At the top floor of a giant skyscraper, where six of the most influential people in the world were seated at a table, a heated discussion was being held.

  “You people can not be serious… I can at least understand the position of Oriph, even if it disgusts me to no end - it’s the planet where the Exile is located. But YOU three, what do YOU get out of this? Do you just enjoy watching these people suffer for generations? Most of them aren’t even criminals!” A young woman with long silver hair tied in a braid wearing a black turtleneck sweater and brown pants - Layla, the person elected as Elum’s representative, was shouting at four of the other people in the room.

  “Settle down young lass, surely you must understand that the Exile is a very profitable market, so as the two largest manufacturers Cierra and the Tench biplanets aren’t gonna openly support its dissolution, even if we understand your feelings.” The person replying with an annoyed expression was Tench’s leader - an old man wearing a tank top that gave off the impression of a skilled artisan.

  “But-”

  “This discussion ends now, clearly neither side is going to budge, so you guys are going to cast your votes now.” The woman interrupting Layla was Daphne - the leader of Non, the Mother Planet and also the only one not participating in any of the votes, as she played the role of an overseer. After her declaration followed a short silence as everyone selected their choice on the screens in front of them.

  Throwing a glance at the results Daphne sighed loudly: “Haaaa… On the matter of dissolving the Exile, in favor - one vote, against - also one vote, three abstained. So, as a consequence of the inability to come to a consensus during the 48th council meeting a Magic Contest will be held, starting this year.”

  “...”

  “...”

  “...”

  “...”

  “...Well, shit”

  *****

  Leo was incredibly excited, but also somewhat scared. He was finally going to find out what his magic type and element were, but what if he got something he didn’t like?

  I’m not really worried about my type. I mean sure, freeform would be the coolest: controlling your element with just a thought seems awesome, but being a spellweaver sounds just as interesting. If you’re well versed in the runic language you could even create some new spell sequences… And as a formation mage, even though you need to study even more of the runic script, drawing magic circles feels like something a wise mage out of a novel would do. I’m really worried about my element though… Any of the basic ones would be fine, but what if I get some weird one, like, I dunno, pencils?

  “...Leo! Dude, are you deaf or something?”

  “Huh?” Leo lifted his head from his school desk and found himself face to face with Bim - his best friend that he wanted to go to the binding ceremony with.

  “Come on sleepy princess, it’s almost time, we gotta get to the gym hall. I don’t want the teachers to get annoyed with us.” As he was saying this, Bim grabbed Leo’s arm and started dragging him towards the classroom exit.

  “Man, I know I look fabulous, but ‘princess’? You’re making me blush…”

  “Oh, shut up. Anyway, what were you thinking about so absentmindedly? Worried about the binding?” The pair started making their way down the hallway to the gym. Other than them only a couple of other students seemed to also still hurry in the same direction.

  “Yeah, a little bit. Was imagining how lame it would be to have a pencil element.”

  “Hmm, I mean, yeah it wouldn’t be cool, but imagine how useful it could be for filling out papers, and you could probably become an awesome artist. Come on, you know there isn’t such a thing as bad magic, the folks on Non and in the Exile literally don’t have any magic…”

  “Fair enough,” as Leo replied they finally arrived at the gym. Rows of chairs were filling the space, enough for about a hundred people, which was more than enough for all the students in their year. “Seems like they haven’t started yet.” He pointed at the front rows where some people still struggled to find an empty seat. After giving Bim a pointed look they seemed to come to a silent agreement and began moving to one of the back corners, where a lot of seats were still available. After getting as comfortable as one could in a mass produced school chair, it only took a couple more minutes for everyone to settle down.

  Finally the school principal, a short man with a beard reaching down to his chin and huge round glasses, climbed onto an improvised stage, which was actually just a dozen or so floating pieces of paper created by his magic as the principal was a paper spellweaver. After reaching the top of the “stage” he muttered something, apparently an incantation, as only a heartbeat later a strange mass of paper appeared and folded itself into what appeared to be a megaphone.

  “Dude, he’s gotta be crazy good at origami, right?” Bim whispered with a snicker.

  “Welcome, my dear students, to what will be one of the most defining moments of your lives,” despite being made of paper, the megaphone worked surprisingly well, as the principle’s words could be clearly heard in the whole room. “So, without further ado, let’s get to it! This,” he points at a stone plate roughly the size of a human behind him, “as you could all probably guess is our district's core shard. It’s actually one of the ten original shards that the First Mage himself split off the planetary core he created to teach the first generation of mages…”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  They tell that story every year, do they really think we don’t know about it?

  “...how it got passed down to us. Anyway, I have here the list containing all your names. I will read out five at a time, when your name is mentioned, please come to the front. After binding with the core, tell your type and element to Mrs. Canton. After that you’re free to go home and discuss with your family. Your updated class distribution will be sent to you later today. Okay, first off…”

  “For being ‘one of the most defining moments of our lives’ it doesn’t really feel all that special.” Leo murmured while listening to the principal read the list so as to not miss his turn.

  “I feel you, I always thought they would make a bigger deal out of this.”

  “...Bim Leutner…”

  Bim scrambled to his feet, “Anyway, I’m gonna go straight home after this, I’ll text you what I got!”

  “See ya.” And with that Leo was left by himself. Thankfully he didn’t have to wait too long, as not even five minutes later he heard his name.

  “...Leo Miller…” He got up and started walking to the shard.

  After waiting in line for a little bit longer it was finally his turn. He did what the teachers explained earlier that day. He laid a hand on the core, closed his eyes and focused on his inner flow of mana that they had been developing for the last ten and a half years of school. Then, a feeling as if a fog that he didn’t know was there had been lifted swept over Leo and he instinctively could tell what kind of magic he got.

  “So, what is it?” Mrs. Canton asked. She was a tall woman with an intimidating face caused by a scar running across her face below her eyes. Leo never had classes with her and, honestly, was a little bit intimidated by her.

  “I’m a plant formationist.”

  *****

  On the walk home Leo was fully immersed in his thoughts, wondering how he was going to use his magic, what kind of jobs he would be able to do, or if he should maybe go to a university for formation mages and learn about more niche runic wordchains.

  He also typed a quick message to Bim on his com-tablet, a reverse engineered Non invention, that was basically a keyboard attached to a screen. After typing in Bim’s personal number he walked up to the nearest connection stone and lightly bumped it with the com-tablet to send the message.

  After that Leo checked if he received any messages and found one from Bim: he let him know he became a shadow spellweaver and promised to talk the next day at school.

  Damn, that means that we’ll be in different classes cause of our different magic types, seems like we won’t be spending as much time together… As Leo contemplated he didn’t notice how quickly the time passed and only ten minutes later he was already home.

  “I’m hooome!” Not actually expecting a response, Leo was quite surprised as a woman in an apron with striking red hair with some streaks of grey sneaking in here and there peaked from the kitchen.

  “Oh, welcome home, sweetie! Perfect timing, I just finished baking you an apple pie.” Leo’s mother came out of the kitchen wearing oven gloves and holding a steaming metal pan. She quickly put the pie on the dining table in the living room and jogged over to Leo to hug him.

  “Mom? Aren’t you usually at work at this time?” He asked after finally coming out of his stupor and hugging her back.

  “Well, all the parents were allowed to go home early to spend time with their kids because of the binding ceremony. Speaking of, care to share? How did it go?”

  “So, I’m a formation mage. As for the element, I got plant. I dunno mom. It feels like I won’t be able to use it for much besides farming. Even with that I’m not sure, stuff summoned by magic disappears when the infused mana runs out. I guess I’m just a little disappointed, I always thought I would get something cooler…” Leo dejectedly looked to the ground.

  “None of that now! First of all, your element is cool. Think about it, you got a very broad element, it’s not just ‘trees’ or ‘flowers’. In addition, you’re a formationist, the most fine tuneable magic type. And also… Leo, you won’t know it yet, but using magic just feels so… right. It’s the reason you never see people unsatisfied with their magic and also why some do such seemingly boring work. Casting your magic gives a unique sense of really being yourself and truly belonging in this world.” His mother gives Leo another reassuring hug.

  “Truly? You think this will make me happy?”

  “Yes. More importantly, let’s get to eating,” With these words she walked over to the pie and beckoned him to the table. Then Leo’s mother took a knife and carefully carved out a slice and placed it on a plate in front of him. “You want some tea, sweetie?”

  “Yeah, tea would be nice,” his mother started moving towards the kitchen, ”but I’ll go grab it myself. You want some too, mom?”

  “That would be nice, yeah, thanks, Leo.”

  After preparing some tea for both of them, Leo finally sat down and broke off a bit of cake with his fork. The sweet scent of apples with a hint of cinnamon reached his nose. He took a bite, the sweet and sour apple melted in his mouth. The pie was still a bit hot, so the sweet batter was perfectly chewy and the powdered sugar on top quickly dissolved.

  “Thanks, mom. It’s delicious…”

  Leo smiled. Yeah, maybe everything will be alright…

  *****

  The next morning Leo met with Bim at school. Their year, after just being there the day before, was summoned to the gym room again. While on their way there the pair discussed how their previous days went and also promised to still keep in touch, even if they were in different classes going forward.

  “Do you know why they told us to meet up before class?” Bim asked him, as they sat in the same seats as during the binding ceremony.

  “No idea, they already sent us our new class assignments yesterday.” While he said that, he saw the principal get up on the same improvised stage as the day before as he also conjured the megaphone again.

  “My dear students and colleagues, I have asked you to gather here today because Layla, Elum’s representative sent to the council just returned home and brought some… interesting news,” he took a deep breath and composed himself. “The council had some problems about coming to an agreement, so… A Magic Contest will be held,” audible gasps ran across the crowd, “and as the youngest students to go through the binding your year will all be potential candidates.”

  Leo felt a groan escaping his throat. Seems like everything won’t be alright after all…