TBATE - Strings of Fate

9 - Starting School

Quick note to avoid confusion: The school year depicted in this chapter is the year before Arthur would start attending Xyrus academy in the original story.

--TESSIA--

A week passed after my trip to Xyrus city. I trained according to Gran's curriculum every day, and I'd already improved a lot. The list of spells I could use was constantly increasing as I kept trying new ideas.

However, on one day, I had to take a break from training. I was stuck inside, planning speeches, policies, and schedules. Why, you ask?

Tomorrow was the first day of school!

Of course, there was no real reason for me to be excited about school. I wasn't even attending the school, just staying on campus, and getting tutored by Gran. I didn't know why I was allowed to be the student president. her school, her rules, I guess.

Because of Gran's devious plans, I had to prepare a welcome speech as the president. On top of this, I had to create policies that would make it safer to include elves in Xyrus Academy.

This year, only a few elves would be on campus. These elves were all nobility and were trusted to keep the tension between themselves and the humans to an absolute minimum.

Ailred Ellar was a conjurer. He specialized in water and had a light red core. He was one year younger than me, at 12 years of age.

Elion Fenkian was a conjurer as well. He specialized in earth and had a red core.

Amara Virzana was an augmenter. She had a light red core and specialized in wind.

Ailred and Amara were both the same age as me, 13.

There were only four elves total sent to Xyrus for the first year, but many more would come next year. Our job was to be a trial run for having elves at the academy, and to try to build a good relationship with humans before the main batch of elves came in.

I had met them all years ago back in Elenoir, but I met with them again yesterday to discuss strategies, fears, and gossip.

Today, however, I was supposed to be meeting with the rest of the student council. Then, we would run the policies we agreed on, alongside our respective speeches, by Gran. Only then, would I finally be free. I sighed.

"So much work. I can't believe I let that demon rope me into this." My eyes widened as I realized I said that out loud and I looked around. Thankfully, she and Avier were nowhere to be seen. I had made this mistake a couple times already, and she had caught me every time except this.

Once it was time to meet with the rest of the council, I stepped out of my room into the common room of the student council building. One other person was there.

A tall, stern-looking guy approached me. "Greetings. My name is Clive Graves, the vice president. You must be Tessia Eralith. A pleasure to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Clive. Like you said, I'm Tessia Eralith, the President." We shook hands after this, and then separated, continuing to wait for the rest of the council to arrive.

Once everyone arrived, we introduced ourselves and discussed our goals for policy changes for this year. Clive started.

"Over the years, there has been a serious problem with the graduating mages from this academy. The quality of the mages who are graduating is... lower than expected. I suggest we raise the difficulty of classes by making their exams more rigorous."

The others nodded in agreement, while I thought for a second. "Perhaps, we can also attack this problem from another angle as well. I know there's an issue with bullying and related incidents that could be bringing the student's attention away from their studies.