Magic Academy - The First Year

Chapter 1

-THE ACADEMY-

Today was the day. The day she trained for for years! The day she had imagined since the moment she discovered the existence of the Academy. Only in her imaginations, her grandmother would say goodbye to her on the little beach she called her favourite place on the isle, maybe swim with her a little bit before she had to make the rest of her journey alone. Instead, her grandmother was dead.

Waking up was the easiest part of her morning, the rest consisted of pure boredom. And that was because she needed to decide what to take with her for her journey. She knew where to go, how to speak and act like in front of people and countless other things she might need at her destination. And yet, she couldn't decide which colour to wear to make a good first impression. It was nerve-wracking! In the end, she chose a simple white dress with golden rings around her waist, neck, wrists and forearms. She also took a white, long sleeved shirt that fit loosly on her figure and a pair of sailored, navy pants with her.

Takara made her way to the library to find the last and most important item she needed. The necklace her grandma used to wear laid securely in a glass display case. It shattered into a thousand little pieces the moment she hit it with a tiny bit of her magic. Carefully, she took the key-like pendant and tucked it securely under the top of her dress.

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She began to transform the moment her body was entirely covered by the sea. Her dress molded into her body until there was no trace of it on her tanned skin. When she reached deeper parts of the ocean., an orca made it's way towards her. Steve carefully took her bag between his teeth, which she used magic on to make sure her belongings would stay clean and dry. And so, the journey began.

Three days later, the two of them had to say their goodbyes. She reached the shore near a coastal town called Sjekal. But behind the town, and that was way more important, she could make out parts of the Academy! In a flash she detransformed and used her magic to dry her soaked dress and hair. When everything was clean, she walked towards the building she'd hopefully be able to call her home for the next five years.

In awe, she stared at the inside of what she was told was one of the most beautiful buildings in the country. The floor was made of black marble, the walls of sandstone with torches that illuminated the corridor with crystal blue flames. At the end of said corridor was a gigantic room with a huge winding staircase in the middle. But the moment she looked up, she froze. The ceiling was entirely made of stained glass! "Oh, look! Another wanna-be one", a boy said. She studied him. He was one, maybe two years older than her, but he looked like he had a lot of muscles and no brain, so she just ignored him and walked next to a very pretty girl with dark hair. "And you are who exactly?", she asked. She sounded like someone who was used to giving orders, someone who always got what they wanted, someone who also thought they were something better because of it. "I'm Takara Akai. What's your name?" she replied. "Priscilla." After hearing her name and not recognizing it, Priscilla quickly lost interest in talking to her. But the silence around her didn't last long, because a friendly-looking girl with tanned skin grabbed Takara's arm and pulled her away from the girl. "Just ignore her!" she said, "All of them are douchebags. I am Ella, by the way."

They were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. When the two girls turned around, they saw a tall man wearing a black robe. "That's Master Barclae." Ella whispered. Soon, he started giving his speech.

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Takara stared at the ceiling above her. She didn't have the best feeling about the following year. She expected it to be hard, but what Master Barclae had said made her a little anxious, though, the hardships she would have to face only made her want to become one of the five fighters even more. When she realized she couldn't sleep, she quietly stood up and left the barrack the girls slept in. On the way to where she guessed the library was, she had studied several construction plans, she memorized as much as possible of her surroundings. In the end, Takara knew all the doors, turns and hiding places from the barracks to the library.

At her destination, she sat down on one of the couches that stood here and there with a book on how to perform healing magic. First, she tried to memorize the anatomy of the human body, then the function of each bone, muscle, joint and nerve. After hours of learning everything she could about the human body, she finally felt tired enough to actually fall asleep, so she went back to the barracks in which she would live for the following year.

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The next morning started with the shrill ringing of bells. It was early in the morning, but due to the loud noise, Takara was not able to sleep even a minute longer, so she decided to stand up and get ready for the day. With freshly braided hair and dressed in her shirt and pants, she went to eat breakfast. Ella and a girl with red hair she recognized as Ryiah came in right as the staff cleared the serving plates. They sat down at the table where Takara and Ryiah's brother, Alex, had already been sitting, when Master Barclae came in.

"Apparantly, all of you are still here. I will do my best to change that.", Master Barclae said. His mood was even worse than before and she wondered if something unpleasant had happened.

Suddenly, Ella whispered in a suprisingly sharp tone: "What is he doing here?"

Both her and Ryiah and looked for the reason of her sudden change in demanor. It was, to her shock, the secondborn prince. She had never seen him before, or anyone from the royal family for that matter, though she immediatly knew who he was. The way he carried himself and his subtle, yet almost overwhelming aura told her. And, ofcourse, the necklace with an amber pendant. One of the many books she had read in her library back home did have some information about the meaning of different signs, habits and, most immportantly, symbols, of the higher sociaty.

"Maybe he doesn't really know that himself.", answered Ryiah, which made her giggle quietly. 'What a strange sound...', she thought, 'I haven't laughed since my grandmother passed away.'

Master Barclae cleared his throat. His glare turned towards them and Ryiah began to blush in emberassment next to her.

"Am I boring you?", he asked. The redhead next to her started shaking her head furiously, while she settled for a simple 'no, sir'. But he wasn't finished.

"No, no, I'm dying to hear what's more important than what I have to say."

"Nothing.", a now really emberassed Ryiah tried to answer, though she was immediatly cut of by Ella. "Him.", she simply said and pointed towards the prince. When Takara glanced at him, she saw pure hatred in his pitch black eyes.

"Ah!", he said, "Him. What's the matter with him?"

Ella nervously stood up. "Well,", she began, " The children of the crown aren't allowed to learn in the Academy to prevent them from having too much control over the mages."

If looks could kill, they'd be six feet under the ground already, and while Ryiah quickly glance elsewhere, she couldn't find it in herself to look away. There was a strange feeling inside her chest. It felt bubbly and it was quiete addicting, she found after a short while. She knew the feeling, and yet it was almost foreign to her as she had't felt it in quite a while.

It was fun.

She found it overwhelmingly amusing to see the prince trying, and failing, to intimidate her by sending harsh glares her way. Never would she have guessed her next decision, but she found herself wanting more of the addicting feeling that distracted her from the other ones.

So, like any normal person would, she found herself forming plans on how to annoy the prince. Oh, how fun it would be to see him getting all riled up over little comments she could drop casually, or how endearing it would be to see him getting emberrassed, just because she was simply better than him.

No, she couldn't show her actual power just yet. It would be so much more fun to get to see the look of true horror striking each and everyones faces upon seeing her abilities at he end of the school year. Maybe she could pretend to be relativley weak like most of the other wannabe-mages? That would surely be amusing. Or maybe she could 'befriend' the prince to get to know him and his weaknisses. In order to do that, she would most likely have to climb to the top of the class. But then she would have to leave both Ella and Ryiah behind. 'No,' she thought, 'I can't do that.' They were her first human friends after all.