Silence took hold of them both, and Nadrina inwardly winced. It snuffed the conversation out like a candle in a rainstorm. She’d only been in this school for a few hours, and already she’d made a fool of herself. That was a record, even for her. She’d doomed herself to sit next to this heir to a Great House for the rest of the year and desperately hoped that she would just ignore Nadrina’s presence.

The sound of the entrance to the classroom being thrown wide open saved her from further embarrassing herself.

As the man at the entrance made his way into the classroom, Nadrina assumed he was lost. He had shoulder length black hair, a scraggly beard, and a general air that reminded Nadrina of when the field hands in her village were nursing a killer hangover. What looked more out of place than anything, however, were his gold trimmed robes. They were also the blue of a sorcerer, just like Nadrina. She had the awful realization that this was probably their absentee professor.

The man staggered to the front of the small classroom, acting as if none of the students were even there. With plodding steps, he eventually made it to the front of the room, turning while avoiding a glare from the blonde woman. He gave a blank look at the gathered students. The students just gazed right back. An uncomfortable silence enveloped the room, and Nadrina wondered if he expected them to say something.

“Uh... hi.” the man spoke, giving a half-hearted wave at the class. “I’m Aldric, and I’ll be your new professor, I guess. You can call me whatever you want, as long as it’s not an insult or ‘hey you’.”

With that out of the way, Professor Aldric dropped his gaze to the table in front of him and began leafing through the textbooks that were piled there, the entire class now forgotten.

Nadrina watched the three other students in the class and noted their bewildered expressions. She imagined her face looked similar. Even the other professor at the front currently had her head in her hands, shaking it back and forth in what looked like exasperation. Professor Aldric had just finished flipping through a textbook, snapping it closed with a dismissive huff. Without even looking, he chucked it across the room and into the trash bin all the way at the other end of the classroom. It was an impressive display of accuracy, if a somewhat confusing one. He picked up another, flipped through a few of the pages, snorted, and did the same thing again.

The woman seated in the corner was looking at the professor with a heated glare. She obviously wanted to say something, but either wouldn’t or couldn’t. By the time Professor Aldric had thrown away a third book, someone in the class finally spoke up.