Abaddon's Gift

Chapter Ten

"Basic care is the most important thing a mage can do, which is why you will attend my class every day at the same time. School starts at nine sharp, not nine-oh-one, not ten after nine. A mage should be up at six in the morning, leaving plenty of time for you to get ready for my class. Naena. Why are you not in skirts?"

"No skirts were provided," Naena said. "I'm sorry, you are?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"I don't know how to refer to you by."

Graydon sat at the back of the class and tried very hard not to look smug as he began writing notes on the class.

"Professor Draedon Opiel, arch mage in training."

"Pleased to meet you, sir," Naena said.

"Why did you ask?" he demanded.

Graydon wrote down that the professors were getting snotty again. They should have introduced themselves at the beginning of class. Instead, they seemed to assume their students would know them by look and reputation alone.

"My mother told me not to let a man whose name I didn't know tell me I wasn't good enough for him," Naena said. "Now, I know your name."

He also wrote down that Naena threatened Draedon with her tone of voice. Not that he blamed her, she was responding to the backlash from Draedon, but she had to pick her battles.

"You are to be dressed appropriately," Draedon said, threatening Naena in kind, with his tone of voice.

"Just as soon as someone finds me skirts that aren't full of holes," Naena responded. "Unless you have some skirts in that big wardrobe of yours, this is what I have to wear today."

"Your hair is to be brushed and pulled back."

Naena reached immediately for her hair and pulled it back. She did a twist and pull and then ran her hands over her head and pulled again and another twist and a twirl before she produced a ribbon out of seemingly nowhere and tied it all back. She was left with a messy bun in the back, but her hair was appropriately tugged out of her face.

"Fingernails cut short and clean."

She looked down immediately and began inspecting her nails as the students around her started taking notes. Everything Draedon said Naena used to inspect herself. The course on basic care would explain nearly everything a mage needed to know about caring for themselves. From basic hygiene to the directions of the compass and meditation.

Amos was never to assume a student knew how to care for themselves.

Graydon had that course and Introduction to Research with the first years. He always looked forward to the research classes, at least there he could use his time how he pleased.

Basic Care bored him. He had been raised in all of that, and what was expected of him was more than what as expected of mages. The Seven had to be better than and above mages, meant to set an example for the mages to follow.

He noticed Draedon wasted no time in picking apart Naena's outfit, even how she looked tired and underfed. He chastised her nourishment and eating habits, quoting some rumour about women looking better while thinner.

For her part, Naena sat through it all and said not a word. Not after her comments about skirts.

At the end of the class, Graydon left for a third-year course. That, too, bored him.

During lunch, he saw Naena in the dining hall. He noted her plate was portioned almost how Draedon told the students to portion meals. She took vegetables and meat, choosing berries over the desserts which the boys from the mage families chose.