Kalacan City and the Academy

I took three days of riding to reach Kalacan City. I had stopped in a nearby village on the way to pay a plain girl in a brothel to bed me. Although it was still much better than relieving myself with my palms, it didn’t satisfy my desires the way Baroness Kira did or my mother.

For a farm boy, Kalacan City was a spectacle. Its giant stone walls looked like a vast ocean of stone. Its gate looked to be the size of our tiny village. It was a giant metropolis full of traders, travelers, merchants, singers, dancers, whores and most important, the Academy. The grand city was lined with canals where small longboats rowed. At the center a town plaza with a giant statue of Kalace, the great Wizard King.

I made my way inside. To my disappointment, the Academy would not start until the next moon. I stabled my horse in stables near the outskirt of the walls and offered my services to the stableman who said, “I can’t pay ya much.”

“That’s all right. I only need a place to stay for a while.” He nodded and offered me a small room.

Until the start of the academy, I spent most of my days cleaning horse shit and sweeping the stables and refilling the hay. The stableman was an old man with a love of horses. He and his elderly wife would invite me to meals on occasion. It was hard work but not very different from my work at the farm.

The nights I had, I went for the city and the brothels and taverns wenches to pay for their services. The woman of the brothels I had noticed were not that comely. Many just plain cows and trolls. It appeared brothels were only for commoners, the King and Lords who many were Aether Guardians had no need for brothels. The entire world was their brothel, and the admission was free. Many of the finer looking ladies would either be thralled to their services.

The act of paying for the service would never satisfy my lust. The small wells of energy did little to prepare me, I thought.

The moon had come in full. The next day would be the day of the Academy entrance and the start of the semester.

The academy was not inside the city but just on the outskirts near a lake and woods. It was a majestic place with high towers of stone and marbles. A small statue of King Kalace stood at its center surrounded by a moat of water and fountains. The Academy was comprised of several small buildings with arena and stadiums near them.

I came with modest clean clothes and stuck out like a sore thumb. A wide line had formed up at the gates of maybe forty people. The awaiting students there looked at me with mocked expressions. They had fine silk clothing and the air of noblemen. I felt like they were looking at me and laughing, maybe I was just paranoid.

I shrunk away meekly.

At the front stood three men, one holding a long scroll in his hand. One man was handling piles of paper and one checking each letter or document with the recommendation by the lord which sent these applicants to the academy. I stood near the back gawking and trying to get in line, my letter of recommendation tucked in my bag.

A blonde couple pulled up to the academy a fine carriage, embroiled with gold and the exceptional white horses I have ever seen. Out walked a blonde girl and a blonde boy. They both had an aristocratic look on their face of smugness, both with gleaming grey-blue eyes and fabulously extravagant clothes. They sauntered haughtily towards the back of the line, the girl, looked at me like I was the crud on her elegant leather shoes and said dryly, “Servant, you may take my bags to my dorm. Do not open them. You have the look of the sort who would perverse a young woman’s personals.”

“I am no servant,” I said coldly.

She laughed. “Then what are you then? A beggar here to solicit coin? Or perhaps a purse snatcher?”

I was annoyed. Although she was an exquisite girl, I wanted to sock her in the face. I knew no good would come of talking to her and just turned away.

“Commoner, this is Princess Elena, youngest daughter of the King!” Her blonde male companion barked. “She asked you a question, it would be wise to answer.”

“I am here as an applicant for the exam,” I said, not turning back and flashed my letter. “I am here for the academy.”

“You? You look like a street urchin. Surely that must be a forged letter.” The boy said.

I tried to ignore them.

“Well, we have no time to waste with these street urchins Jann. Let us make our way to the front of the line.” Elena said condescendingly and moved forward, and the line to the academy’s gate cleared a way for them as they made their way. The three men were bowing when they approached and letting them in.

I sighed and waited in line. Many looking back at me and guarding their bags or purses. “Damn the lot of these snobby cunts,” I thought.

When I came up, the attendant looked at me suspiciously and examined my letter and raised an eyebrow.

“It’s real,” he said resignedly. “Can you read common script boy or do you need someone to read this for you?”

Another handed me a piece of paper and I nodded. I should mention though I was a farm boy, my mother was very learned and read to us, my sister and I, when I was little and thought us common script, among other things like basic arithmetics and history.

“Good, welcome. Your uniforms are waiting for you in your dorm.” He looked down at his scroll and scribbled on it and told me directions to my dorm. “Sorry since it seems you are a late registry, it won’t be much.”

I nodded, took the piece of papers that the man on the right-handed me and entered through the gates.