The Whisper of the Nightingale

Chapter 31: The Exam Begins

Martin stared at the disk with round eyes. Subconsciously he glanced over at Javelin's desk two steps away; had Martin stumbled across a freak even more impressive than his foreign friend? He shook his head.

"The disk must be broken. . . ." he grumbled and fished out a new one from a box below his table.

The disks could only test a hundred people or so before needing to be replaced, but what Martin forgot, or perhaps chose to forget, was that he had just changed the disk for the previous person.

"Here, do it again."

Inwardly Raven rolled her eyes with annoyance but she showed no sign of it to Martin as she grabbed the second disk. Hoatzin's eyes shone with amusement, watching silently from Raven's shoulder.

The disk flared up and '6 years 7 months, spirit core confirmed' was displayed once again.

"How is that even . . . ," Martin started to blurt out but then he chuckled and said, mostly to himself, "well, I though Javelin was impossible, so why not. . . ."

As far as Martin was concerned, already forming a spirit core at the age of seven was unimaginable, Raven had simply beat that by six months. What Martin was too young to take into consideration was that Javelin was from a famous military family with close to unlimited resources, he would for example have had no problem getting access to a Spirit Hall on the Day of Light. Night, however, was not a name of any big or wealthy clan in Sky Empire. . . .

As it was Martin just smiled happily at Raven and handed over two small wooden tablets. "The red one is for you, use it to get on the shuttles to Sky Academy for the exams. The blue one can be given to a family member that you want to bring with you."

Raven accepted the tables with a curt bow, it was closer to a nod actually, and turned to walk of.

"Good luck, little brother Night," Martin called out after Raven, "I hope you pass!"

"Hmpf," snorted Hoatzin, "that Martin fellow, always too easy going. I hoped for a better reaction. . . ."

"You know him well then? I couldn't have told the two twins apart before." Raven asked while she made her way through the crowd - there was still over a thousand people on the square and it was very cramped, but Raven didn't touch even a single person as she moved.

"Well, the four of us - me, the twins and Javelin - were all in the same dorm room that year and they are fun guys to be with." he explained, but then added with another snort, "most of the time."

Raven kept making her way across the square, careful not to get too close to the Sarus siblings - she had no wish to cause another scene, yet - and soon got a clear view of her target, her waiting mercenary uncles. They had switched out of their white robes and instead wore brown leather armor with a red sun on their chests.

'It would seem like they've joined a larger core.' Raven thought to herself but just as she was about to step out of the square to join them, Hoatzin's panicked voice rang in her head, "Wait!" and her brother flew up in front of her face.

Raven stopped immediately, sharpening her senses in case of danger, and asked solemnly, "What is wrong, bother?"

"The dorms! I had forgotten, but you will have to share a room with three guys at the Academy!"

Raven blinked at her brother and then burst out laughing, with quite a few heads turning her way.

"Oh, Brother . . . ," her body had already relaxed, "have I not been traveling alone with four men for over a year now?"