Sarah's Story Chapter 032 - Magical Aptitude Testing

Sarah discovered that she had magical potential. She had that magical energy, mana, which was what fueled the use of magic and magical items. The trainer took interest in her again, and taught her the two ways of disarming magical traps. The first, preferred approach was to apply mana to disrupt the flow of magical energy in the trap without triggering it. This took Sarah several days to become accustomed to doing, but eventually she was able to disarm all of the magical model traps in this way.

The second approach involved just blasting the trap with mana so fast and hard it blew out the flows of magical energy and broke it. Done fast enough, the trap wouldn’t even activate.

Sarah felt she had something of a talent for this method. She mastered it on the first day, and endured quite the scolding from the trainer for breaking all his magical trap models. He then sent her to the Mage’s Guild to get them repaired.

While at the Mage’s Guild she got her magical aptitude measured, even though the Clerk there gave her a weird look for doing so at her age, clearly beyond her Choosing Day and on an errand for the Adventurer’s Guild.

He handed her a rod, and she held it in her hand and saw that the bar started to glow starting near her hand, and eventually extending to about halfway up the rod.

The Clerk nodded and took the rod back. “About average then. With training you could expand your mana pool somewhat, but whether it’s worth it or not depends on your affinities.”

He pulled out a board on which were affixed several stones of various colors. Red, Blue, Green, Brown, White, and Black.

They glimmered in the light streaming through the high windows.

“If you have an affinity, when you touch the stone you should feel an emptiness within that you can push mana into, and when you do push mana in, the stone will glow. Well, except the Dark magic crystal, that one will emit shadow, but it’s the same principle…”

“Are these all the affinities?” Sarah asked.

“Well, yes and no. These are all the fundamental, or basic, affinities. Or magical elements. There are other elements for which one can have affinity, but they are all tied to at least one of these basic affinities. So while you may have other affinities beyond these basic affinities, if you have any affinities at all, you will have at least one of these six here.”

“Sounds complicated,” Sarah noted idly.

“There are people who spend a lifetime researching magical affinities,” the clerk replied with a tired look. “Please, go ahead and touch each stone in turn. Your model traps should be repaired shortly.” He turned and walked back beyond the receptionists area to a large space containing rows of long tables with bench seats at which sat dozens of young mages, Sarah’s age to slightly older, working on or appraising magical items.

She took a moment to look around the Mage’s Guildhall. It was so different from the Adventurer’s Guild. For starters, it was made almost entirely of stone, with tall glass windows letting in natural light, and high ceilings. Even the seating was all stone benches. There was no rack for gear, just a few unused hooks for cloaks. Nor was there a bar. Instead there was a small table where a woman sat idly reading a book, and behind her was a small hill of crates. On the table in front of her were a number of glass bottles containing fluids of various colors.

Strangest of all was her [Danger Sense]. It was… muted. [Threat Awareness] would give her little pings as the mages at their desks did… something, but it would fade quickly.

Sarah refocused and started touching the stones on the board in front of her.

Red. No reaction.

Blue. No reaction.

Was she doing this right?

Green.

A green light shone from the crystal, and a tiny, barely perceptible vortex of air swirled around the crystal and her finger. Ah, there it was, that emptiness the clerk had described. Sarah found that she could pull her mana back and the crystal would stop shining, and pour more in and the crystal would shine brighter and the wind would pick up just a little bit more.

She grinned and moved on, excited to see if she had any more affinities.

Brown. No reaction.

White. No reaction.

She frowned. Okay, last one! She thought to hype herself up.

Black. No reaction.

She pulled her hand back and was staring intently at the board when the clerk returned.

“Here are your trap models back.” He roughly set down the handful of metal plates on which were inscribed the magical circuits that made up the trap. “So, any affinities?”

Sarah nodded, lips pursed. “Yeah, just the green one, though.”

“Wind huh?” The clerk nodded. “Well, even so long after your Choosing Day, you can still make use of it a little. Wind enchantments will be stronger and more efficient for you, for instance. And there’s nothing stopping you from using other enchantments, or cantrips–”

“Cantrips?” Sarah interrupted.

“Ahem, yes, non-elemental lesser magics,” the clerk responded, “these are mostly tied to your Class and activated by Skills, however.”

“Is that [Danger Sense]?” Sarah asked.

“No, that’s different,” the clerk said, definitively. “Anyway, would you like to check for advanced affinities? We have a board of Wind-derivative magic stones, but to check costs two silver.”

Sarah’s eyes flew open wide. “Two silver?!”

The clerk shrugged. “It’s worth it for some people, mainly nobles who want to ensure their children have the best options on Choosing Day. Lightning Mages, for instance.”

Sarah had a thought. “Is there a kind of mage who can find people? Like, missing people?”

The clerk thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Not to my knowledge, no. Divination is considered a, ahem, miracle…” he leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “cantrip,” before leaning back and continuing, “and miracles are the purview of the Temples and Churches, not Mages. Although that doesn’t stop us from researching, of course. Though I’ve never heard of a Priest divining the location of a particular missing person before.”

“Ah, okay…” Sarah replied and her shoulders sagged.

It was worth a shot.

And so Sarah left the Mage’s Guild carrying the trap models and brought them back to her instructor.