Chapter 2 Part 1

Lessons

When Kayla dropped Dylan off at his new quarters, she only made brief introductions, but she stayed for a moment and made it plain to the other three occupants that she expected them to accept Dylan and to show him around.

Dylan's new living space was anything but private. He shared a room with three other students, two girls and another boy. The boy, Dylan observed, was much taller and older, maybe even sixteen, and was proud of the fact that he shaved every other week, even though there was no visible evidence that it was needed. His name was Roger and he made it clear that the other three roommates were little more than an irritant to him--with the possible exception of Mally, the older of the two girls.

Mally was twelve, and getting very curvy. She acknowledged Dylan, but for the most part kept to her studies when they were not in class or at work. Mally, Dylan learned was actually at the Academy to learn magic, unlike the other two occupants and himself.

Cindy, the other girl was Dylan's age, and had gone through the Ritual of Meditation only three months earlier. Cindy, like himself, was also an initiate bound to the service of Tesron. As it turned out, the girl was very open and friendly and gladly attached herself to Dylan. Since he was still new and had few friends, he was glad for the company.

Cindy showed Dylan to his bed. "We knew someone new was coming in when they brought in clean sheets and a new tunic," she told him. His personal belongings were sitting atop his bed and everything appeared to be present. Cindy showed him where to store them. "It's the last time anyone's going to do anything for you while you're an initiate. You'll have to do your own laundry and get your own food and everything on your own now."

"Where you from, new boy?" Roger demanded from across the room. He sat on his bed by the window mending a rip in his spare tunic.

"I grew up on a farm near the Karnal Mountains," Dylan answered cheerfully. He put up a false front of friendliness. In spite of that, though, Dylan could sense that Roger was not in a friendly mood.

Dylan had gone through the whole thing many times before. The bigger boy was looking to exert his authority and establish his dominance. Dylan had long ago learned that when facing a larger opponent it was best to back down unless he was sure that he could win in a fight. Since Roger was six years older, many pounds heavier and almost a foot taller, Dylan opted for the better part of valor.

"Leave him alone Roger," Mally interrupted. "If you start a fight, I can't study and don't think I won't tell on you."

Roger shot the girl a dark glance, but finally settled down. "Just stay out from under foot," Roger warned Dylan. "And pray that you don't get assigned to stable duty or I'll work your hands raw."

"If he grew up on a farm," Cindy came to his defense, "he could probably work circles around you and never raise a blister."

Dylan wanted to ask her to be quiet. She was only making it harder for him and Roger to make peace.

"You," he pointed excitedly to Cindy, "had better watch your mouth. I know who your task leader is and I can make things hard on you too."

"You don't have the guts to do it," Cindy goaded back. Dylan thought Roger was going to fly across the room, pick the tiny girl up and throw her against the wall, but the bully didn't leave his bed. He just sat there and glared.

"Come on, Dylan," Cindy urged as she opened the door. "I'll show you around and then we can go to the kitchens and get a snack."

Dylan followed the girl and closed the door behind them. As the door swung shut, he caught a glimpse of Roger, his face red with a tint of purple trying very hard not to show his anger.

"You sure know how to make him mad," Dylan observed to his newest friend. "I thought he was going to hit you."

"He won't dare," Cindy confided. "Roger broke the arm of our last roommate and they almost kicked him out because of it. If he so much as gives anyone a dirty look, he'll be expelled and sent home in shame."

Cindy led the way down the hall. "Has Kayla given you your work assignments yet?" she asked.

"No," Dylan answered. He noted that Cindy wore the plain tunic of a common laboring initiate. "How old is Roger?"

"He's fifteen," Cindy informed him.

"I would’ve thought that he'd be a team supervisor or at least a task leader," Dylan offered.

"I've heard that he was a task leader once, but he got caught abusing his authority. They stripped him of his green tunic and he'll never get that rank again."

"That may explain why he's so grouchy," Dylan guessed. "How much longer will he be here?"

"I don't know," Cindy answered. "If he misbehaves or if his studies slip, he may wind up leaving sooner than he'd like. He's already under probation. That means that he's been warned about his actions. If he steps out of line, he's gone."

"I don't think I’d lose sleep if he left," Dylan admitted.

"Me neither," Cindy giggled. She turned a corner and opened a door. Inside was a large room with many tables and benches. The room was sparsely populated by a small scattering of initiates eating and talking among themselves.

"This is the open dining hall," Cindy explained. "There isn't any set meal times. We eat when we're hungry. This room's open at all times and hot food’s available here," she motioned at a wide door.

Dylan followed her into the serving area where large stone tables held a variety of meats, vegetables, and breads. Cindy took a small dish and selected a fresh apple. Dylan mimicked her actions and followed her to a table pausing only long enough to fill a cup with cool water.

"I work part of my labor in the kitchens, so I can arrange to get the better selections of foods," she boasted.

"Is that allowed?" Dylan asked cautiously.

"It isn't publicly denounced or endorsed," she answered. "I'm sure that the masters are aware that it goes on, but they don't make any efforts to stop it. When you get your labor tasking, you'll find that you can get slight benefits because of it too."

"Are the kitchens the only work you do?"

"Usually," Cindy answered. "Every now and then when a member of the house keeping team gets ill or can't work, I have to temporarily work in Master Tesron's or Gage's apartment, but that doesn't happen often."

"How many of us serve Master Tesron?" Dylan asked. It seemed to him that the mage had quite a few initiates.

"There are twenty of us now that you're here." Cindy bit deeply into her snack. She quietly chewed the mouthful before continuing.

"Master Tesron has only one journeyman, and that's Gage. Gage’s actually a full journeyman, not a journeyman learner. That means he was once an apprentice of another master. I don't know who it was. But the very last stage a journeyman goes through before he can be tested for mastery is that he has to leave his original master and serve a surrogate master for a while. Master Tesron will nominate Gage for his mastery when he thinks Gage is ready."

"I like Gage," Dylan decided.

"Everybody does," Cindy agreed. "I think Gage will be a master before we finish our studies here."

"Will you study magic," Dylan asked changing the subject.

"No," Cindy answered. "I'm to be apprenticed to an alchemist when I learn my lessons."

"I'm to return to the farm as a quartermaster, like my father," Dylan offered then he finished off his fruit and drained the cup of water.

"Master Tesron has two apprentices right now," Cindy continued. "You already met Kayla. She's nice and will stick up for you if you need help. There's also Adam. He’ll stick up for you if you really get in a bind, but you have to ask him for help. He'd rather let you solve your own problems."

"Will I meet him soon?"

"Maybe," she answered. "I’ve only met him once. He spends a lot of time in the laboratory. He's working on his spell and trying to qualify to test for his journeyman status."

"All the rest of us are initiates?"

"That's right." Cindy drained her cup and gathered her dishes. "Our manager is Robert. He wears a red tunic. You'll probably meet him about once or twice a week. If you're awarded a green or yellow tunic, you'll see him more often."

"What’s the color mean? Gage mentioned it before, but I didn't really understand too well."

"We’re assigned to perform a given chore. For example, one of my tasks is to assist in the baking of bread. There are three of us who do that. Frank, who's the same rank as we are, and Joan, who’s twelve and wears the green tunic. Joan knows all about baking bread. She’s our task leader. It's her job to make sure that the bread's done right and that there's enough of it for everyone to eat. She also has to teach Frank and I how to bake so that we can take her place when she moves on.

Stanley’s her boss. He's the yellow tunic initiate in charge of the whole kitchen. He's seventeen, and an initiate of Master Ginther, the sorcerer."

Cindy placed her dishes on another table that contained several other pieces of food stained china. Dylan did likewise and watched as a fat and unkept initiate approached the table with a cart. As Dylan and Cindy left, the fat initiate began loading the dirty dished onto his cart.

"That's Cody," Cindy whispered. "He's one of ours, but he might not be here for very much longer. He’s gotten lazy and Master Tesron isn't very happy with his work."

She leaned close. "You can always tell when you’re about to get into trouble when they put you to doing jobs like garbage or cleaning out stables or washing dishes."

Dylan followed Cindy back towards their room. She paused near a set of doors. "These are the changing rooms," she told him. "You bathe, relieve yourself, and change your clothes in here," she pointed at one door then another. "The girls do the same thing over there."

"When and where do we study?"

"I think that you'll study with me," Cindy guessed. "Most of us work in groups of two and three. But for the last three weeks, Kayla and I have been working alone."

"What happened to your classmate?"

"He had to leave," Cindy answered. "His mother died and his father needed him to help care for his brothers and sisters."

Cindy led them back to their room. Dylan was apprehensive about facing Roger again, but when they entered, only Mally was there, and she was asleep.

"Mally likes to take a nap in the early afternoon," Cindy whispered. "She's a nice person, so let's try not to wake her." Cindy turned and left with Dylan in tow. "I like Mally, and I don't think she'd try to get us into trouble, but don't trust Roger."

"Why would he try to get us in trouble?"

"Because we don't have the same master. You see, there are some rules around here that aren't written down or anything. You just have to learn about them. The first rule is that you only trust initiates that belong to your master." She took one of the free ends of the rope at her waist. "Do you see how there are two knots on the left side and three on the right?"

Dylan nodded examining his own rope. He had noticed the knots that had been tied in it, but had never considered that they may have meaning.

"All of Master Tesron's students have the same knot pattern. Don't change it," she warned. "Because, even though there aren't any rules about it, if you copied another master's pattern, his initiates would likely beat you up, and everyone would look the other way while they did it."

"I have seen some initiates that don't have any knots in their ropes. Does that mean that they don't have a master?" Dylan asked.

"No," Cindy answered. "They are like Mally. They're initiates of magic. They think that they are above everyone else because they are here to learn magic. So they don't wear any knots and they keep to themselves." She straightened her tunic. "Don't worry about them. Most of the time they won't even acknowledge that you exist, much less harass you. Even Mally will ignore you outside of the room."

Dylan nodded. There was a lot to learn.

Cindy led him out to the central garden. There were many benches and pathways along side the cultivated flowers and shrubbery.

"If you just got out of the Ritual of Meditation, you may not know what day this is," Cindy commented. "I remember that when I came out, I'd lost track myself. But I've noticed that they always bring initiates out of the ritual on the day of the sun. That's the day that we only do what work we have to do and no studying. It’s supposed to give us time for hobbies and rest."

"Tomorrow's the first day of the week and the day of the greater moon. When the sun rises, I’ll have to leave the room to begin my chores. About noon, I'll go to class." She scratched her head. The tawny hair had not been combed. "I suppose that since tomorrow's your first day, you'll have to wait until someone comes to get you and take you to work. It'll probably be Robert. He likes to meet new people and take them to their first day of chores. He'll also probably escort you back to the room when you're done so that you can get cleaned up. Then Kayla or Gage will come and get you."

"I like Kayla and Gage," Dylan offered. He knew it wasn't necessary to say it, but he had just spent several weeks not talking and he was caught between the urge to talk and the desire to remain silent, which he had gotten used to.

Cindy showed Dylan a great deal of the Academy, and even part of the Guild Hall and Archives. Dylan would like to have gone out into the town, but by the time they emerged from the Archives, the sun was sinking low and their stomachs growled with complaint. So they retreated to the dining hall and ate their fill of bread and meat.

"They'll let you eat as much as you like, but if you take too much and don't finish it, the task leader in charge of the scullery will probably drag you in to help wash dishes." Cindy grimaced. Obviously she had been exposed to that experience first hand.

After eating they returned to the room. No one was there, so they sat on their cots and talked. Dylan learned a fair amount about Cindy. Her father was an alchemist and her mother was a midwife. She came from a village between Allentown and Seron, and had two little brothers.

It was well after sunset and the small lamp that sat on a table by the door cast eerie shadows throughout the room. Both Cindy and Dylan had grown quiet and snoozed on the edge of deep sleep when Mally entered the room. She spoke not a word, but went straight to her cot and lay down preparing to sleep. Dylan dozed off not long afterward and never heard Roger come in.