“I’ll jot that down as something to be thankful for.” Arthur made a mental note to in the future take a class on enchanting so that he might be able to replicate something like that. ‘There are a lot of thieves out there every time I go to the market square, something like that would help prevent just anyone from taking what they want.
“There are many changes to be thankful for. Around the same time it was an absolute nightmare for anyone who wasn’t a noble or came from a wealthy family. After a series of talented commoners taking their revenge on a massive scale things finally changed for the better.” The clerk sighed as he took a list from his pocket and looked over quickly. “There are a few chapters in the History of The Mages Guild that go over it and a few of the manifestoes of the perpetrators were published, they go into great detail so I wouldn’t recommend them for the faint of heart.” The clerk looked up from the list with a smile as Arthur thanked him and left for room fifteen.
After a short walk Arthur was easily able to find room fifteen and quickly entered with about five or so minutes to spare. A good portion of the seats were already filled with students, some of which Arthur recognised from the orientation from the day before. Arthur ended up taking a seat just one row back from the front.
A few minutes passed and an elderly human man entered the room carrying a red book that was at least two inches thick. The man wore a pristine red and black robe that looked as if black flames had been sown into it as it was made.
“Good morning class. My name is Eligius Sabinius and today and for the next month I will be teaching you the basics of pyromancy.” Despite his age Eligius had eyes full of strength and a bright fire burned.
“Most who are only beginning to learn the arcane arts think that pyromancy is not much different than any of the other evocations. Well I am here to tell you that is idiotic.” Eligius cupped his hands together and a ball of fire grew within them until he could hold it like a ball. “Fire is what made us who we are today, with fire our ancient ancestors kept dangerous animals at bay and cooked their food to stop food poisoning. Fire is used to forge metal and create many of the tools we use every day from pots to knives. To imply there is little difference between the evocations is an insult to every one of our ancestors.” The ball of fire was smothered in Eligius hands and with a few waves of his hands a candle floated to each student, with a second wave each of the candles lit.
“I know each of you have at least learned how to use at least one of the evocations, I want you to think about how you learned to use it. How did you manipulate the mana to achieve such a task? I will give you all 15 minutes to try and when most of you fail as I expect you to I will give you more specific instructions.”
Arthur looked at the candle that sat in front of him and with both his hands around the small flame he used his mana to try to control. Most of the other students did the same trying to brute force learning pyromancy, only a select few were quickly able to understand what Eligius had told them.
Ten minutes passed and Arthur made no progress in manipulating the flame like everyone else. ‘How did I manipulate the mana before?’ Arthur began to think back to when he first learned hydromancy. ‘I can’t brute force this, I need to look back.’ Arthur closed his eyes and thought back to the exact moment he started learning.
‘I moved my mana to overlap a good portion of the water and then made it flow like water did by mimicking how it would if it had been stirred. Do I need to use my mana to flow like the flame does? I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.’
Arthur resumed his attempts this time using less mana and trying to have it flow like the flame did. It was much harder than he would have expected and he had to constantly keep his mana from leaving the very small flame. Eligius walked through the small walkways between the seats and noticed that another had found the correct method.
‘Another one has figured out my riddle, that makes 4 now. His talent in pyromancy is a bit lacking but he appears to have a good head on his shoulders to make up for that.’
Arthur felt he was almost there when Eligius announced the fifteen minutes had ended and he began a lecture. “While I am disappointed that most of you simply tried to brute force it I can’t say I am surprised by it. Those of you who understand that you need to allow your mana to flow with the element and just exist in the same space I congratulate you and I see an excellent future in your magical careers.” Eligius looked to the four students who were able to understand what they needed to do, even if they hadn't yet succeeded they were on the right path.
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Eligius gave a lesson on the art of pyromancy that confirmed most of what Arthur had figured out on his own but also gave him a few tips on how to be more effective. “Now that you all know what you need to do I am expecting you all to start right away, you still have more than 30 minutes before the class ends. I will also be going around and telling you if you are doing wrong and help you correct it.” Eligius reached into his bag and pulled out an apple as he began to walk around the class.
One student, the spider person, was the first to learn pyromancy. He held the small flame in the palm of one of his right hands and Eligius was quick to point out his success to the rest of the class. “Look here class, this young man has just started his journey in the art of pyromancy. Unlike most of you he did not require much instruction from me and is very talented. I look forward to seeing how you progress in the future.” Most of the class was quite insulted by Eligius’s remarks about their intelligence and jealous of the spider person's skill and talent.
Soon two others that were soon followed by Arthur showed that they too could use pyromancy. Each of them received praise from Eligius that further annoyed the rest of the class as they were further insulted. Some of the students from more well off families even began to try and come up with ways to get at them, most of which involved violence but ultimately went nowhere.
Arthur continued practising his pyromancy, it was much more difficult than both hydromancy and geomancy combined. The difficulty most likely came from the fact that he needed to keep far more precise control over it than either of the other two.
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+ Pyromancy Level 0 (New)
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The small flame danced in his palm he tried to feed it slightly more mana to see if it would have any effect, all it ended up doing was make Arthur waste a bit of mana. Thankfully it wasn’t much and he would recover it within a handful of minutes. Eligius was also kind enough to give his new favourite students pointers on what they were doing wrong and helped them improve. By the end of the class only another two students were able to learn how to manipulate fire.
Eligius stood at the front of the class room and looking down at those who failed to succeed he said “Well I would say that I expected better of you but to be honest I did no such thing. If it were up to me most of you would never have been allowed to join the guild unless you were able to show you had actual skill and dedication towards magic. Don’t think I did not notice those of you who plotted to remove the competition through violence, I don’t expect you to be a part of the guild for much longer after that behaviour.” The students who spent some time plotting instead of practicing turned pale and one even started to cry.
“Little shits like you have caused immeasurable damage to both the guild and the world with your actions, people who could have helped bring about a golden age instead killed off or turned to the most vile of forbidden magic for their revenge all because of people like you couldn’t handle someone else being better than you.” The fire in Eligius’s eyes grew brighter than before as he approached the cluster of students who he lectured. “If it were up to me I would have you all feed the werebeasts alive. Oh, would you look at the time.” Eligius looked at a small device that was bound to a piece of leather that clung to his wrist. “It's almost 12:00. I'll let you all go a bit early today, excluding you five.”
The rest of the class did not hesitate to rush out and leave the five well off students to their fate. Arthur after leaving decided to get a bit of fresh air while he ate his lunch. He found a bench just outside the market square where he ate the second breakfast burrito he bought.
While he ate he felt the distinct feeling of someone watching him again. ‘Are those green cloaked people here again.’ Arthur looked around but he couldn’t find anyone watching him, if anything there were far less people than there should have been. He spotted only a handful of people passing through the area to the market. ‘Well I think that it’s about time I head back to the guild now. Lots to learn there.’
Arthur watched his back the whole way to the mages guild and only when he was at the front door did the feeling dissipate. Arthur quickly went down the hallway to search for room seventeen to begin his aeromancy class.
“Why isn’t that interesting?” The blood spawn chuckled as he turned to Auria. “Despite the fact that he could not see me he could still feel that I was watching him.”
“He did the same thing when I investigated him on behalf of Misery's End. It's like he can feel what we are going to do just as we decide we are going to do it.” Auria thought back to when she and her accomplices tailed him for a day.