Chapter 14

I thought I would have longer. How much longer I hadn’t really considered, but the looming prospect of a captain returning to judge my eligibility was a thought I had hoped to procrastinate on, focusing on searching for Tobian and how to get out of here safely.

But there was a storm coming, named Captain Hector.

I didn’t know what to say, but I didn’t have to fill any empty conversation, as the meal was over. Andor took the lead bringing us back to the room where Scolffice was waiting for us.

As soon as we were all seated, Scolffice pulled a glass jar from his cloak pocket. I leaned forward, trying to see what was inside as he held it up without a word, letting the small yellow pills inside capture everyone’s attention. There were murmurs as attentions focused on him, the idle chatter dying only to pick back up again in more suppressed but excited tones.

“This, for those that don’t seem to be aware,” he finally spoke, silencing everyone, “is Soulsleep.”

The boy to my left pounded his fist against his desk excitedly. Christopher, just past him, looked unenthused, contrasting the rest of the room.

Scolffice started on the other side, just two chairs ahead of Christopher. “Lucy,” he addressed the seat’s occupant, “while one of the most common type of dragon is fire breathing, what are the other major variants?”

The girl looked thoughtful for a moment. “The two other major variants and burrowing and kite dragons, sir,” she answered dutifully.

Scolffice nodded, reached into the jar, and placed a yellow pill on her desk. Lucy’s hands shot around it, cupping it protectively as if it were precious gold that we may have all been after.

“Jean.” He nodded to the boy behind Lucy who I recognized as part of the Sandun group. “Why are the three juvenile training compounds and this training compound intersect over the capital?”

The boy took no time to think about the answer. “So that there are mages guarding the north, south, east, and west of the king.”

“Correct.” Scolffice placed a pill on his desk. Unlike Lucy, Jean boasted a proud grin as he let it sit there, silently flaunting it.

“Christopher,” Scolffice continued, “The maigoid mining rights that we hold reside in which two countries?”

“Aphilan and Crutie.” Christopher also did not take time before answering.

Scolffice’s eyebrows furrowed, an impressive feat given how stationary they generally seemed. “...No.” The single syllable was weighed down with an anchor of disappointment. “And you know it.” He continued to the back of the row. “Lucian, what distinct property of maigoid metal is the reason that we care so much about the mining of it?”

Lucian smirked at the back of Christopher’s head, not that the other boy was even looking. “It has the capacity to absorb mana, making it untargetable for magic.” He sounded so smug I nearly cringed.

“Good, good,” Sculffice commended him. He continued his questioning, finishing the first column before stepping back and continuing from the front again. Each member of our group after Christopher was awarded a yellow Soulsleep pill. Upon finishing the second column, he continued with the student behind me, asking a question and getting an answer.

“Ren.” I stiffened as he, predictably but still uncannily, came up behind me. “In what aspect of the mage determines their aptitude for different types of magic?”

I didn’t move, still stiff as I had no recollection in the moment of what the answer could be. I barely understood the question. We had been going over so much. I was struggling to retain a minority of it; the geography, the politics, the science, the magic theory, the—

“I’m waiting,” Scolffice prodded. His foot was already tapping before I realized, an increasing beat I had mistaken for my own heart.

“The mage’s soul?” I didn’t mean to make it sound like a question back but that was how it came out.

“...Ren,” Scolffice sighed, his gravely voice straining my ears, “you should be well aware, even with your background, that the key to a mage’s aptitude is from the magisoul.”

Right, the magisoul, and the person it came from, determines what a mage was strong at. He did mention that this morning, though in passing as if it was only a review. It was only more clear now that I was behind the others as they surely learnt it on their first day.

Scolffice moved on to Sarah in front of me. “And you,” he grumbled, not at all sounding optimistic. “In what year of our nation was the alliance with the Baostalin Empire finalized?”

“I don’t think it ever truly was,” she replied with a shrug.

“That is not what was taught this morning.”

“Then my final answer is…” she looked pensive for a moment, “the orange year.”

“Of course it is,” Scolffice grumbled as he moved onto the front row, not giving her a pill either.

The next five students, the one in front of Sarah and the final column of four, all gave their teacher the appropriate answers; one question about dragons, a trick question on foreign politics, two more on magic theory, and a final one asking about the purpose of the military mage division. “To uphold the might of the nation!” was the response given and upon hearing that Scolffice actually cracked what could tentatively be called a smile, barring any examples to compare it against.

“Most of you did well,” Scolffice announced as he returned back to the front of the room. “A dozen correct answers, though I was hoping for the entirety of your group.” His eyes flickered to me, Christopher, and Sarah for just a split second. “As you can assume, performance will be rewarded accordingly. Do well in your training and you will be given a nightly dose of Soulsleep. That is all for today.”

On cue, Bradey came in, shadowed in the threshold of the room by Andor and Brontus. “Sun’s already almost down, so lights out in ten,” he announced. There was no rush, but also no hesitation. Each youth seemed to step with a newfound peace as we flowed into the hall. I had already seen some swallow the pill inside the room and the last took the walk to get it down, save the three of us that did not receive it.

In about three minutes we made it back to the dormitory hall. Each of us filtered back into our respective rooms, electricity in the air as the mood was far more excited than the previous night, even if kept under control.

I entered our shared room right behind Christopher. He said nothing as he began to disrobe while pulling pajamas out of the bottom drawer of his dresser. I turned and began doing the same, trying to keep pace lest he turn around before I was done.

“So, do you know what two countries that… mining something or other are in?” I asked while still facing away, blanking on the actual details of his test question.

“Maigoid mining rights,” came the voice behind me. “And yeah.”

“And you got it wrong?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you know the answer?”

There was a pause before another, “Yeah.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. I just nodded, not that I thought he would see it, as I crawled into bed, pulling the blanket over myself. I stared up at the ceiling, a normally bland plaster that instead danced with the final twilight glow. I didn’t know what to make of Christopher; he went against a grain I couldn’t yet identify, only contrast against. “You and Harley didn’t really seem to get along,” I pointed out, unsure if it should have been a question. “You’re both from training compounds, right? So aren’t you alike in that way?”

Christopher snorted, sounding insulted by the insinuation. “We’re nothing alike.”

“Even if you came from different sides of the country that doesn’t mean that—”

“It’s not about location,” he said with a long sigh. “It’s what probably makes me different from all the rest of you.”

I puzzled over that, trying to figure out the key detail as he seemed resistant to elaboration. “So, what was with the manacles on your desk?” I asked, remembering the question that had popped into my head in the morning, which Harley reminded me of but I didn’t get to ask. It stood out to me as the biggest main difference between him and everyone else, myself included.

“It’s… complicated,” he grumbled. I heard his bed rustle and I glanced over to see him facing the wall.

“Hmm? But what… about…”

“Hnnnnn… kssssss… hnnnnn… kssssss…”

My voice tapered off as I heard him snoring softly. No way someone falls asleep that fast, I thought to myself. And does he even snore? I was asleep myself before him and woke up afterwards for the single night we had shared the room though, so I had no way to know what his regular sleep sounded like.

“Wait, but I was also wondering what those pills were for,” I said just as much to him as myself. They seemed like some sort of sleep aid, if the name didn’t make it obvious, but the buzz of anticipation in the room didn’t sit right with me. I would have preferred to ask one of the two people that seemed to willingly turn it down, but he wasn’t up for talking. Either he was genuinely asleep or just keeping up the act, as the light snoring continued. I sighed, rolling over to face the wall, even as the last red of sunset shrank to nothing, and let the night come.