It felt like his old teacher would respond to his statement but before he would do so, they would be interrupted by a young boy approaching them. That curious glint was unmistakable in his eye as he regarded them with quite apprehension.<br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(84, 172, 210)">"Can I help you two gentlemen? Those maps are kinda old you know,"</span>He would ask, pointing at the map in Ian's hands.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(84, 172, 210)">"I'm Valentine."</span>Ian promptly rolled it up and stashed it away in his bag before addressing the boy.<br/><br/>Ian smiled at the boy and introduced himself to him, opting out of introducing Dayyan, favouring his interest in being anonymous. He was not here in any teaching capacity, although he knew later down the road his former tutor would certainly ask him to assist in that. He was not a fan of teaching people and so for this instance he was thankful for being unimportant enough to have his name introduced into the conversation. The more the spotlight shone on Ian, the more comfortable Dayyan was.<br/><br/>Shaking the boy's hand, Ian inquired about the whereabouts of his old student, Asterrio. Been a long while since he last saw Asterrio himself, his last memory was that of them studying together briefly in the last year in several classes and even engaging in some light-hearted challenge against each other. Academically of course. It surprised him to think that Asterrio would settle in a place many would consider dull and backwaterish.<br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(247, 218, 100)">"He tutors a number of students i hear. And i'd like to meet them,"</span>Ian would continue explaining as he fished out the core gauge for Valentine to see. It certainly piqued his interest judging by the way his eyes stared at it.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(247, 218, 100)">"I'm from the University of White Castle, and i've been tasked with finding talented Mages to return with me as students. If you could lead me to Asterrio that would be wonderful, Valentine."</span><br/><br/>The boy nodded in recognition of the name and switched his gaze towards Dayyan for a brief moment, looking at something on his person before doing the same to Ian before he answered.<br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(84, 172, 210)">"Yeah, I know Asterrio. Come on, he's probably at the school," </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(255, 255, 255)">Just like that, the boy was off leading them towards this school of theirs, Ian and Dayyan followed close behind as the boy began to speak about his experience with the school. </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(84, 172, 210)">"I mean, I went for a while. Mostly on and off, ya know? Mr. Asterrio though, said I had a real knack for it. This magic stuff, I mean. I liked his classes, first adult who really told me I was actually <i>good</i> at something. Said I was good at <i>memory</i> or some stuffy word like that. I didn't pay attention to what it was called, I just know I look at something and know how to fix it, and <i>boom</i>, it's fixed,"</span><br/><br/>Dayyan smiled at that description, magic certainly is a wonder to all ages, unceasingly amazing and one of the core reasons he threw himself into it's study intensely, a big reason he was who he was now and he was where he is. He wondered what his life would have looked liked had he not taken the same path he took now? Would he be a regular nobody living in this world? Would he be a leader instead? A criminal? A sceptic? One can only think in wonder.<br/><br/>Ian was excited at the prospect of finding someone gifted in memory magic and so began launching forth into lecture on memory magic and how great it is. Nothing new he had not heard of. The girl on horseback piped up at the mention of white castle in her excitement.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(255, 102, 255)">"You folks are from White Castle?!" </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(255, 255, 255)">Dayyan nodded and Ian turned to her this time, launching into another explanation of her incorrect labeling. Dayyan suppressed the urge to just roll his eyes about his teacher's stickling to details. He couldn't care less what he was called as. In the end, anyone who practiced magic was immediately set apart from the rest of the regular folk. In that regard alone, one could consider themselves already special.<br/>
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For the rest of the walk to school, Ian busied himself with talking to the two younglings and trying his best to answer their barrage of eager questions and unsatisfied curiosities. It was here as well that Dayyan was finally introduced to the boy and girl. Dayyan listened to their conversation while absentmindedly looking around the area, just trying to note something worthwhile for him to remember or catalogue into memory of this place. It was a few minutes but they finally made it. It was a larger hut than the rest they have passed on their way and it looked more maintained than the rest of the buildings here. Nowhere near the quality of the estates that were overlooking the village though.</span><br/><br/>The entrance made way to a single room affair, spacious enough to accommodate a large class, with a side door that must have led to the rest of the hut and to where Asterrio lived. He was instantly greeted by the face of Asterrio as he turned to see who had entered. Their eyes locked for a moment and Dayyan smiled for that moment before Ian walked in and grabbed Asterrio's attention, launching into an embrace and then questioning each other on life and everything in between. Dayyan had his hands in his coat pockets as he casually turned his face to the right and scanned the room, watching the faces of the -- 13 students currently in attendance. Some were whispering and murmuring, no doubt surprised at the arrival of two strangers in here. His eyes lingered on a slight green-skinned girl, a goblin by the looks of it. She stared back unflinching, interesting indeed. He turned back to the reminiscing student and teacher, hugging Asterrio now and exchanging pleasantries with his old classmate. After that was done, Asterrio introduced both of them to the classroom and explained their purpose here and what that would entail for them.<br/><br/>It was clear they were quite excited about the whole thing, any chance to leave this place for an opportunity of a lifetime was golden. Apart from the goblin girl and a trio of elves, the rest were human. Ian had the rod in hand, extending to Dayyan as he grabbed it.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(247, 218, 100)">"Would you like to do the honors? We can take turns, but will have to evaluate everyone thats interested of course."</span><br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(235, 107, 86)">"Fine by me."</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"> He said as he turned to the class to pick his first student. The goblin girl tried to raise her hand but surprisingly, Asterrio shut her down and he watched her as she lowered her hand dejectedly. Odd, but he was suddenly curious about that. Why is the goblin not allowed to partake the test? Last he checked, White Castle had nothing against other races, even if said race was a goblin. He'll have to ask him later in private. For now, he guess he'd begin in order and so chose the first student on the front row from his left. Approaching them, he stood in front of the student but before he started, he addressed the whole class and began to explain about the mechanism of the device. </span><br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(235, 107, 86)">"This here is a core gauge,"</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"> He held it up for them to see it clearly. </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(235, 107, 86)">"As the name suggests, this device measures first and foremost your core capacity, and as it does so, it also shines in different colours depending on what type of magic you have an affinity for or are most developed in. You have six types of magic: Heat, Inertia, Memory, Conduction, Enhancement, and lastly clairvoyance. Heat shines red, Inertia shines yellow, memory is green, conduction glows blue, enhancement is brown and last but not least, clairvoyance shines a bright white." </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"> As he concluded his explanation, he channeled his own magic into the gauge, the crystal orb quickly filling up with a dark brown that shone brightly in the classroom. </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(235, 107, 86)">"You just grab unto it and channel your magic into the rod and it will do the rest. Don't worry about breaking it, focus all your magical power into it for an accurate estimation of your skill level. One last thing to note, the more intense the colour, the better." </span><br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(255, 255, 255)">He offered the rod to the first student, a human, who gingerly took it from Dayyan and looked at him with hesitation before Dayyan nodded and the student closed his eyes to focus. It was a while before something happened, some magic pooled into the crystal and shone a light yellow. It barely filled a quarter of the orb before it began to flag and decrease as the student visibly panted with the effort. Not a promising start but he had 12 others to go. 11 other students excluding the goblin. </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(235, 107, 86)">"You seem to have a knack for Inertia. Focus on that and practice with magic more often to start expanding your core capacity." </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(255, 255, 255)">He advised the first student and so he continued gauging the students one by one, some shone blue, some shone yellow, some brown, and as they did, he offered advice on what they should improve.<br/>
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He finally reached the elves, they were smug and cast quite a few mean looks toward the green girl. He silently gauged all three and found them to be wanting. One was a conductor, the other was an enhancer, and the third was a clairvoyant. All had decent cores but other than that they seemed talentless judging by the almost transparent colours of their magic. Dayyan offered no words of advice to them and moved on towards Valentine now that he finished with the students.</span><br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(235, 107, 86)">"Alright memory boy. Let's see how you hold up." </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(255, 255, 255)">He said as he offered him the rod. Annie would be next after him and that would conclude the rest of them. Ian mentioned that he would share but his conversational catch up with Asterrio got him completely distracted but Dayyan did not mind one bit. </span>