Butterflies can't make changes
Disclaimer: The black Magicians Trilogy belongs to Trudi Caravan
Three years had passed since Akkarin defeated the Inchani. Three years in which the guild grew, repaired it's walls, and Sonea and Akkarin got closer to each other. In three years, they were finally ready to let more slum dwellers into the guild.
It was part of a badly written, but very well illustrated plan to "improve hygiene, foster education, and bring about the extinction of the common duck." The illustrations, which began with oddly relevant drawing of slum dwellers hitting ducks with a mixture of books and soup spoons, soon dawdled into Akkarin and Takan discoverign all forms of art up until the impressionists,because lets face it, the same god damn flower in different lighting effects isn't that special. The same can be said for the same slum dwellers clubbing ducks in different light.
They found, through searching, three bright, intelligent, and reasonably polite children. Two girls and a boy. Unfortunately, the people from the houses demanded they receive rudimentary skills (reading, writing and fox hunting) and etiquette lessons first, so it was a further year before the slum dwellers could enter the guild and start their magical education.
However, despite it becoming fashionable to help those in need(where others can see you doing it of course), the guild still has not been able to further the plan much. Interference by ducks have been suspected.
At the initiation ceremony...
The eighteen novices stood there. Almost instinctively fifteen of them shied away from three of them. Not flashily of course, but gently.
"That quick master?" asked Takan, lurking in the shadows behind the high lord.
"Yes...Regin warned me this would happen...if they find a charismatic leader they may make this very hard for us..." said Akkarin, watching the novices with a calculating expression.
"Welcome to discrimination and pride." said Takan. "Welcome to nobility."
"You know, I hate it when you're right." said Akkarin. " It makes me feel like all reality is currently below my expectations."
"You have that little respect for my sharp intelligence hidden beneath my servantial exterior?" asked Takan grinning.
"I have little respect for the fact that you act like an idiot because it's more fun than being smart." said Akkarin, giving a half grin. Which seems impossible really.
" So...have you heard from Dannyl or Rothen yet? I haven't heard from either of them lately." said Takan, still grinning in his knowing way.
"Dannyl has settled in his ambassadorial role, and is still extremely glad that you and I managed to convinced the guild to make the new rules stand." said Akkarin.
"Too bad we couldn't convince them to keep calling it the GuiDUHld." said Takan, with such flourish that you could hear the capital letters.
"Yes...and Rothen is still adapting to his role of combing the slums for potential magicians...he says he's disgusted by how we magicians have allowed the slums to deteriorate and is asking me to help him convince the council to act on it." said Akkarin. "All in all we may need to do some slum cleaning."
"Great. More work that can only possibly be attempted by us." said Takan. "You know, we need to stop being this awesome. Karma is going to keep making us pay for it."
"Takan , I have to ask you to stop making up words while we are on stress relief." said Akkarin. "Calling me a fugly slut did not make any sense, nor did you need to interrupt one of my meetings with the king to do so."
" Fine." said Takan. " Excuse me for being a of ray in light in your otherwise mundane and work filled existence."
"Takan, I know you want to be a ray of light, but I'm not going to allow you to set yourself on fire again." sighed Akkarin. "Especially not when we're in a meeting with the king, and you're standing right in front of the king, like the last time."
"His scalded body suggested pain but his intense eyes suggested insurmountable pleasure." said Takan.
"You do know he executed five of his servants because he thought they were you right?" asked Akkarin.
" Wow, I didn't know he was a player hater." said Takan.
"Once again, I have no idea what you mean and five people are dead." said Akkarin.
"So...should I send the servants families some flowers?" asked Takan. "And why would he have Sacchekeon servants?"
"We'd like to welcome the new novices." said an iron face Lord Thuerin. He was privately known as the greatest haters of slum dwellers ever. He had gone through a long and painful process to get as close to the slum students as possible, without the High Lord being able to stop him.
Several of the novices glanced up at them, and he met their gazes with a bright smile and kind eyes. His gaze turned towards the other three students, and his face contorted into a sneer. Several of the new novices seemed to share his opinion. Others looked like they might differ, but were afraid. Or aroused. I'm not good with emotions okay???
"For future reference, anyone sharing Lord Thuerin's view of arrogance will soon believe they're a domestic animal. And everyone else will know that too." said a young magician walking in and removing his gloves. He looked extraordinarily casual, wearing as little robes as possible. He looked like a magical stripper, or someone suffering from an allergy to clothes. "Don't ask me how I know that will happen but believe me it will."
"That, is the esteemed Lord Winar children." said Thuerin with a sneer. " He was also in a class with one of those...less fortunate than us."
"Yeah, myself." said Regin grinning. "Now, you may be wondering why this ceremony is being done differently..."
"It's because we have some different students." interrupted Thuerin with a grimace. "And ,of course, the High Lord wants to meet you."
"We have different students every year." said Regin. "As Theurin neglected to point out it would be redundant to teach the same students every year, now, the High Lord-
" I meant some of our students are different from this we usually accept." said Thuerin.
"You mean more of them are left handed?" asked Regin. "There are those among them who refuse to wear socks?"
"Lord Regin, you are perfectly aware that I meant some of them...come from less sound financial backgrounds...and less...established families." said Lord Theurin.
"Nothing like money and inbreeding to make you a good learner." said Regin with a slight nod. "I can see it hasn't been lost on you..."
"While you two arr giving our new novices an example of a competition of half wits..." began Akkarin. "I have pressing business to attend to. Please let me speak with them."
"Of course me lord." said Thuerin.
"We may have to wait five minutes my lord." said Regin bowing. "It'll take Lord Thuerin that long to figure out you called him a half wit."
"You may make it up to three quarters wit with time." said Akkarin dryly. "In any case, students, you are under no circumstances to believe this is how guild magicians act. We are generally far more tactful. You are to use the word Lord or Lady when addressing magicians. You may wonder if there's a reason for this...you may wonder but we won't answer until you're old enough."
The novices turned to stear at the man, who in three years didn't age so much as grow in intimidation. Still dark and broody looking, still holding the sort of bad ass "I'm a wizzard" appearance, the High Lord could easily intimidate a room full of snow men to melt faster than they usually would under the same temperature.
"You, are quite literally the future. Or rather, a blueprint for the future. If this succeeds, we shall no longer base our selection of candidates on their lineage, but rather on the amount of potential magic they have, or how badly they want to be magicians or how good they look in robes." he paused, vaguely wondering if he should've prepared a speech. Meh. He will teach them from a place far better than memory. From the heart.
"Furthermore,you will all be living in a newly built wing, away from other's, seeing as we want to completely replace the new system. You will also learn addiotional skills, such as algebra, cause none of you know how to sew." Akkarin stood, letting his long black hair fall, with Takan viciously fanning him to make him appear more mysterious.
"Most importantly, have fun." se said, grinning like a hamster in a tuna store.
It may have been a tad(small amount) obvious that when I wrote this, I was going through a very bad break up and had inadequate(bad) seating. This showed on the quailty of my work, which sucked. I'm going to rewrite most of it, before continuing.