The Mages of Royas Bay (Mages of Wrystan 1)

Chapter 14: Mage School, Part 1

"ARIEN!" SIDONY SPOTTED her elusive friend as he entered the dining room the next morning, and not just because Mage Faron was with him. Tall and still too skinny, looking around with wary eyes, Arien would always stand out in a crowd. He looked like a crane amongst geese.

Standing on the bench, Sidony waved her arms to attract his attention. More than one disapproving frown was sent her way, but she didn't care. Plenty of people had sneered at her over recent days because she was too happy or too loud or too bouncy. The miseries. Why shouldn't she be happy? She was at the mage school. Why shouldn't she be loud? She was a battle mage. Perhaps the bounciness was a bit much, but she couldn't help it if she was excited. This was an exciting place. They were mages, for stone's sake.

Mage Faron saw her flailing arms, put a hand on Arien's shoulder and murmured something in his ear. Arien spotted Sidony and smiled. It made her sit down sharply. She wasn't used to Arien smiling, but then when they'd met none of them had had much to smile about. She was glad he was smiling now.

As Faron patted the boy on the shoulder and sent him in her direction, Sidony shuffled her plate to one side and motioned for her neighbour to budge up. She'd purposefully sat at the end of the table because she hadn't wanted Arien to feel overwhelmed. Sitting next to her would be more than enough for one morning.

"Hello, Ari," she greeted. "I saved you a place. Morning, Rowan."

She held her hands up to the pine marten while his mage slid onto the bench with a murmured, "Thanks."

"So you're living here now?" she asked, stretching across the table to grab the last two bread rolls, then snagging a fruit bowl, the toast rack, the butter slab and some honey, all of which she dumped in front of Arien. "About time. Did Hawk come with you? Do you know why he's been moved from the page wing? Does he mind? I heard the cart had to go back three times to transport all his stuff!"

Arien was staring at the pile around his plate, to which Sidony added some sausages, a crock of porridge and a plate of ham. She passed on the kippers since he was looking a little green. Kippers, in Sidony's opinion, were enough to put anyone off their breakfast.

"Umm... thanks," he muttered, then looked up as someone asked him to pass the ham. He did so with obvious relief.

"Sorry." Sidony's shoulders slumped and she passed along the fruit bowl at her neighbour's request. "I didn't know what you liked to eat."

Getting rid of the sausages, the porridge and the bread rolls, Arien spread some butter on two slices of toast and added some honey. He bit into his first piece with a smile. "Toast is fine," he said. "And yes, I'm living here now, next to Hawk. Sir Tobias and Mage Faron moved him because they want to make sure he's not overdoing things. I don't know if he minds or not, and the cart only made one trip."

"Oh." She'd been hoping for some dark or at least embarrassing reason for why Hawk had left the page wing. Still, he was here now and that was what mattered. Arien too. She'd grown to like both boys on her trip to the city and she'd missed having them around. Not that she was the only newcomer to the school, but the others all seemed so boring.

Then again after their forest adventure most things seemed boring these days. Especially all the endless lessons. When were they going to learn about real magic?

"Who's your friend, Lady Sid?"

Sidony looked across the table as Fort, one of her favourite fellow students, sat down. She grinned at him. "This is Arien. He's Mara's student."

The boy raised his eyebrows and looked at Arien more closely. "Are you now?" he said softly and offered his hand across the table. "I'm Fort Valentin, a middling battle mage, and this is Tai, my daft mage-beast." He shoved the inquisitive dog's nose off the table, where it had been snuffling dangerously close to the sausages.