The air was so different, not necessarily better or worse, but different. There was a silence, with many gasps here and there. Where am I? I wondered, opening my eyes in a daze. Maybe this was what happened with rushed portals, or long distanced ones. The ground felt very, rough. My vision finally focused on the amazing sight before me.

“Very eager to learn, I see.” I heard a booming voice from all around me. It was unnaturally, impossibly loud. Any idiot could tell it was magic, and this idiot wondered what she had just interrupted. A huge stadium, where the people in the stands looked like ants. I rubbed my temples. The bad landing was a rather entertaining spectacle according to the laughter of a few in the crowd. It was very open, quite a difference from the tree-covered forest I was in.

“Where, am I?” I asked, my voice also afflicted with great volume. I understood now that this man was addressing the crowd, and I’d interrupted a ceremony of sorts.

His staff looked like the type you’d use to physically hit people. He said some strange incantation and talked to me without the help of the voice-boosting magic, “Are you trying out?”

Trying out? “For what?”

“Do you really not know where you are?” the short, stocky man asked. His hair was white as snow and as smooth as a pearl. His dark skin gave it great contrast. And his eyes, were, white? Why were they white? There was nothing to look at. The fact he hadn’t been looking directly at me made me realise, the man was blind.

“I uh,” I rose to my feet and dusted myself off, “tried to teleport to um, Arcanist Academy. I’d like to find Samael Winter, sir.” I said to him as politely as I can.

“Well, you did. But your timing is as bad as your landing. I’m afraid whatever it is will have to wait until the try-outs are finished, miss.” He said a strange, unintelligible incantation and conjured a chair made of ice, “You’ll have to wait until after I address the people, alright? Please take a seat.”

“Oh, yes of course. I’m sorry.” I sat down in the icy chair and it floated upward, going towards a section of the stadium with a mere six seats, albeit they were posh and looked befitting of royalty. The ice chair dropped me off in that section. What did he want me to do? I couldn’t just leave. I wasn’t sure I’d find him again, he seemed important after all. But I couldn’t just sit on those throne-like chairs, they might execute me for stupidity, so I just cowardly stood in the back, behind the seats. After a good few minutes of speech, four people came into the special section I was in, questioning my presence not with their mouths but with their eyes. Luckily, they paid me no mind.

Samael Winter had returned also, flying in style and grace on a thin platform of ice. He was about to sit, then noticed me. With a big smile, he gestured me over, “Come, sit and watch.”

I did as was told, so nervously sitting down whilst all eyes of the stadium were on me. Apparently, the simple act of them sitting was a tradition observed by the masses, or so it felt. I sat, forgetting my backpack on me and ending up in an awkward position. To say I was nervous was an understatement.

His fat, yet muscular body looked very pronounced in the seat despite its elbow room. “Forgive me for putting you in the spotlight like that. Our vice principal is a little under the weather today so I figured I’d offer the seat.” He said so nonchalantly, laughing at my still surprised face.

Is he blind or not? I had to pull myself together and get out of this mess. But he was the type that engaged you in conversation whether you liked it or not. Finally, he asked why I was here near the end of the try-outs.

“Mister Winter, I have a set of skills that I think, are good. I haven’t gotten to compare them to anyone so I’m not sure, but I’d like to become a chemist for the school.”

He laughed out obnoxiously loud, wavering my confidence in my own work. Was I actually horrible and that old man just decided to play a trick on me? I hoped not.

“Indeed, chemists, apothecaries and enchanters are in dire need, however, the school will still refuse to hire an incompetent person. I’m afraid, if you don’t have a potion or pill on you as we speak, then you lose your special chance of impressing me and will have to join the queue like many others.”

“Uh,” I looked at him weirdly, his choice of words confused me a little. I wouldn’t take more than thirty seconds to make a normal pill, and for the more potent ones that required enchanting, a little less than a minute, after all that time he spent talking, surely, he could wait a minute, right? “Why don’t I just make one now? That way, you can see my skills.”

“Oh, you have herbs in your bag? Marvellous!”

“Uh, no, I don’t. But I don’t need any.” I replied. I was the one getting the weird stares now, not only from him but also from the people sitting next to us.

“I don’t see how you’re going to do this, but it’s okay. We’ve still got about half an hour,” said an aged lady at the side.

Half hour? Is that the usual creation time? Are chemists here really that bad? I wondered, maybe I really was a bit better than I thought, but I couldn’t be overconfident. A calm exhale and I began, grabbing a handkerchief and transmuting it into all the different ingredients I needed.

“By the divine!” the old woman yelled out in stupor.

“Uh, I’m sorry, should I stop?” I asked, really nervous. The people I were surrounded by seemed like the big guns.

“No, no! Continue.” She instructed, paying so much attention I felt like her eyes impaled me. I envisioned someone so old and wrinkled not to be so imposing. I hovered my hands over the herbs and enchanted them, multiplying their potency, then used transmutation again to disrupt its properties, essentially transmutation’s own version of using a mortar and pestle to make a paste, then forming it into a pill since I had no vials for potions. I ran an enchantment over the whole, finished product that was no more than the size of a rice grain, then presented them, as there were many pills created from the sheer number of ingredients.

“Ah, this is Ingrid, our school’s chemist, she will appraise these pills before we consume them. Mind telling us what they’re supposed to do?” Winter asked.

“It’s a bit of a do-it-all pill for magic users. It increases the potency of the spell, the range of the spell, reduces the amount of energy needed to cast the spell, increases magical regeneration of your magic reserves and increases the actual size of your magic reserve. If the spell is a very specific utility spell and doesn’t have much variation, say, opening a lock, then it won’t increase the potency.”

“Oh, that’s quite a lot. Now, how long does it last?” another man asked, his voice sounded familiar but I brushed my suspicion away.

“I haven’t had a great sample of magicians for testing, but when I used it myself, it lasted around twenty-four hours. The effect doesn’t fade overtime, but when the time is up, the effect completely disappears, so you’ll get its full effects until the very last second. A red circle appears on your wrist, within sixty seconds of it appearing, the effect will stop. It tickles a little when it appears and tickles again when the effect is gone so you won’t have to keep looking in the middle of battle.”

They looked on in silence. Did I talk too much? Was there something I missed? I didn’t miss anything, right?

“I’ve, never even thought of that,” Ingrid admitted, “in all my years, I’ve never seen someone make a pill from scratch. And what is that double-enchantment? What is your name, young lady?”

“Emily, miss. Emily Crescent.”

“I’m Ingrid Cunningham, and you, are now my assistant,” she said, “well, that’s if this pill does what you say.”

“You’re the only person I know will do whatever you want without my permission,” Samael said, a crooked smile on his face, “so, what’s the grade of this pill?” he asked the old chemist.

“I haven’t seen its likes anywhere, so it’s hard for me to tell. Usually chemists make things that have specific functions. This one has a whole bandwagon of effects.” She swallowed the pill in one go, her lazy eyelids springing to life after it took effect. She rose up and walked to the forefront of the box we were in, breathing a huge fireball into the air. I was awestruck, the thing was several times bigger than the cottage I lived in. Ingrid, a sloth of a woman turned around, her face revering the deadpan image she seemed to love so much, “Grade three,” she told Winter, spurring the gasps of the others who sat next to us.

Please tell me that’s good. I clenched my fists and tightened my buttocks, almost wanting to close my eyes in anticipation.

“Emily, right?” Winter caught my attention, “We usually pass grade ten pills. I’m not sure if you know because you seem like you grew up under a rock. Ah, no offence–”

“None taken.”

“–the grades as of now are one to twenty, the lower being the better. Grade three is unheard of in one so young, and yet you did it, without any apparatus and within such a small space of time. If you don’t mind, who taught you? I’d very much like to meet your master.”

“My uncle did, but he’s quite a loner. He never leaves his home.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.” He said, a lower voice than usual. The try-outs finally came to an end and they announced that in a week’s time, acceptance letters would be sent to the families of participants.

Ingrid showed me to my room, an unused one that caught cobwebs and dust, but still extremely luxurious, down to the fancily curved door handles. A king could live here. I dropped myself onto the bed, then regretted that decision almost immediately. I rued not learning any cleaning magic, if there ever was any. I unpacked my things quickly, and transmuted the black book that Chiron warned me to never let anyone see into a black ring for easy transport. What else? I wondered, then decided to do the same for the scroll, making it a creamy white, reminiscent of scroll paper so that I would know which ring is which.

I came out the room and went into the garbage dumps, after all, no one would have a problem if I transmuted garbage into something actually useful, would they? I was doing both the school and myself a service. Out of the garbage I transmuted, I had a great grand alchemy table with all the equipment I could ever want. Beakers, vials, graduated cylinders, flasks, tongs for holding the scalding hot test tubes, funnels; you name it, I had it.

Next was a custom cupboard that had magical tinted glass I could see through and even pass my hand through, but others couldn’t do the same. After hours of customizing it and thinking how I could make it better, I realised the sun was setting on me, so I began hauling my precious children up those stairs. I really need portal magic. Finally, I got everything inside by the sweat of my brow and the exhaustion of my muscles. Now laid the last, grand battle, the cupboard. I remembered uncle Chiron’s words to me, to think before I act. Well, I certainly ignored that very useful piece of advice when I made the cupboard and just stood there like an imbecile.

Of course, I could transmute it into something smaller and carry it, but making it back just like how I had it required some imagination and brain power, things I couldn’t afford to spend in my fatigued state. I should’ve trained my body more.

“Where did this come from?” A girl’s voice asked from behind. I turned to see the woman, her hair wresting on the robe’s cowl. She was petite, so her clothes fit her a bit baggy. I was at a loss for words, because I’d finally recognize that white robe she wore, the same one that the strangers from my dreams had on, the same one those people who paid a visit to Chiron wore, looking for some dragon. Ridiculous.

“Oh, I made this,” I finally answered, not wanting her to get suspicious of my silence.

“Oh,” she said, her lips pronouncing the word as much as her voice, “through transmutation! And you cleaned up the trash area too! Are you a model student or what?” she joked and I laughed along. She seemed like a very nice person despite her attitude towards Chiron, but judging on how he answered her I figured it was a special thing with the two of them.

“Tell you what, kiddo,” she leaned against the cupboard, barely reaching half its height, it was more like a wardrobe if you judged it on size alone, “you enchant some things for me and I’ll get this piece of woodwork project to your room, deal?”

All too eager to help out and make a friend, I agreed. She didn’t walk around with a staff like most students or teachers, and I would soon find out why. She lifted the thing up, and I gaped stupidly, jaw low enough to form a black hole. A wizard who focused heavily on body enhancements, I never thought there’d be anyone like that. I complimented her on her strength, and her reactions were gold, from blushing to self-praise, she was really proud of herself.

She sat it down next to my alchemy table and told me her room is just opposite mine in the hallway and that I was welcomed anytime. I was a bit happy, to be honest. The little time we spent, I felt we kind of bonded, I hoped, at least.

There was a knocking on the door, “Miss Crescent?” one of the guardsmen called out, “Miss Cunningham and chairman Winter would like your presence.”

I got up from sitting on the bed to answer, but Mandy, the tomboyish officer held onto my hand, stopping me, “you don’t have to go right now. Stay a while and chat,” she asked, an offer all too tempting but I had to deny it. I was still new after all and wouldn’t want their opinions of me to falter.

We both left with the guardsman and went into a room with large double doors. There, I was properly introduced to Arcanist Academy’s leaders.

Samael Winter became the founder and creator of this school twenty years ago, in that short time, it grew outrageously huge. He could no longer bear the mantle of sole leader and had help from the vice president, Derek Arnez. Because of the school’s sheer size and an influx of students after some incident they repeatedly mentioned, their chemist, Ingrid Cunningham joined the fray.

Controlling the students however, was another thing altogether. With time, rules and regulations would be fine-tuned after bad incidents and fights broke out, but without someone to enforce those rules, the school would be a playground for the stronger mages. They created the Sentries, a group of enforcement officers that saw to it the rules weren’t breached in any shape or fashion. They were chosen from a very strong pool of responsible and experienced wizards and governing the Sentries were three head officers. Mandy Sikorski, I remembered the name because of her strength. Bradly Diaz, a very forgettable man, but I’d bet he was the brains of the trio. And lastly, there was Brandon White, who they kept referring to as Clockwork, and by his scurrying nature, I could see why. After introductions, he was the first to leave.

The chairman kindly asked for everyone to leave so that he may speak to me. “Miss Crescent, the reason you’ve gotten this position so easily, is mostly due to your skill, yes, but, Ingrid have been talking to me for years about retiring. The only reason she has yet to do so is because we couldn’t find anyone as good. When she saw you, she saw her way out. I mean, I don’t blame her, her job is hellish, and I know that. Miss Crescent, your title will be ‘assistant chemist’ like a few others we have employed but you will be doing the job of ‘head chemist’ until Ingrid leaves. Are you prepared to bear this responsibility for the years to come?”

“I won’t know until I start, mister Winter,” I replied, “but I’m fairly certain I’m prepared to, yes.”

He smiled, “I’ve, another question.”

“Yes?”

“All the other chemists working here are thirty-five and older, miss Crescent.” He stood up and paced about his office, hands behind his back, “Now I know I’m giving you one of the biggest positions, and this question is rather cheeky of me but, would you like to, join the school?”

“Isn’t that what I’m doing?”

“No, I don’t mean work for the school. Miss Crescent, you’re so young, I’d like you to also study, take our lessons. Learn the world of magic. It would be folly for one with your talent to not do so.”

“I, I’m flattered. I don’t know, but I’m willing to try. I do want to learn though.” I said, a bit stumped by his question. He raised off his levitating seat with a huge grin, “Welcome to Arcanist Academy, Chemist Emily Crescent,” and stuck his calloused, cold hand out to me, with happiness alike, I shook his hand, thanking him for the opportunity.

And so, my training for the seat of head chemist began bright and early the next morning. The sun peeped over the horizon. I went into their lab, greeted the other chemists and watched along whilst they showed me the order in which they did things. There weren’t any chemists capable of transmuting matter, so I now understood their reaction when I transmuted my handkerchief in front of them yesterday. Apparently, it was a skill that took a lifetime to master, and only slow seniors not suited to work was capable of doing a somewhat passable job.

I was now technically their inventory. All I required was useless junk no one would want and I made it into any herb they so desired, almost making the herbalists who find and pick the ingredients obsolete. We worked about two hours straight, creating thousands of pills just for this one day.

After, it was now my time to go to school, and I had the task of carrying about three thousand pills to the first year’s building. It was a humungous auditorium with long tables running the length of a row of students. There were magical circles drawn onto those tables and on just about everything I laid my eyes on.

Students began piling in, which prompted me to finish my job and deliver the pills to the head teacher of the first years, but he was nowhere to be found. I decided to have a seat in the front row and await his arrival.

In thirty minutes, the place was filled, even next to me. Some people even stood up and took turns, giving their classmates the opportunity to rest their legs. There was an older fellow in the front rows as well. Even older people go to school here? I thought, kind of amazed by the diversity. After a couple minutes, the man stood up and addressed the class, telling them to quiet down.

“Alright, alright, those present just send a bit of magic to the roll connectors. And stop bein’ so noisy ya damn ingrates!” They finally calmed, and I realised that he was the teacher all this time, disguised as a student with his less than stellar attire and dishevelled bed hair.

“Now uh, I was waitin’ on some new special student Winter told me ‘bout but, uh, she didn’t show up so let’s start.”

Oh damn, how do I tell him? I abhorred publicity but, I was supposed to be a responsible adult now, I had to do it.

“Excuse me! You’re the head teacher?” I shouted out. He nodded, asking if I was the star pupil Winter had made me out to be. It made me question the conversation between the two men.

“Alright ingrates, this young lady is going to be the school’s head chemist, so show some damn respect, okay?” The balding teacher said, his voice monologue despite his colourful words. “She’s gonna be a classmate, ya bastards, so make her feel welcomed, eh?” He used the same voice magic to boost his voice. I handed the pills to him and introduced myself to the class. They seemed friendly enough.

“Miss Crescent, I’m sorry for my language but, this just somehow became the relationship between me and these guys.” He said, a little embarrassed. I assured him that it was okay, and intriguing even, then took my seat, horribly following along with the lessons. They were already ways into the syllabus, leaving me confused as to much of the terminology they used.

Luckily, after class was done, Mandy not only showed me around the unbelievably, exhaustingly vast campus, she explained a lot of the things I didn’t quite catch onto in class. She brought lunch with her and we sat on the lawn surrounding a large fountain. I couldn’t help but admire her at times. Lunch hadn’t once passed my mind, but she remembered for me. I was quite thankful, making sure to remind her of her desired enchantment.

“Oh, I forgot about that. Uh,” she seemed to look for her words, like she’d forgotten what she wanted me to do, “sorry, I lied. I just wanted a reason to talk to you.”

I giggled, telling her how silly she is, “You don’t need a reason to talk to me. But I would like to repay you somehow, so think of something, okay?” She nodded, blushing a little. It was cute.

I attended evening class and helped restock the school’s reserve with grade ten pills, since they were running low. The pills we made this morning were grade fifteen, which I thought was pretty low quality. “Is there a reason first years have to use those pills?”

“They may use higher grade pills,” Ingrid picked up a jar of pills and read the label, “but the manufacture time won’t allow us to mass produce it.”

“I see. How long does its effects last?”

“A couple hours, enough for a class.”

“I see. Is it okay if I make them better pills?” I asked, earning a bout of laughter from the head chemist.

“Sure, it’s okay, but anything lower than fifteen will leave you feeling drained. So be careful.”

We finished up and left the lab to turn in for the night. Even after two sessions of pill creation, two sessions of classes and the long and boring restock process, I was still full of energy. I decided to do some mass production of my own, going for grade five pills. It was tedious work, leaving me a mere four hours of sleep until I had to wake up and move to the lab. I got dressed, ready to leave my room, and looked back at the fifteen life-sized sacks filled to the brim with grade five pills. A very small amount of my magic was in each of them so I could have an easy count of them, all seventy-two million of them.

My doorbell rang, jostling me out of my unsightly aloofness. I opened it, not wanting to shout so early in the morning. Mandy smiled at me, holding her laughter back at my horrible appearance. Maybe my head teacher had rubbed off on me. “Hungry?” She asked, a warm croissant in her hand.

“Do you read minds?” I asked her in a groggy voice. We had a quick breakfast together and she returned to her room to get ready. I was ready to present the chemist team with my pills, then the reality hit me, there’s no way I could lug those huge hundred kilogram bags around. I wanted to ask Mandy, but she’d already helped me with the cupboard, and that was much lighter than those sacks of pills. What to do? I really regretted not asking Chiron to teach me portal magic.

I walked outside my room, but my hand was still on the door’s handle after I closed it. I can just tell them the pills are in my room and too heavy for me to move, that’s fine, right? I should’ve used smaller sacks, damn.

“Deep in thought, I see,” Winter was already up on me, laughing a little. Funny that he’d say he sees when he’s blind. I was so focused I hadn’t noticed him coming at all.

“Say, you can lift things with ice, right?”

“Sure, would you like some assistance?” he inquired. I nodded my head like a fool, then realised the err of my ways, “Ah, yes please.”

All I had to do was tell him where I wanted it, he knew the school so well he dropped it off exactly where I imagined it would go. Ingrid and the team questioned me about the bags when I finally got there, arriving in icy style.

“How many, is this?” one of the chemists asked, removing his spectacles in amazement. I told him seventy million, and he laughed, then turned serious when he realised I wasn’t joking. “Well, we won’t have any shortage of grade fifteen for a long, long time,” Ingrid smiled, as with everyone, knowing the early mornings could cease for a while.

“You might, actually, because these aren’t grade fifteen, sorry.” I should’ve just made some in each grade.

“Well then? What grade is it, miss Crescent?”

“They’re five. Should I have made fifteen?” I asked.

Ingrid guffawed so hard she hurt her back in the process, “How are you feeling, dear? Aren’t you tired? How much of your magic remains?”

“Uh, I’m fine, only tired from a lack of sleep. As for my magic, it’s already fully regenerated.”

“You’re a natural, kiddo. Hmm, you know what, team. I’ll retire today. Emily Crescent, you are now head chemist.” She said, a huge grin on her face. Getting that position was quite anticlimactic.

“Oh, wow, it’s an honour, thank you. Now, for my first assignment, who can tell me where to learn portal magic?”