Chapter 5: Magicians guild.

Day 2, part 2.

Walking slowly through the crowded and lively central plaza, I take in the sights.

There are all kinds of people hurrying to and fro. There are even the occasional non-human and demi-human ones mixed in here and there.

From the non-human side I've seen what I assume is the occasional Elf, dwarf and halfling.

Of the demi-humans I've so far only seen cat, dog or rabbit eared humanoid types. I also noticed that they all seem be downtrodden and sneered at by the general populace, with no one offering to help even as some of them struggle with immense luggages or the like.

They all wear the same type of necklace; a white silvery metal necklace that tightly hugs the neck and I suspect I know what it means…

‘Slaves… They are slaves.’ I lament at the realization. ‘There are even children doing these impossible jobs. What is wrong with these people…’ I grumble to myself as I watch a small child, who likely haven't turned 5 yet, struggle to carry a giant rucksack on her small back.

Taking a deep breath, I try to cool my anger and outrage before I do something stupid.

A minute passes slowly as I try to focus on other things as I continue walking towards the center of the plaza.

As I pass a cluster of tall food stalls, I quickly spot the guild buildings.

They are hard to miss, to say the least.

Zigzagging between groups of people, I hurriedly make my way towards the guild buildings in the centre of the plaza.

Standing 3 stories taller than the surrounding buildings as well as easily double their width, they are behemoths compared to the surrounding buildings.

Seeing as they are all about the same size, I would guess they compete with each other quite fiercely.

The only reason the buildings aren't bigger is most likely because the city management interfered and stopped them from expanding any more than they already have.

‘Good call, most likely.’ I conclude as I stop before the innermost section of the plaza that is dedicated to the guilds.

The guild plaza is split in a dozen or so sections, with the top 3 guilds taking up about a 3rd of the whole plaza size alone says a bit of their relative size to the rest of the guilds.

The adventurer guild, painted a metallic gold colour, is to the west of the plaza.

While the mercenary guild is to the east, it's a building painted a metallic silver.

Last of the flashy buildings, the magician guild is in the centre part of the plaza and is painted a metallic blue.

All of them shimmer in a myriad of different colours as the sun hits them, creating beautiful light shows.

Losing myself to the beautiful sight for a minute, I then refocus on my task.

‘Let's start with the magicians guild, they are most likely to know something about my abilities.’

Walking in through the huge red doors of the magicians guild I glance around at the crowd of people that's standing in groups and chatting loudly or going to and fro and going about their business.

About 10 meters straight ahead of the door is the reception, where a young boy-girl pair that look extremely similar to each other. they look to be in their high teens, at most. They're currently attentively speaking with an old man and a young woman respectively.

‘Twins huh. they exist here too huh.’ I muse as I make my way through the crowd, towards the reception.

Once I reached the reception the old man had already concluded his business, which left the young boys counter open.

“Excuse me.” I say to the boy.

“Hmm? Ah, welcome to the magicians guild. How may I help you?” He replies with a perfect service smile.

I give a small smile in return. “I'm new in town and I am seeking certain information about magic, is there an information section or someone I may speak to?”

Narrowing his eyes as he scrutinises me, he falls silent for a moment, seemingly contemplating something.

A moment later he nods once, seemingly mostly to himself, and says: “one moment.” and promptly turns, opens, and disappears through a door behind the reception.

A minute later an old man wearing a high pointy hat and walking with a cane appears through the door, the boy following behind.

Stopping an arms length away, he narrows his eyes and inspects me from top to toe for a long and awkward moment.

Seemingly done with his inspection, he nods slowly towards the boy, followed by a grunt, as he turns and gestures for me to “follow him” before promptly walking back through the door.

Looking to the boy, he simply smiles and indicates towards the door. “The master does not like to be kept waiting. Please, this way.” he says and urges me towards the door.

Once through the door I notice the room is dome shaped and quite large. With doors evenly spaced all around the wall, each door has a number carved into it.

“It's door number 3, over there.” the receptionist boy says and points at 2 o'clock.

Thanking him and waving him goodbye, I quickly walk up to the door and knock on it.

Immediately a deep voice replies: “Enter.”

Hesitating a split second, I gather my will and open the door.

As the door opens a sliver a rush of… something, washes over me. Whatever it is, it is exerting a strange pressure that makes it hard to breathe. As the door opens further so too does the pressure build ever more heavy.

Taking a few gasping breathes the strange pressure only builds and makes it even harder to breathe. Panicking and gasping for breath I do the only thing I can think of, lash out against the strange pressure.

Acting on an instinct I didn't know I had, I focus all my will on pushing the strange pressure away from me, forming a protective bubble around me.

Instantly the strange pressure eases and I can breathe, if yet laborly.

Taking a few deep but laboured breaths, I try to regain some composure before I walk inside the room. Once inside, I notice the old man with the pointy hat and staff from before is sitting in a high chair behind a large desk; directly facing me.

A huge square carpet lays beneath the table and chairs, covering the floor half the way over to the door. It is a thick and very soft looking carpet with red and white motives weaved into it.

To his left there is a large window with a good view of the building's entrance.

‘Strange, i didn't see any windows… Perhaps it is concealed by magic?’ I ponder quickly before taking in the rest of the room.

There is a large fireplace to the right, however it is not lit at the moment, most likely for use during winter.

Looking over the old man seated in his high chair, I can't see his face, as his large pointy hat is tilted forward so that its shadow covers his face.

“Uhm… I would appreciate it if you would stop with the weird pressure thing.” I say awkwardly. A moment later I add: “It's making it kind of hard to focus.”

Looking up at me, I notice the old man's eyes are glowing brightly with a strange light; as if there are miniature stars hiding inside his head.

Chuckling quietly, the old man's eyes stop shining, and instantly the pressure eases.

As the pressure disappears, I breathe a sigh of relief. “Thanks.”

Motioning for me to take a seat, he waits for me to sit before he says: “I must say I am impressed that you managed to suppress my mana pressure. Even if it was only a 10th of my full ability.” Pausing a moment, he adds: “ Most people would suffocate and lose consciousness within seconds.”

A moment of silence ensued as I mull over what he said.

“That… doesn't sound very nice. And somewhat lethal, if you don't stop the ability once that happens…” I say tentatively.

Raising a bushy eyebrow, he looks at me for a moment. “Of course I will turn it off. Do you have any idea how much paperwork I need to file if someone dies in my office? It's not worth it even against some of my most hated people.” he says as he waves his and dismissively. “No, I only did that to test you, not with the intention of harming you; or anyone else for that matter.”

Another moment of silence ensued.

“And?” I ask as I break the silence. “Did I pass whatever it was you were testing?”

Humming to himself, the old man nods slowly. “Curiously enough, yes.” he says before pausing a moment as he looks out the window. “But that aside, why have you come to my guild?”

Scratching my head, I ponder how I should best explain my plight for a moment.

“I seem to be able to use… something. Whether it's magic or not, I do not know as I have no knowledge of magic.” I say slowly.

Looking the old man in the eye, I continue: “I have come here in the hopes that someone could ascertain whether it is magic or not.”

Eyes narrowing slightly, the old man says: “Show me this ability of yours then.”

Stretching my hand out, palm faced upwards, I will fire to appear just above my right palm and instantly a small flame appears and starts dancing above my open palm.

Recoiling slightly in shock, the old man's eyes go large as saucers as he stares at the dancing flame in my hand.

After taking a moment to calm himself, he looks me in the eye and smiles slightly at me.

“We have much to talk about, it would seem…” he says, trailing off towards the end.

------------------×

After an hour of intense questioning, a quick discussion followed.

The old man, who introduced himself as grandmaster Jarus von Baius, assured me that; Yes, it is indeed magic.

However, it seems it is not a common type of magic, which anyone may learn.

And then there is the thing about being able to activate magic without seals, glyphs or reciting a spell.

Which I am told is an incredibly unusual talent. Only once or twice every 100 years or so a person capable of “Instant, unaided activation”, as he worded it, appears.

They also usually end up being called heroes after achieving great feats, or so I am told. Unless they die before they manage to accomplish anything, of course.

‘I have no interest in becoming a hero though. I'd rather stay unknown and live a quiet life away from the public eye...’

Having confirmed my abilities as magical, Jarus decided for me to join the magicians guild as a trainee mage, the only condition being to fulfill one of his requests every year after my training is finished.

‘I have no inclination to stay here the rest of my life though. But he doesn't know that.’

As I am already registered to the basic training regimen however, some problems occurred.

As they can not simply annul the previous arrangement, they decided to apply for me to be exempt from the labor part of the contact and instead compensate the guards for lost labor.

With that in place I will become a full time trainee instead, Part time guard trainee and the other part magician trainee: With half the time being spent with the basic training and the other half being spent with a mage trainer.

There was no change to my trainee pay, it still remains at 2 Silvers a month.

-----+×

With everything decided and applied for, I start walking briskly out of the magician guild.

Once outside I realise it is already dark outside.

There is a slight chill in the air as a slight breeze blows by as I look up at the two moons that are shining down on the guild plaza, making it shimmer green and red.

“The moon called Ruh here, huh” I say to myself as I gaze at the moons.

I learned the name of the moon from Klein yesterday as we were waiting for the logistics division to finalize my accommodations.

On a side note, the sun is apparently called Sol here too.

Gazing a moment longer at the sight, I turn and start walking back towards the Alunin, my new home.

End of chapter 5.