The sky was blue, and the birds sang in unison to encourage the students to do their best on the written exams, which were one of the most important parts of the test.
The students all moved towards the large building reserved for them.
The massive studded oak door, topped by a stone archivolte carved with ancient runes, opened into a vast, vaulted antechamber. The gray stone walls, streaked with dark wood ribs, rose towards high windows with stained glass dulled by morning condensation.
A dense crowd of young people, dressed in tunics, simple shirts, and cloaks of earthy colors, pressed forward in relative silence. Their faces were tense; some murmured last-minute revisions, others stared at the floor with nervous concentration. The air was cool and damp, laden with the smell of wet stone, beeswax from the torches, and parchment.
Here and there, proctors in austere robes, with a metal plate on their arms, stood motionless like sentinels. With a sharp gesture or a brief word, they channeled the flow of candidates towards the tables aligned in the examination hall, whose immensity was barely glimpsed from the threshold. The clatter of sandals on the flagstones, the rustling of papers, and stifled whispers created a dull rumble, pierced by the palpable anxiety of the stakes.
Amidst all this tumult, one person was completely out of it. He was a rather tall young man with longish white hair and light brown skin. His clothes were very simple compared to what the students around him wore just a modest black fabric top, fairly wide gray pants, and simple shoes. This young man was Kael! Kael Grimshield.
He had every right to be out of it because it was not at all planned for him to be in one of the most prestigious examination centers in his country.
"Why??! What am I doing here?!"
Let's rewind a bit earlier, during the application submission. It was customary to submit your application file to the Mages' Office, which, depending on your rank, status, or spell, would send you to an examination center affiliated with the institution where you would study if successful.
This was clearly a matter of status placement. And Kael was fully aware of it. All he wanted was to get into a countryside magic school to take it easy and become a simple desk mage.
Argh!! It didn't go as planned! A few days after submitting his application, he was informed that he would take the entrance exam at Harvdley, one of the most prestigious schools in the country, where only the brightest minds or at least the children of the most important people in the country were found.
It wasn't a sure thing.
Because not only would the exams be abnormally more difficult than usual, but also because he hadn't studied even though he had the time, that lazy bum.
The worst part of this story was that he couldn't run away because an unjustified absence from the exam would prohibit any further participation for the next 5 years.
So he had to give it his all now, even if it was futile and illusory.
"Better to try than to do nothing, right?"
Faced with his murmurs, the other candidates beside him looked at him with contempt and talked behind his back. It was already not looking good, but if he also had to endure mockery about his status, maybe he should just turn back, huh.
"I curse fate," he said, raising his arm to encourage himself but not even managing to convince himself.
He simply moved forward towards the building, ready to face the exams of this school for geniuses and the rich.
The day hadn't even started yet, and he already knew it was going to be the worst day of his life.