Chapter 186: Mage Aspirants

  With Zyna gone, I was free to explore. I looked out her bedroom window and ed the gss. The view beloectacur—a vast square courtyard with azure, pink, and yellow fl trees sprawling among pristine white paths. Men and women in robes walked the stohs below, moviween the four towers at the ers. Looking closer at the paths, I noticed they reminded me of a spell form—an inplete spell form, but maybe the paths extended beyond the walls. There was too little of the spell form for me to guess its purpose. Whatever its effect, it was an impressive and massive array. The mages below mostly wore bck robes; who I assumed were the students. A few gray and white robes walked among them.

  With my height from the top of the tower, I could also see over the granite walls of the courtyard. The Mage College was led against the walls of the Imperial Pace. Oe led directly to the Imperial Pace Grounds but was guarded by fionnaires in shiny pte armor with red highlights. Ugh, being a statue was in my future as well.

  I turned away from the window and started to walk the floor I was on. It was a massive suite enpassing the eop floor of the rge tower. Fe bedrooms, each with its own small servant’s room attached. The rge sitting room with a door to the stairs, where I had met Antonia Segreto, had a formal dining room with seating for sixteen and an attached rge kit. The rder was barren of everything but dust, and all the kit dishes, pots, and pans were also long ed.

  Off the kit were two more small bedrooms, probably for the kit staff. A rge formal bath with showers, a soaking tub, and a steam room was located in the ter of the floor, amidst an array er perimeter rooms with windows.

  I tried the valve on the tral soaking tub, and air hissed out with a low rumble. After nearly a minute of hissing and sputtering, dark water exited the pipe, slowly ging to clear. I guessed the plumbing of the tower ressurized somehow with magic. The water was cold, and I didn’t see any other valves. I could use the thermal stoo heat the soaking tub—ohe recessed tub was . Two more small alcove rooms appeared to have two toilets, one for the servants and one fancier marble one for the cellor and her guests. It was unsurprising that both needed ing.

  There were only two other rooms: a small library with only a handful of books on the history of Mage College and an alchemy b. The alchemy b looked even more ed than the rest of the rooms. Many of the fsks had hard-caked residue otom, and a deep stone well in the ter of the room had gss debris. If I were motivated, I might spend some time ing aing up the apparatus to make the minty mouthwash, as it was the only recipe I currently knew.

  A thudding knock had me return to the entry room. I opehe door to the stairs to see two short mages in oversized bck robes. A young, blonde woman with pale blue eyes and a sandy-haired woman with greeheir youthful faces told me they were likely Mage Aspirants. When I didn’t say anything, the sandy-haired oke meekly, “The cellor sent us to her quarters, legionnaire.”

  “What did you two do to deserve this punishment?” I asked with a good-natured smile.

  The young woman lowered her eyes, “We were caught stealing from the kits st night.”

  I guessed the pair were both in their mid-teens by their youthful tenance. But it was so hard to tell, with most people in the Empire being shorter than I was aced to. “Well, what are your names? It is on courtesy to introduce yourselves. I am Legionnaire Eryk.”

  “Mage Aspirant Flora,” the blonde said, findiongue and bowing her head slightly.

  “Mage Aspirant Livia,” the sandy-haired one said but was uain about bowing her head or a formal bow to the waist; she eventually chose the waist, showing me more respect.

  “e in, Livia and Flora. Buckets are i storeroom and the water valve ihroom works.” As I led the pair of mages through the suite, I didn’t o look at them to feel their pain as they realized the moal task ahead of them. The rooms were rge, and every one of them was filthy with years of . The task would take the pair days to .

  “You start with the bath, toilets, and kit,” I told the pair once we had the buckets, aged brooms, and rags.

  “Do we have to in our robes?” Flora asked. I looked at her, caught off guard, my mind turning over the question. She flushed, realizing what she had said, and stuttered hastily, “It is just that we get disciplined if we attend css in dirty robes.”

  “You go get a ge of clothes,” I said, somewhat relieved at the crification.

  “There is no need,” Flora said, pulling off her robes to reveal that she had on clothes underh. The bulky robes had hidden how thin she was. Livia followed Flora; her robes also had a thin frame hidden underh. Looking at them now, they appeared more like children than teens.

  They attacked the toilets first, their beige pants and off-white blouses quickly being filthy. As I watched them work, I asked, “Were you stealing food because you were hungry?” When they first revealed it, I thought they might have do for the thrill or on some bet.

  Livia paused in her scrubbing to answer; her face streaked with dirty sweat lines. Her words came out uain, “Legionnaire Eryk. We frequently miss meals due to our poor discipline.” She was not seeking sympathy by her tone; she was stating a fact, maybe in fear I would administer more punishment if she pined.

  I leaned against the wall, getting the picture. “What other mischief have you been up to?” They looked at each other, unsure how to answer. I was starting to sense something else was going on here. I tried to put them at ease, “I will not rey anything you tell me to Zyna. I mean the cellor.”

  Livia, who seemed to be the pair’s leader, spoke for the pair with some modicum of trust in her eyes. “We frequently miss meals because we are bmed for things we did not do.” My fused expression had her expin further, “We are not the daughters of First Citizens or noble houses. Flora is from a fishing vilge, and I am from the lower city. We were both assessed half a year ago by the Magistrate during the annual tablet testing and found to have some potential. We now serve the Empire as Mage Aspirants.” She bowed her head reflexively.

  I thought the two might know Renna. After letting them for a while, I asked after her. “Do you know Mage Aspirant Renna? She was fouly with potential as well.”

  They looked at each other, Livia speaking again for them. “You mean Mage Renna? She retly cast her first spell, maybe two months ago. She is no longer an Aspirant. We did take csses with her until she moved on to the War College.”

  “Is she well then?” I asked, thinking I might have a ce to see Renna again.

  “She protected the weakest of us from the more serious harassment, but now that she is a true mage, she is in different csses, and we rarely see her,” Flora added quickly.

  With a smirk sliding briefly on her face, she noted, “She was the most powerful among the Aspirants. She gave our tormentors twice what they gave us.” She immediately covered her mouth, thinking she had revealed too mue.

  It was a cssic bullying sario with the wealthy and privileged preying on the weak. “Keep w here. I will go prepare you something i.”

  They looked at each other, fused. We had just searched the kit for the buckets, and there was no food i or pantry. I didn’t expin ahem to work. The kit also had running water, and I ed a workspace before removing the thermal stone and some of my dungeon harvest.

  As it was not required for cooking, I removed my armor as it got in the way. Maveith had taken all the seasonings, but I could still prepare the ba and use the fat to fry slices of the purple potatoes into thick chips. It took me over two hours to and cook, and then I went arieved the two mages. “Dinner is served,” I announced proudly.

  The pair were beyond filthy, their pale skin on their faces and arms now coated in grime. “Where did all this e from!” Flora asked in disbelief, entering the kit.

  “Magic!” I said with a flourish of my hand, produg an apple and tossing it to her. Both their eyes were wide in amazement at my trick. It felt good to show off to someone who could appreciate it. She fumbled the apple but caught it eventually.

  “Is this all for us?” Livia asked of the two heaping ptes.

  “Yeah, I nibbled as I cooked. It is all yours.” I waved at the ter, and they started to sit on dirty stools. “But perhaps up a bit first.” They rushed into the bathroom aurned oheir faces, arms, and hands had been scrubbed to some modicum of liness. The two attacked the food while I found two mugs, ed them, materialized a teen, and filled them.

  The pair watched my performance carefully, mumbling how good the food was. With her mouth full, Flora asked, “I thought you were a legionnaire? Are you a mage then?”

  “No, I just know a trick or two.” I pced five more apples in front of them to make six. “You take these with you to eat when hunger grabs you.”

  “Are you the cellor’s husband?” Apparently, once Flora became fortable with someone, she was no longer shy and spoke unfiltered. She had also somehow emptied her pte. I don’t know how she mao get it all down so quickly or how it fit inside her thin frame. She would have challenged Maveith with her speed of ption.

  I wasn’t abashed, “No, I am just her bodyguard.” The two looked at each other knowingly, clearly drawing the wrong clusion. I shrugged internally and produced another apple, and took a bite. The dungeon apple was sweet, chy, and savood thing I had hundreds, but I had hoped to share the harvest with Ginger.

  “So, what are your affinities? Have you learned any spell forms?” I asked, quickly finishing off the sweet dungeon apple.

  The two looked at each other, deg who would speak. Livia spoke first, “My primary affinity is healing at 43. I heal flesh and bohat are already set. I am w on my sedary spell form ier affinity. It is to pull water out of the air. If I ot learn to cast spells in the year, I will be assigo the army as a medicus.”

  “That is amazing! Healers are the most valuable members of an army.” My praise for her ability had her beaming.

  Flora looked at her pte sadly, “My spell form is not impressive. I gront rapidly with aether. I am hoping my spell form is dis truth so I bee a Truthseeker.”

  I reassured the young mage, “Don’t dist your spell form. That is impressive as well. With food troubles in the Empire, you grow a fruit tree in a day to feed multiple people.”

  “It takes me three days to i enough aether to grow a fruit tree to bear fruit, but it also ruins the soil, and the tree soon dies,” she said, defted.

  “It probably uses up the nutrients in the soil. I am guessing the tree just o be transpnted in fresher soil. Try it with smaller pnts,” I enced her. I was surprised her instructors had not told her the same thing.

  “Why is my room not ed!” An angry call from the master bedr in the apartments. High Mage Zyna had returned and was not happy. She came st into the kit, and the color drained out of the faces of the two young mages. Flora bent over and quickly vomited as Zyna came into the kit, her eyes literally afme and red hair in a mess.

  I calmly turo Zyna, “I told them to the bathrooms first.” The fire mage calmed, and she studied me. Had I read her wrong? Was Zyna not a reasonable woman? “Go!” She said harshly to the two mage aspirants. Flora and Livia scrambled to their feet, torn oher they should up the vomit or not.

  “Take the apples, and don’t fet your robes,” I stated loudly as they hastily gathered the apples and ran to get their robes ih. When the door to the stairs closed with a thud, I looked to Zyna for an expnation.

  Her question, “Why did they remove their robes?” caught me off-guard, but her tone was versational.

  I flushed involuntarily and replied calmly. “They didn’t want to get them dirty. Did you know the es have mercilessly harassed those two?”

  “Of course. I gathered them from the Discipline Hall. They are peasants; I assumed whatever they were accused of was not their fault.” My face hardeo anger, and Zyna waved for me to rex. “Eryk, they o be able to adapt to their new life in the Empire. They either o gain enough power not to be targeted, or the Empire will chew them up. It may seem unkind, but it has worked for hundreds of years. I was on the same position as they are now.”

  “So, trial by fire?” I responded a little tersely. “Is that why you are so abrasive around them?”

  “Abrasive?” She cocked an eyebrow. “Ah, I see your fusion. As the cellor of the War College, I o demonstrate a certain—persona.”

  “Being a bitch?” I spat and immediately wao take it back. I had seen Zyna cook a hill giant alive with a dragon she jured from fire.

  “Bitch?” She searched for meaning in the word. “Is that an otherworlder term? Be careful using them, but I uand the underlying meaning. And yes, I am a bitch. They call me the Fme Demoness, and every student at Mage College knows it and fears the rumors they hear about me.”

  I didn’t know what to say, so Zyna tinued, “Your job is to support my image. We haven’t had time to discuss it, but the Emperor trusted me and appointed me to this position because he knows I will do whatever I o do to get the job done. We need mages for the war. We ot coddle the Mage Aspirants.”

  “I uand,” I stated, even though I disagreed with everything.

  “Good. The armorsmith will be avaible tomorrow to fit you. I am going to stay at Antonia’s vil tonight. You expeage aspirants ing to as punishment tomorrow. Make sure my room is ed first.” Zyo the frying pan, pulled a soggy purple chip, and chewed on it. Her face slowly lit up. “This is good. Is it from the dungeon?”

  “Yes,” I replied as I started strapping my armor on.

  “You don’t o follow me this evening. Stay ale into a room. We talk tomorrow after the armorer finishes with you.” She ate angy potato, “You shouldn’t waste this on the mage aspirants. It is saturated with aether and help you recover your owher more quickly.”

  My eyes wide that. She took the st piece, sav it, and swallowed before leaving. I was left alone again. I decided to set myself in one of the small rooms off the kit rather than one of the rger guest rooms. It artly because there would be a lot less to , and also, it was more defensible.

  I ed for a few hours and then took a cold shower. The two mages had done an admirable job ih and toilets, more than earning their dinner. I felt sorry that Flora had given hers back. She he sustenance.

  I made my bed using the weasel pelts and pulled out my griffin-down pillow to rest my head and enjoy the fresh outdoor st. I secured the small window and door, pnning to use the dreamscape amulet to determihe funs of the two summoner rings.

  Before using the amulet, I ed a major earth essence, reveling in the earthy taste and feeling a brief e to the stohat made up the tower momentarily. Certain I was secure, I pulled out the elven tablet reader table. It was time to see my gains.

  ? Chted 2024, 2025 by AlwaysRollsAOne

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