The next few days were a flurry of activity. They received several guests as other members of the house came by to visit with Eona. Among them was the Dean of the Runic Schema College. Charlotte Windreach had been a close friend of Eona’s when they were young and she was anxious to bring her over to her faculty. Similarly, Madeleine was interested in getting Rebekah to teach holy magic. Practitioners of holy magic were a rare specialty, being mostly the purview of religious orders. While Rebekah couldn’t teach the Thorne Clan’s secret techniques and spells, her knowledge of the attribute was still greater than any members of Madeleine’s faculty.

Due to their teaching positions, they were offered housing around the Academy. Eona, as a member of the House was offered a particularly grand villa near her mother’s place, with guest and servant’s lodgings, a stable, and gardens. Rebekah opted to live with her daughter-in-law and Ovid, as Eona’s armsman, opted to stay there as well. Derek and Alicia would have rooms for when they visited but would be expected to stay in the dorms for their colleges.

Ander opted not to teach at the rune smith college because his link to rune smithing was religious in nature. To teach what to him was meditative and spiritual worship of his deity in a secular manner would be both unauthentic and demeaning. Instead, he intended to set up his forge in the little smithy attached to Eona’s stables. This little smithy was as large as his previous shop in Redwyrm. The villa itself was comparable to the castle at Redwyrm in size, though designed for comfort instead of defense.

With the assistance of the house the family moved into their new home and Derek and Alicia were lectured on the various forms the testing would take. Alicia’s intent was to join the runic schema college to follow her teacher and both Eona and Charlotte spent their time preparing her for the tests. Derek spent his time with his grandmothers improving his magic fundamentals and with Ovid sparring when he wasn’t helping his grandfather set up his forge.

He also spent some time visiting the town and hosting Prince Kylin, Sir Duncan, and Sir Kenneth. His relationship with the three was growing quite deep and he would listen intently to their tales of adventure and the campaigns they had served on. The desire to go errant grew within him and they often discussed him visiting Serris when he graduated from the Academy.

A week after their return to Windreach, the city was abuzz with visitors from all over as Windreach Academy’s spring entrance examinations started. On the afternoon of the first day, while most of the potential students were still registering a small group of examiners came to visit Eona’s villa. They were there to examine Alicia and Derek’s qualifications to join the Academy. One group of examiners took Alicia into the main hall, while another took Derek into the practice yard.

When they arrived he was surprised to see Ovid speaking with another man. The man wore, varicoloured doublet, jerkin and hose in the popular fashion of the region. The blue and green of his attire matched the House Colors of Windreach and the symbol over his breast revealed a rank insignia. The rank coupled with his close cropped steel grey hair was a dead give away to Derek, who recognized him from descriptions given by visitors in the last few days. This was the Dean of the Magic Warrior College, tier seven Mage Knight, Karl Windreach. Coming to a stop, Derek gave the man a salute.

Karl looked him over, “Good, you know who I am. Your grandmother told me you would be applying to my school today and that you would be masking who you were. As far as your classmates are concerned, I am fine with that. However, for my faculty that will be inappropriate.

“First, remove the masking technique you are using so I can record the correct status results. Good. Now you may begin with the second test. First I want you to demonstrate for me your highest level spell. After that go ahead and continue the rest of the test at level three so that you don’t needlessly waste mana.”

Derek followed the man’s instructions, the status results were intended to determine his magic attribute affinities, the school required more than one affinity to be outstanding or above. His across the board supreme affinities were not unheard of but were very uncommon among youths. It was far more likely for generalist mages to acquire such fantastic affinities through great expense in resources by their mid forties. The second exam was to determine his spell casting ability, the ability to cast a single third level spell was necessary to pass, but greater spell casting ability would determine class placement moving forward. Derek’s ability to cast at the sixth level was more than enough to put him in some of the more advanced classes.

The remainder of the examinations were for placement in the various courses he would take. He demonstrated his riding, archery and weapons; both mounted and dismounted, manipulated a runic puzzle that would demonstrate his level of attainment in runic smithing, then were the academics tests; magic theory, schema design, mathematics, history, knowledge of the classics, reading comprehension and composition, statecraft, military science, etc. The tests finally completed in the late afternoon.

Finally, after reviewing his evaluations, Karl waved him over, “Boy, your results look good. You are lacking in a few academic fields but that is what the Academy is here to remedy. Your initial course load will mostly consist of core academic work. If you are interested in further education in Runic Smithing and Runic Schema design you can opt to take Advanced courses in that.

“As for the Magic Warrior College, you have shown great promise and I will mark you as an Advanced student there as well. You will be required to train with your classmates but you will be given more responsibilities to match your skill. You should take at least one Mage school course for this term as well, based on your attainments I will suggest an aura specific class.

“Aside from all that, I suggest you continue your own studies in your own time and not allow this golden time to pass. It is far better to set a strong foundation when you are young. Do you understand what I am saying boy? Good, here is your acceptance letter. Please present it to the Dean of Students’ office when the term starts. They will sort out your housing.”

He looked Derek over once again before turning and motioning for his examiners to leave with him, “I expect great things from you boy. Don’t let me down.”

The next week Derek escorted Alicia to the Dean of Students’ office. The Dean of Students oversaw housing and dining for the students on campus as well as punishment for bad behavior. When they arrived, they found that many students had arrived before them and were waiting to be helped.

Derek couldn’t help but notice how well dressed the majority of the students were. The ostentatious wealth demonstrated here was astounding to him. There was a parade of colors, with the young men wearing silk puffed and slashed doublets, particoloured hose, and jerkins of many colors and the women wearing dresses and mage robes of the finest quality as well. Compared to them his choice to wear the black and red cotton underpadding doublet and hose, with his arms and armor slung over his shoulder made him look more than a little bit out of place.

He was glad for Alicia because she had worn the mage robes of her House colors today and those were of the highest quality. So he had no reason to fear that she would be mocked in this crowd for her clothing. In spite of his childish rivalry with her for his mother’s affection and the occasional argument with her due to that, she was still the girl that had grown up in his mother’s household with him and he had no desire to see her mistreated. Unfortunately due to her almost otherworldly beauty, born of her natural good looks and the Moon’s Blessing, he had another, unforeseen problem.

The moment she entered the waiting area, the blond haired girl drew the heated gaze of every young man in the room and quite a few of the women too. Once the men were able to break off their vision it immediately fell on the young man next to her. He was handsome enough, though next to her he looked like a toad and his clothing, while not shabby, definitely didn’t show the wealth that the majority of the young applicants possessed. If the gazes of the young women of the room seemed to have gone green with envy towards Alicia for her looks then it could be said that the looks that many of the young men gave the boy walking so close to her were dripping with hatred and ill intent.

Derek caught onto this quickly and subtly moved to expand the distance between the two of them as they approached the front counter but she seemed to subconsciously drift next to him not allowing him to open the distance. As they made it to the counter he could feel the murderous intent aimed at him from every direction. He could only be grateful that his hand on her side was being used to support his gear because if she had been able to grab for it then they definitely wouldn’t have been able to find his body in the morning.

On the other side of the counter was an older woman of the Windreach family sitting across from them. The older woman smiled when she saw them, “Derek Thorne and Alicia Telis. I have already received your registration information. Please take a seat with that group over there and wait until someone has time to bring you to your new dormitories. It won’t be long now.”

They both smiled and thanked the woman before turning to find a seat. As they approached, a good looking young nobleman in green and yellow stepped forward with a smile on his face. He glanced back at his companions, “Haha, didn’t I tell you that a girl this beautiful was obviously going to be added to our group. There is no way she would not have talent. I am Count Desmond from Westmont and this is…”

He and his group quickly surrounded Alicia and cut Derek out of the group with their backs. Alicia made brief eye contact with him as if to apologize and then started meeting these people. Derek took this opportunity to break off as well, these people seemed to be quite the talkers. He strolled over to the waiting benches and deposited his gear next to him as he sat down.

When he set his gear down the youth next to him glanced at it, then looked at him. “Your rune smith must have been talented to make that gear. If I had to guess, it is either top quality tier one or high quality tier two. Mind if I ask who made this for you?”

Derek looked at the guy and noticed that his armor was of decent make as well. Maybe not quite as good as his, but still of good quality. The guy was huge. He stood a little over seven feet tall and his muscular build was quite intimidating. The only thing that broke that intimidating look was the honest look to the guy’s face and the goofy smile that was plastered from one ear to the other. Derek said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name? I am Derek Thorne of Redwyrm.”

The other youth looked embarrassed, “My bad, I am Garrett Smith of Windreach. My father runs a smithy by the arena. I have worked that smithy with my father for years so I have a good eye for quality and your equipment is probably the best out of everyone’s here.”

“Haha, no problem Garrett, this equipment was made by me and my grandfather. Are you here to join the rune smith college?”

Garrett was surprised when he heard Derek say he made the equipment with his grandfather but decided to assume that it was mostly the grandfather that did the work. He shook his head, “No, this year I participated at the tournament at the arena. I got third place so I got an invitation as a scholarship student as one of the rewards. I don’t want to be a smith all of my life so I am joining the magic warrior college. And you? I assume you are going to the rune smith college considering your skill.”

Derek shook his head and tugged his medallion out of his doublet. “No, I am already a Disciple of the forge god and my grandfather can teach me more if I need it. I am also applying to the magic warrior college.”

When Garrett saw the medallion his eyes widened. He had never met a Disciple before. As Derek was replacing the medallion under his shirt he said, “A Disciple! You are the first I have ever met. No wonder your gear looks so strong. Hey, I have an idea. Since we both grew up in a smithy and intend to go to the same college, we should be friends and watch each other’s backs.”

Derek rather liked this honest looking fellow and laughed while taking the big guy’s hand, “It’s a deal.”