New arrivals

Mary did her best to slow down after the dinner party. Her parents and Tariana had been right. She was trying to do everything at once and had been simply trying to do too much at the time.

Even when she put aside her extra activities, she had a lot to do. Sooner than she thought it would, it was time to start a new round of evaluation. Mary, Hinat and Firlea had all signed up to help.

Mary recognised some people from when she did her evaluation. It was nice to see that people didn’t give up because they had failed once. Seeing the procedure form the other side was exciting. It was mostly first- and second-year trainees that helped. Third years had their final examination. The week after the evaluation ended, they were in full study mode.

The final exam was just what it sounded like. It was a series of tests to determine if you were ready to become an aari. If you were, you were presented with the white clothes. If not, then you were sent out into the world to try something else.

Everyone knew about the rows of exams that led up to the final one. But no one talked about the final exam. The only ones who knew what it entailed were the ones that had taken it, and they didn’t talk about it.

During both the evaluation and the third-year exams, the aari that taught were busy. That meant that the first- and second-year trainees were left to their own studies. If you weren’t helping with the evaluation.

After the evaluation was done, there was a two-week period where the exams took place. Mary found that that time was almost like a break for her. She was supposed to finish up her studies, but since she had read on so far ahead, she was done.

Instead, she spent her time with Procecsa. They were proofreading their final report of their experiments. Their findings were exciting. They had found that the celestial phases had far less impact on magic than it had been believed. The only magic that was affected was herbal magic. Herbs and plants that were sown or harvested during the full moon were far more potent both in medicine and magic than those sown and harvested in other parts of the lunar cycle.

Fertility magic seemed to respond to the summer solstice. But other than that, no other magic showed any signs of being affected.

As the study was published, it was the talk of the sanctum. For generations, people had adapted their magic to fall on certain days. There were several other studies declared for the following year that wanted to look at the different types of magic.

“There we go Mary, our study will be hard to surpass,” Procecsa said, sounding proud.

“It is your study Sesca, I just assisted you,” Mary said as she helped her mentor to clean her office.

It was something only done once per year, and it showed. Mary was sorting through old pieces of scrap paper, throwing most of them away.

“Nonsense. You helped me endlessly. The research you did alone saved me many hours, if not weeks,” Procecsa insisted.

“It was fun,” Mary said.

“It’s time we talked about next year,” Procecsa said.

“You mean what study you will do?” Mary asked.

“No, well, yes, that too. But first, we need to talk about if you want to change mentor. You have control over all five of your elements. I only control three. I understand if you want to switch to get a mentor, that can compensate,” she told Mary.

Mary stopped cleaning and looked at her.

“I don’t want another mentor. As my mentor, I enjoy having you. You have guided me this far, and I feel you understand me. I have private lessons with teachers regarding all my elements. I need a mentor that is patient with all my questions and the fact that I’m still new to Salmis and magic and the aari,” Mary told her honestly.

There was a minute of silence.

“Then I guess we need to find a study that takes us into the field. I rarely do that much pure field work. But in your second year, you are supposed to start field training,” Procecsa said.

“I may have an idea. I don’t know if it’s any good though,” Mary admitted nervously.

“We won’t know if you don’t tell me,” Procecsa told her.

“I got the idea the other week when we discussed the migratory patterns of different animals and how it is affected by the seasons, the sun and the moon,” Mary started, and her mentor nodded.

“Well, I was thinking, can man-made events cause a shift in the migratory pattern?” Merry then said.

“Interesting. Do you have an event in mind?” her mentor asked.

“I do. Take the sickness in Domne, for example. Or locations of war,” Mary said.

“I didn’t think that the sickness affected people outside of the capital?” Procecsa asked.

“It doesn’t, as far as I know. But it will still have an effect indirectly. Fewer farmers going into the city to sell their goods would mean more food in the barns and on the fields. But it will also mean that more people stay closer to home and can have an increased pressure on the local fauna as haunting and so on,” Mary explained.

“I like the idea. We need to spend some time refining it, but it would offer us both practical and theoretical study opportunities,” Procecsa nodded approvingly.

The following weeks, they worked on the idea and found several interesting angles to it. Mary was pleased that she could contribute.

When the new trainees arrived in the sanctum, Mary and her friends remembered how nice everyone had been when they were new. They tried to do the same and helped the newcomers out when they got lost, or made sure they had someone to sit with at mealtimes.

It was during an evening meal that Mary and her two friends were sitting and eating with two of the new trainees.

“Kornen is walking this way,” one newcomer suddenly whispered.

“Oh, he’s so handsome, and he has control over four of the elements,” the other one giggled, looking over Mary’s shoulder at the person approaching.

“Hi,” Mary heard, and she turned around. Infront of her stood a man about her own age.

Objectively speaking, Mary could agree he was handsome with his blond hair and blue eyes that seemed to sparkle.

“Hi,” Mary said as he was looking at her.

“I’m Kornen. I’m a first-year trainee,” he introduced himself.

“Welcome Kornen, I’m Mary,” she said.

“What an unusual name. It’s beautiful,” he smiled at her.

“Thank you,” she said, feeling a little uneasy.

“I wanted to ask you, Mary, if you would like to show me around town on Saturday?” he asked.

“Me?” Mary asked.

“Yes, why do you sound so surprised? Men must ask you out all the time,” he smiled.

“No, this is actually the first time in over a year,” Mary confessed. She heard Firlea and Hinat giggle next to her and looked at them.

“That can’t be correct. You are beautiful, just like your name. The men around here can’t be that blind,” he said, sounding surprised.

Mary was definitely getting uncomfortable.

“The men around here are afraid to ask her out,” Hinat told him.

“Afraid?” he asked and looked at Mary.

“Her father is sir Teeran,” Firlea continued where her friend left off.

“Oh, the Lady’s bodyguard?” Kornen asked.

“That’s the one,” Hinat and Firlea both nodded. Mary had to smile at her friends.

Mary didn’t condone her father’s overprotectiveness, well, most of the time, but like this, she could admit that it was a comfortable shield to have.

“I see. Well, I can’t let that deter me. What do you say, Mary? Do you want to show me the town?” he asked with a brilliant smile.

“It was nice of you to ask me,” Mary started.

“And brave,” Hinat interrupted. Mary gave her an irritated look.

“It was nice of you, but I’m busy on Saturday. I have a riding lesson and then I’m eating dinner with parents,” Mary said.

“Oh, well, we will just have to find another time to go out on the time together,” Kornen said with confidence.

“I hope you have a pleasant meal. I will see you around,” he then said and walked away with a wave of his hand.

“Wow,” Hinat said.

“Wow, indeed,” Firlea smiled.

“What?” Mary asked, feeling that she was blushing.

“Are you going to take him up on his offer?” Hinat asked.

“What offer? I just said I didn’t have time,” Mary said.

“But he left a more or less open invitation for you,” Firlea said.

“You know well that I don’t have time for things like that,” Mary said.

“But you could make time. Few men are willing to risk your father’s wrath,” Firlea laughed.

“Just think about it,” Hinat agreed.

“Fine, I’ll think about it,” Mary said to get her two friends to back off.