Phantom Hunters | Saphir Casters Academy

29 | Sigils

XXIX | SIGILS

    "Are you ready for your test?" Maya Grenia, the teacher of weapons and sigils and a mentor from the Silver Wolf, said with great enthusiasm. Her smile lit up her green eyes, and a dimple formed on her left cheek. That combined with her pastel green turtleneck sweater and pleated brown skirt made her look motherly despite the light brown bob cut that accentuated her baby face.

    The class collectively groaned, but Kael could only nod with a returning smile. Even though he would probably fail the test, he couldn't deny that Maya was one of his favourite teachers, and anything she did was justified in his eyes.

    Maya laughed, her voice soft and musical. Everything about her was soft, and something about her reminded Kael terribly of his own mother, who had been the complete opposite of Lana. "Don't be so depressed. It won't count against your grade. You're only being tested on your knowledge of sigils. It is important to assess an enemy's element when you fight so you are well-prepared to win even if your element is weak against theirs. And, until you can sense the subtle differences of each element in their aura, the only way you'd be able to tell is by looking at their sigils."

    The students sighed, accepting that she was right. She began to make her rounds passing out the tests. It was a single sheet of paper that had fourteen sigils with a blank space at the bottom of each.

    "Remember to put your names at the top. Those of you who fail this test will have extra sessions with me to engrave them into your memory. And for those of you who get all of them right, you'll get a free snack from the cafeteria. I have removed the obvious glyphs of each element, so you'll have to remember what's between the circles if you want to pass. Good luck!"

    Kael suppressed a sigh as he looked at the nearly identical circles.

    Four corners of Hearth, he thought to himself, noticing five sigils with the same dots.

    Four suns midway through. There were only three with the small circles, and one was easily eliminated because of the vertical line halving its circles.

    First comes the lightning...ah, there it is.

    Kael wrote Fire beneath the all too familiar sigil. He tapped his pen on his cheek while looking for others that he knew.

    Houses, houses. Where are the houses?

    He noticed a few sigils with triangles. Okay, there they are. What came next? Walls, right.

    The sigils with four lines connecting the inner and outer circles were singled out.

    Mountains and valleys, over and under.

    The wavy line with dots in each curve sealed the deal. Kael wrote Plants underneath. The rest were more difficult as he had never bothered to learn them, and he poked the back of his pen through his hair as if combing through it.

     He took a wild gander and wrote water on the sigil next to the fire one. Knowing he wouldn't be able to correctly identify the others, he randomly scribbled the elements and leaned back on his seat.

    Rita chanced a questioning glance at him, and he shrugged. He was sure he'd failed the test as he never really paid attention to the class before. Sure, he used to know how all the sigils looked like when he was younger, but he'd long forgotten those.

    He picked at his nails, bored while waiting for the others to finish. Tyra had also finished, though Kael was sure she had done much better than he had. She checked over the sigils multiple times while Kael didn't even give his test a second glance. It didn't count towards his grade anyway, and he didn't mind spending extra time with his favourite teacher. He was sure she'd provide the students with her amazing baked cakes during extra lessons, and that was more than enough to make up for relearning the boring makeup of sigils.