The Deathless Tsar

Chapter III

Waking for the first day is easy, I'm excited. The clock above the door loudly rings at exactly 7:00 every morning, regardless of weekends. Ivan groans at the sound, but the rest of us silently crawl out of bed. I get changed into the blood-red tunic and toss the sash over my shoulders, medals clinking quietly. Though we wear hats, Mikhail and I carefully comb our hair, Mikhail tends to his thick beard. I head out the door, closely followed by Leo, telling me of his strangely detailed dream.
When there is not a feast, the Dining Hall is organized in a sort of buffet, one long table is placed along the far wall, adorned with appropriate foods for each meal. I take a plate and pile on breakfast, including several slices of bread.
At breakfast Leo and I are accompanied by Liev Silnyevich. Liev can easily be described with a single word: large. He can be very intimidating, but he is very friendly.
"I hear that this year in Advanced Spellcasting, we train dogs." He says with an excited flash in his eyes.
Selena Kuznavina sets her plate next to me and says, "Really? Why? Hello, by the way."
"I'm not sure, really, but I think it has something to do with taking control of it, or something like that,"
"Either way, that's cool," says Leo, taking a big gulp of his tea.
"Yes, it's cool, but would we keep the dogs?" I wonder.
"I believe so, because the idea of the dogs is to make a connection with them," Liev furrows his eyebrows.
"I think you're right, though," Selena says, who had clearly been thinking for a while, "because I remember seeing Eighth Years playing with dogs in the past."
"How exciting!" I exclaim.
Just then, a huge bell tolls from somewhere high above. It is eight o'clock, signaling the start of school and a seven minute passing period to get to your first class.
"What are your guys' first classes?" hurriedly asks Selena.
"Literature," groans Leo, rolling his eyes.
"I have Alchemy," grins Liev, "Bye, guys."
"My first class is Herbology. I hate Herbology," I groan. I say goodbye to my friends and head outside the school to the greenhouse, which is in the gardens. It's quite a walk through the gardens, which, since the school is on the top of a hill, are on a slope, so going back to the castle will be a bit of a workout.
Herbology was a boring class. In addition, I didn't have friends with me, because most people in my year already completed the class, I'd put it off because it didn't interest me. When I walk into the greenhouse, every eye in the building is turned to me, I recognise most of the faces as Sixth Years. Many of them seem intimidated by me, I am much larger than most of them, I feel like a giant. I sit in the seat closest to the door. The bell tolls, class has started, but no instructor is in sight.
We sit around anxiously, a couple kids start chatting rather loudly. The glass door swings open and a short, round man comes in. "Hello, students!" He says, a grin splitting his circular face, "I'm Master Maslin, welcome to the Master Class in Herbology."
He spends the whole hour long class explaining the strict rules of his class, that it's a pretty simple one given you stay on task, and so on. As soon the bell rings, I hastily pick up my bag and get out of the greenroom.
On my way back up to the main building, a blond girl walks up next to me, "Hello, you're Konstantin, right?" She smiles, I've never met this girl, why does she know my name? "I'm Polina"
"It's good to meet you, Polina," I smile curtly, "What year are you? I don't think I've seen you around."
"I'm a Sixth Year," She sounds confused.
"Have I met you before? How do you know my name?"
"Oh, um," She stammers, "I don't know, I've seen you around and heard people talk about you before or something. Um, I have to go, my class is far away."
Polina scurries up the stairs ahead of me to a group of several other Sixth Years. She excitedly tells them something and I hear them all giggle. I sigh and speed-walk past the girls to get away from them. When I pass them I hear them giggle some more. My next class is Advanced Alchemy, something I like, and I find I'm pretty good at.
Advanced Alchemy is regarded as a hard class among most people, so the class is small, and I know everyone in it. Master Yashkin is standing in the front of the class. There are no desks in the classroom, only large cauldrons and a small table next to it. When I first come in, I barely know the people who are in the class, but to my relief Pavel Yankov comes in, and he smiles at me.
"Hi, Konstantin," He says.
"Oh my God, my Herbology class is all Sixth Years," I sigh.
"Oh, that must be terrible, I'm so sorry."
"I'm just glad I survived. This girl came up to me after and started talking to me all flirtily. It was something,"
Just then Oleg walks in. When he sees me he smirks under his beard and starts laughing. Master Yashkin looks at me, then at Oleg, then back at me, then back at Oleg.
"Wait," He mutters, "Are–are you two twins?"
We both burst out laughing. "Sorry," I say, "Yes, we are."
"It's just that–" He can hardly speak over his laughter. Everyone in the class is staring at us, "–we always have a class together."
"Okay, class, welcome to Advanced Alchemy," Says Yashkin, "I already know most of you from last year, but to those of you who I don't know: Hello, I'm Master Yashkin, I teach Alchemy to Fifth Years up. Since this is Advanced Alchemy, I want to start off by seeing where you all are. So, your first assignment, which you have the next forty-five minutes to complete is to turn the lumps of lead on your tables to something beautiful and put them on my desk. Your time starts now."
I look down at my table, on it is a lump of lead about the size of my fist. The assignment is to turn it into something beautiful. I think for a bit. Pavel has filled his cauldron with boiling water and it stirring a vial of thick blackish liquid. Oleg has put his lump into a brick oven at the back of the room and is throwing various oils on the fire. Then I decide what to turn my lead into. I take a flask from the cupboard, put the iron in it, then fill it with rose oil, and sprinkle some silica powder and talcum powder into it. The flask is now filled with an opalescent pink fluid. I put the flask over a small flame until it starts to bubble. I look over at Pavel, who has created a sphere that looks as if it was made of the night sky, and Oleg, who turned his lead into a small cube of bronze. I look down at my pearly concoction and see that it's smoking. I gasp and grab a pair of tongs and feel around the flask until I feel something solid. Smiling, I pull out sparkling pink crystals and set them on my desk. I tap the flask with my wand and the remaining liquid disappears.
"Okay, time is up, please put your creations on my desk," instructs Yashkin, "If you are not done, bring whatever you were working on."
My crystals are still very hot, so I take them in the tongs. Yashin looks impressed with me. "What's your name, son?"
"I'm Konstantin,"
"That's very good, turning it into crystals like that, I'm impressed."
"Thank you." I mutter. Oleg glares at me from his seat. I walk back to mine.
"He liked what you did, then?" says Oleg.
"Don't be mad, it's the first day, you never know what might happen later." I can tell he is jealous because I had a better result than he did.
"Okay everybody, I see some great things that you did today. This class is very self-guided, like you just did, so don't expect much teach on my part. I am more here to tell you what to do than how to do it." says Yashkin. The bell tolls, ending class. "Goodbye, enjoy your lunch."
The classroom is close to the Dining Hall, which means we'll be able to get some of the first picks for lunch. In the Hall, the stage that was up last night for the ceremonies is gone, and replaced with more tables for students. In the center of the hall is a huge table covered in heaping plates of food. Several domoviye, small, bearded house spirits, scutter around the table, making sure there is enough food for everyone. I look at them at smile, it is important to keep the domoviye happy, and many people forget this. I take some food from the table and sit with Pavel, and soon Galina joins us. She slams her plate down, yanks out the chair, and angrily gnaws on a piece of bread.
"Woah, someone is a little upset" remarks Pavel.
"Yes, I am," Galina says bluntly.
"Well, what's wrong?" I say.
Galina sighs, "It's that stupid girl, Darya Sayanskaya,"
Pavel groans, "Oh, great. What did she do this time?"
"Oh she didn't do anything. She is just in my Astrology class,"
"Oh my God, Galina. You are so dramatic," I roll my eyes at her.
I notice Anna-Maria picking carefully at the table of food, looking quite nervous. "I'll be back," I say, walking up to her.
"Hello, Konstantin," she says.
I'm puzzled, "How did you know I was here?"
"You're not exactly the quietest person out there."
"Damn, I wanted to scare you. How were your first two classes?"
"They were good, but I don't know where to sit, I have no friends yet."
"Anna, you need to make friends. Where are your roommates? I told you to stick with them,"
"Well, we agreed to meet at the same table we sat at last night, but I looked and didn't see them there, so I left,"
"Come on, lead me to where you were going to meet them," I sigh, glancing over my shoulder at my friends who are talking and laughing.
Anna-Maria leads me to the farthest corner of the Hall, where the First Years seem to be concentrated. They stare at me in apparent awe; I feel huge in comparison to them.
"Anna-Maria!" shouts one of the girls, who has dark skin and two pigtails that look more like black cotton balls than hair, "There you are!"
"Katya!" screams my sister, running into a hug. Katya whispers something into Anna-Maria's ear, to which she says, "Oh this is my brother, Konstantin,"
I wave stiffly at the girls. "Hi,"
Another girl comes up to Anna-Maria, this time with blonde pigtails, pigtails are the expectations for girls under their fourth year. "We've been waiting for you," she says.
"I'm sorry, I got nervous. Kristiana, meet my oldest brother, Konstantin,"
I smile at her, "Okay, I'm going back to my friends now. Bye, Anna-Maria,"
Returning to my table, Leo says to me, "So, Konstantin, into younger girls now? I saw you talking to those First Years,"
"Yes, I'm thinking of taking my sister to the Ball in spring." I smile.
"Not that Sixth Year who you were talking to after Herbology?" smirks Pavel. Everyone laughs.
The bells toll, which ends lunch.
I walk with Karina to our Advanced Spellcasting class. She tells me about her family, she comes from the Nenets people.
"When I was there, I learned how to draw my power not from the sun, moon, or stars, but from the northern lights, which happen every night there. It was a really unique feeling, especially because usually I use the sun to cast spells."
"That's actually really cool. God, how far away is this classroom?" I say as we climb the fifth set of stairs.
"Seriously, it must be on the top floor,"
We find the classroom. It's a large room with floor-to-ceiling windows on three of the walls and no seating except one long bench across the fourth wall. We are the last ones to arrive, and everyone is already seated on the bench, chattering excitedly to each other. Master Anokhina is apparently not in the room. Karina and I take a seat on the bench, right as the bells toll, they sound much louder than usual.
Anokhina burst into the classroom, robes flying in the air. She is a small, plump woman, with a face like a grandmother, and has a large kokoshnik resting on her head, making her at least six inches taller.
"Good afternoon, students. I trust you all had a good lunch." She speaks very regally, and keeps her chin raised, "Welcome to Advanced Spellcasting. Since it is your final year at the Academy, you should all be excellent Casters. Most of this class will simply be mastering how to cast spells and perform very powerful magic. Does anyone have any questions?"
The hand of Liev Silnyevich shoots in the air immediately.
"Yes?" says Anokhina.
"I heard in this class we train dogs and use them as familiars. Is that true?" Liev blurts out like a child.
"Yes, each of you will select a dog or a cat to train as your familiar. This is going to start in two weeks."
At this, the class murmured excitedly to each other. Anokhina silenced the class and talked over the curriculum of the class and other projects we will be doing, but everyone was too excited to be getting their own pet to really pay attention. The class period ended quickly, which ended that school day.