Laxita - The Mage's Awakening

26 - The Mage Who Went Missing?

Laxita's POV

The next day, I made my way to Revati's room to know about the test in detail. Although, I had agreed that I would meet Revati, I was not too pleased about it.

In all the years I've been here, I have hardly ever interacted with her. We have spoken like ten sentences with each other.

She's intimidating, scary and she rarely smiles. There's a scar on her face which extends from her forehead to her left cheek. And no, I am not scared of her looks, it's that permanent scowl on her face which scares me to no extent. The twins told me that she's not actually evil and once you get used to her, you'll be fine. But that's the thing, it's been three years and I am still not used to it. It seems that her scowl deepens when she sees me. I just hope it's my own imagination and she actually doesn't hate me.

I was standing in front of her room for quite some time now and I was debating whether I should go in or just run away. The longer I stood there, the more it triggered my flight responses. I took a deep breath, steeled myself and decided to go in.

I knocked for a few times but there was no response. So, I ventured inside her room.

As soon as I entered her room, I plundered into darkness. It took me a while to adjust my eyesight. Her room was eerie and weird. The entire room was filled with odd looking artifacts and suspicious looking books. I even spotted a few disfigured lanterns scattered on the table and the floors. There was a strange scent in the air which was choking me. Did an actual person live here? Somehow, the room actually matched her personality.

I was examining her room when I heard a voice.

"....how many times do I have to tell you that now's not the right time. Listen to me, you idiot..." Was that Revati? Was she talking to someone? I couldn't see anything as the voice was coming from behind a huge curtain. The room itself was not that big but that curtain was covering almost half of the room.

I parted the curtains to see her. "Revati ji?" She was leaning on a small round table and glaring at something which resembled a communication artifact. Communication artifacts were spherical balls of glass which contained some sort of magical smoke. A mage had to release their powers in the artifact in order to communicate to someone who had a similar artifact on the other side.

Her eyes snapped up at me and she said with a smile, "Ah! Laxita. Please come in." Have I mentioned that she rarely smiles? She has never and I mean never smiled at me. It was creeping me out and I was alone in her room. It was fuelling my flight responses yet again. I should have brought someone with me.

"Are you busy? If you are, I can come later..." And probably bring someone along with me.

"No, I'm not. I was waiting for you. Shobha had mentioned that you wanted to know about the test."

I didn't like her voice. It was scratchy and high-pitched. It was sort of grating on my nerves.

"Why are you standing over there, Laxita? Come, have a seat."

"Yes." She sat on her couch and I took a seat on the opposite couch which was as far away from her as possible.

She crossed one leg over the other. "So, what do you want to know?"

"I wanted to know how they actually conducted the test. I mean what do I have to do for them to measure my power? How does the association decide whether I am an attack mage or a defense mage? How is my level determined?"

"You seem to have a lot of questions."

"Yes, you can say that. I am actually quite nervous about the test."