"The old wizard is mad."

Tenet did his best to ignore the chatter on the other end of the room as he studied the history tome in his hands.

The voices continued from the other side of the room. "No one in their right mind would actually want to be a wizard."

Tenet made a point of turning his chair to put his back to the conversation.

"Except Tenet over there. The only aspirant in the kingdom who actually hopes to be trained by an insane old mage."

"And a traitor." Another added.

"That too," the first one said. "I wonder if Tenet even knows half of what they say about his hero."

"It’s not like he has a chance anyway. None of us do. Everyone knows Madrigal the Mad doesn’t accept apprentices. Everyone is turned away."

"That’s what I’m counting on. I wouldn’t train with that old monster for all the gold in Kemura. But being turned away from him is enough to get me into the Ordo, where I can do some real good."

"And make some real gold" another added.

"Too much trouble personally. Why go all that way to make money? I’d just as soon not be sent. There’s a lot of barons and merchants who would love to marry their daughters to a crown aspirant."

At this, there were several cries of assent.

Tenet could take no more. He closed his book noisily, set it aside and stood with his back to the crowd of young men on the other side of the room, speaking between deep breaths. "None of you deserve to be crown aspirants. The entire purpose of these tests is to find worthy candidates to train under a wizard. None of you even understand that."

"Oh we understand, Tenet. We understand reality. Something you might try living in if you didn’t have your head full of nonsense about being a wizard. What good has a wizard ever done you?"

Tenet took a deep breath and didn’t take the bait. The others weren’t entirely wrong anyway. No wizard had done anyone in Lytgard any good in nearly a century. But Tenet had read the histories. He knew what the wizards of old had been like. "Things will change when I am a wizard" he said slowly.

"So confident that you are to be selected then, young Tenet? I wasn’t aware the trials had already ended." The voice speaking was not one of the young men but rather the voice of one of the temple scribes who administered the trials. Tenet froze at the unexpected rebuke. "In fact, I would very much like to speak to you about your last test. Come along. As for the rest of you, cease your blabbering and return to your studies if you wish to be of any value to anyone, wizard or otherwise."

Tenet grabbed his book off the chair and followed the scribe out of the room, with a half dozen stares following him. 

Next Chapter: Tower of Light