“Bianca, are you really leaving?” My apprentice asks me and I smile gently. It feels so typical of me. The first time I take an apprentice and I ditch her to leave the tower barely a month later. I look at the woman sitting in front of me and sigh.

“I’m sorry Helena. Just know it’s not because of you or anything. It’s just that something came up.” I try to explain and I see the hawkish woman raise an eyebrow at me.

“Oh I know don’t worry. I don’t think it takes a genius to know what you are going to do.” She tells me with clear judgment in her eyes.

“You get some news of where Reagan is holed up and off you go!” She scoffs at me but somehow it doesn’t look like she is mad at me.

“I don’t think you should go. He left you here and honestly? I don’t think he deserves you.” She looks at me, looking upset. It would be cute if she wasn’t taller than me. She is rather intimidating but I know her heart is in a good place.

“You don’t understand.” I tell her and almost wince at the words leaving my mouth. I should choose my words better because even I think it sounds like a stupid girl crush right now.

“Let me rephrase that.” I tell her before she can start a monologue on the man she has never met but already hates.

“I’m not in love or anything, there are just things you don’t know that I need to tell him. I’ll probably be back after anyway.” I cross my arms as she looks at me. I’m supposed to be the master and she the student, but outside of magic, Helena is very opinionated.

“Oh? And what is it that you need to tell him so urgently? Can’t you send him a message or something?” She arches her left brow high as she challenges me for answers.

“None of your business. And no I can’t.” I tell her and try to stop this conversation from continuing. It’s not like I can share his secrets freely. While I do like my new apprentice I haven’t known her for a long time and I wouldn’t put it past some other mages here to use her as a pawn to get information from me.

“Look, I might not know everything, but I still think you are making a mistake.” She tells me and deflates a bit. We both know she isn’t going to change my mind.

“I know you are going to miss me, no need to make a scene.” I tease her and she rolls her eyes.

“I will, because you are a great teacher Bianca, but more than that I don’t want some guy to use you.” She tells me and I see sadness on her face for a moment before it is gone.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. You know I used to be an adventurer right?” I tell her and she nods.

“Everyone knows Bianca, you somehow manage to bring it up twice per day.” She shoots back and I exaggerate how offended I am by this personal attack.

“Maybe I do bring it up sometimes, but twice a day?” I stand up from the table as we are done eating.

“Fine. But even if you are an adventurer, it’s a long trip to make alone, no?” She looks at me and lets her guard down for a moment, clearly showing how worried she is.

“It is, but I’m not going to be alone most of the time.” I tell her as we set our trays away and make our way out of the canteen.

“I just don’t understand what could be so important.” She tells me exasperated and I gently smile at her.

“I know, but I guess you’ll just have to trust me that it is.” I tell her. It has helped me to have someone to talk to more since he left. It’s not the same of course, and she is my apprentice more than my friend I guess. But I hope we’ll stay friends even when she is good enough not to be an apprentice anymore.

“Fine, I’ll drop it, mostly because I know it’s pointless to argue with you about it.” She relents.

“Thank you.” I tell her as we make our way in the hallways.

“Did you practice what I showed you yesterday?” I ask her and she nods.

“Of course.”

“Good.” I nod back as I think of what I could have her do today. I still want to finish something before I leave, and I also want her to have enough things to do while I’m gone. We soon arrive at a rather big door that I push open.

What greets us is a large room made of a rather strange stone. Runes repeat themselves endlessly on them like a decoration pattern. Of course it has a much more important role than mere decoration. I spot a few other groups in the large room and I go to an empty spot. I turn to my apprentice and she plops herself down, ready to show me her progress.

I mutter a few words to cast a spell and my vision changes to see mana more clearly. I see her circulate mana around in her body and hold it in places for a bit before moving it somewhere else. Her control is better than before and I’m happy with her progress.

“Good. Despite what you might think, you can always improve your control, and it is something you should continue to practice, always.” I tell her and she nods, not as cheeky now that I am teaching her.

“Now show how far you can take it out.” I tell her and she just nods before concentrating. Like before I see her move around some of her mana but instead of having it move here and there, she focuses it on her hand until she has gathered enough. She then pulls it outside of her body and it hovers there in her hand for about a second before the mana ball collapses. Not great but she just started recently.

“Better, but you have a long way to go.” I tell her and she raises her hand.

“Yes?” I allow her to ask her question.

“I don’t understand how I’m supposed to keep control of it outside. I mean as soon as it leaves my hand, it’s like I’m trying to hold water with my hands.” She complains.

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I sigh and sit myself in front of her. I mutter a few words to cast the vision enhancing spell on her and she looks at me, focused. I draw mana to my hand just like her and soon a small ball of mana hovers in my hand. It stays stable and I look at her.

“I know it is hard in the beginning but the truth is that it is simply another kind of muscle you simply have to practice.” I tell her as I have the ball of mana fly circles around me and she gasps at the display. I concentrate to make the mana fly back to my hand and reabsorb it before standing back up.

“Showoff.” I hear my apprentice mutter and I don’t contradict her. Competitive as she is, I know having a clear target in mind will make her try that much harder.

“I’ll leave you to it.” I tell her and get up to leave.

“Still on that mystery research?” She asks and I nod. She focuses back and I let her practice while I head back to my room. I cross a few other mages I know and nod my head to them but I don’t stop to chat. I can’t let my apprentice practice on her own all day so I don’t have unlimited time.

I open my door and look at the mess that is my room. On my desk are the papers Reagan managed to give me on soul magic. I’ve been studying them deeply and I think I can help him out somewhat with everything that I uncovered. Of course it’s just another reason to go even if it is surprisingly not the main one. I start packing and organizing things a bit while I leave the research desk untouched. I’m not completely done and I’d like to finish the part I’m on before I leave, so I’ll pack it last.

I think back on the rumors I heard about Reagan. He has been busy. Apparently he killed a mithril rank adventurer. I have a hard time believing it, even if some people say he was a greenhorn mithril and not as strong as they are supposed to be. But that’s not all, oh no. He has been saving half-beast slaves in the Brudian Empire and is apparently at the head of an army of them. It sounded a bit overblown but I guess that’s rumors for you. At least I know where he is. It also helps knowing where he is going.

I look at my bags being mostly ready and I sit down at my research table. I look at the time and calculate I can get away with leaving Helena alone for about two hours before I really should go and check on her. I dive into the papers and continue noting things down. Soul magic is a fascinating subject and I don’t see time pass as I read the notes while trying to find cross references to confirm some of the assumptions.

—

A knock on my door makes me lose my focus and I suddenly remember that I might have forgotten about the time. I stand up and go to the door only to see Helena standing there a bit miffed.

“Forgot about me again?” She tells me and I wince.

“Sorry.” I tell her as I get out of my room and lock behind me.

“Made good progress?” I ask her as we walk back towards the practice room.

“Why can’t we just use your room?” She asks me instead and I frown.

“The practice room is the practice room for a reason.” I gently admonish her.

“I’m not going to blow anything up with this training.” She huffs, exasperated. I raise an eyebrow at her.

“You’d be surprised.” I tell her as we are almost back in the strange room. I open the door and see that not many are still here. She soon sits down and starts showing me her progress and I gently guide her through some of her errors. Honestly my mind is elsewhere and I go through the motions. I tell her of another exercise she can practice her control with and let her try it out for herself.

I sit myself down as I have something I’ve wanted to try for a while. I sit down and think about how to go about the spell. Soul magic is strange. Magic is on a different plane from the physical world but influences it heavily. It’s the same with the soul. It’s on yet another plane but influences both the physical world and magic. Which makes sense as the soul is the person in truth, their will made manifest in a sense.

In practice it means that it is very different to cast a spell that affects the physical and one that affects the soul. For starters it’s not on the same plane. Also the physical world doesn’t have a will. It’s inert and easy to change as there is nothing resisting or pushing back. Soul magic in this regard is completely different. The soul is theoretically very easy to influence as it isn’t heavy or hard to move like some things can be in the physical world. Moving a mountain for example is… theoretically possible, but in practice the amount of magic needed is ludicrous.

Soul magic is completely different as theoretically the soul is very easy to influence but for one small little detail. A soul has a will. And will is what directs and makes magic work. Which is why it’s actually very hard to influence a soul with magic. It also means in practice it is a lot harder to influence someone with magic. You can either bet your will is stronger than someones and force the spell through, but the defender has a home advantage, or you can use another method. The research I’ve been going over presents such a method and I’m rather appalled at the evil genius that it is.

Instead of forcing your will on someone, the spell's goal is to trick that person into thinking it was their idea and actually use their own will against them. It’s done on a subconscious level of course and one of the spells actually stops someone from using any of their skills. Well, technically the spell makes the person subconsciously terrified of using their skill which in practice translates with the person stopping themselves from using it even if they don’t understand why it doesn’t work. Insidious is what it is and the potential applications are terrifying, if fascinating.

I start muttering a spell as I sit there and target myself with it. I can feel my spell tickle something I’ve not been aware of before but I try not to reject the spell and embrace it instead. It’s hard to concentrate on both aspects as I am both the caster and the target but I don’t feel comfortable using my apprentice as a guinea pig just yet. The spell goes through but I can feel the influence rather clearly. It’s both disappointing and reassuring as it means soul magic might not be that easy to get away with.

Despite knowing what the spell is supposed to do I find it hard to believe I choose that as the result. Why did I decide to make myself think cleaning is not a chore but a pleasure? I mean cleaning isn’t bad, and it’s always nice to have a clean space. Who isn’t satisfied after cleaning up? Strangely, I regret choosing that and decide that the next time I’ll try something else. But first, I want to finish this experiment and I concentrate on that influence only to find it a lot harder to feel now. I still manage to in the end and reject it.

I open my eyes as I feel it go away and I almost want to vomit then and there. The strange sensation leaves and I feel like myself again. The memory of myself thinking that cleaning is nice makes me want to retch but I don’t as my apprentice is a few meters away from me, eyes closed in concentration. I can’t believe how genuine the thought felt. Even though I’m the one that defiled myself with the thought altering spell I can’t help but feel disgusted.

It also makes me wonder why soul magic isn’t banned like time magic.

I try it again, exactly the same thought and I find it is a lot easier to feel every part moving. The thought settles and cleaning seems like a good thing once more but I feel more aware of the strange thought this time. I feel that it is foreign and I don’t wait too long before I reject it. It seems that being subject to the same alteration makes it easier to resist? Or maybe it isn’t the spell in itself but soul magic? Tests for later as I’ve finally managed to cast some of the foul magic.

I open my eyes and see that my apprentice is looking at me, curious and I decide that maybe this will be the last opportunity I have in a long time to try it on someone else.

“Helena, would you agree to be a test subject for me?” I ask her and she looks at me strangely.

“On one condition.” She says to my surprise. I thought she would refuse on the spot.

“Which is?” I ask, wary of this single condition she seems to have. Probably something impossible, right?

“Take me with you.” She tells me as we look at each other, gauging the other one's reaction.