We arrived shortly to the crowd of people gathered around the Arcane Repository. Each face looked at the mage in awe before noticing me and doing a double blink in confusion. A small pathway of people had opened up to allow access to the front of the Repository. On either side I noticed men in dark colors with satchels around their waists, discreetly milling about the crowd. In years past I had always thought they were just observing servants of the nobles. Now, I recognized that there were mages spread throughout the entirety of the crowd.
Clearing his throat the eccentric mage began to speak, "All those participating in the Acceptance gathe-" Pausing he turned his head to look at me.
"Boy, why are you still on the horse?"
The crowd was dead silent as my face reddened.
"Yes, I was just about to-"
"Shoo. Go."
Not wanting to further displease him I hastily swung a leg over and basically crashed into the ground. Dusting myself off I ran to the end of line up and realized I was standing next to the noble from the night before.
"Quite the entrance…" He murmured to me.
"I try." I responded not sure if his comment was biting or friendly.
"As I was beginning to say all those participating gather before me. It already looks like that has been done so we will continue with the whole thing." He said waving his hand at the building.
"You all will enter alone into the building. At first you will be in a small stone foyer-esque room, but after the doors close it will open up and you'll be encouraged to walk into the main spiral of the tower. A ton of floating light colors will be going around you. I'm supposed to tell you a ton of other stuff but nothing needs to be said other than if light chooses you, great. If not, tough luck. Any questions? Oh yes, my name is Barden."
"Is this guy a bit more brash than others?" Acklin attempted to discreetly whisper to me.
"Yeah, usually they're all stuck up and professional. He looks like he rode here straight from the tavern." I quipped back, realizing Acklin was indeed trying to create friendly conversation.
"You two have anything you'd like to share with me? Seems like a lotta chatter for a noble and a hat boy." The Barden said whilst directing pointed looks at the two of us.
There we go… Never living hat boy down. I thought to myself.
Acklin responded for both of us before I got the chance. "Yes, I was just wondering how you know if you've been "chosen"."
"Well, you'll know if you've been chosen because the light will go right up to you. Pretty self-explanatory right? Your parents spend anything on your education or just those robes?"
Acklin's face quickly became a similar shade of red to mine as a few scattered laughs came from the crowd, Ruel's being one of them.
"Great! Let's do this."
With that he lifted his hands, one holding the grimoire. The book hovered out from his palm in front of him, slowly opening. When it reached a stop, completely level, a dark blue energy shone from within. The energy began to gather a foot above the book, creating what looked like a large glowing water drop.
Barden mimed pulling at the air, almost as if his hands grabbed ropes of invisible air. At first it appeared nothing was happening. But as the mage began to speed up his pulling movements tendrils of the dark blue magic floated towards him.
What had begun as little tendrils formed into a chord of gleaming power that whistled through the air, spinning around the mage. It circled time after time before no more power came from the glowing grimoire. At this point the spinning motion of the magic was strong enough to create an artificial wind that blew several hats off. He shifted from pulling movements and started to circle the thick band of power around him, waving his hands behind and around his body.
Throughout the entirety of the process the mage's eyes remained closed with a look of intense concentration on his face. The whole clearing was both darkened by the intensity of the magic but also lit from the power within. I tore my eyes away to look at the crowd and noticed that even the other mages were amazed at the display, Ruel himself going slack jawed.
Finally, after minutes of concentrated gathering of power the mage threw his hand up, guiding the power up to the sky. There it sat for a moment before it came screeching back, a shooting star aimed directly for the crowd. At the last moment the shooting star of power flipped on itself and slammed into the doors of the repository.
Immediately the power spread from the doors outward to the stones. It followed the cracks and runes engraved on each stone, spiderwebbing throughout the entirety of the structure. The dark blue magic gradually lost its color and became a blinding white, making it impossible to look at the structure straight on. This blinding light caused all those in the crowd, and those lined up before the tower to cover their faces as it reached its pinnacle.
Slowly, the light faded from the tower and settled into a comfortable glow. Everyone blinked a few times before admiring the Repository. Amber lines outlined every stone of the building while the actual stones themselves were illuminated by their glowing white runes.
Although I'd seen this every year, for many years, this appeared to be the strongest demonstration of power. The way the magic had been manipulated by the man was plain incredible. Although, that could've just been bias from the fact that it was my acceptance day.
"Well, isn't that beautiful. However, as much as I'm sure you young people would like to sit here and admire it, it's time to get a move on. The doors won't stay open for long." He pointed a finger at a diminutive girl, Janet, who was closest to the door and said, "You there! Get this started."
Everyone apparently so entranced, hadn't even noticed the open doors. But now, led by Janet, we began walking closer, still holding the line. Janet was walking slowly, probably nervous at leading the whole thing, and stopped before the doors.
"Go! There is no time to dilly-daddle." Barden said yet again shooing her on.
Finally, Janet took a step within the entrance. As she did this a warble appeared in the air. I noticed I couldn't see Janet once she was all the way through, almost like when heat came off of our stove and disrupted the air. The boy behind her didn't seem to care and simply smoothed his ornate robes before striding through the entrance.
One by one the small group of attendees filed into the building until it was almost my turn. Finally, only Acklin and I remained. He turned to me, a smile on his face and said, "Hopefully we both end up with a grimoire after this."
"Yeah. Hopefully." I wasn't sure at all why he decided to talk to me. I'd seem him show kind qualities but he only continued to make what appeared to be genuinely friendly gestures toward me. Either way I wasn't going to upset a wealthy noble with a temperamental bodyguard.
With that Acklin confidently walked into the Repository, disappearing in front of my eyes. I, not wasting a moment, followed shortly after.