‘Hi! I’m Melissa Connelly Avorn,’ the girl said, all in a rush. ‘I’m studying support magic and metaphysics.’ A hand shot out, ready to be shaken, as though the owner thought it might be bitten off.
‘Everyone in this room should be studying support magic and metaphysics,’ Nava replied. She took the offered hand. ‘I am Nava Ward.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry.’
That was a mildly perplexing reply. ‘Why are you sorry?’
‘W-well, you lost your p-parents…’
Oh. That. ‘I never knew them. There’s nothing for you to be sorry about. I’m not. I don’t know the Connelly family.’ Nava released Melissa’s hand and considered doing a search for the family and clan. That seemed rude, however.
‘No, very few people have. Most of us work in clan admin and the Avorn clan is hardly the biggest.’
The search could wait for later. ‘You must be quite a promising student to be sent here then.’
‘Th-that’s what I’m told. I-if you don’t mind the question, how are y-you here?’
Nava considered the answer carefully, even if she seemed to answer immediately. ‘Military scholarship.’ It was both true and public knowledge; telling Melissa that much compromised nothing.
‘Oh. You must be quite promising too then.’
‘I suppose I am. The teacher has arrived.’
The teacher was a moderately small woman. She had long blonde hair, which was a relatively unusual sight, and it did not appear to be dyed. Teachers at the school wore the same uniform as students, simply in a different dominant colour, and this woman was showing off cleavage which gave Melissa a run for her money. That ought to silence the boys quickly enough.
‘Take your seats,’ the teacher said to speed things along. The room’s conversation level dropped to nothing impressively quickly and soon everyone was sitting down. There were still several unoccupied seats. The teacher glanced over her lectern display, presumably checking attendance against the expected list. ‘We’ll give them five more minutes. The first day is always like this.’
Ten minutes later, there were still a couple of empty seats but the teacher was not prepared to wait any longer. The conversation level had gone up a little while they waited, but it died away quickly when she said, ‘Good morning, class.’ At her signal, the classroom door slid closed, barring the stragglers from entering without permission.
‘Good morning,’ the class chorused. Even Nava managed to chime in at the appropriate time.
‘My name is Luca Newton Kinnari. I am your homeroom and support magic teacher. You will call me Miss Luca Newton. This is the first day of your first term at the Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery. Homeroom will be longer than usual so that we can introduce ourselves and get various formalities over with. I am required to state that this is class one-two-C. If you are not supposed to be in class one two C, please come forward to be directed to the right room.’
It appeared that no one had managed to get their navigation that wrong. ‘Good,’ Luca went on. ‘On to other matters. First step, I shall ask each of you to stand and give your name. I’d also like you to tell us a little about yourself. For those who like the sound of your own voice, please keep it to a couple of sentences. I’ll go alphabetically… Melissa Connelly Avorn.’
Melissa jumped in her seat. Then she appeared to drag herself up to a standing position as though the gravity had just doubled. ‘H-hello, I am Melissa Connelly Avorn. I’m from Avorn City on Avorna. M-my interests are ancient magic and natural remedies.’ There were some mutters, which Nava could understand to some extent; prior to the codification of metaphysics as a true science, magic had been considered a joke or a myth and those who looked back on the mythical magic of ancient times were generally thought a little strange. Melissa was admitting her hobby, and you had to admire that.
‘Thank you, Melissa Connelly,’ Luca said. ‘Next is Barrington Roe Bishop…’
~~~
The boy with the glasses turned out to be Rochester Hunt Leighton. Nava had heard of the family, which was one of the leaders of the relatively small Leighton clan. Rochester listed his interests as metaphysics and chess, and he mumbled his way through his introduction. Not, perhaps, the most social of individuals, which made Nava’s assessment of his character pretty much spot on, at least at a superficial level.
The parade of male and female students just reminded Nava of the uniform design that she did not approve of. The design of both types was based around that of the uniform of the Alliance Security Force, so there was something of a reason behind it. SAS2 was, at least in an informal sense, a military school and so the uniforms were semi-military. The boys’ uniform was a direct lift, aside from the colour scheme: a blue-and-grey wrap-over tunic-like jacket came with a red belt with gold trim, and there was a pair of black slacks to go with the tunic. The ASF version was black and gold. The girls’ uniform had more variation from the original. There were black slacks, or maybe leggings, but the legs and the sides of the hips were composed of a fishnet mesh. Over this went a dress with no sleeves and a wide collar. It was ankle length, but movement was made easier by a wide vent at the front and something else was assured by a large cleavage window. The waist was narrow, somewhat corseted, and
