Chapter 5
Fall, of the 4th year, Tranquillen three months later.
After my ordeal with the Magistrix, I found myself reluctant to go outside and even practice magic, the picture of tormenting me and what she was about to do to Jen'sel kept flashing in my mind, but that wasn't what made me petrified of going outside. No, the thought that scared me the most, was the idea that I would become like her if I followed through on my dreams of being a powerful sorceress of the convocation. After the burning anger towards her started to fade into apathy, I soon found myself to blame had I not been so immature and looking to seek approval and recognition none of that would have happened. My thoughts were interrupted when I heard the rapping of a fist on the door. "Syndra sweety, I know you don't want to go into Tranquillen, but maybe you could spend time outside and practice your magic. Like you used to, for me?" he pleaded, his voice a smooth monotone filled with concern. I made my way to the door grabbing a simple sweatshirt woven together with sheep's wool and dyed an aquamarine blue, opening the door I begrudgingly smiled at him, the guilt of my actions still weighing heavily on my conscious.
"Yeah, I can do that." I said sheepishly, barely making eye contact with him as I walked past him.
The walk to the front door was mostly in silence, only the audible drumming of my heart as I drew closer. I reached my hand out to the knob, but hesitated feeling scared that I would see her again if I opened the door. I could tell dad was worried about me I felt his gaze boring down on me. I was scared that if I left the house, I would run into Jen'sel who would hate me for what I put him through, or some random townsperson wanting to judge me. I was jolted out of my thoughts when I saw papa reaching past me and open the door almost as if he could feel my hesitation. He placed his hand on my shoulder with a gentle yet firm grip, I looked up at him and saw his warm reassuring smile. Walking forward he ushered me along and I felt the fears I held vanish as I took my first steps onto the porch the cool morning air rushing past me as the door forced a wave of air to hit my face, goosebumps raising as I walked outside. Any anxiety I had felt previously was gone as I took my first steps into the grass and wriggled my toes around the cold wet grass.
My mind immediately went to just playing around with orbs of light that I could just play around with and distract myself, but I threw that idea away shortly after. I didn't need to practice the same magic spells I can do in my sleep, I needed something that would allow me to even the odds so that evil witch couldn't harm me or Jen'sel. With a look of determination, I walked up to the porch with my spell tome in hand and set next to papa. The next several hours I spent slowly glossing over all the spells in the book and came to a frustrating realization. This book had a great many spells this fact I already understood, but as I read through each of them and contemplated how I could use them in a fight I realized that most of them were useless against a schoolyard bully let alone a trained magister of the convocation.
I decided I needed to have a conversation with Magister Kaenas before he actually left Tranquillen, "Hey da-" I started, but looked up and noticed he had long since passed out on the couch with me nestled into his side. I cursed under my breath, but decided I wasn't going to give up. I slowly slid out from underneath his arm making sure he didn't wake up before I ran inside and grabbed one of my long shirts from my dresser and quietly sneaked off the porch and into town. The fear and trepidation of leaving the house long since forgotten.
I ran as fast as I could, excited to be out, I noticed several of the townsfolk giving me funny or weird glances. Some were surprised at seeing me in such a rush, others were looks of pity. With several walking breaks in between to catch my breath, I finally made my way to Magister Kaenas's home to see the door open with Kaenas lounging in a rocking chair with a book in hand much of his house packed up neatly into crates.
My breathing loud and audible he looked up from his book and gave me a smile. "An unexpected visitor and Lady Syndra no less. How fares our towns fiery troublemaker?" He said, his voice holding a hint of amusement. I could feel my the blood rush to my cheeks at his nickname for me. "I'm doing alright." I replied trying to stay cool, as I evened my breath and walked up beside him peering at his book. As I gazed at the books lettering I realized I couldn't understand them, the foreign wordings written in an alphabet completely alien to the Quel'dorei writing form.
"Interested in my book are you?" he said, breaking the long silence as he closed the book and set it down beside him on the table next to his chair.
I nodded my head and stared at him waiting for him to answer my curiosity. "Though I assume you didn't come here just to learn what books I read in my spare time little Syndra." Said Kaenas, placing the book down on the coffee table, shortly before motioning me to sit in the rocking chair to the opposite side of his table.
"No, no I didn't," I replied pausing as I took a seat. I hesitated, unsure of how I should phrase my words.
"I was wondering if you would be will-"I began to say.
"No, I can't teach you what I know about the arcane." He said, cutting me off mid-sentence. "it's not even because I don't want to." He continued leaning forward, his arms resting on his knees.
"Then why won't you teach me how to beat her senseless?" I shouted more than a little annoyed.
"Careful now Syndra, as childish as that notion is if the wrong ears heard that, you could be imprisoned and flogged for sedition against the conclave." He warned, his voice losing his joviality as he leveled a serious gaze at me.
"I'm sorry, I just don't want to be powerless against her again." I said, looking away from him as I fought against my own emotions.
"Like I said, it's not like I can just teach you attacking and warding spells." He said, moving away from his previous chastisement.
"Such spells and knowledge have been forbidden from the commonfolk due to the worries of uprisings and common revolts." He continued leaning back in his chair as he stared at the ceiling.
"Then what is there for me to do, but lay down and accept her humiliating me like that again if she wanted to?" There was a long moment of silence as his eyes just rested on the ceiling and I stared at him waiting. I stood up ready to leave assuming this conversation was over when he finally stirred from his own thoughts.
"The way I see things you have three options available to you, two of which are unlikely due to your families standing, the other is also unlikely due to odds involved." He said, motioning for me to sit back down. I returned to my seat letting out a huff of frustration.
"So, what are my options then?" I asked getting a little impatient, he simply looked at me in silence taking a sip from his cup waiting until I settled into my hard oak seat. "The first one is convincing your dad to take you and leave Tranquillen in search of an Errant wizard." He replied, stroking his chin in contemplation.
"Why would we do that. Also, what's an Errant wizard?" I questioned unsure of what else to say.
"For starters a Wizard Errant, as rare as they are, would be able to teach you most of what you want without being constrained by the law set forth by the convocation. As for your second one they are simply traveling wizards for one reason or another, but I wouldn't recommend this to be your first choice of action." Kaenas said, taking a sip from his tea and looking at me with an inquisitive stare.
"Besides them being rare, why wouldn't you recommend this?" I asked him rubbing my hand through my hair, already dreading how much of a mouthful this was going to be, "For starters you can never verify the quality of work a wizard without any resources to speak of can perform, the idea of a wizard traveling the world with only the clothes on his back having any significance is preposterous of which could lead to lackluster results at best. And at worst they could be a demon worshipper or a believer in the old ones and at that point you're either a sacrifice or a brainwashed believer." He said, standing up from his chair and walking into his house motioning for me to follow. "The second option available to you which I believe to be practical and more likely is attempting to apply for an emigration visa to leave the country and live in Dalaran and seek attendance in their school of magic, certainly not a bad option, but you've got three things going against you, for one it's late in the season, your unlikely to gain approval from the government to permanently leave the homeland, and three it's like gambling with thousands of other peasants who think they'll be the next Archmage." He said walking through his living room and into an office room filled with books and vials filled with strange substances. Some of which being body parts of which I could only hope came from trolls.
"What's so nice about Dalaran, and why would the time of year matter in moving there?"
"For starters, Dalaran as much as I am loathed to admit are ahead of their time, much of their theorems and collection of knowledge is not constrained and bogged down by imperial politics and tradition as our convocation is." He said in mused pondering as he was thumbing through all of the books on his shelves.
"Not to say, some of our slower processes are not without warrant, careless wandering in the arcane arts can attract the attention of less benign beings. Furthermore, the freedom of a Kirin tor wizard would allow you to travel all over the world and see sights beyond your imagination."
"All I have ever dreamed about was being a Magistrix of our imperial majesty's' royal convocation and holding the honor to serve my countrymen with distinction and honor, why would people ever wish to serve some foreign institution ran by humans?" I question watching him as he picked up a jar with a couple of eyeballs floating in a solution. The eyes unnerving me as they seemingly stared into my soul.
"You must understand Syndra, not all of our countrymen hold such a high opinion of our government such as yourself, even more so when those thoughts are towards the convocation." He said placing the jar of eyes down and continuing his search through the books and tomes.
"If you thought you were special in your treatment by my college Lynadra your wrong."
"It's not like I think I'm special or have fond memories of my experience." I interrupted in frustration at his dismissal of my experience.
"Of course, not my dear child, but my point is that stories like these and even worse ones are almost commonplace in lower society due to the fragile egos of many of my colleagues. It's places like these fringes of society faraway from a proper judicial system that have created a sort of romanticism of faraway lands beyond the Elfgates filled of adventure and glory." he said with a sing song tone, he paused momentarily looking away from his shelves of book in musing grabbing a book from the shelf and placing it on the table in front of me.
"Such musings, however, are childish notions drummed up by wishful thinkers, as flawed as our current government is, it is far more stable and safer than heading out into the wider world. Alas the opinion is still held and a great many cling to this delusion and as such there are thousands of families applying to leave yearly," he said, taking a slight break to catch his breath. I decided this was a good moment for me to get a word in.
"Okay, so I'm not alone in my treatment by a magus and lots of people want to leave the kingdom I don't see what this has to do with me learning magic."
"Because if every elf wishing to leave had the freedom to come and go as they pleased many of the lower class would leave and the noble families and by extension the convocation would be forced to foot the bill for labor shortages, decreasing tax revenue, and a potential collapse of food supplies as there is no one to man the farms."
I looked blankly at him as he rambled on, until he noticed me glossy eyed absentminded look on my face.
"Basically, the time window to apply is mostly over, and the already limited pool of individuals able to leave makes it very unlikely you and your dad would be leaving this place and striking it out as a family in service of the Kirin Tor, but if you were to get a letter of recommendation from a former magister of the conclave your chances go way up even if the recruitment season is over."
"The third and final option is moving to the capital and taking the aptitude tests held there and joining the ranks of the convocation as a Magisters' apprentice."
"I do not know why you did not start with that option, if you thought that was my best option." I questioned looking at the stack of books that he made on his desk.
"Because I like to think I give all the options available to bright young girls such as yourself before giving them a hard choice, plus the chances of getting into the royal magisterial exam is even harder as the standards are harder and more biased against common folk." He said snapping his finger causing a levitating cup of tea to float into the room and pour himself another cup of tea.
"Furthermore, these aptitude tests are more than just testing you for magical potential. It tests your general knowledge of Quel'Dorei society, baseline arcane theory, magical aptitude tests."
"Most of which is knowledge that is usually locked away from the countryfolk far removed from the capital and it's standardized education systems."
"It would also, be of use to have a well-connected family in order to grease the wheels of bureaucracy."
"So then what hope is there for me, if these odds are stacked against me?"
"Simple my dear Syndra, you're going to run along with these books you inherited from a relative long before you were born and will just so happen to be here every Monday to listen to me ramble about basic arcane theorem." He said giving me a wink as his hand pushed the stack of books off his desk and onto the floor.
"Then, when I feel you are competent enough to pass the exams I will give a letter of recommendation, that will just so happen to push you to the front of the queue and into the interest of some Kirin Tor wizard
I looked at him with surprise and shock as I was initially startled by the action of shoving the tomes onto the floor but quickly overcame it as his words rang through my head. "The Kirin Tor, why not the Magisterial exam?" he looked at me with a bit of amusement or was that disappointment I saw. "Because even with my help I may not even be able to get you into it, much of my influence and favor has gone away since I chose to retire out here, but I can, however, get a good word in for you with some friends in the Kirin Tor. Now the choice is yours to learn magic through the Kirin Tor or bang our head against a wall hoping for the wall to break before you do." he said, looking at me with a no nonsense look. I picked up the books from the floor and cradled them into my arms. "I'll do it, I'll become a wizard of the Kirin Tor." I said, determination in my heart as I looked confidently at him.
As I was picking up the last book Kaenas's foot stepped on it preventing me from grabbing it. "I trust much of what we have discussed will stay between us, especially anything that could come across as seditious." He said giving me a wink and a sly grin.
"I don't know what Seditious means, but yeah of course, you have my word!" I exclaimed in excitement giving him a very enthusiastic wink and smile as wide as my face. He let out a chuckle as he released his foot from the book.
"Get out of here Syndra, and if you require any assistance with these tomes your more than welcome to stop by anytime." He said before shoeing me away. I left his home with more success than I thought I would. A large grin across my face as I made my way home slower than I left.
AN, I took some time to reread the story and decided I needed to rewrite some things and make changes in how I originally posted it to match where I decided to go with the 6th Chapter, with that said hope y'all enjoyed and leave a comment on how I can improve with pacing, grammar, or whatever else comes to mind.