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.