at Whitehall–or worse.
“I shall assign your roommates to assist you, as you are unfamiliar with our world,” Mistress Irene added. Emily gulped; she liked Imaiqah, but she had the feeling that Aloha would be much less willing to help a newcomer explore the school. “Imaiqah needs to retake two classes, so she will accompany you to Transfiguration and Mentalist Magic. Depending on how you progress, you may be moved up to a more advanced class within the next two months.”
Emily nodded. The schedule listed a dozen different classes for a first year, including Alchemy, Charms, Cryptozoology, Divination and Ethics. A number of periods had been left blank, but she wasn’t sure if they were free periods for private study or if Mistress Irene hadn’t assigned her to specific classes for those times yet. Two periods on Tuesday and Thursday had simply been marked sport. Emily scowled at the thought. She’d moved to a completely new world and she was still forced to attend gym class.
Mistress Irene smiled. “You haven’t done that badly,” she said. “Void was right. You do have potential.”
Emily flushed. “But I couldn’t master the analysis spell. I ...”
The tutor laughed. “I’d be embarrassed if you mastered it without weeks of practicing. Do you know how long it took me to master it?”
Mistress Irene shook her head. “Go to the dining hall and eat,” she ordered. “And then let your amulet guide you to History of Magic.”
Emily nodded and left the office, thinking–as she left–that Mistress Irene wasn’t so bad after all. Perhaps she even had a heart of gold.
Chapter Eight
“H ISTORY IS NOTHING MORE THAN A series of opinions about the past,” Professor Locke informed his class. He was a short, elderly man with long white hair, wearing a pair of spectacles through which he peered suspiciously at his students. “Who, I might ask you, won the Battle of Janus?”
A male student raised his hand. “We did, sir.”
Another student jumped up almost before the first speaker had finished. “No, we won!”
Professor Locke smiled. “A perfect demonstration of the essential truth of my statement. The Battle of Janus was fought out between Umbria and Holm for domination of the city of Janus, and the trade routes that ran through the Janus mountain range. While Umbria was pushed back, allowing Holm to claim a victory, the battle was so costly that reinforcements from Umbria were able to push Holm back out of the city within the month.”
His smile grew wider. “So tell me. Who really won the battle?”
Emily considered the question while the more nationalistic of her classmates argued the point. Destroying an empire to win a battle was no victory, as she’d learned playing computer games; a victory that cost an army could be fatal if there was no time to produce a second army. There had been a Greek King who’d fought the Roman Republic, she recalled, who had bemoaned his exceedingly costly victory in one battle–and lost the war.
“The Allied Lands may have united to fight the necromancers,” the Professor said, “but they still disagree on many things. One of them is on history. No Kingdom or City-State shares the same view of history, which can be irritating if one happens to be a historian. And yet our history, which is shared even if they don’t want to admit it, explains why we ended up facing the necromancers today.”
There was a long pause. “Thousands of years ago, the human race warred with the elves. The elves were magic, the elves were formidable ... but there were millions of humans. It was our time, we believed, and we no longer wanted to be dominated by the Fair Folk. So we warred with them until they were driven back into their hidden settlements and built the First Empire in the rubble of their empire.
“But we made a dreadful mistake. We could have reached out to the orcs and goblins, offshoots of humanity created by the elves. Instead, also we warred with them,
“I shall assign your roommates to assist you, as you are unfamiliar with our world,” Mistress Irene added. Emily gulped; she liked Imaiqah, but she had the feeling that Aloha would be much less willing to help a newcomer explore the school. “Imaiqah needs to retake two classes, so she will accompany you to Transfiguration and Mentalist Magic. Depending on how you progress, you may be moved up to a more advanced class within the next two months.”
Emily nodded. The schedule listed a dozen different classes for a first year, including Alchemy, Charms, Cryptozoology, Divination and Ethics. A number of periods had been left blank, but she wasn’t sure if they were free periods for private study or if Mistress Irene hadn’t assigned her to specific classes for those times yet. Two periods on Tuesday and Thursday had simply been marked sport. Emily scowled at the thought. She’d moved to a completely new world and she was still forced to attend gym class.
Mistress Irene smiled. “You haven’t done that badly,” she said. “Void was right. You do have potential.”
Emily flushed. “But I couldn’t master the analysis spell. I ...”
The tutor laughed. “I’d be embarrassed if you mastered it without weeks of practicing. Do you know how long it took me to master it?”
Mistress Irene shook her head. “Go to the dining hall and eat,” she ordered. “And then let your amulet guide you to History of Magic.”
Emily nodded and left the office, thinking–as she left–that Mistress Irene wasn’t so bad after all. Perhaps she even had a heart of gold.
Chapter Eight
“H ISTORY IS NOTHING MORE THAN A series of opinions about the past,” Professor Locke informed his class. He was a short, elderly man with long white hair, wearing a pair of spectacles through which he peered suspiciously at his students. “Who, I might ask you, won the Battle of Janus?”
A male student raised his hand. “We did, sir.”
Another student jumped up almost before the first speaker had finished. “No, we won!”
Professor Locke smiled. “A perfect demonstration of the essential truth of my statement. The Battle of Janus was fought out between Umbria and Holm for domination of the city of Janus, and the trade routes that ran through the Janus mountain range. While Umbria was pushed back, allowing Holm to claim a victory, the battle was so costly that reinforcements from Umbria were able to push Holm back out of the city within the month.”
His smile grew wider. “So tell me. Who really won the battle?”
Emily considered the question while the more nationalistic of her classmates argued the point. Destroying an empire to win a battle was no victory, as she’d learned playing computer games; a victory that cost an army could be fatal if there was no time to produce a second army. There had been a Greek King who’d fought the Roman Republic, she recalled, who had bemoaned his exceedingly costly victory in one battle–and lost the war.
“The Allied Lands may have united to fight the necromancers,” the Professor said, “but they still disagree on many things. One of them is on history. No Kingdom or City-State shares the same view of history, which can be irritating if one happens to be a historian. And yet our history, which is shared even if they don’t want to admit it, explains why we ended up facing the necromancers today.”
There was a long pause. “Thousands of years ago, the human race warred with the elves. The elves were magic, the elves were formidable ... but there were millions of humans. It was our time, we believed, and we no longer wanted to be dominated by the Fair Folk. So we warred with them until they were driven back into their hidden settlements and built the First Empire in the rubble of their empire.
“But we made a dreadful mistake. We could have reached out to the orcs and goblins, offshoots of humanity created by the elves. Instead, also we warred with them,
Similar Books
