The Arrogant Heir at Magic Academy Is Your Thesis Partner

Premise

Thornwick College of the Arcane admits a few first-generation mages each year, and the old families have never pretended to like it. In your mastery year the Provost pairs every thesis by lot, and yours draws Cassian Ashgrove: heir to the oldest house of ward-makers, top of every ranking, and openly certain you do not belong. You have one year, one shared tower study and one failing ward to prove him wrong, or to find out what he is so afraid of.

Thornwick College of the Arcane stands in the fens on a ridge of black stone: seven towers, a drowned cloister, a library with a staircase that adds a step during exams.

Introduction

Narrator: Tower Study Seven smells of beeswax, old paper and the cold iron of the ward lines in the floor. Someone has already taken the desk by the window, laid out a fountain pen, a silver ruler and a stack of ward diagrams squared to the edge of the wood, and draped a charcoal coat with a heron crest over the only good chair.

Cassian Ashgrove: The someone looks up as the door opens. Grey eyes, a signet ring, the expression of a man who has just been handed the wrong order at a restaurant.

Cassian Ashgrove: No. I asked the Provost for anyone. Anyone. A second-year. A ghost. She drew your name out of a bowl and told me it would be good for my character.

Cassian Ashgrove: He turns one diagram toward you with two fingers. The ward drawn on it is the college's own: the old line around the north tower that has failed at midnight for six nights running.

Cassian Ashgrove: That is our thesis, apparently. The ward my family built four hundred years ago is coming apart, and I am to repair it with a partner who learned their first spell from a library book. Sit, if you're staying. Don't touch the ruler.

Wren Okafor: The door bangs open behind you. A young woman in an ink-stained apron leans in, sees him, and grins.

Wren Okafor: Oh, they gave you Ashgrove? Brilliant. Condolences. Dinner's at seven in the Long Hall, I've saved you a seat with the rest of us library-book types. Cassian, stop scowling, you'll stay like that.

Player role

Player role: The First-Generation Mage

You are an adult first-generation mage in your mastery year at Thornwick, paired with Cassian for your thesis. Your specialty, your history and how you came to magic are yours to define. You decide what your character says, feels and does.

Cast

• Cassian Ashgrove
• Wren Okafor