1 Chapter 1 - Bad Dreams, Bad Omens

It was 8pm already, the short winter sun had waned, leaving in its place only the crescent moon, glittering in the sky.

Were those stars which showed on the windows ? No, only the light of the many brightly burning candles, wax slowly dripping down from them as the sound of paper being scratched by pens resounded in the study hall.

A dozen students, all in robes and uniforms bearing the symbol of the Grand Academy of Arcana were seated and thinking as hard as they could, writing down magic formulaes and geometric shapes onto which were hastily drawn runes.

They weren't old, roughly fifteen or sixteen.

Those were third year students at the academy, begginners if you will.

The curriculum of the school lasted eight long years, for the normal student that is. Not for them.

This was the Elite Class of the 3rd Year. Some referred to those in the elite classes as freak while others admired their talent and hardwork.

Indeed, you could enter the academy at the age of fifteen, and yes, it meant that most of those children had not yet spent a full year studying magic, yet had already caught up with usual third year students, if not surpassed them.

"Time's up! Everyone turn in your assignement!"

There was a few sights but no protest, knowing this was merely practice for the upcoming test, near the end of the week.

Balthazar grasped the pile of papers the students handed him, almost 50 pages, making it rougly 4 pages per student, with some quick thinking, he understood that quite a few of them must have drawn magic circles and explained them as schematics, thinking of it as easier than discussing the aerodynamics of a droplet of water being heated by a lesser conflagration spell and how the heat would radiate from it and the reaction of its environnement.

He quietly shook I head as he skimmed through the work rapidly as the students left the classroom for the day.

"Teacher, please! Please!"

Balthazar got drawn out of his thought. It was by the voice of Rachel, she was a promising talent, sixteen and with great affinity for water magic, she also was the class deputy.

"Yes, sorry I was thinking about your tests. You wanted to ask me a question ?"

"Well not exactly. I was talking with other students of the class and we all have trouble sleeping those days, maybe it has something to do with the moon phases, or the amount of homework we have right now, but we thought, maybe you could ask Professor Amos to move the Evocation test after the weekend, it would just leave us three more days to study, I think we'd really benefit from it. Please teacher."

Balthazar sighted, it reminded him of when he too, was a student of the elite class, yes, she was right, the amount of work was ungodly, sleep came after.

On the other hand, elite students tended to be very close to each others, as they had to share a dorm together and their homework being harder than other classes, they could oly rely on other student like them for help.

The disadvantage was that few wanted to disappoint, not yet having understood the volatility of a single bad grade for most.

This was why Rachel was the deputy, she was named by the Headmaster, Leomund van McFullen, for her leadership, and ability to keep the students in a positive mindset, mitigating stress as much as a student could.

"Yeah, I … I get that, I'll speak to Professor Amos about it, but do not fool yourself Rachel, the old man was my teacher before he was yours, and I've never seen him move a test, not even that time."

Of course, no 'that time' existed, but Balthazar knew Rachel would ask Amos who would in turn ask him, that could quickly become a little prank on the students. Amos was tough, but a good hearted man after all.

"Thank you teacher! I'll be going then!"

Balthazar waved Rachel goodbye, packed the tests in his leather bag, closed the metal lock, got up from his seat in a loud screeching noise, patted his robes and headed toward his quarters.

He was Balthazar Eidelstroff.

Balthazar was a young man, having recently turned twenty years of age.

He was the son of Baron and Baroness Calvin and Cecila Eidelstroff as well as brother to the twins, Leo and Lea Eidelstroff.

A small estate was their home, in the east of the Celenis Kingdom, itself being a tributary state of the Empire of Karnoss, standing tall to the west.

He enrolled in the Grand Academy of Arcana at the age of fifteen too, and quickly showed extreme talent for magic and graduated last year, after only five years of study, something rarely seen.

Not only that, he graduated second of the academy, bested only by another freak as they called them.

However, while most wanted to learn magic for riches or fame, Balthazar was deeply passionate about the art. As such, he was currently working as a teacher's aide to his old Conjuration teacher, Victor Oberas, hoping to become a teacher of the academy next year.

And that was why he was now frustrated and tired, having to grade so many papers.

'I must truly be dumb to choose that work ...'

Balthazar quickly finished his due diligence, and went to bed.

It was 6:30am when Balthazar got up, passing before the mirror, he arranged his dark blond hair, a few fell off, was it stress or genetics ?

He washed his pale skin, his face was rectangular, witth a square chin, he observed his features through his green eyes for a moment, before getting dressed.

Balthazar was tall, standing at a good meter and eighty four centimeters, yet quite skinny, though he exercised more than one would believe, he never could put on weight.

He had always been quite sickly in the eyes of others, nocturnal, unable to keep a sleep schedule for more than a few days. Easily getting sunburned.

Was it why Balthazar spent most, if not all, of his time in a library ? Or was the time spent in there the cause ?

He put on his black and purple robes and drank his coffee, with milk and sugar.

When it was 8am, Balthazar headed towards the practice fields.

Why the practice fields ? Well it was to find Professor Amos.

Oh no, those practice fields weren't used for physical training.

While it was required of the students to practice physical activity, in order to keep their bodies in good shape to better conduct mana, the fields were mainly used to train the casting of spells which wouldn't be able to be used inside, like advanced Evocation magic.

After all, Evocation is one of the nine grand schools of magic, of which, it is the one which specializes on destructive spells and elementals effect, from burning a piece of paper to seismic wave manipulation for the highest of tiers.

Of spells, they are ordered in Circle, from one, to ten, at least that is the theory behind it. Mastering 7th Circle Magic was the common requirement to be remembered as a great archwizard, enough to make future generations bow in admiration.

Balthazar was a 2nd Circle Wizard, which was, for his age, impressive. Indeed, a graduate of the academy, after 8 years, has to be able to cast 1st Circle spells.

Teachers varied from the 3rd to the 4th Circle while the Head-Teachers, those who were responsible for one entire school of magic at the academy were expected to be spellcasters of the 5th Circle.

As for Headmaster McFullen, it was unknown the extent of his magical abilities, though it was well known that even in his now venerable age, he'd surely be a force to be reckoned with.

Professor Amos, for example was a wizard of 4th Circle. While non practionner of the arcane arts often did not understand the significance of such things, to spellcasters, it was a symbol of statuts and might. One also has to know that the gap between the 3rd and 4th circle, as well as the 6th and 7th circle, were far bigger than other one circle gap.

The practice fields were wide, made of clay and and long running tracks around them, they were divided in multiple sections.

Balthazar headed straight toward the one were he saw the figure of Professor Amos. He was a platinum blonde man in his forties, not tall nor small, of average build.

The one thing that stood out about him were his eyes, deep and piercing blue eyes. They stayed open, gazing upon the class which just arrived. He adjusted his round glasses before giving them their exercises in his low, extremely coarse voice.

Balthzar approached Amos, greeting him politely before continuing.

"Professor Amos, sorry to disturb you this early in the morning. I was teaching the 3rd Year Elites yesterday, they wanted me to ask you to move the upcoming test, apparently they have trouble getting rest, they hoped you could hold it on monday, right after the weekend."

"Bah, don't they want to be mages ? If they can't sleep it will give them more time to study. But you knew what I'd say anyway Balth', tell them if they need help to prepare they can come find me anytime, but the test ain't moving."

Amos' voice was rougher this time, it was a well known fact he couldn't hide the emotion in his voice well. A bad incident with the Dragon's Breath spell caused his vocal chord to be burnt to a crisp a good twenty years ago.

Balthazar sighed, smiled gently and shook his head for a bit.

"Yeah, well that's what I told them. I won't disturb you anymore Amos, I've got a few things to do and some papers to finish grading." he said before giving a small laugh.

Bidding goodbyes to each others, Amos returned to teaching and Balthazar walked once more in the halls of the academy, passing through the long corridors and before the imposing statue of the academy's founder, Archwizard Alaster Dimsas.