15. The Workshop

Ardan bit his lip as he trudged through the swivelling doors. He was nervous. It was only this morning that Pat had informed him of the fact that he needed to travel to the workshop by himself. The travelling wasn’t what Ardan was afraid of, since there were barely any people out on the street this early in the morning. However, now that he had arrived at his destination, the butterflies returned.

JAG Hall, it was called. From what Ardan could see, it wasn’t very large. This tricked him into thinking that there weren’t many people coming to the magical workshop today. However, once he had checked in and walked downstairs, a very different thought came to his mind.

The basement was like the lobby of a hotel, a large room surrounded by several closed rooms. It was packed. Hundreds of people stood around, waiting for the workshop to begin. Tall, short, dark skinned, light skinned, male, female, you name it, there was at least one there.

“Excuse me? The workshop will begin shortly. Please step down so others can pass.” A man said from behind him.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Ardan blushed and apologized as he quickly walked down the rest of the stairs. He hadn’t realised that he was blocking the stairwell. After a quick glance back, the jellybeans in his stomach doubled. There were at least six more elves behind him, all of which looked slightly annoyed.

Like a mouse, Ardan scampered towards a small station nearby where tables and chairs were set up. Choosing the table furthest away from everyone else, he sighed and collapsed into the chair. With nothing to do, he looked up and scanned the rapidly shifting room of elves.

From what he could see, everyone seemed to have their own group of friends and were excitedly chatting with one another. There were no familiar faces. Not that Ardan had been expecting to see any. He only knew, what, like five people in all of Greixol?

Burying his face in his hands, Ardan let out another heavy sigh. Where was Shiloh? Wasn’t he the one who got me into this anyways? He thought.

In a failed attempt to not look like even more of a freak, he shoved his hands into his front hoodie pocket.

Clink.

There was something inside. Frowning, Ardan groped around in his pocket and drew out two items. A pencil and the health potion.

What were they-?

His mind flashed back to the day before. In his panic from Pat’s return, Ardan had shoved the two objects into his pocket. Due to them being so small, he had completely forgotten that they were still there.

Ardan smiled at the items in his hand, reminded of the fun time he’d had with Sandria yesterday. And the not-so-fun time he’d had with the stowaway underneath his bed. But that was yesterday. Today, he was alone. Bored, he began to play with the pencil, dropping it and calling it back to his hand like a yoyo.

“The presentation is starting. All participants in today’s workshop please come up to the front.” A loud voice boomed throughout the room, startling Ardan.

“Wonder how that works…” Ardan murmured to himself, glancing up at the large black boxes in the corners that the voice had come from. “Is it magic too?”

His sheltered life created a gaping hole in his common knowledge, meaning that simple things such as speakers were foreign objects to him.

The chair creaked as he stood up and scoured the space. Ardan’s tall point of view allowed him to see over the heads of many, and he assumed where the majority of them were crowding around was the so-called ‘front’. While doing so, he kept a look out for any sign of Shiloh, but to no avail.

Did he decide to just… not turn up?

Within seconds, Ardan reached the outer edges of the pack that had formed around a small stage in the centre of the room. On it was an important looking woman holding a microphone. She had white hair and wore an old-fashioned blue dress, embroidered with tiny sparkling… things. Though her style seemed to be outdated, her skin was a flawless white and seemed to glow when it caught the light. Her dress hid most of her body, but a slender arm was revealed, gripping the microphone. The noise dispersed as she began speaking.

“Greetings, everyone. My name is Miss Laurecia, and I am the principal of Manera Magic School. I would like to welcome the new students on behalf of the staff who couldn’t be here today. The reason we’re here today is to give you exposure to the different aspects of elemental magic. However, this workshop is also an assessment of how much you already know and your aptitude for each individual category. Unlike other schools, our classes and grades are not distinguished by age, instead by the proficiency.

You will have a six week trial period in ungraded classes at first, then most of you will be separated into either higher or lower grades, depending on your progress. This can vary for each aspect of magic. Take today’s results as a prediction of what level class you’ll be in after the trial period. I wish you all the best of luck, and I advise you to choose carefully when selecting subjects.”

A polite round of applause followed, but Ardan was too in awe to join in. That woman, Miss Laurecia, gave off a powerful aura, intimidating him. All he could do was stare at her in half-terror and half-amazement as she stepped off the platform.

Before the student’s chatter could swell up to an uncontrollable volume, a red-haired man took the microphone and began speaking. “Thank you, Miss Laurecia, for the speech. “I’m Steven, the event organizer for the school. This is how today’s going to work. You’ll be split into four large groups, which you’ll stay in for the duration of the workshop. In your groups, you’ll walk around and visit each station, completing a series of allocated tests and activities. Once you’re finished with each station, you’ll receive a score card and move on to the next station. Now I’ll allocate you to your group…”

“Psst! Ardan! What’d I miss?” A strangely familiar voice said from behind Ardan, knocking into his ulnar. Reflexively, Ardan grimaced and rubbed his elbow, only to let the pencil fall from his hand and clatter on the vinyl floor. He turned, coming face to face with Shiloh.

“What was that for?” Ardan whispered, for Steven was still addressing the rest of the students. Without thinking, he bent down and reached to grab the pencil, only for it to fly up to meet his hand.

“Yo! Where’d you learn that!” Shiloh exclaimed loudly, drawing dirty looks from nearby students. And just like a child, Shiloh stuck his tongue out and his middle finger back at them.

“... and those are the groups. Please go to your assigned stations now.” Steven concluded. The volume rose once more, everyone excited to start the workshop. But Ardan was beginning to panic.

“Shiloh, did you hear what they said? What group are we in? ”He asked frantically.

“No? I got here late, remember? Chill out, by the way.”

“I can’t ‘chill out’! If I go ask the teacher what group I’m in, it’ll be a bad first impression and he might think that I wasn’t listening.”

Shiloh didn’t understand Ardan’s distress. “I mean, you weren’t listening though.”

“That’s not my-”

“Calm down. We’re going to all the stations eventually, right? So it should be fine if we join any random group. If we get in trouble, I’ll take the blame, ok?” Shiloh laughed and patted Ardan’s shoulder playfully - with a little difficulty due to his height. “When did you become such a worry wart?”

“I’m not a worry wart.” He began, but then changed his mind. “Ok. Maybe, I am a little bit worried. But that’s only since today’s so important! I’m not normally like this, I promise you.”

Raising an eyebrow, Shiloh let out a little chuckle. “Whatever, dude. So what station do you want to go to first?”

Ardan glanced around. Lines had already begun to form outside the rooms.

“Do you want to try air first? You already know water, and I already know earth, so this will be something new for both of us.” Shiloh suggested.

“Why not fire?” Ardan said absentmindedly. But he realised when he turned around and saw writhing masses of elves around the red room. “Ah. That’s why.”

And so the two of them trudged towards the white room in silence. It was a bare, bare room. The only objects in it were a single black stool next to one of those foldable tables you bought at the department stores. Stacks of papers sat atop of it, accompanied by a fragrant smelling cup of tea. Opposite where the two were standing was another door.

“Good morning, everybody!” A small, old looking elf called out heartily from his seat. Ardan wondered whether he ran the stand.

He wore strange, white robes and primitive leather sandals. A long wispy beard flowed down his face, creating a pensioner’s look along with wrinkled skin. But apart from that, his presence radiated power. There was something about him, a gleam of danger behind those soft, brown eyes. The other students didn’t seem to notice.

“My name is Leo, and I’m your air magic assessor today. These two in the back here,” he gestured towards two young adult elves wearing casual clothing behind him. “Are graduates from this academy and will supervise you.” A flicker of irritation shadowed his face as he watched the students talking over him. Ardan watched as he calmly raised two fingers up to his mouth, air beginning to circle around his body.

“Hush.”

Leo’s voice boomed throughout the enclosed room, startling everyone into silence. Only the two supervisors behind him seemed unfazed. Outburst over, he smiled merrily and the twinkle returned to his eyes. “As I was saying before. My name is Leo, and I’m going to be your air magic assessor today.”

Ardan glanced towards Shiloh, who was keenly observing the master. After such a show of power, he couldn’t help but feel impressed.

“Before we start, have any of you already started learning air manipulation?” He asked.

A lone, bold girl raised her hand. “I do.”

She had long, brown-black hair tied back in a ponytail that reached down to a grey jacket tied around her waist. Streaks of purple shot down lined her otherwise neat hair. She wore a black tank top, exposing muscular, but not overly buff shoulders and arms. Her skin was light, contrasting her dark blue knee-socks and black sneakers.

“Good! Very good!” Leo’s smile widened. “Today, you’re going to be scored in two categories. Control and power. Their averages will result in your overall score.” He paused, like he was waiting for some sort of acknowledgement.

An awkward moment passed.

“So how many of you are here today?” He continued, standing up from the stool. Several loud cracks ensued. “As you can see, I’m getting a little old.” He chuckled.

At his full height, Leo would barely reach Ardan’s shoulders, and would most likely not be able to see over the heads of the students, let alone count them.

One, two, three… Ardan mentally counted the people in the room, wondering whether or not to help the poor master.

“There are fifteen of us, sir.”

The girl from before beat him to it.

“Why thank you! What’s your name, young lady?” Leo asked, beaming at her.

“Elaine.”

A pang of annoyance shot through Ardan. Teacher’s pet… He thought hypocritically.

“Thank you, Lorraine. I mean, Elaine.” Leo corrected himself, before turning back to the rest of the class. He picked a sheet of paper from the desk and scanned over it. “Says here that all of you have already learnt the basics of air manipulation, am I right?”

A chorus of yeses passed throughout the room like a wave. Meanwhile, Ardan stood rigidly still. Everyone knows air manipulation? How?

“Sir-” He began, only to be cut off by a tug on his arm. Shiloh looked up at him, shaking his head.

“Don’t.” He mouthed.

“Is there a problem?”

Breaking eye contact, Ardan shook his head. “No sir, I was just clearing my throat.”

The pressure on his arm relaxed.

“Anyways, if there’s no problem, let’s continue. I’ll take you into the room one at a time and assess you. The rest of you, please behave. Ronnie and Lara are here if you want to ask any questions.” At this, the two behind him waved awkwardly. “So. Who wants to go first?

The room suddenly fell silent, devoid of any soft whispers or giggles. And slowly, very slowly, Elaine raised her hand. “I’ll go first.”

Whispers of conversations ignited like a pile of dry hay, and the crowd parted to let her through. It was like she had won something and was walking up to receive her prize. But instead of pats on the back and rounds of applause, all she got were judgemental stares.

Except for one person.

A dirty looking boy at the front of the crowd touched her once, gently, on the shoulder and smiled reassuringly. She didn’t react.

As Leo and Elaine entered the room next door, the crowd erupted into chatter. Ardan turned to Shiloh, wanting answers. “What was that all about?”

Sighing, Shiloh scratched the back of his neck and shook his head. “In this society, orphans like us are looked down upon. Haven’t you noticed all the accusing stares we get everywhere? They don’t care if we’ve been adopted and have families. As long as the word ‘orphan’ was ever once printed on our id forms, we’re basically walking targets.”

“But they don’t know-”

“Yes. But they’re bound to find out. Mate, if you had spoken up just now, you would have told sir that you don’t know how to do air magic, right?”

Ardan couldn’t see where he was going with this. “Yes…?”

“It’s assumed knowledge, Ardan. That means if you don’t know it, you’re immediately labeled as a dumbass. Or an orphan.”

“And orphans are looked down upon…” Ardan said, finishing Shiloh’s sentence.

“That’s right.” Shiloh nodded sadly.

But Ardan was still confused. “Why though? Why are they looked down on?”

Shiloh’s expression turned cold. “That’s because…” He began slowly. “You know what the Coming of Age law is, right?”

Thankfully, he did know. His mind raced back to a few days ago, and smiled at the memory of Naomi. “Yes, I do.”

“Good.” Shiloh gave him a funny look. “So anyways, most orphans after leaving orphanages end up as delinquents, or in gangs. Or dead. It’s the typical orphan stereotype. That’s why they’re looked down upon. Everyone thinks orphans are good for nothing trouble makers.”

“I-” Ardan stopped, and slumped against the wall. “That’s just harsh. And unfair.”

“Yea. But all that means is that we’re going to work much harder than the others to catch up on all the stuff we missed out on. Right?” Shiloh’s grin returned, and he gave Ardan a friendly slap on the shoulder.

“Uh- Ah- Oh.” He was lost for words.

“Didn’t know this when you signed up, ‘ey?”

“No. No I didn’t.” Ardan wondered whether he was beginning to regret applying for magic school. No. I’m not. What do I get for running away from hard work? Besides, he knew he couldn’t stop. The rush of adrenaline when he’d first done elemental magic was something he could never forget.

“Alright. Let’s try to figure this out before it becomes our turn, shall we?”