Sprinting to catch up he juggled his apothecary case, it was quite awkward and heavy to run with. "Temporary housing?" Kyroth asked inquisitively. There was so much about this place he did not know. His general curiosity rearing up, wanting to know as much as he could.
"Yes, every three months we begin a new group of students. Due to the randomness of awakening we cannot just have a cut and dry start to a group. So we decided that four times a year we would take the collected kids and start them. Until the three months is up we keep you guys in temporary housing. Once you touch the orb and officially become one of us you will then be assigned into a team of anywhere between five to ten students. This will be your primary classmates as well as living mates. We will move you to your own living area as a group." Tiarr stated, it was pretty cut and dry how she said it most likely due to saying it so much.
"So when does the next class start?" Kyroth asked, remembering Vesk had mentioned something about it not long ago but his brain was lucky to even keep up let alone still function. There was just so much to take it, not to mention the elaborate decorations around them was outstanding. They had entered a hallway now that was lined with statues of men and woman alike, each one had a plaque under them. The first he read stated the persons name and which headmaster or headmistress they were. It was shocking to see so many statues, Kyroth wondered why they changed so much.
"Tomorrow, we will begin the orb testing shortly after breakfast. You are lucky if you had been a day later you would have had to be cooped up for three months. During that time you get very little access to the rest of the academy and it is dreadfully boring. Trust me, I came a week after a new group was selected, probably my worst two months here to be honest." Disgust evident in her voice at the unpleasant memory.
The next several halls were plain compared to the others. They had fancy carpets that ran down the hall, where they were nothing seemed to really decorate the walls except candles every ten feet or so to keep the place lit. Due to the less decorated, Kyroth noticed that the stones walls were black, somehow though it did not make the hallway seem dark. Ten minutes later they opened up into another ridiculously large room. What he saw was even stranger, inside this large room were hundreds of small rooms positioned in perfect rows. Each room had a door and window next to it, each window was blocked out by a curtain. The rooms were free standing, ten feet separating them from each other in all directions.
"Now you see what I mean." Tiarr stated raising her hands out showing him the temporary living space. "I mean it is not bad, but it is very lacking. Sometimes it is packed to capacity while other times like now, it has less then a hundred awakened here." From what he could tell from the large room it would get pretty boring here.
"There is however a exit to the outside in the back and over to the left there is a cafeteria where you can get food just about whenever you want. Other then that, not much you can do." Tiarr stated as she took off again motioning him to follow. How she knew where to go was beyond Kyroth as they took turn after turn weaving in and out of the rooms. Several people had started to peak out the curtains or look out open doors at the new person. Chattering also started up as he passed, his face turned a shade of red embarrassed at not knowing what was being said about him.
Stopping in front of a room that above the door had a letter and a number, C32. "Well here is a place to sleep for the night. Like I said you will be moving soon so do not bother unpacking or anything. We also try to put people as far from each other as possible. When there is this few the privacy is increased, the surrounding rooms are empty probably the second row out as well. Here is your key keep it save, only the most powerful mages could get in without that key." Tiarr winked handing him the key and waving her body flashing away reappearing at the entrance they had come in.
"Now what..." Kyroth whispered to himself as he turned and unlocked the door to his very temporary room. When the door opened up he was actually shocked, which at this point he thought was impossible. On the outside it was probably no bigger then his room back at home, but when you went inside it was easily the size of his full house. A bookcase was on the wall far filled with books, glancing at the titles he was disheartened to find that most were about history and none about magic directly. A couch was in the middle of the room facing the left wall that had a fireplace built into it.
In the right corner of the door was a bed, larger then his old bed with a large comfortable looking blanket on top. A desk was found between the bed and bookcases, stacks of paper and writing utensils sitting on top of it. The entire place was lit by glass squares in the wall letting out a soft blue light, not unlike the color his augment made around him. A small room was off in the left back corner, peaking in he found it to be a bathroom, bath included.
Walking back across the room he placed his stuff at the end of the bed and threw himself onto it, letting his body relax. It was nice to finally stop and take a breather, everything was happening so fast. It had not even really set in that he was in the Academy and in one day he would find out what element was residing in his body. Kyroth had not even given thought to what element he hoped to get.
It did not take long for Kyroth to get bored of just laying there staring at the ceiling and wondering what would actually take place the next day. With a sigh he pulled himself out of the bed and placed his sword belt on the bedpost at the foot of his bed. He kept his daggers in the sheathes in the small of his back and left his room, making sure to lock it with his key. When it clicked, a spark came from the lock and key, almost causing Kyroth to drop the key. Shaking his head he muttered to himself as he slipped the key into his pocket. "Such a strange place."
A goal was already set in his mind as he got the layout of the room again and headed towards the back where Tiarr stated was a access door to get outside. He really wanted to see what the exterior of the academy looked like. It took a few tries but finally he made it to the back wall and followed it to the door. Stopping just in front of it he took a deep breath before pushing his way through it the bright evening light stabbing him in the eyes.
Slowly his eyes adjusted and he was shocked to find that what he saw was rather normal. In front of him lay a large lawn with several trees planted here and there with a small garden off to the side with quite a bit of benches set up. Others wandered around talking with each other or tossing a ball around. Spinning Kyroth looked at the actual academy only to find that it was huge, he could barely even see the top of it from this angle. What was shocking to him was that the stone was black and from what he could see had no seams in it.
Taking off at a jog he started to head directly away from the door trying to get far enough so that he could get a good look of the full building. Several minutes later a slight glimmer caught his eyes as he slid to a stop his hands making contact with a invisible wall. "What in the..." Kyroth stated before a crisp female voice cut him off.
"Dang, I was hoping you would run into it like most of the other idiots." She tsked at him going back to her book as if he was just something she had hoped would give her small amount of entertainment. Turning to the mysterious woman his mouth almost dropped at how gorgeous she was. She had long black hair braided and hidden behind her back and brilliant blue eyes shown in the light as she read her book. The silk dress she wore was black with yellow accent colors in all the right places.
"Could you please not stare it is rude." She hissed looking back up from her book placing the bookmark in it and slamming it. She started to get up using the tree she had been leaning against to for support.
"Sorry, but why is there a wall here?" He asked blurting it out before he could stop himself. Blushing a little he looked away towards the ground afraid to meet her cold stare.
"We are not allowed to wander, so until we get tested this is our prison. Once we do we get a pendant and a shard which allows us to gain access to most of the academy. You must be new and stupid if you do not even know something so simple." Her cold voice cut through him as she spun around and stalked back towards the academy.
"Sorry." Kyroth muttered weakly to himself, she was already far gone. He had not expected people to just welcome him with open arms, but on the same token he did not expect such open hostility. Shaking his head he tried to force the negative thoughts from his mind and went back to his initial task looking up towards the academy.
It was a huge castle made out of black stone just like before had no seams. It was as if the entire castle was carved from the same massive black stone. Shimmering gold symbols were barely visible throughout the walls as well, they faded in and out, from what he could tell some faded out for quite a while, while others were more frequent. Gold lined the windows and roof causing stark contrast to the rest of the dark surface. Hundreds of windows could be seen from his vantage, at regular intervals from the fourth floor and up. In a few places larger windows that would have been at least four together could be seen.
The castle itself was basically a large square building that rose at least twenty stories tall, each of the corners that he could see had large towers that rose up at least another ten stories from the edge of the castle walls. The gold roof sloped upwards, from his vantage point it looked like the middle of the roof was flat. Kyroth could barely see the top parts of what he assumed was the other two towers on the other side of the castle.
The entire thing was just breathtaking, it was worth running into that harsh woman and almost face planting into a invisible barrier. Taking it all in his stomach growled fiercely screaming that he had not eaten for several hours. Sighing he started the decent jog back to the building, weaving through the path in the garden.
Finding the lunch room was not hard, people were constantly coming and going from the room making it stand out quite well. The aroma coming from it was amazing as well, pushing his way through some of the people to get in he found himself in a oval room that had tables lined in the middle. On the left end was a counter with a few people standing there taking orders and handing out food.
Walking up to the counter a large man smiled at him, "What are we having tonight sir?" He waited, but not with impatience his large smile never leaving his face. He wore a white uniform, parts of it covered in food stains.
"I am not sure first time here." Kyroth stated nervous now that he was being put on the spot like this. He had no idea what they served even. "I also do not have any money." he realized as he patted his pockets realizing it was all in his bag in his room.
"O, everything here is free. The Academy pays for everything students need, sometimes even paying you guys. So you are new, then we have just the thing. You eating here, or back in your room?" The man asked waving his hands towards the tables when he said here.
"Really, that is amazing. I think my room, I do not know anyone and eating alone out here would be weird, in my room not so much." He answered blushing a bit at admitting more then he had wanted to. The man just nodded in understanding and vanished into the back room after handing him a number.
Surprisingly Kyroth did not have to wait long less then 5 minutes before the man returned and called out his number. He was holding a metal case wrapped in bright blue cloth. "Here you go sir, I hope you enjoy it. You can just leave the tray in your room since testing is tomorrow. Have a wonderful night." With that he moved on to a new person and left Kyroth with his meal.
The trip back to his room was uneventful as he unlocked the door the same spark appearing. Smiling at it he entered his room and pulled the chair of his desk back and sat down. Unwrapping the cloth he opened to the dish to find that it was full of food.
On one side was chicken legs, they had some kind of seasoning on it that Kyroth had not smelled before which was saying something. Chickens were not common in his part of Gallia so it was a delicacy to him. On the other side was some kind of plant he had not seen before, it was purple in color. Shrugging he took a bite of the plant and found that it was sweet and salty, it was a bit crunchy as well but pleasant. As hungry as he was it did not take him long to finish the entire thing. He found a well in the corner which was very strange and poured himself some water. To his surprise when he poured it into a cup the water was ice cold, something he was not used to.
Downing the glass of water he moved back to his bed and flopped down onto his back, his mind started going over the events of the day. Less then half a hour later he had fallen into a deep sleep, the excitement of everything that had happened to him finally catching up.