Lysander crept into the common room reserved for seniors. A hushed silence filled the room like light through the glass windows of a centuries-old cathedral. A lonely lizard crawled along one of the windows. The faint smell of ammonia mixed with one part sodium
hydroxide, two parts liquid aluminium. He had been right all along. Someone had been
here the previous night.
Everyone in Suve knew that this was the only
sure potion for sending a helpless victim into delirium. It had been banned for centuries, but when the new king ascended, he lifted the ban. Some said that it was to get brownie points with the wizards from the Hole. A few weeks after he came to power, shops started selling it. Now anyone could get their hands on it. For some it was a way of playing cruel
practical jokes on their juniors. But for others it was much worse. It was a method of torture.
Lysander slowly gathered his notebooks from the wooden desk standing in the far corner. He
walked to the door, cursing himself that he hadn't thought to come here the previous night. The door with its rusty hinges banged shut as he walked in the direction of his classroom.
All of the trainees at Eldo high school in the kingdom of Suve were vying to become
magicians of the highest order. Lysander was one of them. He sat down at his desk in the middle, his thoughts leading him back to the events of that morning. The dimly lit room. The undeniable smell of ammonia. He slumped down on his desk.
Suve was known throughout the history of the universe of Utshide as a kingdom that produced the most powerful magic, powerful enough to reinstate fallen kings and restore peace among the warring kingdoms of Utshide. But there were obstacles to this. Obstacles that no one could conquer.
The teacher entered the room. The murmuring died down in a few minutes. When he
announced that Hiromi from the neighbouring kingdom of Alsaideas had joined the cohort of young witches from Suve and would be attending their class that year, there was a stunned silence. Why she had done so was something that no one knew. Talk around town was that Hiromi the daughter of Alsaideas' emperor had bought for herself a place amongst the elites of Suve.
She walked into the classroom housed under a glass dome with green ivies growing around it. She looked like a small white elfin teen in her thick black cloak. Her loafers made a clacking sound on the wooden floor. She walked past Lysander, and he caught the scent of sea salts as her hair brushed against his face.
Lysander, startled, looked up from his reading. Hiromi took a seat in one of the back rows and proceeded to take out a small leather bound
notebook from her bag. She fumbled for a pen.
Lysander carefully observed this from the corner of his eye.
"This is exactly what I saw in my dreams a year ago. Who is she? But isn't she a princess,
daughter of the emperor of Alsaideas? That's what everyone was gossiping about. They said she's a snob. What is she doing here with people like us from a neighbouring kingdom? Is she trying to steal our magic?"