Arras had taken to his studies with renewed vigor after his day outside. He'd wanted to discard that almost invisible mounting pressure, and he'd done exactly what he had set out to do. It also wasn't really a "day" outside, more so an hour or two outside, but still. The point was valid.
With a clear mind, he was able to give it his best once again, and that meant continuing from where he'd left off. Right on the final touches of the basics. As usual, he was making his way through this faster than what had been expected of him. Much, much faster. Eric had actually raised the idea of Arras being recommended for a transfer position some time after the break ended, but with his rate of progress that likely wouldn't be needed. For the rest of the day though, Arras figured he might as well touch up on what he had already learned.
He could wrap up the rest of this in about a single day of hard work, so he supposed he just wanted to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything, or missing anything too important. He could always touch up on his knowledge later, provided he had the appropriate material, but for now he'd rather just have a solid understanding of what exactly it was he was supposed to be teaching others. After all, how could he possibly hope to explain what he himself had a passable understanding of at best?
So he grabbed a book, he opened it up, studied the images the best he could and committed each and every one of them to memory. Or well, that was at least what he was planning to do. It wasn't quite as simple as just thinking about it. It wasn't just a bunch of images either, there was more to it that required understanding.
It also didn't help that Arras took a bit to sort through his memories, he was very good at recalling things, but it took him a moment. He had a clear memory, just not the ability to instantly remember anything. He would probably be able to figure out Casting Patterns in theory to an acceptable degree, but actually using them...? Well, there was a reason that he was just fine with not incorporating them into his wider usage.
"Arras?"
It took him a moment to properly respond, he'd just gotten settled in so the stimuli, as aforementioned, took a moment to properly set in.
"...Yes?"
"Oh, my bad." Illia lightly tilted her head, sensing the slight annoyance in his thoughts. "Am I interrupting?"
"Just ask the question." He shook his head slightly exasperatedly as he turned a page, flicking it up and over with a paw.
"Right, sorry about that. I was just going to ask if you were alright with me heading out?"
"...Why?"
"Uh, no big reason."
...There was definitely a reason, not one that Arras would count as "big" given her only slight apprehension, but still.
"I suppose not... It shouldn't be a problem, not like you need to help me with my reading all that much now." Arras lightly craned his neck, replicating a "go ahead" motion that he would otherwise do with a hand or paw. Obviously, those were currently occupied.
"Alright, you'll still be here later, won't you?"
"Probably." He agreed as he closed his eyes. "Now, I need to concentrate."
"Alright, see you later."
...
"You got a massage with him, and you still can't bring yourself to tell him?"
"Look-I can't help it okay? I'm not strained for time."
Amakazi side eyed her pretty heavily after that line.
"It's not my fault that you're hesitant to try a contract." She side eyed her right back.
"And I already explained to you why I won't do it."
Illia rolled her eyes and waved a wing at Amakazi. "So don't give me shit about time then."
"...Fair enough."
Oddly enough, the two of them had actually started speaking a little more often. It was certainly an odd pairing, species, dispositions, attitudes, all of them mismatched, yet here they were regardless, speaking to each other as equals. There were things that they just kind of... Understood each other on. Both of them, technically nobles, would usually be unable to confide in anybody else. Illia for her part, just didn't have anybody besides Arras to speak with to begin with, and Amakazi could only talk about her problems... With Eric, and his relatives.
Yeah it was pretty easy to see how that didn't work out. So, perhaps it wasn't all that odd. When you thought about it, it was pretty much a bygone conclusion. They understood each others plights, they came to understand how the other ticked. They could just... Talk to each other. Illia didn't really like admitting it to herself, but she did always feel a little awkward speaking with Arras.
She supposed it just felt somewhat strange to her, given she wasn't sure how exactly to feel about him... But that wasn't an issue with Amakazi! She could really just say just about whatever she wanted to say, and not be judged for it any way, nor would she have that gnawing sense of dread that always hung around her whenever she said anything around Arras like, "oh was that mean?" or, "wait did I say that wrong?" it was great! Well, she might be judged, but Illia didn't care that much about what Amakazi thought of her, unlike a certain somebody else.
Now on the flip side, Illia herself couldn't pinpoint why Amakazi also spoke with her, but it probably had something to do with her self created investment in her "love life". Occasionally, it would get turned around on her, but she was always resolute on her stance. That she couldn't pursue her own feelings because she wouldn't live for long. Illia had raised a solution to that one of these past few days... But...
...
"...Why not just extend your life with a contract?"
"What now?"
"You know, sacrifice your aptitude with some of your magic in return for living longer? I mean, it's not a common occurrence, but it's definitely something you could do. There's certainly a precedent. Could add a good, twenty, thirty years onto your life?"
"..."
"What? Did I say something wrong?"
"I'm not going to do that."
"Why not?"
"What's the point in that? You seem to have forgotten that there's another reason that I can't be with Eric."
"...There's other ways of being capable you know."
"As what? A little snake on the ground?"
"You wouldn't need to sacrifice your transformation magic... Or at least not all of your ability to use it. Plus, couldn't you just get an artifact for it?"
"I could, however, sacrificing magic can also have an adverse effect on your ability to use an artifact. There's no way of being able to tell, and then if I wasn't sacrificing my transformation magic, it'd be worth far less So in other words, drop it.."
Illia paused for a moment, felt like she'd touched a nerve. And if she was getting any solid feedback from a mental link with Amakazi... That probably was good reason to drop it.
"...Alright, jeeze, no need to get defensive."
"Not defensive." She shook her head playfully, that previous smidgen of annoyance fading into nothingness. "Simply agitated."
"Isn't that the same thing?"
"No, in fact, there's a world of difference. For instance, you get defensive when I bring up how silly you are for not making your feelings clear, and you get agitated when I don't leave the topic alone, like how you're feeling right about... Now."
"Don'tcha think you're a bit of a hypocrite, telling me all of these reasons as to why I'm dumb, and then I go and give you an idea that could work and you shoot it down immediately?"
"Case and point."
...
Casting Patterns... Admittedly might've been slightly more interesting than what Arras gave them credit for. Granted, they were still completely useless to him, but at the very least they were an interesting concept. How best could he describe it... He had a general idea of the difference between his method of practice, and practicing with patterns, he just... Hadn't been able to put it into words yet. He figured he should remedy that.
Arras's method of magic casting was... Very straightforward when you got down to it. He imagined a spell taking shape, and boom it was there. The imagining of that spell was a few steps in and of itself. He felt his magic flow within him, directed a path for that magic to take via a thought, and then the spell took shape at the end of that path. Little to no delay, took somewhat longer to cast if the destination was far enough from him, and there was a limit to the distance he could conjure it at... But he would still say that method was better than patterns, ergo why he had no intention of making a switch. He supposed he was lucky to be born with the ability to use magic this way. However, this was not to say that patterns weren't still interesting.
Arras had done some experimenting with his study time, working with patterns as opposed to his usual method of casting. Both because he wanted a deeper understanding of the subjects that he was apparently supposed to be teaching, but also because he was genuinely curious about it. And... Casting via Casting Patterns was certainly odd. It was very, very different from his usual method.
It would likely be easier for him to think of it as a list, as opposed to one summary, given the large amount of differences. So, to begin with, when Arras thought of a pattern... Provided he was actively attempting to cast a spell, boom. The spell just appeared. As long as his magic was circulating, if he just thought of a pattern, the spell would appear.
Granted, he had to have a very clear image of the pattern, otherwise the spell would just collapse after being powered, which was a waste of magic. This was unlike his usual casting which only needed a vague idea of the route and destination of his magic, but it was also surprisingly effortless. The problem being, that the time it took to clearly picture that pattern was much longer than it would be for him to just cast normally.
That wasn't the only problem either. Arras could barely adjust the location of his magic, as well as what shape it took using this method. This wasn't to say that he couldn't move the destination of the spell at ALL, but more so that it was very difficult. Holding a clear image in mind always gave him the near exact same results every time he attempted a spell, with very little margin of error.
Sure, it was possible to adjust that image, to slightly alter its shape and color, which would in turn effect what was manifested and where... But that took time. much, much more time than it would take to adjust it on the fly with his usual methods. He could of course, always move the spell after it was manifested, that faucet of control was shared between his preferred method of casting as well as this one.
Once the spell was casted the link between Arras and the spell itself worked just the same as it would for his regular casting methods. Bar the ability to adjust the link itself WHILE casting a spell. But should he choose to make use of that to move his spells around, it would lose all surprise that it would've otherwise held. There was also the next issue...
Manifesting magic this way was SUPREMELY inefficient. Perhaps his patterns were just unrefined, but a single instance of force magic manifested in this manner took almost five times as much magic as it would for Arras to just do it in his normal way. A fireball? All the same, moving that fire around? Still just as inefficient. Granted, manifesting magic near his tails lessened this drain heavily, but that "heavily" still had an end result of almost twice his usual drain, and this was when compared to casting without his tails in the first place. And, obviously, he couldn't move the spells around without moving them away from his tail, thus rendering the point moot to begin with. Moving his paw, and or arm, towards the destination of magic created this way also helped to assuage the burden, but that was inconvenient.
Overall... Whatever class Arras was teaching, it certainly wouldn't have anything to do with efficient usage of patterns. It definitely wasn't his skill set, but he figured he should still have a rudimentary understanding of them. It certainly couldn't hurt to have a good idea of how they worked if they were considered to be the foundation of magic in general.
Admittedly, whatever Arras would end up teaching... Would probably have something to do with combat. It was what he was good at, even if he'd like to be able to teach other things, he was simply far less experienced. There was only so much that he could do within the span of weeks... And, if Arras wasn't the best at something, why would he be teaching as opposed to somebody more experienced?
Though... The thought did occur, did he really want to be teaching people how to fight given that the whole reason he had been talked into a job as a teacher in the first place was to "stem ignorance"? Well... Yeah, he did. The thought of spreading his knowledge was weirdly appealing, and he certainly had enjoyed his time practicing with Illia so far. But... Did he want that to be the entirety of his teachings...?
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No. No he didn't. So, instead of continuing to practice with Casting Patterns, Arras turned his attention to that which he was more skilled with. Mind Realm's. Given that he'd managed to accomplish it completely off instinct, he had a pretty good feeling about the subject, and his research into it in so far certainly hadn't let him down.
What Arras did, magic detection, was actually more than "magic detection" according to his research. He'd long ago stepped into using a Mind Realm, months back. He was... REALLY good at it by the standards of these books, and when he'd asked Eric about the standard of Mind Realm users...? Weeeellllll, they were rare. The level of focus that it took to effectively use a Mind Realm was astronomical, and those competent in the field were widely sought after apparently. At least, those who could use it effectively. Anybody could use one to a certain degree, if only for a moment... But, actual competent users of Mind Realms were practically one in a thousand.
Not so rare as to be national treasures, but definitely rare enough to draw attention. And even then, after a little bit more extended questioning, which had drawn Arras quite the questioning look, some were more skilled in the field than others. He didn't want to make any assumptions... But, Arras figured he was probably in that category of "some" given how utterly effortless it was for him to keep a Mind Realm active.
So... He hadn't exactly asked about the kinds of things that were taught in this academy, and he'd only done some surface level research into what exactly went on in there... But, a fair part of it was supposed to be about teaching people how to use magic. And, given that a Mind Realm was very helpful, by both the books and Arras's accounts, surely it would be something to be taught, right? And given that it found the most use in a combat situation... Well, the two subjects would obviously be partial to each other, wouldn't they? That didn't sound like too bad of a deal for Arras.
Though... Besides his self prescribed research, Arras only had a few more subjects to work through before he had to deal with... Politics.....
The ensuing shudder snapped Arras out of his reflective haze, and after blinking a few times, he got right back to reading.
...
He... Had no more excuses. If Arras was serious about this, which he was, this was an inescapable fate. He'd spent almost two weeks focusing on mostly useless information in order to be qualified for the position he was offered, given he could've spent that time practicing more with his own magic, it was almost unjustifiable to give up now.
So, there he was, sat at a table elegantly consuming a more exotic food (exotic in the sense that it wasn't steak) known as some sort of soup which he hadn't bothered to learn the name of.
"You alright?"
Arras glanced down at his arm, which he now noticed was trembling, sending ripples through the liquid before him.
...Okay this was ridiculous. What in the world was he so worried about? It was just information that he needed to learn. Granted, it was information that he personally had literally zero interest in, and was actively opposed to learning, but if that was necessary information to continue moving forward with his life, then he needed to learn it. No ifs and or buts about it.
"Excuse me." Arras set his spoon down on the overly flashy bowl.
"Hm?" Eric tilted his head in his direction, as did Amakazi, who was for once, at the table.
"I've finished what you asked of me." It was so, so very difficult to speak those words. Because he had to actively choose to use his magic for each and every part of it. He couldn't just think the thoughts and be done with it, no. He had to, actively, choose, to move forward.
He raised an eyebrow ever so slightly. "You're certain? It has only been eleven days."
Arras breathed in deep, not to speak duh, he couldn't do that. But merely because he really didn't want to continue asking for the next part of his supposed education. He needed to steel himself.
"Yes, I'm certain."
"...Wonderful, then. We can move forward without issue. I do hope you understand that unlike before, you will need somebody to actively teach you to make sure that you're properly understanding the political sphere of the academy?"
"...Yes." He managed to force a nod. His ability to learn and his knowledge of magic had only ever been questioned once, so, similarly to what Eric had just said, somebody who had been on hand was asked to teach him. That didn't go so well for them, they literally couldn't keep up with any part of Arras's learning process apart from reading, and only because he wasn't very experienced in that field yet. So, obviously, that concern had been obliterated utterly and completely. Buuuuut he was completely inept in this new field. So obviously, he would actually need supervision this time.
"And as I'm sure you also understand, neither I or Amakazi have the time to sit through this with you."
Arras nodded. He didn't know what exactly the two of them did, but Amakazi was out for the entire day multiple times before, and Eric was often out of the manor. So it was a given.
"Excellent. Then I can have the appropriate sources ready by tomorrow morning. I'll also need to arrange a meeting for you with father so that you can demonstrate your magical competency after you have finished, and from there the paperwork can be officially done."
"...Right." Arras had no idea what any of that even was, though he figured he might know soon.
...
Arras sat down uneasily, it would be a long, loooong day... But, he would make his way through it just fine. Learning couldn't hurt him.
Probably.
"Lord Veile, was it?"
Arras sucked in a quick, soundless breath, and looked up to meet the eyes of the person who was supposedly going to be teaching him. Illia wasn't here right now, this was on him to speak for himself.
"...Yes." He was definitely somewhat nervous, but that didn't much show in his projected voice, given the process was entirely magical.
"It is wonderful to meet you, and a privilege to work with you." The... Arras wanted to say, somewhat old? Human bowed down slightly, before standing back up to her full height. She had white hair, like Arras himself while transformed... But hers was a bit more gray.
"I apologize, but I can bow no lower. These old bones aren't very conducive to such movements." She smiled apologetically.
Something about them... Felt somewhat reassuring. Her presence was mild, yet not... Meager. Arras couldn't put an exact description to it, something about the person before him just felt... Otherworldly. Even in her, now confirmed, old age, they looked awake, at attention. Much like Arras himself. He couldn't help but have a favorable impression of her.
"Don't... Don't worry about it. I don't mind." He tried his best to smile, and raised an arm in reassurance. Being polite was a good first step, right? Illia recommended sportsmanship to him for a friendly duel, surely similar principles applied for just speaking with people, no?
"Thank you for your kindness." She smiled right back, so, that was successful right? "Now, I'd hate to waste your time Lord Veile. I've been informed that you lack certain information about the current workings of the academy?"
"Yes. I'm... Rather uninformed." He nodded slowly.
"I see. Then, let us begin by going over some basic information." She took a seat as she continued to smile.
Alright... Here it was. This was what Arras had been dreading for over a week now. It was time to see if it was really that bad... For his own sake, he hoped he had just been over-dramatizing it in his own head.
And... She started. He wasn't really sure what he'd been expecting, but for some reason it had been something more closely related to the heart pounding terror he'd felt back when Illia was on the receiving end of a blade. That, definitely wasn't what happened.
She just began to list off names. Barony's, Viscountcy's, and before that the individuals name. So, basically just-"Tritus, the son of a Barony built off the back of a dye trade. No need to dance around him, he's a rather sweet boy when you get to know him. Oh and pardon me, but are you going to note any of this down?"
Arras paused before responding, was he supposed to be doing that?
...But he didn't even know how to write! At least not by hand, he could probably manage it magically though... Somehow.
"...No, am I supposed to? I have a good memory."
"Good enough to remember a few hundred students families and appearances?" She genuinely asked, that didn't sound like sarcasm.
"I don't think I've forgotten a single moment in my entire life... So... Yes." Arras nodded slowly. Then he paused mid nod. "I apologize, but I don't believe I have your name."
"Ah! How could I have forgotten. My deepest apologies Lord Veile. My name is Mira, I'm but a humble assistant of the academy."
Arras paused for a few seconds as he thought about that. So... They worked for the place? Well, it made sense that they knew about what was going on inside of it then. He was working with somebody who knew their stuff, and... In so far it really didn't seem that bad! Maybe this wouldn't be so awful.
...
Despite jinxing it, despite practically ASKING for something to go wrong... No, nothing went wrong. They just... Continued to tell Arras about what he should be paying attention to, the students who could end up being in his classes if he taught second year, some general information on what and what not to do... It was simple. And, when he repeated almost everything 1:1 verbatim... She'd been satisfied.
Arras sat there for a minute or two before he finally stopped blinking like somebody who had just been hit for the first time in their life, and proceeded to snap his fingers a few times. And then he stood up.
Was it... Was that SERIOUSLY it? That was everything? That was all he needed to know? Mira said he was good to go, and she just... Left to go tell Eric wherever he was? Really? He couldn't help but hold his head in his hands. What in the world had he been so worried about...? This day felt like it would be the end of the damn world just a few hours ago, and now here he stood completely fine. He genuinely could not believe himself.
...
So then... Yeah, that was it.
Arras found himself just... Doing his usual activities. He was outside, practicing. More specifically he was working with his Mind Realm, trying his best to articulate how exactly it felt, and how he did it. He hadn't ever thought about it before, but if this was what he wanted to teach people he should probably know how to explain it to begin with... Illia still wasn't around, supposedly she and Amakazi had gone outside together, which was fine with Arras... But he was a little curious as to what they were doing.
Though, they should be back soon so it didn't matter much regardless. He knew all of that, because once Mira had spoken with Eric, Arras was up shortly afterwards. He informed him of the completion of his task, Eric was only mildly surprised given his track record, and from there he'd asked about it. The news was disappointing, sure... But there was one last thing that he had to do now.
Just before he turned to walk away, Eric spoke up again.
"Well, if you're confident, I'll arrange you a meeting with father."
"Yes... Wait, why?" Arras turned right back and tilted his head at his friend.
"Father manages the sourcing of individuals for academy positions. He is the head of the family after all. I merely make recommendations."
"Why didn't you tell me that?"
"Pardon? It wouldn't have changed anything, you'd still need to learn everything that you learned. And, I do recall mentioning it a few times."
Arras paused for a moment and thought about it, yes... He had mentioned it, but he hadn't mentioned WHY exactly a meeting with his father would be necessary. Though... Regardless, it didn't matter too much. Big deal, it wasn't like Eric would set him up for failure would he? Arras already had everything that he needed.
"...Very well. How soon?"
"Should be possible as soon as tomorrow, perhaps somewhat late though. For now... Feel free to go about your business as usual. You needn't worry about anything. Is that all?"
Arras nodded again, and Eric promptly turned to leave. Well, not to leave, but to go up the stairs. That was basically leaving for Arras though, given that he hadn't even been up there before.
...He supposed that left him dismissed. So, from there, he simply went about his day as normal. More practice and more understanding could never hurt. Especially if he had to pass some sort of trial.