The garden of the Great School of Magic was the favorite place of most of the apprentices. With trees varying from great, gnarled oaks to green saplings hardly taller than a standing man, with lush bushes and fresh grass kept evergreen with magic, it offered cool shadows, comforting shelters from the heat of the summer day. It was an excellent place to relax and to ignore the endless fuss of the little town that that surrounded the School of Magic. The garden was also far away from the musty classrooms and dusty libraries of the main building, a fact that was very important to the most of the students.

A group of apprentices had gathered into a shadow of a great oak. There were some elder students among them, but most of the group consisted of younger apprentices. They spoke in quiet tones, leaning close toward each other to either hear or be heard better. Rumors were told. Jokes were laughed upon, even little stories were heard. Every time somebody opened his or her mouth to tell something new, others were always eager to listen. They cared little whether the words were true or not. The garden wasn't only a place for relaxing. It was also a place to gossip.

"I don't care whether it's a magical experiment or not", one of the elder students, Madein by name, said. "But if I ever find a mat of green carrots growing under my bed, I'm not going to tolerate it! You said it was Grendon who likes to such things?"

"Yep, it's Grendon", the student who briefly had been in the center of all attention just a moment before said. "Or so I heard, at least. Somebody overheard him boasting about it to -"

One of the others interrupted him: "Fel, you already told that just a moment ago!"

"Yeah, keep quiet!"

"Grendon it is, then", Madein said with an evil smile. He stretched his fingers. "Well, if Grendon is going to put carrots under my bed, we'll see who's faster with spells!" His self-confident smile widened as he heard the excited whispering among the listeners. "And I'm not going to lose!"

The murmur of the listeners grew even more excited. One of the younger apprentices left the group to deliver the message to Grendon. Everyone in the group knew that once Madein's challenge had been received, green carrots would be very quick to make their home under his bed.

Little spell battles were quite usual among the students. They were always looked forward to. Although students were -- at least in theory -- forbidden to use magic freely, even some of the teachers gave their quiet support to challenges, saying that little scuffles were good practice for would-be wizards. What made this particular challenge special was that both Madein and Grendon were elder students. It was a well-known fact that experienced apprentices tended to put up the best of shows.

One of the younger students, Gred was his name, let Madein to enjoy his position in the spotlight of attention for a moment longer before he asked: "Who was that girl Grendon was boasting to?"

Fel immediately seized the chance to be heard again: "You mean Nina? I think Grendon has had an eye on her for some time now. She's kind of hard to approach, you know. She's quiet and likes to keep to herself. I don't think she's very impressed with Grendon's boastings, either".

"So, she's kind of a shy girl, then. Who is she, exactly?"

Fel gave his friend a sly smile. "What? You want to try your luck, too? Don't come crying at me when your backside gets toasted!"

A merry laughter ran through the group. Gred blushed. "No, no! I mean…err". His stammering amused the others even more. "What I mean is that I've never actually seen her. Not even in classrooms".

"That's not a wonder", Fel replied. "She's studying under Yoji. You know that old man? He's a really good wizard but makes his students do damn much work! No wonder he isn't very popular!"

"And she's studying under him? That Nina's got to be crazy!"

"I don't know", Madein said. "I came in here about at the same time as she did. I've got to admit that right now she's way better with magic than even I am".

There were several sly groans among the students. Madein had always let others know that he was the best. And now, before their very ears, the elder student was actually admitting something like this…

"She's quite good, then?" Gred asked

"You could say that", Madein replied. "She won't be grilling your backside or anything, thought. I've never seen her using magic without her tutor's permission. She studies hard. I don't think she has many friends around here to occupy her time. Besides that girl who visits her now and then, I think she has had only one other visitor".

"What?" Fel exclaimed, "I don't know anything about that!"

"Yeah, you weren't in this school back then", Madein replied, "This guy visited him, ah, I think it was about four years ago. Now what was his name…I think it was Ardren or something like that…"

* * * *

The sun warmed the stone bench Nina was sitting on. The black wings, carefully folded behind her back, bathed in the gentle rays of daylight and drained even more warmth for the young magician to enjoy. Wind gently rustled the leaves of the trees around her. The paper leaves of the tome in her hands rustled in response as she carefully turned the crumbling pages. The book was about magic. It told about ancient wizards, about their ways and philosophy. The history of magic was one of the main subjects apprentices had to read about if they wanted to have progress in their studies. Nina, however, didn't see the words written onto the pages. Actually, she wasn't reading at all.

She was thinking.

Nina had been studying in the Great School of Magic for many years now. Little by little she had learned more about her craft, uncovering new ways to channel that elusive flow of energy that was the essence of the power known as the magic. Often she had heard other students wondering how she could learn new things so fast. Some said that she was extremely talented with magic, others thought that she had been studying much longer than she admitted.

Nina herself didn't think that she had any kind of special relationship with magic. Yes, she did have talents, but such things were required from anyone who wished to learn more complicated spells. As one certain magician had once said, anyone could pick up a brush and learn to paint, but to make real, beautiful paintings – now that required more than just practicing. It required some talents, too. The main reason why she fared so well in her studies was that she simply worked hard.

Years ago, when Nina had arrived to the School, she had immediately thrown herself into her studies. It was a good way to ignore and quell the quiet pain that still lingered inside her. Such kind of wound was only created by a great loss. It was a difficult type of pain, since only the time had a real cure for it. Though the years had already taken most of the pain's edge away, Nina certainly had suffered enough losses in her past.

An apprentice rushed past the benches, waking Nina from her thoughts. He was yelling something about green carrots. Nina didn't pay much attention to him. The first months in the School of Magic had taught her one important thing: inside the walls of the School, unusual was seen as usual. Such was the power of magic.

"Why am I studying it, anyway?" Nina asked from herself. She liked magic, yes, but from time to time she caught herself thinking why she had chosen such a path. Would she have had other choices?

The answer came as easily as it had come several times before. Of course she could had chosen another way. She had had plenty of choices, actually. It all had started many years ago, on the day when her life had taken a new, unexpected course.

On the day when her wings had appeared.

Next: Chapter I
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