As the dark-skinned boy blew, a gale of wind blasted from his mouth and blasted into the wall with such force Aleric could feel the strands of his scarf jostling upwards into the air. He quickly pushed his scarf down and clapped excitedly alongside Elysia.

“That’s amazing!” Aleric said in awe, fascinated by Raghu’s ability to gather weird green glows with just his breath. He had never seen anything like this or even the idea to gather energy through other methods such as breathing it all in. So many questions were starting to appear in his head, and he wanted nothing more than to ask away.

“Can you also do that with other elements?” He turned to Raghu with wide curious eyes. The young blond was on his toes as an effect of discovering new knowledge. “Does it work with ea--. “ However, he quickly forced himself to stop upon hearing Crytho’s even tone. Falling silent, Aleric looked expectantly toward the children who had yet to introduce themselves, a boy with bright red hair and flowing gray cloak entered the small group.

The new arrival introduced himself as Apollo; a young lad who appeared to be a year or two older and a lot happier than most children currently in this huddle. Despite having already introduced himself, he figured it was okay to do it once for Apollo. With a soft sigh, he offered a small smile to Apollo and nodded politely. “Hello, I’m Aleric. It's nice to meet you.”

"I'm Martin" the boy who had kicked the seagull said, "And this is Aime. She doesn't hear too well. So you probably shouldn't talk to her." he put a hand on the girl's shoulder and then bent down to whisper something in her ear, and she looks up to everyone and gives a wide friendly smile.

Crythos leads you through town, past a large inn, the only building in town that seems to be more than one floor high, titled the Sword and Sword Inn. On the other side of the street you see an old blacksmith. A little further down an old woman sitting in front of her rundown little shack looks up from her knitting to give you a warm smile. The town is just starting to wake up. You are led all the way through town, through huge iron fence surrounding the grounds around the tower, but it looks incredibly small next to the tower itself. Everything does. The tower grows larger and larger as you approach, until you are standing right next to it and it seems to go up and up into the sky forever. The slight glow of the tower baths your face in warmth like the sun on a cold day, and all of you can feel the constant hum of magic permeating this place.

Crythos turns to face you all "Here we are. I will be testing you all before you will be permitted to access the tower." he reaches down and picks up a small grey set of ropes, "Once you pass the test, and don't worry it is not hard so you all should pass, you will be given these. They are your apprentice robes, they identify your rank and position within the college and they are also enchanted to allow you access to the main floors of the tower. I'll start with you Apollo. The rest of you may go claim a bed," he motioned to a pair of identical buildings to the edge of the Tower grounds, "Boys are on the right, girls are on the left. Get settled in, and I will send for you when it is your turn."

Apollo stepped forward slowly unsure he asked the question on his mind. "So what's this test?" He immediately fell into thought trying to figure out what it would be. He steadied himself for whatever was about to happen. He was a fighter, maybe a challenge of strength or fortitude? He could handle that. But what if it was a test book based knowledge or something else that required a lot of studying, no he had to push those thoughts away, he was going to enter that tower and make Stahl proud. Giving a confident smirk he stepped up looking at Crythos. "Bring it on teach, I can pass what ever test you throw at me!" He said with bravado, after all confidence is key to passing.

Elysia noticed the boy who had been attacked by the gulls with a few nips bleeding. She ran up to him and put her arm around his shoulders, a sympathetic look on her face while she would punch any gull that got near. ”You must be sweet or they wouldn’t try eating you like candy!” she said with a little laugh, trying to make him smile in her own, slightly morbid way. She tried to walk quickly with him towards the group so maybe the safety of numbers would distract or deter the birds, but she didn’t push him. She barely heard Apollo introduce himself, and Martin and Aime. Elysia was especially interested in the girl since she couldn’t hear well. Then again, anything out of the ordinary always intrigued Elysia.

She let her arm slide from around the boy at her side as they entered the town, where the gulls seemed less likely to swoop, staring open mouthed and taking in everything around them. She’d never been outside of her home before now, so seeing everything so different, and yet some similarities, was fun! Except the tower was nothing like anything at home. And once they reached it, she looked upwards until she fell stumbled, almost falling backwards and landing on her rear again. She blushed a bit and smiled, listening to Crythos.

”Ooo a test! I hope it’s fun,” she grinned, bouncing off happily towards the left building to go find her bed.

"How dare they attack an imperial noble." the red haired boy mutters in the imperial tongue shooting glares back at the gulls. Then looking up at the girl putting her arm around him, curiously. He stiffens as her arm goes around him. Most likely wondering why a commoner is helping him out. "Who?" he asks, in the common language, his speech heavily accented.

"The test is simple." Crythos explains, "The first thing you need to do is to pick a spell, something you can do with magic, anything really, and explain to me how you cast it. Go through each of the steps and describe what's happening. After you are done with that then you will demonstrate by casting it. Now you are lucky, because you are going first. I will not accept repeats from the rest of you, so if someone takes your spell you better think of something else"

Apollo nodded and took a deep breath gathering energy slowly, knowing that to much could be deadly, he had been thinking about this spell for the past day, he had never successfully cast it before but he figured he should go for broke. Calling to the Aether the air warmed around him as he gathered his energy he explained. "First reach out into the Aether and take the energy, right now I'm collect Aether to begin shaping my spell, my spell is the bow of flames." Next he began to envision saying each measurement out loud to focus himself on the spell "After gathering we shape the spell I'm creating a bow three feet long and one inch thick, the flames exactly 624.15 degrees Kelvin. Lastly a two and half band of string connecting the bow." Slowly as he spoke a flaming re-curved bow took shape, arrow forming as he pulled it back on the tiny string off flames and released the shot flying straight into the air and exploding raining down warm embers. After that display, Apollo promptly passed out having expended all his strength to make it fire once, the fire only at book burning temperature. As Apollo lay on the ground exhausted he was proud. He lay there passed out with a smile on his face.

Crythos approached the passed out kid, muttering something about not being too bad for a kid. He bent down and quickly checked him to make sure he was just passed out and not dead, or worse. Seeing that he was fine he motioned for one of the other students to help their classmate, taking note of who stepped up first as he would have to reward them later. "Alright. That was an interesting start, and a good demonstration of your first lesson. Know your limits. Never draw in too much power, or Aether. I'm sure many of you already know this but it will be drilled into your heads, as it should be, Aether is inherently chaotic. It will damage your body when you draw it through yourself. If you keep the amount you draw each day limited you will be fine. Minor damage will repair itself easily enough. Draw too much though and instead of just falling unconscious you will have your organs liquified and boiled. Anyway next? how about you?" He pointed to a dark skinned boy. Raghu or something like that.