Ocher was a mage. There was a difference between a mage and a magic-user. A magic-user was someone who was able to use magic, so it was the broadest category of them all. A mage was someone who made magic their primary profession.

Everyone could become a magic-user—in fact many people were using magic subconsciously—but only few could become mages. These few who decided on such a career and underwent the strict training would then get a codename assigned. So Ocher wasn't her real name, as little as Scarlet or any other mage on this ship were using their true names.

Ocher's generation of mages were assigned colors. Some of them started to wear those colors to match the name, yet Ocher only had a silken scarf that color, and she only wore it because it made it easier for new crewmembers to remember her name. She didn't hate ocher, but she didn't like it either.

On the Reverence, Ocher had an important position, not only as one of the mages, but also to instruct the crew in the basics of magic. While finding a mage out of them was nigh impossible—the kingdom used several methods to find everyone capable of such a feat, after all—everyone could become a magic-user after all.

So she sat together with those who had no idea of magic and were off shift, while explaining the basics. Of course, she didn't need to teach them like children, as magic often accompanied daily life in the kingdom, but most of them didn't understand it truely: “Welcome to your first lesson on magic. I'm Ocher, one of the mages of this ship and you can call me Ma'am.” She didn't have the presence of first mate Scarlet, and while she tried to act tough in the past, she dismissed it by now, as acting all the time was tiring. So while she tried to sound stern, she wasn't unnecessarily harsh: “You are all here because none of you knows magic yet and for this expedition knowing the sheer basics with one basic spell will help you survive and make the journey easier.

“There is a lot to cover and I won't be able to teach you everything in detail. Some of those are so technical, that you need years at the academy to really understand them. For example, the questions 'What is magic?'”

“That's easy!” A young man exclaimed. He wore a barely noticeable beard and held his shoulders high, which told Ocher that he was more a boy than a man: “Magic is creating wind and fire and to become really strong.”

“That's what magic does, not what it is. Also, you can't truly create with magic.”

“Then where did the strong wind come from before?”

“The air is already there. Now listen well, because what I tell you might not be technically correct, but it's enough to grasp the idea: Magic is the application of mana to enhance or control people, objects, and energies. Which means that with magic I can't create wind, but I can move the air instead which will make a gust.” To make that point clear, Ocher wove the basic spell Air Control to create a small breeze onto each ones faces.

“Woah!” Some of them flinched as that wind felt unnatural, almost like the touch of a hand, and who liked to be touched in the face suddenly?

Of course that presentation wasn't particularly helpful, as no one knew what was going on: “Mana is the energy from the ethereal world—also called the unseen world—to harness it, you have to use your ethereal self. It's like an arm or a leg a part of you and many people already use it without knowing what they do, like an infant that flails around its arms. The easiest way to assess if you are already using a spell without your knowledge is for my ethereal self touch yours. I will go around, it won't hurt, but you will feel it.”

While Ocher was used to send her ethereal self into vast distances, she decided to touch everyone of her students, as that would feel less intrusive for them. Humans were strange as that. Most of them had their ethereal self developed enough for a quick pick up of the basics, which was what Ocher expected. Some of them even had at least one spell under the belt.

The rest of the lesson for that day and the next one was spent for imagination training, so that their ethereal selves learned to collect the mana, which was the first of three steps.

The third day of the journey, the lesson went to the next step: “Now you learned to consciously collect the mana, but you can't use it. For that, you have to inscribe a spell inside of your soul. Each person has a limit of spells they can inscribe and after they hit it, they can't learn any more spells unless they delete one and inscribe another one anew. The inscription and the deletion takes depending on the spell at least days, if not months. The general rule is: The more general a spell is, the easier it is to inscribe, but also the weaker it is.” Ocher saw the hope and the wonder in these students, which was why she needed to crush those early, before they started to assess themselves wrongly: “Now let me be honest for this: You may all become fine magic-users, but most of you can learn only two spells and none more than three. That's the average, and what we all expected when hiring you. You can have many other useful talents, but magic is none of these.”

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Potential in magic was cruel. Power and numbers of possible inscriptions were tied together. If someone who was able to learn one inscription—a one-star magic user—was a one power-wise, two stars were a three, three stars a six, four stars a ten, and so forth. While it was possible to increase the power maybe one or two units, it seldom led to more inscriptions.

To become a mage, someone needed to be a four-star magic user and Ocher was a five-star. The only two people on the ship which were above her was first mate Scarlet—a six-star mage—and Captain Sebastian Bluerose, who was one of the rare seven-star magic-users. Above him would be the two only known eight-star users, so the captain was incredibly powerful.

Yet these were technicalities that would be explained later: “As every person is different, different kinds of spells are more suited. However, we don't have the luxury for that now, so we will teach the men the basic spell Body Enhancement and the women either Air or Water Control.”

Most men were more talented with enhancements and many of them already had an advanced spell inscribed to their soul, suited for their craft.

While a basic spell was a broad application like Body Enhancement, an advanced spell narrowed a basic spell down to make it stronger. So someone who was used to carry great weights might have inscribed a Weight Lifter spell though they never learned to master it properly.

Not only were men usually be able to use enhancement magic better than women, they were also better targets for those spells that strengthen others, maybe because their denser bones and higher muscle-mass, which made them better suited for fighting as a group, led by a magic-user who would empower them even more.

However, most mages were women, as they excelled at manipulation of energies and elements. While men usually used their magic to become better at what they do, women were generelly superior at spells that a normal body wouldn't be able to perform, like raising waves and controlling the wind for better seafaring.

“I know, many of you wanted to throw fireballs, but fire magic is really a waste of effort, unless you live on a volcano or a desert. Too little heat in the air elsewhere. And some of you may find these basic spells boring, but for your survival, please learn them now. We can look for better spells later, but we don't have the time for individual lessons now. For today, we will do some meditation to attune your soul better to your ethereal body, so we can start the inscription tomorrow. For that, Quartermaster Greggor will teach the men, I will teach the women.” While Ocher decided after long time to use one of her inscriptions for Body Enhancement, she wasn't very good in it. Yet sometimes a useful spell was the better choice, even if the output wasn't much.

After that lesson, Ocher was resting on the deck, she would soon have the next class, which people fresh from their deck shift. Currently, the captain was in charge, though there was little to do. Yet she watched him, each of his movements energetic and strong, gallant and gentle, a beacon for all those who wanted to answer the call to adventure.

Not too long ago, Ocher was just a mage that was used in construction projects. Aqueducts, channels, sewers, towers, everything imaginable. Even today, she still had two spells inscribed from back then, as she had an affinity for earth-shaping.

She roamed all across the kingdom, wherever the crown needed her. Yet despite traveling being an old dream of hers, it felt more constrictive than being in the academy or a farmer's house. The only solace were the books about adventure, most of them mere fiction. However, then she got her hands on 'Captain Sebastian Bluerose in the Palace of Skulls', a story about an adventurer, who traveled to the deepest jungles of the new continent to explore an old city there, which turned out was a cursed place that would revive everyone who died there as undead, many of them so old, that their flesh rotted away, leaving only their skeletons intact.

This novel was like a bright light which shone on her gray and boring life. She looked at the author, intending to find more of his books, only to learn that it was written by Captain Sebastian Bluerose himself, and it took little time to learn, that he was not only a real explorer, but also looking for mages, he even had a royal decree allowing him to recruit them formally. Only few people had those, as the kingdom wouldn't easily allow a mage to work for someone else.

What Ocher felt for the captain wasn't the kind of attraction a women would have to a man. He was a beacon, and she was a fly, looking at him entranced, while his light would shine upon her world.

This was her second trip with him, but the last expedition to the Mist Sea was two years long. He counted on her and she would do everything for him. He might appear useless and more bravado than anything else, but his childlike curiosity, his charisma, and his ambitions were a beacon for all of them that she wanted to preserve.

So she would do her best to shape this crew to something he would be able to rely upon.