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A loud crack suddenly woke Reis from his sleep.

"Perhaps you would like to explain to the class the importance of arcane stability when opening a teleportation rift?" came the voice from above his head.

Reis looked up into the elderly face of Valerio, the professor of arcane theory at the Aldeborian Royal Mages Academy.

"I-I don't know, sir" muttered Reis, still trying to comprehend the question being directed at him.

"Then maybe you will try to stay awake during my lessons, so you don't accidently destroy the fabric of the universe!" the old man snapped. "That will be all for today. We will pick this up again tomorrow.

Reis rubbed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair before standing to leave with the left of the class. Once out into the hallway, he made his way towards the main courtyard to catch a bit of fresh air.

The sun was high overhead, and a gentle breeze pulled at his maroon cloak. Reis sat down on the nearest open bench he could find, and examined his fellow mages. There were few people walking about. Over near an archway to his left was a group of alcor chatting amongst themselves. The aclor were a proud canine-like race that mostly inhabited the Torbeck Mountains to the west, and the central Great Plains. Magical abilities amongst the alcor were uncommon. Very few magical alcor ventured from their homeland, and the ones that did usually studied at the academy as healers. Because of their unmatched sense of loyalty, and natural skill with a blade, most alcor lived lives as swordsmen enlisted in either the Aldeborian Royal Guard, the Aldeborian Expeditionary Force, or various mercenary bands across the land.

Looking around some more, Reis noticed a few mizar hurriedly walking about their business, their hoods up and hands together in front of them like monks. He knew why they were in such a hurry. Nobody at the academy really trusted the mizar, with good reasons. The mizar were a feline race that came from the eastern jungles with a reputation for using their natural talents for assassination, espionage, and thievery. Even though they were feared, several mizar made significant advances in the fields of philosophy, herbalism, and alchemy.

Besides the few mizar and alcor, most of the people at the academy were human. It was widely known that the humans were had a natural talent for the arts both fine and arcane. Humans also controlled the largest shipping empire within all of Aldebora, and the largest fleet in the northern seas. Actually, it's the only fleet in the northern seas thought Reis to himself.

A large explosion violently shook Reis from his daydreaming. A large pillar of smoke could be seen rising from somewhere to his right. Reis took off running in the direction of the smoke, eager to find out what had caused the explosion. What he found when he arrived was almost incomprehensible.

Where the alchemy wing once stood was a massive crater. Bits of the masonry had been wildly thrown about, and dust still hug in the air. Reis heard a heated argument coming from the craters edge. As he neared closer, he recognized one of the figures. It was an elderly mizar named Rigel, the academy's head alchemy professor. The other was a woman he had never seen before, but judging from her ornate white robes, she must have been somebody of great importance.

"As I explained to you earlier Casella, this was simply an unfortunate accident" said Rigel in an eerily calm voice.

"Accident or not, it is my duty as the archmage to ensure the safety of my fellow mages, and I expect that my professors do the same" said the woman. From the strain in her voice she was clearly on the edge of losing all self-control.

"But..." Rigel started before Archmage Casella cut him off.

"That means not bringing down the walls in a damned explosion!"

"But I had told you earlier in the week that I would be performing several experiments using highly volatile compounds" said Rigel, his voice still calm. "You yourself gave me permission to proceed providing none of the students were at risk."

Hearing this, Casella's face burned with rage. She took a look around, first at Rigel, and then the crater, then the crowd of people that had started to assemble. Stating that she had immediate business to attend to concerning the reconstruction of the alchemy wing, she left. Afterwards, the crowd lowly began to disperse.

Reis turned to leave, but before he could he heard Rigel's voice calling out to him. "You there, the one they call Reis."

Reis turned back around. "Can I help you professor?"

"Care to do this old cat a favour?" asked Rigel "Take this" he said as he handed Reis a sack "Inside is a list of materials I would like you to gather for me from the market district. You should find that there is sufficient gold for all items. I was nearing a breakthrough and must continue my work."

"Of course professor" replied Reis as he accepted the money.

As Reis made his way through the streets of Lilium, the Aldeborian capital, his mind was left free to wander. Go into town and by my supplies. Ha! Do I look like an errand boy? I've been studying at that academy for a decade and that cat makes me his errand boy. Why did I agree to do this? Just then, Reis felt something brush against his side, shaking him from his thoughts. Instinctively Reis reached for the coin purse tied to his belt only to find it missing. He turned around in time to see a hooded figure making its way from him as fast as it could.

"Get back here, thief!" he shouted as he started running.

Hearing this, the thief quickly turned left onto the next street. Reis followed as quickly as he could, his deep red cloak billowing behind him. He rounded the corner after the thief and paused. In front of him was a wide street packed with several market stalls and a small horde of people going about their business. Reis swore to himself. He was about to leave when a commotion caught his eye. Several townspeople had fallen to the ground and were shouting loudly. Through the gap in the crowd, Reis saw the black figure of the thief. Reis redoubled his efforts and pushed his way through the throng of people, getting ever closer to the thief. Seeing him approach, the thief dove through a vendor's stall, and quickly turned down an alleyway.

Gotcha thought Reis as he followed the thief into the alley, only to find it dead end. At the back was the thief, looking around desperately to find an escape. Reis summoned a fireball in his hand.

"Hold it right there" said Reis as he launched the fireball towards the figure before him. The fireball flew past the thief, singeing his black cloak and bursting across the back wall. Reis walked up behind the thief and grabbed the thief's shoulder. The thief quickly spun around and launched a fist at Reis. Reis, expecting the attack, quickly caught the thief's wrist in one hand and made a fist with the other, ready to strike. It was then that Reis noticed the face of his attacker.

In front of him stood a black furred mizar, who couldn't have been older than twenty. Her golden eyes gave her a beautiful majestic appearance. She has a look of sheer terror across her face and a small tear starting to form in her eye. Reis froze, his fist in midstrike.

"P-please don't hurt me..." begged the woman softly. Reis lowered his fist and loosened his grip. As soon as he did however, the woman quickly spun out of his grasp. Her innocent appearance quickly replaced by that of a master thief as she expertly scaled the nearest building.

"I'll tell you what" she said in a cocky tone as she reached the roof. "As the only person to ever catch up to me, I'll return your money. Minus a few gold for a new cloak of course, seeing as you burnt this one. A girl simply needs to look her best." And with that she retrieved a few coins from the sack, retied it, and threw it on the ground at Reis's feet.

Reis picked up the bag and looked up to where the woman once stood, but she had already gone. After checking that he would have enough to buy what he needed, he tied the coin purse to his belt again, taking extra care to make sure that it would not be easily stolen again. This has been quite an interesting day. First explosions and now thieves Reis thought to himself as he turned to leave. I swear if anything else goes wrong today, I'm going to go insane.