Chapter 23 - The Seven Houses III

Who’s who:

Professor Cedric Cold: Overweight Combat class professor. Ran orientation. Sword foci.

Felix Sutter: Poor boy living in Sacramento, recently found out magic existed. Hard worker, knows the price of everything.

Erik Morsin: Heir to the Duchy of the Emerald Isle. Just wants to play his violin.

Vivian Merryweather: An expert on all things color, fashion, and of the heart. Gets seasick easily.

Odric Martin: Accident prone. 

Naomi Bones: Beautiful, elegant, and refined. Wears golden jewelry, but makes it look classy. Purrs a lot in her speech. Has bone and spider silk fence for her mental defenses.

Sora Park: Erik’s loyal friend. Loves flying. An absolute broombrain.

Hazel Winslow: Ran away from an abusive cult. Awoke as a natural mind mage.

==============

 Aoife Morsin was born,
A daughter of stone and poison,
Eyes like her mother, voice like her father.
The people cheered -
But the lords sharpened their knives.

The Saga of Bjorn, Verse 50

============

Professor Cold herded the students out of the room, and they marched along to their next room.

“This is the Kirin’s Palace. They highly value the silence in their common room. Usually, it’s done with charms, so you don’t have to worry if you’re a student here, but the semester has just started and they probably haven’t gotten around to it.” He said.

Professor Cold spoke softly to a pair of doors that had a kirin wrapped around the edges, and they opened up.

“Whoa.” Vivian’s gasp was echoed by most of the students. “Forget Phoenix, I want to be here.” 

Felix’s eyes were practically popping out of his head.

When he’d heard ‘Palace’ he’d assumed it was just a fancy name. 

Nooooo.

The place looked like a palace. Jade green was the predominant color, with white trimming. Ornate and Ostentatious were the words that sprang to Felix’s mind. The sofas looked like museum pieces, not something that should be sat on, and he couldn’t even begin to imagine how much everything was worth. The walls were hidden behind bookcases, and they couldn’t be simple wood, oh no. Each one was filled with carvings and motifs of kirins, except when it was runic patterns or puzzles. A few students were standing around, staring at the puzzles and animatedly trying to work it out.

“Kirin house.” Professor Cold said. “The house of the intelligent, the curious, and the inquisitive. The seekers of knowledge.”

“The nerds.” Vivian whispered. “Nevermind about coming here.”

Felix suspected he’d found his house… if he could get around the idea of living in such a rich environment. If he could smuggle one chair out… no no, terrible idea. The place had to have anti-theft measures, and stealing was wrong. They weren’t in dire straits.

The idea of sitting on chairs worth more than his home was painful though. Stealing was wrong. If Erik hadn’t given him a stack of books, Kirin’s library promised to have everything he needed.

“There’s a focus in Kirin house on rituals and potions, but they’ll study everything. They’ve elected to have a potion room this year, which sounds mundane until you realize the room will provide samples of every ingredient you could want. The potion itself is inert in the end, but it’s brilliant practice. I believe it’s the only room of its kind in all of Logres.”

He let the students look around for a moment longer.

“Unfortunately, we have to move on.” He said, and everyone followed outside.

Kirin House. Felix mentally marked for himself. 

The group hurried along, leaving the warmth of the castle and walking along one of the parapets to skip from one spot to another.

“Any questions so far?” Professor Cold asked.

The students were packed tightly on the narrow, slippery walkway, and a hand went up. At the same time, there was a great surge of magic and Erik fell off the wall.

The hard stone ground was four stories away.

He started to scream as he fell grabbing for his bag. A chorus of yells came out from the other students. Odric slipped himself, and landed hard on the parapet. Before Erik could pull anything out, a line of stringy rope wrapped around him.

“Help!” Naomi shouted, holding the other end of the rope. She was slowly slipping to the edge herself. Felix was nearby and grabbed her, and so did Sora and a few other students.

Professor Cold already cast a spell by the time Felix’s arms wrapped around Naomi, and a beam of light hit Erik. A few more spells were quickly cast, and Erik was levitated back up. He fell down panting.

“Thank you Ms Bones.” He said to Naomi. “I think you might’ve saved my life. Professor Cold. You certainly saved my life.”

“Be more careful.” He said. “Situational awareness is important.”

Erik looked like he wanted to argue, but wisely didn’t.

“Let’s discuss the incident later.” Naomi said, still looking poised, no matter the bead of sweat on her forehead.

All of the other students were clamouring.

“Silence!” Professor Cold roared, and suddenly he had a presence. A terrifying presence, and Felix was suddenly hyper aware that the man was holding a sword.

“We nearly had an accident. We did not have an accident. Move on.” He ordered, and after a moment added. “Stay away from the edge.”

The students dutifully followed along.

“You? Slip?” Sora whispered to Erik.

“Not about to say I got shoved.” He muttered back to Sora.

“What!” Felix squawked. “Shoved!?”

“Shh! Not so loud!” Erik patted the air down in the ‘quite down’ motion.

“Who?” Sora threatened. “I’ll throw them off myself. I bet it was Kevin, wasn’t it? He talked about trying to throw you off the boat earlier.”

Erik shrugged.

“You were the only one near me,” he started to say.

“BULLSHIT!” Sora yelled.

“Ms. Park!” Professor Cold admonished her. “Lose two points for the outburst.”

“Sorry!” She shouted back.

“... and if you’d let me finish, it’s impossible it was you, so it must’ve been magic.” Erik said. He didn’t glare at Sora, but the girl looked sheepish anyway.

“I was going to wait until the last step to discuss the wards here at Camelot.” Professor Cold said. “In short, unless you find yourself in Dragon house, which you need to apply for, you will be protected by wards with varying degrees of strength. Practically speaking, if you are in a green or a blue area, the absolute worst that can happen to you is a modest stay in the hospital wing.”

Professor Cold paused to point out the lights in the hallway, which were currently glowing a steady green.

“Healer Elaine will fix you right up. Unicorn house is the other house with a unique ward situation, in that theirs are completely overpowered. Traditionally, this lecture and demonstration happens near the end of the tour, but given the near-accident we had, I felt it best to hurry things along.”

Odrick raised his hand, and was called on.

“What happens if we, say, trip down seven flights of stairs?” He asked nervously. “Like, practically speaking.”

“I get the sense you’re not going to do well in my class.” Professor Cold’s deadpan delivery had Felix taking a moment to realize it was a joke. “You’ll break half the bones in your body, fracture your skull, and your organs will take a hell of a beating. At a certain point, the wards will kick in, and prevent any more damage. Should the damage be overwhelming, they’ll also put you in stasis and flame you to the infirmary. You’ll remain in stasis until Healer Elaine is able to put you back together enough, at which point, you will have a lengthy stay in the hospital until she releases you.”

They went down several flights of stairs, and ended up in front of a wyrmwood door surrounded by a hydra worked in metal. It was spitting lightning, poison, and a few other artistic items that Felix couldn’t quite interpret in the moment. Acid? Something else?

“The Hydra lair has a slightly obnoxious system for getting in. The idea is to keep things peaceful and quiet, without tons of people barging in all at once, but it makes the annual tour a little difficult. One moment please.”

The professor spoke a word to the door, which creaked open. He stepped into an antechamber, and opened a second door.

“Right then, come on in.” He said.

The Hydra Den was something. While it was dark and earthy, it was still brightly lit. Dark green walls were regularly flecked with obsidian, making it look like the hide of the eponymous beast. There were regular mirrors making the place seem much larger, and couches were regularly spaced out around small tables. The entire place was dominated by the skeleton of a gigantic hydra - a trophy on display for generations. The body filled a corner, and the twelve heads arched over the ceiling, frozen in a dramatic pose.

Several tunnels branched off from the common room, made out of packed dirt and torches instead of stone and magelights.

“Hydra house.” Professor Cold explained. “The house of resiliency, adaptability, and grit. Academic specialty of enchanting, and they’ve elected for a number of private workshops for students to work on their projects. Take a few minutes to look around.”

Felix briefly wandered around, but there wasn’t that much more to see. He wandered over to Hazel, who was in a corner.

“Everything good?” He asked the girl. She didn’t answer immediately, instead scanning the crowd.

“Yeah.” She eventually said. “Can’t wait until we’re not in a gigantic group anymore.”

“Oh yeah.” Felix agreed.

“Right then! One last stop, then it’s off to sorting, dinner, and bed. Follow me!” Professor Cold said.

The students followed like ducklings, and Professor Cold paused in the central section of the castle. A pair of grand staircases spiraled up along either side, and a sunroof lit the entire thirteen floors up.

“We can use the ward demonstration now!” He shouted up through the open area.

For a long moment nothing happened. Then two students in white robes with silver trim jumped off the top section. There was a mass gasp from the students, and Vivian screamed along with a few other girls.

The two students plunged through the air feet-first, and softly landed on the floor like they’d stepped off a single step, not jumped thirteen floors.

“It kinda defeats the point of the demonstration if you tell them about it.” One of the students scolded Professor Cold.

“We had an incident on the way over.” He explained.

“Ah. Welcome, new tadpoles!” The student said. “We’re Unicorn house, and we’re the best. Work hard, get excellent grades, and you might be able to join the smallest house in Camelot. We get access to special classes and have special permissions, mostly relating to the hospital wing. Our attached room is the best, as is our ward setting. No curses, no jinks, no accidents will cause you to miss a minute of work. If you’re looking to study healing, we’re the best house for it. Unicorn unbroken!”

The cry was not met with great enthusiasm.

“Moving on.” Professor Cold said. Felix moved through the shuffling crowd until he was next to Erik.

“That seemed…”

“Lame?” Erik said. “Yeah, that was not a good speech. Unicorn house has a reputation, and it’s excellent. Graduate Camelot as a Unicorn? Basically every door will open. It’s the house of motivation, determination, patience, and consistency. Song is absolutely nuts, she needs to score a literally perfect grade on a 200 question test to get admitted, and the questions are several years advanced from where we are now. It’s basically skipping a few grades. Easier to transfer in, from what I’ve heard, and they’ll often become healers.”

The students descended down, down, down, and the atmosphere became quite dark and damp. The stone walls were intimidating, and Felix half-expected to see dungeon cells.

“Finally, we have the marvel of magic, the Kraken Abyss.”

The door was surrounded by the image of a kraken, the tentacles crossing the door to meet at the knocker. Professor Cold took the large knocker and banged it three times, then stepped back as the doors automatically opened.

“Whoa.” Felix said. His gasp of amazement was echoed by most of the other students.

They were underwater. The common room was practically an aquarium, but a brightly lit one that had sunlight filtering through the water and keeping the place illuminated. Fish darted through kelp forests, and sharks swam high above. Camouflaged octopus hunted crabs, mollusks, and starfish. A couple of mermaids were peering into the common room. A pirate chest was tantalizingly half-sunken into the sand, surrounded by swords. Off in the distance was the great ocean, and Felix could’ve sworn there was some magic letting them see a pod of whales off in the distance. Normally they would’ve been impossible to see, but…

The view was stunning. Kraken had the nicest looking common room, it wasn’t even a question.

“Kraken! I believe they were the only house that elected for a recreational room, instead of an academic room. A large heated pool, if I remember correctly. Sadly, being at the end of the tour, we can’t stay particularly long. We need to get to the sorting chamber.”