Mage's Cup Day 1

Lionel stood in one of six lines of contestants. Seba stood in front of him whispering with the other competitors in line. At the heads of each Line was a Professor. Matthew was the only Professor who did not have a line. Instead Matthew was walking between each of the teachers. The prospective students would each take a turn and step in front of the assigned teacher. That teacher would then start a small practical exam of magic to test the contestant. That was then followed by a physical examination with an Enchanted medallion.

The Professor of Lionel's line was a young woman who appeared to be in her mid thirties. The boy could tell that the teacher was a beauty even from this distance. Lionel watched with keen interest as a new contestant stepped up in front of the thirty-ish year old Teacher. The competitor was a boy of perhaps thirteen and was completely enthralled by the older woman. The older woman called out different elements as the young boy tried to summon them. Lionel could tell that the boy was struggling after only a few seconds of the test, but the woman still pushed him on. The boy couldn't summon elements quickly and on top of that he couldn't summon more than one element. A stern expression appeared on the teacher's face. Lionel couldn't tell what the woman was saying, but by the sudden slump of the boys shoulders, he could tell it wasn't good.

"That's Nora. Seems like we don't have much luck since we got stuck in her line." Seba had been watching the young boy as well. He looked over at Lionel and continued. "She is the youngest Professor in the history of the school, but man, She is a cold one." Seba shook his head as he finished speaking.

"How do you know so much about the academy and it's professors?" Lionel couldn't help but be curious about Seba considering how much information the boy knew.

Instead of Seba looking dejected by the question like Lionel thought he would, Seba smiled slyly. "Simple, I live just outside of Kylia."

Lionel didn't quite understand, but he wasn't about to make himself look stupid. If Seba said it was simple, he would just go along with it. Still there was a question that was bugging Lionel. "Do you live in the small houses just outside of the walls?"

Seba's eyes tightened slightly as he responded to Lionel. "What of it?"

Lionel could tell his question put Seba off. By the other boy's reaction Lionel gathered that the people outside the wall were looked down upon. He tried to smooth it over quickly. "Well I saw them on my way into Kylia. This is my first time to this city and I don't know much about it. So I was just making sure you didn't mean a nearby village."

Seba's eyes softened as he understood. "Well there's not many villages nearby. But yeah I am from the 'Shack' village just outside the wall."

Seba began explaining some of the ins and outs of the city to Lionel. Although he had been in the city for more than a month, Lionel's training had allowed little time to explore and learn more about Kylia. They continued talking with Lionel asking questions and Seba answering them all to the best of his ability.

Lionel learned that there were five classes in Kylian society; Peasant, Merchant, Lower Nobility, Upper Nobility, and Finally the Royal bloodline. Peasants and Merchants were the driving force of the economy. the peasants would work the fields or perform manual labor for Merchants. The Merchants and Lower Royals had almost the same standing in society. Merchants would hire guards from Lower Noble houses to protect their goods and caravans. Seba didn't know much more about the Upper Nobility and Royal bloodline than Lionel already knew.

Lionel began to understand how important being a mage truly was to peasants. Lower and Upper Nobility would adopt mages from the Royal academy into the lower echelons of their families. Those mages that were adopted into Royal families then would fill the ranks of the national army. Any mages not adopted by royal families would be snapped up quickly by merchants. Lionel could tell that Mages held an important role in society and Seba confirmed that with his next statement.

"All mages who are accepted into the academy are trained for at least two years. If they show promise, the training can last for up to ten years, and it is fully paid for by the Nobility." Lionel fully understood that any money spent had to be for an important reason. Money was the grease the moved everything in life after all. Even if the royal families didn't quickly adopt the mages they would still move up at least one class in life.

Lionel had been watching other contestants during his conversation with Seba, and he was begining to understand how strong mages his age were. There were people from the ages of ten to twenty in each of the lines. Magic didn't seem to show any pattern for those who were blessed with it's talent and those who weren't. There were ten year olds who could use more than one element, and then there were eighteen years olds who could barely summon one. Even still there were others that seemed blessed with the skill to summon each element. Lionel was yet to see someone summon every element at the same time though. Also he could tell that all of the summoned elements were misshapen and lacked something he couldn't explain.

Lionel stood quietly watching the lines slowly shuffle forward. The sun was over the horizon and it would be dusk in about an hour. He was slowly drawing to the front of his line when a question popped into his head. "Say, Seba, which social class do you think you will end up in?"

Seba mused for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. "Mhmm.. Dunno, but anything is better than where I was."

"How do they determine the mages skill with that medallion?" Lionel had been watching the others performing magic for the professors. Some of the participants who had shown up couldn't perform the practical magic exam. The professors would still do the physical with the medallions. If the physical exam showed potential the contestants would still be accepted to participate. If the physical showed no potential for the competitor, they wouldn't be accepted and thus would have to leave the Coliseum. Lionel wasn't too worried about being turned away, his concern came from being an Enthraller. Drindle had told him before that the Silver Medallion, Lionel wore, would protect him from "those cheap knock-offs" gathering any information about Lionel's status.

Seba's sun tanned face had a far away look as he answered. "Well that is an Elemental Stone that also Identifies how strong a mages can become. although... I'm not sure how it works, I only know about it because I heard the older repeaters talking about it."

Lionel knew what a Repeater was. That was the name given to people who had come back year after year, trying to get accepted into the academy. The Elemental Stone was just a term used to represent an imbued item that could tell the main element of a mage. Lionel had experienced Drindle's already. For some reason He felt like Drindle's was more powerful than what the professors were using. 'oh well... my turns almost here.' Lionel thought to himself.

Seba was next up and Lionel watched intently. Nora motioned for Seba to step forward. Her eyes weren't on the boy stepping forward though. Instead she held a stern stare towards Lionel. She spoke to Seba without taking her eyes off of Lionel. "Earth." followed by a pause as Seba closed his eyes. A misshapen orb of earth energy floated in the air in front of sun tanned youth. "Air." the singing voice spoke. nothing happened. "Fire." A small flame flickered for only an instant before sputtering out. "Water." Again nothing happened. "Lightening." nothing could be seen, but a light crackling noise could be hear for a brief moment.

Nora didn't ask for any other elements for a few seconds which prompted the close-eyed Seba to open his eyes with a broad smile. He thought he had passed with flying colors since the notorious teacher stopped quickly. He turned towards Lionel and winked with a confident smile. Only when he looked at Nora did he realize the teacher was more captivated by Lionel than she was by his skill. Seba looked between Professor Nora and Lionel wanting to know what was going on.

Nora turned and walked toward Seba. In her hand she held the Enchanted Medallion. she walked around the boy a few times before speaking. "Class 5 Earth Mage. You're approved. Go to the other side of the field and see Professor Richard for your next instructions."

Seba smiled again although not quite as confidently as before. He looked at Lionel and spoke. "I'll see ya over there." Seba then walked to the other side of the field.

Seba had already told Lionel that the classes of mages were broken out by each element. The academy did it that way to make it easier to group like strength prospects. There was a class one elemental mage through a class six elemental mage. The Class One mage was the highest and considered strongest, while the Class Six mage was the lowest and would be considered the weakest.

Matthew walked over from one of the other lines and stood behind Nora. He spoke loudly for everyone to hear. "This will be the final contestant tested tonight. Anyone who has not been tested, will need to return tomorrow morning at 8 am." the majority of the crowd had already gone home. Only members of the royal families were left. Lionel could tell they were royals due to their clothes and crest emblazoned on their chests.

At that announcement, each of the leading participants walked forward to their respective professor. Lionel stepped forward as Nora narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure about this?" She whispered over her shoulder at Matthew. The man just nodded in reply. She sighed before speaking. "Ok then, here we go."