Erlem

The next morning Erlem was in an exceptionally good mood. He got himself ready for the day humming a tune he had thought up.

Stanley had left for breakfast ahead of Erlem. the boys had shared the same bedroom their whole lives. It had a bunkbed, a pair of trunks, some book cases, an two desks.

Erlems desk was covered in parchments and quills and books, while stanley's had sweets and a much smaller stack of school supplies across it.

Stanley was talented at making little gadgets and toys, the headmistress thought he may make a good engineer for the capitol or perhaps a stone mason with his large build.

Erlem pulled the broomstick he had made for Jasmine out from under his bed and found some brown paper, he whispered the curses incantation on the broom, purple veins of light materialized. They strated from the bristle portion of the broom up the end of the handle. He wrapped the broom with the paper and enchanted it to become bright purple wrapped in a red bow. He took out a piece of parchment and wrote "Happy Birthday Jasmine, may you always be a good friend." Erlem chuckled as he rolled the parchment up and tucked it into the largest bow.

Lessons had been canceled for everyone, including Erlem so everyone could enjoy the party. Since Jasmine would be leaving in the morning to go to the citadel and most of the children probably wouldn't see her again so today was her goodbye party as well.

Erlem entered an archegate down the hall from the farm room archegate, it had the symbol of a knife and fork on the door. Erlem entered the gate and entered a large dining hall with enough space to seat five hundred people.

The room was halfway to capacity, the twenty or so students the headmistress had brought with her was just some who had earned market privileges. There were also other mages there who helped care for the children. Everyone was in attendance from the orphanage, even magestrate Huxley and a couple other magestrate officials.

Erlem made his way to a table stacked high with gifts from the orphanage and the magestrate. Some of the children had also gotten Jasmine gifts, some made her trinkets and some of the little mages made her enchanted flowers that would hum if you sang to them.

He placed his gift amongst the pile and took off to enjoy the birthday dinner that was prepared all the while itching with anticipation for Jasmine to get her new broomstick.

Erlem found a seat at one of the tables next to Stanley, the orphanage had indeed prepared one of the pigs and Erlem was stacking his plate with cuts of porkbelly, mash potatoes and pixie greens. He and Stanley would peek over at Jasmine from time to time then look at each other and laugh and then continue to eat.

Jasmine was at another table amongst a group of girls who were close to the same age as she was, a few of the girls were common folk and hung on Jasmines every word. Erlem could hear Jasmine gushing over her leaving for the citadel "i hear the students get pocket money to buy thing when they leave the school for trips", one of the girls was saying to Jasmine " i heard every student has their own room and top students get the best rooms!" A pretty little blonde witch in pig tails was saying, swearing that her sister was in the citadel in school, " I bet this time next year youll be in a room on the highest floor Jasmine!" Jasmine agreed, Her ego at this point could have filled the room ten times over.

"Too bad youre not as good as Erlem!" One of the young boys said, he wasnt much older than five or six and he was wearing black robes that were a little too big for the boy, and slight more worn. " Erlem is the best mage in all of the orphanage!" Jasmines face turned red, it was HER party and Erlem was still shadowing her. " If he's so good why doesnt he have a daemon yet? ALL Autumn witches gave daemon!" She laughed as one of the girls out a big paper crown on her head as Headmistress Pinelope used a spell to float her to the center of the dining hall.

She landed with a soft thud into a chair that seemingly morphed into a giant pink throne. One by one the present on the table floated and placed them selves at Jasmines feet, all but Erlems give. The broomstick slowily made its way passed the line of gives getting into a spot like materialistic little soldiers and placed itself at her feet.

Jasmine looked at the wrapping paper, it looked like the night sky the way the glitter refracted from the lights of the dining hall. She pulled the parchment from the big bow, she read the note and smiled. " I cant wait to see what this is! It feels like a broom!"

The other kids began to crowd around Jasmine, she began to tare open the paper, she let out a high pitch squeel that pierced the dining halls acoustics and cracking a couple of wine glasses at the faculty table.

Jasmine held the jet black broomstick, looking awestruck as the light refracted off the hints of white specs inlayed in the handle.

" I cant wait till morning I have to give this thing a whirl!" Jasmine jumped on and took off around the dining hall, the broom moved in the air effortlessly, Jasmine could take a corner on a dime even going full speed.

Jasmine came to a stop floating above the back of her chair. The headmistress would only allow her to ride around the hall for a short while, she didnt want to push her luck and maybe get in trouble on her last night.

" That broomstick will be a nice addition for you at the citadel, you can go into the city by the sea or come back home to visit." Erlem said

He pushed his way up front until he was standing in front of Jasmine, " I wont see you again for a couple of years so I though you should have something to remember me by."

Erlem played as innocent as he could without hamming it up too much, he knew her ego would allow him to butter her up so she didnt suspect the broom was a trick.

" How did you afford a broomstick this nice! You didnt steal it did you?" The headmistress asked, Erlem was not known to steal but he didnt really have money to buy a broomstick that nice.

" No headmistress I made it." The faculty all laughed and the headmistress accepted that answer, she could see the small imperfections she hadnt noticed before, not things a broomstick maker would be prone to make.

" Where did you get the wood? Iv never seen that before." Huxley had walked over to get a closer look " is this an enchantment You've used to make the wood look like this?"

" its from a shadow cherry maple sir, only Autumn witches can get it." Erlem hoped Huxley wouldn't inspect it too closely, Huxley smiled " So this is a shadow species, iv never seen any shadow woods before." Huxley stepped back and asked the question everyone wanted to know " how did you make it fly?"

Erlem explained he used four low rank enchantments instead of the two master class enchantments Broom makers used. The truth was he used two of the enchantments and the brooms shelf life was incredibly limited, it would have five or six good rides in it before all the enchantments wore off.

"Now you have to name it, once you do that broom will only recognize you as its owner." Erlem had finally set his trap. Also, to Erlems delight the headmistress had drank a bit too much with her supper making her pay less attention to Erlem and the broomstick and more focused on Huxley.

They were shamelessly flirting, the headmistress was leaning in close to Huxley giggling as she whispered into his ear. His face blushed a red brighter than the fire maples leaves in late October.

Jasmine looked at the broom and thought for a moment, " I will name you Comet's flame!" .