Today was the day Emp was supposed to learn more about magic. All he knew about it was what Chinui had taught him before which wasn't anything clear. More like an overview of what it was than a lesson on magic itself. He was curious as to what magic was really like.
That morning, he was woken up by Celtine hitting him on the head with her writing board.
"Good morning Celtine" He said once he was fully awakened. "What are we doing today?"
He had recently taken the habit of letting Celtine Remember what he had to do in his stead, partly because it was hard to remember all he had to do while living two lives at once and partly because he had not yet found anything practical for her to do.
Most of Emp's problems were about things he didn't know, like how to act with other people for example. For those things, Celtine was often just as useless as he was since her tribe, as she called it, seemed to work completely differently than how people comported themselves here. Aside from that, Harriett didn't seem to need any sort of help at all. It was obvious by the way she moved and stormed through her tasks that she had mastered her work long ago. Celtine, with her difficulty to walk, was more of a nuisance than anything. She had been thought how to do everything properly by now and was better at all the cleaning and cooking than Emp but her slow speed was exasperating for her colleague.
With all of that said, the only use he had found her for now was to remember things in his stead and take notes for him like she did the previous day in the moral class. She took that task very seriously and was a very fast writer. They had only just started and she had already accumulated a good stack of notes for him.
<You have to attend the introduction to magic class this morning and this afternoon, while the others have another language class, you have been requested for a private lesson with Giselle.>
"The morals teacher? Already?"
<Yes, a servant came by earlier to transmit the message. Also, you haven't taken care of Harriett's earrings yet.>
That was right, he still had not found the time to take care of that yet. He put the thought of the private lesson aside and asked for Celtine's counsels.
"Should I just ask Juniper for some more? She is already getting some jewelry for you after all."
<You should not.> She wrote with a very serious expression.
"Why not? Do either of you dislike glass?"
<That is not it.> She wrote really quickly. <Harriett knows about the deal you previously made with miss Juniper. If you just get more of the same it will make it look like you don't really care about her. You do care about her right?>
"Of course I care about Harriett."
Emp had no idea such a thing could be true. He just thought that any would do since she had said so herself. Celtine made a resolute nod once in her strange serious way and wrote some more.
<You need to present her with something that reflects just how much you care for her. It will be a much more impressive present if you take more time for it, even if it ends up cheaper than what miss Juniper could sell you.>
"Don't people like more expensive things?" Emp was confused, what was the point of all those extremely expensive things if the normal ones were just as good?
Celtine shook her head before answering.
<You have to match the gift with her. Do not gift a bone necklace to a flower person my mother often says. You have to know what she likes or what she is and gift her something matching or the gift is meaningless. It's just like how the feather you gave me is way more precious than anything else you could have bought me because it is a way to give me a temporary voice.>
This made sense, if he was brought to a clothing store as a reward he wouldn't be that happy, but then, how was he to find the best earring for her? Things had suddenly gotten much more complicated than he had first thought.
He thought about it really hard and came to the very simple conclusion that he didn't know anything about her. He had lived with her for months now and still didn't know a thing about her. He knew she liked the color magenta and sponge cakes but that wasn't helpful. The only reason he knew about the sponge cake at all was because she looked intently at one through the window of a bakery the last time they went shopping.
He should have known more about her by now, was this normal? He now understood better what Harriett meant when she complained about not knowing his tastes, this was irritating. He had to do something to correct this situation and learn more about the two girls, no, everyone around him. But how?
"Do you know what she likes?"
He chose to ask Celtine directly only to be answered by a shrug. It was true after all that she spent most of her own time with him and that not long ago, she only worked on her writing in her free time. How troublesome.
Then, there was only one thing he could do, ask Harriett herself exactly what she wanted. Before he had the time to exit the bedroom to do so, Celtine threw herself in the way. She had guessed what he was about to do and quickly wrote him something in order to stop him.
<You can't just ask her!>
"Why not? This seems like the easiest way to get an answer."
<If you do it like that, you will just write down everything she answers you in a mental list like you do for everything the teachers tell you. You will not know her then, you just know the list, you would fail at truly understanding her.>
Celtine seemed to know a lot more about this subject than himself, she seemed adamant on it as well. He decided to hear her counsel and sat back down on the bed to hear her out. He tapped his left side to signal her to sit down as well and asked her what he should do instead.
"How do I do it then?"
She took the time to sit properly to have a more comfortable writing position and wrote down what she believed he should do.
<You are like the wind, things happen around you but nothing ever touch you. You just flow through and around it all, oblivious to anything including yourself. Focused only on the way you are going. You just need to stop for a moment and truly open your eyes and ears to the things happening around you, listen with your heart.>
He was used to stop walking to admire things but.
"Is this even possible?"
Emp could see things when they were obvious but understanding everything about someone from just that seemed out of his reach by the length of a mountain. What's more, hearts couldn't listen, they didn't have ears of their own, or at least, he believed they didn't.
<I know you can because you can feel compassion. You have a lot of empathy, share in their feelings and then you will understand who they are. All you have to do is talk with her like you usually do but instead of hearing her words, you need to focus on the meaning behind them. Words themselves have no power, they change with who you are speaking to, only the meaning they hide matters.>
Emp would have never expected her to be so knowledgeable in that kind of thing. Was it a bit like how Chinui could tell when someone was lying? Her advice was worth a try. He didn't know how exactly he was supposed to hear the meaning behind the words but he supposed that like with anything else, he only had to practice.
"Alright, from now on, I will tell you what I think about what others tell me and you will have to tell me If I am right or wrong to help me figure out how it's done."
<I will gladly help.>
She made a giant smile as she showed him her answer. That was easy to understand, she was happy to help.
"Thank you for your advice let us go get breakfast."
When he did something good, Marcy rewarded him with a slap in the back but he felt like this reward wasn't very appropriate for his wounded slave. Instead, he just rose from the bed and put on proper clothes while Celtine left for the kitchen at her usual slow pace.
While eating his breakfast, he wanted to try and learn something about Harriett but couldn't find anything to tell her aside that he liked the breakfast she made. There were just no conversation subject that came to his mind outside of what he actually wanted to know.
"I am very happy master liked the breakfast I made." She answered with a smile and a small curtsy.
He knew she would appreciate him saying that already since she had complained about that very thing just the other day. That wasn't the right way to go, maybe he would find something to talk about later, she just had to be there.
"I would like you to come to the private lesson with me and Celtine this afternoon."
There, he would surely be able to find something, if he had not thought about anything else beforehand.
"Very well, if master wishes for it I will make sure to be ready by then."
Afterwards, he left with Celtine on his shoulders for the magic class. On his way, he asked her what to talk about in case she had another idea.
"To listen to the meaning behind her words, I have to make her talk. What should I have her talk about? How do people choose topics of conversation?"
Usually, it was always other people that started conversations with him, unless he wanted something specific, he wouldn't know what to say.
She dangled the board in front of his eyes to let him see the answer.
<Normally, you would just talk about something that interests you or that you know will interest the other person. I like to talk about songs for example.>
Ah... so they were back again to what he liked and what he didn't like. This whole thing was becoming more challenging by the second. Soon, he feared he would consider it as arduous as his fight with the gluttonek. Thinking about it, he still had not dismantled the snake creature, he should probably do that soon.
<You could also just talk about what crosses your mind at the moment. It doesn't have to be a good subject, as long as you start something, the conversation should naturally evolve on its own.>
Thinking about what she said, it was true that often, when he talked with people, conversation often took some strange turns.
"I will try that next time." He agreed.
Shortly after, he came across Mable in a corridor, or rather, caught up with her in an instant because of his impossible strides. She was accompanied by her two servants like usual, wore a pale blue dress and her hair were tied in a way as complex as always. She heard him approach and waved her hand at him with a smile. It wasn't often they came across each other in a corridor, even though they went the same way.
"Good morning Emp."
Wasn't this the perfect chance to practice what Celtine just told him? He decided to try. He joined up with her group and raised his hand as well.
"Hi Mable, good morning to you as well. Do you feel sad about not winning that cake?"
"No, not really. I would have been more disappointed if it had been a strawberry cake."
"What kind of cake was it then?" He asked, a bit curious.
"Apple cake."
"Do you not like apples?"
"I do, but I like strawberries way more."
"I see."
"I would have been super angry at you if it had been strawberries."
Why angry at him specifically? He didn't really have anything to do with this. Did she like that flavor that much?
"I will do my best so that next time you win the strawberries cake." He answered just to not contradict her.
"You better be! Every last one of those cakes should be mine."
"Are they your favorites?"
"They are, there is nothing better than strawberries flavored cake."
"Why are they your favorites?"
"I don't know, do I need a reason to like strawberries?"
"Do you not?" Emp felt like there should be a reason for it. having no explanation for it felt empty.
Thinking about it, why did he like to stop and watch the landscape? He couldn't pinpoint the reason. After the awkward pause it took him to think about it he decided to ask her.
"What makes it better than an apple cake?"
"Everything! The taste, the texture, the strawberries themselves! You just can't compare it to an apple cake!" She explained with a puff.
Were tastes really just like that? This couldn't possibly be true could it? If it was so superior to the apple cake, no one would eat those. Since the applecake was most definitely the favorite cake of someone else, there couldn't be such a wide gap between the two. He started to think about what made it's texture better but was immediately brought back to the talk by the small fist of Celtine and Mable's question.
"What's yours?"
"My what?"
"Your favorite cake of course!"
"I never ate a cake before."
Cake weren't that common, you could only find them in big cities and they cost a lot because of all the ingredients that were hard to acquire. He could have paid for one of course but there was no real reason to do it.
"What!!"
Mable stopped dead in her track and turned around to grip the front of his clothes.
"That can't be! This is a tragedy! How come you never ate cake before?" She yelled in astonishment.
"I do not know, there just never was the right occasion I suppose."
Why was she reacting so strongly?
"That's it then! I cannot let this injustice be! I will prepare a cake party, I mean, a tea party that just so happens to have many different cakes and I will invite you to taste them all!"
Emp had no idea how to answer that but she seemed really excited about it.
"If you do invite me, I guess I will have to come." He stated in a neutral way.
"Of course you will, and then I will get to eat all the cake I want! I mean, you will get to taste all kinds of cakes! If you do that, I will forgive you for not being the best in the class."
What did this have to do with being the best in the class?
"I thought you did not mind not winning the cake."
"I said 'not really', not 'not at all'. Listen, I need you to get stronger than the others and win me that cake."
"I thought you said you did not like apple cake? Besides, can't you just vote for Nicolas next time to win?"
"No and no! You don't get it at all, it's like you aren't listening to what I'm saying! I said I like strawberry best not that I don't like apple cake. Also, we don't know what kind of cake it will be next time. And also also, I can't vote for Nicolas now, I already said you were the strongest, I'm committed now, I need you to win because if I change now I will look like someone who just sides for whoever is currently the biggest tree and no one will take me seriously anymore. (1) So I need you to eat a cake."
After that, she spun around and started walking again with her arms crossed. Emp wondered if she meant to say that she needed him so she could eat some cake or if she meant that she needed him to eat a cake himself. He followed behind her and confirmed he would do his best once more. More because he had promised Strength than for the cake.
"I will do all I can to become the strongest."
"Great! Although you kinda where the strongest already. I still don't get how you can lift that thing. Say, did you ever use that hammer on someone? Did it make squish?"
"No, I only used it on monsters. It made a sound more like the thud it does when it falls unto grass or a wet scrunch when the bones broke."
"Ew, I think I didn't want to know, I changed my mind." She said but still laughed loudly afterwards.
Soon after that, they reached the place where the magic lesson would take place. It was a similar room to the others he had seen before but this one had a lot more space in it. All the tables were extremely wide and were all made of stone along with the benches. The room itself was made like a set of giant steps going downwards before going back up to form a stage at the bottom.
Mable ran up to her friend and got pulled into a hug before she could even place a word. While she struggled to get free like usual, Emp found a place to sit down with the guys
"Mable!" Aglaya said to the girl prisoner of her arms. "You were late, I was getting scared something might have happened to you."
"The class hasn't started yet, I'm not late at all." She denied. "I was talking with Emp on the way."
"Hoho, so that's why." She said with a corner of her mouth raising.
"It is, listen, that guy never ate cake before! We have to fix this!"
"Is that true?" She asked skeptical.
"It is." He answered from further in the room. "I have never tasted a cake before."
"See? And so, I decided to organise a party. A party with all kinds of cakes to let him taste them."
Aglaya made a knowing smile.
"Isn't it just because you want an excuse to eat cake? You little rascal."
"It is! I mean, no, not at all!"
There was a bit of silence where the other girls were trying to stifle their urge to laugh before Mable decided to go through with her idea anyway.
"There will be cake and tea and I will invite everyone. You don't have to come if you don't want cake Aglaya, I will understand and eat your part. I don't need you to organise a party."
"Aw, I didn't mean it like that. Of course I will help."
"Great, then who's coming?"
They all exchanged glances and words for a bit and an invitation list was swiftly made. At the surprise of Emp, no boys other than him were coming. It seemed like Zoran wanted to accept but the other guys prevented it by surrounding him like a heard of keradon protecting their young. They all kept throwing gaze of pity at Emp, was there, again, something he didn't understand in this thing?
As for the girls, there would apparently be Aglaya, Gytha and Nessa who were pretty much with Mable all the time anyway, Josseline, Juniper, Gervaise and Heida.
In total it wasn't even half of the group. Emp was wondering if no one liked cake as Kenneth put a hand on his shoulder freed of Celtine who now sat at his side and said with an apologetic tone.
"If you survive this, we'll do a proper feast to make you feel better."
What was happening?
On this, the teacher showed up. It was an old man with a short white beard to go with his neatly arranged white hair. He stood straight up in a dignified way and wore wide green mage clothes with obviously filled pockets covering almost every inch of it. He also wore a large shoulder bag, a thick cloak and a bunch of weird objects dangling from his belt. He was obviously not as old as the ancient or Countess Blackbull but wasn't that far off either.
"You kids can all sit down wherever you please if you haven't already." He said casually as he walked down the steps towards the stage.
Celtine shivered at his side when she saw him and shrunk herself to be as hidden behind Emp as possible.
"What is it?" Emp asked her while everyone sat down with Penny in the very first row.
<I don't like human magicians.> She scratched on a paper.
Emp guessed that made sense, most of the bad things that happened in her life were due to mages. But, mages couldn't be all bad, he wondered what kind of person that one was. Should he try to reassure her a bit?
"You do not have to worry so much, you have nothing left to lose aside from either of our lives."
That didn't seem to help her mood at all and just caused her to hide further behind him. He just meant to say that there was nothing he could do to hurt her though.
The teacher stopped in front of the class, stood in the middle of a bunch of engravings Emp hadn't noticed earlier on the floor and presented himself casually to the group.
"Hi, my name is Heinrich, I'm an imperial mage from the elder circle of Thronewoods. (2) I have to teach you all as much as possible about magic and we only have a few years to do it so let's start immediately. First of all, aside from the faces I know of course, I'd like to know who in this room knows some magic already. Aside from self magic I mean."
There was no answer, apparently, no one knew any magic, not even Penny. Since no one raised a hand, Heinrich followed his speech.
"That isn't unusual, most of the time, parents won't bother hiring a mage to teach their kids if they intend on sending them to this school, it is far too expensive for an uncertain result after all.
Here is how we will proceed then, I will tell you all the basic on how magic works and afterwards, I will test you one by one to know if you have an affinity for a type of magic.
The older students are free to study on their own for now, practice like usual while I teach the basics to the new arrivals. First of all, is there anyone here that doesn't know the difference between the three types of magic?"
Once more, no one raised their hands. Even Emp had been taught that by Chinui, someone knowing less than him would have been surprising.
"Then can someone tell me what is the difference?"
Penny immediately raised her hand and the teacher designated her to answer.
"Self-magic is a type of magic that let the user change his own self while mind magic change the world around the user. Soul magic let the world change the user or the user change the world using himself rather than the world's energies like mind magic would do."
She seemed confident in her answer and it was indeed very similar to what Chinui had told him. The teacher partially agreed.
"This is indeed a correct answer but not a full one. The difference is all in the magu. Does anyone in the new students know what the magu is?"
Emp had heard this word before when he asked the book about the cursed blood but he had no idea what it was. Once again Penny was the one to answer.
"The magu is a type of energy, no one knows where it came from but it is infused in everything living or otherwise." (3)
"Once more, a good but incomplete answer, you are a very knowledgeable young miss. I love enthusiastic students like you."
She did seem enthusiastic, it was the first time Emp saw her like that since he had met her. She had a brilliant smile and an eager look. He could easily tell, she liked the subject. If only it was always that easy to understand.
"The magu is something that is indeed a type of energy in its natural state but can take many other form as well. Magu has always been here just like air, we do not know where neither came from but life wouldn't exist if one of those two went missing. It resides in all things and outside of them too, there is some magu even in the air you breathe.
Magu isn't a living thing, it doesn't have a will of its own but has a strong reaction to voices and thoughts. This brings us back to the three types of magic.
First of all, the self-magic. The magu residing inside of you all isn't a foreign substance invading your body, it is part of you from the moment you are born. Using your focused thoughts and sometimes voice, you can force your own magu to reshape or strengthen part of yourself. The problem is, magu cannot be both a substance and a form of energy at the same time, when giving shape to your desires, it needs to borrow power from elsewhere to fuel itself and this is why using self-magic is draining for your body and mind.
People are born with a varying quantity of magu inside of them, the vast majority of the time, a minimal amount. That quantity is very hard to modify since its existence is linked to your very being not unlike your soul. Cursed-bloods are different from humans as they are always born with a vast amount of internal magu. It is often from it that they gain the extraordinary abilities proper to their individual races.
Like this, Vaelians are born with so much magu that they can swim in the air as if it was water and Fwans have eyes almost entirely made of solid magu, letting them see what no one else can. There is almost always a direct correlation between how strong a race or a monster is and how much magu is contained within its form."
Emp was most interested by that last part since this was were the book of answer disagreed with everyone else. The teacher claimed that Cursed-blood and monsters were born with a larger amount of magu in them while the book was saying that they were cursed-bloods 'because' they were born with too much magu. They were completely opposed while still resulting in the same thing. He wondered if there was a way to prove one of the two things while the teacher continued.
"Self magic is rather easy to use since the magu that is part of yourself is already attuned to you. It is easy to have yourself obey, it is only a question of self discipline. But, interacting with the magu outside is another kind of problem entirely.
This is what I have been tasked to teach you, starting today with a basic explanation on what magu is and how it is used. To cast a spell, very simply put, you have to convince the magu to obey your command. Knowing it is very reactive to sound and thoughts, it was found early in human history that the best way to impose our will on it would be this but it is far more complex than that.
Many barriers are set in the way of those who would like to control the blood of the world."
Emp was paying careful attention to what he was saying just like he always did but not everyone were the same as him. Celtine, still carefully hidden behind him, was furiously writing down what he was saying while Penny was only noting down a few words but most of the others weren't so diligent. The older boys were all absorbed in heavy looking old books and the newer students were listening to various degrees with Brenia being the worst, she seemed to have fallen asleep on her desk. It was her servants instead that paid attention and tried their best to write down what they thought Brenia might need later. The teacher didn't mind at all and plowed through regardless of if they paid any attention or not.
"First of all, you need to understand that magu isn't the same everywhere. The magu inside you isn't the same as the magu of your mother like the magu floating in the air isn't the same as the one sleeping in the rock or dancing in the fire. To have it do the thing you want it to do, you need to speak to the correct variant of it. Even more frustrating, like every human is different, every rock and blade of grass has its own history and so does their magu. Yes, your request must be directed at a specific type of it but if you are too specific and get something wrong, you could fail to reach your intended target.
This is why humans have divided magic in many categories long ago. Someone talented in having fire obey his will might not be able to move water well at all. This is not a question of talent nor is it a question of potential. Talent in magic can't be tested and changes throughout one's life. As for the potential, yes you might be closer to a type of magu but even having no affinity for any known magic at all, one can still become a powerful mage with enough studies.
The reason why mages almost always specialize themselves in a certain type of magic is because the ways to use it is always entirely different than for any other type even if it works the same. I would compare it to trying to speak to people coming from across the whole world. Yes, we all use words but the words are different for each of them. Your speech might not be understood by all of them if by any at all."
That was a way of saying it that Emp could relate to.
"Casting a spell designed to lift a rock into the air is worlds apart from covering yourself in a cloak of flames. Not only that but even understanding that, a new wall arises in front of a mage, the language used. Those who have heard a mage cast a spell before will understand what I mean, you never hear a mage chant a spell in our everyday tongue do you? Magu only answers to a very limited set of languages. We do not understand why that is but it only answers to the language of creation, the language of the elements and the ancient forgotten common that was taught to the human race by the gods.
The last one is the one almost every mage uses because words of the elements are very hard to form with a human tongue and the words of the creation are both too powerful, almost impossible to discover and infinitely hard to understand for a human mind. I will come back to the ancient forgotten and it's intricacies another day because for now, there are still more walls a mage must circumvent in order to make magic work.
Now that you have the language and the proper way to express yourself to your target. There are still a few problems. You still need to control the direction, pay the cost and control your mind. Here are the steps for a successful casting of a spell.
First, you must know what you are doing of course. Then, picture the intended effect in your mind, this is more important than any non-spellcaster would think, if your mind wanders away, so will your magic. As I said already, magu is strongly influenced by thoughts.
Then, prepare the offering. It should be obvious for most of you but magic always has a cost. The cost has no value aside from the one humans have attributed to it. Magu doesn't work like us, it doesn't care if the vase you are offering is a million times more expensive than the other one. Although not concerned by the cost, whether it be small or ridiculously expensive, it is always very specific to the task and the kind of magu you are talking to. As an example, I have here a small piece of coal."
The teacher put a hand in one of his front pockets and got a small piece of coal out of it. He presented it to the class, held at the tip of his fingers.
"This came from the earth, its only purpose is to be burnt. When ignited, it can burn for a long time and the heat produced is astounding, there is a reason why it is used to make steel. This piece of coal is a good offering if you want to cast a fire spell but not for any and all kind of fire spell. I could cast any spell related to fire with it but the magu contained within would change how the spell would happen. Yes, throwing a ball a fire using this would work but it would be slow and unwieldy, a spoonful of oil is better for that. Instead, making a cloak of fire would be much more efficient with this, because of the coal, it will burn for a long time without too much focus.
More often than not, this price to pay will be consumed as fuel by the spell and rarely, it will be the conduit through which the spell will act. Sometimes, more than one of those sacrifices must be spent on a single spell, the more complex the thing you want to do is, the more you have to pay to achieve the desired effect.
Once the ingredients are prepared, you need to guide the magu from two or more different points. You need to guide the magu you want to act towards your target, sent the magu in the offering to assist and sometimes, make sure that the target's magu won't interfere too badly with your intent. For example, throwing a ball of fire is relatively easy. You need to call the fire to your hand, let it consume the offering and then throw it at your target. Depending on the spell, it can get much more complicated than that, from a simple gripping and throwing motion, you end up having to draw complex imagery with your hands all the while chanting the phrases which will trigger the magu into following your guiding gestures.
If you did everything correctly, said the right words with the right gestures, paid the right cost and your mind stayed focused the whole time than the spell should work as intended."
This seemed rather complicated. If it was so hard, how could a magician remember all those things at once? If they had all those pockets, it probably meant they had offerings in all of them and knew spells for each. How were they doing it?
"Now, it is true that the best of mages can and will find shortcuts through it all using their deep understanding but such a thing may take you decades to achieve. Except!" He said vehemently as he pointed the ground bellow him, the giant circle of runes.
"Runes. This is where every mages starts unless they are gifted in spellcasting. The runes don't do anything on themselves, they are just writings in the forgotten language. The point of them is that with the proper additional cost, you can omit the gestures and imbue the spell directly into them. Once the spell is inside, the magu follow the lines and keep doing what you tasked it with without having you to keep it in mind all the time. Depending on how the person made the runes was thinking and how he wrote it all, the effect can stay for a very long time, activate or deactivate themselves with a word and many more complex things.
Almost everything is possible with magic but all of them are full of risks and with this , I will ask you with all the seriousness in the world to never attempt to cast magic without my presence until I tell you that you are ready to do so.
Even grand masters can make mistakes and none of you should look down on the power contained in the magu that surrounds you."
Emp had a hard time believing in the power of something he couldn't see. Still, he could understand that it wasn't because he couldn't see it that it wasn't there, like his very own parents who were probably watching him somehow or the meaning behind the words of others. The teacher came up with a story to illustrate what he meant.
"There was once a renowned mage specialized in lightning magic. He painted runes all over his body in an attempt to bypass the long casting time of his favorite spell. After he was done, he discovered that every time he closed his eyes or even blinked, arcs of lightning would shoot out of his eyelids and jump at anything standing in front of him. Unable to live like that, he finally chose to erase part of the runes by ripping off some skin on his arm and in an explosion of light and thunder, he was blown to bits.
This is an extreme example but anything could happen if any part of a spell is wrong. There is two lessons to remember from his fate. First, never write runes on your own body, ever. Second, no one should ever attempt to make anything new unless they have an extremely deep understanding of what they are doing. You must absolutely follow the paths already there because it is surrounded by miles-wide lakes made of the blood of mages of the olden days who experimented new things so that you could safely walk the safest path.
Now, this is all I wanted you to understand for today. I still have to go through each of you one by one to know if you have an affinity for any type of magic."
Already? Emp felt like he had not learned a lot. At least, nothing practical.
"But what about soul magic?" Asked Penny curiously.
"Sadly, I do not know how it works. Only a handful of people know how and none resides in our empire. It was guessed by many savant mages that the soul mages most probably use their own internal magu as fuel for their spells but no one who's not in on the secret found a way to survive the loss of their internal magu as of yet."
She nodded in understanding, seemingly not too disappointed. She probably didn't expect a good answer to begin with.
Afterwards, The teacher had everyone go out of the room and come back in one at a time to be tested. He didn't want the rest of the class to know the affinities of the others because it often resulted in teasing even thought it didn't mean anything in terms of potential or talent. If they wanted to tell the result to the others, he didn't mind at all but the test itself still had to be made privately.
The lecture had been quite short for a whole class but apparently, the testing of magu affinity took a lot of time for each students and they all had to wait for a long time for their turn.
His own turn came just after George's turn. He just called his name and pointed the door as he left. Like usual, George was very talkative. Emp went back in with a nervous Celtine and walked all the way down to the circle of engraved runes.
The circle was very interesting to look at for Emp, none of it seemed symmetrical, not even its overall shape was perfectly round, it was more like an oval. All of it had been dug out of the stone floor, carved unto it's surface to form the magic runes he didn't understand. He wondered if they were the same kind of runes Marcy would use on her armors.
Celtine stopped anxiously just below the stage while Emp joined up with the mage.
"You, if I am correct, are Emp." He said with a gesture inviting him to step in the center of the circle.
"Yes, you are correct."
"Emp Muracier, son of Chinui Muracier."
Emp was very surprised he knew but the mage disregarded his surprise and just continued to say what he wanted as he prepared a new set of component for him. It was an array of differently colored powders spread in a large amount of clay pots. Around him on the circle, he could still see some leftover powder from the previous students.
"Your father had an affinity with dark magu and his brother with light magu. Sadly, neither had any talent in magic. They only managed to remember the most basics of spells. I wonder if you inherited your father's affinity."
Emp had doubts about that. If he inherited any affinity at all, it would probably be from his four creators.
"Does it happen often?" He still asked, putting aside the matter of how he knew is name for now.
"Yes, very often. Kids are often similar to their parents in their personality. Once the spell is cast, powder will float out of those jars and hover around you, the color corresponds to the type of magu they represent. Novices often makes the mistake of linking the colors with an element that doesn't exist. Magu is never from an element itself, it just lives inside of it, only it's preferences change.
Still, we separate them in types according to those preferences. Of course, I cannot test you for every single type of magu that exists, only the most commons. The result are usually matching with the personality of the one tested we found out. Calm as water, lively as the wind, fiery... as a fire? I can't remember how it goes. Anyway, it doesn't matter."
When he finished speaking, there were a total of twelve jars surrounding Emp, neatly placed in their own small circles.
"Alright, do you have any questions?"
"Do I have to do something?"
"Not at all, let the magic do its work and enjoy the show. Try not to breath in too much powder."
Emp nodded in understanding and waited for the spell to take effect. With practiced movements, Heinrich called forth the magu and with wide gestures of his arms, threw the powder into the air. He didn't even have to touch any of the jars, all the powder just flew out on its own to follow his gestures and blinded everyone present under the cloud it made. Emp had to close his eyes and stop breathing in order to not choke in it. Aside from that, he did not feel any wind despite how it seemed to have carried the dust towards him and the dust itself wasn't annoying in the least and didn't slam into him despite its speed.
Shortly after, most of it fell back down lifelessly to the ground and his shoulders, letting Emp open his eyes again. Some of it was swirling around Emp, orbiting around his body at seemingly random angles. There were three streams of powder, there was streak of white powder zigzagging around him, a full circle of brown powder turning around his waist lazily and some deep blue flowing around his shoulders gently.
"What an unexpected result." Commented the mage as he looked at the powders. "Look, not only do you have three strong affinity but if you look closely around you, you'll see that many other colors don't know what to do with you. It is as if they want to get closer but are rebuked somehow and are now just floating above ground on their own, unwilling to go back but unable to go forward either. This is the first time I see this."
Emp found it was true, he had been so focused on the most obvious that he had not noticed the powder still hanging in the air around him. It was like part of the original cloud refused to just fall like it should. In it, red and green made the bulk of it but there was also some pink, teal yellow and silver.
Heinrich fixed his gaze on the cloud of smoke for a while
"Disregarding that strange phenomenon, you seem to have an affinity for earth, water and light. Earth is common among the Muraciers as is metal but somehow, you didn't inherit the dark of your father. Maybe your mother had too strong of a light element?"
The powder all started to fall back down and the streams around him quickly fell apart while the mage finished his sentence.
"I don't know what affinity my mother possessed." Emp answered.
How was he supposed to know the magu affinity of Love herself. Maybe there was an elemental love? Was it the pink powder?
The mage shrugged and fetched many books from the bag he wore. Apparently, it was some sort of magic bag because there was no way that many books could fit in it. He chose six different books he then placed in Emp's hands. He then pointed each of them one by one and told him what they were.
A book of basics he gave to everyone, a book about earth magic, a book about water magic, about light, about green or plant magic and finally one about fire magic.
"Plant and fire were the most prominent in the cloud so it might get useful for you later." He explained. "I will go through the book of basics with you and the others soon. The other books we will study in time as well. You can read any or all of them but I will remind you to not attempt anything written in them on your own. Did I make myself clear?"
"Yes." Agreed Emp simply.
"Good." He said with a smile and a light tap on his shoulder. "Aside from that, those books are yours now, I would suggest writing down your name in them, some take a lot of value when they belonged to someone well known or someone who went on to become a master in spellcraft."
"Why does it become more valuable?" Asked Emp, puzzled.
"Some can get very excited owning a book that a well known figure used to learn with. It's as simple as that. Aside from all that, if you want books on any other types of magic, you will have to buy them on your own. I warn you, that kind of book is worth a lot."
Emp nodded in ascent and The teacher sent him out to call for the next student.
"We are done for the day young man but before you leave, let me remind you that those affinities are indicative of nothing, it's only to make it easier for me to find out what you will be able to learn more easily, were to start if you will. How far you go in the endless pursuit of magic will be entirely up to you, the time and the efforts you put into it."
Well, that had been interesting. He put all those new books into his bag and left with Celtine. Once outside of the class, he told Mable it was her turn and left towards his own room.
He felt like he had learned a lot but also, that he had learned nothing useful. He wished to open one of those books right now to see what kind of things were in there but he did not have the time.
There was food to be had and then, a private class. He still needed to go over the discussions he had earlier with Celtine to see what he was supposed to understand in them. A long day still awaited him.
Also, he had forgot about how he knew is name. He probably should tell madam Blackbull this afternoon before anything too strange happened.
***
(1) There are many expression about the biggest tree in the Steelwood empire. Whoever is the biggest tree is the one in the limelight. Here, siding for the biggest tree is a saying meaning you have no opinion of your own and you are just siding for the obvious winner. There are many others like hiding behind the biggest tree.
(2) The circle will probably change, I don't mean it like a mage circle at all, I just mean it like a group but the elder group sounds dumb. I don't even mean elder as older than the rest, I just mean elder as in they have way more experience in this than the others. Name will change in the future, I just don't know yet what it will be.
(3) Here it is, magic is all about Midi-chlorian like in starwars. XD It's not, it was a joke because of the way she said that.
(4) 8 thousand words that chapter! Damn, it wasn't my intention to dump all that info on magic in one go but it happened anyway. I just made exposition the chapter again! I feel so bad, I need a large poutine.
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