The day was bright.
She had woken up the second night full of longing for her home. She had just moved to the great City of Magic, Geffen. It was a long and arduous trip, traveling across insect infested fields, wild beasts that barred their teeth. Her family spent all they could to send her to the Mage Academy, the school of her dreams. She was sixteen-years-old and was from a relatively poor family in the suburbs of Prontera. Her father was a construction worker, and helped build the foundations of newly built houses in the satalite city of Izlude. It wasn't very farm from Prontera, but because his work required his presence at all times, she rarely got to see him. Her mother was a barista at a local pub, and her two older brothers were training at the Swordsman Guild in Izlude with their father. She spent most of her young life living in the alleys of Prontera. She had passed her basic knowledge exams quite young and was released as they say, "competent" and had worked for a few months at a flower shop that was owned by her best friend's family. Her best friend was named Julia and was from an aristocratic family of the name Valentines. Julia was also very smart and had been given a scholarship to study at the Merchant School in Alberta. When Henrietta heard about the news she cried nearly for a week, before she could be happy for Julia. Julia's family owned a lot of businesses in Prontera and Izlude, and she was the heir to her father's company's name. She had a lot on her shoulders. She decided quite young that since the death of her mother when she was a young girl that she would uphold the company's name and standards for as long as she could breath. She left to Alberta two months ago. Henrietta had just enrolled at the Mage Academy and was given the keys to her lodgings, a nearby pub with a hotel above it. She lay on the thick heavy mattress with her clothes still shut tight in her luggage. Today was the first day on her own, her parents started their travels back to Prontera the morning before, and would reach it by the following week. She cried.
Classes began with a loud bang. Confetti rained down from the tops of the buildings, street vendors shouted their merchandise, children ran in between the legs of the standing crowd. She walked down the middle of the street with fifty-six other fledgling students ranging from sixteen years of age to about forty. She was the youngest in the midst and the nearest her age was a girl named Victoria who was twenty. The felt trapped almost, all of her dreams were being realized, but all of her friends and family seemed to have disappeared from her life. She had no one but a small beaten leather journal to confide in. Later that night she began to write in it.
"Today was our welcoming parade hosted by Geffen's Wizard Tower. The most famous wizard nicknamed Alexia attended. It is so amazing to me to see REAL wizards and witches. They are so fantastic and mesmerizing. I can only imagine how long it took them to get to where they are now. The sheer amount of manuals and scrolls they have studied to learn the tricks and spells. Just looking at them was magical. They were all sitting on platforms with the Dean of Wizard Tower on their right. I felt so frightened when they looked at all of us. They made a speech about how every year they welcome the newest members of the Mage Academy, telling us of how they all once were as young and new to magic as we were. Though I must say there was one of the witches that stood on the platform that I couldn't recognize. She sat underneath a canopy and was wearing very different clothes than what the others wore. I don't know, but when I noticed her and was inspecting her clothes with the Dean spoke, I saw her looking straight at me. I hung my head the rest of the ceremony, and when it was my turn to be christened by the Dean of the Mage Academy I didn't know what to do. He made a speech about the younger the student, the more outstanding they are. And whispered to me, 'A lot is expect from you," before patting my back and sending me off the stage. The whole city seemed to be cheering just for us new students. Even though we haven't even had a single class. I don't know, but it seems all premature."
She ended the entry with her cursive H.I.W. which were her initials. Henrietta Ingus Willow. Mostly everyone called her Willow, but her family called her Ingus. The reasoning behind that was she didn't particularly like her first name, which was derived from the male name Henri. Also she wasn't boylike in anyway and she felt as though it didn't fit her nature. Willow was much more characteristic of her. She always thought willow trees were very graceful and always introduced herself as Willow. Of course her parent's called her what they called her when she was young and only to this day her father, mother and Julia called her Ingus.
She laid in her bed looking up at the ceiling, feeling trapped. She barely had money to eat, but nothing else. The school was paid for completely by her scholarship, and the money for supplies and tools was paid for by the money she made while working at that flower shop. She turned in her bed and looked at the moonlight that spilled onto the dark wooden floor. The room was old and rustic. Everything in the place squeaked, and she got a sliver from walking on the old wood barefoot one night to get a drink of water from a pale on the desk. The moon was silver and bright, she could see clearly the whole room and even underneath the bed. She was barely sixteen years old and felt as though her life had been stolen from her. She wasn't sure why she felt that seeing as everything in her life was quite easy and carefree. She didn't have much to worry about since her father provided for him and his three children and her mother worked for her own wants such as buying flowers on Sunday mornings, getting a new large feather hat. She was a very girly girl, but that kind of feminine beauty didn't really sit well with Henrietta. Often her mother called her a boy, since she mostly liked going outside and enjoying the day, as opposed to sitting at a café with her mothers friends sipping tea. Her mother wasn't the crème de' la crème since she had to work for her earnings and expenses but she enjoyed treating herself to the luxuries of her life. Willow on the other hand had a group of friends who accepted her but didn't really know much about her. She was quite young for their standards and was usually made fun of because of how small she was. She hung out with them because they always explored parts of the city she didn't know about and her curiosity always got the best of her. She was curious and very smart and had a thirst for knowledge, but these last few weeks seemed to be premature as she put it, all play with no work. She had been congratulated by being the youngest the Mage Academy had ever allowed into their doors. The Dean who said that intelligence was not based on age and therefore the doors were open to anyone who could heed the call. She got in on a full-ride scholarship; the only thing they didn't pay for was tools and living expenses aside from housing. Which in her case was quite advantageous seeing as most of her colleagues had to walk nearly a mile everyday from outside the city's high walls. The Mage Academy was located in the inner city of Geffen, near the Wizard Tower, which was a spire that shot extensively high into the dark blue sky. Her lodgings were a few steps away from the Academy's doors.
She had a hard time getting to sleep, but awoke the next morning with good spirits which she usually did. As she looked outside her window she saw the blue-orange dawn reaching about quarter of the sky. The breeze was nice and she got up and started getting ready for her first day of classes. Class didn't begin until three hours later, not even the professors were up at this early hour.
By the time she reached the front door of the pub which was also the entrance to the hotel she was staying at, she saw a few drunks still laughing and making slow by obnoxious noises as she walked by. The pub never closed seeing how centrally located it was and the Geffen Guard Post was a few doors over. They sometimes came in; the guards who worked the night shift and had their morning off.
She went to the market where the vendors were barely getting into town. The vendors who were merchants who received their permits at the Merchant Guild in Alberta were setting up their tables, stands, banners, and prices when she came knocking. She for the past week got all her supplies this early in the morning, when the vendors were still pretty optimistic about the day and could afford a little haggling as opposed to later in the day when they got far too tired and were very grumpy. Most of the Vendors were from families who owned land outside of Geffen and some of them were the actual patriarchs of the families. She recalled reading a book somewhere about the wealth of the land called, Midgard's Goodness. It was by a female author from Louyang. She enjoyed it so much that she kept the book in her luggage and she thought of the exact place she put it in her boxes. The vendors showed what they had, and she getting the best pics of the day scrupled over the size, shape, and weight of everything she put into her basket. She wasn't very good at haggling, seeing as she was only a flower girl from Prontera which was the name she picked up because she used to wear the flowers that weren't pretty enough to be sold. People began calling her Flower Girl and somehow the name translated over to Geffen.
"Good Morning Flower Girl," said a merchant with a carriage of fruits, "we're almost set up."
She smiled knowing how nice they were. She saw sons get out of the back of the carriage, being pulled by a large black and white horse. The stand was still up from the previous day and he was setting out a tablecloth with several well-worn baskets in need of being replaced. Soon she saw the shiny green apples, which were always her favorite. She picked seven of the best looking apples, put them into her basket and began browsing as the sons hurriedly put out their other amenities; bananas, oranges, lemons, limes, and others.
"You look really bright and ready, is there something happening today?" said the merchant.
"Yeah, today the first day of classes for me." She said a little shy. She knew them, but she was shy by nature, especially when around other boys her age that she liked. Though she knew she could never get involved with them. If her parents found out they'd kill him and her. She smiled slyly at on the boys who waved at her. His brother shoved him and laughed. She felt cordial towards the family and still shopped for what she was looking for. She wasn't very good at cooking, but when he mother went out to pubs late at night she found new ways to cook old recipes and made up a few of her own. Her mother urged her to go into cooking and become a chef for Tristan III, but she had a passion for knowledge and being a chef wasn't in that realm. She had planned to make lemonade, and a salad comprising of several fruits and vegetables.
"What I really need now," looking into her rather heavy basket, "is some," she paused looking over the table of fruits and suddenly with a eye of surprise said, "Lemons!"
"I know we have lemons," said the father, looking over his fruits, and then back into the carriage, "But I think my sons forgot them back at the farm." He looked over and over, even underneath the well-constructed tables they operated on. He said they must have left them, but if she came back around noon that day he'd have sent his boys to get them here by then. She said thanks and bought the large basket of fruit now in her arms. She paid to the amount of about thirty zeny for all of her excellent choices. She always got their discount since she knew them so well and they her. She smiled and began on her way back to the lodgings.
The name of the pub was Hvergelmire's Wine, which was pretty famous for its wine, though it was a pub. The name of the Lodge she was at was Geffen's Inn. She smiled and saw that the three drunkards were now gone and the waiter was cleaning up the mess they left. She walked up the stairs feeling a bit weak from walking with all the pounds of the fruit she bought. Though she really didn't need to have bought all that fruit right at that moment this morning, she knew that she should get it done when she had the chance. It was still another hour before classes began, and the sun was now visible, the blue-purplish night was now barely on the outskirts of the western sky, and the bright ivory flames of the sun were reaching the tops of the houses. Wizard Tower was half lit up from it and you could see it from miles around Geffen.
She got into her room and laid all the fruit on the rather large countertop. She had received one of the best rooms of the Geffen Inn because she was a student and there were several powers working behind the scenes to see that the youngest of the young got what she deserved. She graduated her basics four years ahead of time. She was quite happy to be where she was though she still felt as though it was all just surface.
Putting on the fancy leather mage hat she received as a present when she first arrived at her lodgings with several other things from various parties of the Wizard Tower and the Mage Academy. She ate a little before finally leaving, and by that time the sun had reached a point in the sky where it began to heat up. Though a slight breeze blew through town, and people began coming out of the lodges it was still pretty cool. She walked to the Mage Academy across the well-rounded cobblestones. She felt weird hearing the neat little clack of her Mage Boots across the stones, it was a sound that only experienced mages and wizards could recognize. It was strange, she thought, how you can tell just by the sound of the persons wardrobe what kind of profession you had. Of course you could change things you wore, but the basic staples of your attire put you in a class above the regular citizen. She was dubbed a Mage the day before at the ceremony.
The walk to the Academy was easy, and she saw most of the first class already there having gotten well prepared. She had on her left shoulder the rather cumbersome rucksack given to all the Mages. She waited off to the side, seeing as the doors of the academy weren't open and would open in a few minutes. Then out of the crowd she saw the second youngest Mage coming towards her; Victoria. And she came from a rather well to do family of wizards who lived in Geffen. Her mother was a teacher at the Wizard Academy, and her father was off in Juno helping with research at the Sage Castle. She had a lot to live up to. Willow didn't know her very well, and only met her when they were given the acceptance awards a few weeks ago.
The challenge was a breeze; you had to mix seven mixtures to create a mixture compromising of all the various aspects of each of the seven mixtures. It was made difficult because of the amount of mixtures to mix, but the real difficulty was in the order, consistency and amount of each mixture. All you had to do was use very small amounts and mix them to where they would succeed in their amounts, but then apply the ratio to the larger amounts. Plus the mixtures were based on basic knowledge of magic, fire, water, earth, wind, holy, shadow, ghost, and neutral. Neutral was excluded from the mixture amount. So in the end you had to provide the challenge coordinator with a mixture that burned like fire, was light as wind, still in the state of matter as water which was liquid, when condensed was harder than earth, was immune to both holy and shadow magic but had the various aspects of the ghost element. This mixture was a basic mixture and had little use. The only purpose of its use was to challenge new coming mages to test their knowledge of the elements. If you passed and created over 1oz. of the liquid you were immediately put into the top ten of your class which had its benefits, if you made .5oz, you were appointed to a lesser but still high status. If you had 0.4oz or lower you passed but were considered adequate with no special treatment. If you made less than 2.5oz you failed the test. The test was only given once a year, so if you failed you had to try again the following year. Willow passed and made 1.5oz, which was the first time any new coming Mage had ever done. Also the amount of the mixture from the subsequent mixtures that could be made was 1.6oz just from what was given. That was the most that could be made; 1.6oz. She had succeeded and was placed the highest in her class. The two runner-ups made the amounts of 1.1oz and 1.3oz. The 1.3oz was Victoria. Willow didn't know what to make of her coming over to her.
It is no secret that any class faces the greatest competition from members from their own class. Victoria was her subordinate, and that might be quite surprising for a girl who came from a very wealthy family of wizards and witches. After all Willow came from a family from the suburbs of Prontera a city which was so filled with all kinds of people it would be hard to nail down a specific class to choose from. While Geffen of which Victoria lived in her whole life was The City of Magic. She might be coming to start something the first day of school, which would send a message to people of lower class not to meddle in the upper classes' professions. But instead it wasn't as she had thought.
"Not many people get up that early." Said Victoria in quite a languid tone.
"I make due with what I have." Said Willow equally languid.
"I was quite surprised when I heard the Dean say that you made 1.5oz of our 'putty'," and she put emphasis on 'putty,"I don't suppose you're the next Lux?"
"What the Lux?"
"A Lux is the next big thing in magic. My great grandfather was the Lux of his generation; he created the spell known as 'Fire Storm', which I don't know if you know your magic's very well is the fire version of Blizzard Gust. It was very difficult I imagine to create." Said Victoria quite listlessly, as if she had heard and told the story many times.
"I don't know if I am, all I know is what I've studied. And most of the stuff I've been challenged on is all common sense."
"Is it?" said Victoria quite pointedly.
"I don't know."
"Well I don't think I really care if you are or not. But let me introduce myself formally," She stood upright and put her hand out toward Willow for her to shake, "I'm Victoria Belle of the Wilde family." And Willow standing up as she before her holding her and giving it a good shake, "I am Henrietta Ingus Willow."
Giving her a slight smile from the side of her mouth she said, "Nice to meet you Willow, I hear people call you Flower Girl." Pulling her hand back, Willow said, "Yes, they do, I worked in a flower shop in Prontera and I guess the nickname just caught on, I don't know how it got over here though."
"People are always traveling through here and Prontera. You're quite pretty, and the fact that you worked at a flower shop isn't surprising but it is quite conventional and when people hear conventional things it sort of sticks. You like the nickname?"
"I'm not particularly fond of it, but I don't dislike it either. I don't really care much about it."
"Well I'll just call you Willow then." And then the loud bells from the Wizard Tower shook the city's walls. "Suppose we should go in then?" Victoria began walking inside along with Willow at her side.
Willow was so intrigued by Victoria. She was beautiful, wore impeccable cosmetics, had stature, long straight black hair. Her mere presence demanded respect, and if you got her mad you could only imagine how her soft and beautiful façade would turn into a dark, sharp, and dangerous beast. She was nice enough, but not because she enjoyed your company or respected you based on your position or title, but merely out of mutuality. She had no reason to disrespect you, and thus every one earned a respect out of not knowing them. She was nice enough, thought Willow. Good to have her on this side than any other she imagined.
The day began with standing in a large courtyard. Willow, Victoria, and George were the first and foremost of all the students seeing as they had been the best in the qualifying challenges. George was a twenty-five-year-old man who had dark curly brown hair, was very slender and tall and had bright green eyes. Willow didn't know much about him, other than the fact that he had come in third, and was from Schwartzwald.
The trainer began loudly, "You have all come here seeking to learn magic. Perhaps you have come to just pass your final exams as mages, perhaps you have come to continue your research and refine your knowledge. Perhaps you have come to simply qualify to become a Wizard or Witch, or perhaps you have come to learn all that magic can teach you and become a Sage. Whatever your motives or passion, know this. Magic is not a toy. Magic must be disciplined extensively to achieve real result. You must know how to sense and handle magic. The more you know, the more protected you are. Some of you might have come here to do fancy tricks, or to frighten away thugs or criminals. But know this magic is extremely dangerous. Even now you each hold all our lives in your hands. You must know when you can begin, and when you are supposed to stop. Magic is very fickle my friends, if you aren't nice to it, it won't be nice to you. Treat magic with respect and it will respect you. I tell you this as a thirty year veteran of magic using. I am officially a Mage Trainer which takes twenty five years of training. I can stop most basic spells, but ones that are newly invented are quite hard to handle. I am here to protect you. You have all come with your knowledge, but today's exercises are stemmed from the fact that Mages cannot be physically weak. We start with the basics and that is knowledge of the human body and form. Over the course of the next few weeks you will learn all about the human body; how to handle battle with fire, water, wind, and earth. Your body must be prepared at all times. Because magic is so dangerous, you must prepare yourself for it if it turns on you. Since magic is based purely from your psyche you will also be taught how to control your thoughts. Focus is key my fledglings. Without focus the simplest spells can give you scars for the rest of your life. Look here!" and she tore the thick cotton bandage that covered her right arm. "This scar you see here," and held the turgid flesh that was bright red in the sun, "it is from an accident. I was practicing hot-water magic. Because I forgot that the water was hot, I gave myself 3rd degree burns that will stay with me for the rest of my life. This is an example of what magic can do to you even in the safest environments. I was practicing at my home in Izlude. You must be prepared, because if you're not you will end up like this but worse." Then taking a step back she held up her hands and said quite loudly, "Now lets begin!"
The first round of exercises compromised of basic knowledge of how to move the body. It was very slow movements, and you were required to handle them each in how things interacted. This specific exercise was based in knowing your body and reacting to your environment and adjusting movement. It was slow, but very steady body movements. Most of the students couldn't handle it because it was based on physical strength. Willow held up for nearly twenty minutes but final fell. Victoria kept strong the entire exercise, as well as George. By the end only seven people were still moving, while the rest were recovering from reaching their limits. This training went on for two more weeks. Each day you attended these classes for nine hours a day, with a one-hour break every three hours. Victoria and Willow got to know each other very well.
During the first break which was the common lunch time of day, they enjoyed with each other lunch. Victoria did invite Willow over to her rather large fancy mansion located within the inner circle of Geffen. And the enjoyed each others company very well. Willow told her of all the happenings of Prontera, while Victoria schooled Willow on the various aspects of the magic community. Together they provided each other with company and were complementary to each other. Soon the second round of training came about. By then they had grown into great friends. George was top notch in all of the exercises and Willow got a crush on him quite soon. He was much older than her, and to her was the perfect epitome of masculinity. He was strong, lean, had strength, smarts, and when he sweated he looked absolutely divine. But most of all he was focused on doing the exercises to the best of his ability. Willow soon found out that she lacked severely in all these beginning exercises most because she was so young. Victoria was about a foot taller than her, was well developed, as well as took very good care of herself. George was more than equipped for these challenges and coped with them quite easily as they got into the later stages. Willow found herself failing quite often, but she really did all she could to endure these intense exercises. But she did learn quite a lot about her body. She learned how to move back and forth and sense things coming toward her before they even touched her. George wasn't so good at these but he still kept his form. Victoria messed up a few times but luckily got the hang of it quite easily. Willow just couldn't keep holding the positions and moving back and forth very slowly. Those exercises needed strength, which she found herself lacking. Still she held in there. The other students all had varying degrees of focus and strength and sensitivity. By the end of these initial exercises twenty of them had failed. If you failed the course you were given a second chance, and if you failed the second chance you failed and were expected to follow up. If you failed a third time you were moved to the waiting list and when the courses were finished you would be retaught the lessons. Each instructor had a three-month teaching gap. The first was exercise and knowing the body. The second instructor was for knowing surroundings and being able to sense things coming at the body. The third instructor taught how to handle getting hit with a spell, this was six months long because the sheer amount of spells that were available was stifling and needed extra time to be allowed. The fourth was learning basic four-element magic. The fifth was learning shadow, holy and ghost magic. The sixth was learning neutral magic. The seventh was learning combination spells. Eighth was learning complex magic. Ninth was learning complex combination spells. Tenth was preparation for finals. The finals were extremely hard to deal with, because you would be pitted up against the trainers. If you could land a good damage dealing hit on them you could pass. Also you must submit a thesis with supporting documentation of your own study about various magic. Then you would be reviewed and then graduate the Mage Academy with a Mage Class Certificate. You would only then be allowed to wear the Mage regalia. From there you could pursue a Wizard Class Certificate, a Witch Class Certificate, or a Sage Degree. The major difference between the Wizard Class and Witch Class was that Wizards specialized in four element spells, while Witches specialized in shadow, holy and/or ghost magic. The Sage Degree was completely different in how it operated and required extensive knowledge and research. Usually Mages never pursued a Sage Degree, seeing as it was exceedingly difficult. Though Wizard Class and Witch Class were semi equal in how they operate, Sage Degree was entirely different. In the Sage Degree you would learn about counter spells and extremely complex magic. Sages were well rounded in physicality and mentality as well. Sages were required to provide physical strength in their testing while for Wizards and Witches the physical work involved was the basic knowledge learned as basic Mages. The work they did here they wouldn't be required to do later in their careers as fledgling wizards and witches.
And Victoria and Willow got along especially well through their training. The program was a three-year process, and much could happen within those three years. Of course if you excelled in the programs you would be allowed to pass and that is what seven of them did. George, Victoria, Willow and several others ended up passing most of their coursework in one month as opposed to the three-month limit. They graduated within a year with their Mage Class Certificates.
George though distant did become a good friend of Victoria and Willow, mostly with Victoria though. You see, George was from the Republic of Schwartzwald and had been the youngest son of seven to one of the major manufacturing CEO's of Einbroch. He had been pressured to pursue a path in Experimental Metalwork, which was the fancy name for blacksmiths, but he didn't want to. His father had invented a strange machine that allowed for the use of steam pressure to power huge facilities. It was difficult work and most of his other brothers were chosen to go into this path. Because he was the youngest he wasn't very much cared for and very neglected which is why he was so quiet. Plus the idea that his father had of one of his sons being a dainty wizard or witch send him into a rage when he first heard the request of sending George off to school. Because of this George made it his business to make sure that he focused and made sure his father knew how serious magic was. His father named Michael was very mechanical in how he thought. Plus he was very far removed from any kind of magic using community that he thought it to be completely absurd that a wand could bring down a huge beast. Michael realized that of his eight sons only one of them wanted to pursue a life elsewhere and he allowed him to do that. Plus he didn't know his sons completely as a father should. He realized statistically he had enough of his sons that one wouldn't be a loss. He sends his son to Geffen to fend for himself, which George did. While not at class he worked to provide for his living, which was a small monthly rent from a family, which could use his manual labor and paid him as much as they could. He could eat on what he made. George made it his business to do what he could, but Victoria being from a family well established could afford to treat her friends who were a struggling heir of a famous inventor and the strange budding Lux of her generation.
It was during a winter that Willow did find out why Victoria wasn't so threatened by her. She having gone back to her lodging and got ready to sleep found someone knocking at her door. Upon opening it she saw Victoria crying and with only a small jacket. After calming Victoria down she realized that she had been crying over a realization. The reason why Victoria was crying was that she didn't feel like she had any real worth. Though she loved her family and had an amazing home and house, she felt she had no say in what she wanted and how she could live her life. She didn't want to become a Mage, but neither did she want not to be Mage. She wanted it to be her decision, and up until this point she had been living for her parents. What would the other Wizard and Witch families say if the heiress to a famous family of magic users went off to become a swordswoman or an archer? Each class at this time had ethnocentrism built deep within their psyche. And the more famous your family got, the more it mattered what your children were doing. You see the professions were so wide spread that if a Wizard/Witch family had a Huntress for a daughter the family business would be out the window. It didn't matter too much if there were more heirs but because Victoria was the youngest Wilde she didn't have any other choice. She knew she had been living for her family and after seeing this young girl who knew more than her age she felt she could confide in her. A girl who knew what she was doing, while Victoria didn't. Though she did her work and coursework with all intent and was exceedingly good at it she felt as though she was living a life she didn't want to live. This had been going on long before she had even accepted the initial qualifying challenge. She had it in her blood, and the advantage of it being all that she knew. She wanted to explore the world and know more than just magic. She had been sick of it her entire life, and began learning magic before she even began going to the Mage Academy. Her father and mother would teach her little tricks here and there. It was in her stars as they might say. But she had no say in her stars. She felt helpless and without purpose.
The moon had just begun shining through the cracks between the houses with in the Inner Circle. She saw Victoria's puddle of tears at her feet. They were both sitting on the mattress where Willow slept every night. The city was still alive, and a faint hum of the happenings outside the three-story building could be heard. Willow put her hand on Victoria's back and pulled her to her. Even though Victoria was larger than Willow she held onto little Willow crying into her chest. Willow embraced her and began telling her that she was doing okay. Telling her that her life isn't over yet. She had so much to do with her life. After all Victoria was a very good at anything she did regardless of what it was. She cried until all the pent up emotions had subsided.
"It's just I don't know where my life is going. I know what my family expects of me. I know that they want me to become a Witch or a Wizard, but they don't even know me. They don't know who I am and what I want. All they want is an daughter who can carry on the family legacy. I can do magic, but I don't know if that's what I want. I feel like I've been blindfolded and am being led into a direction I'm not sure if I want."
"Do you want to become a Mage?"
"You see that's my problem! I don't know what I want. I'm here; I'm doing well in all the courses. In fact I'm exceeding everything. It is challenging me but I think it's challenging me enough. I'm not sure of what I want."
"Perhaps you should take a break and try to find out what you want. Do you have any other interests?"
"I didn't have time to find that out. I've been sort of defaulted into this, not even given a chance. Its like they already knew before I was born that I would be a Wizard or Witch. Since day one they've always told me to do this or do that. And I have done this and I have done that. There isn't anything that I want it feels. I'm too busy trying to do this work."
"Vickie, give yourself some time. You will be able to find out on your own once you start thinking for yourself."
"Thanks Will. I really appreciate that."
Then as they sat there with the moon rising, Victoria asked, "Can I stay here tonight? I don't want to go back home."
"Sure I don't mind."
"Thanks Will, I really appreciate this." And then they proceeded to go to bed.
The following day Victoria went back to her home and talked with her parents. Willow thought, perhaps this was the exact kind of thing she needed to figure out what she wanted. She waited for her to return. Around noon that day, Willow heard Victoria knocking on her door again. She opened the door and saw George instead. He asked, "Have you seen Victoria today? We were supposed to go out together."
Biting her tongue, "I don't think I've seen her today. I'm sure she's back at her home." Why did he like her? She thought. She had seen him looking at Victoria all those times when they would all hang out. George was a nice guy but was quite assertive when it came to deciding what he wanted. He didn't really dance around the bush like most guys. They had gotten to know each other, but usually the conversation revolved around Victoria, and as much as Willow liked him, she hated herself for liking him. Though he had a lot to offer her, she knew that by her liking him it could tear the three of them apart forever. Victoria was very good at everything she did and though she could easily like George she had much bigger things to deal with. George did care for Willow but in a way that an older brother would for his younger sister. She was nice to him and with his breeding he was exceedingly nice to her; a gentleman. She knew something was going on between them, but to which degree she didn't know. But over everything, the way she hated that he liked Victoria and not her and how Victoria was a great friend treated him without much regard angered her. Victoria didn't deserve him and she could easily take George away from Willow. But the biggest hurdle was that Willow could see through her emotions and realized in essence they were really quite complementary of each other Victoria and George. George was assertive and knew why he was there and his plan to finish out his goals. Meanwhile Victoria did exceedingly well that she didn't know too much about herself. She didn't know what to do and that when given a chance to see someone who really knew what he was doing it might allow her to get to know herself. Willow was a good friend but that's all she could be. The idea of Victoria and Willow as a couple was silly because Willow as much as she liked Victoria was not interested in her in any sense of a relationship of sexual nature. She of all things admired her and if anything was jealous of her. But she liked him, too much she thought. Too many times had she thought about him in the early hours of the morning, or the late hours of the night? Too many times and it sickened her that she could be throttled by her own emotions. She hated herself most of all. In her deepest thoughts she said, "How foolish."
He left and she was left to her own thoughts. How could she be so stupid to allow herself to like him? And he was beautiful. He had stature much like Victoria, was tall, masculine, lean, and had a great mind. He was sexy, and was so very smart. She couldn't help but like him. But most of all he had purpose. And with her she thought, do I not have purpose as well? What would happen if we both joined our forces? What could we achieve then? With two exceedingly powerful Mages it was a threat most people wouldn't want to deal with. Suddenly another knocking, and it was Victoria this time. This time she was exceedingly happy. Immediately Willow's stomach turned ill and she felt bad. Her immediate thought was that George had somehow proposed to her and Victoria came over to tell her the 'good' news. But that wasn't why she had come.
Holding Willows hands up, Victoria said with complete conviction, "I do want to become a Mage! I really do. I began thinking about it like you said and I realized I have everything to become a great Wizard. I could even be the Lux! My father and mother said they had neglected my ideas and wants and those they would be okay if I went ahead and chose another path. But I realized that I do want this. Not for my father, or mother, or even my last name. I want to do this for myself. You're right I have the whole world ahead of me. Thank you so much!" and embraced Willow. Immediately her stomach had turned right again, and she suddenly felt so happy for Victoria.
"You see, Vicki? You know what you want now."
"Thank you so much!" and they just hugged for a few moments before releasing.
"Lets go out. I want to have a little fun."
Pulling me out the door we stepped onto the city streets. By this time the day was waning and the sky was getting slightly darker. It was still bright, but pleasantly. Vicki took me to the traveling circus that happened to stop through Geffen, and boy was it amazing! But all the while we had fun at the circus, playing on the rides and buying the cotton candy I was thinking about poor George. He had planned to enjoy the day with Victoria and now she was spending it with me. She should treat him better; at least tell him we were going out. I don't know it seemed terribly irresponsible of her to do something like that. It seemed that he really had planned to enjoy his time with her. Night was soon upon the whole city and the circus was off a little from the Inner Circle of Geffen and in a smaller suburb but still within the city limits. We came back to the Geffen Inn around 10:00PM that night. She slept here with me again.
The very next day classes began and as usual I was out the door three hours ahead of classes beginning call. Only twenty-nine of the initial first students of this year were still on schedule. Even though it was a three year program, Victoria, Me, and George were on 6th level instructors. We were studying neutral magic, which were very quick spells that acted like physical objects. These particular spells were still within the realm of basic magic but were above all the most dangerous we've learned up to the date. As always we were brought out into an open courtyard where the exercises began. We were all given warm-up exercises and then were told to focus our thoughts on the physical surroundings. This was to set our minds to thinking physically. Each type of magic or attribute we were told to focus on the thing we were learning. For instance if we were learning a spell based with fire, we were told to focus on torches, or if we were being taught water; a fountain of water was focused upon.
We began with basic casts, the first and foremost was telekinesis which is a neutral based magic. We moved basic objects like round balls to large rocks. These exercises were simple, but if used aggressively they could be extremely formidable. The next round of casts we learned was neutral based phantoms. A phantom is a representation of a specific thing. All the magic we learned were all phantoms. A phantom had the attribute and consistency of what the real objects were but only lasted as long as the duration of magical effect was. Phantoms are as they say physical manifestations of the mind but are not real. A mage cannot cast a spell and create real water out of nothing. He could however create a phantom of water, which acted and essentially was water but after a few moments would disappear. The neutral based phantoms were exceedingly hard to achieve since they were very hard to nail down in a mental state. We however tried our best. Victoria excelled in these casts, George struggled but soon got the hang of it, while on Willow's part had a rough time casting them. She was more adept at using four element casts. Victoria was well adept at using four elements, and shadow/holy/ghost spells but for some reason she had pure talent for neutral based casting which is a rarity. George was more adept in Shadow Holy casting. The instructor pulled Victoria aside and told her that in all his years he had never seen any Mage master those spells so soon, and more to the point saw that she had a real talent for them. In fact he told her, she cast the spells much better than he did. This would be put into a formal report to the Dean, which could lead to a sponsorship. Victoria was happy throughout the rest of the day.
Days passed, and soon weeks did as well. Nothing much changed since the sheer focus one had to keep on these tasks was exceedingly high. Willow and Victoria went out very few times and George sometimes came along mostly being quite distant. Then when the finals for Neutral based magic came Victoria came to class completely ready to attain everything she could.
Immediately the sparring began between instructor and student, only this time the instructor was intimidated by his opponent; Victoria who was the first to take the stand. Immediately off the shot Victoria jumped into action, running forward toward her opponent and firing off a multitude of phantoms headed straight for the instructor. He quickly counter charged with an equal amount of phantoms which, when they hit their opponents canceled it out and made a heavy thud sound. Ready to cast another volley of phantoms the instructor noticed Victoria wasn't anywhere in sight, then realizing the spell she cast shot the volley in every direction. One hundred and eighty degrees the direction he was facing did one of the phantoms hit Victoria, but not before she cast the shard phantom spell called "Shatter" which sent sharp slabs of neutral based magic at the instructor. He barely dodged them but not without sustaining a little bit of scratches from his escape. She immediately took off into another direction and again cast the invisibility cloak that she had learned quite early. The instructor also cast the invisibility cloak and melted into his surroundings. Soon silence came over the field and only the scuffing of their boots on the ground field could be heard. That's when Victoria began casting the spell called "Billow" which was a spell that created loud booms of neutral based magic that pushed back the opponents and as soon as she began casting the instructor leaped out from the shadows behind her intending to shoot of a volley of phantoms but before he got there the first billow began. It threw him off so terribly that he couldn't catch himself and was thrown back. The next billow came from behind him thundering a crashing noise as it hit the wall and cracking it. Then the instructor began running back and forth trying to miss the billows, which were one of the later spells, he had taught in the class and knew easily how to evade them. The first one caught him off guard and was quite a lucky shot. The spell, "Billow" was quite useful because you could cast other spells while it went off. Time and time again the instructor got a clear shot at Victoria but only for a second before a billow blew up in his face. The billows could easily counter spell other neutral based magic which made it exceedingly difficult for him to cast on her. Meanwhile he was ducking and dodging trying to get a good shot Victoria was in the midst of the field casting a spell he couldn't what. The rest of the students watched in awe how long and large the billows lasted. The spell usually only lasted for a full sixty seconds, but it was now on the fifth minute. Then when the last billow ended and the instructor could clearly see Victoria he shot of a huge volley of phantoms, which shot deep into the sky and began homing in on Victoria's position. She stood up from her kneeling and cast a spell that the instructor didn't know. "Fission Calamity!" Victoria cast and from her hands came rays of neutral magic that shot down every phantom and she pointed it straight at the instructor who was so awe struck didn't realize he was being targeted. Then the fission was released and a huge ray of energy was released onto the instructor. He was shoved back into the north wall and the entire field cracked with such energy. With his knowledge of neutral magic he redirected the spell where most of the energy didn't hit him straight on but still received the first initial blast. By the end of the duration he had been drained of all his energy and had been fighting for survival like never before. Victoria stood tall and had done what only a few students in the history of the Mage Academy had done; defeated the instructor. Usually at the end of the magic teaching processes they would spar with the students. If the students got a clear and good shot off with any of the spells taught throughout the course they could pass. The instructor was supposed to take a defensive position, but could counter with other spells and attack the students with low-level spells, which didn't leave scars or cause immense pain. In times when the student and instructor were evenly matched the instructor could be more rough with the student and visa-versa. This time around Victoria was supreme in her newfound knowledge of neutral based magic and easily defeated her instructor. The instructor was supposed to spar with all the students but was relieved of his duties temporarily for recovery, which another instructor was substituted.
The day wore on and Willow had been selected to go as one of the last since neutral was not her strong point. She began with quite a simple but energy consuming cast called hollow fists where the hands of the caster was endowed with neutral magic. She wasn't perfect at physical combat but she imagined that with her speed she could land a few quick hits off the instructor. Obviously she had to reach the instructor who now stood on the other side of the field. She began running, and immediately the instructor cast a volley of phantoms at her which she easily dodged. He began casting more spells, one called "Vacuum" which acted as a vortex and crushed anyone who came close to it. She nearly fell straight into it but cast a spell called Hover which was a spell that created temporary flight for the caster and she flew straight over it. She was almost on the instructor when he finished casting Billow, the same spell that Victoria cast which lead to her imminent victory. The first billow blew up right before Willow, but she running around it found herself upon the instructor who had also cast Hollow Fists. Immediately they began hand to hand combat and the instructor was much taller and stronger than the slender Willow.
She easily dodged and ducked underneath his attacks, hit him a few times on his sides but they didn't deal much damage since she put little force into them because she was busy evading him. He was quick but not nearly as quick as Willow. She weaved between his fists evading his strongest jabs and landed a few key-placed hits right in his underarm and on his back. She having exceeded in the first few classes about different parts of the body had a highly developed sense of muscle groups and knew exactly which ones that were weaker than others but still were necessary for stronger hits. She targeted these specifically and soon the energy and strength of the instructor waned. The Billows bursting around them had little affect and the other students who had passed and others waiting for their turns were riveted with only slight glimpses at them between the large white bubbles of the neutral based magic.
Soon she was right upon him, and he nearly worn completely out from hitting nothing but air, tried one last punch. She dodged it and cast the spell called "Sting Ray" which was a spell that had barb-like needles of neutral based magic which shot straight into the instructor's chest. It was a low-level cast but it still could deal damage. The instructor barely moved out of the way of the most of the barbs but still got hit by a large amount of them. This spell was particularly painful because it felt like little needles puncturing the skin. The instructor cried out in pain, and soon was waving his hands in submission.
Usually there were five stand-by instructors who could fill in for the other instructors if they were deemed unfit to give the tests anymore. By now this was the last of the five instructors and a handful of students still hadn't taken the test along with George. The instructors gathered for a consensus on who should be elected to finish off the testing, and seeing the orange-red sunset already setting they decided to finish it off with one of the more advanced instructors; a woman named Kindle. Kindle was the instructor for complex combination magic and had her Wizard Certificate as well as a Witch Certificate. She was one of the highly trained Wizard/Witches in Geffen.
Soon the field was rebuilt and ready for battle. Kindle was on the playing field and was waiting for the next contender, who was a relatively young man named Joseph. Joseph wasn't particularly good at neutral based magic and found his talents with Shadow and Holy based magic. But he stepped up to the plate and was prepared to give it his all. Kindle on the other hand was not in any casting stance, which all the other instructors were. Kindle being a high class Wizard/Witch had impeccable cast speed, and could at a moments notice release a huge volley of billows and phantoms at her opponent. But she wasn't here to kill or severely wound the students but to give them a battle at their levels. Though still knowing how powerful she was, was a menacing thought to most? Joseph began casting Billow, which he had learned was an especially useful spell in all the battles up to this point and he fully, intended to end this battle as soon as possible. All he had to do was release a volley of phantoms where at least half of them hit home. But as he cast that was relatively slow he saw Kindle casting a spell of her own. The spell she was casting was called "Implosion" which was the same type of spell as Billow but instead of creating billowing bubbles of neutral based magic did the opposite, neutral based magic sucked up energy and at its highest point would create a burst; which in this situation was an equally powerful spell for countering Billow. Non of the instructors had used Implosion before and were amazed at how easily Kindle cast it. Most of the time these instructors didn't really go beyond their training as Mages, and had years of learning the same basic spells and some refined their skills on using them from time to time but never really went beyond it. Kindle was an experienced caster and had knowledge of both a Wizard and a Witch, though none of which were particularly adept in Neutral based magic. She however thought that since she wasn't especially trained in neutral based magic through her training as a Wizard and Witch took it upon herself to develop spells that were neutral based. She trained long and hard on learning these dusty spells, which no one really used anymore. You have to realize that when spells are created they have to be tested by the Board that was a group of high-level casters who decided whether or not the spells were useful enough to be taught. If they didn't reach their standards they weren't taught in Academies, Schools or any other kind of institution if they didn't have their seal of approval. So in order to learn the more less-used spells you had to seek out the Wizard/Witch who created the spell or ones that knew how to cast it well. Implosion was one of those spells and the Board found that it wasn't particularly useful when compared to Billow and its only real use was to combat Billow.
Then loud fissures of sound breached the grounds of the field as the Billows crashed with the Implosions. Each Billow that randomly occurred was being strategically counter played by the specific locations of the Implosions which sucked up energy and made Joseph's billows quite weak, but since the reaction of something exploding and something imploding created unbalanced level of energy on the field a harsh clash of energy being sucked from one place to another created large bolts of energy which thundered as lightning. Soon Joseph realized that his cast couldn't create the wanted effect because they each were being negated by Kindle's casts. He then taking a hint from Willow took to his fists with Hollow Fists and headed across the minefield of billows and implosions to attack Kindle. She still concentrating on the implosions and billows didn't really expect someone to go head first into the no-man's-land between them and if he casted a long range spell she would have time to counter it. Joseph was ballsy and blindly optimistic at times and this was one of those times. Sadly he wasn't as nimble as Willow was and was caught between one of the billows and implosions. He cried out in pain as the bolt of energy shot straight through his thigh, it drew no blood but left a nasty scorch mark on his leg. He limped away from the area, and began casting volleys of phantoms at Kindle. She realizing his feeble attempt cast her own volleys that easily countered them. Soon the Billow casting stopped and her implosions with it, she looked across the field and saw no one but the students at the far end. She looked around and began trying to sense where he had gone. The rules of the test were that the competitors could not use any other kind of magic aside from the magic being taught. Only neutral based magic could be used in this battle and she began quickly trying to think of a spell to bring him out of the Invisibility Cloak he cast. She then realized that the same spell he used at the beginning, Billow was perfect. It was a random cast spell and would repeat over the entire battle field forcing Joseph to run hitherto there. She then could use volleys where he would most likely be running to force him out of his cloak. But as she began casting Billow she noticed rustling in the grass off to the side and realized it was Joseph. Immediately she cast volley and sent a large number of phantoms into his direction when she realized it was a distraction and felt a piercing pain in her lower back. Joseph had quite effectively taken down Kindle with the use of so many different spells. He was still badly wounded on his leg, but with distraction and his invisibility he won. Though the hit wasn't nearly enough to hurt Kindle enough to send her to the hospital it was the point of the test. He landed a perfectly executed spell on the instructor. The test was over and he won.
Kindle thanked Joseph for his intense use of mental strength and patted him on the back telling him he passed. Kindle then faced off with the remaining few students. George for some odd reason had elected himself last of the Neutral based tests. He stepped onto the plate and prepared for battle. Kindle easily had neutralized the other students and they were selected for retesting the following day along with the others from before Kindles debut. George was standing quite still ready for battle. Kindle as beautiful as she was, was still flustered from Joseph's and decided that George was good enough to take on a little harder. The shot began the battle and George thrust off the plate with Hover but a slightly developed version, which made him quite a lot quicker. He was about two hundred feet away from Kindle and already he passed half that amount in two seconds. Kindle realized he was very straightforward and cast Crest which was a spell that a protection spell and surrounded the caster. It was intensely useful when facing physical battle with non-casters. The time George got to Kindle, he had already cast Hollow Fists, and she cast Volley; which none of which hit home. He easily dodged them and was right about to land a fist on Kindle when the shield she created deflected his attempt. He was dumbstruck, and then unleashed a fierce burst of energy and speed with several consecutive hits to the shield. Kindle thinking that the shield should hold him off for a few moments soon realized that with the speed and strength of George's fists it wouldn't last very long, and she had little time to cast another spell. She was intending to cast Sting Ray when suddenly the shield burst and she found herself deflecting his fists barely with her knowledge of hand-to-hand combat she learned while training with the Swordsman Guild several years ago. She wasn't particularly good at it, but had knowledge of it and used it to her advantage. She barely held him off for a few moments before he landed one right on her left shoulder and sent her spinning. The pain was from brute force and when it happened she barely felt it, it was the moments later when she had time to recover that she realized how hard he hit her. She soon got angry, but realizing he had passed the test brushed her self off and walked the other way realizing her duties had been sufficiently completed. She knew she'd get back at him when he came under her class. The other instructors tried to help her, but she brushed them aside knowing in her heart she had underestimated him. It was her fault, but that wouldn't happen again.