Math classes were just that. Full of math. It was also just me and all the girls again, which seemed to be the basic pattern for the normal overly full classes. The teacher, being the smart man that he was, gave us a test right off the bat to gauge our real capacity for the subject of practical math. It worked like a charm and he quickly changed his first lesson from the introductory chapters to the third one.

“If you have any questions, now's the time to ask them. Once I get talking, I won't stop until the bell rings and I'll switch subjects to spell math after the short break.” Mage Tanner Quintos looked at us and no one spoke. He smiled and then started to talk. He hadn't been kidding, either. We wrote for the entire class, doing some math along the way when he directed us to as we listened to him, then the bell rang.

“You all did well for your first class.” Mage Quintos said and took a drink of water. “You have five minutes before the Spellwork Composition Math class begins. Change your books and writing pages to appropriate ones, please.”

We all did so and none of us spoke. We all knew this was going to be similar to the last math class and waited for the bell.

“I suggest you pair up with the spellwork partners this time. Some of you will need the assistance.” Mage Quintos said and I changed seats to sit beside Vanessa. I apologized again for what happened at lunch and her face flushed red.

“Why didn't you demand the head of the culinary department be punished?” Vanessa whispered, barely above a breath.

“Humiliating him in front of everyone and calling him to task for making me eat at the bronze tables, seemed to be more fitting.” I whispered back.

“I don't know how you could do that.” Vanessa whispered. “I couldn't eat after that.”

“I'm terribly sorry.” I whispered and took her hand briefly. “You should eat more for supper to make up for it.”

“I don't know if I can.” Vanessa breathed. “I've never seen anything like that before.”

“I'd invite you over for supper to make sure you do, only I don't know if the kitchen is ready yet.”

Vanessa's face flushed red again. “I can't go to your room. The dean of the dorm would never allow it.”

“There's no dean where I'm staying. The academy made sure of that.”

“You mean... there's no one there to protect your things?”

“Not provided by the academy, no.”

“They are really trying to get you to quit, aren't they?”

“It's the only way they can get rid of me.” I said with a little smile. “Despite their efforts, I'm going to graduate from this academy in three years.”

“Are you sure? They haven't really done a lot so far to...”

The bell rang and the teacher gave us another test. Needless to say, I failed spectacularly and Vanessa passed with every question right.

Mage Quintos gave the both of us a pointed stare. “I have to say that Mage Sanchita paired you up appropriately.”

“Only because I refused to pair up with him!” Lorna exclaimed.

“Mr. Drake got the better part of that deal, since you are too self-centered to help him anyway.” Mage Quintos said.

“ExCUSE me?!?” Lorna gasped.

“It's right in your application essay that you are here solely for your own advancement and care little for other concerns. Surely you haven't forgotten what you wrote?”

Lorna closed her mouth and crossed her arms.

Mage Quintos smiled, the argument easily won. “I'd like to apologize to the more advanced students, because I have to go over the introductory material for several classes before we can get into the meat and bones of spell composition math. If you wish, you can study on your own or even work on actual spell compositions for these classes.”

“Thank you, Mage Quintos.” Several people said and Vanessa whispered.

“Vanessa thanks you, too.” I said.

“You can hear her?” Mage Quintos asked and I nodded. “Excellent, my boy. I suspect your skill with that will be frequently called upon during your stay here.”

“I'm sorry about that.” Vanessa whispered as she ducked down in her seat a little.

“At least my time in this class will be worth something.” I whispered back.

Vanessa gave me a surprised look and then the teacher started to talk.

I focused solely on writing and she took out her own spellwork compositions and silently worked on them. The class was long and nearly everything I wrote down, was complete gibberish for me. My base knowledge for this kind of spell casting construction was too fundamental of a shift from how I was taught. There was no intuition, no power flow, and definitely no emotional component.

How in the world did they get a spell to do what you wanted when you couldn't control it? I asked myself when the class ended.

“You didn't get any of that, did you?” Vanessa whispered as everyone packed their things to leave.

“No, it's too different from how I learned.” I whispered back.

Vanessa looked like she wanted to ask me how I learned to use magic if I didn't do it like everyone else, then another girl came over to us.

“Come on, Van. We've got to go.” The girl said and took her hand.

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“Bye.” Vanessa whispered.

“See you tomorrow.” I said and then I was all alone in the classroom. I picked up my bag and the teacher looked right at me as I went down the stairs towards him.

“I recognize that blank look.” Mage Quintos said. “I suppose I should just mark you with all 65's.”

“I think that would be best, Mage Quintos. I just can't do it this way.” I said and waved at the book on his desk. “I can't even get past the first page.”

The man gave me an incredulous look. “Are you joking? You can't even comprehend the source of magic?”

“That's not the source I learned about growing up.” I said. “If I had learned this years ago, I might be able to switch; but, I've been doing it my way for almost ten years. None of this math stuff is involved with it at all.”

Mage Quintos sat back in his chair and stared at me with a blank look on his face.

“I recognize that blank look.” I repeated and left him there.

The school day was over, so I left the class building and started walking in the opposite direction of the student dorms. Selena had been busy, because no one asked me where I was going. I did hear a few disparaging comments about living in a death trap, and that gave me several ideas. No one followed me or were waiting for me on the way, so that meant they were still unsure of how I would retaliate.

“My lord!” Frank said and waved at me then at the dorm building. “What do you think?”

I came to a stop and looked at it. Not only had it been repaired and restored, the work crews had added a lot more ornamentation and made it look even better than the main administration building.

“You did all of the outside first?” I asked and he laughed.

“I told you he'd understand right away!” One of the guys said and they all laughed.

“We thought about leaving it until last, until one of the academy mages came by. They didn't say anything to us when they saw what was going on, then they turned around and left.” Frank said. “We shifted priorities immediately and did the facade after repairing the wall structure.”

“Did the potion setups arrive?” I asked.

“I had the guys set them up in the room at the end of the hall on the second floor, to have easy access to the chimney.” Frank said. “The kitchen's on the ground floor below it where the chimney starts, so we had to build it all out with stone to support the stone bases on the floor above.”

“It must be the strongest part of the building now.” I said and he nodded.

“Especially when you get the potions made and fill in the reinforcements.”

“I'll start them right after I get changed.” I said. “How are you doing with what's left of the number ten potions in the crates?”

“We're conserving and only using enough to attach, since we know you'll fill in the rest.” Frank said. “We've had enough practice with it to know where we can scrimp and where it's fully needed.”

“The stairs?” I asked and he nodded.

“The guys couldn't help themselves when I told them to take care of it.” Frank said with a grin. “It's no grand staircase like at the mansion, though.”

“I'm sure the academy will be surprised at the change.” I said. “How's the landscaping going?”

“We have to send for hedges and shrubbery.” Frank said, a bit sadly. “They let the kids here wreck the place completely.”

“I had a few ideas about that.” I said and started telling him what I wanted done on the grounds around the dorm building. Frank started chuckling when I mentioned adding traps and clear warning signs for those traps. I spent ten minutes telling him everything and he promised to get right on it while the guys worked on the inside.

“We'll have it finished by tonight.” Frank said. “Oh, and we finished the kitchen and the cook will have supper on time.”

“Thank you.” I said and went inside through the open front doors. The place had been cleaned up significantly, even with the walls broken open to add supports for the upper levels. They were nice thick stone and when I added potion to the set channels the workers had left for me, the entire building would be stronger than it ever was.

“My lord!” A young woman exclaimed as she stepped out of the kitchen at the end of the hallway and saw me. “We started late.” She ducked her head and gave me a small curtsy, even holding the tray of drinks. “Supper will still be on time.”

“I know. Thank you.” I said. “Where's my personal maid?”

“If you mean Hope, she's outside recording everything the men have been doing.” The young woman said and looked at me with slightly wide eyes. “Sara is upstairs getting your bath ready.”

I nodded and turned to go up the ornately decorated and slightly curved stairs that used to be straight.

“My lord!” The kitchen helper said as she walked towards me and the front door. “Thank you for sending for me. I won't let you down.”

I stopped walking and turned back. “I know it's more work for you, with only one cook you need to do a lot more to help.”

“I can handle it, my lord.” She said, confidently.

“You will receive a higher pay.”

“I will?” She asked, a bit excitedly.

“So will the cook. I hadn't expected to need to eat outside of the academy and I'm sorry for the inconvenience.”

“It's all right, my lord.” The young woman said with a smile. “It's only breakfast and supper.”

I nodded to her and went up the stairs. I could easily hear running water, so I went to the door that was right next to my assigned room and opened it. Inside was a very nice bathroom and Sara was there checking the large tub.

“I need to undress first.” I said.

“EEP!” Sara jumped several inches and turned to me. “My lord.” She said and looked at my uniform. “You look very handsome.”

“Is my room done?” I asked and she nodded as she turned off the water. She came over to me and led me next door to my room. It had been expanded, because one room wasn't supposed to have multiple doors entering it. There was a large bed in the bedroom part, a living room part with a couch and two armchairs, a coffee table and rugs on the floor.

“The vault will arrive soon.” Sara said and took me over to the large cabinet. She quickly stripped me of my uniform and hung it up next to the other two, then took me back to the bathroom. I was washed thoroughly and I stood to let Sara perform her bath ritual. She seemed to enjoy it a lot more than normal, even though it had only been a couple of days since the last time she had bathed me.

She took me to my room and dressed me in a more casual suit and we both went downstairs to eat. They had made the dining room with the same setup as the Henrietta Longshore mansion, so the maids could eat with me. The only difference was that the kitchen helper doubled as the serving maid. She was a little uncomfortable with that at first, until I told her that I was only allowed to have one maid stay with me for the first year.

“That's why only Hope is allowed to be here, despite all the maids back at the mansion.” She said in understanding.

“I would be by my lord's side constantly if I was allowed.” Sara said. “It's a stupid rule.”

“It's to stop this very thing from happening.” Hope said and ate some of her soup. “They would need rooms and food for all of us.”

“They didn't give you any food.” Sara said.

“That's because they gave my lord a Bronze card.” Hope said, angrily. “I heard from the other maids that they get a card one lower grade than their lords.”

“What? But... that would mean...”

“Maids never eat lower than Silver normally. Unfortunately, a Bronze card has never been given to a student before.” Hope said. “They didn't know what to do with me, since the other maids aren't allowed to share food without being punished, so I left. I won't be going back.”

“Show up tomorrow.” I said and Hope looked at me with wide eyes. “I'll make sure you eat.”

Hope looked like she was going to protest, then she nodded instead.

We finished our meal and the vault arrived. Frank had it installed in my room on the inside wall between my room and the bathroom. It had already been reinforced and I used my magic to claim it. I retrieved my pack from the downstairs parlour and the room was quickly converted back into a proper parlour. I put my pack into the vault, because of the two books I had inside of it.

I couldn't do anything with them until the work on the dorm building was completed, so I started brewing the lesser versions of number ten potions. Thankfully, my copy ingredient trick worked on the ingredients as well, so I used my gland extract to make the potions stronger and infused my magic into them.

We worked well into the night redoing the interior of the dorm building and made it into the grandest dorm building to ever exist. Hope even had the foresight to contact the Bassinger Family for artwork for the walls and several statues. By the time we all bedded down for the night, the dorm building was completed and covered in protection wards.