Mark of the Ranger

VI. The Wizarding Guild?

"What do you mean, 'I guess?' Shouldn't you people have certainty?" Maddie asked the redheaded girl leaning over her as she sat up in her bed. The redhead shrugged. "I'm new here, too. Don't take your frustrations out on me," she complained. Maddie stood up on the floor, finding out it was a decent shag carpet. Maddie noted that more places need decent shag carpets. "What did you say your name was again?" she asked the redhead.

"Minerva," Minerva replied. "And you're Maddie, right?" Maddie nodded her head as she took a look around the room. She had been expecting a prison cell, but the room was simply two beds with two dressers in between. The floor was covered in shag carpet, and the walls were a dark oak. There was an odd choice of wood for a door, though. It was made of birch.

"You woke up just in time for the new arrivals. A few busloads of wizards, wizardesses, witches and warlocks from the Academy at Outlands will be coming here soon. Let's go," Minerva told Maddie, grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her out the door. "Oh, and call me Minnie, please," she added.

The two magic girls stepped out into a hallway full of more birch doors. Maddie assumed they were more rooms like hers. Minnie dragged her around a corner. The hallway there was full of young men, leaning on the walls. As Minnie and Maddie passed through, the boys catcalled and whistled at them. Minnie snorted. "Warlocks. I knew a few at my school. We don't make eye contact." The two rushed through quickly.

After quite a few more twists and turns, the two girls walked by another hallway. This one was full of young men, too, but they simply tipped their hats, waved politely, or said, "Good morning" when the girls walked past. Minnie smiled. "Wizards. You can make eye contact with these guys." Maddie made a note to hang out with wizards and not warlocks. She also noted that most of them were British.

Minnie had eventually dragged Maddie to what seemed like a front lobby. They sat down at a couch in front of a fireplace and waited there. After about half an hour, Maddie heard a bell. She looked out the front door.

Outside was four red buses full of teenagers, about thirteen, the age Maddie and Minnie were. Well, Maddie guessed Minnie was thirteen. She sure looked like she was. Many magicians came out, but one that looked very unique was a tall-ish blonde girl. She wore a black fedora, a white drew shirt, and black skinny jeans and walked using a long white staff with a blue jewel at the top. A few males--wizards, Maddie suspected--rushed to the door and opened it for the blonde. She smiled at them awkwardly, then walked through, glancing left to right.

Maddie heard a throat clearing from somewhere above. She turned around, seeing a middle-aged lady in a beautiful red dress, wearing a bent conical scarlet hat with a wide brim. Brown hair flows down to her back, and her not-quite-old face was stern. "Wizards, wizardesses, witches, and warlocks, those coming from the Outland buses, that is, please gather around. Madison Isaac and Minerva O'Haire, you two at the fireplace, you come, too.

Maddie was slightly shocked to know that the middle-aged lady knew her name, but then reasoned that wizardesses had their ways. She joined the crowd, standing next to the blonde girl with he black fedora. Maddie saw that she had a black mark in the back of her neck, shaped like the sun. Maddie introduced herself. "I'm Maddie," she said to the blonde. The blonde smiled, kindly this time. "I'm Isabel."

The middle-aged lady said absolutely nothing of importance. She simply named where everything was, told the magicians where the practice rooms were, the cafeteria, et cetera. After that, Maddie grabbed Minnie and followed Isabel around. Isabel must have immediately noticed, because she wasn't surprised when she stopped at the cafeteria and turned to see the two. "So," Isabel said, setting the backpack she was wearing and her staff down at a bench. She walked over to a buffet table full of food. There were many of them, each holding different types of foodstuffs. Isabel, much to Maddie's surprise, grabbed three steaks, a few cheese tamales, and three little boxes of milk.

"Are you going to eat all that?" Maddie asked in astonishment. Isabel looked at her like she was stupid for a second, then eased up. "You must not use magic very often. You see, if we use magic often, we need to have a lot of protein and carbohydrates. I usually eat five thousand calories a day and burn four thousand." Isabel then looked at the moon Mark on the back of Maddie's neck. "You're a witch, so you only use magic for enchanting. I see," she said.

"But I can use ice magic."

"Then you must be a Cryomancer. Even if you're a witch, if you're a Cryomancer, you're born to use ice magic. Cryomancers are powerful."

Maddie felt like she as going to be overwhelmed again. She instead grabbed a cheese tamale and focused on Isabel's staff. "What is that?" she asked. Isabel looked at the staff, then nodded. "It's my magic staff. Ivory base and blue topaz core. It's pretty, expensive, so I had to do years for chores to save up for the materials. Since I'm a wizardess and not a mage like you are, I need a staff to help me use magic."

"Okay. I understand. I think," Maddie responded before a swarm of half-bat-half-dragon creatures flew into the cafeteria. Isabel immediately sprung into action. She grabbed her staff and pointed it at the swarm. "Milia Sagittarium!" she cried out. A thousand beams of light shot from the tip of her staff and turned the creatures to dust. Among the dust were glowing little orange orbs.

"Thousand Arrows," Isabel told Maddie. "One of my favorites. I got every wyvern that time." Someone rushed up to Isabel. "Izzy! Are you okay? Thousand Arrows has a large mana cost!" They told her. Isabel waved it off. "Oh, I'll be fine."

She promptly collapsed.

Maddie rushed over. "Is she okay?" she cried out in concern. One of the people who had begun to gather around the fallen wizardess nodded. "She'll wake up in a bit and we'll feed her some tamales. In the meantime, we should clean this up." They gestured towards he piles of dust and orange spheres.