Chapter 11: The School Opens

The students began arriving in ones and twos the next day. Carin was in the courtyard when the first arrived, a boy of about thirteen. There was a faint flicker as Mira Sair teleported him in, and the boy went a bit green around the gills, but much to Carin's envy he didn't throw up. Mira looked over and spotted Carin. "Darin, this is Carin," she said. "Carin, Darin."

"Hello," said Carin. "Welcome to the Tower."

Darin nodded, still green. He soon turned a more normal colour, and Carin showed him around the parts of the Tower that were open to students.

By the time school was due to start, there was thirteen students including Carin – 7 boys and 6 girls ranging in age from seven year old Rika to 17 year old Alar, unless you counted Sirenthesa the elf. Carin was second youngest after Rika. All of them had some reason why they were here, the most common being parents killed in the War of the Lance.

Alar had run out of things the half-trained mage he'd been learning from could teach him, Rika's entire village had been wiped off the map, and Sirenthesa had been kicked out of Qualinost for attempting to use black magic. Not that the spell had worked, given her lack of experience, but it had been enough to have her exiled. Dalamar seemed unsure whether to be impressed by her ambition or aggravated at her stupidity.

Carin found it all rather sobering. So many young mages with major, major problems. It was sort of nice knowing he wasn't alone.

They mostly seemed a bit wary of him. Except Sirenthesa, who kept seeking him out. Carin suspected she was trying to curry favor with him in order to impress Dalamar, or possibly in case he turned out to be a powerful mage himself in the future. It was weird. It also made Dalamar smirk, and a couple of times snort with suppressed laughter.

There was also 11 year old Minar Vedan, who watched him with smouldering hatred in his eyes and barely spoke two words to him when Carin had helped show the new students around. Carin did not know why Minar hated him, but suspected that it involved adult-Raistlin somehow.


Before school started, Dalamar took Carin aside in the lounge:

"I haven't had much time to speak with you lately, but I think you should know my expectations of you before class starts. Academically I have little worries. We both know you have a brilliant mind, plenty of talent, and a capacity for hard work. You will be one of the youngest there, but I think you will find it far more to your liking than your previous school." Dalamar sneered, obviously not impressed in the least with Master Theobald.

Carin smiled at the praise, simultaneously delighted that Dalamar had such faith in him, and a bit worried that he'd be able to meet such high expectations. Obviously Raistlin had, but their histories were diverging rapidly, and what if Carin did something to mess it all up? Dalamar would probably desert him, and then where would he go?

"I know you've had problems with making friends and with being bullied," said Dalamar. "This is a fresh start; a new place with new people at least some of whom should have the brains to try to befriend you or ask for help with homework rather than bully you. I know you are not very gregarious, but I want you to try to get along with the others. You never know, you might even make a friend."

"I will try," Carin said, wondering even as he said it whether he'd ever manage it. The fact that Carin lived here with Dalamar as his guardian, his infamous last name and his separate quarters would set him apart. He'd never really fit in with the others no matter what he did.

"Even if you don't manage a true friendship," and now it looked like Dalamar thought he couldn't manage it, "remember that allies can come in very handy, whether the problem is bullying or you want to pick a fight with a deity."

Carin blinked at the last comment. Pick a fight with a deity? He wasn't that stupid.

"If you do have problems with a bully, tell an adult," said Dalamar. "I see no reason that you or any of the others should have to put up with the distraction. I am not Theobald, nor is Mira, nor Michael. All of us agree on this, and we won't think less of you if you ask for help."

Carin nodded hesitantly, inwardly resolving not to take up the offer outside of the most dire necessity. He had no desire to display weakness before someone he respected and whose respect he wanted to keep. Dalamar was probably just saying this because he thought he should – he didn't really mean it.


The evening before classes started, Dalamar called them all together to lay down the rules for living in the Tower. "I know most of you are terribly excited to be starting at a new school," Dalamar began. "You will find many things to your liking here. Your teachers are competent, the equipment works, and I have it on good authority that the food is much better than 'cabbage everything'," he smirked at Carin. Carin wished Dalamar hadn't seen fit to single him out, but couldn't help smiling slightly in return. After all, the food was better than cabbage everything.

"However," and Dalamar's voice became much harsher, "there are things that are expected of you in return. First of all, this is the Palanthas Tower of High Sorcery, also known as the Dark Tower. It is dangerous, and any areas that are off-limits are so for your own protection. Do not attempt to enter warded zones unless you wish to die horribly."

"Next, in exchange for the privilege of learning here, I expect you to work hard at your studies. I have been assured that all of you have the innate ability to excel. I expect you to do so. If you do not work, you will not remain here."

"There is to be no bullying or attempting to interfere with your classmates' studies. It is a waste of time and energy that you should be putting to better use, and will not be tolerated. As you can see," he gestured to his elegant robes, "I am a Black Robe. You do not want to attract my ire."

He nodded to Mira Sair, who took over, giving details of class and meal times and exact rules as Dalamar swept out of the room. Carin noted them carefully, not wanting to break one due to ignorance.


The first class began the next morning, three days after the Spring Dawning Festival. Carin went into the classroom and sat down at a desk in the back left-hand corner. Rika sat next to him, Minar in the front-right, as far away as he could get. Darin, Tryosha, Wulfric and Larissa in the middle. The older students and novices were in the classroom next door, learning actual cantrips and elementary spells as well as more advanced theory. Fleetingly, Carin wished he were there, but he knew he wasn't ready.

Mira started by having Michael testing what they already knew – he'd ask a question, they'd write the answer on their slate, and Michael came around to see what they'd written and record who was getting all the answers right and who was getting them wrong. Meanwhile, Mira was in the other classroom with the older students.

The questions were quite varied, and while some were easy things Carin had learned in his first year under Theobald, others were difficult, and there were many he simply couldn't answer at all. His heart raced, and he reminded himself that he was one of the youngest here, so it wasn't surprising that he didn't know everything. That this was a good sign that he'd actually be getting a lot of learning done…

Unfortunately Rika panicked and burst into tears. Carin hesitated. "They just want to find out how much we know," he said quietly. "You're so young, they won't expect you to know most of this."

Rika looked at him and wiped her eyes. "Are you sure?" she asked.

"What's going on at the back?" asked Michael, having noticed them whispering.

Rika shrank back and said nothing.

Great. So much for not attracting everyone's attention in the first class. "I was just telling Rika that you wouldn't expect her to know most of this because she's only seven," said Carin.

"That's right. This test is to find out how much each of you knows so that we can know what you need to learn and what we can expect from each of you," said Michael. "In order to do that for all of you, we need both really easy questions and ones that the oldest among you will find difficult. Just do your best and don't worry when you hit things you don't know."

After about an hour of this, Mira switched places with Michael and they started into a review of pronunciation of the magical alphabet. That, Carin could handle.

After class was over, Carin remained in the classroom for a few minutes, going over the notes he'd made and making sure he hadn't missed anything important. Minar did much the same, to Carin's surprise. Carin got up and followed the others to lunch. Minar followed him.

Carin went and found an empty spot at the end of one table, and sat down to eat. There was an empty spot across from him, and Carin wondered if Minar would take it, seeing that he seemed determined to keep an eye on him. Carin wasn't sure what the boy wanted, but better to find out here, in public and with adults around, than alone later at some place of Minar's choosing.

Aggravatingly, Minar sat down several places away and spoke not a word all through lunch, though he persistently glanced at Carin, dark eyes glaring. What did the boy want from him?

The afternoon was more review, for the most part, and Carin found his mind starting to wander. He looked forward to starting something new.

Sitting alone in his room at night, Carin looked out the window and thought over his first day. So far so good, really. The situation with Minar wasn't resolved yet, but the work looked hard but doable and none of the other kids had done anything overtly nasty to him.

Carin yawned. He'd better get to bed.


A/N:The following info is taken from my reading of The Soulforge, and is what I'm basing Carin's character off of.

The twins' father was mostly absent as he worked very hard at wood cutting to support them, and his mother was mentally ill. The family was very poor. Kitiara ended up doing a lot of the caring for them, despite the fact that she was still a child herself at this point. She had little patience and a tendency to hit them when she got angry, although Antimodes noted that though the twins appeared neglected when he met them at age six, they did not have the air of beaten children. The twin's parents died when Raistlin and Caramon were 15. Meanwhile, their half-sister Kitiara ran away from home when they were six.

In a more modern society, they would likely have ended up in the fostercare system.

Theobald ran the boarding school Raistlin attended starting at age six. Theobald disliked and feared Raistlin right from the start, basically because Raistlin was overly-intelligent and a bit creepy. Theobald did nothing to deal with the bullying, which I'm not entirely sure he was aware of. Theobald didn't seem to have a good handle on what was going on in the school under his nose.

As for the bullying, Raistlin seems to have been persistently either picked on or shunned by the others. He also had no friends there. Being the person whom everyone ostracizes is a significantly different situation from trying to deal with a single bully when you have friends there. Coming from that background, Raistlin's cynicism and lack of trust towards the rest of humanity shouldn't be a surprise.

Caramon loves his brother, but he's a child too and doesn't have the power to fix Raistlin's problems. And of course, many of Raistlin's family problems apply to Caramon!

As for the differences, that is rather interesting. There's the obvious differences in health, strength and magic, and they had some major impacts. When the twins were born, Raistlin was born breech, and his birth seriously harmed their mother. He was weak and sickly, and the midwife suggested they expose him and let him die. His mother agreed to this.

Kitiara saved him. She liked to boast about it, and Raistlin grew up hearing the story. Kitiara had little respect for those she considers weak, and made no bones about the fact she wanted to leave but was worried about Raistlin because she considers him weak. Then she runs away when he's six. What a way to make someone feel wanted and safe in their family!

I bet this has a lot to do with Raistlin's obsession with power – he never feels safe unless he's in a position of relative power, and his search for power keeps making him ever more powerful enemies… like Takhisis. Without something breaking this cycle, he's bound to destroy himself, as of course he ended up doing. Unfortunately the amount of power he had by that point meant he did a lot of damage to others as well as himself, and nearly did far worse still.

There's the fact that his mother's mental illness is related to having untrained magic and Raistlin is afraid of ending up like her, and people's fear of magic and lack of respect for intelligence where Caramon's strength gets him easy acceptance and understanding… even with these differences, Caramon's not the most functional either, as shown by his alcoholism during Legends. All three children have serious issues.

Raistlin doesn't trust anyone to both have his best interests at heart and be able to help him, and in this chapter it is showing.

Anyway, this rather rambling author's note is trying to explain just why I'm writing this the way I am. I find Raistlin a very interesting character, and my hat is off to Margaret Weiss for inventing him.

Unfortunately I find him hard to write because I keep wanting him to overcome his flaws and pick a less destructive path and he keeps twisting away from canon in my mind. At least with Carin the altered circumstances give me a good excuse for this.