As the weeks passed, I set into a repetitive daily schedule. For 6 days every week, it would be breakfast, theory, lunch, practical and non-magic classes, and then dinner. At the end of the day I would have free time, and I usually spent that time strolling around with Arnav and Chris, or I would have so much work that I’d go to the library or my room. I often saw Mason in the library- actually, besides mandatory assignments like classes, that was the only place I saw him anymore. I assumed that when I couldn’t find him, he’d probably be in the library.

Over these weeks, we had been practicing more and more magic. Increasing the power of spells had been tricky, but I eventually got it. Luckily, it seemed like control over mana output was something you only needed to learn once, which made my future look much easier.

To further our education in defensive spells, we had learned dash and flashfire.

Dash, triggered by ta, was the first spell we learned that was best suited for wind users like myself. All it did was boost you in a direction of your choosing, but Mr. Donnel explained that it was extremely useful for dodging attacks. Putting more mana into the dash allowed you to move faster, which I found to be much simpler than controlling mana with barrier. Overall, I liked dash the most out of the three defensive spells we were taught, partly because of my natural affinity for wind and partly because it caused the lowest mana drain.

Flashfire, triggered by salai, was a spell that created a bright, distracting fire away from you. Unfortunately for Chris, it was impossible for any element to be substituted in this spell, meaning that water users like him were out of luck. Mr. Donnel told us that it was more useful against beasts than people, but I wouldn’t be able to confirm that for a while. There was no substitute element, leading to many complaints from Chris during the week that we practiced it.

Now that we had been taught defense, offense naturally came next. Also to be clear- I call these spells offensive because it’s the easiest way to categorize them. However, many offensive spells are useful for other purposes as well, like splash being used to put out a fire. Speaking of spalsh…

Our first offensive spell we learned was kasi, the most basic attack spell. The spell varies by element, with the fire version known as fireball. The earth verison was named boulder, wind was gale and the water version was named splash. The class got pretty excited to learn it after seeing Mr. Donnel’s example, which had left a patch of burnt grass in its wake.

I had actually found the spell to be pretty easy to do, since it was basically just a fire summon and then throwing the spirits at the target. Despite that, it was pretty interesting to see the flames that shot at the target. This spell could definitely be used for some destruction.

The time we spent on each spell was decreasing every week. We had spent two weeks learning just summon, but each offensive spell had only one week dedicated to it by now. While this was partly justified by having a deeper understanding of magic and thus being able to master spells quicker, the extra workload was getting to all of us. Plus, it didn’t help that all the spells were gradually becoming harder. While I used to have my evenings free and could spend my off day doing whatever I wished, now I was forced to work for at least an hour after dinner. My off days were spent solely on practicing magic.

And thus, weeks of blurry work passed by, leaving only technical knowledge and sporadic scenes in my memory.

Where I am today is largely because of a couple moments where I was in just the right place for something important to happen to me, though whether those things were good or bad was left up to chance. As it turned out, one of these important events, or at least an event that led to one of the important ones, was what it took to get me out of this blurry state.

Me, Arnav, and Chris were walking over to the open field where practical magic class took place. It was almost halfway through the school year, and it was gradually getting colder. Winter seemed to come later in the year down south in the capital, but I figured that it would come eventually.

I was very used to this path by now, and that combined with a very interesting debate over whether dash was better than barrier led to me not looking in front of me as I walked. This in turn caused me to unexpectedly bump into someone at the field. Looking up, I realized that I had just walked into one of Victor’s followers from class A.

“Sorry.” I quickly apologized, hoping to avoid attention.

We hadn’t seen much of Victor for a while. His efforts of harassment had mostly been targeted at Mason, and since I didn’t see Mason much anymore encounters with Victor had gone down too. Anyways, it seemed that Victor had been losing interest in Mason recently, so all in all our relationship with Victor was a good, uneventful state.

Looking around, I realized that it wasn’t just Victor who was here, but all of the kids from class A. I asked Arnav about it, but he didn’t know anything either. Thankfully, Mr. Donnel would clear it up soon.

“Class, you might notice that the class A kids are here today. Since their teacher is out because of sickness, they’ll be joining our class this week. Nothing will change because of this, and we’ll continue practicing as usual.” He announced, clearing up my confusion. He continued: “Today’s spell, arrow, is extremely difficult because of how concentrated the spirits need to be for the spell to work. This high concentration is difficult to hold and aim, but mastery over it is probably the single best way to push through a barrier spell or a thick monster hide. Now watch as I demonstrate:”

Instead of just performing the spell immediately, Mr. Donnel first used barrier and held it a ways away from him. I would’ve never even considered doing that simply because of the mana drain that it would’ve caused on me, but I figured that someone like Mr. Donnel could handle the drain.

“Agnis noul- arrow!” The resulting arrow left a medium-sized hole in the barrier where it had punched through.

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The class immediately got to practicing with enthusiasm.

Class that week had three important effects.

Firstly, I (and much of the class too) realized that arrow was extremely difficult. I spoke the incantation, but I simply couldn’t figure out how to hold the spirits so close together. The closer they got, the more they seemed to repel each other. It took me 3 days of hard practicing to make something that even slightly resembled an arrow appear, let alone master the spell.

Secondly, the week revealed to me exactly why class A, or nobles in general, were considered superior. They didn’t master the spell quicker or anything, but once they had, the difference was obvious. Their spells were more intense, had more power, and could shoot faster. In short, their reserves of mana were far superior.

Third and most important, arrow provided a clear example on how good Mason was at spellcasting. By the first day, he had figured out how to create the arrow. By day two he was onto shooting it at a set target. For comparison, only a handful of other students from both classes combined had started to summon arrow-shaped configurations of spirits.

This had the unfortunate effect of earning Mason the ire of many class A students, Victor in particular. If he had once forgotten about Mason, he definitely remembered him now.

Four days into the week, arrow was driving me crazy. The frustration of learning arrow was too much, and when it came up in our daily dinner conversation, I decided to vent my frustration.

“So, how far did you guys get with arrow today?” Arnav asked. I knew that he probably didn't mean to annoy me, but the fact was that I was envious of their progress. From my observations, Arnav had mastered arrow with fire already, and Chris was already working on increasing his mana input.

“I still have barely any progress in the spell.” I complained. “How did you figure it out?? Whenever I try the spirits just start to repel each other and break apart- it’s annoying as hell.”

Rants and complaints weren’t uncommon in our group, but usually I wasn’t the one making them. Arnav and Chris looked a little surprised, but it was actually Mason who was the one that responded.

“In the library, there's a book titled A Beginner’s Guide to Fire. You should read it.”

Mason didn’t talk much, but we had learned that when he did give advice, it was best that we take it. So far, it has been extremely useful.

“Well, I guess your problem is as good as gone then.” Chris remarked.

It might sound weird, but this actually did tend to be the case with Mason’s advice. At the least, I definitely felt better about my situation now.

After dinner, I went with Mason to the academy library.

A Beginner’s Guide to Fire turned out to be a pretty small and uninteresting book, which was reflected by the checkout card of the book. Apparently less than a dozen people had ever checked this book out, even though the book dated back over a century. The last name on the checkout card was Mason’s, who had checked it out a couple weeks before.

Despite its unpopularity, the book definitely was useful. It extended on Mrs. Genia’s teachings, revealing new information rather than rehashing information that was already learned.

I remained in the library until the closing bell. Having only read a fraction of the book, I decided to check it out for further reading.

Since Mason had also stayed until the closing bell, I decided to walk with him. The colder weather had also brought in the shorter days of winter, and the sun had set a while ago. It was already getting colder during the day, but now it was genuinely chilly. I found myself wishing that the academy allowed for more freedom regarding clothing.

We had almost made it back to the dormitory when we ran into Victor and his group. It was unusual for them to just be sitting around late in the cold, so I was on edge the moment they appeared. Rightly so, as it turned out.

“So, the library boy finally decided to come back!” Victor teased.

“You think you’re better than us?” One of his followers added.

By now, all parties had their wands out. I was worried- earlier demonstrations of class A’s power were still fresh in my memory. I shook my head, trying to diffuse the situation. Mason remained stoic, though I couldn’t tell if it was out of shock or anger.

“Smart choice, commoner. You can leave now if you don’t wanna get hurt.” Victor said mockingly. His wand was now in an attack position.

“What happens to Mason?”

“That guy needs to be taught a lesson. Now move.”

I hesitated, but ultimately decided to stay. It may have been naive, I didn’t want to just leave Mason. A moment passed, and suddenly it wasn’t my decision anymore.

“Deva hest- spear!” Victor had run out of patience.

“Evais catur- barrier!” Mason was quick to counter while I was still surprised at the escalation.

The following interaction between Victor’s spear and Mason’s barrier was extremely interesting. Victor’s spear was much larger and more menacing, clearly taking advantage of the larger mana pool Victor could draw from. Mason’s defensive barrier was much smaller and more streamlined, but was effective at stopping the spear of water Victor had launched at us.

Upon contact, the water pushed against the earth, losing power as it did so. I saw an unusual wave of emotion cross Mason’s face, but that soon disappeared, as did the water.

Victor’s followers looked as if they were going to launch their own spells at us, but were stopped by Victor.

“Don’t. I got this.”

The next spear of water he created was much larger than the first one, and I could feel the power it radiated. It slammed into Mason’s barrier, and the two spells were deadlocked for maybe two seconds. It felt longer than that on my end.

Two seconds after impact, Mason’s barrier started to crack.I channeled my own mana into the barrier, trying to reinforce it. With my help, Victor’s spear was stalled.

There was a brief pause in the fight, in which I decided that I’d try to attack Victor. Looking back, that was a pretty dumb move.

“Agnis kasi- fireball!”

“Deva catur- barrier!”

The fireball, which was as strong as I could make it, disappeared harmlessly after coming into contact with Victor’s barrier.

The look on his face… it wasn’t pretty.

The entire group began preparing their own spells. However, they were stopped by Victor yet again.

Victor began chanting for the third time. This time, something about his expression looked different- I could tell that he wasn’t playing around this time.

The spear crashed into Mason’s shield. After a second, Mason’s shield broke as he ran out of mana. I cast my own shield, but it broke instantly after meeting Victor’s spear.

The spear hit Mason dead on, knocking him back and into the air. The spear didn’t hit me directly, but it was still enough to knock me over. I gasped for breath as the wind was knocked out of me.

I don’t know if Victor and his cronies would’ve continued if a teacher hadn’t come to interrupt us. Victor certainly didn’t look tired, while Mason and I were both completely out of mana.

It was lucky for us that a teacher came to check out the commotion, preventing any further violence from happening. We were beat up and soaking wet, while Victor and his group were standing triumphantly over their victory. It must’ve been quite the scene, and I figured that a punishment for Victor was soon coming. After all, student to student violence was strictly forbidden at the academy.

I was naive, and I was wrong.