Under the cleric’s direction, everyone in the square entered the cathedral hall in orderly fashion. The enormous room had polished marble floors and vast crystal chandeliers; hundreds of people fit inside without crowding it. Recruiters from the academies sat in a row at the front, while the testing area occupied the center.

“Candidates will come one at a time,” the black-robed cleric announced. “No one else may enter the central circle. Candidates, line up. Parents and relatives, move aside.”

Hillman handed Linley ten Gold Coins and his identification. “Go on. Leave Bebe with me; it will be troublesome if he stays with you during the test.” Linley asked Bebe through their soul connection to stay with Uncle Hillman. Though reluctant, the little rat slipped into Hillman’s clothes.

Children from six or seven to seventeen or eighteen formed two long lines while priests collected the fees. Inside the ten-meter testing circle stood three adults: two examiners and a recorder. Their tools were a crystal ball and a complicated hexagonal magic formation.

“First candidate.” The bald old examiner pointed to the crystal ball. “Place your hand on it. We test elemental affinity first.”

A nervous boy of twelve or thirteen placed his right hand on the ball. It glowed faint red, with a little green mixed in.

“Age twelve. Fire affinity: medium. Wind affinity: low.” The old man’s voice was cold. “Now enter the formation for the Spiritual Force test. Stand straight. Do not kneel or fall; endure as long as possible.”

The boy entered the hexagon. Holy white light rose from the examiner and flowed into the formation.

Radiant-style spell—Intimidation!

“The testing method is still primitive,” Doehring said as he appeared beside Linley.

“Grandpa Doehring.” Linley felt reassured.

“Elemental affinity is secondary; Spiritual Force is the real test. After half a year of meditation, yours should be sixteen or seventeen times that of a child your age. This will be easy.”

Within moments, the boy collapsed. “Spiritual Force roughly twice that of his peers. No possibility of becoming a magus,” the examiner declared. The boy left dejectedly.

The crowd began murmuring, but the examiner snapped, “Silence. Next.”

The first ten candidates all failed. Then a girl endured within the formation far longer than any of them. The old man’s eyes brightened, and he increased the formation’s power. At last she fell to one knee.

He nodded, a smile finally appearing. “Spiritual Force eight times that of her peers, the threshold for becoming a magus. Her elemental affinity is also medium. She may become a magus.”

The first person to shout with joy was not the girl but her bald, gentlemanly father. The examiner silenced him, and a priest led father and daughter to the academy recruiters. Many people looked at the girl with envy. Becoming a magus meant both status and strength.

As time passed, more people arrived. The tests would continue for seven days, so most were in no hurry. By the time Linley’s turn came, the line extended outside the hall.

“Next.”

Linley entered the circle after calming himself. Doehring remained beside him; only Saint-level experts could barely sense him, while ordinary magi had no chance.

Linley placed his hand on the crystal ball.

At once, it blazed like the sun. Yellow-brown and green light interwove, with the faintest thread of red. The brilliance made even nearby people narrow their eyes. The whole hall fell silent.

The bald examiner looked at Linley’s paper with trembling hands. The boy was only eight.

“Age eight. Earth and wind elemental affinities: superior. Fire affinity: medium.” His heart pounded. Medium affinity was ordinary, high affinity rare, and superior affinity extraordinarily scarce. Where another person needed ten hours to refine Mana, Linley might need only one.

A cry of shock swept the hall. Superior affinity in two elements was terrifying.

“Superior wind affinity?” Doehring was startled.

“I am talented in wind as well?” Linley asked inwardly.

Doehring gave an embarrassed laugh. “I told you I could test only your affinity for earth. When you first refined Mana, did you not sense wind elements?”

Linley remembered the green motes he had noticed the first time, before Doehring told him not to be distracted. Later, when he concentrated on earth elements, those elements surrounded him and excluded the wind ones.

Doehring understood. When a dual-element magus focused on cultivating one element, that element drew in its own particles and repelled the others. Linley was delighted; a dual-element magus was stronger than a single-element one.

The elemental-affinity test was over. Now came the test of his Spiritual Force.