The instructor did not bother to check on Archibald. Maybe it was not the first time she had to take such measures.

I whispered to Helena: “Who is Archibald?”

“He is the second son of Duke Francis Winston, our liege lord. I saw him once at an event, I think.” She whispered back.

Archibald was rising to his feet as he noticed me staring. He smiled. It did not look friendly, more predatory. He approached us, his friend followed closely.

“Hello ladies. I noticed your glances and whispering. You don’t need to be intimidated by me. Or concerned for my well being. I am fine and the instructor will be punished, in due time.”

I was confused. What did he want? Was he trying to save face? Make it look like he had everything under control? I looked at Helena who seemed equally lost.

“Wait… I recognize you!” He said, pointing at Helena. “You are a Frost. Excellent. You can entertain me while we have lunch.”

“I am not interested.” Helena answered.

He frowned. “The Frosts serve the Winstons. You will follow my orders.”

“That is not how it works.” Helena said. “I have declined your invitation. I will have lunch with my friend.” She stood, grabbed my hand and left, dragging me along. Not that I objected.

She released me once we left the room. “Sorry for dragging you.”

“It’s fine. Will he be a problem?”

“Maybe. My father has a decent relationship with the duke. We pay our taxes and keep the border safe. I doubt that he would start anything because I rejected his son. But I don’t know him well enough.”

At least he had also picked a fight with the instructors. So he would get no help there.

“You said Leo is an ass. Is he like Archibald?”

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“Partly. He thinks very highly of himself. But he is a lot smarter. He would not provoke an instructor. Leo is behaving well in public. Just avoid being alone with him.”

Great. Hopefully not every child of a duke would be bad. Nethena had seven duchies. One of them was controlled by the royals directly. That left six dukes. Did the others have children at the academy as well? I would probably find out at some point. Anyway, food!

We arrived at the mess hall. It was not quite as full as expected. Maybe the lunch breaks were staggered? It would make sense. We still had to queue for a bit and share our table. Sadly I failed to spot Skadi. Maybe we could meet her in the evening.

After the break we returned to our class. Archibald’s presence dampened my enthusiasm slightly but I was still looking forward to it. He was already in the room when we arrived. His follower was with him, as were two others. One brown haired man, who looked rather average, and a busty black haired woman. They both looked rather pleased.

Archibald glanced briefly at us before he returned his focus to the woman in front of him. He was mostly focused on a certain part of her. I felt bad for his betrothed.

As the break came to an end everyone took their seat and stood once Victoria entered. She was levitating a stack of books behind her.

“Be seated.” She looked at Archibald, who looked angry but remained silent. “I am glad that everyone is here on time. Now let us begin.” A book floated to each student.

“This is the book for our class. You will have to return it at the end of the year. Do not damage it, or there will be a fine. The first spell you find in there is telekinesis.” She opened a satchel and pulled out some feathers. Then she floated one to each student. “Memorise the spellform. Once you activate the spell, target the feather. That is the easy part. Then you will have to learn how to control it. Now, why do we start with this spell?”

I raised my hand.

“Koyuki.”

“Because it teaches us a spell that is not simply fire and forget. We can learn how to control an ongoing spell in a safe way.”

She nodded. “Does anyone have something to add?”

The catkin raised his hand. Just like me he was mostly human, with animal ears and a tail. He was on the smaller side for a male. While his hair was black, the ears and tail were orange. He looked kinda cute.

“Shin.”

“It uses neutral mana. That means we can all use it. Otherwise you would need a different training spell for every affinity.”

She nodded again. “You are both correct. This spell can teach you a lot of the basics in a safe way. I do not expect you to manage it any time soon. Now, give it a try.”

My first attempt was a failure, as expected. I had the book open and tried to construct the spellform in my mind. Recreating the rune from the picture was hard. I always missed some details forming it in my mind. But I would not give up!

I ignored my surroundings. I lost track of time. I only focused on the spell before me. Again and again I tried constructing it in my mind. Until it finally clicked. The spellform held. I took a tiny amount of my mana and fed it into the construct. The spell activated. The feather before me floated, briefly.

I was so excited that I forgot to keep the spell active. Instead of just pushing mana into it once, I would need to feed it constantly. Hm. I would need something like a pipe from my core to the spellform. Could I do that? I mentally tried to build a connection. But it required too much concentration. I could not keep it active while also forming the runes.

“That’s it for today.” Victoria said.

I blinked. Was it already evening? I looked around. Nobody had a floating feather.

“Feel free to practise the spell in your off time. Class dismissed.”

“This is hard. But it’s also exciting!” I said to Helena. “I can’t wait to practise some more.”

“Not tonight! We need to find Skadi and have a drink!” Helena suggested.

“That does sound nice.” I agreed.