Ralph scrambled to find another branch and tried to repeat the same casting, to no avail. He was too busy taking deep gulps of air to concentrate.
“You just gave the enemy an opening, boy. You are now dead on the battlefield. Take your seat.” Piers eyed the boy unhappily and looked around. “Do I have another volunteer? Someone with more prowess in mind?”
Everyone looked to the ground quickly, except for the non-heir who seemed unperturbed as he met Piers’s eyes dead on.
“Alright, princeling, have at it.”
Darren stepped forward and picked up a twig. I breathed out a sigh of relief. He was normal like the rest of us. It would have killed me if he put on some sort of supernatural display.
Darren clenched one end in his palm, eyeing a nearby tree.
You’ve got to be—
The entire trunk exploded in a blaze. Branches with crackling leaves crashed to the ground as the tree became a charred black torch.
The non-heir cracked the twig in his palm.
The fire instantly abated.
Dead tree limbs scattered the grass. Darren looked to Piers for instructions.
I glanced at Sir Piers as well to gauge his reaction. Both the commander and the wiry Master Cedric had approving smiles on their faces.
“Well done,” Piers boomed. “Now, do the same to that tree— there.”
We all looked to see where he was pointing. A similar oak stood half a mile off at the other end of the stadium.
I braced myself, knowing better than to hope the prince would fail miserably.
Darren reached down to grab one of the small charred branches from the first tree he had lit fire to. Part of the stick still looked red-hot beneath its gray exterior, and I wondered if it burned. Still, Darren showed no sign of pain as he rolled it back and forth between his palms, keeping his stormy gaze on the target.
Moments later the tree caught fire. Not as dramatic as the first, but still impressive, I noted dryly. The fire quickly died out on the trunk, but continued on in most of the higher branches.
“You may take a seat now,” Piers told the non-heir in a much friendlier tone than he had addressed the previous boy.
Darren nodded curtly and then made his way over to the bench where Ralph sat.
Piers addressed the rest of us. “What did those two have in common?”
Nothing.
“The dynamics of war,” Piers continued when none of us spoke up, “show us what may not be openly obvious to you magic folk. You think you can blast your enemy with sheer force, and maybe you can. But the further you are from your opponent, the less power you are able to exert. We can’t waste all this time training you to be powerful mages and have you faint at the first sign of battle. Not one of you will be sitting in an ivory tower pointing your finger and making your enemies crumble. You will need to be close to your enemies to do damage, but you need to be able to maneuver in and out of battle to safely engage.
“By building up your physical reserves, we will be increasing your tolerance to pain and your fortitude. By strengthening your prowess, you will be more capable of focusing during moments that test your will.
“Early on, the Council learned that they were losing too many mages’ lives on the battlefield. In response, we developed a training program that incorporates the physical conditioning we put the pages in the School of Knighthood through. While none of you will be as successful as a full-fledged knight, this program will better prepare you for the realities of battle. It gives you more endurance, whether you are a Restoration mage going from one wounded to the next, or an Alchemist helping with dangerous flasks. For the faction of Combat, it is a little easier to picture the battlefield, but even if you were to never participate in a single war, endurance and fortitude can only help, not hurt.
“So for the rest of the day I will be gauging your physical competence. When you walk away today, I will have a thorough understanding of how badly out of shape you are, and then from tomorrow on, we will be attempting to fix that.
“Oh,” Sir Piers added, almost gleefully, “and if you are wondering when we will train with any of the fun weapons you may have seen a knight handle, keep in mind you have to get through two months of my class first…
“Now, we have a change of clothes for the lads and ladies in the building behind me. Those will be your attire for the rest of your time here at the Academy. After today you will no longer be wearing personal garments or insignia. You will notice the garb is old, ill-fitting, and not particularly attractive. That is to be expected. Year one is not a cause for celebration, and so the masters do not waste coin financing your personal fashions. We will go ahead and let the ladies go first. Lads, while you are waiting your turn, I advise you to start stretching. It’s going to be a long two hours.”