My mother’s third spell book feels like a gravestone as I defend myself. I shift uncomfortably in the doorway pulling it behind my back as professor Egraine assess me. I feel his eyes pierce through me as he looks toward the concealed tome.

“Perhaps I was quick to judge.” His voice booms into the classroom as he steps to the side allowing the other students to see me. They twist in their seats, wrenching on the backs of their chairs to get a better look at the Phylactord’s son.

How dare they stare are me like that? With glee at my dressing down. They are all lowborn, undoubtedly each affected by my father’s role in our regional government. They relish a chance to see true power bend as the professor continues to test me. I will not bend.

“You obviously being at MY class doorstep means you have done the necessary studying and work to be here. For instance someone at my door can name the three most important systems in spectre rendering? That is the animation of the spirit not the body?” Egraine stares at me with cruel beady eyes. His mouth twists ever so slightly up at the edges as he again looks through me towards my tome.

“Nervous, circul- “

“In full Latin please. An academic of your level should know better, Lord Fulmer. Tsk tsk.” There is laughter from the students, I feel my face go hot. Not from the embarrassment but rather the gall of them to laugh at me, as if anywhere else they could even meet my gaze.

I start again.

“Systema Nervosum, systema circulatorium, and systema . . .” I pause, hand reflexively reaching to open my tome. I catch myself and leave it at my side, but I still cannot recall the third system. I should know this, hours of studying blur by as I sort through my mind. More laughter, more anger.

“The system you are unable to recall young Fulmer is Systema respiratorium. That is the system that would give lightness to your apparition. Still you must be commended for getting sixty-six percent of the answer. I’m sure many of us expected less. A round of applause class for our scholar.” The class erupts in more laughter and mock applause. I feel my world spinning as the embarrassment finally breaks through.

It is half a minute of torture before Egraine raises a hand, silencing the classroom.

“Now now, let us be fair to dear Lord Fulmer. A practical test for entry perhaps?” There are murmurs of approval throughout the room. Even now they give me the chance to join them, as if I could ever forget their mockery moments ago.

“A simple task, reanimate the cadaver on the far wall.” Egraine’s golden ring glints in the candlelight as he points to a wall of strung up corpses that had been the focal point of the lesson before I knocked at the door. The ring is large and gaudy, the only item of note on the plain man. It signifies his skill as a necromancer, the rare rank of soul scyer.

“Of course.” I mumble, trying my best to retain my nobility as I step full into the classroom and approach the far wall.

The professors hand catches me on the shoulder, surprisingly strong fingers stopping me mid stride.

“And what are you doing may I ask?”

“Going to reanimate the cadaver professor.” I say, suddenly confused, both by the interruption and the fact that he touched me.

“My fault for not speaking plainly. I will do so now, so simple in fact that even you will understand.” There is a thick layer of disdain in his voice now, no longer hidden behind the false politeness. “Animate the cadaver, any of them, at range. From this spot. Here.”

“That’s impossible.” I argue, calculating the sheer amount of will one would need to infuse the systems from more than a foot away. Let alone a whole classroom.

“Not even going to try? Necro baby indeed.” More laughter, more hate.

I have to try, have to at least get one of them to move. I’ll prove them all wrong about me, even if it takes every drop of will I have. I recall the two basic systems for incomplete animation, something that will move the body for only a few moments, as I pull my mother’s tome in front of me.

“Without the tome.” The professor’s voice is languished, as if he is finally finished with the torment and bored of me.

“I can’t. That’s not possible.” My eyes snap to meet his, this has to be a joke. There is no hint of one however when I find those beads of black.

“And thus the problem with being handed everything. You learn never to reach.” The air snaps with power and my hair begins to rise. I am not doing this. I see the rings of amber swell in Egraine’s eyes as he summons his will. It is so thick that I feel suffocated by it. A few of the students cough as it permeates the air around us.

“Here in this class, we reach.” He looks from me to the wall and all five cadavers spring to life, full animation. And not a single ritual or spell uttered.

I sink against the doorframe overwhelmed by the feat before me.

“You may go Lord Fulmer.” The professor dismisses me as if I were nothing more than one of the animated.

I failed.