Somewhere Someplace

Time began to flow, stream, and pass. Denizens stumbled in one-by-one, showing a varied degree of precaution regarding their spellcards, finding a desk to claim as their own. Eventually, all desks were claimed.

Silence, perfect silence.

Some were confident and bold, others nervous and terrified; the foreigner herself was flat affect… Expressionless in all ways. Suddenly, however, a denizen sneezed almost as loud as thunder—metaphorically. And this seemed to have caused quite a few to jolt in an abrupt spook… She could neither deny nor admit that she was…perhaps…one of such persons.

Nevertheless, eventually, a lead proctor followed by two others—auxiliary proctors—finally entered; they made way to the very front of this room as they promptly stepped onto a small wooden platform of sorts, which was slightly elevated with respect to the rest of the room.

“Now then, let us be underway with haste” so announced the lead proctor as the silent denizens’ attention fixated on him; “The purpose of this assessment is to evaluate your capabilities for responding and executing a fundamentally basic test spellcard belonging to your predominate school; this is a practical test of your affinity, in other words. Additionally, the purpose is to evaluate your general responsiveness and accuracy in executing a basic test spellcard of a random school for which you have no affinity” he explained.

“The instructions are as follows: going one-by-one, you are to, when explicitly instructed to begin, unwrap and unseal the spellcard of your affinity while keeping the card downfaced; you are to then carefully lift it and place it into your palm while remaining in the blinders, and hold it up to your eyes until you see the special indicator mark. Then you are to flip the card and maintain fixed eye contact until the spell induces a response; after the spell’s completion, you are to then repeat this procedure with your non-affinity spellcard; failure to follow these instructions properly will result in an immediate failure regardless of performance” he instructed.

“If the spellcard of your affinity does not activate within a maximum of five full seconds, you will be failed; if you fizzle the spell of your affinity, you will be failed; if you are responsive to the spellcard of your affinity but not the spellcard of your non-affinity, you will be failed; if you are unresponsive to both, you will most certainly be failed. Beyond responsiveness, there is no failure in regard to the spellcard of your non-affinity—fizzling the execution or having a delayed response are expected outcomes; a perfect execution of the spellcard of your non-affinity only gives additional considerations during the true application and selection process. Those who fail may simply leave; those who pass may turn in their document to one my of two aids, and they will handle the rest from there” he explained further.

The denizens around were somewhat intimidated by this proctor; he had quite the commanding voice and presence, a few were visibly anxious and on edge.

“Now then, without further delays: first row, begin. One at a time” he ordained, his eyes immediately fixating on the first person in the first row, who tensed up in visible nervousness.

Without delay, this denizen followed the procedures, unwrapping the concealed spellcard as she carefully stripped the strange exotic covering, revealing the arcane card in full. Its backside was rather glittery and elaborate in coloring, being a sparkly and shiny array of reds and oranges; the flaming symbol of the fire school was engraved in kind.

Spellcard in palm, this denizen carefully lifted her hand higher and higher until finally, her eyes could see that special marker—one only visible at this specific angle and proximity to the eyes, only present in ‘assessment cards’ like these.

This denizen stared it down; nervous, sweating somewhat, she felt strange—very strange. She had yet to even flip the card, but it already felt as though it was doing something to her… as if the face of the card was calling to…something…deeply imbued within her, for it did not feel as though it was just simply her mind that was reacting… Not at all.

This denizen gulped somewhat, before finally, with deep calming breath, she flipped the card; its face revealed for her eyes to see.

Instantly, her eyes ignited into fire-colored radiance as the sigil of the arcane revealed itself. The card dissolved into dusty radiance as faint hard-to-see wisps of fiery exoticism flowed from her manafield into a contained patch of air, both near and around her and the proctor.

Energy states began to change as temperatures increased; it felt hotter all so suddenly, heat radiating from this source. The spell lasted only a few seconds before deactivating; her mana retreated back into its field as her eyes deignited, leaving behind that ever-faint signa-burn. The heat generated diffused around the room as the air around normalized, the energy system stabilizing.

Truly… What a strange experience that was… to have such ignited eyes; to enact such a spell… It was so distinct from the normalcy which had so returned.

Indeed, such was usually the experience of those who had casted their first spell… That strange eccentric and undefinable feeling; that feeling of…doing something…yet not really doing something… There was not much of a feeling of direct control…at all, in fact.

Rather hard to describe, truth be told, this feeling was.

“You passed. Now, next card.” the proctor stated before so ordaining.

“Alrightly…” this denizen mumbled out, repeating the process with her next card, unwrapping and staring it down. This card’s backside was a glittery and potent array of leafily and lifely greens, with the symbol of the life school engraved.

Now far more confident, without any delay, she flipped the card over; staring and staring until, finally, after four seconds her eyes once again ignited into radiance, the card dissolving into dusty lifely-green exoticism.

Yet… There was no magical effect in sight…A dreadful feeling entered her being… Had she failed? Yet then, she realized… Her left arm… She could no longer feel it; it was seemingly plopped, immobile and unmovable… beyond simply numbed: paralyzed. Faint lifely-green radiance wisped off her arm slightly, the very nerves of her arm…were so seemingly…affected in kind.

“…I-I…can’t move my arm… I-I… What’s going on?!” she blurted aloud, panicking somewhat.

“Relax” the proctor stated, his arm also…completely paralyzed.

A few seconds passed, and finally…that denizen was able to somewhat move her arm again, though even after her eyes deignited and returned to normalcy, her arm…was slower and still sluggish to move; it felt like needles were piercing each and every nerve. Her left-arm would require some time to return to normal.

“Fizzled” the proctor thus spoke; “That spell fizzled or ‘fumbled’: it was only supposed to numb the pinkie, not the paralyze the entire arm; an example of an over-execution, fizzling need not appertain only to under-execution, it is a general failure in the precision of intended execution in all ways” he…somewhat lectured; “but, you passed overall; hand in your document”.

The denizen slowly nodded, acknowledging, before promptly doing just that… She handed in her document to one of the auxiliaries, thrilled in all ways.

The proctor then lanced his attention straight at the next denizen; “Alright, next. Begin.” he ordained.

This denizen, emboldened by what he had witnessed, immediately sprang into action; following the instructions, he unwrapped his spellcard—one ornated in an array of bright luminant yellows and whites; engraved with the symbol of the light school. He placed it upon his palm before slowly lifting it up…until he saw that same unmistakable marker.

Flipping the card, his eyes took ~4.998 seconds to respond before finally igniting into a luminant-yellow radiance. Suddenly, a tiny speck of an exotic wispy ‘light-ball’ formed above his head, hovering and floating around and about, before wispingly poofing away seconds later, his eyes returning to normalcy.

“Pass. Next card.” the proctor so quickly said and ordained.

This denizen, even more emboldened, immediately went for his next spellcard; snatching it in hand, he opened it up as if it were a mere specially wrapped festive gift. He hastily lifted it up at a rather…peculiar and…eccentric angle—without properly ensuring nobody could catch a glimpse from behind—and flipped it well before he could confirm whether he could see the marker or not.

He stared the card down, yet nothing happened—to him at least.

Suddenly, eyes behind him ignited in flashing response; a denizen directly to the right of the foreigner had been staring perhaps too attentively, and her eyes had caught an awkwardly angled glimpse of his spellcard along with some of its defining details. And, by chance, this denizen happened to have a potent affinity for the same school of that card; that being dark magic—evident from the card’s array of dark-violets, dark-purples, and blacks.

Her affinity made her especially sensitive to that card, seemingly; hence, as soon as she had peeked, her…something imbued deep within…responded instantly even from that peculiar angle and distance, well before the holder of the card’s own could process it,

The spellcard dissolved into a radiant nebula of black-purple…‘mana-stuff’; the dusty wisps of radiant exoticism streamed straight to that unwilling denizen behind, who was shocked, startled, and very surprised as the spell…without any input on her part…did its work.

A tiny speck of pure pulsating darkness so seemingly popped into existence, a speck that absorbed or perhaps…entrapped light within, hovering and floating around and about before suddenly popping in a flash.

“…h-huh???” the confused denizen blurted out, utterly bamboozled.

The proper denizen to whom that card belonged…stared, his eyes widening…in sudden realization; he had messed up, greatly, and he knew it.

The proctor also stared, blankly and unaffected; indifferent in absolute. He made ready to utter his voice, yet…

“…yeah, I failed” thus the denizen skipped ahead; “I know… Safety adherence failure… No need to tell me…” he spoke…

“Indeed. You may leave.” the proctor replied, bluntly and sternly. “There are reasons why you must adhere strictly to the safety precautions; spellcards are no gimmicks…they are one of the fundamental bases for magic. Even invocations, incantations, and all such verbiages that enact a spell, while existent, are fundamentally sourced from the dictations of a spellcard; an affinity is like a magnetic attraction—if you know what that is. A sensitivity and ease, as has been clearly demonstrated here…even a basic glimpse is enough to cause a response”.

This proctor must be the teaching sort, seemingly, considering he lectured as if this were some class and not a mere assessment test.

Nevertheless, the proctor then turned and fixated upon the unwilling denizen who had enacted the spell by accident; “And you, my dear lady, have passed by default… Your affinity is clearly strong both in theory and in practice to have enacted that spell from such an angle and distance—no need for further participation” he thus stated.

“…huh…a…a-alrightly then” she responded with bewildered yet welcomed surprise, before promptly making way to turn in her document. As she did so, she passed by that same light affinity denizen who was now departing and whose negligence had allowed her…own success, eyeing him; “Hey… Thank you for blundering, handsome” she thus thanked with a charming and cordial smile.

He blushed in return, eyes averting down in a sudden fluster; “…duhuh…” he mumbled out, the other giggling in response; how cute she must have thought.

Accidents and circumstantial blunders, sometimes the starting basis for human social relations, seemingly. Always fascinating to observe in a natural setting, albeit not as though the foreigner herself cared at all—quite the opposite, in fact.

“Bah… You two, take this outside” the proctor stating bluntly and scoffingly, before quickly fixating his attention upon the next denizen.

Three out of six done, three more to go. One was left before the foreigner herself.

“Well then, get on with it” the proctor so ordained.

The next denizen immediately sprang into action but was cautious not to make the same mistake as the prior denizen had just done. She carefully unwrapped her spellcard, placing it onto her palm before lifting it up until that special mark could be seen. She stared the spellcard down, the backside of which glittered in an elaborate array of…a gradient of dozens of seemingly random shifting colors, before flipping it.

Many seconds passed before spellcard finally dissolved into radiance, her eyes igniting into…not a single color nor even shifting between colors, rather a wild gradient of many colors…simultaneously all at once. Invisible roots of dusty exoticism extended out from the source’s manafield, weaving and targeting, before…suddenly…

Zap.

“OUCH! HUH?!” so blurted out a denizen directly to the foreigner’s left. This one had been zapped in the neck, albeit all persons around had an equal probability of being targeted, including the caster herself; though, this spell also zapped the proctor, always.

“Seven seconds… I am afraid to say” the proctor, unafraid, began to say…

The casting denizen’s eyes dimmed in both radiance and…life as she averted her gaze down and away…

“However, given the extreme rarity of any predominate affinity for wild magic…and in consideration to the perfect execution of the spell, I will opt to pass you; no need for further assessment, either” yet the proctor proceeded to state.

The denizen’s dimmed eyes widened with reignited life again, looking at the proctor with rather the abrupt smile; “…s-seriously? I mean… Alrightly! Th-th-thank you!” she thanked graciously, breaths filled with such relief; without any delay, she went to turn in her document.

The zapped denizen, on the other hand, stared silently with a slight annoyed pucker in her cheek, as she continued to rub at her sore neck; it was rashed somewhat but…it would go away, in time.

This all done, the proctor finally turned his fixation to the next one in queue… His demeanor changed as his piercing eyes peered even sharper and with genuine interest, for now it was…her turn—the turn of the most interesting…specimen to him, no doubt.

Hmm… Yet…the foreigner was cogitating, reflecting in her mind. These spells were far too basic to make proper any conclusions, but one interesting, albeit mundane, detail she had noted—specifically with that…bizarre ‘wild’ spell—was the apparent lack of any visible ‘roots’ or ‘presence’.

By default, there was usually…some faint and often barely visible—but not invisible—‘trail’ of dust-wispy exoticism with some vaguely discernable-ish connection with its source, as had been observed with that fire spell. That wild zap, however, appeared spontaneously and well…magically, with no clear connection or trail to its source, nor any presence of effect.

Interesting… This suggested…well quite the many complicated things…but her basic deductions were that either that spell did not have enough…oomph to it, so to speak, to utilize enough to have any visibility at all or that total visibility, or lackt thereof, was an aspect being actively controlled for regardless of task complexity—something which required…direct intent in design.

Indeed, aesthetics of execution seemed to be a tendency…she was beginning to notice with this limited sample observed so far, not just utility of effects… Which, if true, would be odd since, according to her understanding—and such was not at all her domain—most organically developed spell-coding systems never really cared for—

“Next! I just said next!” so the proctor ordained even louder in almost shout.

The foreigner, realizing, snapped out from the entrapping snares of her mind’s cogitations, staring at the proctor…blankly; “…oh rightly, I give sorry… I was…ehm…stuck in the head… Again…” she apologized, voice donning senses of embarrassment.

The proctor sighed; “No matter… You are already a strange one… But just get on with it; I am watching” he stated.

The foreigner took a deep, yet ever faint, breath; she stared down at the two concealed and wrapped spellcards below, resting upon her desk.

Thus, so began her own turn in this dance of cards and spells.