Why do they have to make it so awkward? Casimir grumbled.

  While his other classmates snuck occasional glances over their shoulders. This rotund fellow sitting in the front row was bold enough to stare at him. Casimir gave him a wink that evoked an embarrassed head turn.

  He huffed and returned his gaze to the bugged eyed fish bobbing up and down in the tank on the teacher’s desk. “Sheesh, one would think they would find the —”

  “Puffer fish,” said Cornelius who sat beside him turned to him with a smug grin.

  “Right, I’ve never seen one before, ” Casimir mumbled and went back to studying bright red puffer fish. I’ve never seen a fish this colorful or silly looking before. It appears to be admitting a large amount of Aether too.

  Cornelius continued, “Well, those commoner students probably have never seen a Mindrattler before.” His right eye was hidden behind the sheen of his monocle as he sneered. “They were going to stare anyway, but if you sat up front, you wouldn’t have to see it.”

  “Once,” Casimir added, but he begrudgingly acknowledged Cornelius’ comment with a shrug. They sat in the back row, near the interior wall of their Intro to Alchemy Class. Upon finding out that they had the same class, Cornelius assigned himself to be his lab partner. Split into six groups of two, he shared a metal desk with Cornelius that had a gas outlet for a burner, sink, and lower cabinet space.

  “So I assume this thing is poisonous?” Casimir said pointing at the fish.

  “Your knowledge is surprisingly limited,” Cornelius laughed.

  “Tsk!” Casimir crossed his arms. “I received a practical education perfect for my old profession.”

  After another chuckle, Cornelius yawned and massaged his eyelids. “Why did I have to have a class at 8 am?”

  “A brisk jog around the campus would have woken you up, but you did not take me up on that offer.”

  “Bah.” Cornelius waved his suggestion away and rested his head on the table.

  Two familiar faces entered the classroom. Bryson’s head hung a little lower than before and he hid his injured hand when he noticed Casimir’s gaze.

  Tristan gave Casimir a polite nod. “Hello, again.”

  “We placed second,” Casimir said.

  “That is great,” Tristan said, taking a seat in the middle row. “Did we miss anything?”

  “No.” Casimir glanced at Bryson whose back was to him, facing the board. “How’s…”

  “I’m fine,” Bryson snapped. When he sensed the stares from his classmates, he looked at Casimir sheepishly and muttered. “Thank you for asking.”

  Cornelius chuckled and gave Casimir a sly grin.

  “I helped one of them out of a bind,” Casimir said.

  Cornelius gave Bryson an appraising look and he frowned in a way that made it clear that he failed to meet his standards. “You’ll tell me about it later.”

  Not too long afterwards, their professor arrived, a small woman with dull black hair.

  Casimir took note of her face. She is probably about ten years older than me, but even so, time was cruel to her. Her skin looks like it could tear if she smiles. That’s too bad. She probably was a pretty woman.

  Casimir noticed the violet-haired student following the woman, bearing a scowl that hardened her delicate features. A Pennyroyal, and judging from her silver-trimmed uniform, she must be a senior. She is also wearing a medic’s armband, typical. But this one bears a strong resemblance to her lady, minus her age and pleasant smile. Unlike the doctor who works for Whitley, she must be a direct descendant.

  The violet-haired girl passed out sheets of paper, while their grave professor shrewdly bore holes into her students with a menacing glare.

  Eventually, she spoke, “Magnolia is giving you all a waiver. Sign it, and we can begin with the test.”

  “A test!” Bryson blurted out in shock.

  Their professor glared at him.

  Bryson fumbled with his words. “I mean, we just got here. You haven’t called attendance yet.”

  “This is a simple aptitude test. If you fail it, you will no longer be on the roster. And therefore, no need for attendance. Alchemy, like weaving, is a gift. You either have it or you don’t.”

  The students murmured concerns among themselves.

  “Madness.” The word escaped Casimir’s lips without hesitation. An unannounced entrance exam for a foundational class? This is unreasonable.

  Cornelius covered his mouth to stifle a laugh and his pale freckled cheeks turned bright red.

  “Silence!” Their professor clapped her hands, and the chatter in the room ceased. Once she scanned the room for any more dissidents, she continued, “You will work in pairs to brew a restorative tea. I will give you until the end of this class period to complete it. Heaven forbid, you need that much time to brew a simple tea, but this is a foundational class, and I’m generous.”

  Casimir tilted his head curiously. Just brewing tea? It sounds easy enough, but Aether must be involved.

  Magnolia came around to their table and gave them each a waver. “Read over this and sign it with your first and last name. I apologize if these rules seem obvious, but idiots ruin things for everyone.”

  Casimir groaned when he received his. Don’t eat, drink, touch, or smell hazardous materials… I’m done reading this. Casimir signed his name at the bottom.

  “An, Easy A.” Cornelius grinned after signing his.

  After Pennyroyal collected all of the waivers, Professor Awldriver told them to begin. “Look in the cabinet underneath your desk. There you will find your tools and ingredients needed for the tea and instructional materials. Raise your hand when you are done. ”

  Casimir put on his safety gear, which included goggles and gloves. He then checked the cabinet and pulled out five jars of herbs, brewing supplies, and two hefty books, one of Alchemy recipes and the other was an herb guide. Casimir first identified the herbs and picked a restorative tea that matched the ingredients they had.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Milk root, elmslock, and some plain black tea. He double checked the herbs against the book’s description and set them aside. We won’t be needing these. He put the bottle of cat’s lament and the deersbane away.

  Casimir noticed Cornelius glancing over at him while he was identifying the herbs. He seemed ready to intervene, but eventually backed off. He must already know how to do this.

  Cornelius took the initiative to set up their workspace. A sauce pot rested on the burner. He neatly organized three small containers for the herbs to be weighed in and just finished calibrating the scale. “This is relatively easy. Did you find a recipe?”

  “Yes.” Casimir’s hand rested on the page for Goodbye Moon tea. “All the ingredients are here, but it requires Aether-infused tea leaves and these—” He lifted the jar of tea leaves and activated his Aether heart, but he could not sense any Aether coming from the leaves. “They are just regular black tea leaves?”

  “Because they are.” Cornelius sighed. “Our professor is not making it subtle that she wants to cull the flock. ”

  “So how should we go about it?”

  “It can’t be helped, we will have to add Aether into the tea while it is brewing. We could infuse it into the tea leaves beforehand, but it won’t be as potent.” Cornelius reached over, grabbed a spoon, and gave it to Casimir. “You will need this. The metal conducts Aether. Far easier and safer than injecting Aether into the brewing tea by hand. ”

  “Oh, of course.” The cold metal grew warm with heat when Casimir poured his Aether into it. He touched the spoon with his other hand, the Aether left the spoon and entered back into his body. I wish Whitley went into more depth about it, but he would just chide me about my Aether control.

  After Cornelius measured out the ingredients with the scale, Casimir turned the burner on low heat and added the ingredients into the pot. He grabbed the spoon and his Aether left him for it.

  “Don’t inject too much Aether into the tea all at once,” Cornelius instructed. “Treat this like you are weaving a pattern. ”

  Casimir nodded. He dipped the spoon into the mixture and carefully rotated his Aether into it.

  “Yes, like that, gently, or else the solution will–”

  A loud bang sounded in the room, followed by a scream. Metal clanged against the linoleum floor, and glass shattered. Casimir observed the two young women in the front row.

  Magnolia shut off the gas before anything could catch fire. Meanwhile, Professor Awldriver held back a blonde girl by the collar, and her brunette partner was frozen in shock.

  Casimir shifted his gaze in the direction of where the other girl was staring. Liquid dropped from the ceiling. Wow, it shot all the way up there.

  “Casimir, do you want to be next?” Cornelius’ voice and hand around his wrist forced his attention back to the pot that was bubbling. He slowed his stirring speed to a snail’s pace, and the tea stabilized. One eye drifted back over to Awldriver, who continued to berate the girl.

  “Did you read the waiver before signing it, foolish girl?! Keep your face away from synthesizing compounds. ” She let go, and the blonde fell onto her butt. “You both fail. ”

  The blonde began to cry. “I didn’t know what synthesize means.”

  “You should have asked! Out! ” Professor Awldriver escorted the distraught girls out of the room and shut the door. The woman tugged on her sleeves.“I never expected our first failure would be as dramatic.”

  Magnolia nodded as she mopped up the mess.

  Cornelius mused. “Well, that is two down. Want to bet that we will be the only ones left?”

  Casimir looked up from the pot. “I doubt anyone else would be as careless.”

  “You can speed it back up. The rate you were stirring at was fine. It is just you were putting more Aether in than usual, because you were distracted.”

  “You made this before?” Casimir asked.

  “Yes, countless times, how about you?”

  “No. I only worked with ingredients already infused with Aether.”

  “It shows.” Cornelius chuckled when he noticed Casimir frowning. “Don’t feel too bad about it, you are doing fine as a novice. If you sucked, I would have taken over.”

  Cornelius gave him a sarcastic grin.“That tea should be just about done.”

  After two minutes, all the students turned their burners off, and Professor Awldriver began prowling around the room with a teacup. Magnolia followed her with a clipboard and a stack of papers.

  “What is this that you brewed for me?” Professor Awldriver stood in front of the rotund man who was staring at Casimir before class began, and his spindly partner in the front row. She dipped her finger into the pot and frowned. “This is just water and some leaves. You failed to add Aether into the tea.”

  “We did. I swear we did!” exclaimed the rotund man.

  “You certainly did not. Now leave!”

  The pair left the classroom muttering about the professor being a bitter old hag and slammed the door shut.

  “The front row is gone.” Cornelius rested his hand on his chin and smiled.

  Casimir frowned. He seems to be enjoying this too much.

  Tristan confidently raised his hand.

  Professor Awldriver approached their desk, dipped her finger in the pot, and tasted a drop of the tea on her finger. She frowned. “It is bitter from oversteeping, but the restorative properties in this are adequate. State your names.”

  “Tristan Killgore.”

  “Bryson Rottenborn.”

  Magnolia wrote their names down and handed them a syllabus.

  “Welcome to the class.” Professor Awldriver congratulated them plainly and left their desk.

  Tristan and Bryson gave each other a high-five, and the tense atmosphere in the room lifted.

  Cornelius’ eyes formed into slits. “A class of four for now.”

  Casimir rolled his eyes. Does the class size matter?

  After the first success, the remaining students’ confidence was restored, and several hands rose throughout the room. Unfortunately, both were failures.

  “Are you trying to poison me?” Professor Awldriver poured the pot’s contents down the sink. With fury, she gripped one of the jars and shoved it in the student’s face. “Where in the recipe did it say to add this? What use are you to the Empire as a Weaver if you can’t follow basic instructions? You should go.”

  Casimir shook his head. “They probably added cat’s lament or deersbane into the brew. How?”

  Cornelius giggled. “Sloppy, sloppy, for shame. Alchemy is a rigid science.”

  Finally, Professor Awldriver got to Casimir’s and Cornelius’ desk.

  She poured a sample of their tea into her cup and, after savoring the smell, she took a sip. Her dull eyes lit up, but only for a fleeting moment until her stern visage returned.

  “Hmph, finally something worth drinking. Welcome to the class.”

  Casimir welled up with pride. I actually do like this. He smiled. “This was fun.”

  Cornelius nudged his arm. “See, I could tell a shrewd-looking fellow like yourself would be great at this. Are you going to ditch my boring uncle and apprentice under Awldriver with me?”

  “I should at least give Chancellor Salamander a chance, although this is very tempting.”

  Professor Awldriver looked around at the empty desks. “A class of four? That is a decent size. ”

  Magnolia nodded.

  Their professor, hard-as-nails persona relaxed, and the edge of her lips curled up to a self-satisfied grin. “Next time, we will have an herb collection assignment. After you clean up, you may leave.”

  Cornelius rested his head on the desk. “Nice, I can finally take a nap and maybe get something to ea—”

  “Already?” Casimir asked. “But, we still have another hour–” He paused when heard a shush from Cornelius.

  Professor Awldriver returned to her desk. “Asking for more? Don’t worry, this short session is a one-off. You can use this time to study your herb textbook to prepare yourself for Wednesday.”

  She then addressed the rest of the class. “I hope you all learned something very important today. That all accidents are preventable. If you follow the proper safety measures, we will avoid all unwanted mishaps.”