The First Weekly Exercise Test

"First, you attack me, then, you ignore me, and now, you're threatening me. All I want to do is take the exercise test just like everyone else!" Sky's voice came out high pitched and strangled. Instructor Drakkon glared icily at her, and her lip started trembling.

Disgusted by everything, Sky swiftly crossed to the door and passed through it, slamming it closed behind her with a force that shook the walls. Her shoulders hunched as she heard wood crack behind her. She couldn't help it; the tears fell. Leaning her forehead against the cool, dark stones of the opposite wall, she drove her fist into it as hard as she could. It was all so useless. Everything was always, all so useless.

"Show me your hand," an irritated, cool voice ordered. Sky looked guiltily to her right and saw Aven standing there, having clearly just come out of the nearby open door. He looked impeccable, unlike he had the day he'd gotten her situated here at school. Sky dashed her right hand at her eyes. It stung when her salty tears hit her knuckles, which had been cracked open by the rough stones of the wall.

"I'm sorry," she said and began to turn away. Aven caught her right hand and tugged her backwards. The tears that wouldn't stop coursed down Sky's cheeks. Aven gently touched his green glowing fingertip to the back of her hand. A stingy warmth filled it and quickly dissipated. The skin across her knuckles was now unbroken, healed.

"Why are you crying again?" Aven demanded irritably as he dropped her hand and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I. Instructor Drakkon wouldn't let me take the exercise test because I'm not an active student. I've been studying for it all week, and I waited all day. It's—I hate it here, but I have no alternatives. I'm trapped," Sky replied miserably. She struggled to hold back the sobs as she said aloud what she felt. She rubbed her eyes again. Aven impassively watched her.

"Can you do the exercise?" he asked.

Sky nodded emphatically, "yes, I've been working on them all week."

Aven sighed heavily and said, "fine. Come on. I'll give you the test, but you only get one chance. I do not want to be here all day." He turned and walked back into the classroom. Sky stared at him in disbelief.

Pausing at the door, he said, "If you don't want to…" He let the sentence trail off as Sky hastily followed him.

"No, I want to," she said and gave him a watery smile. Aven nodded and grabbed a brown canvas bag from the corner of his desk and held it out.

"Oh, we're starting with XiFi," Sky said. XiFi was this week's Spoken Magic exercise. The goal was to imbue the bag with good luck. The student would reach into the bag; then he or she would withdraw something helpful, like a strength potion. This would prove that the spell had worked.

Xi was a prefix attached to the root Fi, good luck. It meant that on a scale from one to ten the spell casted at a power level of ten, Xi. This was called power scaling. Each level from one to ten had its own prefix. XiFi meant casting the spell Fi at maximum power.

Sky, fixing her eyes on the bag and imagining it filled to the brim with the happy, warm feelings she associated with good luck, she cast the spell. "XiFi," she said. As soon as she spoke the words, she felt the familiar feeling of the world pausing, and the colors inverted the way they should when Spoken Magic worked. Then, the split second passed, and she shoved her hand in the bag.

"No! Wait! Take your hand out!" Aven exclaimed. He seemed alarmed by something. Sky tried to do as he asked, but she couldn't. A smooth metal loop had slipped around her index finger.

"Uh…" she uttered as she tried again to tug her hand back out. It wouldn't budge. "I can't. I'm stuck." Aven's expression became a mix of fear and anger. Sky felt something cold and sharp push into the skin of her palm. She sucked in a breath as whatever it was broke her skin and slid deeper. "Oww," she gasped. Then suddenly, it withdrew, and her hand was now free. She pulled it from the bag. Around her index finger, about half-way down its length, was a ring. It was clearly very old from how soft and tarnished it looked. A sparkling greenish black stone was set on top of the band. Aven stared at it and immediately tried to pull it off her finger. It wouldn't come free.

Sky blinked. It, all of a sudden, seemed like the world fuzzed. The air seemed to have gotten significantly warmer, and she had trouble catching her breath. Aven looked up from the ring as he heard her breathing change. Sky swayed and clutched her head, trying to steady herself.

"I have to go," she told him faintly. Aven grabbed her before she could stagger away.

"To the infirmary? I'll take you," he said with concern apparent in his normally cool voice.

"Not a student, remember, I can't go infirm—g-going to room," she swayed again and pitched as her legs gave out. From far away it seemed, she heard Aven's voice calling for her, but eventually, even that faded into the blackness like her sight already had.