“Ah college years, those were the days. Pure freedom ... leaving home for the first time…the parties…”

"What about the tutorials, the lectures, the large building with all the books called the ‘library’?”

“Is that what those were?” Gerry blithely replied.

― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly,

The gigantic ornately decorated front door would be somewhat small for the frost-giant but no one else should have any problems. Mireille nodded, impressed.

Alea took the lead having been here at least sometimes in the past when she was visiting her brother. Every step echoed in the gigantic arched hallways, the ceiling was many meters high. Students and some workers hurried along, some threw curious glances in their direction. Alyssa was glad to notice that she was not that special regarding her features and coloration, she saw a man with dark green hair, carrying a creature made of squirming roots in the crook of his left elbow. Then there was a trio of dwarves with black, metallic seeming hair. An elf woman with skin textured like bark followed a dark-haired, stocky human male of indeterminate age. Most were human though, and even if she was a bit biased, she was better looking than many.

Then they arrived at a portal of polished marble, a plaque proclaimed this the Bureau of Identifying and Assaying Magical Abilities and Aptitude.

Entering they saw a reception desk beneath a skylight bathed in sunlight, a great waterclock stood further behind the desk. A statue of Laveras the demi-god of hours was slowly raised on a wooden platform inside a wide glass basin by the slow and steady flow of water from a small spigot, his right arm pointed at a beautiful depiction of the hours.

A man, approximately twenty years of age, was reading some sheaves of parchment and looked up as they entered. He had half-glasses and pulled them down before inspecting them. He wore grey robes with a blue-silver badge fixed to his left breast, his hair was very short and dark and he was clean-shaven. There was a waiting area with some upholstered benches placed around a small indoor pool containing flitting golden fish. The floor was polished stone. The walls were relatively bare of ornamentation only a few busts of famous magicians and some old scrolls hung framed to good effect. It was very quiet but for the soft gurgling of the water clock.

“Can I help you, ladies?” The man spoke with an educated but bored-sounding voice.

Alea took the lead, her spider fixing her eyes on the man. “We are here for our primary examination.”

He took a board from the side and after speaking some arcane words stroked along the front. “You are Alea von Graufurt, Mireille Annirstochter and Alyssa Miner? Is that correct?”

They nodded their assent.

“Ok, then you are in luck. The last assay ended early, very early” the last was spoken very deliberately and he looked faintly irritated. He stroked his chin, “ We will continue with your assessment, I am Cordelius Ansum, and your senior, a fourth-year, pleased to meet you.” His greeting sounded perfunctory.

“Miss von Graufurt, please enter the door to the right” he pointed at one of the doorways. “Miss Annirstochter, this one please.” He pointed then hesitated. “Mh, you have a brand?”

“Yes, a lightning-based branding,” Mireille answered matter-of-factly.

“Nevertheless, a noble of our kingdom vouched for you, so we will endeavor to be thorough in our assessment.”

“Miss Miner,” he paused as he read something on the board, “You are a peculiar group, aren't you?” For the first time, he seemed mildly interested. “Void affinity, possible personal gate? How are you still alive?” He lowered the half-glasses again and looked at her intently. He sighed. “None of my business. Please proceed to the door on the left.” He gestured.

Alyssa entered and closed the door behind her. The room was whitewashed stone with a high ceiling, a simple desk stood near the center a tall window behind it showed a view of an inner courtyard with a bubbling fountain and flowers growing on trellises. The floor was furnished with some rugs in darker colors. Beside the door she had entered through, the room boasted another to the far left.

She paced a bit and examined the room before she sat down before the desk and waited. After about half an hour the other door opened. A tall human woman with ebony hair and a pale complexion entered briskly. She was not conventionally beautiful but had a commanding presence, her face was mostly sharp lines and angles, there was not much that was soft about her. She wore robes of dark grey gathered at the waist with a girdle of copper links, accented with blue topaz with a pouch hung at her right hip. A wand hung from a silk cord tied to her wrist. Her deep blue eyes regarded her for a moment before she nodded. “My name is Carmen of Perrilen Heights. I will be your assessor." She calmly inspected Alyssa. "I have heard of you and requested to test you. Can you guess why I did that?”

Alyssa inspected her and she shivered a bit as her left arm sensed the deep cold hidden beneath the superficially businesslike appearance. “I think you have abilities like mine and are thus perfectly qualified to either test me or evaluate the risk I pose.” She raised her head facing the woman fully.

Carmen nodded and smiled a bit. “True.” She sat down. “I am one of the assistant professors teaching the art of the void. We are a small and exclusive group here on campus. And I know firsthand the destruction this art can cause. So, testing will comprise a magical examination but also a written test evaluating your knowledge and even so mundane a thing as your writing and reading. It will probably take the whole day. I will be present for your magical testing, the rest will be overseen by some of our non-magical staff. Do you have any questions?”

Alyssa shook her head.

“Good, then we will begin. Come with me. You can take the familiar with you but will have to leave him outside while the testing is going on.” They went through the door and down a narrow flight of stairs, the air got markedly colder as they descended, glow globes lit the way.

At the foot of the stairs stood a large portal, several plates of steel were bolted to the outside, engraved with runic matrices. Carmen did not slow down and touched one of the plates. A ring on her right hand began to glow and the door unsealed with a hiss of escaping air.

Behind the door, which opened rather easily, there was a large hall with an arched ceiling. Nine large obelisks made of a pale stone and inscribed with thousands of runes stood in a circle around a platform about five yards across, made of dull metal, also inscribed with a complicated arrangement of glyphs. The magical energy in the room was oppressive and Alyssa’s ears popped as she entered.

Carmen gestured towards the metal platform. Every step echoed in the great expanse of the room. Some light came from the walls where sconces with glowing orbs were placed every ten yards. The ceiling was barely visible in the dim lighting. "Please go and stand in the center, if you should be so lucky as to possess magical items or paraphernalia please lay them on this table here." She pointed at a simple stone table with a raised edge.

Alyssa went red and walked towards the table, in lieu of taking everything out of her pouches she simply unclasped her belt and put it on the table. The professor raised an eyebrow. Cyrus was also put on the table and began to inspect the pouches for something edible.

Smiling apologetically Alyssa went to the platform. Curiously the pressure ceased the moment she climbed on the dull metal surface, her steps and the voice of the professor sounded like they came from far away.

“So please keep near the center and don’t leave before I tell you to. There will be magical discharges and yes, it might hurt a bit. But you knew that didn’t you?” She smiled a bit. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Then she went to the first obelisk and incanted a lengthy formula. The stone began to glow a dull red and heat began to emit from the runes on its surface in waves, growing stronger by the second until it was a near painful burning sensation streams of red energy extended towards the girl.

Alyssa turned a bit and presented her right side towards the stone and the pressure and burning eased. After that came Wind, then Water, then Earth. Each radiated concentrated elemental energies.

Carmen made some notes on a slate she had grabbed from another table. Natural energies were tested next, she could tolerate them relatively well as long as she shielded her left side.

Then came Light and Alyssa nearly fainted from the pain, it was much worse than what Christina did, seemingly an age ago. The void within her stirred and she clenched her teeth.

The professor let her rest a bit before activating the next obelisk, the void pillar. Waves of darkness and absolute cold flowed into her left arm, the sensation was pleasant and there was only a slight numbing sensation that worried her a bit. The energies grew denser and more powerful as time progressed. The professor continued to monitor the situation and seemed a bit concerned as Alyssa stood calmly amid the deepening shadows and frost. Rime began to condense on the surface of the metal plate as she shook her head and stopped the procedure.

“Void, not conventionally measurable.” She murmured. Alyssa had a heightened awareness from her brush with the dark energies and heard her softly whispering to herself.

After that, she was subjected to vertigo-inducing shifts in the dimensions of her surroundings, which she quickly learned to tolerate to the increasing interest of the assayer. Then there was time, which seemed ironically enough, to pass in a moment.

Then it was over.

“Highly interesting. You have high affinities for water, wind, and fire. Earth and nature are middling but still good enough to warrant study. Light is, I am sorry to say, abysmal. You should not try to learn more than the light cantrip and even that would be better served by learning the requisite fire spell. Void is…” she stopped and rubbed her forehead. “I had to cease testing because a normal person would have been already dead or undead at that point and I did not want to risk it for academic reasons only. You are without a doubt a catastrophe waiting to happen. We will try to put your talent to better use. If I have a say in this we will probably extend the offer of a scholarship."

She sighed. "But nothing is set in stone. Then, as if that was not enough, you have quite a bit of talent for dimensional magics. To summarize, you have the highest affinity for void magic it has been my misfortune to witness in anyone other than myself and you don’t lack for talent in summoning and distortion magic. That is a uniquely terrible combination if I may say so.”

“Time is not your forte. It would not be impossible for you to learn a few minor magics but that would be the extent of your talents.” She sighed again.”We do not know one another but you don’t seem like a person who harbors ill intent. I will endorse your studying here because it does not bear thinking about what you could manage if left to your own devices.”

Asandria who had been inside of her for the whole time radiated grim amusement. ‘You are that doom, that promise of despair.’ An endless, idyllic, empty palace flashed like a vision before her eyes and she grabbed the table to stabilize herself.

She shook her head.

“Everything in order, student applicant?”

“Yes, everything is fine. Just a bit of dizziness.”

“So let us proceed. Magical aptitude testing has concluded for today, what is left is seeing what mundane knowledge found its way into your pretty head.” Camen smiled. “Follow me.

They went up the stairs again after the professor had locked the room and reactivated the magical mechanisms.

Then it was off towards another smaller building. Within that building students busily went about their work. They looked predominantly human and quite normal for all that. They entered a classroom on the ground floor and there Alea and Mireille were already waiting together with six other students.

“Good day, I will be brief. Teacher Josef Turm will take over for now and see what remedial measures will have to be taken to bring you up to a tolerable academic level. My work for today is done. But we will see each other when you begin your magical studies. For now, farewell.” She nodded, her gaze lingering on Alyssa then she turned and left the room. A well-dressed man in formal, brown clothes around fifty years of age with thinning, grey-brown hair and the beginnings of a paunch entered after she had left.

“Greetings student applicants. You are here today to ascertain your more mundane knowledge. I will first ask a few questions, then it will be a written test followed by a verbal one. You will have a bit of time to eat after the written section. Any questions? No? Good, then let's begin.”

The written test was easy at first and got progressively more difficult the farther one progressed. At the end of the allotted time only Alea and one other girl, a studious looking, plump, sixteen-year-old wearing a pair of glasses were still making progress.

Mr. Turm allowed them half an hour of rest where they ate some sandwiches which were provided by the academy.

After that, they were questioned in turn by the teacher, who was always writing notes.

And then in the evening, they were dismissed. Mireille looked half-dead. “If I told my family I was trying to get into the Academy of the Arts in Kronenburg they…” She hesitated,” they would probably ask ‘what’s an academy?’ But if they knew they would be laughing their asses off.”

She laughed and then, wincing held her head. The studious girl looked at her with large curious eyes. “How did you come to be here then? If I may ask.”

“Oh, I simply followed my sister of choice and ended up here.” She pointed at Alyssa.

“I'm Lucille.” The girl with the glasses told Mireille.

“Nice to meet you. I am Mireille. This here is Alyssa and this young lady with the cute spider is Alea. The wyvern is named Cyrus.”

The spider on Aleas shoulder inspected the girl and then turned towards Alyssa. “Come we have quite a ways before we are home.” She nodded a greeting towards Lucille. “We will see you in class. A good evening to you.”

“I was terrible!” Mireille boasted, “The magic simply pushed me around and as they tested the spacey magic I flew out of the testing circle, but the teacher said he had not seen such a perfect melding with a lightning rune since coming to the academy, so that is that. Sooo that means I don’t need to learn anything and simply have to train my lightning to be faster and better. I am glad.”

Alea nodded then took the spider and inspected her surroundings before she said in a soft tone. “I have a perfect affinity for light magic. They could not correctly measure it. Fire was good, earth was good, time was ok and the rest was more or less middling. I was really bad with void and slightly bad with water.” They walked towards the entrance of the compound to collect old Adam and the carriage. “That is very close to what my family determined I had. It was probably my grandfather's work, testing me. But I can't remember.” She looked troubled.

Old Adam was waiting for them chewing his tobacco while sitting on the driver's seat. He waved at them when they came near. “Good evening, ladies. Have a seat and then we will be off.”

And they crowded into the coach, relieved to have survived their first day at the academy.