Dear Quartz,

I can’t believe it has been over half a year since I left. I hope you have been getting my letters. It’s so hard to know when I can never get a reply. I am learning a lot from Wizard Mulberry, both about magic and life in general. I really miss you.

I hope you are enjoying life at the Academy. Don’t push yourself too hard and please have some fun for me too!

Say hi to everyone for me.

-Jet

Chad was getting bored. It was kind of hard to believe. When he had arrived at the Academy almost a year ago he was sure he would never be bored here. Yet here he was, sitting in the back of what would be his last novice class, wishing he was pretty much anywhere else. He was still enjoying most of his other classes and magical staff, but he couldn’t wait to be done with these mandatory novice classes. He understood the need for the basics and was glad to have learned them. The classes just didn’t challenge him.

He was supposed to meet with Selena, Mallory, and Quartz after class. So he tried to occupy his time thinking about why Selena had asked them all to join her for dinner today. He was also hoping that Quartz would actually come. Things had seemed to be going so well at the end of the winter quarter, but as soon as the spring quarter began, Quartz had thrown himself into classes, studying, and work. Chad was now lucky to see him more than once a week. They didn’t even get to spar anymore. Chad had tried to talk to him about how hard he was pushing himself a couple of times. Quartz had always come up with an excuse to leave and do something else. Quartz was still hanging out with Mallory and her friends a couple times a week. Mallory, in turn, would join Chad and Selena a couple times a week for a meal and give them updates on Quartz. So Chad was hopeful, but not optimistic, that Quartz would join them today.

Once the class had finally finished, Chad headed straight for the dining commons. He was pleasantly surprised to see Quartz already there talking with Selena and Mallory. He grabbed some food then went to join them.

“Good afternoon!” he said to the other three as he sat down at the table.

“Good afternoon!” Mallory replied in her normal, cheerful way.

Quartz lazily nodded his head, the ever present circles under his eyes looking even darker than normal.

“Hi!” said Selena, who was looking excited. “Okay. Now that we are all here I have some news for you guys. I am going to be helping lead an expedition with Wizard Ferdinandson again. Expedition applications aren’t open yet but I was thinking it would be fun if you guys come with us. Our expedition will be staying relatively close to the Academy, so the requirements for apprentices aren’t as strict compared to other expeditions, so the three of you would be able to come. That being said, there will probably be a lot of applications; so, if you are interested, don’t wait too long to apply.”

“That’s so exciting!” exclaimed Mallory. “I’ve thought it would be fun to go on an expedition but wasn’t expecting to meet the requirements for a while yet. I will definitely apply.”

“I’ll think about it,” Quartz mumbled while getting to his feet, “but right now I’ve got other stuff to do.”

“Hey, Quartz!” Chad called at Quartz’s retreating back, “Quartz!” he called again, but Quartz continued out of the dining commons.

“Man, he’s getting worse. I am really worried about him.”

They all sat there for a little bit watching the spot where Quartz had left.

“Anyway,” Chad broke the silence, “will ‘Darian Smith be helping with this expedition too?”

“Not this time,” Selena replied. “I guess you didn’t hear. He is getting married in a couple of weeks.”

“No, I haven’t really talked to him much. I only see him occasionally at the sparring grounds...He’s marrying Master Starling, isn’t he?”

“Yep!” replied Selena with a grin. “You know about their long standing bet about shaving his head, right? Well, near the end of spring, Julie finally beat him in a match. She gave him two options: follow through with the bet and shave his head, or marry her. He happily took the second option.

“Regarding the expedition, the leaders are going to be Wizard Ferdinandson, Master Enchanter Prince Lance, Master Enchanter Thatcher, Abecedarian Drifter Ferdinandson, and myself. We will be visiting towns and villages in the area to check in on the status of their flocks and fields on behalf of the Prince Regent. We will be helping out in any way we can with the health of the livestock and preparing the fields for the coming harvest.”

“I think I’ll apply too,” Chad said. “I’d love to see what two master enchanters can do for a field.”

“Oh good!” Selena’s shoulders relaxed visibly. “I wasn’t sure if you would be interested. When we left Fresh Springs last year, you seemed like you never wanted to see a farm again.”

“I’m pretty sure I was just excited and nervous about coming to the Academy. I’ve always wanted to learn magic that would make farming easier.”

“Okay! I will let you know as soon as applications are open,” Selena said. “Mallory, will you follow up with Quartz?”

Prince Lance glared at the stack of applications in front of him. They only started accepting applications today and they had already received over 300. No doubt more would come in over the next week before the deadline. They would only have a couple of days after the deadline to finalize the sixteen apprentices that would join them for the expedition. He had taken responsibility to narrow the applications down to a more manageable number before the leaders had to make the final selection. He hadn’t really wanted to, but Magnolia had approached him last week and asked if she could join the expedition as her alter ego. So now he had to go through all of the applications with her safety in mind. Thankfully, the always faithful Curt had done an initial purging of those who didn’t even meet the relaxed requirements of this expedition. Apparently, he had even removed applications from several Abecedarians and even a couple Masters, all of which were women for some reason. Unfortunately, he still had over one hundred applications to get through and glaring at them didn’t seem to be doing anything.

He started sorting the applications into three stacks. The first stack was for rejected applications. He didn’t add many to that stack as Curt had already done an excellent job of weeding out applicants who wouldn’t be a fit for the expedition. The few he did add were applicants that he didn’t want being involved with Magnolia. His second and largest stack was for potential applicants who didn’t stand out in any way but there also wasn’t any reason to eliminate them. He figured he could go through them again if he didn’t have enough applicants in his third pile by the end of the week.

The third stack was for those applicants who had either already received a recommendation from one of the leaders or he thought would be a particularly good fit. Obviously, the application from Magnolia’s alter ego went into the third pile. There were also some other applicants that multiple leaders had recommended. One application in particular that caught his eye was Chad Lawrenceson’s. Chad had received recommendations from Wizard Ferdinandson, ‘Darian Yellowborn, and ‘Darian Ferdinandson. Lance had also considered recommending him as well. He put Chad’s application in the third stack. He was pretty sure Chad would be joining the expedition.

Mallory was stoked. She and Chad had been selected as two of the sixteen apprentices that would be going on the expedition with Selena. Unfortunately, she had not been able to convince Quartz to even apply. After the first few attempts he had started to avoid her, so she had dropped the subject. It didn’t help and now he barely even talked to her. She needed to figure out what to do about Quartz, but that would have to wait until after the expedition.

She met up with Chad at the dining commons an hour before the expedition was supposed to gather by the academy gates. They ate together in anxious anticipation with their travel packs next to them. When they were done eating, they sat in silence, not really sure what to do with the rest of their time until some of their friends came to see them off.

“Chad! Mallory!” the voice of Courtney Forester cut into the silence as she approached where they were sitting. “Cal told me you two will be going on the expedition with us! I’m headed to the gates. I’ll see you there soon.”

“Who’s Cal?” Mallory asked as Courtney left.

“I think that’s the name of the ‘Darian that is always with her...I didn’t make the connection until now, but the ‘Darian Ferdinandson who is one of the leaders must be Cal. There are too many Ferdinandsons here.”

“Mallory!!!!!!” Hillary yelled as she ran across the commons to them, towing an exasperated Marcel behind her.

“Mallory,” Hillary said again once she had caught her breath. “Was that Courtney Forester I just saw? Is she going on the expedition with you? I have been speculating that with Prince Lance leading the expedition and the reduced requirements that maybe Princess Magnolia will be going on the expedition. Did she say anything? Is she the Princess?”

“Hillary, calm down,” said Mallory. “She did say she was going on the expedition with us, but that doesn’t mean she is the Princess.

“Thank you guys for coming to see us off. Have either of you seen Quartz or Daisy?”

“No,” said Marcel, “I think Daisy had something else to do this morning and you know how Quartz has been lately. So it’s just us.”

“Well thank you two for coming. Say bye to Daisy and Quartz for us,” Chad said before adding with a sigh: “and please keep an eye on Quartz while we’re gone.”