Magiana Imperial Academy - Volume 1: Path to Greatness

“You saw a talking wolf?”

Dominique told her fellow Sloanes about her encounter at breakfast the next day, November 1st. Some of them, like Kylie, were interested, others like Victoria were curious, but doubtful of its existence. Most of them were indifferent, finding the story too ridiculous to take seriously.

“I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true.” She said, seeing Mile’s skeptical look. “It was prowling around, and when I went up to it, it started talking.”

“Well, what was the talking wolf doing here?” Miles asked.

“He just said he was wandering around; went on to say that he was going to live in the forest.”

“A talking wolf…” Victoria crossed her arms, ignoring her half-finished breakfast as she thought.

“Bet you she read about this in one of her books.” Miles whispered to Phillip, who chuckled.

“I think I’ve heard about them somewhere, but mainly in fairytales.”

“Would you please grace us lesser beings with your clearly superior knowledge and tell us what you know of this possibly mythical creature?” Miles leaned on his hands, his voice brimming with sarcasm.

“If you ask, who am I to say no?”

Miles’s smile immediately faded, and he got angry with himself for bringing this upon himself and his friends. Some of the others were angry with him as well.

“If I remember correctly, it was supposed to be called the Incorporeal, or Celestial, Gray Wolf, since the fire-like wisps make it seem more like a spirit than an actual animal. That, and the fact that they talk. Only a handful of people have reported seeing them; not enough for anyone to take them seriously.”

“And why is that? Are they endangered or something?”

“No one knows why they’re so rare, if they’re real that is.” Victoria sighed.

“Dom!” The cheery voice was followed by the appearance of Francisca, who parked right behind her sister. “I need your help with something!”

“And what do you need help with?”

“Studying! Our fifty-three days of Caster Magic are almost up, so our exam should be soon!”

Miles spat out his orange juice and looked at Francisca, his eyes wide. “What exam?!”

“It’s November,” Dominique calmly said. “And the year ends in over one hundred days. Would you really want to have to study for this class that far down the line?”

He groaned. “Yeah, I guess have a point. Hey, Phil, want to study together?”

“Sure. Studying with someone will probably make things easier on me.”

“We could all study together!” Lloyd suggested. He had to be reminded by Trevor that they were in different classes at the time. “Oh, nevermind, then.”

The following week, the fifty-three day time limit for Caster Magic, Substance Magic and Potion Brewing rolled around, on November 15th. On the final day, the three classes had an exam to determine whether or not each student would pass the class.

In Professor Windsor’s class, the exam was split into two parts. The first part was a written test, seeing how much of the information the students retained over the case of the fifty-three days. There were some questions that Phillip didn’t know the answer to, but the majority of them were simple.

Looking around the room, he saw that there were some who were struggling. Miles was scratching his head with his pencil. He saw that Victoria was sitting at her desk, her paper and pencil in the corner of her desk, something they were told to do when they finished.

Professor Windsor came around and escorted her outside of the class. Several people were following them with their eyes, but turned their attention back to their tests once they were outside.

When it came time for Phillip to be taken outside, he was tested on his ability to use several of the spells they went over during his time. Like the written portion of the test, there were some things he did better than others. By the end, he was feeling rather confident on his grade. He didn’t expect perfection, but a satisfactory grade.

When the bell finally rang the class, which had been silent up to that point, filled with the noise of the students talking, conversing about their exams. Miles slung his bag over his shoulder and let out a loud sigh.

“Geez. It could’ve gone worse. I doubt that the written portion is going to help me at all.”

“And the practical use?”

“Much better.” He gladly said.

“Alright, everyone!” Professor Windsor announced. “It was a pleasure teaching you all for the last two and a half months. May you prosper for the rest of this year! I’ll see you in your second year!”

The class filed out of the room, and found Professor Draut, the math teacher, at least Phillip’s, standing outside of the door. The students looked up at him with perplexed looks as they moved on. Professor Windsor came out of the room soon and raised a brow when he saw his colleague.

“Well, hello there, Earle.” He said. “May I ask what you’re doing here?”

“Well, I wanted to speak to you about something, Arthur. Now that we have some time between classes, you’re okay with that, right?”

He hesitated for a few seconds before answering. “Very well, come in, Earle.”

The door closed behind the two of them. Miles looked at the door longingly instead of following Phillip to their next class. Miles crept towards the door to eavesdrop, but Phillip pulled him back.

“We’re not eavesdropping.” He said.

“Come on! They might be talking about something cool in there! Besides, you don’t have to do it with me!”

“Only way to lose points is to break rules. This happens once a century. You wouldn’t want to ruin the Sloanes’ chance of taking the win, would you? ” Phillip calmly said. Miles sighed and gave up. “Let’s get going.”

“What house was it that won last time? It wasn’t Sloane, that’s for sure. But I don’t think it’s that important; I just want us to win.”

Later that night, Phillip, Lloyd, Trevor and Miles were swapping out the few materials they needed for their current Magic class for the one they’d be starting after the weekend. Miles held up his notebook, eyeing it carefully.

“And what’re you doing that for? Trying to burn a hole through it or something?” Lloyd asked.

“I wish I was good enough to do that.” He tossed it on the ground. “I think I might get rid of it. I don’t need it anymore.”

“We take Caster Magic for all seven years.”

Miles looked over at Trevor and then Lloyd, who nodded in agreement, and finally Phillip.

“He has a point. You might want to keep that for reference.”

“But I don’t need it for the rest of the year. What should I do, just leave it in my suitcase for the next ten months?” The three nodded. “Alright, alright. I’ll use it to review if I don’t forget all about it next summer.”

Phillip and Miles walked up to the third floor and down the right corridor rather than the left. Starting that day, the two would be in Professor Black’s Potion Brewing class. Walking into the room, they saw that there were several others already sitting, including Dominique.

“Hey there, you.” Miles said, sitting down at the table right behind her. Phillip took the seat next to him. “I thought you already took this class.”

“No. I was in Caster Magic; just another period.” She calmly said.

The class soon filled, and Victoria took a seat at the front of the class. The seat next to Dominique was filled by a member of House Bryne. Professor Black was at her desk, watching the students enter. Cait Sith was on her desk, watching them all.

“It looks like we’re all here.” She said, getting up from her desk. “Welcome to Potion Brewing. This class isn’t as magical as the others. Any person can make and use the potions you make here, whether they’re masters or those incapable of using magic. You could say that this class is more akin to science, but it’s been this way ever since the school’s founding.”

Cait Sith jumped off of the desk and began meowing as he walked down one of the isles in between the tables, trying to get the others to follow him. They tailed the kitten and he led them to a cabinet in the back of the class. The student in front opened it to see white lab coats all hung inside; there were safety goggles on each of the hangers as well. Each one of them took one and put it on over their blazer. Some of them took their blazers off first. The goggles were either put on properly or propped atop their heads until they were needed.

“Alright, everyone,” Professor Black picked up a piece of chalk and began writing on the blackboard. “Let’s start off with a simple potion. I’m going to be putting short descriptions of the ingredients, as well as the procedure.”

When she was done, she took out several pairs of gloves and a wand, very similar to Professor Acre’s.

“Distribute: Simple Invisibility Potion ingredients.”

Tapping each of the pairs, repeating the words, they flew off towards the jars of ingredients on the shelves in the room. They filled bowls with ingredients, placing them at each of the tables. The different types of ingredients that were set out were quite a bit more than the ingredients they were supposed to use.

“It looks like there are some things in here to throw us off.” Phillip said, looking from the board to the bowls a few times, trying to match the necessary ingredients with their descriptions.

The class moved on in silence, with everyone focusing on their potions, afraid to screw something up. Phillip carefully looked at the descriptions before putting the materials in the cauldron of water, which was being heating by a small fire underneath it.

Miles picked something up, took a quick look at the board then immediately put it down. It took him several tries to decide on what he’d actually use. There were a few times he picked something up and went back to it several times before finally convincing himself that it was what he needed.

“Okay, everyone, you should be done! Cait Sith and I will be coming around to test your potions!”’

Miles looked down at his cauldron, it’s contents puke green, and then at Phillips, which was full of sky blue liquid.

“This isn’t good.” He said. He leaned over the table to look at Dominique’s cauldron, which contained a blue potion as well, but it was darker than Phillip’s.

One by one, Professor Black put a small amount of everyone’s potion in a cup and examined it. Sometimes she let out a disappointed sigh and told the student that they screwed something up. More often than not she put it in front of Cait Sith to examine as well. He would put in paw in it to see what it did. If done correctly, nothing would come out of the cup when he pulled out his paw. It was then splashed with a little bit of water, returning to normal. If it wasn’t done correctly, he yelped and jumped back, requiring Professor Black to coat his paw in some purple potion, returning it to normal.

By the time the two got to Miles and Phillip, the two students gulped. Professor Black took a single look at Miles’s before sighing.

“Aw, man…”

“I can’t tell how many of the ingredients you got right, but you definitely did something wrong, Miles. Come see me when the day is over, alright? You’re not in trouble, I’m just going to help you tell the ingredients apart better.”

She scooped up a bit of Phillip’s potion and put it in the cup. She looked at it for a few seconds before setting it in front of her feline friend. The kitten stuck his in and when it came out, it was see through. There was the gray outline of his paw, but nothing inside.

“So far, so good.” Professor Black said with a smile. “There was something you did wrong, but-”

With a surprised shriek, Cait Sith’s paw quickly turned dark gray and slammed down into the table. He tried picking it up, but to no avail.

“Yeah, something went wrong. It turned his paw to stone.” She slathered a bit of the purple potion on his paw and Cait Sith, who was pulling with all his might, flipped over when the weight he was pulling suddenly became so little.

“Do I have to come after school, too?”

“If you want. The color is just about perfect, which is a good sign. The effect, however… If I had to guess, you only messed up on one or two of the ingredients. If you feel that you’d be unlikely to figure out what you messed up on the next time we do this, I suggest you do see me.”

Moving onto Dominique, the same thing happened. Professor Black found it fine and Cait Sith did too until his paw returned to its normal opaqueness and his claws grew about a foot longer.

“Well, I don’t think the reversal potion is going to help here.” Professor Black said, quite relaxed, even though Cait Sith was panicking.

Everything Phillip had heard from Francisca and the other Sloanes and what he saw in gym suggested that Dominique was a model student. Seeing that even she screwed up from time to time put him at ease. It did the same for Miles. She stopped testing for a few minutes to cut Cait Sith’s elongated nails.

“Perfect; great job, Victoria.”

Cait Sith pulled his translucent paw out of the cup that held Victoria’s potion. The maker had her hands on her hips and (at least, Phillip had a feeling she did) a smug smile on her face. The dark-haired girl next to her wasn’t as lucky, since her concoction turned the kitten’s paw into a cactus.

“A cactus?” Professor Black chuckled as she fixed his paw. “I think that you need to see me after school as well.”

“I told you that you were putting in rose petals instead of carnation petals.” Victoria said, in the same disappointed tone as Professor Black when someone screwed up. “And you must’ve used salt instead of sugar.”

“I- I guess that I did.” She said.

“I was trying to help you; listen the next time I give you some tips, alright?”

The girl looked around, her face pink. Miles and Phillip, along with a few others, turned their eyes away. Dominique had immersed herself in a book, having not looked at the girl at all.

“Kinda embarrassing, isn’t it?” Miles said. “I mean, it’s one thing to have the teacher tell you off; having a classmate do it must be worst.”

At the end of the day, Phillip was walking towards the entrance hall to get back to House Sloane. He had said goodbye to Miles since then. After leaving the castle, he saw the girl Victoria sat with earlier that day. She was in a large crowd of students, but he was still able to make her out.

“Hey there.” He said.

When she saw who it was, the girl bblushed. “H-hey.”

“I’m sorry that you had to go through that earlier. Must’ve been embarrassing. We’re you going to see Professor Black?”

“Yeah,” She said. “If it weren’t for the fact that the entire class was listening, I might’ve been okay with it. My name’s Terra; nice to meet you, Phillip. And I was going to see Professor Black; I just wanted to drop off some things first.”

There was no need to ask why she knew his name. Instead of splitting up where the paths to their houses diverged, they stood in the fork, continuing to speak.

“That your first time talking to her?”

“Yeah, it is. I’ve heard some things about her, but I never thought much about them. Looks like she’s as bad as they say.”

“First Caster Magic now Potion Brewing.” Phillip sadly said. “Now I’ve got to deal with the know-it-all for another fifty-three days…” He chuckled. “That’s going to be a pain.”

Terra’s eyes widened and Phillip looked behind himself. Victoria was glowering at him, her arms crossed.

“U-uh…” Philip began stammering, trying to find a way to explain himself. “H-hey, there, Victoria…”

“Hello.” Her response was cold.

“D-did you hear Terra and I speaking?”

“I heard a bit. And I thought that I heard you calling me a know-it-all. I might’ve been mistaken, though. What did you say about me, Phillip?”

A few people stopped and looked at the two, having overheard them. Terra said goodbye to Phillip, sneaking off to House Bryne. He continued to trip over his own words, trying to find a way to get himself out of the situation.

“Well, you see… Terra and I were just talking about you. She said that she heard some things about you. I told her that, after being with you for fifty-three days already, you were a lot like what people said. You know a lot of things and like sharing them with others, trying to help us with our work.”

A small smile crossed her features. “Is that all? Fine then, I guess I was mistaken.” She turned to leave.

“Alright then, see ya. It’s good to know that you’re trying to help people, but try to tone it down a bit okay? Not everyone likes a smart-aleck.”

Only after he spoke did Phillip realize that he said the very words he tried to convince Victoria he didn’t say. She turned on her heel, glaring at him once again.

“So you did say that about me!”

Some of the crowd broke away, sniggering as Phillip stared at Victoria, trying to see if he could salvage the situation somehow.

“W-well, I did, but I didn’t mean it as an insult!”

“There’s no way for that to not be an insult!” She turned from him again. “He really thinks that I’m a know-it-all… honestly…”

“Screwed that up, didn’t you, prince?” Reginald sneered, slapping Phillip on the back.

“I’m sorry about him.” Luna quickly said, following past him. “I’ll try to get in touch with you later, okay?”

“Sure.” Phillip dolefully said. He walked down to House Sloane. He knew well that people were either laughing at him or complimenting him for saying what everyone’s been thinking for the last two months.

When he finally walked into the common room, he saw Victoria sitting at one of the tables; she turned away from him, looking very huffy. Feeling dejected, Phillip avoided the table and sat on the couch, watching television with some of his other Sloanes.

Phillip had not meant to call Victoria a smart-aleck to her face, but she began acting as if it were deliberate. He did indeed feel that she was a know-it-all, but intended to keep it to himself to avoid exactly what happened. She seemed indifferent towards him before, but began speaking even louder whenever he was around, as if she wanted to annoy him. She would sometimes even refer to him as she spoke.

“The desire to learn is strong in people such as myself,” She said one night while doing homework. “We need to search out knowledge, so when we find it, take in as much of it as possible. The few of us who have knowledge just laid out in front of them don’t appreciate it nearly as much.”

Phillip, who was working in a chair near the fire stopped, knowing full well that she was referring to him. Miles, who was sitting next to him, glanced over at her.

“What’s up with her? I know you told her off to her face, but she’s overreacting.”

“All people are different.” Trevor said as he passed by.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“He has a point.” Phillip grumbled. “You might just brush that off, but others wouldn’t. Like her, obviously. Let’s just get our history homework over with. I don’t want to spend the entire night doing this.”