I had to go to the empire’s capital to attend the big test there. I shouldn’t have been surprised, my little town could never host one of those terrifyingly hard and convoluted tests the academy prepares for its applicants. 

Still, I was determined while being scared out of my wits. My mind was just... everywhere! Even now, just recalling it is scattering my mind! Let’s see where to begin... I mean continue. Ah, right I was talking about the city.

  

Tnedrat city is the capital from where the Emperor rules; it, without question, has the most talented and strongest prospective students! And worse, the year I tried out for the exam was the same year the prince registered for the test!! The prince! Let me say it again: THE PRINCE of the EMPIRE!! Participating in the examination! ROYALTY!!

It’s a big deal because the royal family of the Empire of Knoles is known for possessing amazing skills. Their lineage is stacked with powerful mages and strong aura users.

Aura is a whole other power that kind of works like mana in its versatility and variations, but aura is tricker to manipulate without proper training. Usually, a vessel to focus it like a sword or a bow helps the user. Well, at least that’s what I’ve been told by a few aura users I’ve met. Anyway, back to the test in the capital...

 

Smart candidates avoid taking the test in the capital because it is particularly more, extremely, gigantically, way more brutal to pass. Did I say that before? Oh well, I had selected one closer to my village since I knew this fact, but either people bought their way out, which does happen, or I’m extremely unlucky! Whatever the case, I couldn’t back out, so I set out four days before the test to mentally prepare and physically get myself there. 

 

My parents' home, where our coven was established about fifty or so years ago, is in a small village on the outskirts of the West Witch's territory. Oops, I should say Supreme Matriarch since she rules all the covens in the west. We are veeeery close to the border. We have a piece of land in the forest that serves as a divider between the empire’s central region where the capital is, and the western territory ruled by the West Supreme Witch.

  

There are thirty-two territories ruled by different representations such as a parliament, a king, a queen, a matriarch, and a few other political terms I don’t want to get into. Each region answers to the Emperor, the strongest and highest authority. He is the ruler that united these regions, well actually his great grandfather did, through conquest otherwise known as war.  

Hmm, I don’t really want to go into history, even though it’s important to know, it gets boring and heavy in some places. I’ll put a pin in it for now and talk about it later. Hopefully, I won't forget but I’m sure this will come up again.  

Alright, where was I... let’s see... mana, covens, aura... prince? Parents! OHH the day I left.  

The day I left my parents was the toughest thing I had done in my short life thus far! Excluding training of course, because that was physically hard. They looked worried, but they still did everything to prepare me. The day before father had holed himself in the workshop making sure each rune I was going to take worked perfectly. Runes must be carved in a sturdy material like wood or rock so that it can handle the release of energy. Meanwhile, my mother checked the enchantments on my hat and placed a charm on my gloves, shoes, and small luggage. I wasn’t going to take much since if I failed, I would have no other choice than to come home.  

Come home a failure, unable to even set out what I intended to do which was to shamelessly promote my small coven through the school. Yes, a pathetically simple plan but at that time this was the only way I could help my parents. Becoming a graduate of the academy brought an onslaught of prestige and prospects! My coven needed that and so failure was simply not an option.

Still, I can’t lie, I did hesitate when I saw concern in both my parents' eyes. I wonder what they were thinking then, maybe I should ask them sometime. From my perspective watching them get smaller and smaller as the carriage got further away, till I couldn’t make out any other feature aside from their black hair, was hard. It was so hard. More than once I had to stop myself from telling the driver to turn around and go back. The thought that I was making a mistake in attempting to become a student kept popping up in my head. But then, that thought was instantly followed by my parents' eyes shining with pride at their little girl. They had done so much for me, supported me, cheered me on, and would welcome me back with open arms.  

Am I crying? Maybe a little, remembering all those emotions and all that could have gone wrong with the journey or the test or the other students. Little me was just overwhelmed and terrified but I’m happy she did not tell that driver to turn around. If I had abandoned the opportunity to take that test, I’m not sure where I would be right now. It was thanks to that horribly unbelievably difficult test that I went from a scared little witch whose hat barely fit to a full-grown witch.