Heir of the Sword

19 | Speculandi

Speculandi {to spy}

"You have approximately half an hour to finish the rest of your exam." Madame Mina said from the head of the table."

The Heres Gladii had begun today starting with Kalvarian History Test. There would be two written test, the first part was done today while the second part was due to happen after lunch. Arya had studied all the books that Madame Mina had given her so when she had started the test, she had been pretty confident.

In fact it had been fairly easy for Arya as she had finished it within an hour. Most of the questions were basic ones regarding various wars and how Kalvarian came to be. Occasionally there was question about a war tactic or a commander but Arya knew those answers as well. She had refrained from handing her test in early in fear if she had made a mistake. Instead she had allowed her eyes to rest from the paper to look at the other competitors.

To her surprise she had spotted similar strawberry blond hair and jade green eyes that belonged to Damien. She hadn't pegged him for a history buff but then again it proved that you couldn't judge anyone simply by their outer appearance.

She looked around the room to see how the rest of the competitors were doing. She could easily hand pick the confident ones and tell apart the ones that were struggling to answer the questions. Arya amused herself for the remainder of the time but trying to pick out details from all the students and identify something unique about them.

Not only did it increase Arya's awareness but it also made sure that she was able to analyze her competition.

A little while later Madame Mina's voice rung thought out the great hall. "Time is up; everyone must hand in their parchments at exactly this moment. Anyone who fails to do so will be disqualified immediately."

Everyone stood up to hand in their test while Arya stood back from the crowd. When they dispersed Arya handed in her paper to Madame Mina who asked her how it was. Arya responded saying that it had been fairly easily while Madame Mina seemed to visibly relax at her comment.

Arya left the great hall and found herself right next to Damien as result.

"Where are you going now?" He questioned.

"To see how the others from my academy are doing." Arya responded.

"Right," he said awkwardly. "Well I'll see you around?" he said as a question before making his escape.

"I wouldn't count on it." Arya mumbled beneath her breath.

Still wearing the new uniform that had arrived for the Narvian girls at the start of the tournament, Arya fled the castle in order to see how Yasmin was doing. She knew that they had a written portion of the herbs exam while Arya had been having her history exam and now they would be doing a practical. Arya wasn't sure how exciting it would be to see people mixing potions but she did know that she might learn something new and useful.

Arya strode through the marketplace which was filled with people from different countries and races. It looked even busier than usually if that was possible and Arya knew it was because of the influx of guest that had come to watch the Heres Gladii. She zipped around the various vendors and stalls trying to quickly make her way to where the Herbs competition was being held.

It took Arya quite a while and she was very delighted when she saw the building in front of her. She could already smell the whiff of different scents and it seemed that the competitors had already started brewing their potions. Arya opened the door quietly making sure that she didn't make too much noise in case it would distract everyone inside the room.