Richard could barely keep his head and eyes in one place as the carriage moved across the cobblestone road.
The rickety motion and constant creaking of the wooden locomotive was quite disturbing at first, but the sight around made him forget the uncomfortable journey.
Since the carriage had no roof, he could easily see the houses and other medieval structures that lined both sides of the road. Though the infrastructure here paled in comparison to those in New Orleans, there was something unique about them that caught Richard's fancy.
Maybe it was because of how neat and orderly each building was placed, or probably because of the foreign items used to build them. He couldn't tell, but the view was eye catching.
And what's more, this was Khadar, one of the small towns in the realm. It was where he lived. The Mage School was situated in the big capital city.
He retracted his gaze from the small man that was walking out of a metal shop. Richard could easily tell that it was an elf. The long ears and grumpy face were very distinct features.
He wasn't even surprised by the fantastical creature. He had made a resolve to take his current life as it was, while also trying to figure out what brought him here, and why.
However, as he made to turn to the other side of the carriage, he managed to catch the glimpse of a black blur zip across the sky. A fireball exploded behind the blur. And in quick succession, two men in blue uniforms sprung off the roof of a building and shot after the escaping blur.
"Huh? What was that about?" Richard blurted without knowing.
Maya looked at him with a raised brow, "What do you mean? We see that almost every day. The Sentinels have no other job but to chase after petty thieves these days."
"Oh," Richard muttered half heartedly, rubbing the back of his neck. Some of the former Richard's memories dissolved into his mind in fragments. Some pieces were still missing, and would spur up at the event of a nostalgic moment.
"Yeah, right," he nodded and gazed forward.
'Sentinels, basically guards or officers with magic,' he noted inwardly.
Maya couldn't take her eyes off him for a second or two. Then she raised her head and exhaled in exasperation, "Not like I care or anything, but you've been acting odd since you woke up this morning. Are you still shaken by the dream?"
Richard didn't know why, but he turned to her with a smirk, "Maybe I would have been much better if you hadn't put your mouth to my ear and yelled my name."
She rolled her eyes to his sarcastic comment and turned her face away, "I finally try to care for my little brother, and this is the response I get? You won this round, Richard."
Richard scoffed in satisfaction and he still didn't know why. The sarcastic remark and scoff weren't what he intended to do. Perhaps a part of the former Richard's emotions and character were bleeding into his.
"Just make sure not to make a fool of yourself before the princess," Maya mumbled under her breath.
Richard raised a brow, muttering inwardly, 'Huh? What princess?'
...
Richard sighed and delved into his psych, trying to remember what Mage school was like, and who his classmates were.
By the time he returned to reality, the carriage had stopped and Maya was already walking about ten metres ahead.
Richard's eyes went wide in agitation and he quickly hopped down the carriage and jogged after his blunt elder sister. He didn't bother to ask the carriage driver if he had been paid; Maya must have handled that. She was easily irritated, not heartless.
'The Mage Academy,' he muttered inwardly as he noticed the big signboard floating at the entrance with no physical support.
"Wait up!" he half yelled as he caught up to her. Then he added, "What if I was driven away?"
She smiled, "Then I'd be burden free and have inner peace till you find your way back."
This time it was Richard that rolled his eyes, "Ah, now I get why you're still single."
The temperature between them plummeted instantly. Cold fumes funnelled out Maya's hands. Her pace lessened.
Richard froze and swallowed his saliva, 'Crap! That must have struck a nerve.'
Then the cold fumes dissipated as she turned towards him. She had a nasty smile on her face, "That's two times today, brother. Two times."
"Sorry," he rubbed the back of his neck.
She sized him up with a cold gaze before turning and walking away from him.
He sighed in relief as he turned the other way, 'Okay, never get on Maya's bad side. Noted.'
The school compound stretched for over four hectares with two distinct buildings on it. The buildings were about ten stories high, with wider widths. There were other buildings on the land, but nobody approached them.
Maya had entered the building by the right, and Richard instinctively jogged towards the one by the left.
He managed to make his way into the building, across the halls and past the staffs without being spotted. He was almost an hour late. Getting called into the Chancellor's office was close to instant death. He himself hadn't been in the Chancellor's office, but from what he could recall from the former Richard's memories, it wasn't a place any student would like to visit.
He sled across the hall and skidded to a stop. He stood before the door to his class. From what he could recall, they were in their final year and this was the last semester. The class subjects were random and mostly based on the revision of what they had learnt throughout their years in school.
'Wait... If Maya is older than me, shouldn't she have graduated?' he pondered in thought and tried hard to remember what might have happened last year, but his head was blank at that moment.
He gave up a few seconds later and reached for the doorknob. However, the door suddenly opened by itself and Richard was pulled in by swirling ropes of air.
A man was standing by the desk in front of the class, clad in a plain white shirt, a black pair of trousers and a pair of black shoes. His black eyes had a darker shade as he pulled Richard into the class with the swirling ropes of air.
He dropped his hand and the air constructs vanished. His eyes returned to normalcy.
Sizing Richard up, the man said, "Just how long were you planning to stand out there?"
'Master Kincaid, the Mana Paths teacher,' Richard quickly remembered who the teacher was.
He tried to explain himself, but Kincaid turned deaf ears and told him to have a seat.
Richard simply nodded and made his way down a column of seats, till he found an empty spot.
He could see someone waving at him from the corner of his eyes, cajoling him to shift his gaze in that direction. It was a brown haired boy waving from the next two rows. Richard smiled and nodded in response. It was James Blackwood, his close friend.
Richard sighed and took a seat. He rummaged through his bag in search for his note for the class, only to find it completely empty.
He resisted the urge to slap his forehead at that moment.
'No wonder it felt so light. Why didn't I check it at home?' he complained internally.
'Well, it's revision semester, I don't need notes,' he comforted himself, placing his hands on his wooden desk.
As though Master Kincaid was waiting for Richard to settle down first, he leaned back and sat on his desk.
"Now, where were we before Mister Greylock's mild interruption?" he asked rhetorically. After a few seconds of silence, he flicked his right hand upward, "Ah, yes. Hazel, you may continue."
A young female elf that was seating next to Richard, nodded and stood up graciously. Though everyone in the class were more or less in the same age bracket, she looked quite younger than everyone else. Her lemon green hair was braided around her forehead, while the rest swept down her back. Like her name, she had hazel coloured eyes.
She was wearing a simple blue vest, and a brown pair of trousers.
'Wow,' Richard praised inwardly, fascinated by her appearance. He never thought elves could look so radiant and alluring, especially after seeing the grumpy elf on his way here. This changed his stereotypic mind set.
She nodded once again, before speaking softly, but loud enough for the class of twenty to hear, "In our first year in the Academy, precisely the first lecture we had with you, we were made known what mana is, and what is meant by a mana path."
'Really? From the first year? It's going to be a long day,' Richard grumbled within himself. But then he shrugged, 'At least it'll help refresh my memory and bring me up to speed.'
"Go on," Master Kincaid urged.
"Aye," she said. "Mana is basically the source of life for every living creature. It is a primordial energy that powers our magical abilities. Without mana, magic is non existent. Everyone in Ostaria posses some amount of mana, be it little or in abundance. Mages are born when the mana in them crosses a particular threshold.
"Most Mages are born as Mages, while others grow into it. However, one cannot force themselves to be a Mage, because there is no rational way to boost one's mana reserve. The only way to forcefully become a Mage is through the uncordial means of dark magic, which is an illegal practice in Ostaria."
'Ah, I see,' Richard nodded, taking a mental note.
He was the only one paying attention to her. The others were busy doing something else or complaining under their breath. Going over something so basic was simply a waste of time.
"Once a Mage is discovered, they're enrolled in the Academy to hone their magical abilities. Along the way, they'd be made to know their individual Mage Paths. There are seven major Mage Paths. We have the Luminescent Mage Path, the Spatial Mage Path, the Void Mage Path, the Obscure Mage Path, the Resonant Mage Path, the Cognitive Mage Path," Hazel exhaled briefly as she prepared to call the last Mage Path. "And the Chaos Invokers."
'Huh? Chaos Invokers? What's so special about them that they don't have the Mage Path suffix?' Richard rubbed his chin.
Master Kincaid nodded proudly, "Good. And why, pray tell, is it important for every Mage to know their respective Mage Paths and hone their skills to the finest?"
Hazel's limbs quivered for a second there as she answered, "Because of the century old prophecy," she inhaled and exhaled heavily. "The prophecy about the emergence of The Great Evil from Beyond."
Richard felt a chill run up his spine as he repeated inwardly, 'The Great Evil from Beyond.'