Author's Note:
This fic will be written as a glimpse of a day or a few days at a time, so a chapter will be a separate thing on its own, but it'll be one timeline and overall story.
1. The beginning
The gong sounded once again in the Guild, and Lorlen smiled. The lessons of that morning weren't hard any more, but they were still just as tiring, and his stomach ached for food. All the novices in his group poured out of the door and eagerly headed to the Foodhall, and once they got food, they all sat around a table. There were eight novices including Lorlen, Yamo was from Vin, Jassyk from Lonmar, Kale and Lyrie were both from Elyne. The rest were from Kyralia like him, Ranna and Danna were twin sisters, Verrin, and Akkarin. So far everyone had concentrated on lessons, and recovering from the headaches they gave, so hadn't made friends or learnt much about each other. They had all had achieved control fairly easy, and all had been shocked an awed at how fast Akkarin had learnt, it had taken most of them two weeks, yet he had achieved it in one. Lorlen realised he had been staring at him at the thought, and was now met by a pair of dark eyes. Quickly looking away, Lorlen carried on eating the slice of rassook that filled his plate.
"You are from the family Delvon, aren't you?" Lorlen heard Danna say to Akkarin. Still chewing, he replied with a polite nod. "I heard that a lot of the strongest magicians come from the family Delvon." Ranna replied from the other side of him. Danna wriggled herself between her sister and Akkarin, grabbed his arm and gave it a squeeze. "I wonder how strong you are then." She giggled, and Ranna joined in. Lorlen had stopped eating to watch the spectacle in awe. How can he have that much patience? And those two are incredibly irritating. Lorlen was about to speak up when he saw Akkarin say something inaudible from across the table. Both of the girls flinched back and hastily sat back down in their seats. Lorlen saw a brief glint of amusement flicker across his face and smiled. Well at least they know their place now. They were from the House Korin, and many families under that House were known for being bold in their intentions. A few of the novices stood to leave, and Lorlen joined suit, the Guild was a huge place and he didn't want to get himself lost in the University. The next lesson was Alchemy with Lord Margen.
The Alchemy room was spacious. Between the rows of tables were smaller tables which had glass tubes and bottles ready waiting for the class to begin. This was their first chemistry lesson and Lorlen was intrigued at what use it could have. Lord Margen entered the room in a swirl of purple robes. Behind him trailed Kale who was looking sheepish, and quickly slipped into the first seat available. "Good afternoon." Margen said slightly grumpily, and a heavy frown upon his forehead. "Today we will be heating different liquids to see their effects." Looking around, he saw that none of the novices seemed interested so he added, "some of the chemical have explosive properties, however I will not say which ones, that is for you to find out." A few heads looked up at his words, and Lorlen smiled to himself. It'll take more than explosive liquids to get me interested in Alchemy. So far, Lorlen had preferred the Healing lessons, and found those very interesting. Warrior Skills had been about being careful in battle, and how to make good shields, and that held little interest for him too.
Lord Margen reached out to the table in front of him and held up a tube of brown liquid. "To heat a liquid, you release magic around the tube gently like a mist. Too much magic and the liquid will splatter out, too little and the liquid will not react. You will find everything you need on the tables in front of your desks." The novices all brought the tubes, bottles, and liquids to their desk and began to heat them. Lorlen concentrated on the first tube filled with a red liquid, he spread a thin mist of magic around it, but the liquid did nothing. After a few attempts it still did nothing, so in frustration Lorlen increased the amount of magic around the tube, and he was rewarded with a little puff of smoke. One by one the novices achieved heating the tubes except Verrin. Lord Margen approached his desk and tried helping him heat the glass, but he couldn't seem to heat the glass enough. His eyes bore into the glass as he tried harder and harder, and Lorlen held his breath. That will shatter if he is not careful! The liquid began to bubble and then a loud pop came from the tube and everyone relaxed. "Good." Margen said pleased. "Now next lesson we will have a test, and you are all to study the chemicals you have heated today and their properties." All the novices groaned and Lorlen smothered a sigh. More work!