Alice seemed to read my mind because she said, "Get whatever you want, I'm paying."
I smiled gratefully at her while trying to discern whether or not she had read my mind. It was absurd, of course, but she had a look in her eye that made me feel like she could if she wanted to. I ended up ordering eggs and hash browns and the smell of the greasy breakfast food was mouthwatering after realizing we had already been driving for four hours. It was close to 9 o'clock.
"So, how far away is the school exactly?" I asked, between mouthfuls of hash brown.
"We should arrive by tomorrow morning." She replied. She had ordered a single chocolate chip pancake, and she ate it neatly with no syrup or any other topping. "Now, there is some more information that I should tell you before we arrive at the school. I did mention that this is a special sort of school didn't I?" She looked at me as if waiting for an answer.
"Yes, you did say something about that," I replied, not sure where this was going. Was there where she was going to tell that I would be training to be an electrician after all?
"Let me start by asking you a question, Esther. What was the nature of your difficulties at your old school?" Her expression was neutral, but I was beginning to grow nervous. I thought she already knew about all the troubles, and that I had already been accepted.
"Well, I suppose you could say there were some strange accidents that happened. It wasn't my fault," I explained, but even to me, it sounded like an excuse.
"I'm not trying to place any blame on you dear, but do you find that these sorts of things happen often to you?" She added.
"Yes, I guess they do. I've always been a magnet for weird stuff." Even now, I guessed that ravens were flocking on her car.
"At the Academy, there are many students who share this predisposition towards unusual activity." She explained. "In fact, it is one of the things that alerted us that you might be a good candidate for the school."
"Really?" I asked. I couldn't imagine how that could have anything to do with my school admission. "Why is that?"
"Well, you might think of the academy, as a school for those with a certain condition. These strange occurrences are actually a symptom of that condition." She said, staring at me intently now. I pushed my plate away. I was trying to understand what she was getting at.
"Symptom? Am I sick?" I asked. Was she saying I was crazy? What if she wasn't taking me to a school at all, but rather a psych ward?
"No," She clarified, "You're not sick at all, it's just that you have a sort of energy, a power really, that if not managed properly, can build up and release in ways that you mind find disruptive. At the Academy, we will teach you how to harness that energy and transform it into a usable resource." She was looking at me as if now I should understand. It sounded crazy.
"So you're telling me I have some sort of magic power that is causing everything in my life to go haywire," I asked sarcastically.
"Now you're getting it," she said. "You do understand don't you?"
"Do I understand?" I said. I was confused. Was she really serious?
"Magic? You're taking me to a school that teaches magic?" I was incredulous. Maybe she was the crazy one. I was stuck with her now.
"What kind of school is it really?" I said. "Why couldn't I find anything about it online?"
"Probably because it's not really called Medeis Academy," She said.
"What's it called then?" I demanded.
"The Mage's Academy. Esther Crenshaw, you have been accepted as a Novice Mage at the foremost academy of the Magical Arts." She smiled, and I noticed a calculating look in her eye. Was she guessing as to whether or not I would believe her? I wavered. I couldn't believe her of course, since it was absolute nonsense, but then another part of me wanted to. It would make some sense of all the strangeness that followed me.
"Show me then," I said. "I want to see it for myself."
"In due time, and not inside," She said. "Are you done with your meal?"
I scooped up the last few bites of food and put down my fork. I was in a hurry to see what she had to show me. Deep in my heart, I hoped that it would be true and that everything she'd said really could apply to me.
"Yeah, I'm done." Alice paid and we exited the diner, the waitress none the wiser about our next destination.
* * *
As we walked outside I watched her expectantly. Trying to observe any little detail that might give away her magical abilities. As I suspected, when we got to the car at least 10 ravens were occupying the roof. Alice, however, didn't seem fazed. She said, "Get in and stay very quiet. I have to concentrate."
I watched from inside the car as she stood very still, taking several deep breaths. I wasn't sure what I was watching for, but I held my breath anyway. She began to perform an odd sort of ritual, which involved bowing in several different directions and a few complicated hand gestures. I was sure what to make of it until finally, a circle began to form around her. It was made up of a strange material. It looked like the wavering space just above a fire, where the heat from the flames seems to distort reality. That was the only thing I could compare it to. Then with several quick sweeping motions, the entire circle burst into flames. It was equal parts terrifying and amazing. I could feel the heat from within the car. I looked inside the diner, hoping that the lone waitress wasn't witnessing this as well. I only looked away for a brief moment, but when I looked back, the circle of flame was gone and Alice was getting back in the car.
"What was that?" I asked, noticing the awestruck tone in my own voice.
"It's called an Elemental Conjuration," She said with a deft wave of her hand.
"Is that something I'll learn how to do?" I asked. I wasn't sure if that was something I wanted or not. It didn't seem a very practical skill, but it was deeply fascinating all the same.
"Perhaps one day, although it's quite an advanced skill. It happens to be a particular specialty of mine since I am bound to a fire god." She explained. Bound to a fire god? That sounded ominous.
"What does that mean?" I asked vaguely, not sure about the proper terminology for these matters.
"What? Being bound?" She sounded surprised that I didn't know what it meant, but how could I? "Well, It just means that I was chosen by a god to make a promise of sorts. I was bound to him so that I would be able to use magic.”
"The binding part is the part I don't understand," I explained helplessly. Would she think I was stupid? I wasn't making a very good impression so far.
"Oh I see, you really don't know much about our world do you?" She sighed. I shrugged as she began to drive back onto the highway. "Okay, I'll do my best to give you a crash course."
"Let's start with magic." She began. I nodded and felt excitement bloom in my chest. After seeing her little display I wanted to learn everything I could about magic. "Magic, as I told you earlier is like a source of power, and mages, like us, are sort of like conduits. We can channel this energy. However, we are not from the same plane as magic and so we can't really direct this power on our own. Do you get my meaning?"
"I think so," I said simply, wanting her to go on.
"So to manipulate and manage this force we have to have some assistance. That is where the binding comes in. Deities, like the Fire God in my case, choose Mages to bind with. What this binding means is that the Deity will help you direct the power. You can call on your god to help you with certain magical tasks. However, they ask for something in return." She paused, and I could see that she was thinking about how to explain it.
"What's that?" I asked after a long moment of silence.
"Well, put simply they ask that you become their sole devotee and do not work with other gods."
"That seems simple enough," I said.
"It is and it isn't." She explained. I thought she had more to say, but she never did.
I watched the countryside pass as we continued further south and somewhere along the way I drifted off. It was no surprise that I had strange dreams during my fitful sleep
. I had fragments of images of ravens, and cold darkness seeping into me. It had been a very weird day.
4
I heard Alice's voice gently calling my name and I awoke, still curled up in the seat of her car. I peeked outside the window, but there was so much fog I could hardly see anything.
"We are here," She said excitedly. "The school is just a few more miles."
As we drove further into the dense fog, buildings began to appear. They were huge, ornate stone buildings, many of which had stained glass windows. They were beautiful. It was like we had emerged into some kind of Gothic village. I stared at them longingly, hoping that I would find a place here. This was more than I could have imagined. Was this really going to be my school?
"Where are we going now?" I asked, suddenly intimidated to be in an unfamiliar place, and with no idea what was expected of me.
"First the tour, then we'll head to your dorm and you can drop off your stuff." She explained. She continued driving until she found a parking spot, although I'm not sure how she managed because the fog was still so thick.
The first building we walked into looked like it had once been an ancient church. It was massive, with buttresses on the sides.
"This building," She explained, "Is the Library. It houses all the resources you will need for your studies."
I looked around in awe at what was possibly the largest library I'd ever been inside. It had shelves lining the walls as high as they could reach, and above that were large stained glass murals depicting scenes of magic. There was one, in particular, I was struck by. It wasn't the most vibrant or outrageous of the images, but I found myself drawn to it. It showed a woman carrying a torch through the dark night. There were stars above her, but no moon. I wondered who she was.
Alice interrupted my reverie to show me the section of the library that I would be using most, where the first year books were contained.
"Am I to be a first year?" I asked feeling confused. I was already a Junior in Highschool.
"Yes, but you won't be behind. All of our students start out here around the age of 17. We find that magic is too powerful for younger students. They aren't able to wield it responsibly." She said clicking her fingers on a bookcase impatiently. She was answering all my questions, but I got the impression that we were late. "Shall we continue the tour then?" She asked.
"Of course," I said. We walked back out and I was pleased to see that some of the fog had cleared. I could now see that we were walking into a beautiful courtyard that was adjacent to each of the main buildings. We stopped at the building directly across from the library.
"This is the Ashmole Building. Your first class of the day will take place in this building." She said and walked inside. The walls were lined with ornate wooden panels. It was dark and a bit dusty, but still, I could not believe that I was to be a student here.
"What class is that?" I asked.
"It's called Magical Systems," She said. "In it, you will learn all about the magical correspondences in our world." I wasn't sure what all that meant, but I was eager to get started.
Alice showed me the rest of the main buildings before taking me to the dining hall. "This is where you will take the majority of your meals. Some students choose to eat occasionally in their dorm, but you are required to have at least two-thirds of your meals here."
I nodded in understanding. I looked around at the students that were starting to fill the cavernous room. I noticed a lot of strange types. You wouldn't necessarily know these were students of magic, but you would definitely think they were quirky. There were students with many different hair colors, some dressed in strange styles. It seemed I wasn't the only strange one here.
There was a din in the room from the conversations happening all around me, but I noticed one boy not talking at all. He sat alone. From the way he looked, I imagined that it was by his own choice. He had a massive scowl on his face. I couldn't help but notice however that he was gorgeous in a slightly terrifying way. He had long dark hair, pulled back, and a sharp angular face. His eyes were vivid green and framed by thick dark lashes. As beautiful as his face was, it was marred by dark circles under his eyes. If I was being honest he had a somewhat tortured look, but staring at him was making my stomach do strange flips. I looked away, but not soon enough, because he caught my eye. He knew I had been looking at him. I let Alice hurry me out of the dining room. I could feel his stare on the back of my neck as I walked out, but I didn't look back.
Walking back into the courtyard, I noticed something strange. There was a student dressed all in black robes performing a strange task on the lawn. He was rearranging stones on the lawn. First moving one stone from a small pile to another pile, then taking one from that pile and moving it to the next, and so on. It was mesmerizing. How did he know which rock to move? What was he doing with them? Alice caught my gaze and we stopped for a moment.
"He is performing a sacrifice." She explained.
"A sacrifice?" I felt all the blood drain from my face, and I knew I must be ashen white.
"It’s not what you think," She laughed.
"What is it then?" I pushed.
"A sacrifice is simply what we call it when the God you are bound to asks you to perform a task." She said.
"What kind of task?" I tried to get more details.
"Well, it can be anything. Most of the time it doesn't make a lot of sense to us, but the gods have their own reasons for the requests they make. For example," she pointed to the boy we were watching. "He appears to be moving stones around."
"That's it?" I said. Surely there was some greater purpose to what he was doing?
"As far as I can tell, yes. There may be a reason for it, and he may know what that reason is or he may not." She explained.
"Is that something I'm going to have to do?"
"When you are bound to a god, you will most certainly be asked to do certain things from time to time. The frequency and nature of those things really depend on who or what the God is." She described.
I felt a sense of revulsion grow in my stomach. Sacrifices to strange gods? Being made to do meaningless tasks for no good reason? This was starting to sound a bit sinister.
"What if you don't do whatever it is?" I asked. Perhaps it wasn't mandatory. Maybe people did it to please the gods, but it wasn't really necessary.
"The consequences of that would again depend on which deity you are bound to, but I would not take that risk If I were you. They may decide not to work with you and if that were to happen, you wouldn't be able to use magic." She said.
"So you'd just go back to being normal?" I asked.
"Not exactly," She began. "Once your magic is awakened its kind of hard to put it back in the box so to speak. The magic would build up and begin to warp you. After a while, you would most likely be lost in madness." She said, her tone still cheerful even as her words grew darker.
"Oh," I said simply, still processing all of this.
"Let's move on shall we? I'd like to take you to your dorm." She deftly changed the subject.
5
Overall the Mage's Academy was not a huge campus, despite the imposing size of all the buildings. Alice led me away from the main center of campus, towards to outer edge. Enough of the fog had cleared that I could now see we were on a mountaintop. The view was beautiful of the rolling hills covered in heavy greenery. We came into what appeared to be a small residential area. The streets were lined with very old houses, probably from the late eighteen hundreds or even earlier.
They were quite ornate victorian style homes, with quaint porches and delicate molding. I scanned the houses as we passed, each was a little bit different. We walked until we came to a house with a wrought iron gate. It seemed in slight disarray when compared to the houses around it. The grass was withering and weeds were sprouting up. The house itself, was a grey color, and although it was in need of repair it was beautiful. I couldn't help but see the spirit in the ramshackle building. It was such an old thing, that it m
ust have seen many people pass through its doors. There were wooden carvings of all sorts of strange creatures in the posts that lined the porch. Some were nearly indecipherable, but It was strangely familiar to see ravens carved into them as well.
Alice chirped, "This is Halewick House, your dormitory and home for the next year." She waved her hand at the open door of the old house.
"This is my dorm?" I spoke, incredulous at my luck. Even though it was old, it was certainly nicer than any place I had ever lived.
"It is indeed." She smiled. "Your housemates should be around shortly, so I'll give you a chance to get settled. Then in a little while, I'm sure the headmaster will want to meet you."
"The headmaster?" I said.
"Yes, he just likes to greet new students and get to know them a little bit. Nothing to be afraid of," She said encouragingly. So far, I hadn't had a great track record with authority figures. I really hoped that this time it would be different. I was already starting to like it here. Alice brought me up the narrow staircase in the main entryway, to a long hallway with rooms on either side. She brought me all the way to the end of the hall, and stopped at the last door on the right. There was a large window on the back wall that illuminated my door and I could see the grains in the heavy wood.
I walked inside and was immediately relieved. The room had a warmth to it, that defied the rest of the tired old building. It was a strange room. It was set with heavy cherry wood furnishings, vintage most likely. There was a dresser, a large wardrobe, a bed with a delicate swirling inlay pattern, and a large comfortable looking desk and chair. The desk and dresser were covered in odd esoteric looking objects. For example, a glass ball filled with some sort of green solution rested upon a carved golden hand. The hand had long nails and appeared to be firmly grasping the potion filled sphere. There was also a circle of blue with astrological symbols carved into it, attached to a triangular pedestal. It had a hand that rhythmically ticked back and forth like some kind of clock, though I couldn't tell how you would possibly read such a clock.
Unbound: Mage's Academy I Page 2
