“I sympathize, but I was sincerely happy for you,” Aiz suddenly said.

– Everyone is so mysterious! Maybe explain what you're talking about? – Jed couldn’t stand it. – They speak in riddles here. Dragons suck!

Aiz shoved Freckled in the shoulder.

–Watch your language, idiot!

And Kayu smiled contentedly and began to explain:

– When Focus finds the true one, a special mark appears on her hand, right? “He looked at Aiz and me, and we nodded in unison. “I believe that Ethan should have the same mark or something similar on his hand.”

– But there is no sign! – Jed stated the obvious.

– That's it, stupid! That's it!

Fireman was not offended by the dumbass. Instead he asked:

– So what should we do now? So, the Focus is gone?

“It seems so,” I admitted with a sigh. “Someone must have intercepted it, and that’s a problem.” Didn't you hear, no one found him?

My friends shook their heads negatively, and I realized that the artifact would not be found so easily.

– This is a serious problem, Derberg! – Ezeroth sympathized with me. “I wouldn’t want to be in your place, friend.”

And as soon as he finished speaking, something completely incredible happened.

Mirre Blackrock, elemental mage, adept at the Academy of Wind and Storms. Border of Onyx Rocks and the Steppe of the Seventeen Winds.

The girls were waiting for me at the end of the corridor at the exit to the hall. I hurried towards them, putting on my coat as I went. At the same time, she tapped her pocket to check if the artifact was in place. For a second I was even afraid that I had dropped it, but the precious ball still remained with me.

– Chiari, is everything okay? – Ada asked quietly when I joined my group.

My confused state did not escape the attentive eyes of the northern woman.

“Yes, yes,” I waved it off, hiding my eyes.

– Ah, it seems to me…

– Everything is fine, Ada! The situation was just awkward, but it’s all over now. Nonsense! – I reassured my friend.

– Right?

– Exactly! “I nodded and turned to the others: “Girls, what are our plans?”

“We’ll go to the library to get textbooks, then to our room to clean up,” Volde answered for everyone.

– Maybe we’ll look at the schedule first and get the form? Just when the flow of visitors will subside,” Lisel suggested.

– Of course, let's go look at the schedule. It's right here!

Khvoyana pointed to a large stand in the center of the hall, to which a line of first-year adepts lined up. They approached one at a time and placed their palm on the large round stone at the bottom right, after which writing appeared on the surface of the stand, giving information about the group, class time and list of items. The stand quickly went out, so some did not have time to rewrite everything and applied their palm again to the displeasure of those waiting.

We walked up and also stood in line. The guys looked sideways at us, but were silent. Some actually blushed, and some looked with interest. I thought that they, like us, were embarrassed. That is OK. We will still study together, we will get to know each other in class and maybe even make friends with some of them.

The line was barely halfway through when a group of older adherents approached the stand, led by the same curly-haired guy who had provoked Zikki with his attention in the cafeteria. They watched us pointedly for a while, and then one asked:

–What are they doing, Harvey?

– What hole did these idiots come out of? – The other one grimaced.

– Disperse, young bastards! “They pushed the freshmen out of the way.

Curly slowly approached the stand and pathetically declared: