I entered the office, noting the sign:
Director of the Kitezh Higher School of Magic
His Excellency, the Count
Orlov Ivan Fedorovich
My father was waiting for me inside, and in the next chair sat a stranger wearing dark glasses. He must have been the school principal. A strange man. Why wear dark glasses indoors, I wonder? Despite that, I liked him, and I liked the whole place. Finally, my father had taken me somewhere interesting, not to see just another shrink.
"My name is Ivan Fedorovich Orlov," the stranger introduced himself. "I am a Master of Magic and the Director of this place."
"I guessed, Your Excellency; you have a sign on the front door."
"Well done," he smiled. "Some people don't realize. Do you know what this place is?"
"Uh-huh, the Kitezh Higher School of Magic. The wealthiest nobles study here."
"You meant the most powerful Gifted," the Count corrected me. "While there are plenty of offspring of wealthy families here, I won't argue; there are plenty of those who are not so wealthy, too."
Well, whatever you say, you could put the question that way. It's just that I'm not entirely clear what I'm doing here, personally. Even if I assume my father somehow convinced the principal to let me attend this school, it's still too early. You can only go here after you're fourteen, right?
"Your father says your ancestral Gift has awakened, and you're already quite adept at herbology and elixir-making: a future genius alchemist!"
"I wouldn't say so. I think I still have some work to do."
"I don't even doubt it," he agreed. "And yet, tell me, do you by any chance know what ingredients are in a regular cough elixir?"
"Coltsfoot, plantain, and licorice," I replied. "That's the standard elixir. You can modify it slightly depending on the type of cough you have."
"Not bad, not bad at all," the headmaster smiled. "A worthy answer for a twelve-year-old. Now let's make the task a little more challenging. Since you're studying Herbology, perhaps you could tell me something about the red shield bug?"
"I can, but not very much. It doesn't grow here, and there's very little written about it in herbology books."
"What books do you mean?"
"Herbology for Beginners" and "First Lessons in Mastery." My father hasn't given me the others yet.
In fact, I've read other books, of course; there are plenty of them online. I just don't want my father to know about it.
"Then how did you manage to create an elixir whose recipe isn't in these books? Your father says you must have made something special."
"It happened once. I found a couple of torn pages between books in my grandfather's library," I lied. "I have no idea where they came from."
"Really? Okay, let's say. So what do they actually write about the red shield bug in those books you've read?"
It grows in North Wales and is best collected at night during the last week of July. It's very useful for making burn ointments. Dried, it shouldn't be stored for more than a couple of years; after that, it loses its properties and becomes useless. According to popular belief, rubbing your heel with red shield mushrooms on Christmas Eve will bring good luck for the next year.
"So what do you think about this, Maxim?" he asked.
"I haven't made ointments out of it, I won't lie, but rubbing your heels with it is complete nonsense. I wouldn't do it."
"Why is that?" the Count asked.
"There is nothing that can bring good luck."
"How do you know this?"
"From the book by Derik Stoff, White Magic Rituals: Truth and Myths."
The smile disappeared from the school principal's face, and this made me a little wary: had I said something wrong?
"Really? So where did you get this book?" he asked.
"My grandfather has one of these in his library. Isn't it okay to read it?"
"What makes you think so?"
"Well, you asked so sternly."
"No, of course you can read it, it's just... Tell me, what other books on magic have you come across?"
I won't tell you that. There are too many questions. And you'll also want to know about my friend Dorian, who moved into my home a couple of years ago. He doesn't want anyone to know about him.
"We've come across different ones, Mr. Director."
"Hmm... You really are an interesting young man, Maxim Temnikov; your father turned out to be right."
The Count suddenly rose from his chair, went to the far corner of the room, picked something up, and returned. He was holding a small aquarium containing a plump orange fish.
"This is a goldfish," he said. "Her name is Medea."
I looked indifferently at the fish, which was lazily moving its fins and wide-eyed at me.
"You can't by any chance make her die?"
"For what?"
"Don't worry about her; I'll figure out how to revive her later," Ivan Fyodorovich assured me. "So what? Can you do it?"
"No, I don't want to," I shook my head. "But I can do it like this."
I looked at the fish and ordered it to jump out of the tank, which it promptly did. The Director suddenly looked at me strangely, then picked Medea up and placed her back in the tank, where she continued to lazily move her fins. I wondered if she even noticed she'd briefly left it.
The room fell silent. The adults were silent, exchanging glances, and all I could do was stare at the fish, which had now retreated to the far corner of the aquarium. How boring...
"Listen, Maxim, I've been thinking..." the principal finally spoke. "Would you like to stay here for a while? I think a guy like you would really like our school."
The Master looked at me for a while, then continued:
"It's true that all our guys are a bit older. But I heard you find it even more interesting this way, huh? What do you think?"
"Actually, I already go to a school not far from our house, but I really like it here much better."
"You see, that's good," the Count nodded. "And don't worry about that school. Your dad will sort everything out there and tell you that you're studying here now. He'll tell your mom everything too, so she won't worry."
"Well, I don't know. Is the food here tasty?"
"Finger-licking good," Ivan Fyodorovich chuckled. "By the way, it's four times a day, and on weekends, the best students get a double portion of dessert."
That's how I ended up at the Kitezh Higher School of Magic.