Xerxes broke the seal, unfurled the scroll, and looked at the first question.

Which region of the starsea has only four Major Artery Gateways?

Endless Shoal Great Reef The Depths Far Regions

The question wasn’t too bad as far as Xerxes was concerned. It wasn’t exactly what he and Gandash had reviewed the night before, but he remembered the basics, plus a few tidbits of knowledge from other sources.

Major Artery Gateways were the most important and least numerous Gateways, connecting important starisles like Sin-Amuhhu. One thing he remembered from his studies on Mannemid was that the Endless Shoal—which wasn’t part of the empire—and the Far Regions both had three Major Artery Gateways. That left the Depths—which was the central part of the empire—and the Great Reef, where Sin-Amuhhu was located. He remembered Gandash mentioning that the Depths had more Major Artery Gateways than anywhere else.

Boom, Xerxes thought. The answer is obviously B, the Great Reef.

He made a note on the wax tablet and moved on to the next question.

The next few questions were all of a similar level of difficulty. Though he didn’t know the answers immediately, he could eliminate some of the possibilities and eventually isolate the correct response. But then he reached the following question:

The Nergal is:

An inheritable title given to an important Anunnaki The surname of a powerful Anunnaki A rank held by many Anunnaki The nickname of a dangerous Anunnaki

Xerxes stifled a groan. How the hell am I supposed to know this?

He was fairly certain that C was incorrect, as there was only one Nergal. But whether it was a title, a surname, or a nickname… he had no idea. Had the Nergal been discussed in one of the lectures in the past few days? He couldn’t remember.

A, B, or D? he thought. After racking his brain for about five minutes, he finally resorted to some basic test-taking tactics. Obviously, A can’t be right. They never put the correct answer first. And since it’s not C, then they wouldn’t have D be the right one. It’s too obvious. B it is!

The test questions seemed to get harder and harder.

Or perhaps it was just the fact that time was running out.

“Five minutes left,” the teacher said.

Shit. He still had eight questions to go. He rushed to the end, making nearly random guesses for the final two or three, and marking down his final answer just as time was called.

“Keep your styluses but pass the pads and scrolls forward.” After the students handed in their test materials, the teacher passed out a new set of wax pads, along with a sealed scroll.

“For the next segment, you need to provide short answers to the questions. Generally, a word or two, although short sentences are acceptable.”

After all the materials were in the hands of the students the teacher continued, “Time limit: forty-five minutes. Begin.”

This part of the test was worse. At least with the multiple-choice, he knew that the right answer was there, and even if he guessed, he had a minimum one-in-four chance of getting it right.

Some questions were very easy.

How many Flushes must a High Seer perform to reach the Mystic level?

Easy. The increase in the number of Flushes required per level came in multiples of six. It took six Flushes for a Sighted to become a Seer. Twelve for a Seer to become a High Seer. And eighteen for a High Seer to reach the Mystic level.

Hopefully, all the questions were this simple.

They weren’t.

Abhorrent juveniles have multiple stages of growth. At which stage do they develop a second magical power?

Xerxes bit his lip. He remembered that ‘high-level’ juveniles could have two powers. And he remembered for sure that there were, at the very least, ‘stage five’ juveniles. But as for exactly how many total stages of growth there were, he didn’t know, much less at which stage they developed multiple powers. The big one that attacked the capital had been a stage five; he remembered Purattu saying so. But did it have one magical power, or two? The cloud of creatures that coalesced into an attack had definitely been one power. And it had jumped in a seemingly impossible way. Did that mean it had two powers?

Frowning, he wrote ‘stage five’ as his answer.

Continuing through the test, he felt less and less confident in his answers. Some questions he didn’t understand at all.

Buhhu spells use Abhorrent blood as their primary component. The blood of summoned Abhorrent disappears when the spell ends. Therefore, where does the blood used for spell components come from?

Xerxes stared at the test scroll as he realized he’d never even thought of that issue, much less heard the topic discussed. He wished he’d paid more attention to the lectures and less time obsessing about a girl.

He pondered the Abhorrent blood conundrum for five minutes before deciding to leave the answer blank. Better to admit he didn’t know than look foolish by putting a ridiculous answer that might be laughed at.

Successive questions made his heart sink.

When it came time to hand in the wax pad, his heart had sunk somewhere beyond his stomach. He’d left three questions blank altogether, and there were many others he knew in his gut that he’d answered incorrectly. If he failed the test altogether, would they kick him out of the school? Send him back to Mannemid?

What was worse, it felt like his thoughts were moving slower by the minute.

“The final portion of the test is an essay,” the teacher announced. “You’ll have one hour to complete it. Instead of a wax pad, you’ll have paper and ink. Don’t waste the ink. If you run out, you don’t get any extra. When you’re finished, leave the paper on your desk to dry, then get lunch and take the rest of the afternoon off. Good luck.”

Are you kidding me? Xerxes thought. An essay?

Back in the Mage Academy on Mannemid, he’d only written an essay once.

The prompt made his head spin.

You are part of a military force on an unknown planet, in a distant starisle, which has been overrun by Abhorrent. Your only hope of survival is traveling to a nearby Gateway, but the path leads through a small mountainous valley that is occupied by Abhorrent. You do not know which type of Abhorrent, but you do know there are about a dozen of them. Most are at the spawn level, but there are at least two juveniles. Your commanding officer assigns you the task of clearing the way. You may pick three Seers and thirty troops. In addition to yourself, the available mage types are: Nasaru, Asgagu, Balatu, and Hasasu. The available troop types, broken into units of ten, are: heavy infantry, light infantry, light cavalry.

Please explain which mages and troops you will use, and describe your initial plan of attack, as well as any alternate or backup strategies.

After re-reading the prompt, Xerxes closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then started writing.