Sparkatale

Hello. I really like your story. At first I thought it was confusing, but that's nothing new for prologues. I can already tell that it's going to be an amazing and original story, with lovable characters. Now for the pros and cons, feel free to ignore the ones you disagree with:

This story was very well-written in terms of style (the way I see it, I might have missed some stuff) but there were some typos. Just to give examples from the first paragraph, you said anxiously twice in the same sentence and forgot the dash in half-open. Later on you put emphasis in all caps instead of italics (unless that's how you do it in Canada). I personally was shocked at how Galen and Teacher Varsi swore in front of a little kid, though I guess it makes things more interesting. That's about all I can think of for the prologue, though I would like to say that the description seems rather long and overly packed with info to me.

I really liked how you started the story. With a quote, and minor conflict. It was very attention-getting. The way you said what kind of day it was and a general idea of what Riyan's parants look like was nice. Their argument was just the right length, not confusingly short but not so long that it was annoying. Like I said, there is a sense of originality in here, like Teacher being an actual title and it being in some sort of mix between High Fantasy (kings and princes) and Urban Fantasy (I saw something about cars). The characters are relatable but appear to have your own twist on them, which shows in the plot line. It's interesting how this was entertaining but you still have that moral part to it, where they talk about how "Names don't count, so long as you work hard."

Keep in mind that this comment is from the perspective of a fish who writes humor, so I don't blame you if what I said confuses you. However, if you find this useful, I would be happy to comment on the rest.

I guess I'm a little inconsistent with the emphasis. I feel like italics represent a different sort of shouting than the all caps locks do -  italics are like a stern lecture in my mind - you know the person talking to you is angry or frustrated or being super sarcastic, but they aren't full on screaming yet. Caps lock SHOUTING is when someone's totally lost it and is just bellowing/shouting at the top of their lungs. 

Yet another nice chapter. There's a lot to take in, you obviously put a lot of thought into it. I am a little confused though. I'm not sure whether I've got this right, but the way I see it is that Riyan is 26 years old now, and teaches Machiology, whatever that is. Her best friend is Mendel (the love-hate relationship between them is obvious). She seems to have a lot on her mind, doing considerable research on something called Shamin's Gates in some place called Shamin for four months, but she got too obsessed with it so now she has to teach Advanced Practical Magic. I kind of feel sorry for her, because it seems as though nobody takes her seriously. Mendel and her boss Reg listen, but they always make fun of her. She doesn't seem to have any friends who are actually girls, unless you count Reg's daughter Arin. As for who's who, I know that Riyan is the main character. Mendel is the king's son, and his siblings I assume are Maira, an older sister, and Beryn, a younger brother. It seems to me as though their roles are that Maira wants to marry before Mendel to become queen and have power, while he wants Beryn to marry Leonora del Caprioni so he doesn't have to. Mendel also has an uncle, and I'm guessing he lost his mom because of the watch thing. Reg is Riyan's boss, and Reg's boss is Dean Harami, I think. I would like to know what being a river-born magician means.

This is the way I see it, I might have missed something and I figure some of my assumptions are wrong, and that I'm missing some important things.

You're pretty much on the mark for most of it. :D

Riyan does have female friends, but the first of them will show up in chapter 5.  Beryn is Mendel's cousin, but that's not entirely clear until chapter 4, which is when you'll meet him. 

Just like the last chapter, this one was a little confusing but I think I got it. The story seems to be based off of the Middle East, and maybe some other, similar cultures. I like how you have both magic and telepathy, calling telepathy Listening makes it all the more original. It seems as though she's really powerful, stronger than Jem and Tieryn, but has a hard time controlling it. At first I thought she was having mood swings or something, it was pretty strange but fascinating. She really likes to say "gods above" I wonder if she's crazy =). The different personalities are also interesting, as well as mysterious. I can't tell whether they're serious or just testing her. Looks like she has a lot ahead of her. Still don't know what riverborn means. Nice chapter, like I said it shows a lot of creativity.