The Rossem Project

The University - Part 3

     "Ah yes," said the enrolment secretary as she came to the correct entry in the huge, leatherbound book she'd taken down from the shelf behind her. "Thomas Gown, graduated twenty ninety eight." She turned a few pages. "And Lirenna Daliris, graduated the same year. So you got married, did you? Congratulations!"

     "Thanks," said Thomas with a grin.

     "And this is Derrin, your son," said the wizened old woman, peering myopically over the edge of her desk at the young man. "Why, he's lovely! Most of our new recruits are a little older, though. Are you sure he's up to it?"

     “He's sixteen,” said Thomas as they all looked down at the young boy. “He's small because of his shayen blood. Besides, we'll be staying here. We'll be able to keep an eye on him."

     "Oh good," said the secretary, smiling toothlessly. "We're a bit short staffed at the moment. The whole world's crying out for wizards to help repair the war damage and put things back together, and everyone wants to go and be a hero. I assume you'll be taking work here?"

     They glanced at each other and nodded.

     "Oh good." She laughed; a cackling laugh like a barnyard of chickens. "You'll have every wizard in Lexandria trying to draft you into their own departments. You'll be lucky to get any rest at all!"

     Thomas and Lirenna glanced at each other again and grinned nervously.

     "Right then," said the secretary. "Back to the young man. We can start him in the introductory class right away, along with the other new arrivals. Just a mundane education, of course. Natural history, mathematics, history, astronomy, that sort of thing. He won't learn anything to do with magic until he begins his apprenticeship, which won't be until the matrons are satisfied that his body's ready for it."

     "We'd like him to take the testing chair right away, if we could," said Lirenna. "Would that be all right?"

     "Well, it's a little unusual for someone so young, but I suppose he only has to do it once. Gradin Dox is in charge of the chair, he'll take care of that."

     "We can be with him during the test?" asked Lirenna nervously.

     "Of course," replied the secretary with a reassuring smile. "That's no problem at all." She opened another book, smaller and much less important looking than the first, and wrote a few words at the bottom of a page. "Sign here please," she said, turning the book around and offering them the pen.

     Thomas took a moment to examine the pen, which looked as though it had been cut from some kind of goose feather but which had delicate traceries of gold spiralling along its length, each one as perfect and precisely placed as if drawn by a master draughtsman. That was absurd, of course, as quill pens wore out very quickly and it would be foolish to waste that kind of decorative effort on something that could not be expected to last the day. Unless...

     He scanned his eyes across the secretary's desk, looking for a container of some kind containing a couple of dozen new feathers. New quills waiting for the moment when the current pen broke and a new one had to be cut. There was no such store to be found, though, which meant that, unless she had a few hidden away out of sight, she expected this one to last a long time. He tried to bend it between his fingers and found it to be as hard as iron.

     Magically strengthened, he thought in amusement. Where else but in Lexandria University would anyone bother to cast a strength spell on a pen? The secretary's desk also lacked an inkwell, which suggested another interesting possibility. He put the pen to the book, and ink flowed freely from the nib as he signed his name. "Clever," he said admiringly as he raised the pen to his eyes again.