Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

I couldn’t afford to let that happen. I needed this training, as well as the chance to serve out my military years as a climber.

I would not let myself fail here.

Sera examined her watch, a purchase from our recent shopping excursion. “Five minutes to go.” She shook her head. “Try to breathe, Patrick.”

He gave a nervous chuckle. “Breathing. Right. I knew I was forgetting something.”

She smirked. “As for the rest of you, once we get inside, just follow my lead. If this is anything like the actual tower we won’t have any difficulty.”

When I said “most” of us were nervous, Sera was the exception. Her grin was razor-sharp and her eyes glowed with eagerness.

I wish I could have mirrored her enthusiasm.

The doors opened a couple minutes later and an unfamiliar second-year student led us inside. She was a short, black-skinned girl with stylish spectacles and a pristine Serpent-class uniform.

I’d never been inside the testing facility before. I knew Tristan had taken a practice Judgment in a similar place at a different school, but I never had the chance to do the same.

The entry room was remarkable in its unremarkableness. Just white-painted walls, a row of five chairs, and doors at the center of each wall. It was perfectly square, maybe twenty feet across.

The older student led us to the chairs. “Sit.”

We took our seats, glancing at each of the doors. They weren’t marked.

The student folded her arms. “Okay, we’re short on time, so I’ll get right to it. The first test is with smaller groups, so you’re splitting up. Two groups of two, one standby. Both the groups of two will start at the same time in different tests. Either of them can call in the standby to swap out for one of their members at any time. I’ll give you a signet to call the swap. You’ve got…” she looked at her wrist, but she wasn’t wearing a watch, “…three minutes to pick your teams. Wait here.”

With that, she walked away, heading into room directly opposite from where we’d entered. We dragged our chairs into a circle, and then looked expectantly at Sera.

She drew back, glancing around. “Don’t stare at me. This is a group decision.”

We kept staring.

She caved with characteristic eye roll. “Okay, fine.” She pursed her lips and looked around at us. “This is a good opportunity for us to work together on a smaller scale. It’ll help with our teamwork when we do the bigger tests… I’m sure that’s the point.” She paused, biting a hangnail on her thumb absently. “Jin, you’re still not telling us what your attunement is, yeah?”

They stared each other down. Jin looked away first. “Well, I could tell you,” he said brightly, “but it wouldn’t necessarily be true …”

The tone rang false after my exposure to his normal formal stoicism. His normally wry humor had an edge to it. He was even more nervous than I realized.

Sera tilted her head back, clearly considering. She knew about the items I was making him, and I’d shown her the list of the ones I’d finished so far. As our nominal leader, it was important that she had as good of an idea of his capabilities as possible.

“Okay,” she decided, “you’re sitting out. Corin, Patrick, and I have a pretty good idea of what you can do, and we’ll call you in if we need to.”

Jin nodded curtly. “A wise stratagem.” He rotated his shoulder, avoiding anyone’s gaze.

Sera glanced at Marissa next. “Marissa, you’re the strongest fighter we have. If they tell us which room is going to involve fighting, I’ll put you in there with Patrick; he’ll support you from range. If we’re going in blind, you’re with me. Any objections?”

We shook our heads. It seemed like a pretty reasonable way to break things down. I folded my arms. “Anyone have any insights from other students? I know some of them were taking the test earlier this week.”

“Sworn to secrecy.” Patrick was tapping his foot, probably unconsciously. “Think we’ll get the same speech when we finish our test. Roland was adamant that there would be consequences if he spilled anything. From the sound of it, they’re real serious about keeping this test a surprise.”

That made sense. A test similar to the tower would be vastly easier if someone already knew the challenges in advance.

I knew we’d be taking more than one test like this; I’d seen future tests on the schedule. At least two more tests of this kind before our first trip into the actual tower, maybe more in the second half of the year.

Maybe I could find a way to make some sort of observation device enchantment and leave it in one of the chambers? It would have to be one of the self-recharging kind, since I probably wouldn’t have a chance to find it and recharge it. It’d be expensive, but observation devices were fairly standard.

I was confident I could build one in time for the second test if I could afford the materials. I’d have to figure out a good way to hide it, though. Other students had certainly tried that sort of thing before and the professors would be on the lookout for them.

The older student came back out of the room, holding a pair of bells. “Okay, who wants these?”

Sera reached out a hand. “I’ll take them and distribute them once we know where we’re going.”

The student frowned. “Haven’t picked your teams yet? You’re out of time, kid.”

Sera tightened her jaw. I could see her biting back a retort about being a ‘kid’ in her expression. “We have two team setups, depending on how much you’re going to tell us about the rooms in advance. Do we get any foreknowledge on the types of challenges?”

“Nope. Pick or I pick for you.”

Sera took the bells, then handed me one. “Plan B, then. You’re with Patrick. C’mon, Marissa.”

We all stood up, arranging ourselves into teams.

“All right, standby kid, go into the room I was just standing in. You two,” she pointed at Sera and Marissa, then at a door on the left side of the room, “over there.”

They walked to the door, standing just outside it. “And you two, by the magical process of elimination, get to go to that door.”

I rolled my eyes, waving for Patrick to follow me. When we reached the door, I tucked the bell away in a pouch on my side.

“Case you kids didn’t pick up on another obvious thing, this is a return bell. You can ring the bell if you want to swap out. Make sure the person ringing it is the one that wants to leave.”

I’d guessed most of that, but it was good to confirm. A question occurred to me, though. “Any limit on the number of swaps we can do?”

“Nah, just going to cost you a headache.”

That was good, but, “Do we lose points for switching people?”

“Can’t tell you how you’re scored.”

“Does the bell stay with the person who rings it, or does it stay in the room?” I could tell she was getting annoyed, but it was worth it to push for as much information as I could get.

Unfortunately, she had reached the end of her patience. “So many questions!” she griped. “It’ll drop where you used it. There’ll always be a return bell in the test room.”

I looked across the room at Sera. “Do we want to arrange pre-set times to switch and share info?”

The older student wasn’t having that. “Cute idea, kid, but you’re out of strategy time. Test starts in three… two…”

Oh, resh!

“One… go.”

We opened our doors. The inside of my room was pitch black, so I hesitated to step inside immediately — but that turned out not to matter. An unseen force yanked me inside the moment I processed the black. I heard an amused, “Have fun!” echoing from somewhere behind me as I stood amidst the dark.