Silly Exercise:
Greetings Oma, I hope you're having a good day.
I'm fine. Better than fine actually, since I'm now part of a friend group with people that I like very much. If you're reading this letter, then I'm sorry for involving you in this convoluted training exercise, but it's been fun the last two times so I thought why not join in?
The gist of it is this: I'm going to be going over my three friends in detail, including one embarrassing silly secret that you probably wouldn't care about that they would be embarrassed to find out I've put in here. I'm supposed to encrypt this message and bring it over to the Archives department for it to be vetted and eventually released to you. My friends are supposed to intercept me from submitting the message once it's been fully written and encrypted, and then they have to decrypt it, in which case they win. If I submit the message to the Archives department, I win.
So, here goes nothing:
Linda Tischler:
Hobbies: Sewing, Gossip, Baking (she's really bad at it unfortunately)
Likes: Boys, fashion, sweets, gossip
Dislikes: Exercise, sparring, bossy people
Linda is one of my dearest friends. She's dependable, reliable and quite nice, but the same can be said for all my friends in the Grey College really. She helped me out when I was going through my monthlies, covered for me when I was late to class, helped me out when I was confused, and offered to accompany me if I was feeling unsafe. She says that it's "her duty" as my senior of one year, but I think she's just a big softie. She talks about boys far more than any of my other friends (when they deign to speak on the topic), and she's a bit of a gossip, but I enjoy her enthusiasm and energy when she fills the silences that so often fill our group with her endless chatter. It's not inane by any means, but I have to admit that I tune out quite frequently. She speaks on a lot of topics that I have little interest in.
Part of that must be her inclination towards the social aspect of being a Grey Wizard. Apparently there's a lot of opportunities for that if you're going for the diplomat role, which she's enthusiastic about because she doesn't seem to like physical activity or sparring. She says she "doesn't like getting sweaty and gross" but I think it's more than that.
Embarrassing secrets. I'm going for the low hanging fruit and say that she has a crush on Egil the Senior Apprentice. She keeps going on and on about his "beautiful golden hair" and "foamy sea blue eyes" and I don't really get it. He's been leaving the College more and more often and it's making her sad because as confident as she can be, she's kind of a mess when she's talking to him. I guess that's embarrassing? I'm sure you don't care, but she would, and that's good enough. By the way, this is done with total permission granted by all parties, so there's no hard feelings anyway. I'm not sure this will even reach you anyways.
Charlotte:
Hobbies: Reading, Writing
Likes: Reading, Puzzles, Problem Solving, Mathematics (Believe me, I was confused too)
Dislikes: Book burners, Witch Hunters, Unrepentant Murderers, lack of justice
Charlotte is in many ways simpler and more complex than Linda. Sometimes she's as quiet as Esme, sometimes she talks as much as Linda with no filter. You don't want to interrupt her while she's reading, but she lights up like a torch the instant you ask her what she's reading or what she's writing. She's creative and has a boundless imagination, and maybe that's why she's so good at visualisation and magic theory. Whenever I struggle with magical concepts, I know that she's the one to go to.
A conversation with Charlotte, on the other hand, is never simple. It's hard to keep up, and if you demonstrate that you're not quite on her level, she loses interest in following up. It's the kind of disappointment that drives me to do better even though I really don't have to. I've never been the competitive type before, but Char and Esme make me try harder than I ever have before. I wonder if that's something I've always had and never developed because I never had any true friends before now.
Another thing about Char is that she's a devout Verenan. It's rude to ask someone about their life before the College without prompting, but she has some very strong feelings about justice. And books. Let's not forget the books, because if you do, she will remind you about them in stringent detail. I've never seen anyone get so excited about libraries. I wonder if that's what Mathilde's like when it comes to books too. I would introduce Char to her if she wasn't so intimidated by the concept of the "big scary lady wearing the Witch Hunter hat". I sometimes feel compelled to tell Mathilde to not wear the hat when she goes into the room. I think Char hates it.
Embarrassing secret. She sometimes reads books that I'm pretty sure she shouldn't. And not, like, illegal shouldn't. More like I'm pretty sure a 14 year old shouldn't be reading those books shouldn't. She panics really badly when we catch her doing it and it's always funny. She's very cute when she's flustered.
Esmeralda Di Angelo:
Hobbies: Fencing, Strategy Games
Likes: Practice, Difficult Challenges, Success, Cute Things
Dislikes: Failure, Complacency, Derision
From the name you can probably guess, but Esme isn't Imperial. She's a second generation Estalian/Tilean kid, coming from the combined bloodline of an Estalian Fencer and a renowned Tilean artistic and engineering family. She's the quietest of all of us, and fairly stoic, but that only hides how much she truly cares. She's the first one to check up on all of us if we're hurt or to make sure we're alright. She happens to be my most frequent sparring partner, and I couldn't be more grateful. Esme makes me aspire to improve and become better, because I can count the number of times I've defeated her in spars on one hand.
She is a truly fearsome fencer. We're taught how to defend ourselves and use weapons if need be, because magic can be our enemy as much as our ally. I was initially hesitant about that, but Shallya says that a "stout walking stick is all one needs", so that's what I took for my weapon. A quarterstaff. It's a great weapon for what I want. Good range, flexible and versatile for what I want, and it can be non-lethal if applied correctly.
Unfortunately for me, in all my time practicing, I've barely managed to win against Esme. She's swift and efficient in her movements, with little to no imperfections or openings that I can exploit. When we first started to use magic in our sparring sessions, I managed to catch her off guard with a Move cantrip and win, but she quickly adapted.
That's the thing about Esme. She's so determined and focused that she can lose track of things. She can be caught off guard and be surprised by things that she didn't expect. If she has time to adapt, then she will do so quickly, but it only takes one mistake to take someone down. That's what Mathilde says anyway. It makes me worried about her.
As an aside, we're also strategy board game partners. We play games once every two days, alternating between any board game we can find, from Chess to Blingo and beyond, and she always picks up on those things fast. I think Esme was raised Myrmidian, because I can see a Myrmidian medallion sometimes peeking out of her shirt. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it, but she crushes me at those strategy games too. Well, most of the time. I have a much better win record on strategy games than spars, even if it's 7-3 instead of the usual 9-1. It's best to mix things up to keep her off guard so she doesn't get too used to my tactics. It's telling though, that when I play with Charlotte or Linda they tend to lose. Charlotte is a very by the books kind of player, which means she's predictable. Shows you that even book smarts can't save you without… intuition? Anyways, Linda only really plays those games to entertain us. She doesn't really care about them. She does like the "cute horsies" (her words, not mine) though, and suggested something that we all took up as our newest hobby.
According to Esme, there's a fairly intricate wargame being played in Myrmidian temples using figurines called "miniatures" and a board and some dice. I think it's called "Warspear" or something. Through the intricate "underground trading network" of the Grey College Apprentice dorms (mostly Linda's parents, who are carpenters, and Esme's mom, who's a painter), we managed to get wood carved miniatures and supplies to paint them. We just started playing last month.
Linda's captivated by the miniatures and painting. Her army is full of mythical creatures (which takes up the entire "Points Cost" of the army) with their intricate paintjob, but it is so easy to win against her that I would feel bad if she cared at all.
Charlotte is captivated by the rules and the "lore", which was apparently made by a bunch of Myrmidians who were bored with just playing and wanted to add flavor to the game. None of that helped her very much with the actual war game, but she also didn't have any hard feelings about it.
Esme and I though. We've been getting really into it. My army is an Imperial one, led by a Grandmaster and his Knightly Order and accompanied by a coterie of Wizards. Esme's is Myrmidian, with a combination of warrior priests, foot soldiers for tarpitting, ranged units for thinning down lines, and deadly cavalry. It's been the most fun I've ever had, and I could see myself playing this game for months.
Oh, but I've gotten sidetracked. I was supposed to reveal embarrassing secrets. Uh. Esme pretends that she's all stoic and cool and cold like she's some dark novella protagonist, but she's actually super sweet. She's got a worn out teddy bear that looks like it's been through the ringer, sewed and patched together several times, that she calls "Mr. Cuddles". I don't think it's a source of embarrassment, but Esme does, such that it took her a while to give it over to Linda for sewing when it was damaged once. Esme also has a habit for giving cutesy or silly names to her miniatures. My favorite is "Sir Wax-a-lot III" on his mighty steed "Fluffymane".
So, that's about it. The last two exercises have led to one failed message and one successful one, and there's still Esme to go after me, so it's going to be a long day. It's been an enjoyable one though, and it's been some of the happiest days of my life to be spending time with people who I like and who like me.
Wish me luck!
AN: I wanted to give my own spin on Eike's time in the College. After ruminating on many different ways to do it, I ended up on this. I'm not fully satisfied with the premise and execution, but I did have a lot of fun writing it and I hope you had a fun time reading it. I think this one's different because it focuses on her friends more than it does Eike, but it also gives a lot of glimpses into her and her life in the College too.
