First Enchanter Irving sends for Miss Filia, who wears similar robes, but hers are a soft blue. She has pretty red hair with grey streaks, and crow's feet around her eyes. She reminds me of one of the alienage aunties who sold beaded bracelets to the shems outside the alienage.
"Miss Filia is a mage, like you, and you will be under her care along with the other apprentices around your age," the First Enchanter explains. Miss Filia smiles tiredly, and offers her hand to hold mine.
"Come along, little one. It's high time you went to bed. Say goodnight to Ser Florence and First Enchanter Irving."
"Goodnight," I wave awkwardly.
Miss Filia leads me down more shadowy hallways and stairs, until we reach the apprentice quarters. There are about a dozen bunk beds spaced out between various cupboards and drawers, and Miss Filia shows me to the empty lower bunk of one in the far right corner. "I'll come and check on you in the morning, little one, sleep well. If you need me, I'll be right next door."
She tucks me in, and leaves. Compared to the unnerving quiet of the hallways, this room is filled with sounds; of soft snoring, blankets shifting, a mumble here and there. I close my eyes, and try to convince myself that I'm back in the alienage. It's the night of a big alienage party, and the sounds I'm hearing are those of exhausted party-goers staying the night, asleep with bottles still in their hands. We're all together, and everything is going to be alright.
It was noise that helped me fall asleep, and it is noise that wakes me up again, a few hours later. Hurried footsteps, beds squeaking, frantic chatter all overlapping. Miss Filia is in the middle of the room, issuing instructions that sound more like pleas as she tries to manage the chaos of thirty-odd children's morning routines. "Brush your hair before going to breakfast, by the Maker He wouldn't recognise His own children in this state," she exclaims, exasperated. I sit up, but stay in bed, unsure of what I'm supposed to be doing.
Miss Filia spots me. "Faellathi! Did you sleep well? Let me get your measurements for robes before we leave for breakfast. Daphne! Has anyone seen Miss Daphne—?" Another mage appears in the doorway.
"I'm here Fil, sorry, what do you need?"
"I need you to write down the measurements for our new girl, it'll only take a minute. Hold on—Children! Start lining up please, I shouldn't have to remind you!" Miss Filia and Miss Daphne navigate their way over to me, and a measuring tape is produced. Meanwhile, the other children are gradually lining up in two rows just outside the door. Once my measurements have been taken, Miss Filia gestures for me to join the others, while Miss Daphne goes to the front of the line and begins to call out names from her notebook, so there are calls of "Here!" over the top of the constant chatting.
"Orla?"
"Yes, Miss Filia?"
"This is Faellathi, she just arrived last night. You're going to be her companion, alright?"
"Yes, Miss Filia!" Orla, a tall girl with the biggest, curliest head of hair I've ever seen, moves to the back of the line to join me.
"Just got here? I've been here for 2 years so I know how everything works, I'll explain everything. How old are you?"
"Nine."
"I'm eleven, that's pretty close! We're all between eight and sixteen years in this dormitory. Then next to us on the left are the little kids, and sometimes there's even babies in the room next to them, but I don't think there are any at the moment. And then the dorm next door on the right, they're between seventeen and… twenty-five, I think? I don't know, it depends on how many apprentices are close in age. And then there's the apprentices over twenty-five years old, there's not many of them so they're all in the same dormitory. And that's just the apprentices, of course. Then, you have the mages, and the enchanters, and the senior enchanters,"
As we walk in our designated lines towards the breakfast hall, all I can do is nod and try to keep up as Orla tries to explain every aspect of this tower and its inhabitants without stopping for breath. We enter a large dining hall with several impossibly long tables filled with food. Orla points out the designated tables as we file in; the apprentices' table, the mages' table, the enchanters' table, the templars' table. At the front, facing across from the other tables, is the table reserved for the senior enchanters and high-ranking templars, with two larger chairs in the middle. "They're for the First Enchanter, Irving, and the Templars' Knight-Commander, Greagoir," Orla explains between mouthfuls of food.
When breakfast is finished, we are split into smaller groups for classes, where the tutors mostly just talk about what magic is and what it is used for. In between classes, Orla continues to fill me in on how the Circle works. Kinloch Hold, where we are now, is home to the Ferelden Circle of Magi, and is one of several Circles throughout Thedas. "Kinloch Hold, for locking up and holding your kin," Orla recites. "I heard one of the senior enchanters say that, once." We have to live here because we have magic and magic is dangerous, so people without magic are afraid of us, she goes on to explain. Also, demons would try to take advantage of us because we have a connection to the Fade that non-mages don't have.
We can't leave, ever, unless someone in the Fereldan court, or the Fereldan military forces, require our services, but that's usually only something that Senior Enchanters would be volunteered for. We are all apprentices when we enter the Circle, until we go through the Harrowing, which is some kind of test, but it's a secret test, so no one knows what you have to do to pass, and the mages aren't allowed to talk about it, ever.
Mages can be promoted to enchanters, and enchanters can be promoted to senior enchanters. The main differences between them, as far as Orla can tell, is that they wear different-coloured robes, and their living quarters are nicer.
The apprentice quarters are on the ground level and so is the dining hall, the mages' and enchanters' quarters are on the second floor where all the libraries and classrooms are, as well as First Enchanter Irving's office, and on the third floor is the Great Hall, where the mages and enchanters have their meetings and laboratories and stuff. On the fourth floor are the templar quarters, and on the fifth floor is where the Harrowing test is taken. As apprentices, we only have permission to be on the first two floors.
The Chantry runs the Circles, because it's the Chantry's job to make sure that we follow the Maker's Will, which, well I didn't really understand everything Orla said about the Chantry, but I think it just boils down to making sure mages don't become evil, like in the Tevinter Imperium.
After our classes, Miss Filia gathers everyone to take us back to the dining hall for lunch. Orla seems to have run out of things to explain for the moment, so I take the opportunity to finally ask a question.
"Orla?"
"Mm?"
"Do you know anyone here called Neria?"
"Neria? Yeah, she's an apprentice. One of the grown-up ones. I mean I don't know her, personally, but I know who she is."
"Do you know what room she's in?"
"Nah, you'd have to ask one of the other grown-up apprentices."
"How?"
"What do you mean, how? Just find one and ask. We don't have classes in the afternoon, but we have to go to the library for 'independent learning'," Orla rolls her eyes as she uses the finger-quotes. "Just find a grown-up wearing dark blue robes like mine in the library and ask."
"Oh. Ok. Thanks Orla," I smile. Orla does a dramatic double-take.
"That was almost a smile!"
