Miss Koll paused, looking at Alister, “Oh! Yes, dear. It’s no big deal. I promise it doesn’t hurt if that’s what you’re worried about. It’s part of the class for today though, so I’m not going to make a special exception for anybody.”

Alister nodded in understanding. Damn. That was the easiest solution out the window.

“Anyway,” she shook her head to focus again, “Iker tends to be picky with those he chooses as priests. He prefers those with noble or royal blood, but it’s not unheard of for him to pick strong commoners as well. Priests of Iker tend to be hired at the capital or other important places! It’s a really cool job, or so I hear!”

“Two more!” She giggled and looked at the enraptured six-year-olds. Gods were an interesting topic to such little ones! “The last two are Aster and Olix. Aster is a goddess of water. Olix is a god of earth. The two are said to be close friends. We pray to them to try to stop disasters like earthquakes and fires. Aster is also a goddess of healing, so most holy healers are her priests.”

He recognized Aster as well, but Olix was a new name to him. Two out of six… not as bad as it could have been, he supposed. He sighed out loud accidentally, which got some looks from the others. Alister ignored them, lost in his own thoughts.

“Priests!” She called out, bringing forth a line of twelve priests and priestesses from the hall, two for each deity, “Alright everyone. Please make sure to thank them for taking the time to do this. Ok?”

Alister held back a glare and simply raised his hand again, “Before we start could I use the restroom?”

Ms. Koll stared for a moment like she wanted to refuse, but gave in, “Of course. Yes. Please hurry back though. You can’t skip this, Alister.”

“Yes, miss. Thank you,” he returned, scooting past the priest nearest the door and out into the hall. He needed to risk the pain and cast some sort of protection on himself. It didn’t need to be amazing, just enough to obscure his signature from the gods he knew… Damn it. Alister cursed internally. He didn’t want to risk any spells yet. The stupid gods just had to have this priest scanning tradition… the fact that he couldn’t opt out pissed him off. Even if he’d be a legendary priest he’d never say yes.

Alister rushed to the toilets. There was no such thing as indoor plumbing, of course, so the room was more like a bunch of fancy holes in the ground with stools above them, but magic thankfully kept the stench at bay. The nearby river took care of whatever waste the farmers didn’t use, as well. He wasn’t here for that, however. He needed privacy.

Bracing himself for the backlash, Alister took great care in constructing a magic circle as gingerly as he could. Even so, every inch of movement of mana made him feel like someone was trying to pull his nails off. The pain made him nauseous again. His pool of mana, his core, even with his work they were too unstable. He couldn’t remember the last time casting hurt this badly. Had it ever? This was an entirely new situation to him, after all.

One wide circle made of red light formed on the floor beneath his feet. Another, smaller circle formed inside of it. He connected the sides of the outer circle, overlapping the inner one, with a hexagon. Then, he added two smaller circles to two corners of the hex. All of these shapes were slowly lined with various runes.

Alister breathed out slowly… Ok. It was done. Now, he just had to cast it… This was gonna suck.

He held his breath in anticipation. Illusion - Protection of the Soul!

The once-great mage fainted from the sensation that rippled through his bones.

His head cracked against the floor and started to bleed. After a few seconds, he stirred with a pained groan. “Ugh…,” he grumbled, touching his brow where he was bleeding, “…damn it. As if it weren’t enough that I’m in this mess…”

He certainly couldn’t heal anything right now, since he didn’t want to end up on the floor again. Oh well. Alister slowly got to his feet, allowing his dizziness to settle before he walked back to the class. Blood was getting into his eye, down his cheek, across his jaw. Some even got on the nice cream blouse his mother picked out for him. He could feel his cheeks flush with embarrassment as he neared the door.

The idea was to avoid attention, and now it looked like he had lost a fight! He was an Archmage, damn it. Such a simple fumble was quite the blow to his pride. It felt so wrong not to be able to use magic!

Alister opened the door and at the same time addressed the teacher, “Miss Koll? I had a dizzy spell and I hit my head…”

All eyes immediately fell on him, including those of the stupid priests. He wanted to hide his head in a hole. Humility is a virtue… it’s a virtue, I swear…

Ms. Koll sucked in a breath, “Ooh… Alister dear… that looks like it hurts… You’re bleeding quite a bit. Let me get a healer.”

One of the priests, a young woman, stepped forward, “Oh! I’m a healer. I can heal the boy. Goddess Aster had granted me that power.”

“Oh, thank you so much, Priestess Jean!” Ms. Koll smiled, “That’s a very useful power, don’t you think class?”

The kids nodded as the group continued with their tasks, the different priests talking to small groups of kids. The other priest of Aster joined his colleague and they both approached Alister.

He resisted the urge to back away, staring at the floor, “Sorry for the inconvenience, Miss.”

“Oh, that’s quite alright! We’re here doing testing anyway, right? It’s not a big deal,” she assured him, placing a hand on his head. Priestess Jean channeled essence into the wound to make it close.

The feeling of divine energy, called essence, made Alister shudder. It was a sensation he’d rather forget. Damned gods… Yes, the power was useful but at what cost?