After another restless night, I woke up. I looked over all of my belongings, which there weren't much of, to make sure they were here then made my way downstairs to the Innkeeper. There were many more people here than yesterday.

"Miss Innkeeper, where is the next Mages Guild?" I said in a very serious tone.

"I don't know, Sir. Maybe someone here would know. Our guests are from all over, you know," she boasted then yelled into the crowds that were at the tables, "Excuse me, does anyone know where the Mage's Guild is?"

A tall man with slicked-back gray hair and a neatly trimmed beard popped up his head.

He raised his hand and yelled back, "oh, I know."

He joined us at the innkeeper's counter. He wore an almost completely blue, very elegant coat that almost reached the ground, at the back of it was what I assumed was an artist's interpretation of a dragon.

"So, who needs directions?"

"This young man here," the innkeeper answered for me.

He gave me a curious look, "hmm, and why would you need to know young man?"

I didn't have to tell him, and I didn't want to, "personal reasons."

Nodding he didn't prod me further instead he went behind the desk and looked at the map that was handing on the wall, "let's see. Where are we again?"

It was obvious that the Innkeeper didn't approve that he was molesting the map.

"We're here and the guild is here," he drew a line with his finger.

"Would it bother you if I joined you on your way there?"

"It's alright if you do," I didn't have anything to protest against, he seemed nice enough.

"Great, I was going to make way there, and I think I'm late already, but they can wait a little longer," he gave a mighty roar of laughter.

While we were walking, he pointed out landmarks of the city telling me that if I get lost, I can find my way using these but other than that I didn't really listen to him.

"So what brings you to the city?"

I was silent, and he understood that I wasn't going to answer, "What about your family, are they here?"

"No, I'm here alone," I mumbled.

"Oh? And why is that? I'm sure they're worried about you. The city is dangerous for someone your age you know."

"They aren't, they died recently."

In a serious tone that almost surprised me, he said, "I'm sorry to hear that."

After apologizing he stopped talking for the rest of the way.

Following the man silently for almost another half hour he stopped in front of a gigantic stone building and said cheerily, "here we are," we went in together. We were standing in the big main hall. It's quite pretty, but I wasn't an architect so my opinion meant little.

"Do you still need help?"

"Who can I ask questions here?" I asked.

"Oh, Dorian can help, I see him over there. Dorian!" He yelled and waved across the hall to a spindly man who wore a similar-looking coat to the old man, his was much less impressive.

He was sitting in something more alike to a throne than a chair, and I noticed that all the chairs here looked like that. He was writing something on parchment but as soon as he saw the old man waving he abruptly stood up and quickly walked over, "Yes, Sir?" he said nervously.

"This young man has some questions, and I'd appreciate it if you could help him out."

"Of course."

"I'm off then," he went up a flight of stairs and left.

I hesitated, "...it's nice to meet you, Minster Dorian."

I wasn't sure how to talk to him. I thought that maybe I should bow but in the end threw out the idea.

"What do you need?" he said in an irritated tone trying to fake cheerfulness.

It looked like he was only indulging me because the old man asked him to help me.

"I wanted to know how I would know if I had magical powers, like you guys."

He groaned quietly, "we have an aptitude test for anyone who applies. Follow me," he said in a monotone voice.

I wondered how often he had to say that sentence a day.

We went up the stairs opposite the ones the old man went up to.

He led me to a waiting room.

"Wait here, someone will come for you soon," then he left, too.

There were already some people waiting here, an old woman, a tired-looking middle-aged man, a bright young woman, and what I assumed was a mother with her young child.

During the wait, I didn't know what to do. The others here were chatting, especially the young woman and the old one, the mother was coddling her child. I heard both of the groups talk but didn't pick up anything. I was too excited and worried. Only the man wasn't talking he was sitting there like a statue. I wondered how the guild finds out who had potential or if everyone has. Do they perform tests or do they have a specialist for these sorts of things? Can a person 'see' or 'feel' if I had powers?

One after the other everyone who was waiting was escorted out in irregular intervals by a man in glasses who was wearing the same coat Minster Dorian did. Nobody new joined us in the waiting room after I had gotten there and then after everyone else was called out it was finally my turn.

The man in the coat went into the room and pointed at me and swiftly said, "you there, come with me." I stood up and went with him.

I was curious, "Where are we going?"

"Testing room," he answered in a brisk tone. He had a small notebook where he wrote things down, but I couldn't make out what he wrote while we were walking.

The room where we relocated to had almost nothing in it. It was spacious with a chair and table in the middle, a cupboard, and a fireplace that wasn't lit.

"Sit down," he ordered me.

"What are we going to do?"

"Sit down," he said again more aggressively, and so I did.

"Do you have a preferred element? You can choose from water, earth, fire, and the like," he said while writing down more things in his notebook.

I thought about it a moment.

He looked at me over his glasses and asked again, "Do you?"

"Fire," I quickly said.

He nodded while scribbling more things down, "okay... then stand up and get closer to the fireplace."

I did, "what now?"

I was startled when suddenly the wood caught on fire, there was no indication of heat or a spark anywhere to make it burst like that. The man next to me didn't even move a muscle or say anything.

It had to be magic, "don't you have to say an incantation or do some hand moves?" I said astonished.

He didn't react to what I said at all and didn't answer my question like he was made out of stone.

"Try to move the fire," he tried to say in a gentle fashion.

"What do you mean 'try to move the fire'?"

"Try moving the fire with your mind. We just need a confirmation of magical abilities. If you can't even do that you're not just wasting our time but yours too," the gentleness he tried to put on just a second ago had already vanished.

I looked at the fire. It was wiggling around, as far as I could see it was just regular fire, I couldn't be sure how magically lighting one would influence it.

I got a bit closer, and I didn't know what do to, I don't yet actually know how to consciously do magic. I hoped that just trying to command the fire in my mind would make it move, so I concentrated hard and told the fire that it should stay on the left side of the wood and stay there but nothing happened. And after several minutes of nothing happening my face flushed slightly in both anger and embarrassment, just yesterday I had been so confident that I could pass whatever test they may have and now I couldn't even do the simplest of magical tricks.

I tried straining harder and ordered the fire with all my might. I was getting angrier and angrier but calmed down at once when I saw that the fire was unnaturally stuck at the left side of the fireplace. I stopped the command in my mind to try to release the 'hold' over the fire and it quickly snapped back into place.

I looked at the man and saw the faintest trace of a smile on his stone-like face, "go on, do a bit more if you can," he encouraged me.

It felt good being acknowledged.

I then shoved the fire, like there was a heavy wind blowing over it, to the right and to the left. Now that I had my confidence back again, I tried to do the same thing I did with it yesterday. I reached out my hand and concentrated hard. I reached out my hand and put it directly into the flames, it didn't burn my sleeves or me. I scooped up a handful of fire into my palm like one would do with water and pulled my hand out of the fireplace. While having the flames, I carefully turned around and looked at the man. Mouth agape he was speechless then coming to his senses he asked while almost swallowing his words, "how long have you been doing magic for?" "Since yesterday?" I said unsure. It looked like he didn't know what to do.

He paced around for a bit then said, "wait here," running hurriedly outside.

I also didn't know what to do. Again was my confidence was replaced, this time with nervousness. I haven't done anything wrong, have I? The flame in my hands fizzled out, looks like I couldn't hold it for too long. I sat back into the chair, and I couldn't stop my legs from twitching. After waiting a while, he returned with the company of the old man I met in the inn this morning.

He entered the room looked at me surprised, "hello again, young man."

He leaned next to the table, "Could you show me too what you did with those flames not too long ago?" I looked at him puzzled.

"...Sure," I scooped up another flame and held it in my hand, this time not as perfect as last time, my sleeve had slight black burn marks.

They already tore at some places and had holes on others, so I didn't care.

"That's pretty good. Looks like what you said was true indeed," he remarked to the other mage.

"Can you do something with it?" He asked me.

"Do something? Is this not enough?"

"That's not what I mean, but could you try to, I don't know, shape it into something?"

"I can try," imagining a pyramid in my head, I tried forcing the shape on the fire.

The flames decreased in size, but it was unmistakably in the shape of a pyramid. The previously stone-faced mage gasped when he saw the little pyramid in my hands but the old one just looked at it with interest.

I couldn't understand what was so amazing about what I did, "is this not what mages do?"

The grey-haired one burst out in laughter, "boy, you have no idea what you just did, do you?"

He laughed some more.

"Do you think you can do this with water too?" he asked intrigued.

"I don't know, maybe?" From the reaction I got, I was sure that I had passed the test, so why did I have to do another one with the water?

While the other mage poured some water into a bowl that came from the cupboard, the old man put some stones on the table. I didn't where rocks this big came from, a pocket in his coat? I was sure they weren't from the cupboard.

"Now, can you lift those?"

He took one for himself and threw it into the air, it was floating there like it weighed nothing, rotating slowly in the air, "just like that. Concentrate, please."

I took one too but didn't throw them as he did. I was sure if I did that they would just crash onto the ground.

Now that I had a running start, lifting the stones wasn't hard to do. They were flying in front of me. "Nice, simply wonderful," his old eyes beamed with joy. "Now, can you do something with those as you did with the fire?" "I don't think I can shape these into a pyramid." "It doesn't matter what you do," he assured me. I had an idea but wasn't sure if I could do it but trying couldn't hurt. I put the stones on the table again and gently they turned into rough sand; it was much easier than I thought.

He let his hand go through the sand then took a handful and admired it for a while, "You have to be around..." he looked at me intently, "fifteenish? Maybe a bit younger, how did you not know you can do magic?"

I wasn't sure what to tell him but telling him about the fairies was out of the question. I would seem crazy, or someone would do crazy experiments on me, anything bad could happen to me, really.

"I guess I just never tried," I lied.

He didn't challenge my answer in any way.

"Could you wait a bit more?" He asked me, I nodded.

He took the other mage then both went out for a short while. I could hear them speak outside but couldn't understand their muffled talking through the door. Looks like I didn't have to do another test with the water.

After they had gone in again, the old mage looked at me and said in a more serious tone, "I wanted to officially introduce myself," he slightly bowed.

"I am Arno Eeming. Grand Magister of the region of Fréllon. Headmaster of the Mages Guild in Dralett, maybe you already know that. I wanted to ask you something."

He put his hands on my shoulders and with a big smile he asked me, "would you like to go to the Royal Mages School in the capital?"