The rather tired mage, one less aged—in body, at least—and of a maroon sort of wizardry attire, made way with haste down this hallway, leading the two who followed behind. “Do you happen to be aware of your primary affinities in advance?” he rather bluntly asked, his speech as hasty as his pace.

  “Shadow magic” the denizen quite promptly replied, perhaps too promptly… “Duhm… And also…maybe…some affinity for…light and dark…” she more…awkwardly added.

  “Mhm.” the proctor mage barely acknowledged; “And you?” He did not even turn his head to eye.

  The foreigner…deliberated, slow to reply. “No…” she finally spoke; “I am…the foreigner, thus…”

  The proctor so sighed in an almost groan; “Fantastic…” he muttered.

  Nevertheless, he continued to lead way until finally halting before rather the fancy door… One that was locked and reinforced.

  Hm… Yet the foreigner stared as she stood in place… There was something strange about this door beyond its…evident reinforcingly locked state. A darkened bluish substance that ever-so faintly glimmered infested as if veins that stretched around the edges and especially the handle, bolts, latches, and locks, ultimately converging upon a circular shape at the center.

  Such visual indications aside, that which was deeply imbued within her nerves and being—‘awake’, ‘attentive’, and ‘active’—was exceptionally sensitive to these affairs, and thus it became instantly apparent to her that…this door was not merely ‘locked’, it was completely and utterly unopenable—sealed, or jammed really.

  The proctor, taking a deep breath in and out, placed his hand upon the door’s center and within that circular shape, ever-so faint wispy-dust flaking off. He closed his eyes, concentrating and focusing in absolute…as if priming something deeper than his mind and more distilled; his wrist began to slowly twist while still remaining firm, his other hand clenching besides a single pointing finger which waved as if a conducting stick… Before, his eyes flung open. “Audi. Ianua. Odex pateat.”

  ? …quid? ? The foreigner titled her head.

  Abruptly, the proctor’s eyes flashed with a radiant outline of white-blue around his irises; that circular shape at the door’s center lighted in kind, a glow out from which spread to all those veins, becoming brighter and brighter. The radiant outline around his irises only intensified as the exotic veins…not necessarily retracted…as much as decoupled and dissolved, goopifying as sparkly particles wisped off as if dust radiating away; some lost, some returning to their source.

  Soon enough, the door was freed from its exotic transient confinement; no veins nor heart, besides terrible scars left behind. The proctor let go and stepped back, his outlined eyes returning to normalcy though with a slight ‘burn’ left behind around his irises.

  ? Intere?ants… ? Huh… Interesting. The foreigner had to process what arcane display she had just observed, paying no mind to the fact she had understood his terribly accented words. Indeed… Just words; no complex ritual, no conduit, just a simple set of priming behaviors and paired cognitions… Or… Hmm… And how exactly… Hmm… And what exactly was that… Hmm…

  Truly, the simplicity of both the actions and the effects belied the complexities of processes underneath that which had unfolded; she could not help but fall into an abyss of analytical cogitations. The foreigner, after all, had not witnessed such a…denizen practice of the arcane in…far too many eons; lost to memory.

  “WOAH! What was that?” the denizen blurted out, interrupting the foreigner’s ponderances; “That wasn’t our magic.. Was that, was that…” She struggled to articulate, too caught with amaze.

  “Dugh…” Yet the proctor, mind now aching, was not nearly as thrilled as her; “A simple semi-alteration spell, nothing to be so eagerized from…” he thus said as he began to undo the many latches of that door.

  “So that was Far Western sorcery, wow…” The denizen seemed…genuinely fascinated; “Are you a sorcerer, perhaps?”

  “Beugh…” the proctor merely muttered… “No. Of course not. I am a mage who had dedicated twenty full years of his life attempting to independently discern the ways of Far Western sorcery and reconcile it with our own magic…” he spoke as if brooding aloud, finishing the door’s unlocking using rather the large key; “And all I ultimately picked up was…barriering doors already locked… Total waste of time…” He opened that door, stepping into the room beyond.

  “Well… You’d be surprised, extra magical security is always better than latches and stupidly big locks that are…not actually that difficult to break through…” the denizen thus casually replied, stepping in as well.

  The foreigner, however, was slow to follow along. Her mask-obscured ignited eyes remained focused on the door, analyzing and evaluating, attempting to unravel details and other such…pointless curiosities.

  “What are you lingering beyond for? Enter.” The proctor, holding the door open, was impatient; “Once this door is shut, you are either within this chamber or outside—nothing between.”

  The foreigner snapped out of it; “I give the sorry…” She quickly stepped in, to the sighing relief of the proctor who promptly shut the door behind. She approached and stood next to the denizen who was patiently waiting with a smile, before then…looking around.

  This room was rather straightforward and hollow, with nothing within besides a desk of primitive papers and feathered writing instruments and…a rather strange and exotic crystalized composite mass affixed to the ground at the room’s center… Large, somewhat transparent, translucent, and radiant… The shape was fairly rough and uneven, as if…chunks had been forcefully broken off; this crystal was evidently chiseled at throughout the course of its existence, seemingly.

  Nevertheless, the foreigner’s cyanic eyes brightened slightly, locking onto this crystal of evident arcane origins. Faintly carved with perfection upon its body…was that very sigil of the arcane. It blended with the crystal and was hard to visually discern, yet she nonetheless knew it was there, considering that very sigil’s presence beckoned the attention of something else deeply imbued within.

  The proctor went straight for this crystal, halting directly in front of it before flipping himself around and casting his eyes at those two who stood in place, “Now then, be silent and still so that I may explain the instructions of this assessment and in detail.” he thus straightly spoke; “Behind me is a mana stone of revelation, crafted by ancient crystalic elvish magic. When combined with the effects of my assessment spell, it will be able to reveal all magical affinities carried by your blood.” the proctor’s voice thus began to explain.

  The foreigner, however, remained rather…distracted; that exotic crystal beckoned to her far more than the proctor’s words.

  Hmm… ‘Ancient’, he just said? Interesting… If this was forged by ‘magic’, then how was this crystal still existing? Ancientness implied that the crafters were long gone; thus, if the sources were long dead, then…this so-called ‘mana’ crystal should have long decayed and withered by now… Unless it was paired with another source, or maybe the arcane process of forging simply dissociated and detached the… Hm… Or maybe it was pseudo-arcane, thus suggesting… However, how? These denizens did not seem to have the… Hm…

  “Obviously,” the proctor’s voice nevertheless continued forth, “the Collegium follows the traditional schools of magic. However, we now also recognize a select number of atraditional schools, particularly shock and sonic. Likewise, the Collegium also recognizes and accepts predominate affinities for the following formalized Far Western schools: abjuration, alteration, conjuration, destruction, evocation, restoration, and illusion, provided that at least a minimal affinity for a traditional school is also present.”

  The denizen paid attention, though her eyes found themselves glancing at the foreigner who stood next and close, musing away.

  “In all, you must demonstrate an acceptable-to-our-standards affinity for a Collegium recognized school of magic in order to proceed. Those who fail may depart immediately; those who pass are to remain here so that I may detail your documents and provide my stamp, after which you are to proceed to the spellcard utilization assessment.” he finally finished. “Any questions?”

  The denizen gently shook her head in no. The foreigner, on the other hand…

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  “Miss…” The proctor glared at she who was clearly inattentive, her hand having been instinctually stroking her chin… “Is your attention provided?”

  “…huh?” the foreigner finally provided her direct attention, looking at him… “Oh, yes. I was, I give the sorry… Uhm…” She began to think… “I do have question… What are these ‘traditional schools’ of the magics? You…spoke of these Far Western ‘schools’, but did not specify the traditionals…” She had, at least, semi-attended enough to process that information.

  The proctor gave her two kinds of glares; one seemingly annoyed that she had actually asked him a question, and one seemingly rather…plainly blank… “…you do not even know what the traditional schools of our lands—of this very institution—are, alien?” His voice was dumbfounded.

  “…no…” The foreigner averted away, perhaps…maybe embarrassed.

  The proctor stared even more blankly, before unleashing the grandest of sighing groans, his hand clenching his forehead. “This is a test, not a lecture! If you know nothing of even the most commonest fundamentals, then you may simply consider yourself already fail—”

  “Ahem!” Abruptly, the denizen so gently interceded herself; “Allow me: the five traditional arch-schools of magic are a set of thematically similar schools which form a ‘dichotomous’ or ‘dualistic’ triad, so two schools that seem in opposition but always have one school of ‘convergence’ in the middle…” she thus began to sweetly explained, as if she herself were now a textbook; “These being the schools of: fire, vapor, and ice; wind, water, and earth; light, shadow, and dark; life, spirit, and death; and pure, wild, and anti-magic”.

  The foreigner…had perhaps been caught by some surprise by the denizen’s sudden information splurge… Indeed, she stared somewhat blankly, processing all of that.

  “Hugh…” the proctor’s breaths thus expunged, pinching his forehead; “Finely. You seem learned enough. You may play professor, girl, and might as well give the alien an entire lesson.” he somewhat scoffed, stepping aside; “I must recover myself anyway… The proceeding assessments and repeatedly sealing and unsealing that door have left me mana-fatigued… But keep in heart, it is your time you are consuming.” The proctor leaned against the wall, resting his eyes, mind, and essence.

  The denizen smiled from this implicit approval, gazing at the foreigner with rather the friendly lean; “You…enlightened me a little with your ways, so I ought to enlighten you with ours! I do not know everything…at all, but I know some stuff… So, ask me anything…” She seemed a little…blushy.

  The foreigner sighed… Frankly, knowing the designated names of those so-called ‘schools’ of magic were more than enough for her… However, it was clear that the proctor was utilizing this moment to disengage in order to respite himself and that the denizen herself was…rather eager to explain and be useful. Thus, she might as well play along with the moment and gather information…since, indeed, she was perhaps…admittedly with some curiosity.

  “Hmm… Well, then, since you have offered…” The foreigner thus smiled; “Uhm, these ‘sets’ of these ‘thematic schools’… Might you elaborate on… Ehm… What do they do? Their uses, purposes, and the…uhm…functions?” Such could inform her tactical decision-making in the event she were ever engaged against them.

  The denizen smiled even warmer; “Yes, certainly, of course!” She was gleeful; “So… Uhm… Uhm… Uhm…” Yet…voice pausing, she abruptly became more…nervously embarrassed; it was evident she was struggling to organize her thoughts.

  “You spoke with the list of the schools; so, just follow down with that list…” the foreigner, having noticed, simply suggested.

  “Ahem—rightly!” The denizen restructured her mind; “Sorry about that—ahem—So, starting with the schools of fire, vapor, and ice… These schools do a lot of things, but fundamentally they are all about…temperature; fire is the element of, well, fire and is about heat and burning; ice magic is the element of ice and is about cold and freezing…”

  Ah. Of course. Blunt altering of energy states and levels as well as general thermodynamic manipulations—an almost ubiquitous primeval practice of systemized ‘magic’. Fire increased, ice decreased… However, wait… “So, then, fire and ice is the…opposing things in this ‘dual’ ‘triad’ thing, but… What about the ‘vapor’? What does this vapor school do?” Indeed, vapor was a product of heat… How could it be the so-called ‘convergence’?

  “Oh, well, vapor is about…” The denizen’s voice stunted… “All about… Duhm…” She became stuck… “The element of steam and…achieving…equilibrium and harmonizing…? I think…”

  “I see…” The foreigner frankly still could not see it. “Well, interesting… But, so then, what about the ‘wind’ and other magics?” She prompted the denizen to move on.

  The denizen ahemed; “Rightly, so… Wind, water, and earth, these schools are more about…playing with the fundamental natural elements of the world around: wind plays with air, water plays with…well, water—or anything wet—and, earth plays with, well, the ground…”

  Ah. Thus, direct environment and material manipulation, then? Such was sensible, the foreigner supposed… “I see… And what of the dual ‘triad’ thing of these?”

  “Oh! So…” The denizen needed to think… “See, the traditional schools’ dichotomies… They can either be something intuitive, like with…fire and ice, but they can also be…”

  “Abstract…” the foreigner more muttered than spoke; she already regretted much, indeed…

  “Yeah! Abstract!” The denizen smiled, aheming; “So, the dichotomy between wind and earth is with their opposing natures: wind is free and mobile, always taking the shape of spaces filled, whereas earth is solid and rigid, always retaining shape no matter what. Water, however, is both solid and free, rigid yet mobile, taking the shape of spaces filled but also retaining its own; so, it has the natures of both…”

  Huh… “Interesting…” The foreigner had to admit…that was more interesting than she presumed it would be. It was abstract, yes, but less imagined nonsense and more…a genuine interpretation of the fundamental states of matter, seemingly. “I see. Well, you can assume that the questions of me will repeat with the list. Thus, fastly, explain the remainders this way that you are doing.”

  “Oh, certainly then!” The denizen thus promptly continued on; “Ahem: So, moving along… Light, dark, and shadow… Light magic is about revelation and making light; dark magic is about concealment and, well, capturing light and making darkness. But both can also be fairly destructive, from what I’ve heard…”

  Ah. Photonic energy manipulation, then? The potential utility for that could be quite profound if it extended to general electromagnetic radiation… Regardless, the so-called ‘dichotomy’ between these two was self-evident… Although, once again… “So, the light magic and the dark magic are the ‘opposing’ schools, but…this ‘shadow magic’ is the convergence, then? How…? Is the shadows not just…the darkness?”

  “No, shadow is not just darkness…” The denizen was rather quick to respond, though she quickly slowed herself down, needing to pick her words… “So… You have to…look at this way… Light and dark, they eliminate each other; they cannot exist together at all… But shadow, meanwhile, is darkness that exists within light’s presence and can only exist in light’s presence… Without light, there are no shadows; without darkness, there can be no shadows…” she thus explained, with more investment than the priors, frankly… “Shadow cannot exist in pure darkness, so it is not true darkness… It can be seen as an illusion of darkness cast by light…”

  “I see…” the foreigner just acknowledged, having become rather…lost by the increasingly abstract nature of this.

  “So, kind of weirdly, shadow magic is not about light’s revelation or dark’s concealment, but deception, distorting the sense of how light is seen, or creating darkness where there is none—playing with the senses…” This, however, caught the foreigner’s attention.

  “I see.” Ah… So, compromising sensory and information processing, then? Such was an affair she was all too familiar with, and in all the not-so-pleasantest of ways… Indeed, she was naturally guarded by this. “Interesting… And, so, the life magic and the death?” she nevertheless opted to move on.

  The denizen shook her head a little, snapping out of her focus; “Ahem—rightly, so… Life, spirit, and death… Life magic is about growth, healing, and experience—enhancing creation and inducing life… Death magic is…about rot, decay, and numbness—inducing death or morphing life…”

  Ah. Interesting… The foreigner could already ascertain… Life magic likely appertained to augmenting natural healing mechanisms, triggering cellular regrowth, as well as perhaps even direct repair—amongst other potentials. Whereas death magic, being the opposite, likely induced cell-death; inhibited growth, repair, and maybe immune functions… ‘Numbness’ and ‘morphing’ too implied…potentially causing genetic mutations as well as inducing paralysis—or anesthetization…

  Hm. Both seemed equally practical.

  “Spirit magic, meanwhile,” the denizen continued, “is… Well, spirits are the bridge between life and death—animacy and inanimacy. They are both alive yet unalive. So, spirit magic is all about… Tuhm…” She paused, needing to… “It’s a complicated school, but…it is largely about utilizing spirits and calling upon familiars from the after-death…”

  “Uhuh…” Frankly, as with shadow magic, the foreigner did not like sound of that… To play around with such things as ‘spirits’—ghosts, echoes, and phantoms… However, calling upon ‘familiars’… Interesting word, for it implied the possibility of merely being…puppet apparitions that the denizens believed were ‘spirits’, in which case…that would alleviate her concerns. “I see… And, so, what of the ‘pure’ and—”

  “Pure magic is harnessing the pure properties of magic and the direct flow of mana, enhancing spells, magecraft, and creating barriers or wards.” the proctor, stepping away from that wall, so interjected; “Anti-magic is inhibiting magical function and disrupting the flow of mana.” He once again stood before that crystal; “And wild magic is magic raw, undistilled, and disorganized, bounded to chance and conditions…”

  The foreigner was about to raise a finger and open her mouth, yet…

  “And before you bother inquiring: if pure magic is order and anti-magic is anti-order, then wild magic would be chaos and absurdity—that is their triadic relationship.” the proctor preemptively answered, standing stern; “Now, may we please move on already, now that you are enlightened by the fundamentals of our lands, alien.”

  “I…” the foreigner had…taken too much time, she recognized, although the benefits of the information gained certainly made it worthwhile. “I give the sorry” she apologized, nevertheless.

  “No need, you will make up for it by being quick; I just know it…” the proctor, however, replied… His voice presumed her failure, seemingly. Nevertheless, his finger lanced its point to the denizen; “You, girl. You will go first out of recognition of your contributions…”

  “Oh… Uhm… Alrightly!” The denizen…seemed both eager yet also fairly…nervous. Nevertheless, she promptly began to step towards the crystal, slowly and with…degrees of uncertainty.