“Young master Azerick is here at the request of our own Magus Allister. Regardless of his background or social standing, you and the others will afford him the same courtesies as every other student. I will not tolerate the hazing of any student for any reason whether they are new or of a lesser social class,” Headmaster Dondrian calmly explained.
“Yes, Headmaster, I’m sorry, we were just having fun with a new student is all, and I guess we got carried away. What about my wand?”
“You know that wands like that are dangerous and expressly forbidden to be owned or possessed by students. I will give it back to you when you return to your home for spring festival. You and your friends may go. Azerick, please stay here a moment.”
Azerick steeled himself against the rebuke he knew was coming and prayed that they would not throw him out of the school on his first day.
“Azerick, as I told the other boys, you are here at the request of, and as a personal favor, to Magus Allister. I hope you realize how great an opportunity he has granted you.
“Yes, sir, I do.”
“Then you must conduct yourself as such. You are not on the streets anymore. You are attending one of the most prestigious institutions in the kingdom and you will conduct yourself appropriately. Your actions are a direct reflection not only upon yourself but also upon the man who argued quite strongly for your presence here. Do you understand?
“Yes, Headmaster.”
“Then you may go, and remember what I said,” Headmaster Dondrian said as he dismissed him.
I’ll remember what you said, but if you think I’m going to let a bunch of puffed up nobles run roughshod over me you are sorely mistaken, Academy and Allister be damned
, Azerick fumed as he walked down the stone halls of the Academy, returning to his room.
He entered the hall leading to his room when Travis and his friends stepped out of an alcove, blocking his path.
“Don’t think this is over, peasant. You made a big mistake and a powerful enemy. If you knew who my father was, you would know they could never throw me out of the Academy, but they’ll toss your low-born butt right back into the gutter Allister dragged you out of.”
“I really don’t care who your father is. If I’m pressed I’ll defend myself. It would be a whole lot better if you just left me alone.”
“Better watch your back, poor boy,” Travis warned as he and his friends walked away.
“I can’t believe you did that!” Rusty exclaimed as Azerick entered the room that they shared. “That was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen, stupid, but incredible. No one has ever stood up to them like that before.”
“It wasn’t that big of a deal. I’ve stood up to a lot scarier guys than them before.”
“Still, you better watch out for them, they pick on almost everybody. With what you did to them today, and being poor, they’re going to be after you.”
“I’ll be careful, I’m not afraid of them, but I don’t want to get kicked out of school either. It has been a dream of mine almost as long as I can remember. Travis said no one could kick him out of the Academy. Why can he get away with so much?
“His father is Duke Ulric’s Cousin. I don’t know what that makes him, but whenever he gets in any kind of trouble, his father is able to fix it and he’s back in a day or two. Eventually they just stopped punishing him for most things, but don’t worry, I’ll help you keep an eye out for them as best I can. Will you show me your alchemic set?” Rusty begged.
“Sure, I’ll show you how to make that super flammable oil. I call it dragon’s breath.”
“That would be great!”
Azerick used the few ingredients he had left to make a small batch of the combustible mixture and showed it off by setting it alight in a small glass the size of a shot glass. The glass got so hot that it shattered, the liquid flame spreading out on the small metal plate it was sitting on and continued to burn, causing the metal to glow orange before finally consuming itself and going out. The two boys stayed up late into the night as Rusty told Azerick about the school and classes and he taught Rusty a little about life on the street.
Azerick woke up with the rising of the sun, Rusty not waking until the first morning bells started ringing an hour later. They washed quickly in a washbasin, got dressed, and consumed a delicious but thankfully uneventful breakfast. After breakfast before the first class started, they had about an hour to themselves.
Azerick’s first day of school consisted of taking a multitude of tests to determine what he was proficient in and what classes he would have to take to catch up. He scored well in reading, mathematics, alchemy, and basic history and placed in those classes with students near his own age.
However, he had virtually no education regarding the history of magic, magic theory, the principles of magic, and applied magic and would have to be placed in classes with other beginning students. This meant he would be sitting in class with children half his age and that thought made him feel more than a little awkward.
The first day of class, he proved to be something of a distraction. The younger children were unable to contain their sniggering and seemed to pay far more attention to the older boy in their midst than the teacher. Azerick however, paid strict attention to all of his instructors, wanting to absorb as much knowledge as quickly as he could.
It took only a few days for Travis and his friends to find out he was in class with the younger kids and went out of their way to tease him about it.
“How do you like the baby class? Awe, he looks cranky, do you need your diaper changed?” they often teased.
This went on for the next several months but Azerick simply ignored them and put up with the name-calling until one day they came into the classroom while the instructor was out.
“Listen up, you little twerps, and peasant. It’s going to be winter festival and you know what that means and what will happen if you don’t bring us what we want,” Travis said and then left with his entourage in tow.
All the younger children started talking and grumbling about how mean Travis and his friends were. Azerick turned to one of the younger boys in his class.
“What were they talking about?” he asked a boy named Gerard.
“Those mean boys make us bring back all of our candy from winter festival and give them almost all of it. If we don’t, then they’ll tease us and make our lives miserable. Some kids even get beat up. I wish we were as big as them then we could beat them up and they couldn’t take our candy,” said Gerard, clenching his small fists.
Azerick stood up and turned to the rest of the class after Travis and his gang had left.
“Listen up everyone; you don’t have to be big to defend yourselves. I have fought people a lot bigger than I was and won. What you need to do is stick together. I know if you all worked together you could defend yourselves against them and any bullies you come across.”
“But they’re really big and mean and they know more magic than we do; we can’t fight them,” one of the girls cried out.
“Have you ever seen anyone get chased by bees before?” Azerick asked them.
Several kids replied that they had.
“Bees are small so why do you run from them?”
“Because they can sting you and there are usually a lot of them,” Gerard said.
“Exactly, just like there are a lot of you and I can teach you how to sting them just like those bees.”
“How?” they wanted to know.
Azerick explained to the younger students what he had in mind. He worked with them over the next several days, practicing what they needed to know to defend each other against Travis and any other people who picked on them.
Azerick understood that Travis’s extortion had little if anything to do with the candy. It was all about asserting their dominance and oppressing those weaker than them to make them feel powerful. It was exactly the same reason that the guild men killed Jon and his street family despite knowing that they had almost nothing to give. It would not surprise him if Travis and his ilk simply threw out their extortion prize.
“Are you going to the winter festival tomorrow, Azerick?” inquired Rusty.
“I guess so, it should be a nice change of pace, and the fresh air will help me clear my head,” Azerick answered.
“How are your studies coming along? Still having trouble with some of the spells?” Rusty asked his friend.
“Yeah, the cantrips were easy and I picked up on some of the lower level wizard spells, but anything even a little tougher than those I just don’t seem to get. I understand what they are trying to teach me, but it just does not make any sense to me. I’m starting to think Magus Allister was wrong about me,” Azerick lamented.
“I’m sure you’ll get it, some people get hung up for a while then everything just kind of clicks and they take off again. You have already learned more in the last four months than I did in my first two years.”
“I hope you’re right.”
It bothered him a lot that he may not be cut out for the Magus Academy after all and that he was letting down Magus Allister. But the old wizard assured him that he was doing just fine and that he had faith in him and his potential. The old mage came by to check on him from time to time and even tutored him when he was having trouble with a particular spell.
Despite his reassuring words, the roadblock the boy seemed to have reached concerned Allister. Ordinarily he would not have considered this a problem given the lack of experience that Azerick had. Nevertheless, he had been learning so quickly in the beginning, and the fact that he had been able to disable the ward he had cast on his door that he expected him to come along much faster.
Maybe I am just expecting too much this soon,
the wizard thought.
Rusty and Azerick went out the next day to the winter festival. Since Azerick had no money, Rusty bought them pastries and grilled sausages that they ate on a stick. They watched jugglers, acrobats, men walking above the crowd on stilts ten feet high throwing candies and sweets to the children below. Twice Azerick saved Rusty’s coin pouch from a couple of petty cutpurses. After the second attempt, Azerick convinced him to let him carry the coins.
As the day started turning into evening, the thousands of people crowding the streets started to flow like a river; a massive current of bodies pushing inexorably towards the docks where the fireworks were going to be lit and a few of the Academy wizards would be throwing up a few of their own visually impressive spells. The pressing flow of bodies forced the two young wizardry students along; helpless to go anywhere but where the human river guided them.
They were able to get a respite when a few bodies pressed them into a side street where they could catch a breather away from the tight confines of the populace. Their relief was short lived when Azerick finally noticed who had pressed them into the narrow side street.
“Look here, boys, looks like the street rat got himself a girlfriend,” Hugo taunted.
“Hey, Carrot, you didn’t tell us you had a sister,” Rolly added.
“Couldn’t be my sister, she’d whore herself out to beggars before she’d be seen with a street rat,” Carrot replied.
All three laughed at the insults.
“You owe us money, street rat, now pay up and we’ll only bust you up a little bit,” Hugo promised.
“I’m not working the streets anymore, Hugo; I don’t have to pay your guild's tax anymore.”
“You don’t get it do you? Once a street rat always a street rat. You’re on my streets right now and you will pay your tax. I seem to remember you owing me some silver from the last tax you didn’t pay, not to mention
bustin
’ Carrot's nose again. By rights I could take your ear just for that,” Hugo snarled as he produced a rust-marred but sharp-looking knife.