With the primer in one hand and the basic spellbook in the other, Yuriko began her research. Which lasted about ten minutes before she had to stop and meditate to soothe her aching head. Gwendith sat next to her, reading over her shoulder, then chuckled when the books were put down.

“Getting bad?” Gwendith asked.

“Not yet, but if I push, it will be,” Yuriko grumbled.

She knew that the knowledge locked within the pages of the books was important, but she still could not overcome the limitation her mind had when it came to reading. The annoying thing was that, even after her brain was refined along with the rest of her body, it didn’t change the fact that while reading, the letters and numbers sometimes mixed together and induced headaches. She could read faster. In fact, she had gone through the fifty pages of the primer and the couple of hundred pages of the basic spellbook within those ten minutes, but the risk that she misread the lines was too great.

So she had to read and reread, correcting the mistakes in her memory, and only then could she seek to truly understand and internalise the knowledge. She’d tried different things to ameliorate it, read slowly and focused, read quickly and reread…have someone read to her…

There were flaws in any method, and always, the headaches came.

The only parts she didn’t have any trouble with were the parts written in Old Imperial. Dawntongue, according to the Karcellians, and here, they called it Arcane Language. It was all the same though, and it was a mystery that Yuriko didn’t wish to delve into at the moment, yet while meditating to ease her headaches, it was the only thing she could occupy her mind with.

Old Imperial was written almost in the same way runescript was, just changed slightly enough so that the lines wouldn’t conduct power. Dawntongue was used by the practitioners in Irvalla to invest power into their tools. And here, in Bresia, and perhaps the entirety of the Arcadia region, Arcane Language was used to record their spells.

The commonality? It was almost all the same. The differences were in the flourishes and imperfections that prevented the words from containing and creating power.

It was also the language she never had headaches with when she read them, which made reading part of the spellbook actually pleasant to read.

The Bresians did not use the Arcane Language for anything other than writing spells into books. But upon looking at it, after referencing runescript, Old Imperial, and Dawntongue, she realised that the way the spells were written, there were several notations within the writing that were markedly different from the base. It was only when she digested the primer did she realise that those notations were for inserting a vocal or somatic component into the casting.

Funny thing about those vocal, somatic, and runescript components: neither of the first two was required with Sorcery. All that was needed was Intent, Animus, Chaos, and Essence. Here…it was just those three, done in the correct order, and a visualisation in the caster’s mind.

Yuriko’s fingers wove the prescribed patterns of the first spell recorded in the basic spellbook. That one didn’t need a runescript component, just finger gestures and a word. There were four distinct patterns she had to do, and while she was unpracticed, her control over her body was such that she was able to accomplish the somatic components without errors and in less than a second.

“Light,” she said, picturing a glowing orb in her head, much like an Animus light. The word was spoken in Old Imperial, and as soon as they left her lips, she felt a little tremor in the fabric of reality around her, that she was only able to sense because of her Anima perception.

An inch-wide sphere of something appeared above her palm, and it shed pale white light.

It appeared out of nothing. No Animus came out of her reserves, no Radiant energy from her Essence, and certainly no exercise of Intent or Will.

As soon as she finished the gestures, and said the word, the orb of light appeared above her palm. And it stayed there, relative to her right hand’s position even when she moved it. And according to the book, it would last for a minute.

And precisely on the dot, the orb of light disappeared after the minute was up.

Yuriko pursed her lips and reread the spell description. Having the thing anchored to her palm was somewhat annoying, but she quickly found the problem. It was her fault; it was her visualisation that anchored it there. She did the spell again, visualised the orb to anchor to her room’s ceiling, and–poof!–it appeared and stayed there.

She stared at the orb for a long while. She was unable to see Elemental energies that weren't Radiant, but Light was somewhat adjacent to it. She did see slight movement as it coalesced into the orb, but that was it. Within the orb itself was only a gathering of Elemental Light bounded by…tiny runescript? She spotted five nodes—exactly the same amount of components she used to cast the thing.

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Another orb of light popped out and Yuriko looked at Gwendith who was grinning happily. She raised a questioning eyebrow, and her lover said, “What? I just did what you did. Took a while though,” Gwendith added with a pout.

After that, Yuriko tested the limits of the spell. The orb of light would only appear about a pace from any part of her, whether it was her head or her fingertip. Except, she could also use her Anima reach to conjure the orb. In other words, she could make the gestures, speak the word, and the orb would pop out wherever she extended her reach. And a pace beyond her reach.

The next spell in the book was something called “Clean”. After another half an hour of struggling through the text, even as Gwendith played with the Light spell, Yuriko deciphered the components. It had three somatic, one vocal, and one runescript, with the last being the trigger and had to be drawn by a finger over the surface to be cleaned.

The vocal component was unsurprisingly the name of the spell and was placed at the beginning of the cast. The runescript pattern was a simple one that Yuriko immediately recognised since it was one of the patterns woven into her backpack’s laundry function. The spell affected about ten square inches and took a couple of seconds to cast, mainly because of the last component. As before, Yuriko had no trouble contorting her fingers to follow the somatic components, nor did her voice fail her with the vocal. All of the spells within the spellbook were simple, single-circle spells that practically anyone could do. There were a few more of them there, but she skipped towards the combative spells, of which there were two.

Bolt and Ward.

Both did not call upon a specific Elemental energy, but drew from what was abundant around the caster. It was also a good indicator of what the Novice’s affinities would be. And since Yuriko did not want to damage anything within the room, she cast the Ward spell pretty easily. Like Light, it had four somatic components and one vocal, with the latter also being the spell name, and cast in between the somatic components. A ten-inch wide circle of Light Elemental energy formed in front of Yuriko at the spell’s conclusion, but it faded away after a couple of seconds, which was probably just long enough to block a Bolt spell.

“You’re pretty good,” Gwendith mewled as she suddenly draped herself over Yuriko’s shoulders. Her breath smelled of wine, and she giggled as she nibbled Yuriko’s ear.

Flinching at the ticklish sensation, Yuriko’s cast of Ward faltered in the middle of saying the vocal component. There was a sudden crack and pop in the air, then a backwash of Elemental energy decompressing. It didn’t do anything to her, and barely even registered to Gwendith, but Yuriko imagined that should a spell that was much more complex than this had been interrupted, the backlash might be terrible.

“Gwen!” Yuriko squealed as she felt the other’s tongue enter her ear, “Stop that!”

“Meh, no!” Gwendith protested as her hands went down Yuriko’s shirt to cup her bosom. Those fingers soon found the tender and stiffening tips and all thoughts of continuing to practice fled as Yuriko’s Mien roared in anticipation.

___________

The next morning saw Yuriko, Gwendith, Heron, and Cillian heading towards Niria Academy of Elemental Mastery. The docks had been in the middle of the valley, and they took a carriage ride towards the bigger volcano. The journey took half an hour, though not because of the distance, but due to the foot traffic and the rather circuitous route the driver took. That had the advantage of showing off Nirlith’s pretty spaces so Yuriko wasn’t really all that bothered.

During the ride, she spent a few strands of consciousness reviewing the spells she learned as well as looking through the rest of the basic spellbook’s catalogue. The remaining spells were all utilitarian, and the one she was most interested in was the Mending spell. It purportedly fixed damaged things one square inch at a time. The lack of a target precluded her from practising though.

Finally, they arrived at the base of the volcano where the academy’s gates were. Mount Savarro had a perfect conical form, and the upper parts were even covered with snow. Not the very tip of the crater though, as she assumed it was hot considering that it was letting out a plume of smoke.

The gates were an ornate set of bronze bars, which gave a good view of what was beyond it. She could see a boulevard with flowering trees on the island, and rose bushes on either side.

Cillian spoke with the guardsman and presented a plaque as well as a sheaf of papers, and they were easily allowed to enter. The guard gave each of them a guest badge to pin on their clothes, though it was small and innocuous. The carriage and its loquacious driver left them there and Cillian led them towards the campus’ internal transportation hub.

“There’s the administration building, Niria Hall.” Cillian pointed at a building that was practically halfway up the mountain slope. “We’ll get there through the cable carriages.”

Cillian pointed ahead to a building that had an open platform. There was a boxy carriage that was suspended underneath a couple of metal cables, which stretched towards the slope. Yuriko spotted several pillars that supported the cables as well as several station platforms. Hmm, four platforms? Was the mountain academy divided into five layers?

Oh, there was also a set of stairs that climbed all the way to the highest layer, probably a couple of longstrides worth.

There were a few people lining up to enter the cable carriage. There were a few who looked like students simply because of the uniform they were wearing.

“That’s cute,” Gwendith murmured.

The girls’ uniform consisted of a long-sleeved button-down shirt, with ruffles underneath the collar, a waistcoat that had a stripe run down the sleeves, though the colour depended on the student, it seemed. The ladies wore a pleated skirt that hung just at the knees while wearing dark grey stockings over their bare legs. Black leather shoes completed the ensemble. The boys wore the same style of waistcoat, no ruffles on the button-down shirt, black trousers, and the same kind of shoes. Either gender wore pins on their lapels, and most wore some kind of hat, either a bonnet or a beret. The colour of the hat matched the colour of the stripes.

The cable carriage seated nearly fifty people and more than a few students turned to look at them when they entered. Most of them were probably her age or younger, which meant that Cillian was the oldest-looking in their bunch.

Yuriko ignored the curious murmuring as the carriage pulled out from the platform station. The means of propulsion was a spider-like Steeld above.

She gazed out into the campus as the carriage slowly climbed up the layers, and she sighed at the fact that she was back inside a school. Again.