Physical Education class had come to an end, and Wang Yue was walking back toward the dorms with Dorothy.
“What a beautiful goal!” Wang Yue mimicked a hockey swing.
Dorothy ran a few paces ahead, then spun around to face her, shouting, “The moment the stick touched the ball, I could feel it in my palms! I just knew it was going in! And then, it actually did!”
“It’s a good sport. It suits you,” Wang Yue said, nodding repeatedly.
“Master, are you praising my athletic talent?” Dorothy squeaked, her voice turning unusually sweet.
“No, it’s just good for burning off your fat.”
“…”
Just then, Matcha and Dina caught up from behind. “Roomie! Dotty! Are you guys going to pick up your freshman wands?”
“Sure,” Wang Yue readily agreed.
The freshmen had already mastered the basics of mana, and they had taken the remaining Witch’s Ointment back to the dorms to use. The next step was Sorcery class, and for that, a wand was indispensable.
The school had an internal wand shop where students could go to receive their own personalized tool.
“Does it cost money?” Dorothy asked worriedly.
“Wands are considered school supplies. The fee was included in our tuition,” Dina explained.
“So, they’re free?”
“Exactly.”
The wand shop was located on Needle Street, a winding path paved with irregular cobblestones. Besides the wand shop, the street was lined with various campus boutiques: candy shops, essential oil stalls, tailors, leather workers, and more. It wasn’t exhaustive, however; materials for Witch’s Ointment and other potions had to be bought from the town outside the school due to freshness and storage requirements.
Dorothy stood before the window of an essential oil shop, peering inside with curiosity. “Are these transparent oils extracted from flowers?”
“Some are from seeds and bark as well,” Wang Yue answered.
“What are they for?”
“Didn’t you read the course syllabus? We need to practice meditation for our Occultism classes. Essential oils and incense are tools to help practitioners enter a meditative state faster. Catching a whiff of a natural fragrance makes it easier to calm the mind…”
“And then fall asleep?”
“Then what’s the point of meditating, you brat!”
The roommates all burst into laughter. Even Cerceybe’s lips curled upward in a rare, amused smile.
Further ahead stood the wand shop. A conspicuous sign hung over the door, depicting a wand entwined with ribbon-like magic, making it look somewhat like a small riding crop.
A wind chime tinkled melodiously as they pushed the door open. Inside was a long, narrow space. A polished, L-shaped solid wood counter gleamed under the lights, and the air was thick with the scent of raw timber and shoe polish.
The shop was overflowing with wands. They were tucked inside and outside the counters, shoved into corners, and piled onto wooden racks. Bundles of them were stacked everywhere like firewood.
There were also numerous semi-finished components: biological materials for wand cores, mana-conducting metals for the tips, hardwoods for the shafts, as well as adhesives, varnishes, and beeswax.
A wand is much like a chopstick with a hole bored through the center.
Wang Yue picked up a black wand from a rack. It felt smooth and cold to the touch. She weighed it in her hand—it was slightly heavy—and balanced it horizontally on her finger. It remained perfectly level.
“Excuse me, is this the wand for freshmen?” she asked, looking toward the old woman nestled in an armchair behind the counter.
The grandmother wore a soft cap of grey rabbit fur, a thick knit sweater, and padded cotton trousers. She stood up shakily and pointed. “That is a Mulberry-Feather shaft. It’s not for you.”
She turned slowly, pulled a stick from a bundle that looked like kindling, and turned back. She placed it on a piece of soft silk for display.
“This is the freshman wand. An Exotic Callous Stone tip, a Willow-Gall wood shaft, and a Glyco-Nettle Demon Root core. Sturdy and durable.”
Wang Yue picked it up to test it.
This wand was shorter than the others in the shop—about two-thirds or even half the length of a standard one. It had likely been scaled down to fit the small hands of the young students.
“Little one, didn’t your teachers tell you? Pointing a wand at someone is very rude.”
“Sorry, we haven’t started Sorcery class yet,” Wang Yue said, quickly lowering it.
“A wand is to a witch what a sword is to a warrior. Pointing a sword at someone is an act of provocation and aggression; it is the same for a witch. When holding a wand, the tip should point downward. You only raise it when the situation is dangerous, because with just a flick of your finger, you can release immense energy, causing destruction and ruin,” the old woman explained softly.
It was an impromptu lesson. The girls crowded around, chattering and discussing with eyes full of curiosity.
While the others were focused on the wands, Dorothy’s attention was snatched away by a string of salted fish.
Between two wooden racks, a string of seven or eight cured fish hung from a nail. They were plump and spindle-shaped, with narrow tail stalks and forked tails. Judging by the shape, they looked like skipjack tuna, about a foot long, with flesh that glowed with an eerie indigo hue.
Dorothy wrinkled her nose and leaned in to sniff. “It smells so good… like smoked cypress branches and nuts.”
“Little one, that isn’t for eating,” the shopkeeper reminded her.
“Huh?”
“Its bones have excellent mana conductivity. It’s a premium material for wand cores.”
“Oh, I see.”
Dorothy reluctantly let go of the fish and swallowed hard. As soon as she looked away, her eyes were caught by a black-and-gold gift box nearby.
It looked very high-end. She picked it up to examine it and couldn’t help but pull the silk ribbon. Opening the lid, she found a peculiar wand resting on the satin lining.
The wand had a unique shape. The tip was long and sharp—actually a pale, yellowish, jagged tooth—while the shaft was short and thick, with a texture like a walnut. It was a wrinkled, brown hardwood.
“It’s so thin… won’t it snap? You’d have to use it so carefully.”
Dorothy pinched the base of the fang and gave it a tiny tug to see if it was loose.
Snap!
A faint, almost imperceptible sound rang out, like someone stepping on a dry twig in a quiet forest.
“Eh?”
Dorothy’s eyes went wide as she stared in disbelief at the broken tooth between her fingers.
“It… it broke?”
Her fingers began to tremble. She tried to stuff it back, but the stress fracture had already occurred. There was no putting it back together.
The shopkeeper gave a light cough.
