Winds of Magic Chapter 5

 

Chapter 5

One week later I left the house and met up with Rei to take our written exams for Rockwell Magic Academy. They were known to be one of the toughest exams in the magic world, but I had been preparing for this moment for years.

We filed into a large lecture hall with at least a hundred other students, where we were placed at least six feet apart from each other. Even so the hall held us all with room to spare.

A professor began to hand out test booklets.

“Do not open them until I give you the go ahead,” said the professor, continuing to hand out the booklets. “You can find pencils underneath your desk.”

I didn’t need to look, as I had brought four of my own, all nicely sharpened. It was a good luck charm in some ways and a reassurance in others. I was a test-taker at heart and I needed to score high on this exam to compensate for my poor practical score.

The questions were on magic theory, including an amount on Siege Code. I flew through the questions and was the first one to turn in my exam.

I waited outside for Rei. She took another half hour, and was the fifth person to leave the room. When she walked out of the doorway, I greeted her.

“So?” I said. “How do you think you did?”

“Good enough,” said Rei. “Even if I didn’t do as good as I could have, my practical score should shore me up in the selection process.”

I sighed. “Well, you and me are both in this to win.”

“I’m looking to get a scholarship,” said Rei. She frowned. “Though I don’t know about your chances.”

“We’ve been over this,” I said. “I make enough money with my blog to support even an expensive school like Rockwell. I won’t have to take out loans.”

“How does your blog generate so much money?” said Rei.

“It’s best if you don’t ask,” I said.

I, of course, did not operate a popular and profitable blog. I was simply paid lots of money to do Siege Code and other development as Regius Alnum. Part of my contract, during high school, was to keep my identity a secret. I wasn’t that worried about being known to be a famous magical engineer, but the companies I worked for, and the government, seemed to want to keep my identity under wraps. I was smart enough not to dig too deep into that one. There had to be some sort of reason for it but I hadn’t asked and didn’t want to.

We walked together, silent, until we reached our two houses. Rei stopped at her door.

“See you tomorrow,” she said, hesitating for a moment.

“See you then,” I said, turning around and walking to my own door.

“Hey,” said Rei.

I turned to look at her. She paused.

“Good luck,” she said.

“Thanks,” I said. I opened my door and entered.

Now that I had some free time, I decided it would be productive to finish some of the work I had been contracted to do. Again, I was working on Project Canal, a government funded initiative to create tracking modules that were easier to use than the ones currently in production. I was on the Siege Code wing of the development and was senior design engineer. I had a lot of code to look through, compile, and debug before the project could be declared finished. I spent the rest of the night doing some of that.

I was alone in my house but I felt someone watching me. I turned around in my chair and looked at the doorway to my office.

A shadow stood in between the door frames.

“Agnis?” I said, tilting my head.

The shadow approached me. “York,” it said.

The shadow was an apparition named Agnis who worked for the government and occasionally came to me with requests. He was not a reaper, though he was of the same magical genus. His shadowy form had no boundaries and it was hard to see where his body ended and his aura began.

“What do you need from me?” I said.

“Don’t go to Rockwell,” Agnis said. “You don’t need to. You make twice as much money as any graduate from the academy.”

“It’s not about the money, Agnis,” I said. “There are things that I can learn there that I can’t anywhere else.”

“You intend to use your status as a student at Rockwell to access the Grimoires?” said Agnis.

“Yes,” I said. “Rockwell has three specific grimoires that I need to get my hands on.”

Agnis sighed, which was a deep sound that puffed through his shadowy form. “You do not need to know those things,” he said.

“Did you come here just to tell me that?” I asked.

Agnis shook his black, misty head. Smoke swirled around his neck. “I came here to warn you. You are going to find that being a student at Rockwell will be more difficult than you expect.”

“I’m prepared for academic difficulty,” I said.

“Not that,” said Agnis. “A different kind.”

“Then tell me about it,” I said.

Agnis shook his head again. “No. I can’t.” His form began to shimmer. “I need to go now.”

“Has Crystal said anything?” I said.

Agnis was about to disappear. “No,” he said, his voice fading. “She expects you to continue work no matter the circumstances.” And then he dissolved into mist.

I turned back to my computer. Agnis had a small amount of precognitive ability, and so I needed to take his warning more seriously than if it had come from someone else. Rockwell was dangerous? And the reapers. What did they want with me? I had the feeling that I was peeking into a deeper conspiracy.

I pushed those thoughts away and continued my work on the computer.

I noticed another presence behind me about ten minutes later. “Rei,” I said, without looking.

“York,” said Rei. I turned to look at her. She was in her underwear, but it was not something that surprised me.

“You need your devices calibrated?” I said. This was a normal routine between us that happened about twice a month. The only question I had was why she picked today.

Clothing had the effect of dampening psionic waves, but we did have to maintain a modicum of modesty. As such, Rei wore as little as possible to keep her pride intact while allowing for good readings.

I pressed a button on my console. The walls folded in and a padded operation table rose from the ground. The whole room turned into a medical theater.

Rei walked to the table and got onto it. I took off her dual casting devices and plugged them into my console. A stream of data flowed across the multiple screens. I did some typing and option selecting and then turned to Rei.

“You’ve been experiencing breakage?” I said, not really as a question.

“A little,” said Rei. She turned her head away.

“Hm,” I said. “It shouldn’t be that bad, according to my readouts.”

“I want to be in the best shape I can be,” said Rei. “I have a feeling I’ll need to precision soon.”

“Have you been visited by any apparitions?” I said.

Rei was silent for a good long while. “Maybe,” she said. “I just have the feeling that I’m going to need my casting ability at some point in the near future.”

I thought about it for a minute and then turned to my console. “Stay still,” I said, as I initiated the scanning process. I took out the handheld scanner and walked over to where Rei was laying. Using the device, I scanned her entire body, making sure to keep my motions regular so that I covered all of the necessary points.

“Hm,” I said. “You seem to have a little bit more energy coming from your second psionic node.”

“Ah,” said Rei. “I’ve been practicing heating things instead of just cooling them.”

“Well, it’s showing results,” I said. I continued to scan her. “Anyways, you don’t seem to be that off the mark.” I shut off the scanner. “Give me a moment.”

Rei sat up on the table and covered herself with her hands. She paused there, not doing anything.

“You should put your clothes back on,” I said.

“Okay,” said Rei, pausing for a moment. She then got off the table and took a step towards me. She appeared to think for a minute and then turned around and retrieved her clothes.

Today she was wearing a long white skirt with a lace covering and a frilled top. It wasn’t the most practical of outfits but I did think it suited her form well. She walked up behind me and watched as I coded into her devices the new calibrated data.

It took about fifteen minutes. When I was done I handed the devices back to her.

“It should hold for two weeks,” I said. “After that come back.” I pressed another button on my console and the exam room disappeared.

The room was, actually, not intended for my use. My father was a medical magic researcher and used this office to test the various magic beasts he acquired on his journeys. I had repurposed it for calibration of casting devices, but its original purpose was to provide information for my father’s research. My father was, in fact, one of the most famous xenobiology experts in the field. He and my mother both did great research that contributed a large amount to our knowledge of magic and how it interacted with living creatures.

Rei took her two casting devices and smiled at me before turning around and leaving the office. I returned to my work and spent the rest of the night trying to find a specific bug in the Project Canal code.

The next morning I woke up to the smell of breakfast. It was Rei, of course, and it was normal for her to cook breakfast for us in the morning.

I walked into the kitchen. I stopped.

“Tetra?” I said. “Jade?”

Tetra and Jade turned to look at me from where they were sitting at the table.

“Hello there,” said Tetra, with a slight grin.

“Rei invited us over,” said Jade, tilting her head.

“But you live on the other side of town,” I said.

“It is not often that I get to eat food cooked by a friend,” said Tetra.

Jade nodded.

“Okay, then,” I said. “The more the merrier, I guess.”

“Jade and I have our written exam today,” said Tetra. “It would do us well to start the day off with a wholesome meal.”

“Well,” I said, “Eating does send more blood from the brain to the stomach,” I said.

“Ah, posh,” said Tetra. She waved her hand dismissively. “I have always had good luck on exams after eating well.” She held out an empty bowl. “More please!”

“Coming right up,” said Rei, filling the bowl with rice and egg.

Tetra tucked in to her seconds. I sat down at the table and examined the two. Jade appeared to be off in her own world of thought. Tetra’s eyes, on the other hand, were surreptitiously examining every inch of our living and dining room.

“Quite quaint, isn’t it?” said Tetra, after a pause. “I never do understand the decoration habits of commoners.”

“We’re not in the fifteenth century,” I said, just meaning to poke at her.

“Ah,” said Tetra, “But social hierarchies still exist. And they are a good thing that must be respected. The rich improve the plight of the poor, of the masses, and so must receive their reward.”

“I don’t know if I’d buy that,” said Rei, handing me a bowl of rice. “I think being rich has its merits, but often times people don’t get rich by doing good things.”

“Pollycock,” said Tetra. She waved her spoon with a delicate touch. “Someone has to be on top.”

“We can have this argument later,” said Rei, sitting down to her own meal. “In the meantime, eat up.”

And so we began our day.