Small Shadows
Twenty Fourth Day of the Fourth Month 294 AC
Teana Strycos didn't like children, that was not to say she did not like those who happened to be younger than the usual run of reasonable humanity. Princess Daenerys was delightful and Wisdom Vee was just the sort of person to puncture the ego of some particularly pompous Mysterium mage, but she did not like
children. Case in point, she did not like when a child with more imagination than sense managed to create an entirely new sort of arcane pest out of a misplaced sense of hero-worship. She glared at the night black rat behind the dome of hardened glass on her desk.
The thing looked innocent enough standing still, now that it had learned that however great the
multitudes it could summon, they would not be enough to break the covering, and all it would do is risk being suffocated by the weight of its brethren. Thankfully, it was not any more intelligent than a common rat. Unfortunately it was
every bit that intelligent, which was plenty to be a menace as farmers all across the world could attest.
The original creature, which had been meant to be bound as a familiar, had escaped from its hapless maker, the girl standing across from her. With her fine-boned Valyrian features, she looked almost akin enough to be a younger sister or daughter of the headmistress, save for everything else about them. Lydia Aertis was a scion of old Tyroshi blood, her silver hair died blue in the tradition of the city, her robes, while standard in cut and color for an initiate, we're spun of finest silk. A bright girl in that same manner fables told one to watch out for when it came to wizards, knowing how to do things but without the sense to ask 'why.'
So Teana took up the task herself. "Why didn't you tell anyone about your experiments? About the bloody book you bought from the shadow fey? I realize ritual magic is above the level you were being taught, but a person of sense would deduce that having a spotter in case things would go wrong is
vital."
The girl mumbled something Teana could not quite hear. She waited.
"I wanted to show my full work, like a mastery project?" A little louder this time, though barely louder than the squeaks to the trapped rat.
"Are you a journeywoman to
require a mastery project, Lady Lydia?" The headmistress pressed. She felt a touch guilty when the child seemed to deflate under her gaze, but squashed the feeling. There were
magic rats breeding in the sewers just before the city would see the greatest influx of important guests in its history.
"No, I wanted... I wanted to show them all how skilled I was, that my father didn't just buy me my way in, as if you could even
do that! I worked just as hard as any of the others to get into the Scholarum. It's not my fault they smelled like cow shit and fish guts when they came in."
And it all suddenly made a lot more sense. The scholarum had a system of tests to select the truly extraordinary and push them ahead so they would not be bored with their work. Quite apart from the use the Empire could get out of all skilled sorcerers, a bored one could be particularly perilous, but if the girl had been feuding with her peers and felt the need to prove herself in grand fashion, then of course she would not want to just pass a test. And for whatever cause she had decided to fixate on, she chose Teana's own magics as the thing to emulate... hence, magic rats.
The Headmistress tented her fingers and looked at the girl over them. "You are extraordinarily lucky that while your 'familiar' can manifestly breeds true with other rats, it can only do so in areas of strong magic, like the island, and even here there is a limit to the number of magic touched rats in each litter. We are not about to be overwhelmed by a tide of black fur and red eyes." She paused a long moment, letting her appreciate the prospect. "You will be advanced to the next circle... and all you will be learning over the next two months will be safety precautions. Dismissed."
As Lydia scurried away, Teana allowed herself a small rueful smile. Thee girl would probably fit right in with certain mages in the king's service once she learned some discipline.
Sorcerer's Deep gains Doppelrat pest population
Level 3 Wizard advances to Level 5
OOC: Remember when you guys said you would make a low level dungeon in the sewers? Well it turns out all you need to do is build a mage school in the city and wait. Not yet edited. 
