School Days

During the first days of school, I was full of expectations. Everything was very new to me, and I was eager to absorb every detail of the new world, including every subject.

But god, I was so wrong.

Apart from the theoretical lectures on the history of magic and the history of the world. I was struggling with all the practical subjects. I simply couldn't understand them.

That day, the teacher asked us to try something basic, a simple ball of water. It was the first real exercise any student learned, something that everybody could perform easily.

I took a deep breath, holding the amber stone before me, repeating the same gestures I'd seen her demonstrate. To my surprise, I felt an energy flow through the palm of my hand, and in front of me appeared a small transparent sphere. It wobbled like jelly, on the verge of collapse.

"Let the threads flow, do not press them," said the teacher. "It's like a loom, interweaving each line into the other, until it forms what you desire."

Lines? Threads? All I saw was a quivering blob of goo, unstable and twitching. Until... it exploded, spashing water everywhere. Some of my classmates laughed, while their spheres remained perfect.

"Are you sure you're in the right school?"

"If you wanted to wash the desk, you could have said."

"..."

Kael, Mira, and Brann. The local noble trio.

Kael was their leader, with short, black hair and a sharp posture. Mira was a girl with long blonde hair and violet-coloured eyes. A goddess when she had her mouth shut. And then Brann, a giant, muscle-bound gorilla. He didn't talk much, but his stance and piercing stare were enough to give me chills.

Together, the three of them seemed to exist for the sole purpose of tormenting me. And while I struggled to learn magic, I still had to endure their discreet laughter and their sarcastic comments.

"You should worry more about your own bubbles," said a voice beside me.

Darin Falk. A student with blonde, messy hair who, when he wasn't sleeping during classes, was noisy and loud, the very definition of annoying. Someone whom I had mentally nicknamed 'weird kisser'. He was my roommate.

"Cut it out and focus on the exercise," the teacher scolded us.

Kael and his crew turned their attention back to the water spheres in front of them, but not before one last cynical laugh toward me.

The four of them were in the same classes as me, but they had enrolled a bit earlier. Still, we had ended up in the same course. And much to my misery, schools here shared many similarities with those back in my world, like the presence of these kinds of people.

"You shouldn't let them talk to you like that," Darin muttered.

"And do what? I can't even pull off a single basic spell."

"One punch would be enough."

That was Darin's way. Always direct, always practical. He didn't think too much about how he'd solve a problem, just did the first thing that came to mind, without worrying about the consequences.

After our first encounter in the dorm, he started getting close to me during class. At first, I thought it was to make sure I wouldn't tell anyone about what I'd seen. But before I knew it, his company had become a habit.

"If you want, I can teach you how to handle yourself."

"Like last time?"

"Hey, that was an accident."

"An accident that left me with a cold for three days."

"I already apologized,"

"And I still didn't accept it."

Despite appearances, he did relatively well in all classes. He came from a noble family, but a minor one, almost forgotten, without significant achievements or influence in the capital. His father had served as a royal mage for years, and once he retired, he chose a piece of land in the countryside as a refuge. Built a simple house and lived far away from the city's noise and politics.

Primarily because of his father, Darin grew up surrounded by books and stories about his dad. While other boys played with sticks pretending to be swords, he was already practicing simple spells and learning the flow of the threads.

To him, magic was something natural, something he had had since he was young. But to me, it was all an invisible wall, one frustration after another. Would I one day have the same ease with magic as he, or was I doomed to live trying?

***

After our beginner magic class, Darin and I headed to history class.

Since it wasn't a practical lesson, I could be more relaxed. The topic that day was the Ten Primordial Masters, legendary figures who had shaped the main branches of magic. Each one had molded a specific area, leaving marks that survived for centuries.

My favorites were Neruthis, who refined water magic, and Velkash, known almost as a god of fire. There was also Veyndar, the swordsman who turned magical threads into blades and was often called the father of arcane combat.

Of course, there were many others. Among them was the enigmatic god of summoning. Little was known about them, except for stories passed down by word of mouth. Their books, when found, were written in an ancestral language no one had ever managed to decipher. Maybe it was just a detail to most people, but for me, it meant another barrier between me and my search for my sister.

Most of the class didn't care about all that. To them, history was just a waste of time. They used the time to have side conversations or just take a nap. Darin was one of the latter. While I tried to absorb every word the teacher said, he leaned back lazily in his chair, oblivious to the weight of what was being told.

"Haru~," he said sleepily. "Wake me up when the class is over, please."

"As if I would."

"Thanks."

When the class finally ended, I poked the one next to me who seemed almost dead. He woke up startled.

"Is it over already?"

"Yes, and I had to check if you were breathing. I thought you were dead."

He yawned and stretched his arms.

"Didn't even get a good rest."

After that, I said goodbye to him and went to do my studies with Professor Arven, as I always did.

When I opened the office door, I found him standing by the window, hands clasped behind his back, with a sheet of paper floating in front of him. The orange light of sunset streamed into the room, illuminating his serious and focused face. His attention was locked onto the paper, as if it held a secret key to uncover a great mystery.

"What is that, professor?"

"This, Haru," he said, turning to me. "Could be the key to discovering everything. Even finding your sister."

My heart accelerated. Could we have finally found a real lead? But it was too early. Since I'd arrived, our research about summoning hadn't advanced that much... and now, suddenly, he was talking about answers?

With a gesture, he made the paper glide through the air in my direction. I snatched it eagerly.

But as soon as I read it, my excitement was shattered. It wasn't a lost tome of summoning, nor the sketch of a forgotten magic circle.

It was an application form for the Annual Tournament of the Andratia Magic School.

The distance between me and my sister had only grown wider, not closer.