Donner and Thalia: The Anastasia Academy (Episode 5)

Chapter Seven

7.

Donner had told Lenny of the great food he enjoyed in his time Squire training at Woodsford Castle. As he looked at the daily smorgasbord presented by Academy, he felt he finally had something he could upstage Donner's bragging with, for once. Fat chicken legs, ham, slices of beef, crispy and chewy bacon, the finest drinks of fruit juice, and pure milk. There was no ginger beer, though, the one disappointment in the offerings of the Academy kitchen. Lenny filled his plate as he eyed the daily dessert bar of yellow and chocolate blended cakes for after his lunch. How could the Academy afford this? He heard that the Academy, being so in line with the government of the Island, had taken an entitlement from the Kingdom's coffers every quarter, a subsidy for the service of providing the Island with the most skilled and learned Wizards they could ask for.

He made his way through the great mess hall and took the first open seat around other students he could find. "Pleased to meet you all, Taylor?" he asked, recognizing a classmate.

A wizard with a blond crew cut looked up, "Yeah, Leonard, right, I'm eating better here than I have in my entire life. Who knew that the Academy would take such good care of us?"

Lenny took a bite of ham and chewed it, finishing and saying, "You're in my Introduction to Illusion class, right?"

"Yeah, with Professor Dimmer, you took to the levitation spell like it was second nature, do you have the knack for Illusion? They say it's rare for Wizards to have that." Taylor said.

"I don't have any latent talent for it, I just have a friend who is incredibly skilled in it, I took some lessons from her before I left," he said, remembering all those study sessions he had with Thalia before he left for the Academy. "Illusion is, suffice to say, a challenging school, like restoration, that half of magic doesn't come from the left behind remnants of the Elves, it's human-made magic and can't simply be translated into a magic word. You have to feel it, and there are no ingredients to help you. It's all instinct. However, unlike restoration that's delivered to us by a particular god, Illusion takes skill and a great deal of focus. I'm a little jealous of her, so good at a school with such little study. Illusion being a human school makes it sound like we humans have a talent for trickery, maybe that's how we beat them, the Elves," Lenny said, remembering his first class in History of Magic.

Magic is divided into two sides, human magic of Restoration and Illusion, and elf magic of Arcane and Enchantment, alchemy being a middle road between the two that boiled down to more of a pure science than skill or practice. And of course, that secret sixth school of Divination, its own beast of concentration and techniques Lenny couldn't hope to learn here, as it had been outlawed for a good reason.

Another Wizard joined them, long auburn hair tied behind his head, "Hello fellow Wizards, Abernath Locrioun, from Galiean," He held his hand out for Lenny and Taylor to shake. "You say you two are in the Illusion class, why bother learning the Illusion school, a waste of time. You have to be born with it, and at the end of the day, they're just party tricks, glad I was able to qualify out of it by choosing to focus on Arcane and Enchantment. Also, with a very forceful letter from my Father recommending that a Wizard of my standing should only study the true arts of magic," Abernath said. "I come from a long line of proud wizards, my father serves the Commander of Galiean, it's a position I hope to hold one day. First Wizard of Galiean, that's one of the best positions a Wizard can be in, not some town or for some small lord who owns some land, an entire province. That's what I'm after," he said, holding up his fork before stabbing it into a chunk of duck meat.

Taylor spoke up, "I'd be happy in the service of any Lord, there are lots of towns springing up as Kinleath's economy grows, lots of new opportunities for Wizards, the economy is looking exceptionally good for us. If you can get a job serving a town, all you need will be taken care of. That's my goal, find some new town that can carve out an economic niche, maybe a good patch of farmland, or a nice mine, and I like the idea of helping build a town from the ground up. Every town needs a Wizard, that's what my teacher, Wizard Golgar of Leobruck, always says."