Chương 138: Book 3 Chapter 16 - The Eshelan Magical Institute

After leaving the city offices in Lakeshire, Dustin rented a carriage to take the four of them to the Capital. As they left the heart of the city, the tall buildings and busy streets slowly gave way to sprawling suburban neighborhoods, and then eventually, to open farmland. Even so, there was no point in the journey where they truly entered any kind of wilderness.

Lakeshire was close enough to the Capital that the outskirts of the two cities overlapped, and with no marked boundaries of any kind, it was hard to tell when they officially crossed from Lakeshire into The Capital. Soon, the farmlands were fading into the distance behind them again as denser housing became more and more prevalent. The Capital itself loomed on the horizon, dwarfing even the enormous size of Lakeshire.

The time it took to get from the heart of Lakeshire to the suburbs of the Capital was the same amount of time it took to get from the suburbs to the Eshelan Magical Institute in the heart of The Capital. Kiara was dumbfounded at the scope of what she was seeing as they made their way through the city. She realized that The Capital housed literally millions of people, not to mention the ten massive ducal capital cities arranged around The Capital like the spokes on a wagon wheel.

The suburban neighborhoods gave way to the city proper miles before they reached the heart of the city. The infrastructure was as impressive as anything else Kiara had seen on the trip. The city had either been planned well in advance, or else had been retrofitted over time, because the main roads through the city were wide enough to allow two or three carriages side by side in either direction.

There were ten of those large roads, each connecting the heart of The Capital directly to one of the ten ducal capital cities. Other roads, large but not quite as large, connected to those ten main thoroughfares, allowing for easy travel to anywhere in the city. The only obstacle was the countless other wagons, carts, and carriages jostling for position on the roads.

Kiara was glad they'd hired a carriage with a driver, because navigating the city on their own would have been impossible, both due to its unfamiliarity, as well as the unique rhythm that prevailed amongst all the traffic on the roads. There seemed to be a shared understanding between all of the drivers about how things should flow, even as they yelled and cursed at each other good-naturedly.

The buildings on either side of the road slowly grew larger and larger, until constant streams of people could be seen entering and leaving each one. Kiara had no idea where everyone was going, or for what purpose, but there was an overarching order to the chaos of their movements, a murmuration of sorts. It was beautiful, in a way. The Capital was centered around the royal castle grounds, which stood atop the crest of a large hill and were surrounded by a large wall.

A steep cliff dominated one side of the top of the hill, the gentle slopes giving out suddenly into a sheer drop of maybe forty feet. The base of the cliff then rejoined the sloping hill, and city buildings were built right up to the base of the cliff. The streets of the Capital sloped gently upward toward the castle grounds, following the natural rise of the hill. Partway down the hill on the east side, a second, smaller peak was topped by a large building constructed of large, granite blocks.

The Eshelan Magical Institute. The institute had a large wall of its own surrounding its property, forming a small sanctuary in the heart of the city where students could live and learn without being constantly inundated by the sights and sounds of the city. Their carriage was stopped at the institute gates, and guards checked their paperwork, glancing at the duke's endorsement and introduction letters.

The carriage itself wasn't allowed on the institute campus, so they continued on foot after the guards waved them through. They were pointed to the main building on campus, near the gates, a large tower that stretched hundreds of feet into the air. As they entered the tower, Kiara was surprised by how large the interior was. From outside, the height of the tower made the girth seem narrow in comparison, but it was actually quite spacious once she stepped inside.

A staircase built into the wall wound its way up through the ceiling to the second floor. A few administrative offices were spaced around the edge of the circular-shaped entry room, and a large secretary desk stood in the center of the room. A few secretaries stood or sat inside the center of the circular shaped desk. One of them, an old man, greeted them with a kind smile as they approached. Kiara handed him the duke's introduction letter and letter of endorsement.

"Let's see here," he said automatically as he began reading the papers.

"Oh, that's… oh! Yes, I see. Very well, if you would follow me, then." He stood and led them to the staircase leading upward, and they began to ascend. The ceiling of the ground floor was lofty, probably twenty feet tall. The other floors were a bit more modest in height, with ten foot ceilings on average. They climbed up twenty stories to the top floor of the tower. Dustin, the only mortal in the group, had to pause a few times, and was breathing heavily by the end.

The walls of the tower gradually sloped inward as they ascended, and the top floor was much smaller than the ground floor had been. There was a small landing at the top of the stairs, but the rest of the floor lay behind a wall. The secretary helping them knocked gently on the door, and a young woman opened. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. He handed her the paperwork from the duke.

"These esteemed guests have a letter of recommendation from Duke and Duchess Esborne in Lakeshire, and are here to enroll a student in the institute. I believe Headmistress Elwen will want to meet with them." The young woman smiled, opening the door wider.

"Come in and take a seat! I'll let the headmistress know that you're here." They entered a small waiting room, which had a small desk for the young secretary that had let them in, and chairs lining the other three walls. Behind the desk was another door, almost as if the secretary's main job was to intercept interruptions for the headmistress. She slipped behind that second door, then returned a moment later and beckoned them to enter.

"Headmistress Elwen will see you now," she said with a smile. They entered the headmistress's office, which took up maybe two thirds of the entire floor. The headmistress's desk sat at the back of the room, against the rounded walls of the tower. The headmistress herself was a middle-aged woman, short and slightly portly with short brown hair that was beginning to show signs of gray. She stood as they entered.

"Please come in," she said, gesturing toward some chairs arranged in front of her desk.

"Which of you is Lady Yountal?" Kiara gave her a small wave.

"It's wonderful to meet you," she said, shaking Kiara's hand. She turned toward Ava.

"I take it you are Miss Ava Dunsun?" Ava nodded somewhat shyly.

"I am Headmistress Elara Elwen," she said, shaking Ava's hand as energetically as she had Kiara's.

"The duke's letter only mentioned the two of you by name, who are your acquaintances?" She turned toward Dustin and Zoey inquisitively. Kiara pointed to each of them.

"This is Dustin, my business partner. He manages all of House Yountal's holdings. And this is my friend Zoey, one of our house retainers." Elara only paused briefly at Kiara's unconventional laxness, but quickly adjusted and took it in stride.

"I see," she said with a recalibrating nod, then re-took her seat behind the desk. [Magical Sense 4] told Kiara that Elara was a tier 5. She was quite strong, but not to the level of Duke Esborne. Elara got settled, then said, "Well, Duke Esborne spoke very highly of your house in his introduction letter, and gave a personal endorsement of young Miss Ava here, something I don't often see from a ducal house, with the exception of their own posterity, of course. She cocked her head to the side as she studied Ava.

"Normally there would be an entrance exam, taken before a panel of institute professors, which is required even for someone with such a glowing endorsement. In this instance, since the semester began almost three weeks ago now, I will administer the exam personally. I realize this is likely unexpected. Are you prepared Miss Ava, or do you need a moment to gather your bearings? Ava smiled and nodded.

"Yes, Headmistress Elwen, I'm ready now."

"Good," Elara replied with a smile of her own.

"I can see that you have already reached tier 2, so let's skip the basics and jump straight into a demonstration of your current ability. This is meant to test your limits, so don't be alarmed if you can't complete some of the exercises. Let's start with something basic. Can you shape some of your raw mana into a ball and hold it in your hand?" Ava held out her hand, and a small shimmering ball of mana appeared, tinged slightly blue like the raw mana shields Kiara had seen employed so often.

"Very good," Elara said, making a note on a paper on her desk.

"Now, using that same ball of mana, change its form into as many different mana types as you are able. Don't use any additional mana from your core, and try to maintain the same size and shape that the ball is now, without letting any mana bleed off." Ava got a look of concentration on her face as the mana turned quickly into solid ice. Next, it melted into water, still maintaining the same spherical shape floating gently above Ava's hand.

The water disappeared into what Kiara assumed must have been a display of air mana, before starting to shimmer and warp. It burst into flames next, and the sphere shape wavered as Ava moved into elements she wasn't as familiar with. The fire was replaced by an orb of lightning, although the sparks were wimpy and barely visible. Next, it morphed into stone, but the surface of the sphere was no longer as smooth and flawless as the ice sphere, and even the water sphere to some extent, had been.

The stone turned into dirt, then wood, then slowly dissipated into a smoke-like substance, which earned a small gasp from Headmistress Elwen. Ava's face was sweating as the smoke coalesced and solidified, growing darker and darker. Kiara wasn't sure what it was, exactly, but Elara seemed very excited. The sphere wavered, then fell apart, and Ava let out a gasping breath she'd been holding the entire time. She wiped the sweat from her forehead.

"Very impressive at such a young age!" Elara praised her, earning a small smile from Ava.

"Most young scions can only manage three or four elements at most, at your age, and I've rarely seen any of them begin forming their mana into abstract ideas like darkness until at least tier 3, or after years of practice if they stagnate before reaching tier 3." She made more notes on the paper on her desk.

"Next, pull as much mana from your core as you can control at once, and maintain control of it for at least three seconds. Shape it however you would like." Ava nodded, and mana began pooling in front of her, once again in the shape of a sphere. The sphere quickly grew to the size of a large watermelon, then slowly grew a bit larger until Ava's arms began to shake from the exertion. Still she didn't stop, adding more mana to the construct until it was larger than her torso.

She held it like that for a few seconds, then let it disperse, causing a small shockwave to ripple throughout the room as it did. Elara nodded eagerly, a gleam in her eye.

"Your control is excellent, and your capacity is above average. Now, about the duke's endorsement…," she trailed off, picking the letter from the duke back up and reading through it again.

"It says here that you have an unusually high affinity for art magic. Would you care to demonstrate? Try to show me exactly what you showed Duke Esborne, if you can."