The Winds and the Mage

"I think they get the Ambers to direct the pigeons here," you muse.

Hagel takes up a sponge, sighs, rubs the same spot she'd been on for the last two minutes and snorts. "Right. Because they're real happy with us these days, right?"

You nod. Fair enough - Lord Magister Erdmann beat Patriarch Crete at the latest Supreme Patriarch's election before losing to the Patriarch of the Bright College. Collegiate rivalry stories are fun to hear when they don't cause catastrophic miscasts or Dark Magisters.

"Maybe pigeons just like Azyr, then?" You hazard. "There's no way every roof in Altdorf gets that dirty every day."

"Nah. I think the Porter's familiar is one of them."

You open your mouth, try to think of a reason why that would be ridiculous, and close it. "That's why we have so much to do. The familiar lures all the other pigeons up here. And the Porter always knows when we use magic to do the work because his familiar tells him. Damnit."

On that depressing note -this means there's no way of pulling a fast one and getting out of the no magic rule, ever- you get back to it. The tower's cupola needs to be cleaned before the sun falls, and you need to be off it before that. No one would open it before you're safely away, but pigeon guano does terrible things to the mechanisms, and no Apprentice wants to be responsible for a Magister losing stargazing time.

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The life of a Celestial Order apprentice who's not considered ready to follow a Master revolves around a single duty: learning. Your recent stint on the Great Astrolabe's tower was caused by a quick murmured conversation during a group lesson with Hagel. However, you wouldn't say it's a lie to call you a good student.

[Rolling Studying Petty Spells (Learning):73+16-20 (studying magic as a child)+20(Collegiate tutors):89
[Rolling Studying Petty Spells (Learning) 60+16-40(lots of studying):36
[Rolling Studying Lesser Spells (Learning): 55+16+25(petty spillover)-50(very advanced studies):46

At 14 years old, you are one of the most advanced students your age, and you suspect you've already outstripped in variety and flexibility (though certainly not in overall mastery) some of the Perpetual Apprentices in charge of specialized lessons. You even win a few magic-only spars, and get a reputation for exploiting Marsh Lights and Sounds to overwhelm your opponent until they try to protect their eyes and ears, then running up to them and tagging them with Sleep.

[You've mastered all the spells of the Petty Spellbook, as well as four of the eight in the Lesser Spellbook.. please refer to it and vote for which ones you've learned] (note that you have a magic characteristic of 1 currently, and cannot cast those spell reliably, ie without a roll)

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Hagel's snoring wakes you up that night. That happens sometimes, and you know by (long and painful) experience that the one way to make her stop would be to wake her up. Being a wise, benevolent, and merciful wizardess, you decide to spare her and head down to the Library.

A shape follows you, but the light of the torch on your bleary eyes makes you turn away before you can see it.

The College is alive with activities at night, for everyone but the youngest Apprentices like yourself. A few decades after the founding of the Colleges, the Jade College published a study proving that children with minimal Azyr exposure were diurnal animals, which caused a reshuffling of the Celestial College's curriculum. Thankfully, some merciful soul thoroughly isolated the children's dormitories. Still, that means that you're surprised to see the Library almost empty.
The door uncharacteristically stays open as you pass it, but you put that on account of the draft from the open window.
You gingerly take the fiction you were looking to get back to from the bookcase. Your successful studies were nice and all, but they'd taken all your time recently, and your leisure readings have fallen by the wayside. Just as you are sitting down, however...

"I see. You are ready."

You stand up. The Library is still empty. You look around, then you *look* around. The world turns blue as your Windsight takes in the massive concentration of Azyr in the Library of the Celestial College, but something manages to outshine the ambient Wind. There's a shape sitting opposite to you.

"I'll be here to pick you up soon. You'll have your bag prepared." Your Master's voice is made completely neutral and androgynous by the spell they're using.

A week later, you wait at the entrance of the College. The Porter knew what was going on (as usual), and offered you a sit-down, a cup of Cathayan tea, (the taste makes you grimace, but he swears it's wonderful for the nerves,) and exchanged gossip about your fellow apprentices as if he was just a Perpetual Apprentice himself, and not one of the Order's few lord Magisters.
Finally, he stands up and opens the door.
The person who enters, your Master, is -

[] a smiling woman in her mid-twenties
sporting a Magister's robes that look brand new. She looks familiar to you... You might've met her at the College a few years ago.

[] a middle-aged, frowning Magister with an impressive mustache
His robes' sleeves are flecked with many ink stains. One is empty, and you can see a red and angry scab on the side of his neck, all the way to the base of his ear. The other covers a metallic gauntlet, that you can see is attached to some sort of archaic-looking Bretonnian armor under his robes, of all things.

[]a Magister with white hair and eyes visibly crackling with Azyr
She uses her staff as a cane, visibly putting her weight on it as she walks. You check, but no -even when you are trying your best to not use your magesight, her eyes are still pits of lightning.

[] the Bursar, in his Lord Magister's livery.
He still looks as harried as a man who has to take care of the financial needs of a Mage's College, but he's giving you a fond smile as he walks over.