Aiden had just arrived at his room to meet a rather vexed expression on Kayden’s face.
He closed the door behind him and simply walked to his corner of the room without saying anything to the young lord.
"Where did you go with Arianna?" Kayden asked in a somber tone.
Apparently, he had seen when they had both walked away from the dining hall together.
Aiden, who had just sat down, turned his head toward Kayden with a puzzled expression.
He scoffed and turned his head away, choosing to ignore Kayden’s question. Not only did it sound silly to him, but he found it not worth answering.
Kayden clenched his fist with more annoyance, but thankfully, before things got more tense, a crow perched on their window.
The crow had a small note tied to its leg.
Both of their attentions immediately turned toward the bird, which stood at the window and cawed loudly.
Kayden immediately stood and went toward it. It was obvious the note attached to its leg was meant to carry a message.
He pulled the letter away from the crow’s feet, and after that was done, the crow turned and flew away.
Kayden opened the note as Aiden watched from his corner, then read through it silently. When he was done, he simply flung the paper toward Aiden without saying a word.
Aiden picked the note up and it read:
"Dear Mages, you are all expected to gather at the bonfire once it is lit.
From,
Thamoryn"
It was a note reminding them of their meeting with the Grand Magus that night.
The other rooms had also received different crows at their windows at the same time, dropping the same notes off.
Thamoryn, within her grand chambers, was scribbling in a big thick book when a crow flew in and perched on her shoulder.
"Have they all been notified?" she asked.
The crow spoke back, "Yes, Grand Magus." The sound of its voice still very much sounded like a crow’s.
"Good," she said and then closed the big book.
...
Soon after, the fire was lit and the mages started stepping out one by one.
They gathered around a bonfire as instructed, in the open field space of the academy.
Right before the bonfire stood the Grand Magus, and she waited as they slowly gathered around.
Ambrose remained somewhat secluded and tried to avoid looking in the direction of the Grand Magus.
Aiden had arrived not long ago and simply watched as others gathered around him as well.
Among lots of teenagers, Aiden stood quite tall, and Laela had been staring at him from a distance.
Aiden’s gaze moved about the crowd as well, and then it randomly moved toward the one who had been staring at him for quite some time.
Laela immediately turned her head away, as if she had not been staring.
Aiden had a puzzled expression on his face, as he was almost certain the elf lady had been watching. He turned away with a smile that appeared only briefly.
The Grand Magus looked at everyone as they stepped in, and when it appeared everyone had arrived, she cleared her throat to begin.
"I trust everyone ate to their fill this afternoon," she said while stretching both hands slightly to the side.
She continued, "I will get to it then. Tomorrow will be your first class as Academy mages. Understanding your magic and other forms of magic, understanding the method to create magic techniques."
Murmurs slowly took root in the crowd, and frankly the cause of it was "other forms of magic." Some people wondered what she meant, while others gave vague explanations.
Thamoryn continued, however, "This same time tomorrow, we’ll have an open display of magic for the guild captains, who will all be here to see. The captains will then make decisions for themselves about who to select. Those with priority invites are exempted from this process unless you intend to impress other guild captains you didn’t receive an invitation from."
Some mages instantly felt nervous about this, especially those without priority invites who wanted to get into good guilds.
However, there was one person who loved this idea entirely, Aiden.
In fact, there was a smile on his face to attest to this. His technique replication skill was about to be fed heavily.
"After the selections, you will all be probationary members of the guild. This is until the required conditions have been completed to become a guild initiate."
She added finally, "Every one of you should prepare yourselves accordingly. Being a mage of Xathia is the hardest path one can ever take. Usually, only half the number of new entries survive through the initiation into a guild."
She talked for quite a bit, explained the timing for the next morning when they were to be in class, and laid down some further rules about how the mages were to conduct themselves appropriately in general.
Soon after, Thamoryn was done with all she had to say. Then she dismissed the mages back to their dormitory.
Both Aiden and Kayden returned to their room, and without any further communication between them, they went to bed.
...
The next morning was pretty rough, most especially for the ladies. Prior to having to be in class, they had to take their baths, and unfortunately, the bathing rooms for women were opposite the men’s.
For some girls, it was also a long walk from their rooms through the hallways before they got to the bathing rooms.
That fact was still hard for many of them to reconcile with. Most of them lingered by their door corners with linen towels as their only covers.
The shy ones peeked through their door corners to watch and see if the hallways were clear of boys so they could proceed to the bathing rooms.
Certain boys peeked through their own doors too, but for a different reason altogether.
They were silly teenagers who wanted to catch a glimpse of girls walking toward the bathing rooms, knowing full well they wouldn’t be fully dressed.
Aiden had just walked out of one of the bathing rooms and was proceeding to his room with a towel wrapped over the lower half of his body.
A girl or two walked past him, and there was none who did so without admiring his slightly muscular frame.
That entire morning was chaotic for everyone, but eventually, they all made their way one by one to class.