Gale was a tenured professor at Xander Xalatar’s Academy of Magical Arts. She had been teaching there for over two decades, lecturing students on several branches of magical theory. She also tutored students in her two affinities: illusion and kinetics. Today she was tasked with running the affinity exam in Tent Nine, something she was rather un-fond of.

Administering the affinity exam was an exceptionally thankless task that usually brought out the worst in people. Given the random nature of the exam, people created a lot of superstition around it. This left examiners with the unenviable task of destroying the fantasies of many students hoping to ‘beat’ the system with ridiculous notions.

To be fair, such problems were a minor irritation compared to the much larger and difficult problem of administering the exam to self-important would-be aristocrats, who felt entitled to powers as though they were items on a menu at the Divine Halls. It was these students that made administering the affinity exam the absolute worst.

Gale was waiting patiently at the entrance to the auditorium while professor Fargo addressed the students with his spectacular sound magic. How did he project his voice everywhere? Despite knowing the theory, she couldn't shake the feeling of awe every time she heard it. As she watched him speak her vision drifted to his tight-fitting battlemage attire, which would look completely ridiculous if not for his stunning muscular physique.

After a minute or so, Professor Fargo completed his announcement and headed over to Tent One. This was her cue everyone to head over to Tent Nine and begin the soul-crushing task of granting people magic powers.

Gale approached her tent and saw a group of students wearing academy robes while two nobles stood off to the side. Finally, she glanced over at a man in a black and gold cloak on the far side of the seating area. The student was tapping his feet and fidgeting, a common occurrence here, for students not distracted in conversation.

Wanting to get this over with, Gale marched up to the tent and tersely instructed the students on how they would proceed. She then pointed to the closest student wearing academy garb and directed her into the tent.

Gale found it was always better to get through the silver cloaked students first, and fortunately for her, she had a lot of them. They were usually less fussy about affinities, and when they were, they were at least less obstinate. She would leave the other three to the end, after the inevitable blow-ups from entitled students who believed their family or money gave them special rights.

Gale administered the exam to a girl named Anabelle Frost. The girl seemed hesitant and timid as she approached the tent, but eventually summoned the courage to go through. She was an uneventful exam, spending several minutes learning how to channel mana into her stone. Once she got the hang of channelling, the rest of the exam went swiftly.

Annabelle was fortunate enough to pass her illusion test, which put her in a good mood to start. That mood was tempered by the following seven tests, which sadly produced no affinities. Annabelle quickly left the tent wearing a sour expression as she marched to the hall exit.

Gale let out a sigh.

“It never changes”

— —

After over an hour of exams with a variety of results ranging from elation to anger, Gale stepped out of the tent and prepared for the troublesome trio. There had been two ‘incidents’ requiring the intervention of Mindmaster Blint, so Gale was confident that the remainder of the exam would be mostly smooth.

Gale looked over at the student quietly pacing back and forth just behind the seating area. The student had been walking the same patch of floor the entire time, occasionally fiddling with his hands, and frequently mumbling.

Not wanting to disturb him, she opted to grab one of the others. They were sitting together with their chairs facing toward the centre of the hall, loudly mocked silver cloaked students. Earlier, they had angrily mocked a student for leaving her tent with an elated expression, saying that she would be too stupid to know what to do with her powers. However, they took special pleasure in students who exited the tents with dour expressions. She overheard phrases like “bad blood” and “know their place”, which made her blood boil.

Gale figured breaking them up would quell their flippant mood, potentially turning the one that remained into a fidgeting mess like the loner student in black. She called for one of them and escorted them into the exam room. She instructed the boy to keep his mouth shut and not speak unless answering a direct question. The student’s smug expression flattened and he nodded in understanding.

The exam was quick, with the student receiving dimensional and kinetic affinities in the first half of the exam. The last five tests conveyed no affinities, bringing the student’s mood from pompously ecstatic, to tempered smugness with a hint of sorrow.

The second to last student was very different from the previous one. She obtained air and enhancement affinities, but received both of them on her last two orbs. This brought her mood from furious despair to elated relief.

It never ceased to amaze Gale how fickle the students were. The order didn’t matter and yet they insisted on conjuring up emotions long before the test was over. They would all save themselves a huge amount of energy and stress if they simply reserved judgement until the end of the exam. She of course knew this would never be the case.

“But a girl can dream”

As the second to last student exited the tent Gale took a deep breath and prepared herself for the last exam. She looked over to him to see him still pacing and mumbling, completely oblivious to his surroundings. She glanced at his cloak, which read ‘Emberheart’ just below the crest on his back.

“Emberheart? Never seen that one before”

“Emberheart!" she said

The student was not too bright, or forgot he was wearing a commissioned cloak, because he took her call to mean she knew him personally. If this kid was a dunce, her last exam would be a long one. It was so close to being over and she just wanted to leave and get some food.

To Gale’s delightful surprise, Evander was a natural at channelling. He had just received a trace affinity for kinetic magic, which he ended up being rather excited about. She felt bad for prejudging him so harshly. Students normally reacted with confusion when told about trace affinities, so this came as a surprise. It appeared he was well read, with obscure knowledge of magic theory.

Evander began reciting magic theory on traces, but became sad when he realised he would not be a real kineticist. He spoke of his father’s affinity, which put Gale in the frustrating position of feeling bad for him. It appeared he was not the son of a noble or aristocrat, but rather the son of a well-off craftsman. The pressure he was under was obviously immense, causing Gale to feel pangs of sympathy.

Next was the life orb, his mother’s affinity. This too resulted in a trace affinity. However, this time Evander chennelled hard, in what appeared to be a foolish attempt to ‘overcome’ his trace affinity by sheer force of will. His folly was not rewarded. Instead, he collapsed onto the floor, completely exhausted and gasping for air.

The boy’s foolishness had not resulted in Mana Burn, which left it up to Gale to decide how to proceed. While she wanted to go to lunch and put this whole exam behind her, she was beginning to empathise with Evander’s situation. She decided to proceed with the exam after allowing him time to recover from his stunt.

Evander opted to leave his father’s second affinity until the end, not wanting to suffer another blow to his confidence until it was absolutely necessary, or until after he had an affinity to console himself with. Despite her feelings about test order, she found herself reluctantly agreeing with Evander’s reasoning.

The next several tests were a gauntlet of absurd impossibility that could hardly be believed. He acquired seven trace affinities, which was generally thought to be impossible. They were not proper affinities, which made the situation slightly less absurd. Even so, she would not have believed it had she not witnessed it with her own eyes.

At this point, Evander broke down. Gale tried her best to console him, promising that he was guaranteed to get at least one affinity. When asked if she was certain, she said yes.

“A white lie, I know.”

She had known two mages, in her twenty years at the academy, who came out the exam with absolutely no magical affinities. Out of the thousands of students who passed through these halls, just two failed every test. It wouldn’t happen to Evander though; the chances were too slim. He would get his affinity and leave a happy man. It wasn't every day a student obtained one primary and seven trace affinities.

“Actually, it wasn’t ever”, she thought

With Gale’s lies of encouragement, Evander decided to go for it. He made the connection, began channelling, and then, all hell broke loose.

Evander’s expression went from elated to hopeless in an instant, but he didn’t stop channelling. His face contorted in a grimace as tears formed in his eyes. His breathing became jarred and he let out a mournful cry. Gale’s heart sank.

The silver light circling Evander grew stronger, while the trickle of red light barely changed. Realising he was not going to stop; she pulled the orb away from him. Sadly, his connection was too strong.

“Stop Evander!” she shouted, “You’re going to kill yourself!”

Her shouts appeared to have no effect on him. Either he couldn’t hear, or didn’t want to. Tears poured from his face as his hair and clothes became soaked with sweat. The sweat on his arms and face began to steam. He was going to kill himself if she didn't stop him. Gale’s stone flashed as a wave of silver erupted from her hands.

The wave smashed into Evancer’s chest, sending him flying into the air and out of the tent, towards the centre of the hall. Evander hit the ground with a thud and a crack. No longer channelling, his Affinity Stone dimmed. His screams abruptly halted, replaced with desperate muted gasps for air as he struggled to breathe.

Gale ran over to check on him.

“Get the healer! He’s going to die! Get a healer now!”

A man came running towards them. He was a student wearing red and black robes with a burning wolf crest.

“What happened?" asked Cillian

“He over-channelled. He’s going to burn up if we don't do something”

A tall woman in green robes rushed towards them and knelt next to the man in red and black. Her cloak was stitched with a name: Freya.

“What happened?” asked Freya

“He hit his head and back in the fall. Also, he probably has Mana Burn. If you don’t get him treatment he’ll burn up”

Freya nodded. Her face was locked in intense concentration.

“Ok, I need a fire mage right now!” shouted Freya

“I’m a fire mage”, replied Cillian

“A real mage, kid. Get me a professor, and an air mage while you’re at it”

Cillian leapt up and started shouting, “We need a fire mage and air mage! We have a case of Mana Burn!”

Cillian continued shouting as the healer tended to Evander. Silver light swirled around her and into her stone, while green light blanketed Evander. Green energies swirled around his head, where he had cracked it on the hard marble surface. Bones could be heard clicking as they slid back into place. Several ribs also snapped into place as she moved onto his torso.

“Gale! Keep his heart beating"

“On it"

Two professors arrived at the scene and knelt down by Evander’s body.

“I’ve healed the damage, but he’s burning up. Have either of you ever treated mana burn before?

Both the newcomers replied in the negative.

“I need you to draw the heat out of his body. Start with his head”

A man in red robes nodded.

Freya turned to the woman in white.

“I need you to help him breathe. Gale is working his heart but he needs air. Also, keep a current of air around us to vent the heat Casper pulls from his body”

The woman in white nodded.

The four of them worked at their respective tasks. Cillian had returned to Evander's side and began quietly encouraging the unconscious Evander.

After several minutes Freya declared they could stop. The torrents in the silver dissipated and their stones went dim.

“He’s got a pulse and his temperature is down. He is ready to be moved to the infirmary”

Cillian Grabbed a stretcher and laid it down next to Evander.

“‘I’ll help carry him,” he said

The four mages stepped back to make room. Cillian and Freya slid Evander onto the stretcher and lifted him using the handles at each end. They rushed him out of the room and headed for the infirmary.