Who knows what else they can do with that... but she's not going to mark herself out and spend more money to remove the off chance. She wants to control this college anyway.

"I'm fine with having a drop of blood taken. Here is your two gold, and I'd like to pay a month's rent for student housing immediately."

He looks slightly annoyed, then covers it up. "Shall I just pick the cheapest option for student housing? Is a double room okay, or do you want a single? Co-ed okay?"

She considers a moment. She needs to be able to trust that her money won't walk off... "Cheapest single you have, please. I don't care if it's co-ed."

"Alright, then. That will be two gold in, three silver eleven copper for a month's rent on a single in Haigley Hall, one silver for a sorcery aptitude test, leaving you with 1 gold 9 silver 8 copper in your account. When would you like your aptitude test? Would you like to sign up for student dining? Two meals a day in any campus dining hall for another three silver per month. You won't find any decent food for that cheap outside campus, but if you're really pinched for cash you could save money buying staples instead."

Oh, excellent, that neatly satisfies her food needs. She might as well deposit this gold... well, except she needs clothing that doesn't make her look like a princess. 

"I would like my aptitude test scheduled as early as possible, even if that means it's at an unfortunate hour for me. I'll pay another three silver for student dining for the month. Can you make change for another Gold for me, or will I have to go to a bank for that?"

"Alright, your student ID will also give you dining access. I'll check the aptitude test availability when I fetch the ID device, but I expect there will be a slot today. Sure, I can make change if you want a partial gold deposit."

Food, shelter and education takes up most of her budget anyway...

"Please deposit enough of this third gold to bring my account back up to two gold running." She offers it up.

He hands her 9 silver pieces and 8 copper ones back and notes down the amount.

"I'll be right back, stay here please."

He returns with a brick-shaped device made of some sort of blue stone and a palm-sized indent, as well as a pen-knife. "We had a slot for sorcery testing open in twenty minutes so I went ahead and signed you up for it! It'll be in room 232 Roland Hall, that's the four-story building with the mural of the dry season with the hills and flowers and the statue of Szalt Ironbreaker out in front, just across the park. Now, just prick your fingertip with this and then press it in the indent, and we'll be all done. Feel free to come back and sign up for classes once the sorcery test is done."

She pricks her finger without flinching and presses it in the indent. "Thank you very much," she says. Always remember the little people...

The device glows slightly. Her guide holds a small metal card to it, then hands over the card, then produces a sheet of paper and does something with the box. On the paper appears:

STR 7
DEX 11
CON 5
INT 16
WIS 9
CHA 18

HP 10
MP 12

As well as a list of Skills. Most of the things she's proven adept at appear on the list, from Courtly Manners and Poise and Fashion and Politics, to Deception and Sense Motive and Read Opponent and Negotiate, even High Heeled Walking, Cryotography, and Iron Will. Her guide doesn't look very surprised, but there are a couple of weird holes in that list. Her Unique Skill doesn't appear on it.

"Here you are. I - might advise you to pick up a few basic utility skills to round yourself out and at least one weapon skill as a backup, if sorcery works out for you. We offer basic class planning as a free service here but I could arrange a session with one of our better student planners for four copper, they'll know exactly how to fit everything into a tight schedule and push you far as they can based on what you want."

Of course she wants the best.

"I'll take a session with the better student planner, thank you. After my sorcery aptitude test, of course."

"Alright! Just come back here to arrange that. Good luck."

Liath nods and takes her leave. 

Mural of the dry season, huh? She's sure she'll test well, if being the Chosen Hero means anything. And then she'll be on her way to reclaiming her birthright.

There's a mural with a lot of rolling green hills, which at least doesn't include lakes like her view coming in did, and the statue is there too.

The rooms and building doors all have scan pads like a modern electronic security system, and respond to her student ID. The designated room is not hard to find. Inside it is a a bare stone room with stone furniture and a short pedestal or stage in the middle. There is a man in deep grey robes scrawling complicated-looking notes on a wall-sized blackboard.

"Liath, for Windsight meditation?" He asks without looking away from his - equations?

"Yes, sir." She is technically his superior but she's trying very hard to make a good impression.

"Don't bother with that. I don't care what your position is and I don't much care whether you're polite but I'm very busy."

He finishes scrawling an equation and turns to face her. "Get on the dais. Sit on the floor or drag a chair in. I'll be having you meditate and focus on various things. If you have any talent at all this will take all of ten minutes and the rest is aptitude testing. Do you know anything about the Winds of Magic?"

She gets on the dias and kneels in the position she knew all her life before she was queen. "Nothing."

"I'm not teaching basic world facts beyond the absolute minimum necessary. The winds are an ephemeral force of magic, constantly flowing in the world around us. There are eight primary and primal forces, each with different affinities and tendencies. Sorcery consists of sensing these energies, and shaping them into spells."

"Close your eyes. Take deep breaths. Pay attention to the feelings on your skin. Fabric and air. The cool stone. Your skin is a boundary between you and not-you. But things cross that boundary. You must breathe air. It is constantly flowing. Breathe deeply and focus on the feeling of air flowing. In...... Hold...... Out......"

The guided meditation continues, with occasional questions. Eventually, when he asks if she senses anything, she does. It feels like warmth, like a patch of hot sand on her skin. No, the shape is like a sine wave - fuzzy and indistinct, but with a flowing, repeating, cyclical feel to it.

Of course it would feel like that. 

"I can feel heat in a cyclical motion from... Over there?"

"Tactile, then. Or possibly radiant."

It stops, though there is still a faint sense of - silk or something - coming from all around.

There is now a sense like cold metal, on her back. Well, 'on' her 'back'. It's unmistakably not her actual back.

"Cold metal on my... back...? And something like silk all around me." 

"What you first sensed was aqshy. The silk is likely my aura of ulgu. The metal is chamon. I'll run you through the others, there are eight, then we'll see which one you can gather most easily."

Azyr: Static electricity and glass
Ghur: Rough fur and hard muscle
Ghyran: Leaves with light dew
Hysh: Airy and slick like soap
Shyish: Slightly sticky and clammy

The meditation exercises to gather up the relevant Wind make the feeling accumulate inside her body. Each moves differently, capriciously. Aqshy answers her call most easily, heat and fire calling to itself and spreading. She finds the exercise suddenly easier twice during the session.

There has always been a fire inside her. This just makes it less metaphorical. 

Silk - ulgu - and furs - ghur - come to her a little easier than the others, but none of them are anywhere near as easy as the sweet heat of aqshy that pools near her heart and makes her feel confident and right.

"So now you've awakened your windsight and know your affinities. Bright, Shadow, and Amber. Go on, I want to get back to my reverse-engineering."

She nods. And out she goes to report back to the front desk. 

"Assessment says I have potential." She grins. "When can I have that meeting with an advisor?"