The bell rang right as they entered through the door of the lecture hall for their next class, basic runes. Jack suspected that this was on purpose because Virtus seemed to constantly find reasons to stop or slow down during the trek across the hall. During that time Jack had time to read all the name plates of the various halls and discovered that most of them were on his syllabus.

It didn’t help that he couldn’t get far from Virtus without some noble brat taking a shot at him. The only good thing about his new status was that the commoners gave way, they were a bubble in a stream of people.

Virtus had confirmed that the building they were in was the novice ward. There were several such buildings with progressively more advanced studies. They were the novice, apprentice, practitioner and finally the specialty wards. His one class out of the novice hall was basic Fire manipulation and that was in the Fire hall.

After the bell rang, they found that this hall was considerably more occupied than the last class. More than half the seats were full and everyone seemed to be a little older. The youngest person he saw was about fourteen. He wondered if this class was so advanced then why did they put Aster in it?

They sat down and a portly man in his forties stepped out of his faculty door in dramatic fashion. His hair was trimmed short and his beard had been oiled. This was a far cry from Professor Fabian's mad dash and sloppy exterior. He was clad in his faculty robes with a few exceptions. His robes were trimmed in various’ metal accents and accessories. Jack didn’t even recognize most of them. He had never seen purple metal before.

“My name is Professor Ferrum. I have been selected to take over this class for the semester since the current professor is on maternity leave.” He proceeded to write his name on the blackboard.

When he was done, he glided over to stand behind the lectern. That’s when it finally clicked. The same surname, the same strong features and the same need to be clad in metal told Jack who this was, Virtus’ father. That explains his strange behavior. In truth, Jack felt like an idiot for not putting it together when it was so blatantly obvious.

“Welcome to basic runes, this is the most important class you will ever take. It will be your foundation for everything that you do as a Magi. Whether you decide to become a scholar, enchanter or…” His eyes flitted over to Virtus then. “... a war Magi. Everything we do uses runes. In a slot under your desks is a tome. Please remove it and open it to page four.”

Jack peered under his desk and found a large, leather book the length of his forearm. When he picked it up the weight nearly made him hit his head on the edge of the desk. Aster couldn’t even pick it up. That did not matter though as Virtus moved from his position to assist her. He wore a kindly smile that Jack had not seen on the stoic man. She froze when Virtus came within three feet of her but relaxed when he merely pointed and asked if she would like assistance.

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After a bit they all got settled and Jack finally read the title, Basic Runes - simplified edition. This is the simplified version? It’s half a foot thick! Sounds of page turning reminded him that he still had to open it. When the correct page came up he saw the inscription.

“Basic runes are the method used by humanity to shape and make use of magic. It is how a Magi connects to and manipulates their bonded sigils. Every rune has three components. They are function, source, and intensity. More advanced runes utilize more than the basic three components.”

About a minute after Jack finished reading the inscription, the professor called out. “Has everyone finished reading page four?” There were a variety of responses from the students but most of them seemed to be finished.

Professor Ferrum didn’t seem impressed that not everyone was done and started to speak. “During this class we will cover the most basic of runes. The first subject we will cover are basic runes. These are runes used in cantrips and novice level spells or enchantments. We will move on to runes separated by subject towards the end of the semester. Does anyone have any questions before we proceed?”

A student raised their hand. He gestured to her. “Yes you, the girl with the pigtails.”

Everyone’s eye followed the professors finger to the girl in question. She seemed flustered by all the attention she was getting. “Ugh… how many runes are there Professor?”

Ferrum just snorted at the question and replied. “There is an entire wing of the library devoted to nothing more than researching and recording runes. Thousands of books like the one you are holding exist. Not to mention all the private libraries of the nobility. My own family has quite a stockpile of runes known only to us. Anyone else have a question?”

Someone else raised their hand and was selected. “What’s the difference between a sigil and rune?”

The professor seemed pleased at this question. “This is the question I was waiting for. Most laymen speak of sigils and runes interchangeably. This can not be more wrong. A sigil is a representation of primordial power. It is a source of a specific form of energy. This is why we Magi bind this power within ourselves and why the Djinn can sustain themselves despite being composed partly of magic.”

“Runes on the other hand are a magical language of sorts. Only instead of building a prose with words and punctuation, runes interconnect to give purpose to the forces around us. When creating a spell, a Magi starts by summoning his bound sigil. Once that is connected the Magi begins to connect the appropriate runes to the sigil in order to channel the power of the sigil into an effect.”

He went back to the chalkboard and drew a morning star. “This is the sigil for Light. It by itself is merely the representation of all things that emanate light, but when you do this and this.” He drew two shapes onto the edges of the sigil. They resembled what Jack thought looked like elder futhark. Those runes that fortune tellers are always eager to throw around.

“This is the spell Fairy Lights, it makes an object glow faintly. It is the first spell most Light attuned Magi learn first.” The class was in awe. Everyone was eager to write down the spell on the board, for most it seemed to be the first spell they had ever seen.

Professor Ferrum was already back on the lectern by the time people started to look back down. “Everyone turn to page seven! We are going to cover twenty runes every day in class and another twenty for homework. We will go over the homework at the beginning of each class before the lecture portion. Now the first rune you need to know is…”