#abjurator

SCHOOL OF ABJURATION (♀ Aarakocra)

Victims of the pretations of dragons and evil people it’s to none surprise that this female aarakocra has chosen the wizard specialty that focus on barriers, protections and dispelling pernicious effects as her preferred form of magic.

Aarakocras can be played with the Elemental Evil Companion.

J breathed out slowly staring at his reflection in the mirror. "Come on you punk, pull yourself together. You can do this." He muttered as he fixed his hair and straightened his tie. Intellectually he knew that his appearance wouldn't change the results of the test today, but the action gave him something to do with his hands that felt at least somewhat productive. "Get yourself together!" He scolded his reflection. "This is what the last three years have been for, don't blow it now just because you're nervous." He tugged on the sleeves of his white generalist robes. One way or another this would be his last day wearing them. Either he would pass and be accepted into the specialist school he applied to and change to the robes of his new college, or he'd fail the test and have to relinquish his robes as he'd be proved unworthy of wizardry. His throat tightened at the thought. So many long hours of study and dedication couldn't be for nothing. At that moment the anxiety J was working himself into was mercifully disrupted when another boy stuck his head into the bathroom.

"Oh for magic's sake. Calm down you fricking spaz. You'll do fine and get accepted to go be creepy with the other spooks." M, a boy who lived two rooms down and had been in several generalist classes with J groused. "Now if you're done being melodramatic let's hurry up." J smiled. He would miss M. The boy was almost stubbornly cheerful. "Yeah I'm good, let's go." He breathed out, willing his nerves to calm. M had applied to the Abjuration college, and considering his talent for shield spells his admission was almost guaranteed. J remained less certain about his own future. The two boys hurried down to the central hall. They would part ways there, but the towers that held all seven specialist colleges branched from that hall at that place only. J gave M a thumbs up for good luck before heading to the black door that would lead to his testing. As he stepped inside the towers entrance hall J felt a shiver run down his spine. This was his first time entering the black tower. Generalists weren't allowed for their safety and the safety of the students studying inside. A voice whispered in his ear suddenly, "Here for your testing dearie?" He turned in the voice's direction and saw a kindly woman's face. She had a friendly smile and kind eyes. She also happened to be mostly translucent and the only color to her was a silvery blue. One of the ghosts of the tower. J nodded slowly before answering as politely as possible. "Yes ma'am."

The woman's smile widened and she winked. "Well if you can see me you've got enough innate talent to get your foot in the door at least, so let's go get you proven up." The ghost's kind words seemed to calm some of his nerves at least and J followed her through a doorway into a side room on the first floor of the tower. Three black-robed figures sat at a long table that dominated the center of the room. Their faces were obscured by shadow, and J felt certain this was intentional. "Greetings young man, and welcome to your testing." This voice came from the figure on the left, it was a smooth, dry, male voice, but revealed little about the speaker. J swallowed hard. "Yes sir, how do I begin sir?" and another voice came from the figure on the right, "So eager! A good trait to have here." The voice was female, and similar to the ghost who had guided him, J suspected some relation. The first man spoke again, his voice heavily suggesting a raised eyebrow. "Well you’re attempting to study in the school of necromancy, so logically one would start by proving one has talent in the field." J felt his face flush. "Of course sir." J reached into his pocket and felt a pouch full of dust. Good. He hadn't forgotten it. He placed the pouch in the center of the room and untied the string holding it closed. Taking a step back, he raised a hand and began the incantation. "Mournful spirit of the lost hear my entreaty, by ash and bone I bid thee appear, come forth specter, heed my call." Black smoke billowed out of the pouch coalescing into a vaguely human form, dull yellow eyes peered out from the region that in a person would have been a face. The shade's form was indistinct and flickered, but it had undeniably answered his call. "Acceptable." The voice seemed to travel like ice down his spine and J quickly wondered if it had come from the shade, but the middle figure raised an arm and with a wave the shade vanished. "You may study here."

----=-_---

So what if it took only five minutes to be ready? The generalist robes all looked the same. A quick shower and an indelicate tousle to his hair and he was set. “Well, mostly set...” M muttered at the closed bathroom door in the 4-dorm suite he shared while fastening a little glass bauble onto his earring. it took half a blink to see that his favorite classmate was about to have some kind of a panic attack in front of a bathroom mirror. M could always foretell J’s anxiety because the poor boy stopped breathing, and (coincidentally enough) it sounded dead in that bathroom.

With a roll of his eyes he opened the door to the bathroom and laid on the theatrics.

"Oh for Magic's SAKE." he moaned, leaning on the taller boy's shoulder, subtly adjusting his collar "Calm down ya frickin' spaz. You'll do just fine and you'll get accepted to go be spoopy with all the other spooks." M ostentatiously dusted at the chest of J's robes and made slight adjustments. "Now. If you're done being melodramatic, let's hurry up!" letting the chuckle into his voice now that J was breathing steadily again.

"Yeah I'm good, let's go." J said with one more deep breath to steady himself and allowed himself a slight grin.

J had been a shoe-in to ace the Necromancy exam since they took their first Summoning course, while M hadn't been sure what he'd wanted to do at all until their second year. He and J made an odd pair, but M felt he wouldn't have found his love for Abjuration without J's constant research into what M thought was the more dangerous disciplines. . .

I started on Abjuration almost to protect him from those things he’d summon, and we're probably not gonna see each other again. . . Kind of ironic. He shook the heavy feeling aside, determined to keep J as confident as possible on the jog there, so plastered a Hopefully Not Bittersweet Grin on his face as he tapped J's knuckles with their goodbye thumbs-up. and matched his stride down his own hallway until J was out of sight.

._.-’`

He opened the enormous rippled-glass door that seemed to show nothing of the room beyond, and was immediately cornered by Quinn, an Evoker from a year ahead who pinned him to the door with a hand on his shoulder, closing him in the tower.

"Ow-Hey! What in Hel man?!" he barely got out before Quinn's face lit up in recognition. M babbled, still confused "I don't think I'm in the wrong tower, what are you doing in Abjuration?"

"I could as you the same thing M!" Quinn grunted eyebrow raised, "Thought you'd come and be an Evoker with me. Wasn't I impressive enough?"

"I don't think that's how it works, is it Quinn?" M rolled his eyes, ducked under Quinn's arm and sighed, "It does make sense though. Not a good test if there's nothing to shield, even if it is from those piddly sparks of yours." and without looking he flicked the taller boy's hand away from the glass bauble with a sparking flash of magic. "So what do we do to start?"

"You’ve gotta follow me into this room." Quinn gestured to a deeply shadowed doorway.

"All alone? that sounds dangerous..." giving the Evoker an overacted once-over, M added "not to mention unsanitary."

The figure of a woman in severe robes with the customary shoulder pauldron that denoted the Abjurator's style seemed to manifest from the doorway, a patient but rigid expression lay on her face.

"Alright that'll do. Both of you come in please. The test does indeed begin in here."

Quinn followed her in first, pouting. M brought up the rear. I do NOT want any surprises from this one, that's for sure. he thought to himself. He saw another form near the door. Another judge, hidden in shadow.

M stepped to the middle of the room, where rays of light concentrated on a focal point.

"So you're here to test for Abjuration. Interesting." The voice betrayed no such interest. The voice almost seemed bored with the prospect, in fact as if it had been testing examinees all morning.

"That's right. how do I proceed?" M asked the space the voice came from.

"You don't die, duh." Quinn interjected and stepped forward. The first proctor bid him stay with a hand on his shoulder.

"The explanation is a touch crass, but essentially true. There will be at least two parts to the examination, and it will be up to you to fulfill them without prompting and under pressure. In short, you must survive . . . and this,” she said, gesturing to the bauble, “must survive the examination as well. Your time starts now." The woman stepped backwards into the shadows beyond, taking her hand from Quinn’s shoulder. "Best of luck." the other Voice recited dryly.

"Thank you of course." M mocked a curtsy to the dark as Quinn's hand started to glow. With a toss, the evoker hurled a simple fireball spiralling towards M. He jumped aside and barely dodged a second one. With the third however, he found his focus and met the fireball with his hand and snapped his fingers.

The Fireball rebounded back towards Quinn much faster than it had been thrown. Quinn barely hurled himself from the projectile, and then with an irritated scowl, fired a Rather Large fireball M’s way.

M took two quick deep breaths, then formed his fingers into to L shapes and drew them apart until they formed a diamond. the Fireball passed through what may have been a portal and was gone... except for an added glimmer in M's bauble.

Growling, Quinn went very still, hands parallel to the floor. M could see the silhouette from his fingers' bones standing out against the reddish gold glow in his skin and the room started to grow dry and sweltering. M looked around uneasy, the bauble was feeling like it too was heating up, the energy in it responding to its former master's command. He looked at the form by the door, who made no motion to stop the proceedings. "Scad. Scad and Hel and SNO- that's it!" M gasped. He took two sharp steps toward Quinn and clapped over his head like a flamenco dancer, and frost erupted throughout the room, knocking Quinn off his feet with it's bursting force.

"Jerk." he said, passing Quinn’s groaning prone body and re-centering himself.

"Neatly done.” the woman’s voice intoned, clearly more attentive than before “Reflection, absorption, and counterspell using your opponent’s energy. How fares your orb?"

"Unmarred," the voice from the body by the door intoned flatly.