Morgan was looking at his friends surprised by the words he himself had said thoughtlessly. After hearing the Wellmond boy refer to him and his two friends as a circus troupe he had been unable to get that image out of his mind and had without thinking said what he thought out loud. ‘They do look like the animal circus.’ That was all he had said, thinking that the three looked like the dancing snake, the bald peacock and the stupid monkey of the old fable named The Animal Circus. Looking around he noticed that his friends' expressions changed from anger, to surprise to amusement as they too found rather fitting and funny. Louie was looking at the floor, his body shaking with silent laughter, Ross tried to assume the unreadable mask of a noble but his face kept twitching. Rina was covering her mouth and giggling uncontrollably and her eyes that had moments prior been filled with anger now glittered with amusement as she looked at Morgan. Finally Marith had a look of confusion on his face that shifted into a pout as he came to the understanding that he had somehow missed out on the joke.

At this point Morgan noticed the poorly concealed and stifled fits of laughter from some of the other students around him. Unsure of what to do he heard the voice of the Noble that he had likened to the bald peacock low growl. The eyes of the boy looked like they were on fire with hate and fury and Morgan almost felt like running away as the bell tolled. Before he could move however Rina stood and pulled Morgan to his feet eyes still glittering with mirth but face straight.

“We will be taking our leave now.” She said it with the aplomb only a highborn could muster and gave shallow curtsy before dragging Morgan away by the hand. It took the other four in their group a moment before the too beat a hasty retreat. Only after walking halfway out the building with the other three having yet to catch up did Rina release Morgan’s hand and turned on him with a bright smile.

“Thank you, it has been a good while since I laughed so hard.” She sighed happily making Morgan’s heart skip a beat. “And at the expense of such an arse.” She laughed before her eyes turned serious. “You should be careful though.” She paused and waited for the others to catch up. “That arse is a ducal heir and I get the impression that he is the kind of small man that would hold a grudge.” She looked at her brother.

Morgan groaned, he had not meant to insult the other boy. He had just not been thinking, alas that would make a poor excuse and even if he had a better excuse he doubted that it would matter. The highborn care far more about their reputation than one could imagine. Ross was looking both amused and concerned as he nodded at her sister’s words. Making Morgan’s heart sink, at this point however Marith's patience ran out.

“I don’t get it! What’s the animal circus and what is so funny about it!” He burst out breathing heavily. Rina shot him a triumphant look and walked off gesturing for the others to follow before the enraged dukeling could follow. Marith growled but still followed as Louie gave him a pat on the shoulder and explained the animal circus.

The old fable was about a bald peacock that wanted to show off his splendour to all the lands. Yet he thought that for others to fully comprehend his glory he needed to bring with him companions that would make him shine brighter. For in the peacock’s mind only when compared to those of more common stock would he himself truly shine. Thus the peacock set out on a journey. This part of the fable was rather long winded and so Louie skipped most of it. The peacock found two companions, a snake scorned as insidious and a big smiling monkey with a simple mind. The three travelled the land and as if to confirm the peacock’s assertions people from far and wide flocked to see the three. The snake would dance frantically with every appearance trying to show off his complex dance so that people would remember him for it, not his ill-omened looks. The monkey would juggle large rocks and would more often than not drop one in his head to the crowd's delight. And finally there was the bald peacock. He would stride around in front of his companions basking in the attention he received as he showed of his beautiful tail. His only worry was the laughter of the crowd and he wondered if the monkey’s and the snake’s foolishness was taking the attention away from himself. So to find out he sneakily followed a family as they left the show. What he heard made the poor bird freeze in place. The children talked not of the foolishness of the monkey or the dance of the snake. No what they said was this: The monkey and the snake was entertaining but what was far funnier was the bald peacock strutting about like a king with his head shining like polished marble. After the long winded explanation, Marith's question was not what anyone had expected.

“Peacocks can’t go bald.” He said with a serious frown.

“Eh, umm… I think you missing the point…” Louie was about to continue when Marith interrupted him.

“And how could a peacock follow anyone! They are loud and their colourful feathers can be spotted from miles away!” Looking at Marith Louie was at a loss, Marith looked a bit annoyed at not having understood the joke even after the explanation and was apparently blaming Louie because he had given such a poor explanation.

“Maybe they don’t tell fables in Vilious.” Morgan said with a frown.

“Of course we do!” Marith erupted “We tell plenty like the one of the mighty lion and the cunning eagle that captured the clouds!” The other just looked at him, thinking that fables might have an entirely different meaning in Vilious then in the empire.

The group made their way to the cafeteria and was served some kind of fish stew that smelled surprisingly good. Having arrived somewhat early after rushing from the classroom there were still plenty of free tables and Rina took one of the tables by the windows. When Morgan was about to take his customary place by the corner Rina patted the seat next to her.

“Sit here.” Her voice was firm but not unkind. Morgan hesitated for a moment causing Rina to raise one of her eyebrows questioningly. Not wanting to anger Rina, Morgan took the seat next to her. As he sat down, it was Ross sitting opposite his sister that spoke first however.

“I know you probably didn’t think much about what you said before but that boy is Gias Wellmond.” He tore off a piece of bread from the loaf of bread he had bought in the cafeteria for the group. “He is the first son of Duke Wellmond which as you probably know is one of the most powerful families in the empire.”

“You should probably try and avoid him at all cost so that he can clam down.” Rina picked up Ross’s explanation and Ross started eating. “Although it is unlikely that he was ever forget an insult.” She gave Morgan a pointed look. “He might not have a bad reputation at the Academy but…” She hesitated a bit and got a sour look on her face. “Until now he has been sticking rather close to the prince.” She wore a thoughtful expression and took a spoon of stew.

“I doubt someone who has that bad of a reputation could manage to keep up with the very straight laced prince for too long.” Ross gave a humourless chuckle. “I’m honestly surprised that he lasted this long, from what I’ve heard he is not only a bully but also rather vicious.”

“So stay away from him you hear.” Rina said in a serious voice as she gave Morgan a stern look.

She waited for Morgan to nod in understanding before she returned to her stew. In a much brighter voice she added.

“Besides, you already have an apprenticeship planned so you shouldn’t have to worry overly much about the standard classes.”

Morgan had not thought much about this at all. The goal for many of the students that could not inherit the family was find suitable apprenticeship after their three years at the Academy. Morgan had not thought that anyone would take him as an apprentice as he was too weak to help out with most things and he was from a family that would offer no benefit to a potential Master. Yet now he had found a Master. “Well as long as I survive…” Morgan was not as troubled by thinking of his potential death as he would have thought.

After the somewhat frightening conversation the lunch proceeded merrily with some other noble children joining the table to converse with Ross and Rina as they ate. Morgan had really realized it before but both Rina and Ross had plenty of friends at the Academy. Most of which were from the east like the twins but some looked like they came from the central region of the empire as well. As Morgan barely took part in the conversation he finished his food rather quickly and was no longer surprised that he somehow managed to consume the small mountain of food he had been served. This in turn allowed him to observe as the twins talked to the other students.

Ross was all smiles, joking and gossiping with the other students with such ease that Morgan almost felt jealous. Most of the students that came to the table would naturally gravitate towards Ross as Rina came off as far less genial than her brother and many of her conversations were rather short. Morgan noticed at only about two or three of almost a dozen students chose to speak with Rina over Ross. Morgan was thinking of how similar the two twins could be despite how differently they acted at times when Louie spoke to him.

“Morgan, would you mind if I borrowed your notes on the founding later? I would like to have them copied for me if you don’t mind.” Louie said this as he used a piece of bread to scoop up the last of the stew.

“Have them copied?” Morgan gave Louie a curious look. “You won’t copy them yourself?”

“Na, that takes far too much effort.” He said, shaking his head. “Besides the apprentice scribes will copy your notes for a copper a page you know.” He said it with a shrug.

Morgan felt his jay grow slack as he looked at Louie. He had no idea that you could pay someone to have them copy your notes. He did find it rather expensive considering that a peasant would only earn at most a handful of coppers a week. Yet thinking about it, a few coppers were nothing to the nobility. Even he had been given almost three gold worth of silver by his father to last him the three years of at the Academy and he still had almost one hundred and twenty silvers remaining after buying two Academy outfits and paper with the necessary writhing equipment.

Considering that one gold Imperial was worth fifty silver Imperials and one silver Imperial is worth one hundred coppers. Nobles that dealt mostly in gold would not think much of paying a few copper. Not to mention iron Imperials that most commoners used in their everyday interactions and were only worth a tenth of an Imperial copper. Morgan was by no means from an affluent family, but compared to your average villager his family would be quite rich indeed.

“I don’t mind.” Taking out his notes from his pack Morgan handed them to Louie.

“Thanks!” Louie smiled widely and spoke in a low voice. “It was worth babysitting.” Morgan had to stifle laughter, causing several at the table to glance at him. Fortunately true to form, Marith was stuffing his face while paying little to no attention to what people said. When Morgan finally managed to suppress the laughter he looked at Marith as he devoured food like a starved man and practically only spoke in between plates as per usual. “Well unless a girl he likes is involved.” Morgan thought with a complicated smile.

After lunch and another set of warnings from the twins Morgan went to the library skipping the evening class in etiquette despite being reluctant to miss that class. The Master of ceremonies was considered a petty Master who would without exception give long and tedious tasks to any who missed his class. He did this without regard for status, health or the students’ knowledge of the subject matter. He had done this for over three decades and despite being almost universally hated by all the students there had been no sign that he would be replaced. Some even whispered that Pavlo Djiogo was to be the next Headmaster, yet Morgan had heard something similar from his father when he had talked of the Academy with him and his siblings. So he lent it little credence, still it was with an unusually heavy heart Morgan entered the library.

Entering the four story building he was met with the smell of paper and leather and his feet slowed. Taking in the smell he walked over to the closest staircase and proceeded to the north eastern corner of the library. He had over his three months at the Academy memorized where the books he was most interested in were kept. The section he was headed for was the section for magical training and it was one of the largest specialized sections. According to the register there were over five thousand books on this subject alone and the section allocated to it had long since outgrown its designated space.

The reason this section had become so large was due to the fact that people not only perceived mana differently but even channelled it differently. This has over the history caused several different schools of magic to arise and at times fall. Fortunately irrelevant of how you perceive and channelled your mana, spell construction and casting was practically universal. This is why the Academy can teach Imperial magic as a generalized class. As Imperial magic is a school of magic that focuses heavily on spell crafting and generalized understanding of magically created phenomenon like why lighting magic is so much slower than true lighting.

Teaching the students mana channelling is only done in the broadest of terms and there is a strong emphasis on self-study and thus the thousands of books. Morgan had yet to find the perfect book for him, not that it was surprising considering the amount of books there are. There was also no guarantee that the ‘prefect’ book existed in the first place. At least he had now narrowed down the selection to one bookshelf. He had done so by reading a handful of books on the subject and consulting with one of the librarians in charge of magical textbooks.

For this reason the librarians had read hundreds of books on the subject and could recommend books for the students to read based on how well the students understood the basic book they were all required to read during the first year. This was the system the Academy had developed over the many years to combat the individuality of mana and the rapid increase of literature in the subject. It was a rather good system since no student could reasonably be expected to read thousands of books over a three year period.

As Morgan reached the destination he found a familiar girl. Mary-Ann was standing and reading a short summary written by a librarian on a book titled Flowing Mana Channelling. Morgan stopped when he noticed her and gave her a shy wave when she finally looked up. Her hassle eyes looked a bit startled and she once again gave off the impression of a small animal.

“Hey, Mary umm…” Having greeted Mary-Ann Morgan found himself unable to find anything else to say.

“Hi Morgan.” Mary-Ann’s eyes shifted to the side and she subtly hid the book behind herself.

What followed was a rather long and awkward silence, where Morgan was not able to find anything to say and he felt his cheeks grow red. It was therefore unsurprising that Mary-Ann was the one who broke the silence.

“Are you looking for a book on mana channelling as well?” She said with a slightly embarrassed smile.

“Umm yeah.” He nodded.

The fact that both of them were feeling embarrassed gave Mary-Ann enough courage to continue in a rather sad voice.

“My family is rather good at magic, yet I was born with a rather pitiful mana capacity.” She laughed sadly, somewhat confused why she would share this which she had told no one else at the Academy. Maybe it was because Morgan himself looked almost as pitiful as she felt.

“Really?” To Mary-Ann’s surprise started Morgan to look at her with great interest and she could only nod. “I also have a laughably small mana capacity.” His words caused Mary-Ann to blink.

“Is that so?” It did not look like he was lying.

“Yes, I was told that lighting a campfire might be the full extent of my powers when I was little.” He gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Still, as weak as I was I always wanted to be a mage and did my best even as a child to train my magic.” His sad smile suddenly turned serious. “Do you want to be a mage?”

The question was sudden and under any other circumstances she would have believed it had been asked in mockery. But Morgan looked at her without malice and she opted to tell the truth.

“Yes.” She answered simply.

She could feel her cheeks grow red with embarrassment, she had long since understood that her childhood dream of becoming a great mage like the once out of stories would forever be just that, a dream.

“Then, you should go to the Archmage.” Morgan said with confidence. “If what you said is true I think he would probably love to meet you.”

“The Archmage?” Mary-Ann had a look of disbelief on her face.

“Yeah, remember that old man with the office next to Alina’s class?”

“Well yeah, hard to forget.” She shook her head picturing the old man coming tumbling end over end into the classroom. “But why would he be interested in someone without any real potential?” She gave Morgan a hard look, her tone sceptical.

“Well, it is somewhat hard to explain.” Morgan said, looking troubled. “Or rather it would probably be more believable coming from the Archmage than me.”

“That.” She paused frowning. “Doesn’t sound very convincing.” Mary-Ann stated flatly

“True…” Morgan said looking away and rubbing the back of his head. “But I can at least promise you that even though I was told I have no future in magic.” He paused and straightened himself and grinned. “The Archmage has offered me the path to become a mage. Not only that, he is confident enough that he is willing to spend what I am told is a substantial amount of time and money to cure my disease.” He looked into her hazel eyes and added. “Besides if you are like me and want to be a mage… Is there any other path?”

There was a rather long moment of silence where Morgan felt Mary-Ann observing him. Her hassle eyes filled with all manner of emotions from suspicion to hope to doubt. Morgan felt that her eyes were rather heavy and it did not take long until he wanted to run away. He obviously didn’t. Not because it would undermine his words but because he felt too embarrassed even at the thought of running away from a girl his age and having to come back here later. This was after all his destination, so running away only to return would be beyond pitiful.

“Um, if you are uncertain, why not just talk to him? I’m going to see him next Saturday again. So… why don’t you come with me then?”

There was another long moment of silence however much to Morgan’s relief Mary-Ann looked not at him but down at the book in her hands while in deep thought. Morgan understood that what he had told her did in truth sound very farfetched and that he was unable to explain it properly did not help. “Still, what is the harm in just talking to the old man?” He frowned a bit as he thought this but chose to look for one of the books the librarian had recommended. By the time he found the first book Mary-Ann looked up at him with eyes that fixed him in place.

“I’ll come.” That was all she said and walked off before Morgan to sort out his thoughts and respond.

Morgan stood there in a daze for a while even after she left and he could still clearly picture her fiercely determined look when he closed his eyes. After collecting himself Morgan breathed a sigh of relief and took some time to find the books he needed and began reading the introduction to the four books. By the time the bell tolled he had selected one book and went to borrow it after handing back the previous and sadly unfinished book he had borrowed. He had not paid the one gold deposit that was required to borrow two books since he did not know when he might need his money. But he did feel rather sad that he had to return a book he had yet to finish. “Well considering I just missed etiquette I won’t have any free time to read books this week anyway.” He thought feeling depressed.

Alina’s class that evening was, well it was the same as always. None of the students managed to stay on the log for the full hour and thus they did nothing else. Surprisingly Morgan did not have to change to the stick even after the full class but Marith did have to steady him a handful of times on the way to the bath as his legs wobbled precariously.

After a pleasant dinner of beets and a cabbage stew Morgan arrived at his room to find his etiquette assignment waiting for him after having been slid under the door. Thus with a groan he started working on a two page paper on ballroom dance etiquette. He soon gave up, as he came to the concussion that he had to read up on the subject before he stood a chance of writing a passable answer.