Chapter 2: The College Life
Chapter two: The College life Scia smiles as she watches the rather strange pair walk away, well-dressed now, thanks to her. She had also given them advice on where to stay and find work until they have enough money to return to their home lands.She sighs softly at the thought of being home in Eldiana. It had always frightened her, the idea of being so far away from home. She always preferred to keep to herself, but that became near impossible in this crowded city. Scia turns as a friend of hers, Evangeline, comes over. She is a rather short human with sun kissed skin, gentle almond brown eyes, and waist-long flowing chestnut hair that catches the sunlight in its waves. "Hey Scia! How are you this day? I just got done with one of my drawings." says Evangeline. As they greet each other they take hands and kiss each other on the cheeks fondly. "Oh, I am fine, I suppose. Just glad that today we don't have any strenuous classes because of the dark ones' attack on Crystallus. It was such a pretty place... I wonder why the dark ones did it." Scia smiles as her friend lights up. Evangeline is somewhat of an expert on the dark ones, she's an expert mainly because most people are disgusted with them whereas Evangeline is unbothered by them. Some people say that under their black armor is something very wretched and horrifying.
Evangeline takes a deep breath and says, "Well, from what I know about the dark ones, they worship a goddess similar to my own god, the Phoenix, praise his holy name, but for some reason I have yet to discover, Sicilium and the Phoenix in their mortal lives had a great war, or something along those lines, and this caused an increased hatred between the Dark ones and us humans. But I also have read accounts that suggest something different may hav-" "You two! Have you seen this human diplomat?" a grand Elven soldier cuts in rather rudely as though whatever he is doing is far more important than what everyone else is doing. His skin is a dark blue, his eyes like dark holes that stare straight into your very being. "No, we haven't." Scia sighs annoyed with the grand elf. They always seem to stick their noses in every place they are not wanted. She as an elf never really hated any race, just individuals, but when it comes to the Grand elves she feels like they are twisted some how. It seemes that most Elves feet this way about the grand elves.
The grand elf stares with his black piercing eyes at both of them, then a younger grand elf runs over. "Sir! We found him! He's on green tavern avenue!" the two soldiers leave quickly, Scia steps outside of the gate of the huge wizard's college as she watches them leave. "Well if that wasn't strange then I don't know what is." She turns to Evangeline, Scia's hair reflecting like gold in the sunlight. "So, I really want to head by my teachers and get some tests and projects out of the way." Evangeline sighs, flinging her chestnut hair about her waist. "Scia do you ever take a break? There's no school due to a city raid and you're just going to class like every other day?" She sighs softly and laughs. "Well I am going to head to the dorms and draw some more. See you there for lunch?" Scia nods and waves as Evangeline heads up the large winding stairs to the north dorms, her black dress and long, long, hair flowing gently behind her. Scia pushes her glasses up to her brown eyes and she begins heading to her first teacher with a bit of spring in her step. Her black, heeled, boots clapping satisfyingly against the marble floors. As she goes down the various halls people from her classes say greetings to her. She nods back at them nervously avoiding contact with them. Scia looks at her green dress flowing beneath her, watching her knees hit the fabric and then sink back into the fabric as she walking, keeping her head down. Scia slowly, hesitantly, walks into her first professor's classroom. She finds him at his oak desk, writing a paper. The professors hair is white and wiry, almost sporadic, yet not out of control. He looks up at her, the humans blue eyes are bloodshot, probably from writing all night. "Good morning Scia. I am guessing you want to finish that exam over Soul enchantments and relative physics?" the old man speaks with a warm voice, seeming to pour from his mouth like honey. Scia nods, looking almost mouse-like. He digs through his papers. Then he goes over to the larger desk, and begins sprawling through papers. "It's around here... ha! Here it is." He hands it to her. She quietly giggles as she sits in a chair. She begins writing quickly. Every few moments she stops and rubs her pointer finger and middle finger against her forehead, a somewhat subconscious gesture. Several hours later She gets up. And even though she seems mouse like as she hands the professor the exam she has a look of confidence. The professor starts grading the paper as she leaves. After a few moments he looks around for Scia, having noticed she left. He shrugs his shoulders and he leans back over his desk to work.
Scia looks around at the large marble walls as she is walking, seeing the dark blues and greens from the stained windows that go nearly to the ceiling. She always loved stained glass windows, even if the depicted nothing, like these. they had a great beauty to them. these windows here added life to these ancient stones, they made the dark solidity of the college take on an air of grandeur. She looks down seeing the greens and blues splashed against the grey marble floor. She shakes her head and slowly she looks at her book that she is reading. She had reached a very action filled point of the book, and she really didn't need to do her class work today... she nods deciding to head back to her dorm and read. She walks through the simple oak door of her dorm room to see Evangeline drawing a life size picture of a female elf and a male human embracing each other. As Scia looks at the picture a quote she read once comes to her mind. 'In such a tight embrace there is no room for evil.' this quote was used by elven teachers to explain why the elves defend the forests so much, the trees guarded them from greater evils, and they guard the trees in return. She watches in wonder as Evangeline continues drawing, the people in the picture seeming ever more real, ever more in love. Scia always found art fascinating although she couldn't draw well and she always enjoyed singing more. in fact she had joined a music with applied magics class. one day she hoped to write songs and sell them to orchestras, or play all the parts herself with magic. Scia quietly turns from the beautiful picture and walks to her room. she picks her book off her mahogany desk, and she lays down in her silk bed. She opens her book and begins reading. As she lays there reading the sunlight coming through her window steadily gets brighter, till about two hours later Evangeline walks in. "Hey Scia. I made us lunch once I realized you had walked in. hurry, you don't want the meat buns to get cold." Evangeline says as she walks back to the common room. Scia slowly marks her place and then she hops up and walks to the common room as well. The light in the common room is bright from the sunlight pouring in through the huge windows that look out over the western part of the city.
She picks up three meat buns from the wooden bowl on the kitchen island, and she sits down on the couch. She begins eating quietly as Evangeline sits across from her on the other couch.
"Do you like my drawing? I think its looking pretty good. It has taken me about a month to get this far on it." She pauses talking for a second to get Scia's response. Scia nods vigorously, her mouth full of food. Evangeline quickly continues talking, "so i met this guy the other day in the market. he was really nice and he likes to draw like i do. he asked me to go to a dance tomorrow evening." She smiles and she looks out the window. " i can't wait. i think i might really like dating him. so have you found anyone lately?" She looks to Scia with the smile of a cheshire cat.Scia looks at her slightly annoyed. "No Evangeline. I don't like anyone here. I find most of them to be kind of obnoxious and loud. Supposedly that will change though. I think I might find a husband when I return home." Evangeline gives her a disappointed look, but doesn't press further.
Scia looks out the window realizing that the sun is starting to move into the twilight hour. "Hey Eva, i need to go by the channeling professor. i will see you later." Scia waves and quickly heads out the door. she walks through the great gray stoned halls of the college till she finally reaches a windowed room. in the room she spies her professor, an elderly human whose skin is shriveled like a raisin. Her hair curls like silver springs about her moon pale eyes. "Good evening Scia, i suspected you would come and do your energy flow test." She walks over to a table that has a string tied to a metal rod on one side, and then tied to another metal rod on the other side of the table. one side has a crystal hanging about an inch above the metal rod. the elderly woman waves her hand over the table as she says, "you will have to channel your energy through the rod into the string, then through the air to the crystal. begin when you're ready dear." Scia nods and takes a deep breath, centering herself. she focuses on the metal rod in front of her. she focuses and lets her energy fill the rod, as she is doing so the rod glows softly. she then slowly guides the energy into the string, concentrating on not pushing too much energy into the string at once.
Some laughing outside catches Scia's attention and the sting starts to smoke as she lets too much energy into the string at once. she quickly corrects the error, hoping she won't lose points for the mistake. Her energy slowly goes through the string into the other metal rod. She lets the other rod fill with energy , and then she surges the energy forth through the air into the crystal. once her energy fills the crystal it glows a gentle forest green. The professor smiles and writes down one last comment before looking to Scia and saying, "you have always been one of my best students Scia, and dont worry, i didn't count points off for the disruption. Although in real life circumstances you will have to be more prepared for disturbances." the professor then hands Scia her grade and heads to her desk. Scia bows her head respectfully and leaves the room. She walks back to her dorm wondering of what to eat for dinner. she walks into the dorm to find a note from Eva. Scia picks up the note and reads, " Hey Scia, i have decided to head over to Arlines for dinner. i will see you in the morning!" Scia throws the paper in the trash and she goes to the pantry. she looks through the various meats and vegetables deciding on what to eat. she settles on some chicken with cheese and broccoli. She begins quietly, and with a tender fondness, cooking. she takes her time, singing a beautiful tune as she brings the ingredients together into a casserole. Once done she smiles to herself, she always enjoyed cooking. she goes to her room and reads her book while eating, settling down for a good night's rest.