Chapter 4: Aptitude Test And A Surprising Discovery (Part 1)

The highest tower of Shinewood College was home to an elderly woman, scribbling her signature away onto hundreds of papers. She peeped at another hundred piling high. Another night at the office, at this rate.

Around this time of the year was the busiest of them all. What with entrance exams, buildings and rooms renovations, and student and guest events. Expensive, too, with building and architectural maintenance, ceremonial fees, salaries for famous guests and lecturers—the list goes on and on.

Even worse, special accommodations were requested for their precious little kids by the doting nobles of this city. Which meant more revenue, but in turn, more paperwork. Such papers on her desk were of the like, little and insignificant.

Fortunately, these insignificant documents only required her signature. She paid a bit of a glimpse at the headline, signed away, and swapped it for another document waiting in line. Which wasn’t so bad. But those on the corner of her desk--stacked a feet high--taunted her and reminded her to put on her reading glasses. What evil mind would conjure such lengthy, tedious forms that stretch on and on for no good reason whatsoever, she could only wish them a firm slap on their cheeks. For these all have to be read thoroughly, from start to finish.

After an hour-long burst of non-stop signing, she grabbed her gray braided hair and hid her face behind it. “Ugh… no more…” An exhausted sigh followed a longing for something more invigorating. She turned towards the double window in the room that provided some sense of lighting. Outside of the office’s large arched windows a gray smoke rose from the location of the magical field exam.

There, the star pupils of this year would be born. Whoever can complete the tasks of their examiners would have a full-ride scholarship and reap the benefits of an honors student. Who will it be this year, she wondered.

“Hm? Gray smoke?” She hummed a low tune. “Is this Professor Lielie’s? Or is this the work of Professor Zeke?”

Three sudden knocks on the office’s door stole her attention away from the outside.

“The door’s not locked.” Right away she picked up her pen and continued marking off the documents in front of her. Presumably, it was Captain Scarlet with another round-trip to drop off more documents that needed her care. But her usual “Excuse me” that came after was absent.

Another knock, and the door remained closed. She stopped writing and raised a brow. Halfway up and out of her chair, she thought it was one of those new guest instructors the college contracted annually. Often times they would get lost traversing through the main building; need clarity on the correct protocol for something; or just wanted to stop by and chat.

Before she could reach the doorknob, light from the hallway poured in, and so did two individuals she never imagined to see again.

One was a true princess with a set of round, red eyes that looked through the world with pupils of innate superiority. That little smile she wore had all the positivity of what could be mistaken as genuine, yet lacked all the warmth that it carried. The same smirky smile she held on the day of being bestowed the title Third Heiress.

She strutted forth on coverless high heels in an unreasonably revealing purple dress: the top-half revealing her bare neck and reddish tattoo; the bottom dress parted mid-way of her right thigh to display her soft, smooth, and pale skin; and the rest tighten to her body to accentuate her toned curves.

She crossed one leg over the other after sitting down on a four-seater black sofa. Combing her fingers through her long, wavy, platinum hair, she greeted Grandmaster Babalin and patted the seat next to her for her companion.

A scruffy middle-aged man in a black suit and white bowtie responded. He closed the door behind him and walked towards her with stiff motions, as if he had never worn such tight apparel before. Adequate space was kept between them, mindful of her precious fur shawl wrapped around her arms and shoulders.

“Princess Priscilla.” Grandmaster Babalin bowed respectfully, sat back on her chair, then addressed the man next to her. “And Lord Marnox. So the news was true that the Third Princess acquired you… a Monster. Whatever your reasons are for being here, I must express my gratitude. They kept me locked in here and entertained me with papers all day. How dreadful. So, what can I do for the both of you?”

“The pleasure is ours.” Lord Marnox smiled. “Our objective is of no surprise. The little one here wishes to enroll. I hope you can help us with this endeavor.”

Grandmaster Babalin turned towards Priscilla, whose smile was so perfectly crafted that she doubted her own eyes. “Oh, what an honor!” She clapped her hands with delight. “I must admit, I’m surprised. I do not know what we can offer you that the courts and capital of the empire could not. Surely, all the expert martial and mystical practitioners would gladly teach you there. To pick here, instead... Do you mind telling this granny why?”

“We cannot--”

“--Certainly.” Priscilla stuck out a hand in front of Lord Marnox. “It is not a matter of personnel, Grandmaster Babalin. Really, this was a personal request of mine. Listening to all the old men and women lecture all day, every day gets boring past the first minute. I... just want to experience a life with those of the same age as I am; go through hardships with my peers before I return to a life at the court. I’d like to take this opportunity to get to know those of less importance than I. Besides, no girl would want to waste her youth stuck in that boring, old room all day. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Well… that life doesn’t sound too bad to me. Much better than being stuck in here.” Grandmaster Babalin laughed. “But, your father has agreed to this? I imagined his view of me would’ve him immediately denying any ventures of this.”

“Lord Marnox, the letter, please.”

Marnox pulled out a crumpled letter from his pocket and placed it on the mahogany desk.

“Ugh… why must you make me read more.” Grandmaster Babalin read through the content, through all of its fancy cursives and Elderuin language before she turned to Lord Marnox. “I’d love to have you here, Princess Priscilla. However, Lord Marnox is a different story. Someone as dangerous as him absolutely cannot stay here. To do so would break the rule that thousands of others had pledged to.”

“No worries there,” Princess Priscilla said. “I’ve seen lots of familiar faces this morning, and the absence of their bodyguards. And I have no intention of doing otherwise. Really, I am just an ordinary student here.” She faced Lord Marnox and cued him to say something.

“It is as she said.” Lord Marnox nodded. “I’m here today to make sure she’s safe. Starting tomorrow, she’ll be on her own, and I hope you will treat her with the proper respect of a royal--”

“--Ordinary.” Princess Priscilla coughed. “Just an ordinary student.”

“Of course,” Grandmaster Babalin said. “Please do try to get along with the others. The nobles here are quite feisty when it comes to their heirs and heiresses. It’d save me a whole lot of headache if nothing would happen.”

“Not a problem.”

“Now, ordinary students usually go through pre-exams to be fitted into several categories the college deemed best to bolster their skills,” Grandmaster Babalin informed. “However, application periods and deadlines have passed months ago. So, now, we’ll conduct a brief one to get you into the right classes. If that is fine with you, let’s get started, shall we?”

“That’s fine.”

“Princess Priscilla, what path do you intend to walk here?”

“...What path do I intend to walk here?” Priscilla tilted her head with a fixed, blank expression. She glanced at Lord Marnox, hoping that he could translate the elder’s odd choice of words.

“She’s talking about an aptitude test,” Lord Marnox informed. “Remember what we’ve discussed?”

“Ah! Why didn’t she just say so.” Princess Priscilla chuckled. “Mystical path, for me. I’ve studied a bit of swordplay, but magic has always fascinated me.”

Grandmaster Babalin walked over to a glass cabinet and retrieved a crystal ball the size of a watermelon. She sat on the sofa across from the princess and placed the crystal ball on the coffee table between them. “Whenever you’re ready, place your hand on it and repeat after me.”

As confident as ever her right hand stretched towards it. “What should I expect to see or feel?”

“It’s different for everyone,” Grandmaster Babalin said. “The most gifted students would see five rings. Meaning, their potential reaches to the fifth circle. Likewise, a person without any aptitude for this path would see nothing at all.”

“Fifth circle? Is that… amazing?”

“Generally, yes. I reached the fourth circle myself--eighty or so years ago--and look where I am now. However, individually, it’s hard to say. It’s all potential, theoretically. How you wield it ultimately decides its effectiveness.”

“Potential?” It only begged more questions, but the anticipation was too much to handle. To find out where she stood in this magical world, the answer was in front of her. Without further ado, she rested her hand on the crystal ball. “Nevermind. I’m ready.”

A loud bang from the door turned their heads.

“Grandmaster!” a desperate masculine voice called out, and another loud bang threatened to break down the door. “Grandmaster Babalin! It’s urgent! Please open the door!”

“I’m busy here!” Grandmaster Babalin shouted. “Come back later!”

Four people barged in, two of whom she immediately recognized: Ren, an excellent guard under the leadership of Captain Scarlet, and Professor Zeke, one of the few official instructors salaried here. The other two looked similar, like they could be sisters, except one had a diminutive physique.

Ren and the diminutive young girl supported the unconscious girl with their shoulders. Professor Zeke rushed over to the unoccupied sofa next to Grandmaster Babalin, instructing the two to lay the girl there. Gripped in the professor’s right hand were several white flowers with thick stems of dark green.

Grandmaster Babalin's eyes grew solemn. There was no mistaking it for anything other than the Lilies of Rejuvenation. “Zeke! The hell are you doing!? You can’t just barge in here when you want to! Boy, you better get back out that door before I take my slippers and--”

“--Great Grandmaster Babalin!” The young girl interrupted in a pleading, spiritless voice. Words from her mouth crammed and shoved its way out. Incoherent, and a mess. When she saw those eyes that didn’t understand a single thing coming out of her mouth, she inhaled a deep breath. “Please! Please, save my sister Arwyn.”

“Grandmaster Babalin, we must act swiftly,” Professor Zeke whispered. “There’s not much time left.”

Grandmaster Babalin wanted to smack his cheeks first, but the fact that Professor Zeke brought them here meant one thing.

“Then what the hell are you waiting for? Hurry up and hand it over!”

She stuck her palmed towards Professor Zeke, and he placed the Lilies of Rejuvenation on it. After clamping it between her teeth, she pressed her thumb against Arwyn’s forehead, and the other thumb against the skin of the girl’s heart. Once everything was prepared, she waited for Professor Zeke, and when he firmly nodded, she sucked in a belly of air.

“Beannachd beatha comhla. [Ioc Comhla].”

Professor Zeke quickly took out a squiggly stick with a crystallic orb at the end--a wand--from his pocket. As she kept repeating the same line, he traced a large circle in the air above the injured girl, leaving a lingering trail of red behind. When he moved on to draw a triangle within the circle, a lingering trail of blue was left behind. A square was then drawn within that triangle, touching all three edges, and what trail was left behind was colored in green.

“Beannachd beatha comhla! [Ioc Comhla]!”

Everyone watching held their breath in fear of ruining both of their concentrations.

Both soaked in sweat. Heaving and gasping under tremendous pressure. Grandmaster Babalin’s throat dried from recycling the same string for the tenth time. Teeth shook from repeating the same lines for the fifteenth time. Hands trembled for the twentieth time. On the next iteration, all three colors pulsated. It ran through all the lines of the drawn shape, mixing and swirling the colors to white, then gray, then black, and back.

No windows were opened, nor were any doors cracked. But somehow, a chill breeze swept between everyone’s feet and rushed through the roots of their hair. It distorted the lines of the geometric shape, attaching one end to the thumb on Arwyn’s forehead, and another end to the thumb on Arwyn’s heart. The petals of the Lilies of Rejuvenation flashed from white to black, the stems dried to brown, and the plants shrunk from its quick decay. As the surrounding air dried, Arwyn wheezed and forced a black haze out of her.

“Arwyn!” her sister cried. “Arwyn! Get up, you lazy bum!”

Arwyn rolled onto her front with the nastiest cough--of a hint of life and death. The color and shape lingering in the air dissipated. Grandmaster Babalin spit out the cruel taste of the dead plant in her mouth and looked at Professor Zeke, thankful that nothing wrong occurred during their practice. Professor Zeke returned the same gesture and pocketed his wand.

“Is she still dead?” Priscilla kneeled next to Arwyn. Poking her squishy arms. Squishing her stretchy cheeks. Squeezing her little nose. No response, whatsoever. “She might still be dead.”

“Wha--!” Chloe screamed. “Please don’t do that!”

“Don’t jest in this kind of situation,” Lord Marnox said. “There’s still some life in her, more now than there was when she came in.”

“Hear that?” Priscilla smiled at Arwyn's sister. “She’ll be fiiine.”

“Yeah...” Arwyn’s sister wiped a slipping tear from her cheeks. “Oh, I’m sorry. You are?”

“Priscilla,” she replied. “May I know the name of such a caring sister?”

“Chloe.” In front of such pleasantries and hospitality of everyone’s helpfulness, Chloe personally thanked each and every one of them from the bottom of her heart. Grandmaster Babalin insisted that she thought nothing of it, but she humbly bowed nonetheless.

“Ren.” Grandmaster Babalin waved to him. “Escort Chloe and Arwyn home. She’ll be fine now, and I’m sure she wouldn’t want to wake up here in the middle of the night.”

“Certainly.” Ren supported Arwyn from one side, and Chloe supported her from the other. On their way out Ren stopped at the doorway and peeked over his shoulders. “Oh, Grandmaster Babalin. I almost forgot. During my time on duty there was this really annoying person that insisted on seeing you.”

“Oh? Who was it?”

“It was… Wait, I don’t think I ever got his name--”

Ren turned to a loud, harsh tapping that came from down the hall on his left. Soon, the hallway was overtaken by its noise, and the weak fierceness of someone stomping closer.

“What the hell is wrong with this place! Why are there so many doors that lead to nowhere? Why are there so many stairways with no signs? Where are ALL. THE. DIRECTIONS! How can you honestly expect anyone to get anywhere by themselves in this stupid maze of--”

The voice cut off as Ren waved to someone on his left. “Hey. Actually… the person you’re looking for is behind us.”

“Oh, hello. Thank you.”

Chloe was completely stuck on him until Ren tugged for her to resume their walk.

“Someone you know?” Ren asked.

“No. It’s just... I think I saw him on my way to the shop...”

Their voices trailed off as Sigrios closed the door behind him. Of the four people here, two immediately caught his eyes. That scruffy man sitting on the couch reeked with an unforgettable stench of dried blood. The other, presumably the grandmaster he had been searching for, was wrinkled with wisdom and adorned with many sashes. Their eyes met, and he couldn’t be anymore happier.

“I heard you’ve been looking for me,” Grandmaster Babalin said. “But I’m awfully busy right now. Please come again another time.”

“Ah--wait! Please wait! My name is Sigrios.” Sigrios dropped his briefcase, opened it, and took out a sealed letter. “I guess you didn’t have time to read it; or it got lost on the way; or whatever, but please read this. He gave me this in case something like that happened.”

“Great… more papers to read.” Grandmaster Babalin wanted to finish business with the princess and discuss matters with Professor Zeke. What nonsense the newcomer spouted was of little importance. She was a hair’s breadth away from dismissing his letter altogether, but upon seeing that unique carving on the seal, time seemingly stopped. “This is…” In her hands she saw something she thought was long gone forgotten: the symbol of three concentric circles. “Hohenheim…”

“What…?!” Lord Marnox stared at Grandmaster Babalin in disbelief. “That name...”

Without a second further, she broke the inked seal and uncurled the letter:

“To Babalin, youngling of the Stars:

Soon, I will send to you a person of my past. I’ve spoken of him before, when we met at the Milky Beach, and though he may look crude now, he is whole. I’ve done what I can, but I can no longer support him with what I have. I hope you can guide him in my stead. Towards the future we both dreamt on that fateful day.

From the light,

Hohenheim.”

It fell out of her hands, and only seconds later did the content of the letter registered in her head. Her hands shook. Loose and wrinkly as they are, they were once full of youth and the yearning of the unknown. Here it was, a glimpse of something that could be, in the flesh.

“Grandmaster Babalin?” Professor Zeke shook her shoulders. “Is something wrong?”

“Excuse me. Sorry. That performance from earlier must have taken a toll on my body.” Grandmaster Babalin forced a cough, shook her hands of its numbness, and pocketed the letter that fell. “That’s right, Professor Zeke, thank you for your assistance earlier. If you didn’t carry that plant with you, I’m not sure how much longer she would’ve lasted. However, I expect a full report on today’s incident by tomorrow morning. How can someone end up in such a state on our grounds--on opening day, no less--is completely baffling!”

Professor Zeke stuttered in his steps backwards. “A f-full report?” His shaky voice filled with dread. “But I thought you hate reading those--” He quickly spun his body around and sprinted towards the door. Sigrios had somehow moved out of the way, but his briefcase suffered an unfortunate kick towards the corner of the room. With both feet out of the door, Professor Zeke let out a cheeky laugh.

“You better do it if you want to keep your job!” Grandmaster Babalin yelled. “Zeke! You hear me?!”

“Sorry, kid.” Professor Zeke left the door half-shut with his head still peeking through. “Grandmaster Babalin, there is one thing you should know regarding today’s event.”

“Write it in that report, idiot.” Grandmaster Babalin folded her arms.

“Now, now, it’s something you’d want to hear in person,” Professor Zeke insisted. “In regards to Arwyn’s ceremonial exam, we couldn’t fully ascertain her potential with the traditional method. The crystal ball responded unusually, so we switched over to Tsushin’s Ten-Stress-Circle method.”

“Oh? To not inform me first… Get that second job ready.” Grandmaster Babalin walked over and picked up Sigrios’ briefcase. After passing it to him and receiving his gratitude, she lessened her distance from the door, completely devoid of any and all pretense of a threat. “And? Go on, go on. What of it?”

“This year’s students averaged around the third and fourth circle.” Professor Zeke lowered his voice. “Well, hers… Before whatever happened--whatever went wrong--she reached up to... the second circle.”

“That’s it? Why I oughta…” Grandmaster Babalin was a second away from slamming the door into his face. But her hand was pulled towards him. Palm facing towards the ground, and solemn in his eyes stared into her perplexion. A finger traced along her palm. It started at one point, stretching down in a curve, and then back up and down into an incomplete circle. What little confusion was left in her mind disappeared when he silently mouthed a number.

Six. The sixth circle.

A satisfied smile crossed Professor Zeke’s face when he saw her mouth stuck open. Paralyzed. Whatever thought was racing through her mind was no doubt similar to the ones that he experienced when he saw it live. Without saying goodbye he gently closed the door and left her basking in the surprising discovery.