Calla said her final goodbyes to Era and the cart driver. “Thank you for taking care of me on this journey, Era.” She bowed, placing one of the bracelets she’d made into the old woman’s hand.

Era’s milky eyes took in the bright red bead and leather craftsmanship. She smiled, placing her hand on Calla’s shoulder, who was standing next to the cart. “I wish you luck in your path as a young mage, Calla. Change the world.”

With that final exchange, Calla set off into the streets of Honor with her bag, her sword, and her hope.

. . .

Honor was just as ornate as Order but triple the size. It was overwhelming to the country girl. There were hundreds of thousands of people all living in the city, plus thousands of tourists and business-goers. Calla managed to find a large map posted in the middle of some neighborhood center with important buildings and streets labeled on it. A laurel guard, one Calla presumed was wearing a capital-specific uniform due to how fancy it was, stood next to it.

“Where do you need to go, ma’am?” The guard asked.

Calla glanced at the map for a bit before answering, “I’m looking for the Nimbus School of Magic.”

The guard nodded, “You came through the right gate. You see Main street? It’s on the other side. After that, there are signs directing you to the campus.”

“Thank you!” Calla bowed lightly, then sped off.

True to the guard’s words, Calla went to Main street and quickly found ‘Nimbus Road.’ After a short walk, she encountered Nimbus’ campus. It was surrounded by an iron fence that occasionally read… what was probably Edrel for Nimbus. With a bit more walking, she found the main entrance. There, she found a stout woman in a glass box.

“Do you have business with Nimbus School of Mages?” the woman droned, as if that was all she said all day, every day.

Calla nodded, “I’m here to take the entrance exam.”

The woman looked her up and down, then nodded to herself. “Do you have the fee?”

Calla shifted her bag to the front of her body and pulled out 25 Lels. “Here you go.” She slid them into the gap in the glass.

The lady counted the coins, put them somewhere Calla couldn’t see. She asked, “What’s your name?” to which Calla answered honestly, and the gate began to creak open. “Go in, and wait by the fountain. A student will eventually show up to lead you to the testing chamber.” She pointed down the path, which forked around a beautiful fountain.

“Thank you.” Calla bowed, then followed her instructions. The path was quite nice. It was surrounded by small flowers, had iron streetlamps, and similar benches. She took a seat at one of the four benches around the fountain, and took out her book in case she had to pass the time. She was almost done with the mage book.

. . .

It was quite a while, at least half an hour, before a student eventually showed up.

It was a short boy in a long robe with a symbol on the chest. He strolled up to the bench and asked, “Are you ‘Calla Blum?’” 

She looked up from her book, “That’s me,” she smiled, putting the book back in her bag.

“I’m Oscar,” he held out a hand, “I’m here to help you through the exam process.”

Calla took it, and shook it firmly, just like her mother and father always insisted. “I’m Calla, Calla Blum!” she grinned.

“My hand!” Oscar yelped.

“Huh?” Calla released the handshake. “Was my handshake too firm?” she questioned, “My mother always insists it’s much too weak.”

The boy held his now-red hand in the other, eyes tearing up. “Who in their right mind would shake someone’s hand that hard??”

“Sorry!” Calla floundered, “I had no idea that wasn’t normal in Laurel!”

Oscar wiped his tears and looked at her weirdly, “Are you… not from Laurel?” It was then that, Calla assumed, he put together the pieces of her strange, though more laurel than before, attire. “Are you from Daphne?”

She gave an animated thumbs up, “Correct!”

“I thought mages weren’t a thing down there?” Oscar tilted his head, which only served to make her realize how big his eyes were. He was weirdly cute for a guy.

Calla huffed, “I was under that impression too, but here I am.”

Oscar hummed. “Well, follow me. We’re heading to the Annex.” With that, the pair started on the way to the left side of campus. 

As they walked, he pointed out a few features of campus. “The giant building to the north of campus is the main hall, it’s got all the core academic classes, the administration room, and the auditorium. Next to us is Trinity Park, it’s a good place to have lunch if you don’t feel like eating in the meal hall.”

“I’ve never seen a campus like this before!” Calla was in complete awe, though she tried her best to suppress it. She didn’t want to overwhelm her kind guide.

“Really?” Oscar met her eyes, “Nimbus is one of the smaller mage academies in Honor. Cirrus’ campus is an incredible sight to behold, it’s where all the noble-sponsored mages go.”

“Are you allowed to visit?” Calla wondered.

Oscar shrugged, “Sometimes. It’s normally only open to enrolled students, but Cirrus usually hosts the joint mage academy events, like the Unity Banquet, so might get the chance.” He looked to his right, “Ah! That’s the dormitory and meal hall building. It’s split into halves, one for girls and one for boys. You’re required to stay there when you enroll.”

The building was made of actual–clay bricks, something far too expensive for Voyage. It was two-stories tall, and had an entry way with columns holding it up all the way to the roof. There was ivy trailing its way up on both the columns and the walls themselves. Each wall had many, many windows.

“There’s lots of rooms,” he continued, “So it’s not really that cramped. You will have a roommate though.”

“A roommate?” Calla had never shared a room being an only child.

“Yep,” he nodded, “You’ll get a random one at first, but orientation you’ll get to choose.”

Calla considered the concept of a roommate, only recalling it being mentioned as either a boon or an annoyance in books she’d read. “I’ve never shared a room with anyone,” she admitted.

“Seriously!?” Oscar gaped, “I have seven siblings, I’ve never not shared a room.”

“Just me!” She grinned.

He sighed. “Lucky bastard.”

Soon, they made it to their destination. “This is the Annex,” Oscar introduced. “It holds all of the elective classes and the testing chamber.” He opened the front door with a low creeeeak. It seemed to take a shocking amount of physical effort from him, so Calla grabbed it and pulled it open the rest of the way. “...Thanks,” he said, cheeks lightly flushed. Oscar recovered quickly, “Anyway, the test is really easy. All you’ve got to do is put your hand on the crystal and put some mana in it. Once you do, it’ll score your mana value. If it’s above a certain threshold, you’re in.”

“That’s it?” She questioned.

“Sort of. Because mages awaken on their birthday, to give everyone an equal amount of time to prepare, our school years happen twice a year. If you awaken during a break, you just wait for the next one. If you awaken during a school year, you have to wait until the next one begins. Age doesn’t affect magic significantly, so this is the only way to make it fair,” Oscar explained. “You’re lucky! The next semester begins next week, so you have barely any waiting to do.”

“Huh. That’s neat,” Calla responded.

They quickly reached a set of double doors probably labeled “TESTING CHAMBER,” in Edrel. Before Oscar could even try to attempt to open the chamber, Calla grabbed the handle, “I’ve got it.”

The room before them was profusely blue. Or it seemed to be anyway, but it was actually white. There was a ginormous blue gemstone floating in the middle, emanating a blue glow throughout the entire place. The gem had to be at least 8 meters tall, it was a little ridiculous.

“Give it a go,” Oscar encouraged, pushing Calla (or trying to, anyway) towards the crystal. “It doesn’t bite!”

Calla took a grounding breath in and approached the crystal, placing her hand on its cool surface. Already, the mana in her body seemed to stir, and it only took a bit of focus to pull the energy out of her core, through her arm, out of the palm, and into the crystal. As she did so, the gem began to glow green. Some sort of device next to the crystal that she hadn’t noticed earlier powered on, whirring a little bit. Then there was a ding.

She turned around to find Oscar, who had, at some point, acquired a tablet. He was staring at the screen with a… wasn’t sure exactly what expression, but it didn’t seem good. “...Did I pass?” she hesitantly asked.

The boy just silently nodded, “Uh, yeah. You certainly passed. Can I ask what, exactly, happened when you awakened?”

Calla froze. “It’s… a bit of a sensitive topic,” she admitted, “I may have—well, hm—Idestroyedmyhouse,.” she said quickly.

“That…” Oscar seemed nervous, “...certainly checks out. I’m not supposed to say this myself, but your number’s really high.”

Calla wasn’t sure how to respond, or even what to feel. She didn’t want to be a mage. She wanted to be a warrior, to go out into the world and save people by slaying powerful monsters, not… cast frilly spells or research niche topics. Mages were weak, at least physically. In fact, casting spells siphoned energy that was used to develop the body; energy that’s usually spent internally is expelled into the environment, making it harder to grow muscles. She didn’t want to be good at magic, she wanted to be good with a sword! She wanted to be a warrior.

Instead of saying any of that, she just said, “That’s nice,” and followed the boy out of the chamber.

. . .

Oscar led Calla to the Administration Center. There, he submitted her score to the admissions counselor, Dana. 

“Congratulations,” Dana said as she handed Calla a piece of paper.

Welcome to Nimbus School of Magic!

The next semester begins on Monday, August 24th.

Housing:

As a soon-to-be student of Nimbus, you get free meals and board at the Nimbus Hotel! 

The hotel is located across the street from campus, at 002 Nimbus Road.

On Monday, August 17th, you will receive a dormitory assignment, and be allowed to move in.

Tuition:

Nimbus School of Magic is free for all mages!

Curriculum:

Nimbus follows the Standard Laurel Academic (SLA) Format. 

A school year (thirty-two weeks) is divided into two semesters (sixteen weeks each) and four terms per semester (four weeks each). In between the semesters is a two week break.

All students will take a test on the second day of the semester (August 25th), then these scores will be used to assign students to the core classes, English, Science, Math, and Social Studies, that match their skill level.

All students are welcome to take the test again at the start of each term, every four weeks, if they wish to move up a level.

All students will be enrolled in a Magic Studies course.

All students choose three elective courses to take (See next page for the list).

IMPORTANT: At the end of their first semester, students will take the Official Entrance Exam, and be fully admitted into Nimbus. At the end of each subsequent semester, students will take a final exam to earn their class rank.

“Here’s your student ID,” Dana interrupted her reading to hand her a card. “This will allow you to enter the campus gate and Nimbus Hotel.”

“Thank you,” Calla took the card, looking it over. It had what seemed to be a picture placeholder, her name in Edrel, and some other information written also in Edrel.

Oscar seemed to notice her confusion as she attempted to read it, “Oh, right! You don’t know Edrel, do you?”

Calla shook her head, “No, not at all. A kind lady taught me some on the trip here, but I pretty much just learned how to write my name.”

“Ma’am,” Oscar addressed Dana, “Are there accommodations for students who don’t know Edrel?”

The admissions counselor seemed a bit puzzled, “Well, to be frank, we haven’t had a student before who didn’t know it; however, we will be able to institute something. I’ll need to discuss this with my colleagues first, but I’ll be sure to get in touch with you when we have a solution, Miss Calla.”

With that, the pair left the Administration Center. 

. . .

“Does every person in Laurel know how to read?” Calla asked the older boy once the door behind them shut.

Oscar hummed, “Literacy school has been mandated for thirty years now, so most young people do, and mage academies didn’t exist until the war started, so every young mage in Laurel is able to read,” he explained, “Also, Nimbus is one of the smaller academies. One of the other schools might’ve had this issue already, but I guess not here.”

Calla was impressed, “That’s cool; most people from my home village couldn’t read. I was lucky my grandmother taught me.”

The two of them made their way back to the gate.

“It was nice meeting you, Calla.” Oscar smiled, “I’m sure you’ll become an incredible mage.”

“You too, Oscar.” Calla returned the expression, “I’m sure you’re already an incredible one.”

“I’ll see you in a few weeks!” He called as she walked out, waving his hand goodbye.