III.

"Oh my word!" my old rival cried, a hand flying to his mouth. "...Luc?"

Yes, there could be no mistake. "Sasarai." I couldn't hide the icy chill in my tone.

He didn't seem to notice. "My gosh, it's been--years!"

"Eight, to be exact," I said coldly.

"Really? Well, I'd like to say you haven't aged a day, but...Luc! You've grown up."

I felt my face getting even hotter under his intense appraisal. "So have you," I muttered, not wanting to admit it. He looked...incredible. I was shocked to find how attracted I was to him, so I looked away, on fire. He wasn't a bullying little boy anymore, or so it seemed.

"Are you here for the tournament?" he asked the obvious.

Before I came up with something smart to say, I saw one of the real board members calling for order among the assembled apprentices.

"I...guess we'd better go," I mumbled, not waiting to see if he followed or not as I returned to the crowded lawn.

"Attention! Attention!" A hush fell over the breathless group. "This is not playtime for the kiddies," the stern-faced sorcerer said in a booming voice. "You'll be assigned to rooms as soon as we finish with the initial briefing to go over rules. Follow me, please."

I'd managed to separate myself from Sasarai. I didn't turn to see him, but, as I had all those years ago, I could feel him near me. I waited in the back of the throng as the others pressed ahead. Sasarai appeared to be searching for something in the crowd--perhaps for me--but eventually just went along with the others into the old stone fortress.

The next hour seemed to drag on intolerably. I already knew all about the Tournament rules. In my early teen years, I'd spent much time perusing Lady Leknaat's old manuals and books in an attempt to further my own education. And the lady had, of course, told me stories about her own tournaments and competitions. She'd walked away with the Wizard's Scroll more than once, and eventually grown to be a master. She was asked to join the Wizard's Board, but she felt her calling was elsewhere, and soon became the next Seer, working for the Empire to read the stars and record the Astral Conclusions.

I let my mind wander as the board member droned on. At last his speech ended, and we were grouped into lines as something new began. I wished I'd been paying a bit more attention--at least to that last part, but the crowd was too silent for me to dare risking even a whisper in question. I wondered if we were being split up to go to the dormitories now, but it certainly didn't appear that way, unless things had changed since the lady's time; we weren't grouped by genders or anything, the lines just seemed to go by the rows we were seated in. When the masters brought out wooden crates, however, I knew what was up. They were taking our magic aids.

I groaned inwardly. So this is what Leknaat was trying to prepare me for, I thought miserably. I watched with a frown as one by one, each apprentice dropped his or her utility into the boxes the masters were carrying. In went various objects: rings, runes, amulets and armlets. I saw Meg across the wide room, tears streaming down her face as she reluctantly parted with her wand.

"Hey! Didn't you hear me? I said, drop it in the box!"

I looked up with a start, jumping to attention before the grim-faced man in front of me. "S-sorry, Sir," I stuttered, feeling like a fool. That was twice I'd let that blasted girl distract me, but I couldn't help feeling bad for her. Looking down at the rune on my hand, I whispered an incantation, then closed my eyes at the brilliant light that burst from my rune hand. The rune fell loose, and I held it for a moment before dropping it into the crate. "I...I'll get that back, right?"

The master was looking at me strangely. He reached down into the box and picked up the rune I'd just dropped. "A...True Rune...!" he breathed. "Who is your master?" he demanded.

"Lady Leknaat the Seer," I replied instantly. I need not hesitate; nothing to be ashamed of, there.

"I see." He paused, an eyebrow raised almost skeptically. "Well?"

"...Well?" I repeated, trying unsuccessfully to not sound too impertinent.

"The other rune," he prompted.

I gave him a look. "What other rune?"

"The one in the middle of your forehead, fool!" he said loudly. Heads turned.

From the corner of my eye, I saw that even Sasarai (why wasn't he in line?) turning to look.

"This isn't a rune," I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking. "It w-was a g-g-gift."

"From the Seer?" he sneered.

Suddenly I realized that perhaps this man had not even believed my story. Lady Leknaat had quite a reputation, I was sure. Maybe the younger generation of masters even thought she was a mere myth.

"Give it up!" he yelled.

My face was burning, as much from anger as from embarrassment. I'd been called many a name and received many a curse in my young life, but never had I been accused of lying, which is exactly how I felt I was being treated. Like a liar.

However, I had no wish to disgrace the lady. I'll show them, I thought angrily, reaching behind my head to unclasp the jeweled band. I let it drop easily into the basket. Before the scoffing master could step to the next young apprentice in line, however, I stayed him by saying, "You didn't answer my question."

"...What." He was furious. Not even asking. Growling.

"Will my rune and headpiece be returned once the tournament is ended?" I asked for the second time, vowing I would not ask a third.

He only laughed at me. I followed him with my eyes as he walked right on by to the next student in line. I was too angry to speak. I knew better than to lash out in anger, though it took every ounce of my strength to hold back the harsh words and barrage of spells coming to mind. The lady had taught me well.

At length, everyone was stripped, so to speak. Most people seemed to have expected it, but a few, such as Meg and myself, were rather indignant and upset by the competition's strict rules. After the masters had carried away their crates, the man who'd given the briefing said it was time to split us up into our dorms. We were to be separated by the sexes, then broken down into groups of four into individual rooms, where one individual of each would become our bunk mate. I frowned in distaste at the very idea of sleeping in a bunk, all sorts of nasty images coming to mind of how a military barracks room must look. And four persons per room? Outrageous!

The master went on to explain that each floor would be controlled by an assistant of one master or another. I felt this whole thing was incredibly childish and unnecessary. I was beginning to wish I'd never come, that the lady had never brought it up. There would, however, be a lesson learned here, that much I knew. Lady Leknaat has her reasons for everything she does, and if she sent me here to compete, it was for a reason. Perhaps I would grace her ladyship with a Scroll, glorify her name. Perhaps I would be made a fool, and return home to redouble my efforts. Either way, I felt sure Leknaat the Seer had seen something in the stars to bring me to this awful place.

Next, the males were sent to one side of the room, and females to the other. To be fair, the master said, we were to draw a block of wood from buckets being passed around. The number and letter displayed on the face of the small chip would tell us where we would be rooming. Apparently, the rooms with the master assistants were supposed to be nicer. How, I couldn't possibly imagine.

The bucket finally made its way over to me. I stuck my hand into its depths apathetically. When I withdrew my hand, however, the boy who had chosen before I had let out a low whistle. I looked at him.

He caught my confused expression as my gaze flickered between the piece of wood in my hand to the boy himself, an unspoken question in my eyes. "Oh, you don't want that one," he said quickly. He held up his block to me. "Trade ya."

I stared at him.

"Wouldn't want a new guy like you to get stuck with that," he said, as if that explained everything.

I looked down at my own lot. "What are you talking ab--"

"Excuse me, Mr. Seer's Apprentice," the master from before sneered at me. I looked up at his bearded face in apprehension. "Trading lots is not permitted, as you were told before."

"I wasn't--"

"Let me see what you've got!" He quickly ripped away my chip, and looked at it thoughtfully, obviously surprised. I was getting tired of these games. I wished again I'd been listening more closely to what the masters were saying. "Did you give this to him, Hal?"

The boy next to me (he was quite unattractive, I suddenly decided) looked down and shook his head. "No, Master Macoreth."

Without another word, the master (so the bastard's name is Macoreth, I mused) shoved the piece back into my palm and moved on, his hands clasped behind his back authoritatively.

I cast a death look at my companion, but he turned away, without so much as the decency to blush. Had he been intentionally trying to get me into trouble for his own amusement? It was plain to see that Macoreth had something against me already. I wondered.

Next we gathered into groups with our roommates. The blocks were all colored differently, I saw, and labeled with numbers and alphabet letters. I listened as the other men called out, "Green! Who's got a green one?" "I'm a C'." "Number twenty-five here; what's yours?" No one else seemed to have the same markings as me. I was beginning to feel more than a little left out, and worried about that. Did my lot mean I'd be sleeping on the kitchen hearth like that silly girl in the story I'd read in one of Leknaat's books, the girl called "Cinders"?

"Ah! There you are! I was looking for you."

I looked up, grateful to have a companion now, but my face fell when I saw it was none other than Sasarai. "...I--"

"Let me see. Yes! Just as I thought!" the boy cried, taking my chip into his own hands. "S-14. That means you're with me!"

"And who else?" I asked suspiciously.

He shrugged. "What do you mean, 'who else'?Don't you know? The S' stands for 'assistant'. I'm the assistant for your floor, so you and I get one of the rooms all to ourselves!"