The Magisterium - The Iron Trial (Callmara FanFic)

Chapter 3 - Annoyance - Tamara

     Sorry for the break in between this part and the previous part hope the long chapter makes up for it!

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 Finally time for the first day of the start of Tamara's new life, she was so exited for the new amazing challenge that she has to face. Tamara was ready to learn how to summon a fire ball in her hand and to be able bend water to her will. That was what she dreamed about all night long, learning all new things about magic and the world around her.

      When she finally woke up she quickly got dressed in her new uniform, put on her wristband, and then went out into the common area... None of the boys were awake, "Figures". She thought to herself although it was 8:30 she thought it was weird that neither of them were up, maybe she had a little to much confidence in them. To be fair Call did fail the trials so she wasn't sure on how keen he would be to participate.

     After waiting for awhile Aaron came out of his room at around 8:47 and they waited around for awhile for Call to come out of his room, finally at almost exactly 9:00 call came of his room he still looked rather groggy though. The three of them quickly left the room and started towards the refectory for breakfast, it took a while for the first of them to start speaking (which was Aaron) "So... what do you guys think were going to learn first?" Aaron said at a very moderate tone showing that he was still tired. "I don't know." Tamara responded. "Maybe we'll learn how to shoot fireballs or something."  Call spoke this time. "That would be cool, or what if we learned something to do with air like levitating ourselves or even another object..." They continued on this conversation each of them getting more and more comfortable as they spoke, they suggested ideas such as rising of stalagmites from the ground to even changing the flow of water. 

      Once at the Refectory they got in line at the counters, in the little trays was... lichen? None of them expected that even Tamara who had heard rumors of it from her own sisters who had gone here. Although it didn't look to appetizing the lichen actually tasted amazing, it tasted like bacon and eggs, which gave the three of them each another shock. After they were done eating  Master Rufus came over to them and told them that it was time to go to their first lesson. They walked through the winding paths of the Magisterium until the reached a river which held a single seeable boat, they all climbed into the boat (Call having a bit of trouble do to his leg) and Master Rufus started whispering to the water and very suddenly the boat started to move. 

     After a while of traveling through the water they stopped at a port next to another boat, they all got out of the boat Call noticeably refusing Aaron's attempt to help him get out of the boat. They went towards a room in the walls, which Master Rufus opened with a flick of his hand, inside the room was bleak walls of stone, yet the floor (still stone) was flattened downed to be almost like the floor in your house. In the middle of the room there was a pile of sand...

All three apprentices stared in confusion at the pile of sand up until Master Rufus started to speak, "Welcome to your first lesson apprentices... In this lesson I will have all three of you sit around this pile of sand, and sort it sort it from dark and light pieces." There was a silence among the apprentices before Call said. "Wait your serious?" Master Rufus responded quickly saying. "Yes I am completely serious, I want you three to sort the sand by dark and light pieces, and I also should say that none of you are aloud to use your hands."

      The three sat around the sand thinking of how they could get it to move eventually though Tamara figured it out. It was quite simple all they had to do was use wind magic to lift a bit of sand into the air and then slowly move it into the pile that it belonged to, dark or light. After Tamara figured it out the others quickly followed along, struggling at first but then getting better. Around lunch time an older boy came in (his name was Alex) and he gave them sandwiches. They spent the entire day doing this only able to sort about 50 grains of sand from the massive pile. 

      The three apprentices slowly walked back to their rooms tired and bored, no one talked all the way to the rooms. Once they made it back to their rooms Aaron plopped down on the couch staring at the wall, Call and Tamara followed suit. "At least its over with" Said Aaron with a sigh. "Yeah, kind of wish we didn't have to miss lunch and dinner though I actually want to get to know the other Iron years." Tamara said attempting to keep the conversation going. Call continuing the "conversation circle" followed up by saying. "Well not like we'd have much of a story to tell anyways, who knows what the other kids did I sure hope they didn't have to do that too." After that they all sat in silence then slowly one by one all went to their rooms.

     That night Tamara had the strangest dream, she was on the beach but everywhere she looked she say dark and light pieces of sand, they stood out like a sore thumb, it was like she could see every single grain on the beach. No one else was on this beach, nothing but Tamara the many, many grains of sand, and the ocean slowly rising with the tide.

     The next morning all three of them awoke on time and were able to make it to the refectory quickly and meet up with the rest of the kids. They sat down at a table with Jasper, Celia, and Gwenda (this being Tamara's first time meeting Gwenda), eating some type of lichen that tasted oddly like oatmeal. After they were done eating Master Rufus came over and started leading them again. They were all extremely exited for today's lesson hoping for anything better than the "sand room", especially after hearing the other apprentices stories. Contrary to their hopes they went the same direction right back to the same room.

     "Today you need to sort the sand pieces from light and dark, just as yesterday, no using your hands, etc etc." Master Rufus said coldly, Tamara noticed Call mutter something under his breath not really knowing what he said. Today they did much better than the day before now getting about 200 pieces of sand in between them out of the thousands that were in the pile. They may have missed their lunch but they were aloud to go out to go get dinner that night. After hearing even more amazing stories about the other apprentices juggling fireballs and having a water balloon fight without the balloons, so just a water fight, all three of them (Call, Tamara, and Aaron) followed some of the other apprentices to the "Galley" Tamara went over to go watch a movie with her sister Kimiya while the other two explored around and eventually went over to join her as they watched Star Wars with Batman in it.

      The next morning was the same Tamara started to think they might be sorting sand for the rest of their Iron year, and it came to seem like it was because the day after that they were sorting sand again, and the day after that, and after that, and that, and that. They were at this point at least really good at lifting sand pieces into the air because at this point they were carrying 10 to 20 pieces at a time getting thousands of pieces sorted every single day. At one point they were so sick of the training that Tamara suggested something extremally dangerous... Tamara suggested that they eat a piece of sand to get "closer" to the element, when they tried it they got in big trouble, well Call did at least he was forced to go to Master Rufus' office. After a while it they found out a bit challenge/test was coming up thought they didn't know what it was going to be...