The next ten days passed very slowly. In the past three years, Mary had always been active from dawn to dusk. Doing chores her parents set her to do or finishing stuff for herself. So without much to do, her days consisted of four activities at first. Fighting with Dehla, giving Elwood some practice and scouring the library for interesting books and teaching Starshadow a lightning spell. The library proved futile though, as the books she had access to were just basic stuff she learnt years ago. The stupor was only broken up once the other groups arrived. Out of the group coming from the capital, eighteen passed, three were escorted back to the capital.

Other than Beavergor, one noble and one of the elves failed the teachers evaluation and were sent back to the capital.

Things picked up once someone moved in the room next to her. That day, she just returned from one of her sparring sessions and found someone very unexpected sniffing at the doors of her room.

A small female beastkin that seemed absorbed by some kind of smell, so much that her senses didn't notice Mary. It was the first time she saw a beastkin up close, so she took her time looking at the small being. Beastkin were quite rare in the empire, as they preferred open grasslands, something the empire with its lush forests didn't have.

Finding one living in a city was a rare occurrence indeed, there were two beastkin kingdoms on the continent, but both were on the other side of the monster territory so nowhere near the empire.

The girl was obviously some sort of cat beastkin. She only reached one meter fifty in height, was very athletically built and had sleek brown and black fur covering her skin. She didn't have any shoes, probably because the shape of her feet resembled the padded feet cats had.

She had a long tail that swished around with excitement, it was about eighty centimeters in length. Her arms were longer than the average humans, so she would probably be capable of running on all fours. While her hand was very much like Mary’s she didn't have any fingernails, instead Mary could see a hint of sharp claws poking out of the top of her fingers.

The girl had a cute pink nose, like some cats Mary had seen before, long fangs that were only visible when her mouth opened and slit hazel eyes. She had cat ears the size of Mary’s palm which were able to freely turn in all directions, they looked like those of a lynx. All in all, she looked like a humanoid cat.

“Hello there, who are you?” The girl jumped up, her tail and ears dropping, looking quite embarrassed by her lack of attention.

“I am Taimanu of the Moonlynx tribe. It's so exciting to be here. Who are you? Is this your room? Why does it smell like bird?”

The girl inhaled, before she could resume her barrage of questions, Mary stopped her.

“I am Mary, I can't answer your questions if you shoot them out like that!” Taimanu deflated, her tail and ears dropping even lower than before, she really looked adorable.

“I’m sorry. I’m always told I talk to fast. I hope we can get along! I am a mage! My tribe sent me to learn how to interact with humans, you are a strange species, always living on one spot and rarely moving around!” By her behavior, Lynxkin was still young, Mary had learnt cat beastkin were usually very patient, but that patience came with age.

Mary just waited until the girl ran out of air again.

“How about you let me answer your questions before asking new ones?” She continued before the girl had a chance to speak up again.

“Yes that's my room. The bird you smell is my falcon, and he is off limits!” For that she surrounded the lynxkin with her mana for a second, just to drive the point home.

“I didn't know beastkin went to human academies, so why are you here?”

“My father is the leader of our tribe and thinks we should learn from each other. I don't know why, but he has some serious concerns whenever he talks about the future. So he sent me, to start a relationship with the most powerful human country on the continent.”

The girl being the daughter of a beastkin chieftain meant she counted as a noble herself. Mary had no idea what lead the girls father to break ancient traditions, but it sure must be something serious. She opted to report her father about her new neighbor as fast as possible.

“You said you're a mage, what do you specialize in?” Mary asked.

“I don't use the magic most of my people use, a combination of body enhancement and wizardry, I’m a ice mage! What about you?”

“I am a greater lightning sorceress. My dad is an ice mage as well!”

“That's so cool, I want to be a Sorceress too! Show me some lightning please!”

Smiling at the easily excitable lynxkin, Mary summed some lightning to charge her hair and, with another spell made it float around her head as if she were underwater.

“Ohh, I want to do that too!” Taimanu said.

“So why are you already here, the next group of students was to arrive in the next two to three days?”

“The others all wanted to take the long way, I showed them the direct way, they just didn't pay attention to their surroundings while we neared the school, it was frustrating really!”

“I know, my group didn't pay attention as well, it’s infuriating! Did you encounter anything interesting?”

“Nothing really, I had to evade a small group of Kobolds, but that's it, you?”

“We had a runin with a bear and an evolved fox tried to sneak up on us, we killed both though!”

“Uh, bears are nasty, we have to deal with them sometimes, always a hussle with no ice or earth mage around, fire always makes them angry.”

“Yeah we noticed that, when one idiot threw a fireball at it, it came out of its daze and nearly killed one of us!”

“That's so stupid, you don't attack a bear with fire!”

“I made sure he understood that!”

The day of the festival came and went, and soon enough Mary and her peers were all gathered in front of the tower.

Unlik the day she arrived, the great hall was now filled with students. Some of the older students already arrived, though their term would only start in two weeks and lunged around them. Most of the people gathered were the two hundred and ten that joined the academy this year though.

Together with Taimanu and Dehla, Mary was near the front of the students. The lynxkin turned out to be one of the most pleasant people Mary had met in the last years. They got along really well, both liking to see the sun rise, and shared a love for forests. Taimanu’s tribe was one of the very few beastkin tribe’s that dwelled in forests.

The ice magic the lynxkin knew was incredibly advanced for her age as well. Ice magic was one of the more powerful magics, because unlike fire magic for example, the attacks had momentum behind them. Ice Magic was essentially a mix of fire and water magic, so skilled ice mages could for example pierce a monsters hide with ice and then fry their insides with fire.

Furthermore, because she grew up wandering the land, it was natural for her to move in forests, she automatically remembered points of interest to navigate the forest, she was arguably as good at it as Mary if not better.

Soon enough, the headmaster stepped on the podium in front of them. Together with her father and fourteen others, the headmaster was one of the empire's few archmages.

To be acknowledged as an archmage, you had to evolve at least once, and have an incredible amount of magical power and experience. The woman in front of her was apt in all basic elements, but specialized in time and water. Of course, time magic didn't actually affect time, just the perception the individual had of time, but it was incredibly powerful nonetheless.

The woman wore the typical attire of a mage that didn't get to travel too much a long robe. The robe was white and blue, with the crest of the academy adorning the chest. Mary could see the magic radiating off it even from where they stood.

She was really tall, reaching one meter and eighty three centimeters in height. The rest of her form was concealed by her robe. She had the empire’s typical blonde hair, which openly flowed over her shoulders, piercing dark brown eyes, that carefully observed them.

The only really distinguishing feature on her face, apart from her eyes, was a broken nose, which in itself was something you didn't see anywhere, as repairing broken bones was something every decent healer could do. With a loud clear voice, she started her speech.

“Welcome to the Academy of Agora! As you may have heard, I am Archmage Verecundia et Potentes and the headmaster of this academy! You are all here, because you wanted some excitement in your life. About a third of you are nobles from all over the empire, welcome. Don't go around expecting special treatment though, one of the requirements of joining is the acceptance that you are a student like everyone else! Because you joined the academy, you will be allowed to join the adventurers guild a year early, accepting missions under our supervision of course!

The next weeks, until the term starts, will be dedicated to get a more in depth analysis of your capabilities. They will determine the setup of your classes! Though all of you are quite capable to start with I'm sure.

I am honored to greet the daughter of the Moonlynx tribe chieftain in our academy. She is the first beastkin to ever join our academy since its founding!”

That caused Taimanu to shrink down, obviously uncomfortable with all the attention that sentence brought her. After the speech, they were seperated in several groups, divided by names, and the evaluation of their magical skilled started.

They were divided by their last names and a teacher took their group in one of the classrooms.

“With everyone assembled, we will start a closer evaluation of your skills. You have been divided by name for now, but that will change afterwards. We will try to put you all in classes of equal skill later on.”

The evaluation of their skills would need two hours per person, so with one teacher for every thirty students, they would need six days to get ready with ten hours spent evaluating the students per day. Obviously they were not expected to be present just to wait for their turn, so after they had been given their schedule they were free to do whatever they wanted.

Mary’s turn was two days later, so she met with the teacher in one of the classrooms.

“You are Mary Falconbridge?”

“Yes.”

“Your application claims you are a sorceress with greater lightning affinity, that true?”

“Of course!”

“If you would please put your hand on this gem and pour as much mana as possible within the next fifteen seconds.”

He gave her a roughly spherical ruby, so Mary took hold of her mana and inserted her mana in the next fifteen seconds. Afterwards her manapool had lost about one seventh of its capacity. She returned the gem, and the teacher triggered some kind of enchantment carved in the crystal structure of the gem. He noted something down and turned back towards her.

“Well that's some impressive output of mana young lady!”

He took another gem out of his desk.

“What you see here is something every mage needs. The academy supplies one to every student. It has two functions, and is the single most important piece of equipment a mage has.

The gem is able to store and release mana as needed. The most talented mages don't need them, as they can cast spells to do the same, but the runes needed for such enchantments are the only ones easier to enchant than cast! Do not lose it, as you won't get a new one.”

Mary got to choose between several different gems, so she took an emerald, as green was her favorite color.

“Very good, now please transfer all of your mana in the gem, so I can measure your manapool.”

The next item on the agenda was the amount of control she had over her mana. Her manacontrol seemed to impress the teacher, even though she held back a bit.

“You are quite talented for you age, congratulations. Now that we have the basics out of the way, let's start with your affinity! Just draw mana from the gem. You ready to proceed or do you need a break?”

“I am good to go!”

“Very well, as Sorcerers have no need to remember runes, as they get supplied by their affinity, we will instead try to find your limits.”

The rest of the time was spent exploring the limits of her made up affinity, which worked great, as she could actually cast everything the teacher asked her to. She even got several new ideas from the spells he had her try as well.

Mary got back to her dormitory after lunch where she was expected by a curious lynxkin.

“How did it go? What did you have to do? Did anything interesting happen? Do you know what class you will join?”

“Slow down Taimanu, you know I can't answer your questions if you chain them like this!”

“Sorry Mary, but it's so exciting, and you know I have to wait until tomorrow, I'm so excited.”

“I know you can't control yourself!”

Mary smiled at her friend and than answered her questions, showing everything she did.

The lessons would start in eight days, and all the older students would arrive after the break as well. They got the results of their tests four days after the last students was evaluated, together with their timetable for the following months.

Mary, together with Taimanu and another twenty two students got in the advanced manacontrol classes, they really look forwards to the lessons they would get.

As they were different kinds of magicians, they didn't get to be in the same class every time, but that was fine as well, it would allow them to get to know new people that would over time, become the elite of the empire.