The next day was Tivisadeg, it was always a bit of an odd day. Not exactly the beginning of the week, but not the middle either. If felt like things were just getting start, but that nothing had quite come together yet. A perfect explanation for how Emilie currently felt.

Her poor dress was seeing so much use that a few of the stiches began to feel loose. It also needed a good wash, but of course she’d have nothing else to wear in the meantime while it dried. Which brough up another question, where would she even dry it anyway? The washroom was far too humid. He under garments dried well enough in her room, but the dress was just far too big and poufy for that. It would take days to dry inside her small space, and would no doubt get a moldy smell.

She never really cared about clothes before. Sure, she liked to look nice, but given a choice between form and function she always chose function and worrying about what to wear just seemed so against that fundamental ideal. Maybe she could try wearing one of the other items again? She did miss her pants. Looking at the light frost on her windows made her further reconsider that idea, as she left her room instead.

There was no point reconsidering the choice she had already made for the day. Tomorrow, yes tomorrow she would wear something else. Though, she may have wished she didn't.

Today would be an easy day, all she had was 'Defensive Magics' assuming she didn't pick a fifth class.

Walking down the hallway, Emilie passed Morgan who seemed to be walking towards the stairwell and presumably the cafeteria. Unlike yesterday she didn't smirk, instead, it was more of a light smile.

"Did anyone give you more trouble yesterday?"

"No, actually. In fact, I found a second class and everyone was really nice, and the mage is funny."

"What's the class?"

"History of the 1st Empire with mage Abens."

Morgan tapped at her chin, “Isn’t that for 3rd years and above?”

“There were older students in there, but Abens seemed to think I could handle it. Plus, it seems like a lot of fun, if a lot of work too.”

The cafeteria was unusually full for before 7AM. There were a few seats open, but it was going to be a tight squeeze. All around, the snickers persisted, maybe worse.

“Hey, if you grab us two plates, I find two seats.” Despite her size, the small halfling girl was quite forceful, managing to get two larger students to move their seats around for. Emilie remarked to herself how impressive the older girl was.

“You sure you don’t mind sitting with me?”

“Nah. They’re not going to do anything to me. They know better by now.”

Emilie considered Morgan’s stance while mournfully taking another bite of another squash cake. At least this time it had a slightly different taste, more tangy. Like they used yogurt instead of cream, the thought of why was best not considered.

“How are you so confident you could beat them? I mean you’re as tall as I am.”

Morgan smiled at that statement, “I’m small, but I’m also quick. Dwarves are stocky and strong, halflings are small but we’re fast and agile. They couldn’t hit me if they tried, and few of them did. Plus, I know a few spells of my own.” She held her spoon in the air, only to let go of it. Rather than drop to the table it slowly floated down, like it was sinking in something thick like honey. A quick flash and the spoon was back in Morgan’s hand.

“Dark sound spell. Slows down whatever I touch. It really impressed my interviewer, enough to offer me a slot here.”

The sounds of distant bells signaled it was 7AM. Emilie considered what she would do for the next 3 hours after breakfast.

“What classes are you taking?” Emilie tried to make conversation with the halfling.

“History of Alchemy, Basic Elemental Theory, Basics of Enchantments, Basic Alchemical Theory, and Defensive Magics. It seemed like a good mix of practical classes. Weekends are going to be busy though, four of them have practicums on Setnesdeg and Ostarideg.”

It seemed like a busy schedule, but they’d have two classes together, which seemed nice.

The halfling sighed and continued, “I’m not looking forward to Defensive Magics. The mage teaching it is supposed to be a hard ass, and the class is going to be packed, with limited seating. Which means a lot of wasted time sitting around just to keep your seat.”

Emilie could understand the mage being a hard ass and the class being bad. But, why was it being packed such a bad thing and why would it lead to wasted time? Then it hit her, classes were first come first serve and if the seating capacity was limited that meant you’d have to get there early to get a seat. The only question was, “How early do you think we need to be?”

Morgan’s smile was that of a ghoul, and portended something quite unpleasant, “Honestly, I’m not even sure we have time for this breakfast. The 2nd floor keep classrooms are smaller than the first. I doubt they even seat 30.”

Morgan was wrong about that point at least. They did in fact seat exactly 30! The halfling girl and herself managed to arrive a few seats early of the cut off as well, they were 27 and 28 respectively. At about 7:15 in the morning. They’d only have to wait a bit more than two and half hours for the mage to actually show up.

“If this class is so popular, why don’t they teach it in a large room?” Emilie inquired to Morgan who could only shrug in response.

Behind them, a deeper voice answered their question, “Mage Talin insists on the small class size. The version last spring was in the auxiliary amphitheater from what an older classmate told me.” It was the voice of the black panther Culushus who was seemingly the 29th or 30th seat, lucky for him.

"Talin probably thinks with less people he'll be able to teach them better. Defensive spells are harder to cast than elemental ones. All the ones I've heard of require Pure Light and Dark mana to cast. Some of the advanced ones even require Solistum." Some other student she didn't recognize continued.

"Last spring's course only had a 10% satisfactory rate. Everyone did really bad. It's always been a hard subject." The blond haired blue eyed elven girl's height made her stand out and Emilie knew she had seen her, but only in passing the cafeteria. Regardless she was clearly an older student. "I took it last spring, it wasn't good. Just too much and not enough assistance."

Emilie's eye widened at the surprising admission, as did several other students. "You're taking the class again? Kraodher told us during orientation not to do that, and to move on if we did bad?"

Another elven girl spoke up, "Villow here doesn't care about pretenses. If she can't get something on the first try-"

"I try again till I do. This college's views on repeated effort are absurd. No one gets everything right the first time."

Several other conversations made the wait go by faster than it would have otherwise, already the 8AM bells rang outside. However, despite the faster speed, there was still another 2 hours before class would start. The lack of anything else to do dragged on Emilie's mind. Barely twenty feet away were several interesting-looking books just outside the classroom.

It would have been easy enough to get up and grab one, but the group of students literally standing against the back wall suggested how bad of an idea that actually was.

"Hey that's my seat!" A rather angry voice called out from in back.

"You got up, it's mine now."

"I had to use the bathroom."

"So did I, back when the class was empty. By the time I got back it was full and someone took my seat. You can wait in back like I did."

The two students looked ready to fight to keep the seat, and they weren't the only ones. A few others from in back looked like they wanted to start pushing people out so they could take the class. It made Emilie worry about what would happen if some tried to do that to her. She wasn't prepared to fight and being both young and small, it wouldn't be much of a fair fight without magic. Which, besides pure light magic, were forbidden in the library keep.

"This is insane. If they insist on making a smaller class, they should have had two or more sessions." It would be hard to disagree with Morgan's take.

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"I'm not dealing with this, wake me up when class starts." The halfling put her head on the desk and seemed to quickly nod off.

Still more than an hour to go. At least Emilie had found something to do, reviewing her notebook so far. She had blown through the first quarter of the book already with notes and was nearing the third mark. That posed its own problem. There was a spare notebook back in her room, but she only had the one. What would happen when that one filled up too. Did the college have some kind of store or place she could procure another? Morgan was asleep, but Culushus' might know.

"A college store? Not that I know of. You'll probably have to go into the city to buy one."

Which was a different problem, one she had with her clothes. They weren't allowed to leave the college grounds, supposedly that restriction would be lessened, in the future. But who knew how long that would be. It seemed to vary each semester.

Maybe she could try to sneak out? Supposedly it would just result in demerits, though she didn't know how many. Kraodher did say every student would get a few in their time here. Maybe she could just explain the situation to someone, and they'd take pity on her and let her go for a few hours. Seemed doubtful though.

By the time the 9AM bell sounded, half the class had either gone stir crazy or was following Morgan's example and trying to sleep. In the future Emilie would make it a point to bring a text to read or something else to do. Her notebook just wasn't enough by itself.

"Look, I'll give a gold to anyone who will give up their seat." From the back, a desperate elven boy practically begged for a seat.

Was this class really worth a full gold? If the subject matter was that interesting and useful Emilie couldn't understand why they just wouldn't study it on their own time from a book. She had no real idea just how complex that task was for most other people.

Finally, after nearly three hours of waiting, a light skinned elf entered the classroom, given his age he had to be the mage in charge of the class. Not that he was particularly old, maybe late 30s or early 40s. His silver hair had some odd black streaks that ran through, making one think he might have dark elf blood despite his skin color. His Amathesist colored eyes further told of his mixed elven blood heritage. The mage's face had a particular air of seriousness and an almost frightening number of scars, one of which seemed to twist his right lip up into a semi-natural scowl. His crooked nose didn't help matters.

The man looked deeply battled harden by life, and if anyone had needed to know the defensive arts, it was him.

"I'm mage Tallin. This is my class on defensive magics, with emphasis on pure light and pure dark mana manipulation." The elf set down a small bag on the instructor's table and fished out what appeared to be a notebook.

For a moment the students in the back of the classroom who were still standing had a hopeful air of expression, that perhaps if they continued to stand perfectly still, he wouldn't see them or might just take pity on them. Of course, that was not to be.

"Any student who doesn't have a seat needs to leave. I chose a 30-seat room for a reason."

A few walked out dejected but at least one student pushed back, "Come on, you can't do this. My family is paying double the yearly tuition for me to be here."

Tallin looked up and considered the student for a moment. The human boy didn't have anything remarkable about him. Features plane but he clearly came from some wealth. His magic potential didn't seem particularly impressive, from a distance. Not that it would normally. Overall, he seemed quiet, "Useless. If your parents had to pay double the cost of tuition to bribe your way in here, then you must be utterly useless and not worth the time to teach in the first place. Leave."

For a moment, the student looked like he was about ready to cause a problem. Emilie could feel the very subtle air of mana pulling towards him like he was about to cast something big, like a fire bolt. No, this was bigger than that. The prickly feeling was like a lightning bolt. The boy raised his hand and half the class ducked. But not Tallin, nor did Emilie for that matter.

Nothing happened. No lightning bolt, no fire bolt. Not even swirling in the air. Emilie felt it. Like all the mana in the room just, died and went still. There was still a very gentle background ebb and flow but, it was greatly subdued. Like the mana was floating through mud or thing thick. That, stickiness, seemed to emanate from the mage in the front of the room.

"Jasbin, I already know who you are. Only a few students are paying above normal tuition. You can leave, go back to your dorm, and pack your things. I'll be discussing your dismissal with Iomsakad after this."

The student stood their dumb struck, both afraid and confused. Without saying a word, his body levitated from the floor and was quickly pushed out of the room, as the door flung shut behind him.

"Well, that was an unintentionally surprising opportunity to show the power of defensive magic. They are very hard spells to learn and even harder to cast. I doubt our ex-student would have had the capability to learn them in the first place, even if he read them from a tome. Silent casting of Pure mana spells is one of the hallmarks of a master mage. It is not something everyone is capable of, but it is critical if you are to ever use these spells in battle. You won't have time to read them when you need them.

About half of you will not have a satisfactory review at the end of this course. Perhaps one of you, might excel. But I doubt it."

Tallin when back to his notebook and began writing something down. "Please say your names so I can be sure I have them correct…"

Emilie tapped at Morgan's side to wake the halfling up, "What'd I miss?"

"I don't tolerate any insolence to begin with. Any attacks or use of magic outside of the practicums is forbidden. If you try it, you will leave the classroom. ANY arguments and you'll have a chance to bring them up to the archmage directly. Does everyone understand?"

All the heads in the room nodded, even Morgan's who was asleep. "Seriously, what did I miss?"

"I'll tell you later."

"No whispering, if you have something to say address it to me or no one." Tallin made a mark in his notebook. Emilie could only assume it was next to her name as her blood ran cold at the thought of a demerit just for a whisper.

"Now. How many of you know light and dark spells?"

No one's hand went up.

"None of you? Not one of you know how to turn the lights tones on around campus?"

Almost everyone's hand went up now, and Tallin made a few more notes in his book. Focusing on the few students who didn't raise their hands.

"What about defensive magic specifically? Anyone know how to dispel or put up a light shield?"

Only a couple of hands, not many though.

"About what I expected. Ok, let's make use of that previous example. Who knows what happened? Anyone?"

Again, no one's hand went up.

"Are you all that useless that no one could tell me any part of that?"

Emilie slowly raised her hand, afraid of the bite of the angry mage. In the back a few hushed whispers and laughing made her hand that much heavier.

"I said no whispering." Tallin glared right at her, "Ok halfling, what happened?"

"I'm a human, and he was going to cast a spell. It was pretty strong, felt like a lightning bolt, but might have just been a fire spell."

"Ok." Tallin wrote down more notes.

Morgan leaned over while he wrote and whispered in even more hushed tones, "You could feel that?"

"Last time, no whispering!"

"Is that it, human?" The way human was stressed made it seem like more of insult or at least annoyance at being corrected.

"No. I don't know what happened exactly, but everything felt quiet. Like the room filled with mud, and his cast just stopped. It… felt like it came from you."

"Filled with mud. Well, that's better than nothing. Yes, I casted a wide dispel in the room. All spell casting should have failed unless you were prepared. Dispel is one of the simpler pure dark magic spells you will hopefully learn, but it takes a lot of mana. What I did was a step up from that, sometimes called a wide cast, over an area or room in this case. Opposed to focusing on an individual or a single spell."

Tallin glared at her one more time. "If you were casting that ex-student's spell, what would you have done?"

It was a hard question for her to answer, she wasn't sure what if anything she could do. "I don't know. Maybe try and push more mana into my cast. Maybe I could overpower the dispel?"

Tallin rocked his head for a second, like he was given something eatable if not palatable, "If the dispel is particularly weak, that may work. But you will very quickly run out of mana if you do that. Even those of you with massive gates. There are ways to dispel a dispel. That's also part of defensive magic and something we will go over much later in the course."

The mages focus drifted back to the rest of the class. "This class has a practicum component. I insisted on it for this semester. You will be practicing your defensive spells starting this weekend. It will be done outside at that auxiliary amphitheater. You will be casting spells at each other; you will not cast anything that can hurt each other. A simple water bolt spell will work. If you don't know any, learn one by Setnesdeg or bring a tome you don't mind getting wet."

Taillin moved to the board behind him and sketched two symbols, easily recognizable. "These are the symbols for Pure Dark and Pure Light. Make sure you know them and can recognize them. However, by themselves they are nearly meaningless. Those sensitive enough to mana flow will be able to tell you these two symbols are much quieter than the elements. We will not be delving into why that is in this class. You want to know more than take a history class or a theoretics class, I don't care, and neither should you. This is a practical course first, foremost, and only. Just be aware of how they work and feel."

Tallin spent a few minutes sketching out what appeared to be several very complex Dark mana spells on the board. Emilie had never seen anything like them and did everything she could to quickly transcribe them into her ever filling notebook.

"Now, lets begin with this first spell. Simple Dispel…"

Simple he said, it was hard not to laugh at what had to be a joke.

A little over an hour later, and the awful class was finally over. Tallin shut his book, and left the room, barely saying. "You are all dismissed. Read that text I told you to by next class." He didn't even stay to answer any questions. This class was truly going to be a nightmare.

"By the gods, I can see why people don't like that guy." Morgan rubbed at her face. "I've got an alchemical class in a few hours. Do you want to grab lunch? I want to hear how you could feel that mana."

"Yeah, I want to hear this too." Villow leaned over sticking herself between the two of them.

"If you're talking, I want to listen." Now Culushus joined in.

But in truth, Emilie didn't know what else to say beyond "I just do. I thought everyone could feel it?"

"Emilie, I can barely feel my own spells. How big is your gate?" Morgan stared at her in amazement.

"Actually it would be the order of her gate, more than her size." Villow cut in.

"I don't know. I was always told my gate is over sized and well ordered. I sometimes have a hard time not casting spells. I'll think about things and sometimes it just kind of happens." Emilie held up her hand and several small water droplets fell from it.

Tiny little droplets, but to the people still in the classroom, they might as well have been whole oceans.

"Emilie, I think I believe your stories now." Morgan shook her head and held her hand out in front of her. As if to show that a normal person just can't do what she could.

"I mean. It wasn't just me. Reese helped me with the dragon or showed me what to do. Then Gezal fought the goblins with me. Without either of them… I'd be dead." Of course, if wasn't for Gezal in the first place, she probably wouldn't have faced the goblins to being with. Best not to focus on that point.

This felt good though. People were finally believing her! All it took, was some water droplets.

Lunch was depressingl, the same soup and bread. But the company was different, and that made up for the questionable substance she ate, that once again sent her to toilet for far too long.