When Ardwyn walked up to the stage he found that the lights were so bright that he could hardly see the expressions of the other students in the auditorium. That seemed to make things somewhat easier. His heart was beating fast. This was the moment when Myriel would be watching him.
As he made his way up the stairs onto the stage, to where the professor stood, he noticed the professor’s stern face soften into a slight smile.
“Excellent. And your name is?”
“Ardwyn, sir,” he said.
“Thank you for volunteering, Ardwyn,” the professor said. “Stand here, if you can.” The professor gestured to a spot at the center of the stage.
Ardwyn walked toward the spot. His palms sweated underneath the sleeves of his robe. The professor walked around him, with his hands clasped behind his back. The auditorium was nearly silent, with only the sounds of the professor’s footsteps echoing in the room.
“Magic, as we’ve discussed is about manipulating the fabric of reality. But it’s also about perception.” He stopped in front of Ardwyn. “Tell me, what do you see when you look at your hand?”
Ardwyn outstretched his hand. He was shaking slightly. He took a deep breath and steadied himself, wondering if the crowd could see the faint tremor in his arm.
“I see my hand,” he finally said. The class erupted in laughter. And then quietly died down realizing the professor was still serious.
“Indeed,” the professor said. “Now, I want you to close your eyes and focus on the sensation in your hand. Feel the energy flowing through it.”
Ardwyn closed his eyes. At first, he felt nothing, just the slight shaking of his nerves. But as he concentrated further, he became aware of a rising tingling sensation. A warm energy spread through his body and concentrated in the palm of his hand.
“Good,” the professor’s voice came from somewhere to his left. “Now, keeping your eyes closed, I want you to imagine that energy taking shape. Picture it flowing out from your palm and forming into a ball of light.”
Ardwyn focused with all of his effort. He tried to visualize what the professor described. In the next moment, a collective gasp came from the audience. Ardwyn opened his eyes and stumbled backward. Hovering before him was a small, pulsing orb of light. Lines of vibrant energy surrounded the orb. The orb seemed to slowly grow in size before bursting into a myriad of sparkles. A few students in the audience clapped.
“Here we have a demonstration of tapping directly into the Aether. This is the very power of belief and visualization. Magic is not just about memorizing spells or waving wands. It’s about believing in the impossible and having the courage to reach for it,” the professor said and turned to Ardwyn. “Well done, you may go back to your seat now.”
Ardwyn’s legs slightly shook while walking back, but at the same time, he felt triumphant that it was over. As he sat back down, Flynn flashed him a thumbs up beneath the cover of the seat so that no one else could see. Myriel was smiling. The way she was smiling seemed to make the entire effort worth it.
Outside in the hallway when the class was done, Flynn caught up with him. “That was amazing!” he said to Ardwyn. “How did you do that?”’
“I don’t really know,” Ardwyn said. “I just visualized what the professor said and the ball of energy formed.”
“Can you try it again?”
“I could. But probably not here.” Ardwyn looked around at the students walking out of the auditorium giving him curious stares.
Myriel was still in the room, likely waiting to ask the teacher a question or something. When she finally came out fifteen minutes later she seemed to glow with excitement.
“That was incredible!” she said immediately to Ardwyn. “I can’t believe you went up there in front of everyone. Were you scared?”
“Not really,” Ardwyn said with a shrug, trying to act cool. It seemed that he had managed to somehow impress Myriel. He felt a surge of excitement at what had happened.
Myriel said, “I waited afterward to tell the professor that my parents had also attended the class a long time ago, and asked how much has changed with the coursework. The professor said relatively little has changed in magical theory since.”
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“Did you always want to be a mage because of your parents?” Ardwyn asked.
“Kind of,” Myriel said, “ever since I can remember. Mostly I was always fascinated by getting better at an art or craft, and making progress.”
Ardwyn decided to change the subject. He didn’t want to note the fact that he had enrolled at the Academy partly because he had nowhere else to go. It didn’t seem like a noble reason to bring up compared to Myriel’s dedication.
“Where to next?” Ardwyn asked.
“Practical Magic I,” Myriel said. “Gnosis and praxis.”
“Gno—? What?” Flynn asked.
Myriel said, “Gnosis means knowledge, and praxis means practice. First you learn the theory and then you apply the theory into practice. That’s how true learning takes place. That’s what my parents always say.”
“Do you guys just talk about this stuff over the dinner table?” Flynn asked. He imitated the sound of older parents. “Honey, how was your day — well, dear, today I achieved praxis through gnosis.”
“It’s not… well okay, maybe it’s a little like that sometimes,” Myriel said.
They laughed and continued to walk down the corridor on their way to the next class.
Ardwyn wondered what it was like to be raised by both parents, with higher education, and to have these sorts of discussions. Back home his mother was always stressed with just trying to keep up with everyday life. The conversations were never relaxed to have time to talk about theoretical ideas. There were also no books in the house. On the rare chances that he did sit on the couch with his mother in the evenings, they were silent, just staring at the glow of the TV or the phone before his mother would pass out exhausted from her long work day.
“You okay there, Ardwyn?” Flynn’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
Ardwyn forced a smile, trying to shake off the feelings that came over him. “Just thinking,” he said.
Myriel seemed to sense the shift in his mood. “What about?” she asked.
“Nothing in particular,” Ardwyn said. “Being here just feels so surreal. It’s like a whole new world has opened up.”
“Well,” Flynn said, “if you ever need help with the gnosis part, I’m sure Myriel can lend you some of her parents’ dinner table lectures.”
“Very funny, Flynn,” Myriel said. She swung her heavy school book at him, playfully hitting him on the shoulder.
Their next class, Practical Magic I, was held right at the turn of the corridor. Instead of an auditorium like the last class, they entered a large hall similar to something out of a medieval alchemical lab. Rows of long wooden tables lined the room with various alchemical glasses and beakers spread out on the counters. On the walls hung various reference diagrams such as a complex mana transformation formula that made no sense to Ardwyn but caused him to pause for a moment to observe the intricately designed chart.
The professor was already sitting in front of the class on a wooden stool, greeting each of the students as they walked in with a warm smile.
She had long, straight black hair, that gently curled above her shoulders. She wore a crisp white blouse, with a sleek black scarf matching her formal black robe.
“Welcome,” she said to each of them as they walked in.
Her tone seemed different from the last professor’s serious manner. She was encouraging and more carefree. She also was much younger than the other professors.
When most of the class had begun to fill up the room, she turned to the class and said, “You guys ready? Today is an exciting day.”
“Why? What’s today?” A bold student from the back shot back.
“Well,” the professor said, “Today we are taking a field trip.”
“A field trip? To where?” Another student asked.
The class had a lot more of a casual tone. Here the students spoke freely without being called upon. The lab tables around them seemed to encourage exploration and activity in a more free-flowing environment than a lecture hall.
The professor said, “In this class, we are going to be much more hands-on by applying theories and concepts to the real world. Toward that, today we are going to visit the mage festival held in a town to the south of here. That will be a good way to start off the semester since we will be taking a lot of trips to the realm throughout the class.”
The mage festival in town? Ardwyn wondered. Was that the same festival where he had visited the market square and met Thornewood?
The professor continued, “We are going to open up a portal to the town outside of the Academy’s gates since the Academy’s rules are very clear about prohibiting opening any portals within Academy grounds.”
“Why is that?” another student from the back asked.
“Just a safety precaution,” she said. “That way someone doesn’t half haphazardly open up a portal and have something unwanted come through. Could cause a lot of chaos.”
Ardwyn’s mind flashed back to the ogres coming through the portal. Flynn and Myriel’s expressions turned serious as well, they must have been recollecting the incident as well.
“Once everyone arrives we will head out the back, just some ways from here, over the mountain pass,” she said. “We’ll open a portal then and proceed from there. We can get some fresh air as well. This class usually runs three hours, but sometimes we might stay longer if we get wrapped up with any complications while we are venturing across the realm. Again, this is Practical Magic I, so just basic stuff. We won’t be fighting any dragons here. Not until Practical Magic II perhaps, which I highly encourage you to take, which I am teaching next semester as well.” She smiled in a cute way as a sign of encouragement.
“Speaking of fighting dragons,” the professor said, “the mage festival we will visit today is held in celebration of the time that the town was saved from dragons by some of the very mages from our own Academy.”
The town was saved from dragons. Ardwyn thought to himself. Could it be the same town, where the herbalist at the market stand gave him the Ethereal Blossoms? If so, he could seek out the herbalist and ask her if she had any other Ethereal Blossoms available or at least find out where she had obtained them from.
Ardwyn felt the excitement rush over him. Maybe he could find a way to get home after all with the Ethereal Blossoms being the key to opening the Nexus portal.