Advanced Gifts I [Altsoba 1x1]

romamaro

Well-Known Member
Elpida Smith entered her Advanced Gifts I classroom, glancing around passively at her classmates as they tested their gifts. The classroom was alive with flurries of wind, sparks of fire, and the occasional drip from the ceiling. Elpida dodged these small displays as she made her way to her seat off towards the side of the classroom.

As a sorcerer grew, their gifts would start to fade, until only one remained. You were expected to know which one of the gifts was yours by the time eleventh grade came around. Even if they were only in tenth grade, lots of her classmates were already certain on what their gifts were. Elpida was one of those people, and because of that she didn't see much point in the generic 'Advanced Gifts' class, when most people could probably hold their own in a Gift Specialisation class by now.

She didn't have much time to unpack her things or find her friends before the professor entered. Professor Moore was a tall, wiry black woman, with coarse brown hair, threaded with greys, always scraped back into a too-tight bun. She smiled professionally at the class as she entered, fingers clenched tightly around the binder she held in her arms. "Good morning class," she said, standing in front of the blackboard.

"Now, I'm sure you all know that it's coming to the end of the year. If you haven't already, over the summer you will be expected to make a decision on which of your gifts is the strongest. When you come back after the summer holidays, you will have to take part in the Declaring Ceremony, where you display to the school a show of your gift."

"We'll start the lesson with a few signs which might indicate to you which of your gifts is the strongest." The professor sat her binder down on her desk, and with a flick of her wand started the chalk writing on the board.

Half an hour passed, and the physical part of the lesson began. This was the best bit, as far as Elpida was concerned. "Now," Professor Moore began, "you'll all want to test which of these gifts is the strongest. If one of your gifts has already faded, just leave it out, and definitely do not try to force it." She fixed the class with a serious look on her last instruction, but soon broke the grim mood. "Just work with the person sitting beside you. Keep your displays small; we don't want the building burnt down!"

Elpida sighed in relief, glad to be finally able to do the actual magic that she loved. She pulled her wand out of her hoodie pocket, spinning it between her fingers as she turned to the boy beside her.

Elpida didn't know much about Arthur. He was taller than her by at least a foot, with vibrant red hair. She hadn't heard him speak much, but she'd heard someone mention that he wasn't from America or Canada. She flashed him a smile, white teeth sparkling. "Hey! Arthur, right? I'm Elpida." The single desks were somewhat far apart, so Elpida stood and shuffled her chair over to sit with him. "How're you doin'?" she asked politely, the smile not faltering.
 
Arthur looked at the board once more to make sure he understood what to do, then turned to face his partner. "Right," he smiled a small smile. Elphida looked kind, and was already very polite. "Nice to meet you, I'm doing pretty well. A bit tired, though." He looked down at his wand for a second, already knowing what sort of spells he would use. "Fauna's already gone for me, but only that gift. You?"

Arthur moved around in his chair, cursing the hard wooden seat in his mind. Schools seemed to delight in uncomfortable chairs and oddly low desks, no mater if they were magical schools or regular schools. He couldn't stretch his almost awkwardly long legs out, either, so he was a bit aggravated. It happened every year, but got a bit worse every time as he just continued to grow. Arthur wasn't really sure when he would stop growing, but he was beginning to think he had none of his mother's five foot eleven genes, only his father's genes at a staggering six foot six. As such, Arthur had long since gotten used to the fact that he would most likely be the tallest in any room he entered from now until the end of time.
 
It took a moment for Elpida to adjust to the accent. While she'd known he wasn't from the area, she hadn't thought he was...god, what was that accent? English? It was somewhere in Britain, she was pretty sure. She didn't want to ask - Elpida herself had a European twinge to her Canadian accent, and it was annoying for people to ask all the time - so she put it off to the side for now. Maybe if he was comfortable about it, she'd ask then.

Elpida thought for a second, sighing. "See, it's different from day to day. Sometimes one of them's super strong, and sometimes it's barely there at all. But wind and fauna are totally gone, no chance of it being them." As she spoke, she reached back and grabbed her bag from under her table. She pulled it onto her lap, unzipping it and pulling out a water bottle. She drank a fair amount of it, then left it on it's side on the table. "I couldn't tell you what's going to be the strongest today..." she admitted, picking her wand up. She pointed the wand upwards, and said clearly, "flamma!"

A small flame sparked at the tip of her wand. It fizzed like a lit candle, popping and jumping as it stretched slightly upwards. However, it quickly shrunk, flickered, dimmed, and then disappeared in a puff of smoke. She sighed, blowing at the smoking tip of her wand. "Fire doesn't like me today," she commented with a laugh.
 
Arthur watched as Elphida's tiny flame died out, his smile widening the tiniest bit. Elphida's energy was infective, even if she seemed relatively calm compared to some other 10th year students. Arthur's attention was yanked away as another student was a bit too enthusiastic and almost magically chucked a rock at his head. Thankfully, Arthur ducked just in time for it to go whizzing over his bright hair. It was close however, and Arthur watched as Professor Moore berated the student who'd almost bashed Arthur's head.

Arthur turned his attention back to Elphida. "Sorry," he said quietly. "I don't envy that kid. The professor's terrifying when she's tamping." Less than a second later Arthur remembered that 'tamping' wasn't used outside of Wales and immediately went a a very very very light shade of pink around the ears and cheeks. "Uh, tamping is a Welsh term for furious." Arthur smiled awkwardly. "I tend to forget which terms are only used in Wales."

Arthur looked at the wand in his hands, then quickly uttered, "flamma," just like Elphida had before. While the flame that spouted from his wand was larger and stronger than Elphida's, it was still much weaker than it could have been. "Neither of us are fire, it seems," Arthur said, a wry grin on his face.
 
As Elpida was facing Arthur, she was the first to spot the rock hurtling towards him. She cried, "πρόσεχε!" lapsing into her somewhat-native Greek to warn the Welsh boy. However, Arthur had quicker reflexes than her, and the rock went flying over his head and found it's destination on Arthur's desk. She turned her attention to the boy who had thrown it, snapping at him in vulgar Greek that lead Professor Moore to give her a warning glare. She mumbled a quick, "sorry," to the professor, then sunk in her chair and came back to Arthur and their assignment. She flashed him an apologetic smile, and though the angry fire clearly still burned in her chest, she seemed to tamp it down to try and keep going.

Seeing how he became awkward, Elpida gave her partner a gentle smile. He was from Wales, then. "Don't be silly," she said with a laugh. "I know what it's like. There are lots of silly Greek phrases, too. You try and tell someone something they said was funny, you end up talking about your intestines falling out. Languages are funny like that."

She watched his small display, trying to avoid the spark of jealousy that heated her cheeks. She didn't have any reason to be jealous, it wasn't like they were competing, but something about the fact that he'd done better was enough to light a fire under her ass. "So it would seem," she agreed.

At the front of the class, the professor had set out a few objects that could be used to measure a gift. A few bugs in containers for Fauna, a selection of rocks for Earth, and so on and so forth. Elpida went to get up and get a stimulus of sorts, but her eyes fell on the rock that had been thrown at them. She smirked as she picked it up, mumbling, "might as well."

She held her wand delicately, her long index finger running down the length of it. She poked a small patch of moss on the top of the rock, saying, "ventus" - the winding spell. The moss shifted around her wand, stretching up to meet her like the branches of an old tree. It snaked up the pointed end of her wand, braiding itself around the wooden stick. A bead of sweat formed on her brow as she struggled to keep the spell going, and with a sudden gasp she released, dropping the rock to the table. She swore in Greek, rubbing her temple with one hand and shaking her head. She apologised to Arthur in a mumble, unscrewing the top of her water bottle and drinking a fair amount of it.
 
To say Arthur was glad someone understood his language dilemma was an understatement. He felt like he was really understood by someone beyond a fleeting moment for... well. Perhaps since he had first entered Altsoba. It was a welcome change, but a strange one all the same. Perhaps there were more people like Elphida in his grade. If not, perhaps Elphida would turn out to be a friend, rather than a friendly classmate.

Arthur watched as Elphida tested her Earth gift, admiring the way the moss twisted and curved. It was beautiful, and for a moment Arthur desperately hoped his gift would be Earth. But that gift wasn't his strongest, and while it usually came as a close second he could practically feel it dwindling in his bones.

After shaking his head at Elphida to let her know it was no big deal, Arthur waved his wand at the rock and said, "Infigura Quadratum!" The rock twisted and bent, the movement less beautiful in a flowing way like the moss, but beautiful in a hardy and strong way all the same. The rock shaped itself into a rather jagged square, very rough but with mostly defined edges. Arthur took a few more gulps of water from the blue water bottle with the suspiciously constellation-like white dots and let another smile grace his heavily freckled face. "My strongest gift so far, I do believe. It's been getting worse for a while though," he admitted.
 
She'd pushed herself a little too far while trying to show off. This wasn't uncommon for Elpida, and this wasn't the worst she'd ever done it. The guzzled most of the water as she tried to bring herself back to some state where she was fit to do magic again, blinking rapidly to force her vision to focus. She barely focused on Arthur's spell, though managed a smile, still able to recognise that it was a powerful gift. "Nice," she commented, though not quite focused just yet.

She went to drink what was left of the water, but felt the wand in her hand pull slightly against her. Not yet, she practically heard it whisper in her ear. After a moment of holding the bottle and staring into the liquid, she realised why.

She screwed the top off and laid it on the table, open side up. "Watch this," she said, a smirk curling the corner of her mouth. She took her wand and put it into the bottle, just barely touching the water, wand tip first. Spinning her wand slowly in a circle around the edge of the bottle, she whispered, "gurgitem abripuit!"

Like the moss, the water stretched up to meet and wind around her wand, forming a concentrated whirlpool. As soon as the spell began, Elpida felt the energy rush into her, felt something click. It felt like returning home, like breathing fresh air after being trapped in a coffin. The water was so strongly spiraling around her wand that she was able to pull it out of the bottle and let it drop directly into her mouth, like an emperor feeding themselves grapes. She beamed at Arthur, saying quietly, "I may have just discovered my gift."
 
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