Vel with her easy tone of voice continued 'The undead in the west might have been caused by a mage who wasn't careful and created a faulty new spell.'

I did have some questions, but instead I made a useless comment 'That's pretty scary.'

Her eyes widened for a second ‘Yeah I know, but it's not that hard to make a working new spell. If you take the necessary precautions. Anyways, that's what my father says.'

I don't think her father is the example of a cautious man, but sure I'll go with her on that. Both of us were getting tired, so we decided on going to bed. When I entered my room Malanda was already snoring to her heart’s content. I'll use some wax and put it in my ears to muffle the sound a bit, this made me fall asleep much more easily.

The following week went by very quickly, Master told me he had sent a letter to the college and expected a swift response since the new school year was about to begin.

With Master’s return, Malanda would often smile more and hum songs while she worked.

Him being here made the house more whole. I did my chores as usual, but Malanda wished me to practice more. So I could show them what a commoner could do. She didn't like the highborn people with magic, except for Master and Vel.

Most of my time I spent on practice. Vel would let me stay in her room, and sometimes we would just talk or play a game. However between that, some real practice was going on and by experimenting with some concepts I found that steering the colors in my mind, as if the energy was a soup worked best. At the end of the week, I was able to combine them both. I wasn’t able to do it with ease eventually, but Vel told me I already skipped quite a bit of the hard part. It didn't matter because it is all better as it is now. We didn't really go outside anymore since master had sort of forbidden it and he did not think he could fix our problem within a short time. Of course, he also had the undead in the West on his mind.

Our dinners had become a lot more complete as well. There was no one in the world who loved Malanda's cooking more than master and he would let everyone know, not with his words but with way too many sounds of delight. It was a bit annoying sometimes, but then I would noticed how happy Malanda looked, it didn't matter anymore. When we were all together like this it made me feel content.

Vel and I had spent more time together than we ever had and I think we are getting even closer, she is now laughing at all of my jokes even the ones that aren't funny. I hope it stays like this when we go to college.

Friday we received a letter, master was already sitting at the table as Malanda brought the closed envelope to him. I just walked in on the small delivery scene. 'Ah Jacob. You really must be growing, since you sleep such long hours.' Master said. A faint smile of embarrassment found my mouth 'Goodmorning master, I do hope so.' I said holding the words back.

He smiled at me, 'Wel look at this.' and he held up a sealed green envelope, the same one Vel got when she got admitted. 'Do you want to open it yourself?' I was anxious to know, would they really accept me? 'Could we wait for Vel maybe?'

Malanda gave me a soft look, she might have thought it sweet. It wasn't, I just wanted to postpone the moment. Master spoke swiftly 'Sure boy, I'll be in the basement checking in on Zarkius. If anything is amiss, just come down and tell me.'

I sat down as he went and left for the basement. I heard his foot tap softly in the hall. Malanda sighed, 'that man, he's always working, wouldn't it be nice for him to take a break for ones.'

It seemed a little unself aware of her, so a breath equal to a chuckle left me, 'You should join him then, you two are quite similar in that way.' She blushed a bit and put her hand in front of her mouth as if she were hiding her embarrassment. 'The two of us, I couldn't Jacob. Your such a silly boy sometimes.'

Why do they all think I'm silly?

I made my bread and put some meat on it. "Delicious" there was truly nothing that could compare. Behind me I heard some light steps going down the stairs, that must be Vel. 'Heyyy, you received the letter.' I smiled at her, in the same way she did. 'Should we open it together?' I asked.

'I doubt I can eat if we leave it closed, I've been feeling anxious for days now.'

I took the envelope in my hand studying the seal, it was literally a bunker with "SR" on it. I rested my hands with the envelope on the table, praying a lighting prayer. Please let them accept me.

Vel came a little closer to me putting her hands on my shoulders, 'come on, hurry up I wanna know if you'll come with me.' I tried to loosen the seal as if the letter would disappear if I did it too roughly.

Finally, it was loose. I opened it and a whitish paper appeared and my name, J.R. Lycan.

I removed it from the envelope and unfolded it, 'why can't it just say you are accepted or sorry mate.'

'Shut up and read dammit.'

I laughed nervously, at her and started racing through the words.