“So…” Sarah said once they started walking back towards their dorms, after finishing his last cardio workout for the week and bidding goodnight to Felix and Yvessa, “how are you feeling going into tomorrow?”

“Is this just your fancy way of asking if I’m excited about tomorrow?” Sam asked.

“It’s my way of asking what I want to know without triggering you into another lecture.”

“Ha, I see. Well, you know what? I’m feeling pretty psyched. I know I said it a couple of times already, but tomorrow’s the real deal. Finally some real magic.”

“You’re still not counting anything you’ve done up till now as magic?”

“You know I don’t. What do I keep saying? If it can’t create fire, it’s not magic.”

“You keep saying that, but we both know how fundamentally wrong that is.”

“Look, I’m just talking about the process of doing magic, alright? These are the facts: A. You can trace to create a flame. B. The moment that the creation of fire is possible in a magic system, any process of doing magic that can’t directly lead to creating fire shouldn’t be counted as real magic. C. Since only affecting tracings can lead to the creation of fire, and I haven’t been doing any of those, only their preludes, I haven’t been doing real magic.”

“How does that make sense? You need the foundational tracings so the affecting tracings that create fire will work.”

“So? I’ve made the distinction of what magic is quite clear. The magical process that, through it, you can directly create fire. Foundational tracings might be required for that process to function, but as they themselves do not lead to creating fire, they are not counted as real magic.”

“Why not? That’s completely arbitrary.”

“Is it? Is it arbitrary to decide that using your brain doesn’t count as magic? Because that’s a prerequisite to tracing itself. The point is, I’ve built an internally consistent and logical system of what counts and doesn’t count as real magic, and I get to decide the starting point. Nothing arbitrary about it.”

“Aside from the decision itself.” Sarah laughed.

“Look, I don’t want to get into a debate with you about first cause or whatever. Cause I’m not that familiar with the topic and as I’m saying this, I’m starting to realize that it’s probably not the right one for the debate we’re having. So let’s just say that I used some sort of common sense to reach my conclusion about not having done any real magic up till now. And since no one in history has actually been able to define what common sense is, that means that I very well might’ve used common sense.”

“I’ll have to remember that. For the next time you criticize something for not making any sense.”

“You are not allowed to do that. You should already be more than thankful that I’m allowing you any sort of disagreement with me, my methods, or my insights. Now you want to use some of the things I said in the past against me? That’s crossing the line.”

“So what? I can’t bring up anything you said before?”

“Not if you’re arguing against me. If you’re sharing my point of view, go ahead, find all the evidence you might want in my past statements. But, if your opinion contradicts mine, then no, you’re not allowed to bring up anything I might’ve said in the past in order to prove me wrong. No matter what it is I said.”

“Won’t that leave me no room for argument eventually?”

“It sure will. That’s what’s so great about academia.”

She lightly shoved him on the shoulder. “Stop equating between academia and the idiotic practices you keep coming up with.”

“Why would I? Where do you think I’ve come up with this so called, ‘idiotic practices,’ hmm? Would you call the academic crusade against plagiarism idiotic? Cause that’s pretty much what you’re challenging here.”

“That’d ridiculous. I’d say that you’re greatly exaggerating, but that would allow some measure of truth to what you’re saying.”

“Exaggerating, am I? Or I am simply so close to the uncomfortable truth that you refuse to see it?”

“As I said, neither. But let me ask you a question: how are all of your jokes about academia going to survive next year when you’re going to have to take some courses that require writing an academic essay to pass?”

“Well…” Sam chuckled. “Let’s just say there’s a reason I keep correcting you on your assumption of how long our friendship will last.”

Sarah ignored him and cupped her chin as though in deep thought. “I think what would be most annoying is that you’ll probably have a much easier time with it than any of us.”

“You know what? I’m not going to argue with that. You’re probably right. I’m not saying anything about the grades, but overall difficulty? Yeah, I’m willing to give myself enough props to have that over you.”

“And your grades don’t really matter as long as you pass. So you’re really going to have it better than us in all aspects.”

“Now you can see how I reached my conclusion about our friendship, right?”

“Nah. You’ll probably just end up helping Felix and Yvessa if they need it.”

“Not only is that not true. It’s also not a rebuttal at all of my argument. ‘Nah?’ What does one have to do with the other?”

“Mine was still way closer to the truth than yours. So give it up.”

“Whatever. I’m only twelve hours away from doing real magic. I don’t have time to convince you of the futility of our acquaintance. See you tomorrow,”

“Goodnight, Sam.” Sarah bid him as they parted ways.

And that was all for his social interactions of the day. Unless you were a maniac and counted dialogue between one and one’s self as a social interaction. Not that he had much of that in the rushed evening. After his shower and meditation, his brain was uncharacteristically (although, it was becoming very common lately) outwards focused and devoid of any internal rambling and musing. This persisted all throughout the night as he quickly finished his patterns homework, a chapter of the Terran military structure textbook, switched to cultivating and finally finished with tracing practice until his core ran dry. Somehow, he even managed to avoid thoughts during his hour of leisure reading. The internal machinations of his mind did return, somewhat, between the time after he put his head and the e-reader down and the time he fell asleep. But they barely got started by the time he fell asleep. Somehow, his excitement for the following day didn’t hinder his ability to fall asleep, most curious.

He remarked to himself upon that fact after waking up and while brushing his teeth. Unfortunately, that train of thought persisted all the way through mediation, niggling and distracting him, but what can you do? And anyway, it was way better to be distracted by good thoughts than bad ones, even if both counted as the same hindrance to the meditation practice.

“Yep,” he said as he got up and into a stretch, “it’s nice to be able to fall asleep without trouble and wake up fully energized after a dreamless night. Say one thing for Web-Web, say they know how to calibrate a person for having a good night’s sleep. Hm… I have a couple of extra minutes. Might as well practice gathering for a little bit.” Sure, it was a slight waste of time, but he really didn’t feel like practicing his tracing, considering what the rest of the day promised.

Then it dawned on him. And that idiom about a whimper instead of a bang was never more appropriate. “Huh. Wonder how easy a time falling asleep I would’ve had if I had known this would happen today.” He peered into his metaphysical self once again, focusing on his right heel. His core was still there, of course, just not in the same static position as before. Now, it was all throughout his body, comfortably letting him access the storage for his magical energy from any point he focused on. It seemed that his mind finally got used to having a core.

“It’s weird… It doesn’t feel weird, it feels totally natural. But it’s still weird… Weird. Oh well, guess I better get used to it. At the very least, it should shorten my seeking time by a bit. So the faster I get used to it, the better.” He looked at the time. Gathering for even a single cycle would be cutting it close. So he might as well gather for two. Save Dan the micro second needed to fill up that amount for him.

“Besides, doesn’t every boy going through metaphysical changes deserve a little bit of leeway to being on time in order to get used to those changes?” Was the question he posed to Sarah, trying to explain why he was late coming down.

“You’re allowed to be late sometimes.” She shook her head with a laugh and started walking. “You don’t have to convince me.”

“What are you talking about? I’m late to dinner all the time.”

“So why did you never bother making any excuses before?”

“Well… it’s different, I guess. It’s you three waiting on me instead of just you alone. Most days, at least. And you’re able to carry out your principal reason for the meeting while waiting for me, namely eating. So I’m wasting less of your time in that way. Also, this one was a result of my conscious decision to knowingly be late and, much more importantly, without the approval stamp of a tenured personage.”

“Will it make you feel better if I’ll be the same amount of late to meet up with you on Sunday morning, then?”

“It wouldn’t make me feel better. And you’re not going to do it anyway, so that’s a moot point. Just say that you accept my reasoning and you’re happy about my magical development.”

“Sam, I accept your reasoning for being late, and I’m happy about your magical development. Congratulations on getting used to your core.”

“Thanks. Next stop being able to access it without focusing on my body at all.”

“Eh, it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be.”

“What? You’re not there yet, are you?”

“Of course not. You need an ethereal core in order to do that. But Maurice told me about it. It’s basically just a neat trick that you can only show to yourself and only the people who can pull off the same thing will understand what it feels like. Although, I suppose that it might come in handy during the heat of battle. If you’re already swamped by a million other things and can’t afford the tiny effort required to look inwards. But anyway, the real next step for your core that you should be looking forward to is getting it to fragmented. That’s something that will actually have a noticeable effect on your training and since I’m sure it will take you shorter than average, I want to use it for my arguments about your talents.”

“Sure, but as much as I’d like to beat Felix’s ‘record,’ even if it means giving you and everyone else some actual ammunition for a change, it’s just like with me getting used to the core; there’s not much I can do to make the change arrive faster. As long as I’m not putting my hand—mind—to active muddling.”

“The problem is time. If you had more time, then I’m sure Dan would’ve already scheduled you for some muddling training, even with the very significant drawbacks. But as it is, you’re right, not much you can directly do about the state of your core right now.”

“If I had more time, then there wouldn’t have been any reason for me to care about getting to fragmented all that much.”

“True. And anyway, you already cultivate a whole lot which is the next best thing for getting to fragmented. Which reminds me, are you already used to—”

“Well well well,” Felix said while crossing his hands and swooping down upon them, “finally bothered to show up, have we? Who’s to blame for this great affront to my, and the lady Smith’s, person? Is it you, Sam? Or is it you, Sarah? Taking the blame for Sam?”

“It was Sam,” Sarah said.

“And she’s already forgiven me for it.” Sam nodded. “So give it up. Plus, we’re not that late.”

“I’m not the guy who has a whole ethical theory dedicated to the importance of being on time,” Felix rebutted.

“Clearly not. But might I point out that us standing out here talking doesn’t help your argument that us being late is a grave wrong?”

“After you, then.” Felix half-bowed and pivoted his torso so that he could start walking into the gym before and ahead of Sam.

“Why were you late anyway?” Yvessa asked.

“I had some extra time in the morning, and didn’t feel like practicing tracing, so I turned to gathering. Then I realized that my core finished it’s… sedentary phase. So I got carried away a little getting used to the change.”

“Oh? Congratulations. That’s two major advancements in a single day, then. Even you have to be happy with today.”

“What do you mean? Oh! Right. The tracing. Wow, I completely forget about it. Yeah, you’re absolutely right. Two distinct improvements in my magical self, in both meanings of the word. If all goes well, then today will definitely go down as great in my book. If I had a book, that is.”

“I’m willing to bet that you’d still be able to find something to complain about today,” Felix said.

“Oh, no doubt. There’s always going to be some distance between one’s ideal and, more importantly, practical ideal version of reality and one’s perception of it, which allows one to undertake honest complaining. But, I will most likely not be complaining about anything to do with my magic or rate of progress today because of that practical version of my ideal world. Still, if you’re so concerned about missing my bellyaching, I’m more than happy to slot you in for an hour or two of moaning about… I don’t know, pop-culture maybe, I’ll think of something.”

“I’ll get back to you on that.”

After they finished warming-up and as they each split into the four cardinal directions, Sarah stopped Sam. Holding him by the shoulder, she said, “Sam, you’re not going to try gathering while working out, right? I realize that you’re excited about this new development, but you’re still not at the point where you can efficiently, and safely, gather while exercising.”

“I’m well aware of that. And I promised to await Dan’s permission and to do the first week under your supervision, didn’t I? You can trust me to keep my promises, you know?”

“So no gathering while working out, then?”

“None.”

“And what about rushing through the workout to get more time to gather until we all finish?”

“Hm… I haven’t thought about that.”

“Sam.”

“I’ll try not to. But that’s a tall order, you realize? No one can truly know, let alone control, the labyrinthine intricacies of their mind, and how their mind dictates their actions. The best I can do is try.”

“Just try your best and we won’t have any problems.”

“You got it, chief.” Sam saluted. “One regular old workout coming your way. I’m not even going to think about gathering.” He did think about gathering, of course, but not in the active immediate sense of the verb to which he was referring to, so he counted that as a promise well kept. Instead, he thought about it from a conceptual perspective. What did it mean to gather into his core, now that his core was body-wide?

He wasn’t even sure that it was a conceptual difference, and not a technical one. After all, the concept of what his core was and where it was “really” located didn’t change. The only thing that changed was Sam’s perception of his core and his ability to access it. But leaving aside how that change worked and to what scientific field that question belonged to for another day, was there any actual metaphysical change in Sam, in the nature of his magic itself? Or rather, was the change truly only epistemic, and the only thing that changed was Sam’s perception of his metaphysical self?

Finding the correct answer to that dilemma wasn’t all that important to Sam, so he didn’t bother including any of the other three in it. It was mostly a mental puzzle, one meant to entertain. Of course, if the answer had any actual bearing on Sam’s strength and thus his ultimate goal, his friends would’ve been forced to entertain his inquisition on the subject. But as it were, he knew that—for now, at least, if not forever—both question and answer were irrelevant to his progress. Which was really nice. He didn’t have a lot of opportunities to just think about magic in abstract philosophical terms up till now. Not to say that magic wasn’t sometimes very abstract, but it had always led to a clear and definite answer in his studies so far (although, sometimes he wasn’t privy to what that answer was).

Yeah, this is nice. Just wondering about the nature of magic itself without being worried about not knowing or understanding the answer. Hm… should I take the course on the philosophy of magic? Fuck… I really wish I could. But I doubt I’d have time for any elective that isn’t completely directed at making me a better fighter. Although… what was the joke I told Felix one time? That it might turn out that philosophy in the key to understanding how magic works and reaching the highest levels of power? Nah, I’m pretty sure that I shouldn’t wish for that joke to be real. I like philosophy well enough, but I’m far away from being a good philosopher. Those guys are… a whole other league and way too much anyway.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Still… He shrugged both physically and mentally as he sat down to wait for his friends. I’d like to see what other people think of the subject of the core. And again, can I honestly say that it’s actually metaphysical in the classic philosophical terminology? After all, magic is real. So just because the core is not physical in the sense of being spatially located at one point, it doesn’t mean that it’s not physical in the sense of existing and corresponding to the actual physical world. It clearly is. Maybe there isn’t really a philosophy of magic. But rather it’s like physics, treated as philosophy before we make some grand discovery about how things really work. That’s what threads are, no?

Fuck, enough of that. He shook his head as he sat down to wait for his friends outside of the gym. Time to focus. He dithered for a moment or two, caught between the utilitarian usage of his time in practicing tracing and what he really wanted to do, which was practice gathering with his new perception. Gathering won out in the end. After all, he had already made that choice today when the scales leaned less towards gathering. He was quickly getting used to the new state of his senses, but he still judged himself as having some more adapting to do by the time he was brought out of focus by Felix’s tapping on his shoulder.

“I wonder if I should ask Dan to train a little in gathering today instead of waiting for Sunday,” he confided as they all started walking towards the mess hall. “You know, just to have his feedback on whether there’s any glaring missteps in my method.”

“There wouldn’t be any, but go ahead,” Felix said. “What’s the worst that could happen? You’ll be late again?”

“Good point. I’ll ask him what he thinks. Worst-case scenario, I’ll just message you guys to eat without me.”

“Eat without you? Hm… what a novel idea. I don’t know if it’ll run, though.”

“Sarah, thoughts?”

She sighed. “Tell us if you’re running late. Later than usual, I should say. And by how much. We’ll see from there. Wondering about it now doesn’t serve any purpose. And, just to be clear, I’d have said the same thing about any one of us being late… Just putting it out there.”

“Damn… why’d you have to go and word it like that? Now you’ve got my mind running back to the gutter.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What you said about wondering not serving any purpose. Now I’m stuck in my head again. Thank you very much.”

“Again, what the hell are you talking about?”

“Well, I don’t know if you guys realized it, but I’ve been rather withdrawn during the workout.”

“Yeah, I saw it.” Felix nodded. “I just thought that you were gathering.”

“Well I wasn’t. But I was thinking about gathering. Specifically, about whether there were any real changes in my magic, my core, and how they come together when I’m gathering, or whether the only thing different was my perception of those things.”

“Oh. Yeah, thinking about that stuff is a total waste of time. You’re right.”

“No it’s not!” Yvessa objected. “It might be a very complicated and advanced topic without any straightforward answer. But the topic itself is worthwhile.”

“Wait, there is an answer to what the core is and how our perception of it changing works?” Sam asked.

“Not an answer, per se. But there are a couple of reasonable theories explaining it.”

“Oh? What are they?”

“I don’t know. Like I said, it’s advanced stuff.”

Felix laughed. “It’s not advanced, it’s just not worth it. What does it matter what the core really is? What matters is understanding how it works and how to use it best. And that’s just training in gathering and tracing, none of that wondering about whether it exists independently of us or not.”

“How could it possibly exist independently of us?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know one way or the other. I don’t waste my time learning about that crap. There’s the theory of magic. That’s important, and I’d be the first one in line to admit its importance. And then there’s the whole theory of the theory of magic, the kind of stuff that you like. Normal people obviously don’t care about that stuff. And us soldiers don’t need to know about that because it doesn’t have anything to do with combat strength, which is why they don’t teach us about it.”

“You know, the line between important magical theory and the ‘theory of theory’ you’ve termed so crudely sounds pretty arbitrary.” Sam winked at Sarah, who rolled her eyes.

“Absolutely not. Just examine a piece of information about magic, alright? Does knowing it make you, or can make you, a better fighter? If not, and if it doesn’t have any other practical uses, then why not consign it to the wastebin as worthless? At least from the perspective of us as combatants.”

“How do you know that it’s worthless?” Sarah asked.

“Ugh, not you too?”

“I’m just asking. I don’t have any horse in the race so far.”

“Whatever. Not having an opinion at all is more in-line with my opinion if you really think about it.”

“If you really think about it,” Yvessa said, “you still haven’t answered her question.”

“Yeah well… now it’s too late,” Felix said and raced ahead to grab a tray and make his meal.

That didn’t help him much, because a little later they were once again reunited, and Yvessa reissued her challenge. “I can understand not bothering with these kinds of questions because we have a lot of other stuff to focus on and there might not be clear-cut answers to them,” she said. “I can understand not bothering with it all, if they do indeed have no value for combat purposes. But to just dismiss them as worthless? That sounds ridiculous to me. Do you honestly think that understanding, really intimately understanding, what the core is and how it works overall, doesn’t have any significance for a person’s understanding and ability to use magic?”

“Who’s to say that it does?” Felix shrugged. “None of us truly understand the basic underlying fabric of how magic works. None of us besides Sam can even possibly understand it any time soon. Assuming threads really are the most basic element of magic and there isn’t something even more basic. But even if we could, even if thinking about those kinds of questions, and learning about their answers gave us a better understanding of magic, so what? You said it yourself: if it doesn’t have any combat applications, what good is it for us? Only if it helps us better understand magic and only if that new understanding can make us stronger, only then is it worthwhile to bother with studying that crap. And at the very least, you can’t argue that for us now, it’s not worthwhile.”

Sam nodded. “Yeah, that’s close to what I was thinking.”

“What? No it isn’t.”

“It absolutely is. I distinctly remarked to myself how nice it is to have a question which was magical in nature but that I didn’t have to know the answer to it and I’m allowed to just wonder about it and come at it from all sorts of different angles. My assumptions was that if the knowledge of how exactly the core corresponds with the body was so important, then someone would’ve started me on that subject by now. The only difference between my position and yours is that while we both don’t think the subject is important, I do think it’s worthwhile thinking about it. By the way, it is positively invigorating to finally be at, roughly, the same level as you guys on a given magical subject. Even if that means me not getting a definite answer to my questions on the subject.”

Sarah laughed. “To be fair, they might still have more knowledge than you about this subject. But they didn’t have a chance to present you with it because they were too busy arguing about the act of talking about the subject.”

“Why don’t you give him an answer, then?” Felix asked.

“I don’t have one. But we could have a healthy debate on the topic if you’re willing. We can even involve empirical data on it by starting with the question of what determines when people get used to their core.”

“You’re just trying to see whether Sam got used to his before I did to mine. Well, you’re shit out of luck. I don’t remember how long it took me.”

Sarah shrugged. “Wasn’t my intention and I doubt we would’ve reached any conclusion anyway. There are too many variables to account for. I was just using that as an example to show that the questions that arise from the subject aren’t just abstract philosophy, that the answer to them, and the ramifications of each answer, are rooted in the real world.”

“Not necessarily, though,” Sam said. “Even if we had all the relevant data, and we accounted for all the variables, there is a version of the answer to your question that wouldn’t be dependent on that data. If, say, that aspect of magic is really… magical, for a lack of a better word, and it’s all up to some sort of quantum chance with no underlying cause, then all the empirical knowledge in the world won’t help us reach the correct predictive model.”

“That’s definitely a possibility. It’s also possible that we would simply require a deeper level of empirical knowledge or understanding. That there is an underlying cause to the phenomenon, but it requires data that we currently have no ability to collect nor interpret.”

“Yeah… it all comes back to the problem of first cause. I think. Does magic have an initial beginning from which all its later effects and causations stem? And I should probably also be a good Kantian by wondering if even were that first cause real, would we be able to know it? Or is magic just is? And the most basic stuff, like the core and its interaction with our body, doesn’t have any explanation. I’m assuming that the core itself can’t be the first cause because of all the business with the threads seemingly being more basic than it, but maybe it can. Maybe the core and the threads are two distinct phenomena that interact with each other but don’t derive themselves one from another.”

“Maybe this entire conversation really was worthless because you’ve just walked in circles without even trying to answer the question you started with,” Felix said.

“C’mon Felix. This is some good philosophizing. Don’t tell me you’re not having fun.”

“I am not having fun. Either Yvessa’s right, and this stuff is important, worthwhile or whatever, for us to know about eventually, but it isn’t now because it’s too advanced for us. In which case, we’ve just been wasting our time talking about it, as we’re lacking the required knowledge to really discuss it and we’re basically just making shit up. Or I’m right, and this stuff really doesn’t matter. In which case, talking about it will always be worthless.”

“Or, counterpoint. We were having fun talking about it. And since that’s the major reason for us socially interacting during meals. That makes the discussion the complete opposite of a waste of time.”

“You’re the only one having fun here.”

“I’m having fun,” Sarah said.

“Me too.” Yvessa smiled at Felix. “And doubly so because you seem to have such a miserable time. You do realize that so far in the day, Sam hasn’t uttered a single complaint and you’ve just been continuously moaning?”

“Hmm…” Felix pursed his lips and looked upwards in consideration. “By God, you’re right. This is awful! Is this what’s it like to live through a happy day for Sam? Are we all cosigned to misery in order to bring him joy?”

“Just you.”

“Well I won’t have it! Sam won’t have it. There is nothing moral about trading one person’s suffering for another joy.”

Sam cleared his throat. “OK, first of all, don’t get me started about that aspect of utilitarianism, because I will get into it and then I’m definitely, probably, going to be the only one who’s having fun. And secondly, my joy today, if it does indeed exist, doesn’t stem one whit from your suffering, nor from the activity which caused your so-called suffering.”

“Also,” Yvessa said, “you’ve contributed probably the lion’s share of this debate. If anyone’s at fault here, it’s you.”

Felix shook his head. “First off, I don’t agree with that claim whatsoever. But it doesn’t matter, because I wasn’t saying that anyone was at fault for my suffering. I simply remarked upon its existence and wondered about the coincidence of it coexisting with my good friend having a grand old time.”

“I can’t help but notice that you didn’t try to argue with my claim about you being to blame and moved right on to no one being to blame.”

“I can’t help but notice that just because I didn’t present any evidence to refute your ridiculous claim, that doesn’t mean that I believe it has any merit.”

“And I can’t help but notice,” Sam said, “that in true ‘the four of us’ fashion, we spent more time talking about the act of talking about the topic, then about the topic itself…”

“Was that a complaint?”

“Nope. Just an observation. I told you already, I was having fun thinking about this stuff because I’m not worried about getting to the bottom of it, nor do I care if the discussion is circular and hasn’t brought us anywhere. In my eyes, this has all been time well spent.”

“This before Yvessa asks, ‘How can you be sure that it’s not important to get to the bottom of it?’ Circular indeed.”

“I wasn’t going to say that,” Yvessa argued. “I agree with Sam. Right now, it’s not important for any one of us to find the truth of the matter. All I said is that it might be important in the future, so thinking about it now can’t be a waste of time.”

“Whatever. Let’s change the subject then. Sam, which of the practice tracing do you think will be the hardest for you to train in?”

“Dude… why are you doing this to yourself? You already embarked upon pivoting the conversation. Why pivot it to me?”

“I figured the odds of a successful pivot were higher that way.”

“I don’t buy it. You’re just a hopeless masochist. And obviously Skin reinforcement will be the hardest. Everyone knows that it’s way more difficult than the rest.”

“Tsk! Since when do you know stuff that everyone knows?”

“It’s been eight weeks, man. At this point, you have to assume that I have a relatively good chance of knowing the most common of common knowledge. At least when it pertains to the subjects I’ve been studying.”

“They grow up so fast, don’t they?” Felix asked Sarah while wiping a dry tear from his eye.

“Shut up.” She laughed.

What remained of Sam’s breakfast was just about over at this point, so he excused his early parting by saying that it was for the purpose of not being late for dinner. A short walk later and he was sitting in Dan’s office, telling him about the recent changes in his magical body (or the recent magical changes in his body?). They ended up practicing gathering (and cultivating, of course, since it would’ve been a waste of time otherwise) for about an hour. After which, Sam felt confident in saying that he had completely gotten used to the perception of his core. No discussion was held about what the state of his core really was.

“Alright,” Dan said while rubbing his hands, “we’ll do just tracing for today as well. But we’ll be back to the regular schedule next week. As for the overall schedule, we’ll probably spend two to three weeks on these practice tracings. But even after we move on to magical foundational, we’ll still spend at least a third of our tracing sessions on these practice tracings. All in all, I think that in about four to five weeks, you’ll be ready to start on recovery tracings. Unfortunately, not in time for your next workout regimen change, but you’ll be more than ready for the one after that.”

“Yeah, I already figured as much. And it’s not like the moment that we start on recovery tracings I’ll be able to make use of them, much less effective use of them. Still, you won’t be able to discourage me that easily. We’re finally starting on real magic today, so if you will?”

Dan chuckled. “So the first practice tracing we’re going to go over is Night Vision. The tracing is relatively simple, since it only needs to mimic a pre-existing physical process. And it’s very easy to verify that you’ve successfully traced it. So let’s go over it.”

Dan was right. The tracing wasn’t all that difficult. Conceptually, at least. Practically, it still took him a couple of hours until he was able to trace Night Vision at a level approaching consistency. And that was only when he traced it after a Prior Physical Foundational. Dan wasn’t kidding when he said that Posterior Foundational tracings were much more difficult than prior. It was a double-headed monster. Not only were the modifications necessary for Sam to trace Night Vision Posterior much more difficult, but the tracing as a whole was also more difficult. When he traced Prior Night Vision, it felt like two distinct tracings which allowed him to focus on each one separately. Tracing it before Posterior Physical, however, was like doing one complex tracing. Which was obviously the point. If people could only use prior foundational tracings, they would. But many affecting tracings were practically useless if done that way. So even though Night Vision was not such a tracing, he had plenty of reason to practice it both ways.

In addition to Night Vision, Dan also started him on another practice tracing near the end the very same Friday lesson: Basic Enhancement. It was a catchall tracing. A step above just having effectless magic flowing through your physical body, but still many steps below any tracing that provided a tangible difference for combat. Still, Basic Enhancement was the basis for many of those tracings, and Dan did show him one noticeable effect from it. A marginally elevated heartbeat, provided the heart was where you traced to. Of course, there was also the much more noticeable magical effect, which made Basic Enhancement doubly important as a practice tracing. When he successfully traced Basic Enhancement into a part of his body, he was still able to sense, although not control, the magic there until it disappeared. That was in contrast to just tracing pure magic into his body, where the moment he completed the foundational tracing and the energy left his pathway, he could no longer feel it.

Tracing practice on Sunday the following week carried on the same, but by Monday, they switched to mostly focusing on Basic Enhancement. Dan decided that Sam was proficient enough in Night Vision (with both foundational tracings) to only give him only an hour to practice with it. The same could not be said for his skills with Basic Enhancement, unfortunately. For while the difference in complexity between tracing through Prior or Posterior Physical wasn’t that significant, it was joined by yet another difficulty variable: where Sam traced to. Night Vision only had the eyes to trace to, so only two modifications were necessary to learn in order to master it. Basic Enhancement, however, was body wide. Sure, the differences between the tracings were minute, but small as they were, they piled up and were joined by the differences of which foundational tracing Sam used.

So it was no surprise to Sam that it took until Thursday for another practice tracing to enter the picture. Three tracings, technically. The basic tracing and the two that built upon it: increase or decrease in temperature. These two (or three) really were the epitome of practice tracings, for they had no use outside of practicing them. Using them, Sam could only change the temperature of the affected body part by a maximum of two degrees Celsius. Which was just as well, since he didn’t have any tracing or pattern to protect his body from the ramifications of turning his finger hot enough to boil water. All in all, it seemed to Sam that these two tracings were easier than Basic Enhancement. Maybe they were, because even though the basic form might’ve been more complex, you didn’t need to modify it depending on where in your body you traced to. Maybe they weren’t, and he simply got better. Or maybe both were true (the former certainly was).

Be that as it may, by Friday, he was getting close enough to reaching a very high consistency in Basic Enhancement from a body-wide average (his limbs had the best success rate while his brain, understandably, had the worst) and he had surpassed that consistency with the temperature change tracings. So Dan decided to introduce two new practice tracings at the same time. And this time, they were indeed two distinct tracings: Sensations Suppressor, also called (mostly in the republic) Nerves Deadener. And Basic Increased Metabolism, a tracing which was already building upon Basic Enhancement.

They both did just as the name suggested, although the Nerves Deadener was much more complex in his eyes (Sam wasn’t sure whether that was because of the tracing itself or because he was already very familiar with most parts of Basic Increased Metabolism). It also had the much more apparent effect. Not being able to feel someone touching him was very noticeable; potentially burning two more calories than usual was not. Of course, the benefit of each tracing was exactly the opposite. Basic Increased Metabolism was important for many other tracings and patterns, least of all the ones that helped you lose weight without doing anything. The Nerves Deadener tracing wasn’t of any help to Sam with the only place he could think of: working out. It was too narrowly focused. Still, it was not just a practice tracing without any practical use. The more advanced versions of it did offer a combat application. One that Sam hopefully will never be in need of.

By Monday the following week, the two temperature change tracings were relegated to the same one hour time slot as Night Vision. By Tuesday, Dan judged him proficient enough to introduce the penultimate practice tracing into the mix. Magical Coating. And this one was really easy. Functionally, it was pretty much a companion to Basic Enhancement, only instead of interacting with Sam’s body it just used the magic to cover his body (or, more accurately, body parts, since he had nowhere near enough energy to coat his whole body).

Of course, just like Basic Enhancement, it was one of the most basic tracings, right at the bottom of the pyramid. And one step up was Skin Reinforcement, which Sam started training in just two days later, on Thursday. Trying and failing (and only trained through a Prior Physical as Skin Reinforcement Posterior was apparently much too complex to be a “practice tracing”). And then trying again. And failing again. At which point it was time for lunch (they were ahead in magical theory, so the day was, once again, dedicated to just tracing practice). Then he tried for half an hour more, and he almost got it at one point. But he didn’t. So they moved on and back to practice with the other tracings. With Dan reassuring Sam that it was more than normal for him to have trouble with Prior Skin Reinforcement, and that he already expected beforehand that it would take Sam some days to pick it up. That didn’t do much to cheer up Sam, of course. Because when has someone saying, “it’s OK, it happens to everyone,” ever did?

What very much did cheer up Sam, however, was what happened at exactly an hour and seventeen minutes before his bedtime. He didn’t let his repeated failures throughout the day discourage him and break his newly developed habit, so once he finished with his cultivation for the day, he moved on to practicing his tracing. And the session started out great. Every tracing was a success. From tracing Prior Night Vision to tracing Posterior Nerves Deadener on the tip of his right index finger. And since he still had some energy left in his core, he decided to throw caution to the wind and risk going to sleep with the sense of abject failure ringing in his mind. And he did fail on the first try. Second as well. But, would you believe it, he succeeded in tracing Prior Skin Reinforcement on the third try. And that wasn’t the extent of his luck, for by that point, his core was almost dried up, so he couldn’t even try for a fourth time and risk his uplifted mood.

He went to sleep that night with a bright smile on his face. He thought about letting his success ring wide in the group chat, letting his friends share in his jubilation, but decided against it. They’ll have to wait until tomorrow in order to share in his joy. And they’ll have more than enough suffering to go through as a result of the outpouring of happiness from Sam. Yep, I just know it. Tomorrow’s going to be a great day. I’m going to have to come up with a joke about how this always happens on Friday for me and Felix to riff off of tomorrow.

But maybe some things never change. Maybe some things that were true and constant in Sam’s old life back on Earth, held just the same even in his new life and new reality. Perhaps because Sam’s luck ran supreme on Thursday, and his mood was lifted high up, they both had to crash down on Friday. The answer didn’t matter to Sam, because on Friday morning, the effect of magic on his mind had run out, and nothing seemed to matter anymore.