Magic || Variable sixteen

«The world is full of magic.»

Magic was always present in the world. It was there, when a new life was born. It was there, when an old life drifted away into the afterlife. It was there, when a coincidence occurred. It was there, when a feeling of intuition became a piece of the future. And it was there, flickering, whenever an unexpected thought passed through a mind like a spark of a match.

Magic had always been and would always remain an integral part of the human world. Even though some people never saw it, it was always present. Even though some people couldn’t feel it, it was always around them. Even though some people wouldn’t know it, there were men born with magic, and there were men born from magic.

How magic came to be? Nobody really knew, but one thing was for sure. It existed from the very beginning of the world, so whoever created the world must have also created the magic.

Nobody should remember something from so long ago, and yet the story of the world's creation could be found in every nook and cranny on every land. Over the countless centuries, the stories began to diverge from each other, but they always shared one thing in common - the existence of God, the creator of the whole world.

But who, or what, was God? No one knew who, but all the sages of the world knew what, God was.

God was a name given to the being, who created the world. Even those, who didn’t believe in an actual being, knew that at least the name was real.

The origin of this name was also well-known. In ancient times, people used the word "god" to label any supernatural being with superhuman powers. Back then, people had millions of gods, because everything, which they couldn't control or understand, was a god.

Yet why was the word "god" chosen as the name for this being? There was no one answer, but the most plausible theory suggested that ancient people wanted to give to their creator the most powerful name in existence. And to them, there was no word with a more powerful meaning than the word "god".

Although the word "god" and the name "God" sounded the same in speech, only a fool wouldn't know that they had different definitions.

Just like a human named "Rose" possessed no biological genes of plants called "roses", a being named "God" had nothing in common with the entities called "gods".

In order to distinguish them in writing, the name's initial letter was capitalized, because it had always been the custom to capitalize the names. As such, any reader could easily tell apart the flower called "rose" from the gardener named "Rose", or an entity called "god" from a being named "God".

Furthermore, in order to distinguish "God" from a "god" in speech, the men added titles such as "Lord God", or descriptions such as "God of gods". However, all such clarifications became unnecessary once the name "God" became more popular than the word "god", which became obsolete over the centuries.

Yet, the extinction of the word "god" never affected the beings, who still retained their names and epithets. Nevertheless, in order to replace the archaic terminology "god", the new terminology "guardian" was created by adding an identity suffix "-ian" to the word "guard." The guardians themselves welcomed this change in language, because it aligned with their duties and the purpose of their existence.

From then on, "God" was used only as a name - a unique identifier for a being, about whom all knew nothing, or at least nothing for certain.

There were plenty of stories about God, though none of them could ever be verified. The story with the most diverse and numerous versions was the story of the world's creation. In the most profound of the versions, God used only words.

The first sentence of that story had been known by even the youngest among all the creatures: "In the beginning, God created Heaven and Earth".

The word "Heaven" had always been the name for the spiritual realm, where all the spirits and souls came from and where they would one day return. The word "Earth" had always been the name for the material realm, where all the creations and creatures were born and where they all lived until their death.

In this manner, out of an absolute void, God created two realms - the realm of Earth and the realm of Heaven, which were created as separate yet conjoint, one within the other, mysteriously interwoven yet isolated.

When it came to the details of each realm's creation, not many knew the story about the creation of Heaven, but even those, who knew it, rarely understood it.

Whereas, the creation of Earth was a simple matter. God said "light" and the light was born. God said "night" and the night was born. Word by word, God created the material realm - light and shadow, brightness and darkness, day and night, sky and earth, fire and water, rain and snow, clouds and stars, oceans and winds, and anything else, which He called into existence through His words.

Once God created all inanimate objects, He created animals and humans.

However, the story didn't end there. Quite on the contrary, it was merely the beginning. After creating such magical places and powers of nature, God continued to create all kinds of life forms, equally as magical as their environment.

In the beginning of times, all of God's creations lived in peace, but that peace didn't last forever.

One day, a demon approached God and asked, "which of Thy creations is the greatest?"

Demons were the most powerful of God’s creations. Although their power was nothing in comparison with God’s omnipotence, they were proud creatures. They didn't think that any other creation could ever be superior to them.

The other beings were mostly in agreement, that the demons had to be the greatest among them. Many were certain, that God would assert this claim, but that didn't happen.

God gave an unexpected answer, naming a being, which was considered the weakest and most worthless. And that made demons furious.

In their rage, they declared a war against God, which they promptly lost. Yet they remained adamant to their vows to never obey God again. Unable to control their hatred, they waged another war. This time they fought against humans – the very creation, which God had named as the greatest.

In the war against God, the demons were alone. However, for the war against humans, they had made countless alliances with others, who likewise disagreed with God, and wouldn't accept humans as greater than themselves.

God looked at the war with sadness, but He didn't take any sides. Some say, that He wanted it to be a fair battle. Others say, that He knew that humans couldn't possibly lose. Yet those sentiments were often overlooked by rumors, that God had indeed participated in the war, without anyone realizing, when and how He altered the course of events.

The war lasted for thousands of years and affected everyone. Even those, who wanted to remain neutral, were forced to take sides one way or another.

What seemed like an endless war had ended ten hundred years ago.

Following their defeat, the demons had disappeared together with their allies, and no one had seen them ever since. The world had once again become peaceful and magical.

Among mankind, there was no one alive today, who saw the day of the victory, because human lifespan was always fairly short. However, among longevous creatures, there were some, who had been alive for more than ten centuries and they still remembered the days of the Battle of the End.

A very old tree in a forest looked at a passerby, who appeared to be a matriarch dressed in rags. Her arms and legs were as thin as sticks from a dying branch. And her petrified hair strands reminded of dry wheat stems bent down by hail.

She headed toward the deeper woods, where the trees grew so densely that no sunrays could reach the moss-covered ground. As she passed by the old tree, she made no sound almost as if she was a ghost, but she definitely wasn't. Her steps squashed the plants beneath, and her arms moved branches out of her way. Yet none of her actions could be heard, only seen.

The old tree shook its branches, in order to wake up the other trees.

"Did you see that?" it asked them.

"That’s unusual," said a younger tree, who was roughly eight hundred yrold. "A matriarch this deep in the woods. It takes many weeks to arrive at the nearest village, and she was all alone."

"That was no woman," the old tree, who had been alive for more than two thousand years, said in a grievous tone. "That wasn’t even a human," it further clarified.

The younger trees raised their branches, surprised. "If it wasn’t a human, then what?" they asked their elder.

"A witch," the old tree answered.

In response, the other trees stood frozen in shock for a short time of several hours.

-----------------

End of Array One

Building || Variable fifteen

Upon arrival at the History building, the boys were surprised that it was much smaller than they expected. The structure appeared to be only two-story tall, thirteen meters wide, and twenty-four meters deep.

However, once they looked more closely, they realized, that there were a total of four such buildings next to each other, and they were connected by a balcony in the front and another one in the back.

The boys once again examined the guidebook's map more closely, and realized that the four adjacent buildings were a single structure called the History building.

They approached the entrance to classroom A. Yew pulled on the handle, but the door was locked.

"The classes don’t start until tomorrow," Aspen pointed out the most likely reason.

They tried to peek in through the windows, but the view into the classroom was blocked by dark green curtains. So they decided to walk around the building in order to check on the other classroom. At the moment, when they arrived at the classroom B, its front door opened from the inside.

The boys paused in their tracks, surprised, while Sorrel Cave stepped out and looked at the students, who were a mere step away. She looked neither confused nor surprised - merely interested in their presence.

Spruce felt brave around the teacheress, whom he had already met ereyester. "Hello, professor. We wanted to see the classroom, can we?"

"Which group are you?" she asked, while closing the door.

The boys had no idea which group were they, so they looked at each other, puzzled by the question.

Hearing no answer and seeing their confusion, Sorrel tried again, "do you have your schedule with you?"

"Ah, yes," Yew uttered. From his backpack, he took out the letter, which he had received earlier this morning, and showed it to the teacheress.

Sorrel skimmed the paper, as she nodded. "Yes, you’re in my group. If you want to see the classroom, then come and help me out."

She began walking down the road and the three boys followed her. Even though the route wasn't short, none of the boys dared to chatter around the teacheress. In silence, they dutifully trod behind her all the way into her office inside the schoolmanor.

Sorrel's office was a small room with one desk and many shelfcases on every available wall. The shelves were overflowing with books, notebooks, binders, boxes, packages, and scrolls, all of which were crammed together in an organized manner like puzzle pieces.

"I want you to help me take these to the classroom, since I’ll need these for tomorrow," Sorrel pointed at the three rather big boxes by the door. The first one was packed full of textbooks, the second one had notebooks, and the third one was filled with pens.

"Are we going to… carry them?" Aspen hesitated to ask, as he found the idea absurd.

"Of course not," Sorrel refuted it altogether. "The boxes will walk after me. All I need from you is to keep an eye on them. When I try to take all three at once, they tend to stray away. And it is so time-consuming to look for one, when it gets lost somewhere."

"You mean, they run away?" Yew furrowed his eyebrows. "On their own?"

"Unfortunately," Sorrel said and put her hands at her hips. "The more magic-talented a person is, the harder it is to keep things under control. Sometimes I wish I was magicless. Life would be so much easier."

Aspen looked at Yew and Spruce, who looked back at him.

"Anyway, I’ll be taking the scrolls, so I'm depending on you three to watch over the boxes."

She extended her hand toward four scrolls, which were standing behind her desk. All of them were two meters long, and weighed a lot. Yet they easily lifted themselves off the floor and began levitating, after Sorrel's palm, which at first was facing the ground, rotated in order to face upward.

"Wouldn’t it be easier to make them smaller?" Yew spoke out his thoughts.

"Magic, which makes things smaller, removes details," she replied. "If it’s a blank piece of paper, you can decrease its size, then return it back to its original dimensions without any loss, but if you shrink a detailed piece of art, you will lose a lot. In the worst case, you may end up with a paint smudge instead of a painting."

Using both hands, she carefully navigated the scrolls, which slowly floated outside without touching anything in her office. She was moving them with the precision of a talented magus, who had been diligently practicing magic over many years.

Once the scrolls were levitating in the hallway, she stepped outside her office. On her way, she commanded the boxes with one word, "come."

Immediately, the boxes stood up. Every one of them had four table legs underneath it, which rhythmically struck the floor as they trotted a meter behind Sorrel, who walked onward with the scrolls ahead of her.

"Keep them near me," she commanded the boys.

Just as the teacheress had explained earlier, the boxes were acting as if they had their own mind, and tried to trot away. Whenever one of the boxes began to swerve in a different direction, Spruce ran after it and guided it back to Sorrel, like a kid supervising an adventurous puppy.

He was amazed at the magic, which the teacheress was using. His eyes, gleaming with curiosity, wouldn't let any of the boxes out of his sight.

Aspen pensively observed the boxes, but he didn't need to do anything else, because Spruce kept running around and preventing all three boxes from escaping.

Yew, on the other hand, couldn’t take his eyes away from Sorrel’s hands. Her movements were normal for a magus, but to Yew it appeared as if she was performing a mystical dance.

When they arrived at the classroom B of the History building, Sorrel kept her left hand motionlessly extended toward the scrolls, which stayed still in the air. Then, with the index finger of her right hand, she wrote an invisible word on the classroom's door.

As soon as she took her hand away, the door opened all by itself to its maximum width, and Sorrel carefully glided the scrolls inside. Once all four of them flew in, she followed.

Two boxes readily trotted after her into the classroom, but the third one resolved to run away. Spruce quickly blocked its way and pushed it toward the classroom, but it refused to budge.

Inside the classroom, Sorrel let the scrolls rest in the corner, where she secured them with several protection charms. Afterward, she looked at the boxes. Two of them already sat under the blackboard, but the third one was wrestling with Spruce just outside the doorway.

"Enough," she barked. "Get inside," she commanded the box, which instantly stopped resisting.

Obediently it entered the classroom, and sat down next to the others.

"Good boxes," she complimented them, and stopped her magic. All three boxes became once again normal immobile objects.

Sorrel approached the boys, who were standing at the entrance. "As you can see, this is an ordinary classroom like any other."

The classroom had a total of twenty-five tables for students. Each table had two chairs, and each row had five tables. In front of all the tables, there was a blackboard, which stretched across the wall from one edge to the other. The teacher's desk stood in the center between the blackboard and the tables, and one extra lonely chair was stashed away in the corner next to the scrolls, which Sorrel had just brought in.

"This classroom was assigned to me," she said. "And you were assigned to my class. So starting tomorrow you'll be visiting here for your lessons, while I'll be staying here the whole day," she sighed with a mild grimace on her face.

Spruce got confused by her words, so he felt a strong need to question her statement, "the whole day? Even though our class is only one hour long?"

"I have other classes to teach in here," she chuckled. "It's just that sometimes I'm jealous of the students. You get to travel from one classroom to another, while I have to stay in the same room all day long." She clapped her hands together, "aw well. At least I get a different classroom every year."

"Professor," Aspen raised his hand then pointed toward the corner. "What are those scrolls?" He had been curious for a long time, but only now he had gathered enough courage to ask.

"Ah, these," she prolonged the word as she smiled. "You’ll find out tomorrow."

She walked up to the door, and stood in the doorframe. She gave the boys several moments to look around the classroom, before she said, "this should be enough for today. You'll be here so often that you'll get bored of this place."

The boys looked at her. She pointed toward the outside with her hand. They understood the gesture, and left the classroom. She closed the door and tapped it once with her palm. The door squeaked and a low-pitched chime came from inside, sounding a bit like beeng-baahng.

"Good. It’s locked," the teacheress murmured to herself.

The three boys stood around her like stone columns, quietly observing her actions.

She found their lack of incentive to leave amusing, so she addressed them with a grin, "if you have nothing to do, I can find more work for you."

Her words immediately awakened the boys from whatever thoughts they had. Yew and Aspen shook their heads, looking apologetic as they began to hurry away.

Meanwhile Spruce stayed. He was so interested in magic that he wouldn't mind doing more chores as long as he got to see more magic. He was about to verbally agree to Sorrel's offer, when Aspen ran back, caught Spruce by his arm, and dragged him away.

Schedule || Variable fourteen

Yew's neighbors came into the living room feeling uncertain about having dinner in his cottage, but as soon as they saw delicious food lined up on the table, all their hesitance was gone. They ate together with Yew and Linden, while sharing their opinions on the places, which they had visited during the day.

Once it got dark outside, Aspen and Spruce headed to the entry room, but before they could exit the cottage, Linden stopped them.

"Wait a moment," he came with a marker. "I’ll write your namehoods as guests, so next time you can just come inside without knocking."

"Are you sure?" Aspen asked.

"If I change my mind, I can easily erase them," Linden waited, with his marker ready at the board. "So? Your namehoods?"

"Spruce Phalahi Menteng Fire."

"Aspen Elati Boviyamara Breeze."

Linden wrote down both namehoods, spelling them correctly without any instructions from the boys. This amazed his neighbors, as well as Yew, who walked in to see them off.

After Spruce and Aspen returned to their cottage, Yew wrote a letter to his parents, explaining his need for more money. He didn’t specify the amount, but he knew that his parents would send him however much they could afford.

He sealed the envelope with his letter, then slipped it into the mailbox by the entrance.

Half an hour ago, when he asked Linden for the location of the nearest post office, his roommate told him to check his guidebook. On one page, he found all the necessary infos, and he learned that all outgoing mail left in the mailbox would be collected each night at the same hour, and sent out the following morning.

He took one more look at the guest list in the entry room. He didn't plan to make any friends in Hecate, but it somehow happened, and well, he just decided to let it be.

The next day, on the early morning of the forty-second day of Dees, the people on the schoolground of Hecate were surprised by warm showers.

The rain itself wasn't unusual, but it was rare for the water to be so pleasantly warm. However those, who woke up late, didn’t get to see even one droplet, because they all dried up within minutes.

In the cottage numbered forty-four-hundred thirty-six, both Yew and Linden slept through the event. While in the neighboring cottage, only Spruce was still in his bed, when the unusual rainshower had occurred.

Aspen was always the last one to go to sleep, and the first one to wake up. He didn’t use any alarm clock, yet he woke up regularly at the same early time every day. Then, without waking up his roommate, he quietly dressed up and left the bedroom.

In comparison, Yew had a fairly average sleep schedule. He would stay up just a bit past the evening, and still wake up in the morning like most people, although his mornings weren't as early as Aspen's.

Linden, on the other hand, had no sleep schedule at all. He slept whenever he wanted, regardless whether it was daytime or nighttime, and his sleepspan ranged anywhere from a short nap to many hours.

Whereas, Spruce had the most kiddy schedule of them all. He went to bed early in the evening, and slept in until his morning alarm rang.

On that day, Spruce as usual jumped out of his bed in order to turn off the annoying device. The tiny ball-like clock on the floor fell silent, when he pushed its lid down. He headed to the restroom, where he did his morning business, before he went into the kitchen.

Just then he heard the sound of the exterior door opening and closing. A moment later Aspen was passing by the kitchen.

"Hey, where were you?" Spruce asked, still in his pajamas.

Aspen stopped and looked at Spruce, whose hand was clutching the fridge handle. "Hey," he returned the greeting, before he answered. "I needed to talk with my parents. Are you looking for breakfast?"

"Yeah, but there’s nothing inside."

"Dress up," Aspen said. "Let’s get Yew, and we'll go grab something to eat."

Ten minutes later, both of them stepped out of their cottage numbered forty-four-hundred thirty-five, and came up onto their neighbor's porch.

Spruce knocked two times, then he looked around. "Why isn’t there a chime?" he whined.

"This is the chime," Aspen added two more knocks.

Spruce raised his hand, ready to knock again, when the door sharply opened from inside.

Linden stood there with a grimace on his face. "There’s a reason I added your names to the guest list," he snapped at them. "So try to knock again, and I’m going to block you forever, idiots." He threw the door shut right in front of their noses.

"What do we do now?" from his voice, Spruce sounded hurt.

Aspen pushed down the handle, and opened the door. "We just walk in, as if we live here," he answered.

They entered, changed shoes in the entry room, and met with their schoolmates in the living room, where Yew and Linden were having their breakfast.

"So you finally figured out how to open the door," Linden said sarcastically. "Congratulations," he stated dryly, while clapping his hands.

Spruce cravingly gazed at the food, "is this the same as yesterday?" He recalled the tasty dinner from last night.

"It’s the leftovers," Yew specified. "If you want, you can join. There should be enough."

"Thanks," Spruce immediately sat next to Yew.

Linden sat on the armchair, while the other three sat on the sofa with Yew in the middle. As they ate, they talked about their sleeping habits.

"Any time is a good time for a nap," Linden expressed his permanent opinion.

Spruce took it as a challenge, and tested him, "and what will you do, if you’re sleepy when it’s a classtime?"

"Then I'll skip the class and go to bed," Linden spent no time thinking about the answer.

Other boys didn't believe him, but before they could reply, a sound of shuffling from the exterior door interrupted their conversation.

"Another guest?" Spruce asked.

"No, that’s mail," Linden went to the entry room, where he took out two envelopes from the mailbox.

Once he came back to the living room, he put them on the table, one envelope in front of Yew, and the other one in front of himself. He held it down with one hand, and with his other hand, he tapped the corner twice, then slid his finger across the upper edge. Right afterward, his envelope opened on its own.

Yew looked at the envelope in front of him. It was addressed to him, but he couldn’t open it like Linden, so he just tore off the corner. The contents of both envelopes were the same. It was their class schedule.

"So we're in the same class, and each class has fifty students," Aspen did the math based on the subtitle: «Class schedule for cottages forty-four-hundred twenty-six through forty-four-hundred fifty».

Everyone ignored the header of the letter, which was titled «forty-four B».

"Do we only have three classes?" Yew was surprised.

"Don’t be sad," Linden mocked his question. "They’ll give you more in the future."

Yew decided to ignore him, and instead chose to concentrate on the descriptions of his classes.

»»» History of Magic – covers the basic understanding of magic: what magic is, what magic is not, and how magic came to be. The class provides an in-depth explanation of the origin and history of magic - how magic has affected the world around us throughout the ages, and how it still affects us today.

»»» Process of Magic – explains how magic functions. It answers the question of what requirements must be met for magic to happen, and what obstacles exist, when using magic in real life situations. It also includes a detailed overview of magical talent, and the basis for production of magical items.

»»» Exercise of Magic – allows students to practice magic in a safe environment. It is intended to provide students with a closer and more practical look at magic without any educational pressure. The attendance is optional, and every score in this class is counted as extra points on top of the final annual score.

"So we take the same classes, even though I’m magicless?" Yew asked Linden, who was the most knowledgeable about the school among them.

"We don’t separate until the third year," he answered. "It should be in the guidebook."

"I kind of like this schedule," Spruce said cheerfully. "Two classes in the morning, then lunch, and then the Exercise of Magic in the afternoon, which is optional. There's so much free time."

"By the way, where are these classes held?" Aspen furrowed his eyebrows.

Linden drew a circle in the air, and Yew's letter flipped to the other side. "Look it up," he told them.

Aspen, Spruce, and Yew, looked at the backside of the letter, which displayed the map and its summary.

"History of Magic is in the History building, classroom A," Yew read the info. "Process of Magic is in the History building, classroom B. It looks like the classrooms are next to each other in the same building."

"Exercise of Magic is in the East Exercise building, classroom G," Aspen read the last one of the infos.

Spruce put his finger on the paper, "the History building is right here. And the East Exercise building is not so far away," he swiped his finger on the map.

"So all our classes are in one place," Yew summed up.

"How about we go see the buildings?" Spruce brought up the idea.

Aspen nodded. "Sounds good," he said.

"You coming?" Yew asked his roommate.

Linden, as usual, wasn’t polite. "Exclude me. I have more important things to do." He took his empty plate and utensils, and carried them into the kitchen, where he left them in the sink. "Yew, you’ll do the dishes. I’m off," he said before he walked into the entry room, then left the cottage a moment later.

After the three boys finished eating their breakfast, they all went into the kitchen, where Aspen and Spruce offered their help. For the next several moments, Yew cleaned the dishes, Spruce rinsed them, and Aspen dried them with a small rag. The activity went much faster than when Yew did everything by himself.

Library || Variable thirteen

Spruce quickly consumed everything, what he ordered, then he opened his guidebook. "How about we go to visit a park next?"

Yew, who was still eating his berry salad, looked at Aspen, who just finished his fried eggs.

"What else is there?" Aspen wanted to know more before making a decision.

"Hmmm… just school buildings," Spruce answered, "a lot of classrooms, four parks, one fountain garden, this cafeteria, a fighting arena, and a library."

"A fighting arena?" Aspen thought he had misheard.

"There’s one in Ares," Spruce stated as if it was the most normal thing to find in a school. "Do you wanna visit it?" he asked them.

Yew shrugged his shoulders. His father graduated from Ares, so of course, he had heard about the fighting arena many times.

"I want to see it," Aspen declared. Secretly, he doubted that the place labelled «fighting arena» was an actual fighting arena.

After they filled up their stomachs, they headed toward their destination, which was just around the corner.

The schoolground of Hecate had a circular shape with a diameter of more than twenty hundred meters. To get from one end to the other, usually took about an hour by foot, unless someone was a fast walker. However, all classes for the first year students were always held in buildings not farther away than ten hundred meters from their hamlets.

The school had five parks in total. Four parks were located at the border, and one park was in the center of the schoolground. The central park, fittingly named the fountain garden, was about two hundred by two hundred meters in size. The road, which surrounded it, also functioned like a fence separating the park from the school buildings around it.

The schoolmanor, where all the teachers had their offices and living quarters, was northeast of the fountain garden, while the library was on the southeastern side. The cafeteria was located southwest, and the fighting arena was on the northwestern side.

The boys used the road, which surrounded the fountain garden to get to the fighting arena. From a distance, the building looked like a low-rising stone tower with many tiny holes for windows, albeit it was wide enough to contain a lake.

All three passed through the huge iron gates, which stood open at the entrance, then they walked down a wide long hallway into a spacious platform surrounded by spectator seats from every direction. The fighting arena had tall walls like a fortress, but it had no roof.

"It’s empty," Aspen sounded disappointed at seeing no one around.

"Well, the school year hasn’t even started," Spruce pointed out. "And I think you cannot hold magic battles without a teacher’s supervision. At least, that’s how it works in Ares."

It was the forty-first day of Dees, which meant that classes were to officially start overmorrow. However, there was no guarantee that the boys would be allowed to enter the fighting arena once the school started, since as first year students, they had no classes scheduled to take place in this building.

After taking a good walk around the fighting arena, checking out several open rooms and a variety of spectator seats, they went to see the fountain garden, which by far exceeded their expectations.

Upon entering the park, the boys were greeted by large fountains, which were sprinkling crystal-clear waters high up into the sky. Their droplets were sent by the wind onto leaves of neighboring plants, where they shone like morning dews.

Wide shallow brooks ran alongside the paths, and small waterfalls accompanied every staircase. Narrow deep creeks hid themselves behind the bushes, whence they serenaded in their water language. Cherry trees grew adjacent to a pond farther in, while tall walnut trees stood in a circle around the lake in the center of the fountain garden.

Just as its name implied, the fountain garden was the most beautiful park in the school.

The boys spent many hours playing with water. They made ships from leaves and sticks, and let them float on the brooks and ponds, challenging each other to see whose ship lasted the longest, or sailed the farthest.

They so enjoyed the game, that they didn't realize how much time had passed. After numerous sunken ships in several brooks, and even more in ponds, they felt hungry. Late in the afternoon, they headed back to the cafeteria in order to eat their lunch - almost dinner.

While eating, they argued over where to go next. They didn't have much of the day left, so in the end, they agreed to see the library, which was the nearest.

The boys had already seen it from the outside, because they passed it on their way to get brunch.

The library was a very wide three-story building with elaborately designed doors and ornate windows. An abundance of stone statues, built around and into the walls, made it look more like a palace than a library.

A wide staircase with medium walls led to the patio of the main entrance. The entry room was spacious but completely devoid of any furnishing except for several narrow tall paintings. Even though the exterior door was made of wood in an iron frame, the interior door was made of etched glass framed in gold.

"Wow," Spruce pointed at the huge shelfcase right after entering the main hall.

Numerous books lined up on the shelves, which stretched up to the ceiling. Each book was labelled with a different year on its spine.

"It's a list of all graduates of Hecate," Aspen deduced.

Yew looked at the volumes of books in astonishment. There was a chance that the names of his biological parents were somewhere in there. Yet even if he read through all the names, he wouldn’t be able to guess which namehoods belonged to his parents.

He wondered if his adopted parents had any documents regarding his biological parents. He regretted that he hadn’t searched the house before he left, due to his chances being slim. Kapok and Nettle didn’t want him to know about his adoption, so it was unlikely that they would have kept any documents, which could reveal it by accident.

While pondering, Yew realized yet another possibility. His parents’ names might not be listed as graduates of Hecate, because for one reason or another they hadn't graduated. He had to admit to himself that his search would be far more difficult than he anticipated.

"This is just a summary," an older woman, presumably a librarian, informed the boys. She was organizing books on a neighboring shelfcase. "There is actually a more complete list of all, who studied in Hecate, which includes even their photos."

"Really? And we're also there?" Spruce asked.

"Not yet, but you’ll be added after the first day of Byzh," she replied, then murmured to herself, "some students leave before the classes even start."

Before Spruce or Aspen could ask her about students, who leave prematurely, Yew intruded with another question.

"Where is that complete list?"

He saw a glimmer of hope, when he heard that the complete list had photos. If he could take a look at them, he could narrow down his search to those, who looked similar to him.

The librarian answered in a flat tone, as she returned her main focus back onto her work, "on the third floor, third section. But that area is accessible only to the students of the ninth year and to the teachers."

And that was the end of Yew's hope. As a first year student, he still had a long way to go, until he could access those records.

Since the librarian looked busy, the boys decided to ask no more questions. They talked in hushed voices as they toured the first floor of the library, which was filled with warning signs at every ten steps, all of which expressed the same message in three different ways: «Be quiet», «No noise», and «Silence is gold».

With their first year badges, their access was limited only to the first section of the first floor, which didn't have anything other than basic textbooks about magic, and some other books, which they had already read in kindergarten.

Aspen, who looked forward to reading the books, was disappointed. He was hoping to get his hands on something new. However, upon inspecting the shelves, he didn't find even one book, which he hadn't read prior to enrolling.

The sun hung low on the horizon, when the boys exited the library. They headed back to their hamlet, while making plans for tomorrow. As they stood in front of Yew's cottage, Linden returned from his outing, and Yew introduced his roommate to his neighbors.

Spruce told Linden about the places, which they had visited with so much enthusiasm, that he looked like a bird about to take off the ground.

"So you visited the main school attractions," Linden stated in the most disinterested tone humanly possible. "And you went to the cafeteria to eat."

"For breakfast and lunch, yes, but not for dinner," Yew clarified. "We haven't had dinner yet."

"The cafeteria was too busy," Spruce recalled. "We barely found a place to sit for our breakfast, and we had to eat our lunch standing."

"Idiots," Linden snickered. "You’re not supposed to stay in the cafeteria. Just get something to go, and eat anywhere you want." He raised a bag in his left hand. "Anyway, wanna join me for dinner?" he offered with a smirk of someone, who would intentionally put habanero peppers into a tomato soup as a prank.

"All of us?" Yew asked in disbelief, then looked at Aspen and Spruce.

"Sure," Linden confirmed. "I bought a lot, because I assumed that a certain someone wouldn't have enough money for food," he grinned at Yew, before he entered the cottage, leaving the doors wide open. "Hurry up, slowpokes," he shouted from inside.

"Let’s go," Yew hurried his neighbors, hoping to get the food before Linden changed his mind.

"Is he a nice person, or not?" Spruce was confused by Linden’s behavior.

"Uhm, kind of both," Yew replied.

"A nice jerk," Aspen concluded based on the atmosphere, which Linden created.

Cafeteria || Variable twelve

Aspen, Spruce, and Yew, walked together, as they maneuvered through narrow corridors between the tables, trying not to bump into anyone else in a crowded patio.

The cafeteria had three pairs of front doors, which were spaced at intervals of eight meters. Each individual entrance was three meters wide, and the middle one was located at the center of the building. All the doors were wide open, and the students were constantly coming in and out. The interior floor was filled with even more tables, chairs, and people.

Upon entering the building, loud reverberating noises of chatting, laughing, and eating disoriented the boys until Aspen pointed at three large queues. Each one led to a counter with a different sign - a red circle, a blue square, or a yellow triangle.

"So we have three choices for breakfast?" Spruce wondered.

"No, we have to stand in each queue one by one," Aspen was the first one to notice the large board hanging on the wall near the entrance.

The menu on the board was divided into three parts. The first part had a symbol of a red circle above the title «Drinks». The middle part had a symbol of a blue square titled «Meals», and the last part had a yellow triangle titled «Desserts».

A long list of items was included under every title. The meals menu listed dishes, which were made of meat, fish, eggs, or dairy. Whereas the desserts included mainly dishes made of fruits and vegetables, but also sweets.

"So I have to stand in all three queues," Spruce sounded dejected, as he looked at the length of each queue. Suddenly, he didn’t feel hungry anymore.

In order to be helpful, Yew voiced out his thoughts, "we could split up, and buy for each other."

"Good idea," Aspen nodded.

"How do we split up?" Spruce looked confused.

Aspen explained Yew's proposal in detail, and when Spruce finally understood the plan, he asked, "so who goes to which queue?"

"You can pick first," Aspen offered.

Yew didn’t voice any objection. He concurred that Spruce, who was the youngest among them, should pick whichever queue he wanted.

Spruce looked carefully and saw that the drinks queue was the shortest, albeit still long. "That red circle," he pointed at the sign above the seller’s counter.

"Okay, and you?" Aspen asked Yew.

"Whichever," Yew shrugged, expecting Aspen to select the second shortest queue, leaving him to tackle the meals queue.

"Then take care of the yellow triangle, and I’ll do the blue square."

Not only did Aspen select the longest queue for himself, he even instructed Yew to stand in the second shortest one. If Yew was in his position, he would certainly select the longest queue for himself, but he wouldn't dare to instruct others, wary of any conflict caused by his words. After all, most people hated being told what to do by another person.

Thus, Yew felt a lot of respect for Aspen, who not only sacrificed himself to the hardest task, but he also calmly braved against a potential disagreement. In Yew's opinion, he acted like a natural-born leader, who wasn't afraid to deal with an opposition.

"So now, let’s decide our breakfast, or brunch, since it's already too late for breakfast," Aspen began, then he scanned the options before he said, "for me, I’ll take the walnut coffee, mint fried eggs, and carrot salad."

"Hmm… hard choice," Spruce muttered as he was carefully reading through the menu. "Maybe today I’ll have… raspberry juice, apple omelette, and… maybe strawb… or not. I’ll take cherry pie."

Yew and Aspen secretly grinned at his sweet choices. Both of them felt too mature to openly select the most kiddy food.

Finally Yew, who had already decided a while ago, listed his choices in one breath, "plum tea, cheeseburger and a berry salad."

After the boys voiced out what each one wanted to eat, they arranged their orders into meals, desserts, and drinks.

"So, let’s confirm," stated Aspen, who volunteered to buy the meals. "I'll buy mint fried eggs for me, apple omelette for you," he pointed at Spruce. "And a cheeseburger," he pointed at Yew, who nodded in agreement.

"Berry salad, carrot salad, and a cherry pie," Yew, who was assigned to buy the desserts, pointed at himself, then at Aspen, and lastly at Spruce with a merry smile.

"Okay, so I'll buy…" Spruce faltered, while trying to recall everyone's orders.

Before he could finish his sentence, Aspen filled in, "walnut coffee, plum tea, and raspberry juice."

Spruce repeated the drink labels several times, before he asserted, "okay, I got it."

"You better not forget," Aspen said as the three of them separated into different queues.

The first one to arrive at the counter was Spruce. He bought the three drinks, almost forgetting the label of Aspen's drink, but a friendly barista figured out what he meant by "some-nut coffee".

Holding a tray with the drinks, he approached Aspen, who was still waiting in the other queue. "Where do I take this?" he asked.

"Find an empty table, and sit down," Aspen instructed his roommate. "I’ll find you once I'll buy our meals."

Spruce nodded in understanding, then walked away. At first he searched for an empty table inside the building, but he couldn't find one. Thus he went outside, careful not to collide with other students, while he passed through the exit carrying his tray.

Standing on the patio, he scanned his surroundings. Yet all the tables outside were just as occupied as the ones inside, with not even one chair left available. It was so crowded that many students decided to sit on the low wall surrounding the patio, which was built there as a decoration rather than a bench.

About three meters to his right, a girl waved toward him using her whole arm. "Hey! Are you looking for a table?" she asked in a fairly loud voice in order to compete with the endless chatter around them.

Spruce looked at her, and immediately recognized her from the orientation. She was the only girl in their group of magicless students, whom Sorrel separated from the rest of newcomers.

She had a very ordinary appearance, with nothing specific to remember her by, other than her reddish-brown hair, which was evenly cut at neck-length, and clipped at each side above her forehead.

She was sitting with two older girls at a table for three people, and all their plates were already empty.

Spruce hesitantly approached. Normally, he wouldn't talk to girls, but he couldn't be a coward when his friends depended on him. "Uh, yes," he answered.

One of the older girls tapped the table with her finger, "then you can sit down here. We’re done eating, and we're about to leave." She stood up, and began collecting all the plates onto her tray.

The third girl also stood up, and helped her clean up, while Wasabi remained sitting and swinging her legs under the table. The older girls took all the dirty dishes to the tray window, whereas their younger friendess remained at the table, staring at Spruce with a lot of interest.

"Aren’t you going to sit?" she inquired.

Spruce flinched, as if her words had pinched his ears. "Ah, yeah," he responded, then reluctantly put down his tray on the table.

Wasabi showed no signs of moving, and he himself felt uncomfortable at the idea of sitting next to a girl, who was a total stranger for him. Even if they had a lot in common, he wouldn't consider her a friend unless she was a boy.

Bashfully, he glanced at her, as if he wanted to ask her, why was she still there. He didn't utter any words, but it appeared that the girl understood his thoughts, because she slowly stood up and stepped away from the table. In response, Spruce immediately plunged himself into the seat, as if a delayed reaction could bring her back.

At that moment, her friendesses called out to her, "Wasabi, let’s go!"

"Talk to you later," Wasabi impishly smiled toward Spruce before she left.

Spruce didn't respond to her farewell, and sat like a mute.

Several moments later, Yew stepped out of the cafeteria building, stopped walking, and looked around in search of his schoolmate.

He knew that Spruce wasn't inside the building, because he saw him go outside. As such, right after he bought the desserts, he headed out onto the patio.

Upon seeing mobs of students in every direction, he despaired at how difficult finding Spruce was going to be. However, the boy's fiery red hair made it relatively easy, and Yew spotted him as soon as he turned his face rightward.

"Wow, I cannot believe that you found us a table. The whole place is so crowded," he was simultaneously impressed and relieved.

"I got lucky," Spruce admitted. "The girls, who were sitting here, had left just now."

Yew put down the tray with the desserts on the table, then took a seat. He only had three sips of his plum tea, before Aspen arrived with the meals. The boy set his tray on the table, then rushed to taste his walnut coffee.

"Good. It’s not cold yet," he murmured with satisfaction.

While Aspen was settling in his seat, Spruce took away his plate with an apple omelette, while scanning the other items on Aspen's tray - napkins, forks, spoons, and knives.

"Can I have some?" he asked, pointing at the utensils.

"That’s why I got them," Aspen looked at his companions’ trays. "I thought that you might forget, and I was right." He exchanged the cheeseburger from his tray for the carrot salad on Yew's tray, while Spruce grabbed a set of utensils.

Once they sorted out the contents of each tray, they began to eat in silence. In contrast, other students of Hecate had a lot to talk about. Their topics ranged from serious family issues and important world events, through schoolwork, trivia knowledge, and all the way to diverse gossips, none of which interested the boys, who were still too young to be curious about the affairs of the teens.

Breakfast || Variable eleven

The next day, Yew was still lying in bed with his eyes closed, when he heard knocking followed by the sound of a conversation. Someone hurriedly entered the bedroom. Then some force dragged him out of his bed, and threw him across the room at the wardrobe. He hit its doors, then slid to the floor. His eyes sprang wide open.

Linden towered over him with his hands crossed on his chest.

"Don’t sleep in, when you promised to meet with someone, idiot!" he shouted, before he stomped out of the bedroom.

A moment later, a different person walked in.

Eyes wide with astonishment, Spruce looked down at Yew, who looked back with his mouth slightly ajar. He was still confused at what had just happened, and how he suddenly went from sleeping in his bed to sitting on the floor.

Shortly thereafter, they heard a loud bang of the exterior door as Linden left the cottage.

"When I knocked on the door, he was already wearing outdoor shoes," Spruce said. "I think he was planning to go out anyway, so it’s not… our fault," he briefly paused in a futile quest for a better way to phrase it.

Yew slowly came to understand what had happened, and stood up.

Spruce looked at Yew's bed, and said exactly what Yew had assumed, "I think he used magic on you."

Unlike Yew, Linden grew up with a magic-talented mother. So it shouldn't have surprised him, if his roommate knew the spell to throw someone out of bed. He imagined Sorrel Cave using that spell on her son, and instantly his mood got better.

"Are you fine?" Spruce asked, feeling worried about Yew. Watching from the doorway, he had seen Yew fly at a great velocity, before he hit the wardrobe with the force of a cannon ball hitting a fortified wall. "It must have hurt," he added.

"No. I’m okay," Yew responded to both utterances, and he wasn’t lying. He didn’t feel any pain other than mild tingling from yesterday’s punch.

However, it wasn’t manly to cry over spilled milk, so he decided to forget all about it for now. However, in his heart he resolved to secretly learn magic, and return the favor next time, when Linden would use a spell on him.

He walked up to his bed, took out his clothes from the drawers underneath, and changed out of his pajamas.

Spruce suspected that Yew was afraid to admit his wounds to someone, whom he had just met, and thus suppressed his pain. He himself would definitely do so, if he was in Yew's position. However, once he saw how swiftly Yew changed clothes, he finally believed that his schoolmate definitely wasn't hurting.

Only once Yew got fully dressed, he regained clarity of his mind. Linden's arbitrary actions were something, which he started considering normal, but he didn't know what to think of Spruce yet. He looked at his visitor, as if he had been caught talking about him behind his back.

Spruce felt awkward at the stare, so he explained his presence, "I thought we could go around the schoolground today." He was holding the school’s guidebook in his hands, as if it was his most precious possession.

Even though Yew had treated him so coldly the day prior, Spruce had come to his cottage with sparkling eyes and ready for an adventure. Did he fail to understand that Yew didn’t want to be friends? Or was he desperate to make friends?

Spruce looked too optimistic to be desperate, but Yew wouldn't dare to judge anyone by his or her appearance. He himself wouldn't show others what he really felt, and the idea of having no friends poked at his conscience, as he recalled his own experience.

While folding his bedsheets with a precision, which could rival a cat folding freshly laundered clothes, he considered his response. Supposing that it wouldn't hurt to befriend one fellow schoolmate, he agreed, "sure, why not."

With growing joy and anticipation, Spruce asked, "ready to go?"

Yew grabbed his backpack, before he answered, "yeah."

When they were passing by the kitchen, Yew recalled the spaghetti from yesterday, which made him consider his breakfast plans.

"There’s a cafeteria on the schoolground, right?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer. It was one of those things, which he had read about in the introduction pamphlet.

Spruce opened the second page in his guidebook, and unfolded it to reveal a map. All the buildings had names printed on them in a very tiny font - barely readable without a magnifying glass.

He pointed at the building labelled «cafeteria» near the center of the map. "We can go right now," he said eagerly. "I also didn’t eat breakfast yet."

"Let’s go then," Yew affirmed their plans.

They put on their outdoor shoes in the entry room, and left the cottage without locking the door. Spruce, who had already read some of the infos in the guidebook, explained to Yew, that all cottages in Hecate had a charm on them, which kept the doors locked for anyone uninvited. Whereas those, who were allowed to enter, could go in and out anytime.

Naturally, the two residing students were always allowed the access. In addition, the chairman, the vice-chairman, and the most tenured teachers could also enter any cottage. Moreover, if the two students agreed among themselves, they could grant the access to other students of Hecate by writing down their names on the list of guests.

As they walked through the hamlet, Spruce energetically talked about all the things, which he had read in the guidebook.

White pebbles shone in the sun beneath their feet, while sideway flowers and tall grasses occasionally brushed against their pants. The alley wasn't narrow, but it wasn't wide either. It was just the right size for comfortably travelling on foot with gorgeous treetops decorating the sky along the way.

Although all the cottages in the hamlet looked exactly the same, none of them were perfectly aligned. Even when they stood in a row, each cottage was facing a direction several degrees different than its neighbors.

"By the way, how old are you?" Spruce realized that he still didn’t know Yew’s age.

"I’m ten. And you?"

"Nine, so you're a year older."

"Are your parents one of those? You know, the people who want their children to grow up faster?"

"No," Spruce answered. "Actually, my father is against me attending Hecate. He wants me to study in Ares, but I don’t want to. I want to be a wizard. I was so stubborn about it, that he let me come here for one year. And if I get top scores in my class, then I can remain in Hecate until I graduate."

"I see," was all that Yew said in response.

His own circumstances were troubling him enough. He had no capacity to worry about someone else's problems, especially since he didn't understand Spruce's heart. Why would it matter, which school one attended?

"What about you?" Spruce asked. "Why did you come to Hecate?"

"I think that magic seems interesting," Yew lied smoothly, already used to repeating the same phrase. He knew that it could only bring him trouble, if he spoke about his adoption.

"Yeah, me too!" Spruce exclaimed. "There's this something in magic that just makes it so amazing, right? I tried to explain it to my father, but no matter what I said, he wouldn’t understand."

As they were about to exit the hamlet, Yew saw a boy standing on the other side of the road and waving in their direction. He didn’t recognize the boy, so he assumed that the handwave was directed at someone else. Consequently, it startled him, when Spruce reacted.

"Oh?! Aspen!!!" his schoolmate shouted as loud as he could, then ran across the road, which was busy, but not crowded, with school-aged pedestrians.

Aspen wasn’t bony like Yew, nor slender like Spruce. His face was a bit chubby, but it was hard to tell whether he was fat underneath his loose tunic and baggy pants. He had warm brown eyes, and straight hair evenly trimmed around his neck. Under direct sunlight his celeste hair appeared more white than blue.

Something about him reminded Yew of the monks, who sometimes travelled through the village of Catriddle.

While Spruce talked with Aspen, Yew leisurely approached them.

Spruce introduced the boys to each other. "This is Aspen. He’s my roommate. And this is Yew. He’s also magicless, just like me, and he’s our neighbor."

Yew bowed his head a bit, and Aspen bowed back.

"Hey, we’re going to the cafeteria right now, wanna come along?" Spruce asked his roommate.

"Sure, I’m free anyway," Aspen shrugged. He sounded like the type, who was always relaxed and kind to everyone.

"But didn’t you have something to do this morning?"

"My parents asked me to contact them as soon as I got here. I was too tired yesterday, so I did it earlier."

"And everything's fine?"

"Ah, sure," Aspen sounded uninterested, which confused Yew but Spruce didn’t seem to notice. "They’re just worrying a bit too much."

"That makes them great parents!" Spruce exclaimed.

Aspen bent his lips in an attempt to smile, but his eyes showed no joy. "You might be right," he said, but his voice didn't sound honest at all.

They headed toward the cafeteria, while talking about the school and their hamlet. It turned out that their cottages had the same floor plan and the same furnishing. After they moved on to talk about bedrooms, they started arguing over what made a good bed.

While still bickering, they arrived at their goal.

The cafeteria was huge. Yet if it had been any smaller, it wouldn't have been able to serve two thousand students. The two-story building itself was hundred by fifty five meters. It was surrounded by a large plaza-like patio, which was filled with what seemed like an infinite number of tables and chairs occupied by endless crowds of kids and teens.

The bottom one meter of the cafeteria's wall was covered with pearl-like stones. The remaining walls were made of glass, separated by columns made of the same white rock as everything else. While the glass on the first floor was transparent and plain, the glass on the second floor was stained into shapes of flying creatures, such as: phoenixes, pegasi, gryphons, wyverns, and dragons.

"So this is the cafeteria?" Spruce asked the other two, while he checked the map in his guidebook.

"It must be," Aspen replied, and advanced toward the entrance.

Spruce and Yew followed right behind him.

Roommate || Variable ten

As soon as Yew entered the bedroom, he saw his roommate sitting on the left bed. Looking baffled, he wondered why this beautiful girl was in his cottage. He was pretty sure that boys and girls lived separately.

Did he make a mistake, or did the school make a mistake? He had no idea what to do, so he just gawked at her gorgeous long wavy yellow hair.

"Oh," his roommate saw him, and took off her fluffy orange headphones. "So you’re my roommate? What’s your name?"

"Yew… Yew Sky," he answered, then swallowed his saliva, while his feet remained glued to the floor.

"I’m Linden Tamalini Gomat Cave. Nice to meet you," she waved at him.

"Cave?" Yew was sure that he had heard this family name before.

"I know what you’re thinking, and you’re correct," the beauty responded. "Sorrel Cave, who guided your group, is my ma."

"Oh," Yew recalled the teacheress's name. "So you’re her daughter," he concluded.

Before he could blink, Linden jumped out of her bed, and in one swift motion connected her fist with his face.

Suddenly, Yew was on the floor. He opened his eyes, and looked up into her green eyes embellished by her long eyelashes. Her face would have been so dazzling, if she wasn't menacingly glaring at him at the moment.

Linden tightened up his fist, ready to serve him another punch. "Listen here, you pukebrain. I gave you my name, right? It’s Linden. Linden is a male name, you retarded poopkin."

Yew didn’t respond, so shocked he was that the beauty in front of him was actually a boy.

Linden bared his teeth. "I have a dick, and if you dare to call me a girl again, I'll make a mincemeat out of you."

Yew was speechless. The obscenities flying out of his roommate's mouth so contrasted with his appearance.

Linden went back to sitting on his bed, but he didn’t stop talking. Without looking at Yew, he explained his situation.

"I cannot help it that I’m more beautiful than girls. My pa is the chairman of Aphrodite. Makes sense, right? And it sucks. Both of my parents work in schools. If I went to Aphrodite, I could have graduated with perfect scores, but I’d rather study somewhere else."

Aphrodite was an ostentatious school, where scores were decided by one’s appearance and fashion. Anyone could apply, but only the most glamorous people could graduate. Those less than beautiful were failed upon entrance. As such, Aphrodite was a school, which some dreamed of attending, while others felt disgusted and wondered why did it even exist.

However, Linden’s words did explain a lot. Certainly, it assured Yew that he was speaking with a boy - a fairly beautiful boy, but a boy nonetheless.

Still shaken by the violent welcome, Yew got up from the floor, then went into the restroom, where he took a good look at his face in a mirror.

His left cheek hurt a lot, even though the bruises were too faint to see. Just several hours ago, it had been burned with a cigarette by that damn noble. And just a moment ago, he got punched on the same cheek by that damn pretty boy.

The beginning of his school life didn’t look promising.

He checked the shelves under the sink, and found a basic first-aid kit. He applied the gel for bruises to his cheek, hoping that his face would heal by tomorrow. Then he walked into the bedroom again.

Linden, clearly not intending to apologize, kept his eyes closed, while wearing his headphones.

Yew didn’t want to start a fight with his roommate on their very first meeting, so he decided to let things slide once, but only once. If Linden ever punched him again, he was going to punch him back, no matter the reason.

Ignoring the damn beauty's presence, he left his backpack on the other bed, then went into the kitchen to see what was there to eat.

A minute later, Linden came, leaned on the entrance wall, and asked, "where are your stuff?"

"My parents mailed them to me. They’ll arrive later," Yew responded and looked inside the fridge. "Why is the fridge empty?" he asked his roommate.

"You didn’t read the guidebook?" Linden responded with a question.

Yew shook his head in confirmation.

"Your parents didn’t tell you?"

"My parents are magicless," he declared.

Linden rolled his eyes, "so you’re also magicless, and you know nothing about Hecate."

He stepped into the kitchen, then took out a pot from one of the bottom cabinets. He filled the pot with water from the sink faucet, then put it on the stove, setting the switch to high.

Yew observed Linden apprehensively, like a rabbit watching a wolf.

"In Hecate, cottages have all the necessary furnitures and some of the essential commodities, but that’s all," Linden explained, while taking out two plates and setting them on the table. "Everything else you have to get yourself, such as plates or food." He opened a drawer underneath the counter, and took out two spoons and two forks.

Yew looked at the plates on the table, then at the utensils in Linden’s hand. And he figured out that his roommate was preparing food for two people.

Linden put the utensils on the table between the plates, then walked back to the cabinets. "Normally, parents send their kids to Hecate with food to last them at least for one day, and enough money to get whatever they need, once they’re here," he continued to explain as he took out a box of noodles and a jar of spaghetti sauce.

Yew realized that Linden was utilizing only the bottom cabinets, and he got curious, "what’s in the top cabinets?"

"Nothing," Linden replied. "I cannot reach there without a chair, so I don't use them." He put the box of noodles next to the stove on the counter, and carried the jar to the table. "You don’t have anything against spaghetti?" he asked without looking at Yew.

"No," Yew answered, already feeling hungry. His last meal was the breakfast, which he had before boarding the train. He hadn't packed anything for the journey either.

His mother wanted to give him food for the journey, but he refused, because he didn’t want to risk it getting squished or spilled inside his backpack. Moreover, the school had a cafeteria, so he was sure that he would get a meal once he arrived.

He didn’t prepare for the possibility that he’d have to secure his own groceries, but he was glad that Linden was kind enough to realize the problem, and share his rations.

Nonetheless, Yew found it odd that his beautiful roommate, who had punched him in the face mere moments ago, was making dinner for both of them. Was that Linden’s way of apologizing?

"That’s good to hear," Linden responded, "because this is the only thing I can make at the moment."

He poured salt onto his palm from the box, which was in the corner of the counter. After he measured by eye the right amount of salt, he threw it into the pot, then he put away the box.

"So?" Linden looked at Yew. "Why go to Hecate, if you’re magicless? You wanna be a wizard?"

"Kind of," Yew answered and sat at the table on the chair closest to the fridge. "Um, about my stuff - I think it’ll arrive within a week, but I didn’t know about…. ugh…" He looked at the plates and utensils on the table, and Linden immediately guessed what he meant.

"That’s fine. Just use my stuff," he addressed Yew's worries. "They’re not technically mine though. My ma bought all that, so I don’t care what happens to them."

"I’ll buy my own, just not now," Yew clarified his intentions. "I did get money from my parents, but that’s for food. I’ll need to ask for more…"

"Don’t bother," Linden interrupted him. The water began boiling, and he threw the noodles into the pot. "The food in the cafeteria is free for students, who score at least ninety percent on their tests," he informed him, while he took out a wooden spoon from a drawer, then he stirred the noodles in the pot.

"But I don’t know whether I’ll have such high scores," Yew contested.

"Give it a try. The first year is never difficult. And this way, you can buy new things using the money, which you saved on food."

Linden continued to occasionally stir, while Yew pondered his words. They didn’t talk for a while. From his seat, Yew looked around the kitchen, whereas Linden was keeping his eyes on the pot. Several times Yew glanced at Linden, but wouldn’t dare to stare for too long. He was having a hard time figuring out Linden's disposition.

"It’s ready," Linden said, while turning off the stove. He strained the noodles, then set them on the table. "There’s no cheese," he disclosed, "but it should be good anyway."

He sat down, moved some noodles onto his plate, then tapped the jar three times with his index finger. The lid came loose with a tiny pop. He poured the tepid spaghetti sauce on top of his noodles, before he pushed the jar toward Yew.

"Eat, before the noodles get cold," he advised.

Yew served himself a portion of the spaghetti, then began eating. Without cheese it didn’t taste as good, but it was better than staying hungry. Both of them ate in silence, and Linden took a second portion.

"I’ll do the dishes," Yew offered after their meal.

"Nice," Linden approved the idea. "The dish soap is under the sink," he mentioned, put the leftovers inside the fridge, then left the kitchen.

From the same cabinet, Yew took out the dish soap, a sponge, and a drying rack. He washed the dishes, rinsed them, and left them to dry on the rack.

Afterward, he returned to the bedroom, where Linden was already asleep. The hour was already late, but it wasn’t nighttime yet, so Yew was mildly surprised. However, suitably to the situation, he quietly unpacked the contents of his backpack into a wide drawer under his bed.

Next, he took his toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, towel, and pajamas, and went to take a shower. Ten minutes later, he returned to the bedroom, already wearing his pajamas.

He left all his toiletries in the bathroom, and brought back only his daytime clothes. While putting them into another drawer, he managed to see the final glimmering rays of sunlight disappear from his bed.

He moved aside the netcurtain, which covered the top three quarters of the window. Then he looked outside, where rows of bushes separated the cottages.

The western sun was almost completely hidden behind the moss-covered roofs. Some of its remaining glow still illuminated the violet sky, which in less than an hour, would turn black.

Yew was captivated by the colors on the horizon. He sat down on the windowsill, and silently watched the view. Even though he was far away from his parents, and far away from the house, where he grew up, he felt an eerie familiarity toward the scenery.

Soon every last bit of sunlight in the sky had died out. Yet he continued to watch the shadows overtaking the hamlet, turning every tree and every bush into silhouettes of scary monsters.

The long summer hours of daylight were deceptive, and it has been long past Yew's usual time to sleep. His eyelids felt heavy, so he rubbed them instinctively, but it didn't remove his drowsiness. He moved away from the window, climbed up the stairs of his bed, and fell asleep as soon as he slid under the comforter.

Hamlet || Variable nine

When Sorrel Cave arrived in front of a hamlet, she stopped on the paved road, which divided the residential area from the educational quarters. She waited for all the students to get closer.

Yew looked toward the hamlet - at the cottages near the paved road. They were made of the same white stone as the school buildings, but their roofs had green moss growing on them. Each cottage was roughly ten by ten meters in size, and had only one floor.

Where several cottages stood in a row, there was no more than two meters of space between them, filled with flowering bushes instead of a fence. Yet, where the three-meter wide alleys weaved through like rivers, the distance between cottages grew considerably.

At each side of every alley, there were gardens of perennial flowers and shrubs growing beneath vast marvelous treetops. A narrow path made of flagstones led through the garden, and connected the alley to each cottage porch, which had two stairsteps and a roof.

Sorrel gave a compassionate smile toward the students, who began showing signs of fatigue. Many chose to sit down on the ground instead of standing. Some also took out snacks and drinks, such as juices, bottled teas, and flavored waters.

Growing up in a village, Yew was used to walking kilometers without a break, but today even he felt tired. He had been up on his feet early in the morning, before anyone else had woken up. He rode the carriage to another settlement, then spent hours on a train, before he walked to the school and through it.

Sorrel pointed at the hamlet on her left side. "There are a total of ten hundred cottages in here. This year, we have more than twenty-two hundred students, so we also borrowed the adjacent hamlet. Most students have already unpacked, but more are to arrive tomorrow and overmorrow, so please be considerate of your roommates and neighbors, who are already living here."

She pointed at the number engraved in the gable of the nearest porch. "All cottages are numbered, and you should follow the numbers to reach your new home. However, if you get lost, there's a hamlet map in your guidebook. Always remember to carry your guidebook with you until you get familiar with the schoolground."

Sorrel had already told them this previously, but years of experience had taught her that she needed to repeat it, because students rarely listened.

"I'll now present you with your cottage number. If you share a cottage, then I'll read both of your namehoods together. Come up, if you hear your names."

She looked at the long papersheet in her hand, and read two namehoods.

Yew observed two girls, who received one card each, and a simple set of instructions. He sat down on the ground, expecting to be the last person called, and waited patiently, while watching others. Indeed, when Sorrel finally read his namehood, there were no other first-year students on the road.

He approached the teacheress, who circled his namehood on the papersheet. The circled piece smoothly cut itself out, and grew into a card no bigger than his school badge.

She handed him the card, which had his namehood and his cottage number forty-four-hundred thirty-six.

"Take the alley in front of the cottage forty-three-hundred seventy-nine, and follow the numbers."

Yew thanked the teacheress, and did as told. On his way, he was surprised to see kids being lost - walking confused, trying to help each other, or desperately looking at the map. He didn't find the numbering system that difficult, although it did get convoluted at the meandering crossroads. But in the end, Yew managed to find his destination all by himself.

His cottage was the third one in a row of cottages, numbered from forty-four-hundred thirty-four up to forty-four-hundred thirty-nine.

Several minutes ago, when he arrived in front of the first cottage of the row, he looked at the number on its gable, and instantly got blinded by the sun, which hovered above its roof. He looked away, then moved into the shade, where the thick foliage of tall trees obscured the rays.

After confirming that it was the number forty-four-hundred thirty-four, he felt relieved at being just two numbers away from his new home. He looked forward to getting cozy in his bed after a long day of travelling.

As he was passing the cottage number forty-four-hundred thirty-five, he heard someone shouting.

"It’s here! I found it!" A boy with an open guidebook in his hands, came running from the other direction and stood next to Yew, looking at the cottage forty-four-hundred thirty-five.

Yew recognized him from the school orientation, because he stood next to Yew among the magicless students.

He had a cheerful smile on his face, which contrasted with his dark cherry red hair. Even though his clothes were tidy and of good quality, his hair looked as if it had been trimmed by an inexperienced drunk hairstylist.

He looked at Yew, then sneaked a peek at the number on Yew's card.

"Forty-four hundred thirty six. We’re neighbors." He showed Yew his card, "my cottage is forty-four hundred thirty five." He held out his hand, "I’m Spruce."

Yew lazily took his hand, and let Spruce vigorously shake it.

"Yew Chirabilva Araukaria Sky," he introduced himself in a solemn tone in order to discourage any amity. He was holding back his annoyance due to someone trying to become his friend. All he wanted at the moment was to get into his new home, and relax.

Spruce was blind and deaf to Yew's disinterest, and his response was filled with elation. "My namehood is Spruce Phalahi Menteng Fire. It’s so nice to have another magicless student as a neighbor," he looked at Yew’s cottage, which stood adjacent to his.

"Yeah," Yew agreed, but in reality he didn’t care. He didn’t want to chat, so he responded mechanically, "sorry, but I’m tired. Can we talk tomorrow?"

"Sure," Spruce cheerfully accepted.

"See you," Yew quickly waved a bye, then headed straight for his cottage, ignoring anything else Spruce was saying or doing.

In no more than thirty steps, he arrived at the porch of his cottage. He opened the door, which appeared to be unlocked, or maybe it was the school badge, which allowed him to enter. Either way, it wasn't as important as the fact, that he had finally arrived at his new home.

He scanned the tiny entry room, lit only by one round window next to the exterior door. There was a wardrobe on the left, and a hutch on the right side, with someone’s shoes already present on the bottom shelves.

Intuitively, he opened all the furnitures in order to familiarize himself with the place. Inside them, he found only the usual clothes - jackets, hats, gloves, and shoes. Yet this was a definite evidence, that his roommate had already arrived, and unpacked all of his belongings.

Yew put down his backpack, and from within he took out his slippers. He hadn’t wanted to take them, but his mother had forced him to.

"You're not some animal to walk barefoot," she had scolded him.

"Monks walk barefoot," he had rebuked.

At that she had scoffed, "once you're a monk, I'll allow you to walk barefoot."

She had known that Yew had no desire to become a monk. Thus in the end, Yew had to squeeze the slippers into his backpack, and now he was glad that he did.

He didn’t know what to expect from his new roommate, but in order to have a good start, he decided to be as polite and well-mannered as possible.

He put his slippers on his feet, and left his outdoor shoes on a bottom shelf of the hutch.

He opened the interior door and walked through, facing the living room, which was the biggest room in the cottage. It had a decent appearance - nothing too impressive, but Yew already liked it, because there were no parents around to tell him what he can and cannot do.

There were shelfcases on the right wall, and two study desks on the left wall separated by a curtain. In the middle, a sofa was placed under a large window, and an armchair stood next to a sofa table.

All the furnitures were made of wood of different kinds, but they oddly matched with the white stones of the exterior walls. Whereas, the interior walls, the ceiling and the floor were all made of the same golden brown wood.

Without walking into the living room, Yew turned leftward into the hallway.

He passed by a large wall painting, which presented a scene of a green forest shrouded in mist. Then he stopped in front of the fridge at the end of the hallway, and looked around. On his left, he had a wide doorless entrance to the kitchen, while on his right, he had a nook with three doors.

He tried the first two doors on each side, where he had found the restroom on the left, and the bathroom on the right. Up to this point he had found all the main rooms of a house except for a bedroom. This led him to believe that it was located behind the last door.

Assuming that his roommate might be inside, he knocked. Yet there was no response, so he opened the door.

Just as he expected, it was the bedroom. Two wardrobes stood by the door, one on the left and the other on the right side. A tall window was wedged between beds at the far end of the room. Underneath each mattress, there were three layers of wooden drawers, which formed three stairsteps at the foot of each bed.

Badge || Variable eight

Sorrel Cave looked at the list of students, and read the first namehood at the top of the alphabetical list. A girl came from the back of the crowd, and received a guidebook and a badge.

One by one, Sorrel called out each student, and Yew had to wait a long time until she reached the letter Y.

In the meantime, he observed other students, who upon returning back to the crowd, got very innovative with the placement of their badges.

Most kids placed them on the chest, the stomach, or the arms. But several girls hid their badges under their skirts, whereas some boys attached theirs to their underwear or shoes. Yew liked their ideas, and he considered attaching his badge to his sock, until his irate mother’s face appeared in his mind, and hurled this idea out of his head.

"Yew Chirabilva Araukaria Sky," Sorrel called out his namehood.

He approached her, took his essentials with a shy "thank you, madam", then stepped away from the teacheress.

Yew noticed right away that the guidebook had his namehood printed in black letters on the cover page, but he examined the badge first. It was shaped like a white shield with a black Roman numeral one in the center. Above the numeral, there was a white text "School of Hecate" on the red border, which surrounded the badge. On the other side of the badge, Yew found his namehood.

Yew placed the badge on his arm, but then he changed his mind, took it off and placed it on the side of his stomach. He was about to open his guidebook, when Sorrel spoke again.

"The badges are magical, so they won’t detach from your clothes by themselves, and other people cannot remove them either. However, they’re small, so I recommend you pay attention, where you leave them."

Yew's name was the last on the list, but Sorrel didn't dismiss the list immediately. There were two namehoods, which no one claimed, so she checked with the crowd. "Is there anyone here, whose name wasn't called?"

Everyone among the gathered had their essentials and no one came forward, so Sorrel marked the two kids as absent. Then she clapped her hands, and the list of names disappeared together with the remaining guidebooks and badges of students, who didn’t show up.

The teacheress cleared her throat before she continued.

"For the next nine years, all of you will be learning magic. However, that’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is for you to set your own goals. Any work started, but unfinished, yields no results. So don’t waste your time trytesting. Decide once, and don’t change your mind. Stay on one path until you reach the finish line. Don’t give up halfway. Don’t stray. Finish one thing, before you start another."

She took a deep breath, and spoke in a calmer voice.

"Finally, I want to remind you that Hecate, like all schools, has its own reputation. It is a school, where we care deeply about our students, and we want all of you…" She cut off, then she repeated the last three words with a clear break between each one. "All… of… you… without exception, to succeed. As teachers, we’ll do all in our power to help you, but you, as students, must do all in your power to help us."

Some of the students looked confused after they heard the last sentence, but Sorrel quickly explained in a voice akin to a general giving instructions to his regimen.

"You’re not here to blindly obey. You’re not here to please anyone. You’re not here to just pass the minimum requirements. You are here to excel. There's nothing more glorious for teachers than to see their students achieve what they themselves couldn't. And that is what we always wish for. We want you to surpass us, your teachers."

A lot of girls giggled, and some of the boys smirked in anticipation. Yew didn’t do either, because he felt like her words weren’t directed at him. After all, he didn’t come to this school to learn. He had other goals.

Sorrel continued, "I am glad to see that so many of you have high ambitions. That’s how it should be. But whatever you do, always remember about your honor and the honor of our school. And I hope that as graduates, you’ll bring nothing but honor to your parents and to your teachers."

Yew rolled his eyes at the idea of honor. His kindergarten teachers also talked about it all the time, but in the end, it never mattered. All bad behavior was always explained as kids being kids, so even bullies got away without damaging their or their parents’ honor.

"Now I’d like to check how many of you are magicless. As you should know, the term «magicless» is an abbreviation of the longer term «magic-talentless», and our school welcomes both magic-talented and magic-talentless students. Out there in the world, magic-talented people are the minority, but in this school, it’s the magicless who are rare."

Yew also wondered how many magicless students there were in the crowd.

"If you’re magicless, please come forward and stand on my left," she beckoned at the area. "Please, hurry up."

Yew moved together with five other kids. He had registered as magicless, and for that reason he had to act like one, if he wanted to keep his secret.

Out of hundred twelve kids, only six stood by the teacheress. This didn’t surprise Yew, because most magicless people would rather go to a school, where their lifegoals were easier to achieve. Not many would go to the school of magic, and work hard for a future that was never meant to be.

Yet Sorrel was astonished. "Six? This is more than usual."

"Professor Sorrel," a magicless girl, who was standing closest to the teacheress, raised her hand.

"Yes, lass," the teacheress invited her to speak.

"What's the usual number of magicless students?"

"One or two," Sorrel answered. "The most I’ve ever seen until today was three people in one group. Anyway," she straightened her posture. "I sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart for choosing our school." She bowed her head toward them, while keeping her palm on her chest. "If there's anything you don't understand, I'm sure everyone will gladly help you the best they can."

Afterward, she faced the magic-talented students. "As I'm sure at least one of your parents graduated from Hecate, you must already know a lot about our school. Therefore, I expect you to learn from each other as schoolmates ought to do, and to take care of those who might need your help."

Yew didn't like that sort of guidance. On the contrary, he would have preferred, if the teacheress had told other students to avoid the magicless kids, but he understood, that that was an unreasonable request.

"Lastly, please raise your hand, if you have already decided who'll be your roommate."

The majority of magic-talented students raised their hands. Yew recalled that in the confirmation form, there was a box at the bottom labelled as «your roommate's namehood». He left that box empty.

"Among those with hands up, is there anyone who failed to pre-register? If so, please come over here."

Several kids approached her, and she commanded the others to lower their hands. She asked the kids for their namehoods, and took some notes in the air.

Yet all Yew saw were colorful circles and dots popping and sparkling, as she waved her hands like a mystical dancer.

After Sorrel finished pairing up the kids, she drew a big rectangle in the air, and waited. A short moment later, a long papersheet materialized in front of her. She took it into her hands, and looked at the content.

"Okay," she said. "Your cottages have been arranged. Please follow me, and don't stray away. If you do, your badge will sound an alert, and you'll only embarrass yourself."

She pointed toward the school. "We'll need to walk for half an hour across the schoolground, but if anyone among you cannot walk for that long, please raise your hand right now."

She waited for a while, but since none of the students reacted, she moved on to the next step. "Great. Let's go then."

She walked at the front of the procession, while more than hundred kids followed behind her. Most of them knew each other already, and they chatted as they walked, but Yew knew no one, and he didn't want to know anyone.

Some of the friendly kids approached, and asked him questions. Yet each time, he had answered in a tone, which discouraged them from any further questioning.

Eventually most talkative kids moved forward, while Yew ended up walking near the end of the long procession among all the quiet kids. However, he enjoyed observing the scenery more than opening his mouth.

His first impression of the school could be summarized in one word: white. The school of Hecate had only white buildings made with white stone walls, white epoxy doors, and white metal rooftops. The paved roads were five meters wide and entirely made out of white pebbles. The pathways between the buildings were one meter wide and filled with dense white sand.

Yet the white color was scarce in comparison to all the shades of green, which dominated the landscape.

Countless trees grew all over the schoolground, many of which were equal or taller than the buildings. The bushes reached up to the windows, ivy plants climbed the walls, flowers lined up the pathways, and wild grasses bordered the roads. Even the lantern poles weren't spared by the vines, which half-obstructed the lights at nighttime.

While it was hard to find a color other than green and white in the architecture, it was easy to spot any color in the clothes of the passerbys. The school had no uniforms, so teachers and students alike were free to dress as they wished.

Hecate || Variable seven

Yew wasn’t knowledgeable in the names of famous people, but even he, who had no interest in VIPs, had heard about the Sea household. It was an ancient family of the best magi in the world. Most of them served directly under the Emperor, and many of them were true geniuses. Even the most stupid person would not make an enemy out of them.

However, Yew had no plans to be liked by Cypress Sea, nor did he care about the school. Whether he graduated or not didn’t matter to him. He was going to be content with the results as long as he got some infos about his biological parents.

During the rest of Yew’s journey to Sheepcrown, the door to his compartment opened two more times. One time, it was a group of giggling girls, who stopped giggling immediately, when they realized that the compartment wasn’t empty. They nonchalantly walked away after changing their plans.

Another time, it was a man, who introduced himself as a teacher at Hecate. He was searching for students, who were secretly misbehaving. Yew wished that he had come earlier, but he didn’t say anything about Cypress. After the teacher had left, Yew had no more visitors for the rest of his journey.

Pensively, he observed the scenery passing behind the window. Except for the tedious darkness of the tunnels, the view was more than beautiful. It consisted of lush forests, shining lakes, distant mountains, golden farmlands, and diverse cities filled with life.

Many hours later, the train conductor announced, "we’re arriving in Sheepcrown. We’re arriving in Sheepcrown." He repeated twice to ensure that everyone had heard him.

The speeding train came to a sudden stop at the train station in Sheepcrown. The passengers didn’t even feel this drastic change of speed. They began opening the compartment doors and stepping into the hallway, long before the train was ready to disembark.

Once the sidewall was gone, a large crowd of mostly young people poured out from the train like a tsunami. At the same time, all of them proceeded onto the platform, through and away from the train station.

After exiting the almost empty train, Yew didn’t know where to go, but he decided to follow other students, all of whom were heading in the same direction.

The exhausted school-aged travellers dragged their luggage behind them as they headed to the main road. Some were using magic, others were using magical items to carry their belongings. All in all, each student of Hecate had a peculiar way to deal with their own load.

"Look at this," a studentess, who walked by Yew, showed a box the size of a peanut to her friendess, who was walking with her. "This shrinking magic is amazing. I knew it was worth learning."

"Agh, I should have practiced that too," her friendess moaned in frustration, while five different boxes were literally walking behind her. "The magic to give legs to inanimate objects requires too much stamina."

Yew thought about the backpack on his back. It was a good idea to take only the minimum of what he needed, and ask his parents to mail him the rest of his belongings, which should arrive within a week.

All the students walked out of the station, and proceeded to go north on the main street toward the schoolground of Hecate, which from a distance looked like a town fortified by walls.

It was almost evening, but the summer sun was still up and would remain in the sky for another two to three hours.

While still in the city of Sheepcrown, Yew looked around and above his head, where countless stone bridges connected the brick buildings. It surprised him, because normally bridges were built over rivers, but these city bridges were built over streets.

Yew saw not only adults but also little kids playing high up there, but it was safe for them to do so, because all the bridges, balconies, and terraces were protected by ornamental railings.

Other than its unique bridges, the city looked ordinary. It had stone streets wide enough for a tram to pass through. Bicyclists and passerbys were strolling on broad sidewalks, made of tiles decorated with leafy patterns. Trees were growing in straight lines between sidewalks and tramtracks. Bushes were growing in craters surrounded by rocks near the buildings, while potted plants hung attached to the street lamps.

In less than fifty steps from the moment Yew left the train station, he arrived at the train crossing, which also marked the end of the city. Just like all the other students, he went onward past the tracks. In another fifty steps, he arrived in front of a huge iron gate - the entrance of the Hecate schoolground.

The fully-open gate was more than six meters tall, and eight meters wide. Its hinges were attached to a meter thick wall, which was made of white bricks, and covered with ivy near the ground.

The gate led onto a triangular plaza, with its narrowest point facing south toward the city, while its widest side faced north toward the school buildings. Each corner of the plaza was connected to a road.

Yew stopped midway through the plaza and observed the students, who headed either east or west. The plaza was large enough to hold thousands of people, so after most of the students had left, Yew felt like an ant standing in a desert.

Without any students blocking the view, Yew could finally see the scenery around the plaza. All of the unpaved areas were covered with a tidy lawn enriched by the presence of robust trees, which grew scattered far apart from each other, yet due to their size, the distance between them didn’t feel as vast as it was. Their lower branches were neatly pruned, if they hung less than two meters aboveground, but the upper ones were allowed to grow far and wide.

In the distance, Yew saw two roads at each corner of the triangular plaza. The roads were five meters wide - enough to fit two carriages side-by-side. And just like the plaza, they were made of white stones tightly packed together, and smoothed over the centuries by the weather and wheels. Whereas, infrequent cracks provided an opportunity for weeds to grow and supplement the monotonous landscape.

Yew wondered whom he should ask for directions, as he looked at the people, who were still around. He caught sight of a woman in the center of the plaza. She stood with her hand raised toward the sky, and was surrounded by kids his age. Two words were floating above her palm: «FIRST YEAR».

She was a middle-aged woman, with blue curly hair kept away from her face by a hairband. All her clothes were multicolored, as if a painter had sprayed them with his entire palette. Her long skirt had a slanted cut at the bottom. Her shirt covered the left shoulder, but not the right one. Yet its right long sleeve covered her whole arm, but its left short sleeve ended just before her armpit. Her shoes were also of different colors. The left one was red and the right one was blue.

Within the next five minutes, all the older students had left the plaza. Only the first-year students had remained, and all of them were gathered around the woman.

She looked toward the gate, checking for any latecomers. But with nobody coming from the direction of the city, she lowered her hand, and the words «FIRST YEAR» dissolved like a mist.

"I hope I have all the new students," the woman in her fifties muttered to herself, as she looked at the kids gathered around her. She pointed her index finger at her throat, then slid it up in the air. "Welcome to the school of Hecate," she said in a voice as loud as a megaphone.

All the students stopped chatting, and focused their eyes and ears on her.

"My name is Sorrel Arfaj Avarai Cave, and I’m one of the teachers. You can call me professor Sorrel or madam Sorrel. After all, there is no manner of address more respectful than the very name bestowed upon birth, which carries parental blessings and divine graces."

She pointed at the buildings beyond the plaza. "As you can see, Hecate is a large school with more than two thousand students - not two hundred, not twenty hundred, but two thousand.” She smiled at the puzzled kids, who surely didn’t use such big numbers in kindergarten.

“Every year we have anywhere between five to thirty hundred new students. In order to properly accommodate everyone, we ask that you come on different days at different times. I was assigned to greet your group, but there are many other teachers in Hecate. So there’s no certainty whether I’ll be teaching you. Today might be our first and last meeting, but who knows? Maybe one day, you will have a class with me."

She swiped her hand in front of her, and a set of letters appeared in the air. It looked like a list of over hundred names.

"Your group has hundred twelve students, but before I take you to your new homes, I need to properly introduce you to our school. I’m sure that some of you didn’t even bother to read the welcome letter."

Many kids, including Yew, got embarrassed at how easily the teacheress saw through them.

"The name of our school is Hecate, just like the name of the guardian, who has been protecting our school for millennia. As some of you might already know, Hecate is one of the powerful spirits. It’s rare to meet a guardian spirit, but if you’re lucky enough then you might encounter her, when she comes to visit our school." Professor Sorrel winked at the students.

Her voice held a lot of delight and respect, whenever she talked about the school, but it smoothly turned into a tone of compassion and vigilance, when she spoke to the students, who looked at the buildings beyond the plaza with great hopes in their sparkling eyes.

"I’ll read your names one by one," the teacheress fixed her eyes on the list of students still floating in the air. "When you hear your name, please come over to collect your guidebook and your badge."

She waved her hand around and toward the ground. A basket with badges appeared near her feet, and next to her hand appeared a pile of books, floating in the air as if there was a table beneath them.

She picked up a book from the pile and lifted it above her head. It was a thin book with less than fifty pages. Its cover was half-blue at the top and half-green at the bottom.

"It’s easy to get lost in Hecate due to the size of our school, which is more than two kilometers from one end to the other. Luckily for you, this guidebook has a map, which will help you get around the schoolground. So please carry it with you until you get better acquainted with our school."

She put down the guidebook, and with her other hand, she summoned a badge, which flew out of the basket near her feet. She held it up for everyone to see, but the badge was only five centimeters tall, so from a distance Yew couldn’t see anything other than its somewhat rectangular shape.

"This badge will allow you to enter buildings located on the schoolground. If you want to know more on how it works, you can read all about it in your guidebooks. Don’t forget to attach this badge to your clothes before you go out. And if you ever lose it, report it to a teacher immediately," she punctuated the last word.