Talyn’s eyes poured through page after page, book after book. It was the third day of the week and, by the Denil national time scale, she only had six days before her first exam, and she still had now inkling of magic within her. She had been doing this same thing for the past two days. Looking through a magic book, casting it aside, looking through the next, casting it aside. The first day she had spent curled up in her room staring at the artefacts left to the third daughter by all of the third daughters before her. She had noted that each one was broken in some fashion or another, but that didn’t help her in any way.
On her second day in the academy she realised the truth, wallowing in self pity would get her killed. It would not get her out of the academy. She had eight days left, and for the first two of those she had been sat studying in the library, only moving for food and sleep. Yet even after two days solid work she felt she was no closer to an answer. Even the simplest spells did nothing. There was nothing in her, she could feel it. In six days she would be dead.

Talyn sat in the library, her hand caressing the soft leather cover of one book, the collective works of Rem Xtree noted acaneologist, while her eyes read the title over and over again. “The Arcane arts for beginners.” She was a beginner. There was no doubt about that, but there was a question of why she was still-
“Hi.” Came a voice from her left. At first she ignored it. she had been sat there for near enough two days straight and hadn’t said a word. Nobody had spoken to her, nobody had even looked at her for more than an instant. She hadn’t even heard a person’s voice since… the student mage… she hadn’t even heard his name.
“I… erm… hello?” the voice sounded again. Talyn was brought out of the daze she hadn’t realised that she had fallen into, and back to the world. She turned to look in mild surprise up at a young girl. she seemed younger than Talyn, though Talyn couldn’t be sure the girl wasn’t just… Talyn’s eyes darted up to a small horn protruding from her forehead, directly above her nose. The girl was an Arcca, a member of a race native to the eastern continent of Saylle. The Faylorn Empire did not stretch to Saylle, but the United Sayllean council were allies of the Falorn empire, given access to their continent, their facilities and, if the institute agreed, their schools.
The Arcca were a peaceful people, though they were known to be great mages. Their biology was not completely inhuman, though there were some very obvious differences, including but not limited to the small horns that they grew on their fore heads, and the near permanent appearance of youth. A humans life span in this day and age, a normal human with no magical age reduction, was anywhere between eighty years and one hundred and thirty. While the eldest Arcca, on record at least, was five hundred and twenty nine. Their long life was as much a blessing as a curse to some of them. While some found solace in their kind others looked outwards, marrying humans and far outlasting them. Not only that but the Arcca immune system was non existent due to their millennia of magical advancements. They could heal or protect against anything magically, or so they thought until the Sec-plague wiped half of them from the face of the planet.
The girl stood over Talyn with an expression that mixed confusion with fear.
“I’m sorry, I was miles away.” Talyn said, smiling. “How can I help you?”
“I’m sorry to interrupt you but… I only just arrived. I was wondering if…” The girl looked a little uneasy. She eyed the seat opposite for a moment and then opened her mouth to speak again. “…Could I…”
“Sit down?” the young Falorn girl finished, smiling. “Of course.”
The Arcca smiled happily, the way children do when given a treat. “Thank you!” the girl said, taking the seat opposite the princess. “My name is, -” the girl made a list of sounds that Talyn could barely hear, let alone comprehend, smiling the whole while.
“I…” Talyn started, sounding clearly confused and near enough speechless.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” the girl said, clearly deeply apologetic. “I forget that the human ear cannot hear in that frequency. And that the human tongue is unable to say all of those words…” she looked thoughtfully down at the books in front of Talyn. “A human friend I had once, called me Vakko. It was the only syllable of my name she could understand when I attempted to say it in your hearing spectrum.”
“Oh.” Talyn said, shifting a little, printing the name to her memory. “My name is Talyn.” She said.
“Talyn Falorn? The third daughter?” the girl asked, wide eyed. Apparently her lineage was not lost even on the Arcca of Saylle. “Your lineage is legendary. The countless battles that your mage aunts have won by themselves… You must be an incre-”
“I’m Mage-blind.” Talyn cut in. the girl was silenced. “to this day, I have no magical abilities. I’ve never even lit up a candle, let alone a room… hence the books.” She said, indicating the table.
“Oh… I’m sorry.” Vacca said. “But… the end of the week… why would you subject yourself to that if you…”