Crusader King

Mr. Hartz, the dishevelled teacher, put the flute to his lips pressed one of the buttons and began blowing after Cades explained how it worked.

The melody that came out of it was controlled using various tiny airlocks and moving doors inside the flute, all working together to make the beautiful melody that could now be heard in the room.

The melody that the flute was now playing was that of a famous jingle, it could clearly be heard by everyone in the room.

After the teacher stopped blowing new air into the flute and the jingle stopped repeating itself he gave it a approving nod, put it away and began talking with a very monotone voice.

"These artifacts were all pretty good. The rhythm ring and the flute especially. Those two were made with very complicated systems, not bad."

After taking a short break and looking at the other two, those that made the forest compass and the heating bottle he continued on talking.

"I'm sure that you all are wondering about one thing.

'What`s going to happen now ?' 

Well, good news. I'm here to explain it for you.

First of all, tomorrow morning you need to come to the school to find out if you were accepted or not, if you're accepted then we're directly going to start with our first real artificing class.

Talking about the artificing class, there are some special rules that differentiate it from the others.

Firstly, we won't have any written tests.

Secondly, if you want to personally build something that is not part of the educational plan you can contact me and if I find that it would work you can build it. However, if you fail, you pay for the materials.

If you want you can already talk to me about your projects right after I'm done explaining things to you."

Cades perked up when he saw that and stopped looking around the room.

The artificing classroom was a of big cylindrical form similar to the lecturing room of a university, however there were only about twenty tables and each one seemed to be very durable and have a lot of space on top of it.

The rest of what the teacher explained was mainly about the rules of the school, such as 'no littering', 'no bullying' and similar stuff.

After the teacher was done and the students were already leaving Cades stayed behind and went up to Mr. Hartz while feeling a bit anxious.

"Mr. Hartz, I have a blueprint that I would like to ask you about."

The grey haired man turned around and gestured for Cades to lay the blueprint onto his weirdly black table, so he did.

"Seems like the blueprint for a Lißros based on the theory of the aggregate states.

This isn't a bad first draft, but if you were to make it like this your wings would quite literally just turn into a sac filled with molten bones and fleshy goo.

It is however very impressive that you managed to do this on your own."

"I understand, could you help me with the design ?"

"I'll give you a few notes with possible improvements tomorrow, but I think that you should go home now."

Cades nodded, thanked him, picked up his design and started walking towards the exit.

The flight home in the dark of the night was nice for Cades, he was looking forward to eating dinner together with his family and the air of the night felt wonderful.

After he flew for about half an hour he finally arrived at home, the rusty old house was truly calming with the smoke coming out of its chimney and the old stones that it was made of.

Once he entered, he could instantly smell his favourite dish and noticed that his father was also home, a surprisingly rare occurrence as he had to work a lot.

His father was a tall man with short dark hair, black eyes, dark grey wings and a bit of a belly. He looked intimidating when you didn't know him, but his personality was like that of a teddy bear.

His parents were already eating, it was a dish similar to spaghetti but instead of tomatoes it was made with trabaras, and Cades loved it.

His parents, noticing him, turned around to greet him and ask how the entrance exams went.

Cades told them everything that he could remember, except for the mistake he made with his lißros-design, in excruciating detail because he knew that they would want even more information than that.

And he was right, after he was done talking about everything that had happened, including Nelia, Mangel and the artificing class his parents wanted to know even more.

They asked about everything, so he told them everything.

When he told them about how Mangel lay on the ground with his arms and legs sprawled apart they were worried at first and started laughing after that.

When he told them about Nelia and her hyperactivity they also laughed, he laughed as well.

They talked and ate for over half an hour but alas all good things and all good moments must end.

Cades felt exhilarated about tomorrow, he was sure that they would accept him and he was looking forward to telling his sister about that once she finally returned from her school.

After going upstairs, he showered, brushed his teeth, laid down on his comfortable bed and stared up at the ceiling.

Cades had a wonderful day, and yet, he had a disturbing feeling.

His life was seemingly perfect, he had the best parents he could imagine, and although she wasn't here right now, he had a lovely little sister, he had talent in his dream job, he had easily found two new friends and now he could study what he loved, artificing and magic.

But still, he had a bad feeling that just wouldn't go away.

After laying there like that for a few hours, Cades finally managed to close his eyes and sink down into the world of slumber, still with the never-ending uneasy feeling.