The Fields of Fire

Chapter 8: Arthus Adana

Arty ate his breakfast slowly.

Multitasking was quite tough. He had trouble eating and reading at the same time. He read the words highlighted in his book out loud, "The Use of Magic is often attributed to certain physical sensations. For one to use fire they must feel as if they are burning, to use ice they must believe they are frigid as the White Ocean." Connected to this sentence by a poorly drawn arrow was his fathers own writing. It was simply two words, Love = Healing. Arthus had learned from reading his fathers writings in the first three chapters of the book that his father specialized in healing magic. So this must mean that in order to heal people you must feel like you're in love. That was strange to Arthus. How could someone simply conjure up a feeling of love whenever they wished? Arthus continued down this line of thinking further, what does love truly feel like?

Arty shook his head and took another bite of his crepe. Arty loved Crepes, he'd never had one before that day, but after tasting them ,he thought they were the best idea anyone had ever had. They're like pancakes, but thin. Arty was simply amazed by the genius of this food, yet he was also slightly disappointed he couldn't share his opinion about crepes with anyone else. Arty was sitting alone. In fact, most of the other students were sitting alone. Orientation was today and Arty hadn't spoken with any of the other students yet. Not that they made much of an effort to talk to him, or anyone else for that matter. They seemed to be the most anti-social group of people Arthus had ever met. Then again, he had not met a lot of people, so that didn't count for much.

The cafeteria was surprisingly large. They converted the Holy Tribunal Room into a large dining space. This room was naturally left empty by the Ministry of Religion. The Blessed Disciples would convene while standing instead of sitting, just as how the Prophet Yorrin stood for one-hundred days to convince his people to follow him. So they simply drug chairs and steel tables into the large empty space to make a cafeteria. Arthus still couldn't believe that the Queen had simply abolished the Ministry of Religion. One day they determined the faith of an entire nation, the next they were thrown out on the street to make room for a bunch of sorcerers whom they probably despised.

Arty's opinions swirled in his head until he decided he simply could not remain silent anymore. He needed someone to talk to. He grabbed his book and his tray of food and stood up. He scanned the room for someone to sit by. Most of the students were sitting alone, so he had a lot of choices. His eyes locked onto a boy with his hair dyed bright blue, he's probably got one heck of a story!

Arthus walked over to the boy and put down his tray and his book before finally sitting. The Boy's choice of food seemed quite dull, no crepes, no bread, no yogurt, just a whole bunch of fruit and egg whites. The boy looked up from his own food to meet Arty's eyes. He had bright blue eyes and smooth white skin. He looked at Arty intently until Arthus finally remembered that he was supposed to speak. He smiled, "My name Is Arthus! What's yours?"

"Zaben." The boy responded dully. He didn't seem very happy to be there.

"Cool name!" Arty responded. From reading his father's book he found that Sorcerers like to name their kids with lots of Z's, X's and Y's. He guessed the end of the alphabet is just more appealing to some people. Zaben still wasn't saying anything, so Arty decided to restart the conversation, "What's your power?"

Zaben finally smiled, "I can create Ice. I'm like, super good at it."

"Whoa! That's crazy! I can use fire!" Arty was ecstatic to finally have someone to talk to, "Me and you, we're like destined to be friends. Like fire and ice, you know!"

"Yeah for sure!" Zaben was pumped, "I love magic. I think it's like the coolest thing ever. I'm so excited to go to this school. Everything I ever learned was from my parents but... they never got to finish teaching me."