3: Induction
They approached the building and Phantasia began to take in some of the finer details. Unlike the natural, elegant shapes of the palace, the school was rigid and square, built to stand in a world dictated by materialistic laws. Everywhere was covered in the dull pattern of brickwork, and the stony ground was nothing like the shifting patterns of water in the palace. Those places that were coloured by nature’s beauty were contained like exhibits, and there were few signs of non-human life other than distant birdsong and omnipresent insects.
Mr Payne gestured towards some fenced off courts where a handful of humans were loitering, some playing odd games. “We do our best to encourage sports,” he explained as they walked past, “It keeps some of them out of trouble. We can’t compete with the big city, though, but that goes for a lot of things…”
Phantasia followed Mr Payne towards the steps that led up to the main entrance, which was overshadowed by a large, dark canopy under which sat several sets of double doors that looked into the building. For an entrance, it was an anticlimactic as it got, but then Phantasia had been standing outside the monolithic gates of the Earth Palace only a few weeks earlier.
The corridor was lit by numerous windows and had a soft grey floor. It was more comfortable on her bare feet than the hard stone had been, though she still missed the shallow waters of her home. There were a few students hanging around a short distance away – they were chancing looks at her and whispering among themselves, but shuffled away when Mr Payne began to approach them.
“I don’t know much about how things worked where you came from,” he said, though Phantasia was surprised that he would know anything at all, “Queen Thetis did give me an overview. I don’t think they’re much different here, but your classmates will be. You won’t be used to quite the…” he paused for a moment and ruffled his hair again, “…variety of personalities you’ll have in your classes,”
Indeed, she thought. Phantasia had only ever been taught in single-element classes. Water faeries sat and learned facts, Earth faeries were taught the arts of combat, Fire faeries focused on the manipulation of various energies, and Wind faeries were carefree and preferred fun to learning. The idea of mixing different types and trying to teach them things not of their elemental nature was destined for trouble!
“The school is split into four houses,” explained Mr Payne as he guided Phantasia through the corridors. Passing through another set of double doors, the neutral grey tones changed to yellow and brown hues. “For example, this is Topaz house. Each house is dedicated to one of the four main academic areas that we study – science, art, humanities and nature. Topaz is the science area, and probably our smallest department. The big city down south – Malkuth – is a technological utopia. You’ll see it on the horizon sometimes. It’s a mountain of metal and lights,”
I’m a little confused: earlier on you said Phantasia was wearing human clothes, which I would presume include shoes, but in this chapter it says she has bare feet. Surely Mr Payne would have made her put on shoes before leading her to the school?
Ah, I guess I should’ve made that clearer? Phantasia never wear shoes (by choice). She odd like that.
“an anticlimactic as it got” should be spelt, “as anticlimactic”.
“The idea of mixing different types and trying to teach them things not of their elemental nature was destined for trouble!”
Hahaha! Smaller classroom sizes ftw. I like how you separated the education into four houses.
That’s how education works in England, at least from my experience. Blue, green, red and yellow, usually with symbolic names.