Honor of Euroka

Chapter 5 - Explanations

She cleared her throat again, causing a rippling wave of echoes to bounce off the beautiful brown bricks. She looked at what was presumably a script placed on what looked like a music stand. Honor briefly thought it would be funny if the staff members burst out singing the rules and requirements while she conducted them. He barely held in a snort.

For whatever odd reason, she cleared her throat again. Maybe she was testing the frequency of the echoes. She then proceeded to shuffle her choir papers. Once she had gotten to where she wanted, she cleared her throat. Again!

She picked up a staff and centered it at the wall, where a projection... projected. It showed small pictures of each student, then categorized them into the teams they had chosen. If they had a complete team, their line was highlighted in green. Honor was relieved to see he didn't have the only completed team. That would have been stupendously humiliating.

"As you can see, over three-quarters of you haven't made a completed team. I'm going to shuffle it, so you may end up with people you don't like or know. If this occurs, let me know. I'm not going to force you to join a team if you hate one of the members." She pulled out cards and proceeded to play with them magically.

Now, if you've ever seen a magic trick, ignore it. It may look cool, but really, it's just bogus. Now, if you see a senior witch perform a magic trick, you'd better believe it was real magic. Her cards fell inside of each other, richocheted, and did several flips. Finally, she snatched them out of the air in a perfect arc and put them into groups.

She then called out names, and the projection behind her categorized them. After what seemed like she spouted out the whole dictionary, she finished saying the students' names. She didn't appear to notice the shocked looks of the people watching her.

"Once my presentation here is over, you will proceed to the courtyard and meet your mentors immediately. For now, however, I will explain exactly what it is you signed up for." Honor wasn't sure if he was counted in that 'you', but there wasn't anything he could do about it.

"Basically, we play the support role. While those stinky and noisy knights bash away at the enemies and make a bloody mess of everything, we peacefully kill them. They lie down and stay down. Capeesh?"

If she was expecting a response, she wouldn't get one. Nobody there knew what that meant. She wasn't entirely sure she knew what it meant, either. She had simply heard it from one of her senior officers. She cleared her throat. "Capeesh?" She tried again.

Someone randomly shouted out, "caposh!" She couldn't locate the voice but decided that she rather liked the response. "Yes, precisely." She said, pretending like they weren't saying gibberish.

"Anyway, in case you didn't know, we witches perform magic! There are different types, though. There are potions, rituals, spells, and internal/external magic. During your apprenticeship, you'll learn each different type and choose one that you'll specialize in. The school is split into four different sections based on this. For example, if one day you have classes in potions, you'll be in that specific portion of the school. Capeesh?"

There were a few hesitant "caposh"es, and she sighed. Then again, it made sense. If someone went up to you and said some gibberish like "yo," you wouldn't know how to respond. After all, 'yo' wasn't a word.

"While the knights fight normal beings, we fight magical beings. If a dragon attacks, it's up to us to save the day! Yippee!" She said.

Everyone was now thoroughly convinced she was out of her mind. She was making gibberish on the spot. After all,'yippee' wasn't even a word.

"Anyway, the schedule isn't set in a precise order. School will always end at the same time, but you may spend varying amounts of work on certain classes. For example, say you had a test. You can't leave that classroom until you finish or until the bell rings. Or if you need water or the bathroom, or whatever. Food will be brought to you." She said.

"This is to make sure you understand stuff more and receive no homework. We aren't here to punish you, at least for the most part. Also, you will stretch yourselves periodically to avoid cramping up and to give your brains a nice little nap.

"When you finish with school, you'll make your way to the dorms, which will consist of you, your fellow apprentices, and your mentor. From then, your mentor will proceed to teach you with the more... complex side of things. You'll sleep and eat breakfast and dinner there.

"There will be activities, such as receiving your familiar, which is a personal favorite among students. These happen about four times a year. Weekends are break days, of course. They start on Fridays and end on Sundays. You may leave school grounds only on missions, weekends, holidays, or special permissions.

"Of course, alongside your magical studies, there will also be the basics. You still need to learn English, math, and history. We don't teach science because it tends to... clash a bit with magic," she shuddered.

"There will be clubs and after-school activities. As long as they aren't interfering with your studies, you may join one.

"Lastly, you may leave whenever if you need water or to use the bathroom. Don't be fooled, however. If any teachers wanted, they could easily use a spell to see your location on a map of sorts. I believe that is all."

She turned off the projection by poking the wall with her staff, and the lights that were dimmed slowly turned back on to let the peoples' eyes adjust with them.

"Now get out to that courtyard and meet your mentors with your team! Bring this school honor!" She yelled to them, and Honor could've sworn she winked at him.