"I should be asking you that!" Benisek half-shouted. Zorian never understood why the boy had to be so loud all the time. "I came here so early but you’re already here!"
"You came back two days before classes start, Ben," Zorian said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at him. Only Benisek would think that coming a couple of days early is some great feat worth mentioning. "That’s not all that early. And I just got back yesterday."
"So did I," Benisek said. "Damn. If you had contacted me, we could have arranged to travel together or something. You must have been bored out of your mind here, all alone for a whole day."
"Something like that," agreed Zorian, smiling politely.
"So are you excited?" Benisek asked, suddenly changing the topic.
"About what?" Zorian asked. Funny, hadn’t Kirielle asked him the exact same question?
"The start of a new year! We’re third years now, that’s when the real fun starts."
Zorian blinked. To his knowledge, Benisek was one of those people who weren’t terribly concerned about their success in the arcane arts. He already had a guaranteed post in his family business, and was here simply to obtain the prestige of being a licensed mage. Zorian had half expected him to drop out immediately following certification, yet here he was, just as excited as Zorian to finally start delving into the real mysteries of magic. Now he felt pretty bad about writing him off so quickly. He really shouldn’t be so presumptuous…
"Oh, that. Of course I’m excited. Though I must admit I never knew you actually cared about your education."
"What are you talking about?" asked Benisek, eying him suspiciously. "The girls, man, I’m talking about the girls. The younger ones love upperclassmen like us! The new batch of first years will be all over us."
Zorian groaned. He should have known.
"Anyway," said Zorian, recovering quickly, "since I know you’re always gossiping around-"
"Informing myself about the current state of things," Benisek cut in, his voice assuming a mock-lecturing quality.
"Right. What’s with the academy being all sparkly and clean all of a sudden?"
Benisek blinked. "You didn’t know? Oh man, people have been talking about this for months! Just which rock do you live under, Zorian?"
"Cirin is a glorified village in the middle of nowhere… as you very well know," Zorian said. "Now spill."
"It’s the summer festival," Benisek said. "The whole city is getting ready for it, not just the academy."
"But there’s a summer festival every year," Zorian said, confused.
"Yeah, but this year is special."
"Special?" Zorian asked. "How?"
"I don’t know, some astrological bullshit," Benisek whined, waving his hand dismissively. "Why does it matter? It’s an excuse to have an even bigger party than usual. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, I say."
"Astro-" began Zorian with a quirked eyebrow when something occurred to him. "Wait, you mean planar alignment?"
"Yeah, that," Benisek agreed. "What’s that anyway?"
"Do you have a couple of hours?"
"On second thought, I don’t want to know," Benisek quickly backpedaled, chuckling nervously.
Zorian snorted. So easy to scare. The truth was that Zorian knew very little about planar alignments, and probably couldn’t speak about them longer than 30 seconds. It was a pretty obscure topic. Zorian strongly suspected that Benisek was right, and that it was being used simply as an excuse to have a bigger party.
"So what did you do over the summer?" Benisek asked.
Zorian groaned. "Ben, you sound like my elementary school literature teacher. Now, children, for your homework you will write a short essay about what you did during the summer holidays."
"I’m just being polite," Benisek said defensively. "No need to snap at me because you wasted your summer away."
"Oh, and you spent it productively?" Zorian challenged.
"Well, not voluntarily," Benisek admitted sheepishly. "Father decided it was time I start learning the family craft, so I spent all summer helping him and acting as his assistant."
"Oh."
"Yeah," Benisek agreed, clacking his tongue. "He also made me choose estate management as one of my electives. I hear it’s a really tough class too."
"Hm. Can’t say my summer was particularly stressful. I spent most of my time reading fiction and avoiding my family," admitted Zorian. "Mother tried to dump my little sister on me this year, but I managed to talk her out of it."
"I feel for you," Benisek said with a shudder. "I’ve got two younger sisters and I think I’d die if they came to live with me here. They’re both utter nightmares! Anyway, what did you take for your electives?"
"Engineering, Mineral Alchemy, and Advanced Mathematics."
"Eh!?" Benisek blanched. "Man, you’re really taking this seriously, aren’t you? I guess you’re gunning for a spot in one of the spell forges, huh?"
"Yeah," Zorian said.
"Why?" Benisek asked incredulously. "Designing magic items… that’s a tough, demanding job. Surely your parents could find you a spot in their business?"
Zorian gave him a strained smile. Yes, no doubt his parents already had a spot all planned out for him.
"I’d rather starve out in the streets," Zorian told him honestly.
Benisek raised an eyebrow at him, but then simply shook his head sadly. "I think you’re crazy, personally. Who did you choose as your mentor?"
"I didn’t get to choose," Zorian scoffed. "There was only one left by the time it was my turn to do so. I’m mentored under Xvim."
Benisek actually dropped his spoon at this, staring at him in shock. "Xvim!? But that guy’s a nightmare!"
"I know," Zorian said, releasing a long-suffering sigh.
"God, I’d probably transfer if I got assigned to that asshole," Benisek said. "You’re a lot braver a man than I, that’s for sure."
"So who did you choose?" Zorian asked curiously.
"Carabiera Aope," Benisek said, immediately brightening.
"Please don’t tell me you chose your mentor based on appearance?" begged Zorian.
"Well, not just based on appearance," Benisek said defensively. "They say she’s pretty tolerant…"
"You don’t want to do any extra work," Zorian surmised.
"This whole thing is like a vacation to me," Benisek admitted sheepishly. "I get to postpone employment for two years and have some fun in the meantime. You’re only young once, you know?"
Zorian shrugged. Personally he found learning about magic and gathering knowledge in general to be fun all by itself, but he knew all too well that very few people shared this opinion with him.
"I suppose," Zorian said noncommittally. "So is there anything else that everyone knows that I should be familiar with?"
He spent another hour or so conversing with Benisek, touching upon a variety of topics. It was particularly interesting to hear which of their classmates would be joining them this year and which ones wouldn’t. Zorian had thought the certification exam was a bit on the easy side, but apparently he was mistaken, since roughly a quarter of their classmates would not be joining them. He did notice that most of the failed students were civilian-born ones, but this wasn’t terribly unusual – mage-born students had parental support when learning magic, and a reputation to live up to. He was pleasantly surprised that one particular asshole wouldn’t be joining them this year – apparently Veyers Boranova lost his temper on his disciplinary hearing and got himself expelled from the academy. He wouldn’t be missed. Honestly, that boy was a menace and it was a disgrace they hadn’t expelled him sooner. Fortunately, it seemed there were some things that just couldn’t be overlooked, even if you were an heir of Noble House Boranova.