Oh, what a brave bunch! Come! Come! Each place their hands on the surface of the orb one at a time and it shall reveal your destined path"
With great hesitance they did as they were told, Thomas starting first. The purpose of crystal balls was the transparent viewing of a person's souls, their futures and characters, current situations and problems. Perhaps as to why a majority of novelic pieces of fantasy acclimated the act towards magical evaluation was the part in fact that it dug deep into a person's soul, viewing its troubles and future endeavors, broadening it on a magical scope and it'd view the magic your soul calls for.
An orange glow and a spark ruptured from the orb and the tips of Thomas' fingers, his eyes seemed to widen into saucers as the scene unfolded, "Is this.."
"Mmm a child of purity.." the old woman stated, deflating his excitement a bit, "purity?"
"No affinity but the mana in your veins child, an untainted soul.."
Thomas gave her an incredulous look, "So I can use magic?"
"Ohoho, the pure take the form of the glass they fill and the next they will have to fill. Pure and untainted purity, that is what the gifted desire" A smile broadened across his face before Nera shrugged him off, "Alright, I'll place my hand on it!"
She did the same, placing dark and slender hands along its smooth surface. The color took on the same similarly orange bright glow and flashier sparks, much to her satisfaction of its cleared potency. The summary of the mana available in their systems however was ranked at a less impressively Tier 5, just two up from the worst of a 7. Despair was hard pressed in settling in, for the most part, magic ran through their veins and perhaps for a childishly exciting reason it did little in discouraging the rest.
A few minutes later they stood with the information they'd come for before, Thomas being the first in taking a skippy step to the door as Nera followed not far behind. Her body halted halfway there as the decrepit lady spoke once more:
"Nera Lunarora..The loned curse, the fiend, The Deceiver " she turned to the old woman, "Be careful where unexplained actions go, the mysterious die alone"