As time passed slowly, the bell rang. The door opened as a young man in mismatched clothes entered.
It was complicated to describe this man, but the first word that would come to most people's minds was: unkempt. His auburn hair was tousled. On his face, you could read great fatigue based on the large bags under his black eyes. Nevertheless, the more people looked at him, the more they found him attractive, as if he exerted a form of magnetism.
"Hello, everyone, my name is Thalor. I will be the magician in charge of you during your schooling here," he declared, yawning.
"Here, you will learn everything you need to know about magic. I must tell you that the path of a magician is long and complex. This academy is an opportunity, seize it."
"We will proceed with a scan of your abilities so that I can get an idea of the overall level of the class before giving you more information about the organization of the Academy," said Thalor, making a flying cube appear that constantly changed its faces.
This cube flew to the first bench on the left. It stopped just above its head, and the cube began to change color. It went from a mechanical white to a blazing red. Just when everyone thought that was all, the cube began to speak.
[Spiritual affinity scanned... Affinity with fire found.]
A touch of astonishment could be seen on the students' faces. The voice in the white room had accustomed them to hearing voices from nowhere. But this time, it was different. The voice clearly came from the cube. It made no sense to them.
While the students were recovering from this situation, the cube was passing from student to student. The majority of students had an affinity, but some had two or three. Each time, the cube took a different color. The colors were clearly linked to identical attributes.
The students were not, however, shocked by the words they heard when the cube spoke. Indeed, their spiritual affinity had already been revealed to them previously. The cube was only there to confirm these results.
Thalor seemed amused by this situation, but he decided not to explain anything to the students. Given their astonishment, they were not ready to assimilate such complex information. So, he would start with something easier and that had already been addressed in the exam room.
"As you must have understood during your admission week, your spiritual affinity will dictate your ability to commune with the elements. Without spiritual affinity, you may have the greatest talent for magic. It will always prevent you from following the path of a magician. The elements appeared when the universe itself was born. There are a total of ten elements that together form the grand scheme of life. Among these ten elements, there are 3 groups. The main elements, also called fundamental, consist of: water, earth, fire, and air. The subsidiary elements consist of: nature, metal, lightning, and ice. Finally, the noble elements consist of: darkness and light. No element is superior to another in the grand scheme of things. They are called noble elements because of their rarity in humans. Nevertheless, all elements have strengths and weaknesses that your instructors will explain to you in due course."
As the cube continued to whirl between the benches, it was finally time to reach the group. It was interesting to note that so far, the primary elements were found in the majority of apprentices. Some also had subsidiary elements, but none had noble elements. Phaistos felt a certain pride in this fact.
The cube began by examining the girl with the icy temperament. The cube quickly changed to a color it had never shown before, a cold blue. Phaistos thought it must represent ice, fortunately the cube was there to confirm his doubts.
[Spiritual affinity scanned... Affinity with ice found.]
Phaistos found it amusing that the girl's temperament seemed to echo her spiritual affinity. He thought that maybe there must be a link.
The cube quickly moved to the boy with dark skin.
[Spiritual affinity scanned... Affinity with metal and lightning found.]"
At these words, everyone stopped breathing. Even Thalor gave him a second look. "A double affinity with a subsidiary element is very rare. The young man in front of him will surely become a powerful magician, if he makes it that far," thought Thalor.
The cube continued its path towards the last two people at the table. The green-eyed girl had an affinity with water and nature. But it was the boy who shocked the entire assembly, the previous shock was nothing compared to the one he had just created.
[Spiritual affinity scanned... Affinity with darkness.]
Thalor couldn't help but say aloud: "Wow, a spiritual affinity with a noble element. It's really rare to see that. This is the first time I've had one in my class. Although it's true that there are many of you in the whole academy, at the class level, you are unique." Nevertheless, Thalor didn't know that these words would make him look like a fool when the cube passed in front of Phaistos. Some colleagues would later tell him that this is what happens when you don't read the reports sent.
As the cube floated above Phaistos' head, half of the cube turned into bright light while the other half turned ocean blue. [Spiritual affinity scanned... Affinity with light and water.] Thalor realized that on this bench, there seemed to be only pearls. "This promises to be interesting for the future."
Phaistos noticed that the boy sitting next to him occasionally glanced at him.
"Now that we have assessed your types of affinities, you will soon receive invitations from the various elemental institutions. Classes within these institutions will start tomorrow. The institutions are specialized in the field of each element, and I advise you to spend as much time there as possible. However, here you are grouped in classes for common courses. You must realize that not all students this year start with the basics in magic. This is explained by what we call the evolution of the world. You all come from worlds of low evolution, meaning none of you have yet had a major technological revolution in your world. When that happens, you become a world of medium evolution. To evolve further, the magical concentration in the air must increase, and the inhabitants must come into contact with magical organisms. When that is done, the world becomes a world that has reached its maximum evolution." Thalor began his explanation, taking a book and carefully reading the notes he had written in it. This contrasted sharply with his appearance.
"The academy has decided to group you together to make it easier to explain how to get used to all the elements you will see here. You have also noticed that you are sitting on benches. Some of you are alone, but for those who are not, it means you come from the same planet."
A hint of astonishment filled the apprentices. Indeed, some young people on the bench seemed too different from each other. But nevertheless, it was understandable. None of these worlds had had time to fully explore their planet. How could they know all the people living there? Sometimes, there were even different species of hominids still living there.
"Due to your multiple cultures and languages, it will be impossible for you to communicate. You must have already noticed that you are all able to understand what I am saying," a slight smirk appeared on Thalor's lips.
At these words, the students noticed this. They hadn't paid attention, but they understood everything he said. Yet, this should be impossible, as some apprentices had sworn aloud, and the others hadn't understood them. If they didn't understand their companions, it would be impossible for these companions to understand the teacher, as he was speaking in the language they themselves understood. It was a highly paradoxical situation.
"Don't worry. You must realize that our academy draws students from an astonishing number of planets. To overcome the communication problem, the magical union, which is the organization that manages the entire human universe, invented the magical language. This can be understood by anyone thanks to a special application of magic. I will now transmit this spell to you. This will mark the beginning of our learning before we go any further," when Thalor finished speaking, Phaistos felt a great pain in his head.
Knowledge flowed into his mind. As the pain began to subside, Phaistos understood the logic behind this language. In reality, it couldn't even be called a language properly speaking, but rather a sequence of words. The purpose of the [magical language] was to imbue an identity into the words spoken and send it outward. When the magical power reached the listener, they did not hear the words, but the intention behind them. An apple remained an apple, for example, no matter how it was pronounced.
There were, of course, ways to protect oneself from this spell, but few saw the need, as it couldn't cause harm. The only difficulty in this magic was to bring one's intention into the world. Fortunately, they had all trained with spells, which should give them a solid foundation to start practicing."
"You have an hour to practice, and during this time, I will come to help you if you have any questions about the [magical language]."
The hour passed quickly, and during this time Phaistos, like the others, was able to benefit from Thalor's tutoring. Despite his lazy appearance, Thalor put a lot of energy into his explanations. After this hour, like many others, Phaistos was able to make himself understood, although he still needed some practice. Nevertheless, he decided to take the first step towards his comrades. The fact that they all came from Earth seemed to create a bond for him.