Aldric woke in his dark dorm with the nineteen other ravens. Each of them rubbed crust from their eyes and donned their dark robes. The sounds of wardrobes opening and scattered footsteps filled the room as Aldric sat up on the edge of his bed.
"What do you think he meant by kill?" Rhys asked. Rhys was a small boy skinnier than most of the others with dark black hair, blue eyes with dark sunken circles around them, and a long pointy nose.
"What do you think he meant bird brain?" Jasper asked sarcastically. Jasper was the tallest of the boys but the most timid. He had short brown hair in a left part above his eyebrows. His eyes were hazel but had a bright yellow burst in the light.
A few chuckles rang out from the other boys as they continued dressing for the day. Before anything else could be exchanged, the room shifted ninety degrees, alerting the boys that class started in fifteen minutes.
"He meant exactly what he said," Aldric said, finally standing to join the others in preparing for the day.
"B-but why?" Jasper asked, his face dropping and going paler than usual.
"They're bad. You heard the architect, they wish to harm us. So as a defense we will train to kill them first," Aldric explained, shrugging nanchelantly. The room was quiet now, and Aldric knew all eyes were on him.
Still facing away from the rest of the flock, he began.
"I trust the architect and his abilities to protect us. You all should too, we've seen what he can do. If we can do a fraction of that, isn't it worth it to try?" He asked, turning and facing the onlookers. Before anyone could speak, the room spun another ninety degrees, the large wooden door opened, and the raven's head screeched.
It was time for class. Outside the raven's enclosure, the scuffling of feet trotted in unison down the hall. The falcons were headings to their first lesson of the day. Then a softer wave of elegant steps rapidly patting down the opposite corridor.
When the ravens exited their chamber, descended the stairs, and filtered into the main hall it was vacant. Quiet and dark as if the sun was still set. They glanced around as if making sure truly nobody could see them and approached a wall opposite the large wooden door that kept them inside.
Aldric approached the wall and cleared his throat.
"Master Magus?" He spoke confidentially as if requesting an audience. In front of him two bricks split apart and opened like a door and a bronze eye poked out on a metallic hinged arm. The eye glanced to each of the boys then to Aldric before flying back into the wall. The bricks trembled tinkling slightly before rippling apart like a wave.
Behind the brick was a solid black door with silver accents. The door knocker was large and thick with three rings around it. Aldric reached out to the knocker and banged it loudly. The door creaked open and revealed a large room with twenty desks.
Each desk was fit with paper, raven feather quills, and inkwells. They were sat in a single-file half circle facing a chalk board with an assortment of text and runes. At the front of the class, stood an automaton lifeless and limp. It's bronze body looked almost corroded as each of the boys took their seats.
It was silent while the boys waited anxiously. Each of them focusing on the board and avoiding the gaze of one another. Then, the automaton sparked. A flash of red popped with a puff of smoke from the machines chest and its gears began to squeak and grind.
It's fingers twinged and extended individually and its head snapped straight. It gazed around rapidly, its glowing eyes blazing as it gathered its bearings. When it noticed the boys it calmed itself, and began tuning a type of frequency.
"Bwoo-wop-gooogogood morning gentlemen," it said, fine tuning its voice box. The boys looked on in fascination as the machine began scribbling across the black board.
Introduction to shadowmancy & translocation
The boys watched in fascination as the machines gears whirred and grinded making it move from left to right scribbling the daily instructions. After it had finished, it laid the chalk down and wheeled out to the center of the room.
"Who knows what shadowmancy is?" The machine asked, glancing at the boys. Nobody raised their hand, they all just stared blankly. The automaton waited for a moment longer and began again.
"Shadowmancy is control of the shadows. In other words mastering shadowmancy will teach you to be invisible, how to walk behind a pillar and appear behind a door," the boys gawked at him and jittered in their seats.
"Perhaps, a demonstration?" The machine suggested, raising its mechanical arm. Its finger glowed brightly as it began drawing on the air. A dull glowing rune was visible for a brief moment before bursting in a flash of light. Just as it faded the space in front of the machine rippled like crumpling paper.
The rippling expanded and consumed the machine before disappearing. When the ripple vanished so too did their robot teacher. They all looked around in amazement. Then, from thin air, the automaton appeared without a sound right next to Aldric.
The boy jumped and chuckled getting even more excited for his coursework. The machine wheeled its way back to the center of the room and resumed the lesson.
"Your objective today, familiarity with the vanishing rune," it said, again drawing the rune they had seen in the air moments prior. The rune looked like an uppercase I with a dot on the left side. It didn't seem particularly difficult to any of the young boys.
Though they felt the task seemed simple, they were excited nonetheless. Each boy dunked their quill and scribbled the rune on their papers. The automaton waited before explaining the symbol and its meaning.
"Runes are symbols that are crafted with meaning. This line, for example," it pointed to the center most line.
"Represents the caster, hense its centralized location," it finished. The boys scribbled their notes in unison before all glancing back toward the lecture.
"This line here," it pointed to the top horizontal line.
"Represents time as it stands in our current reality, as opposed to this line," it pointed at the bottom horizontal line.
"That represents space as it surrounds us," it finished. The boys scribbled more notes quickly and glanced back up at the machine, a few of them confused. Before the lecture could continue, a hand raised high into the air.
"Ahh, it seems we have a question," the automaton said, extending an approving hand to Jasper, who sat nervously.
"Um yes s-sir?" The boy began unknowingly. A few scattered laughs were quickly hushed as the robot began.
"You may address me as Umbra," the machine said, returning the focus to Jasper.
"Umbra, how do you know what the lines mean? And why do they mean what they mean?" The boy asked, fumbling his words slightly.
"The lines that make up the rune were designed to represent what they do while also scripting their actions. If a rune means nothing, it can do nothing. If a rune means the wrong thing, the wrong thing happens. We know what runes mean because we studied them and now, we teach them," the machine explained.
Jasper lowered his hand and scribbled something down in his messy smeared handwriting. Then, the classroom spun around ninety degrees, and the boys packed up their papers.
"Practice these runes tonight, and be sure to understand their meaning," the machine said as single sheets of paper floated to the boys' desks. The pages were filled with runes and their meanings for the boys to study.
With another quarter rotation of the room, the door unsealed itself and the boys were able to sneak into the main hall before the tumultuous roar of falcons bustled through.