The room she entered was dark and dank, but it felt open. She couldn’t see a thing, so she held her hands out to try and feel her way around, but her fingers touched nothing but air. ‘I should have taken the torch’ she thought to herself. The girl’s feet dragged across the floor, knocking up dust, small stones and possible sand as she moved.
A sudden flash of light blinded the girl in a different way. Instead of blackness everything was white, at least for a few seconds. Talyn’s eyes opened anxiously, fearing what they might reveal to the princess. A single stone wall all around the girl formed a circular room as tall as her recently damaged eyes allowed her to see. Every silvery grey stone that made up the room held a coloured runic symbol, glowing in at the girl. A tall stone alter in front of Talyn held a robed man of average height at its height. Beside him stood four smaller alters, each with a robed figure of their own. Each alter had a large runic symbol glowing on the front.
Talyn looked up at the man on the tallest alter. He was older than the others. His neck length grey hair didn’t help to cover the wrinkles that covered his face, nor hide his black scar that ran down his cheek.
On closer inspection of the other people watching the girl, she realised that none of them were real. Their bodies and faces were blurred, and very pale, it was an old form of astral projection that Talyn had witnessed this power time and again when her father received reports from his generals and lords around the continent. Her eye travelled back to the one man that was actually there.
“Welcome Talyn Falorn.” The man said. His voice was deep, harsh and cold. “I am Casodian Arkwri, Leader of the Arcane Academy.” He stared coldly down at Talyn. “And you are out of uniform.”
“I… I only just arrived, I havn’t received-” she started, but was cut off as, with a wave of the Casodian’s dark gloved hand, her clothes burned painlessly away. She screamed as she realised how exposed she had become, covering herself as much as possible with her hands and arms. She bent her knees slightly to try and cover herself a little more, but in reality it wasn’t all that helpful.
“The council of the academy has for centuries chosen it’s own students, and only its own students. But also for centuries we have allowed the Falorn family to place one child within its walls. We have never and will never like this… but we will accept you.” The Casodian waved his glove again and green robes were woven over Talyn’s smooth pale skin.
Talyn continued to cover herself, just in case, bent into a ridiculous shape but now at least clothed. From this encounter alone she had formed a decision; she was right not to want to come to this place.
“From what we have seen today you have no magical ability. Nor will you ever…” the Casodian surmised. “Your training begins a week from today. If by then you cannot display any noticeable form of magic you will be exiled from the academy grounds.” He waved his hand again. As he did this, San feared the worst, but instead of the humiliation she had expected, given the first wave, she was greeted by blurriness. The walls, the alters, the people. They all became blurry and were quickly replaced by a smaller room decorated with the black and blue of the Falorn crest and a few other niceties.
The Casodians final words rang in Talyn’s ears as, through no will of her own, she fell forwards onto the bed in her room.
“If by then you cannot display any noticeable form of magic you will be exiled from the academy grounds.”
A black sky, complete with a red moon greeted Talyn’s eyes. She stared up at them for a long time, watching as the red of the moon focussed into three glowing red five point stars. The stars were each a different size, one inside the other and the third outside the second. They began to spin and as each intersected the next a run of red archaic letters and digits spat from the point of intersection. A single word was spat from the intersection point every time it intersected. The words became sentences, spells that surrounded the stars in ever increasing circles. The stars stopped moving, settling around one another once again as a voice began to boom across the sky, almost deafening the girl as she stayed staring up at the blood red arcane on the starless black sky.
“Merra, Dev han selle eh feng Omah trih ack. Porr trih goreh nare dev fagestor… Talyn Falorn” The voice made no sense, but the final words were clear. They were her words. Laughter sounded through the dark voice and then…
Talyn shot up in bed, cold sweat dripped down her face and onto the bed spread. She had been changed into night clothes and moved into her bed while unconscious. Part of her felt violated. Once again she had had her clothing removed and replaced against her will. This said part of her felt grateful. Someone felt it necessary to move her from her sprawled position half on the bed half on the floor, to tuck her in… was it because she was royalty? Was it because she was new? It didn’t matter to her right now. Right now all that mattered was her dream. Her dream of… what?
Talyn’s eyes widened and then shrank. Her brow furrowed. What had she dreamt? A moment earlier it was so clear, so vivid, so… terrifying. But now..?
A knocking at the door of her room, which now that she looked around it she found to be beautifully decorated by artefacts that seemed to date back centuries.
“I- Come in.” she called to the door, patting down her night clothes, making sure that she looked presentable.
The door swung gently open, revealing a young man wearing similar robes to the ones that were given to her the day before, though his were brown.
“Talyn Falorn.” He said, the tone of boredom evident in his voice. “Please get dressed quickly and I will show you the facilities that the Weekers are allowed to use.”
“Weekers?” Talyn said, furrowing her brow at the name. “What an odd name.” she commented.
“Don’t worry, Weeker.” He said reassuringly, though still with that hint of boredom in his voice. “You’ll only have it for a week. After that you’ll either be a Student mage like me or you’ll be dead, like all the other failures.” The student stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him, ignoring the look of shock, surprise and horror on the young princess’s face.
Talyn scrambled from the bed, quickly changing her outfit to adopt the green robes of her level. She grabbed a pair of lace shoes from beside the door and pulled them on. A final fearful look around the room and she was gone, out of the door unready to face whatever the academy was going to challenge her with. |
