“Very well. You both have twenty minutes.” The headmaster had to pause again when Professor Aldric suppressed a snort, but didn’t deign to respond. “The first to finish will be the winner.”

He handed the both of them the spell scrolls and engraving tools. Nadrina did a double take at the sight of the boy she was competing with, realizing she’d only now noticed him. Never had a human being been more encapsulated by the word “plain”. Brown hair, brown eyes, average stature, and a lack of any notable qualities. He wasn’t exactly ugly, but nothing about him left a lasting impression. You’d forget he was there if he stayed quiet long enough.

“We will begin in three, two, one...”

When the countdown ended, the boy frantically started skimming through the parchment he’d been given, looking like his life depended on him solving these diagrams. Nadrina had already figured out the first two just by glancing at them. They mirrored some she’d gotten out of a book from the library.

Deciding to just go along with it for now, Nadrina began filling in the diagrams with the appropriate runes to finish them. About halfway through, she had a sudden realization. If her assumptions were correct, this rune array was for an incredibly basic spell. The array itself was uselessly complex, while the spell it fueled barely did much of anything. There was a tremendous amount of wasted effort. It was like trying to build a bridge out of toothpicks across a great chasm to nowhere. It was time-consuming and ultimately pointless.

Nadrina almost felt offended. Who would do such an amateurish thing? It further reinforced her belief that there was some sort of trick to this. She was already towards the end of the array, and only five minutes had passed. Realizing she must have missed something, Nadrina began systematically going over every diagram. When she made it all the way back to the last, she started panicking. What was she not seeing?

Another five minutes passed before Nadrina finally admitted it. She didn’t know what was missing. She’d been focusing so hard that she was getting a headache from all the squinting. Her competition didn’t look much better, still far behind her progress. Maybe he’d seen something she hadn’t? She briefly considered copying him, but she didn’t want to win by cheating.

Thoroughly discouraged, Nadrina hung her head dejectedly. Her entire class was counting on her for this. How could she do this to them? She glumly held out her completed spell scroll to the headmaster, who had been keeping a close eye on both participants. The headmaster turned to her, shaking his head firmly.

“If you have a question, Ms. Flemming, I’m afraid I cannot answer. You must complete this challenge on your own.”

“I... I’m done.” Nadrina said resignedly.

The headmaster looked surprised. “You’re forfeiting?”