Aida had already put in her order at the counter (Bovine in a Spa, which she chose primarily for its humorous name) when the bell rang to signal dinner. Her plan was to bring her dinner to her room, so that she could eat while continuing her skim of Beginner Water Techniques, and hopefully avoid spending time with the rest of the student body by pleading sick if Sue came calling.
However, she saw Ezra sitting quietly in a corner booth, his food mostly untouched and clearly cooled. He was intently examining something in his hand, and seemed to be emanating a silvery aura that kept anyone else from entering his sphere. Ironically, the silvery aura also seemed to draw several fangirls along its periphery, all of them huddling together to whisper and gaze at him with sparkling eyes.
Aida hesitated, her tray in her hands. Nodding resolutely to herself, she stepped towards Ezra’s booth, scattering the fangirls in her wake.
“Do you mind if I sit here?” Aida asked, feeling the girls’ resentment burning at her back. Ezra glanced up, closing his long fingers over the objects in his hand. His silver eyes pierced hers briefly—albeit deeply—before he nodded.
Muffled shrieks of outrage burst in the background as Aida slid into the booth. Ezra seemed unconcerned, but Aida was worried about painting another target on her back. Praying that this conversation could proceed as quickly and painlessly as possible, she cleared her throat.
“Thank you again for teaching me how to circulate my mana earlier. I have a question about how to make my training more efficient.” Aida hesitated, glancing at the girls who had begun crowding closer to the table. Ezra followed her gaze, and at his look the girls faded back to the unspoken boundary they had been hovering around before.
“I’ve been - reviewing - the texts for how to perform Mana Blast and Mana Cycling exercises, but I’ve noticed that they seem to be treated as entirely separate exercises. Is it possible to perform Mana Blast and Mana Circulation together?”
Ezra raised a perfect eyebrow. “Explain.”
“Mana Blast releases mana that’s already in the body, and Mana Cycling improves the efficiency of mana flow in the body, which also improves mana recovery. Mana is recovered by food, rest, and to some degree, absorbing mana that is circulating in the natural world. Blasting mana doesn’t mean mana is destroyed, it just means it gets returned to the natural world in order to maintain balance,” Aida recited. “Is it possible to focus Circulation so that you can recapture your own mana?”
Ezra’s eyes flickered, and he leaned forward. “How did you come to this conclusion?”
“I…reread the theory in Introduction to Mana and Management, and thought about how Mana Cycling looked - felt - like when you were showing me how you did it.” Aida didn’t realize how close her face was to Ezra’s. She had unconsciously mirrored Ezra’s movements, and now she was captured in his bright eyes. Her voice had also dipped to a murmur, following Ezra’s lead. With huge effort, Aida blinked and pushed herself back into an upright position, forcing her voice to return to its natural volume. “So, is it possible?”
Ezra remained leaning forward for a few seconds, easily ignoring the distracting humming from the girls in the background. His gaze flickered between her eyes, as if he didn’t believe she was being serious. Finally, he pushed himself back and released a breath of air, scooping his hair back from his eyes. Aida heard swooning.
“It is possible, but it’s not as straightforward as you make it out to be. I’m not saying it’s dangerous,” Ezra added, misinterpreting the slump in Aida’s shoulders. “It’s a perfectly viable training exercise for intermediate-level mages, but…well…”
“You doubt my ability to execute that exercise,” Aida finished for him, grinning half-heartedly. “I understand. Honest question: how would you rate the ability level of the rest of our peers?”
A ghost of a smirk flitted across Ezra’s face. “Certainly not intermediate.”
“And your own?”
“Advanced.”
When Aida continued to stare at him, Ezra relented. “Advanced in theoretical knowledge and understanding, but…intermediate in execution.”
Aida grinned. “What about Levi Ashet, Caleb Tulver, and Suelina Heslia?”
Ezra lifted his eyes to the ceiling; a polite way of rolling his eyes. “They’re all roughly the same, but each is held back by their own preconceptions.”
“Preconceptions?” Aida probed. Ezra’s words sounded arrogant on their own, but his delivery made him sound…legitimate?
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“Levi Ashet’s interest in magic is purely motivated by helping his family achieve prominence.” Ezra’s words dripped with disdain. “I don’t know much about Caleb Tulver or Suelina Heslia’s families, but from what I’ve seen in classes, they are comfortable following what the texts and instructors say about magic theory and application, and have expressed no further interest in exploring the subtleties and exceptions to our curriculum.” Ezra’s silver lashes lowered, and he gazed at Aida from underneath hooded lids. “If I may ask…why are you asking these kinds of questions?”
Aida carefully fished out a morsel of meat, placing it on a small spoonful of rice before delivering it to her mouth. She chewed carefully, thinking through how much she should reveal.
In her previous life, she had worked with many coworkers lacking integrity. One of the most valuable lessons she had learned from them was that the ones who got caught were ones who wove too many lies together, and therefore left too many threads to keep track of, making it only a matter of time before someone decided to inconveniently expose them.
Likewise, the ones who were really good at lying and getting out of unpleasant responsibilities were ones who told the truth - vague truths in the moment to establish a framework, so that when questioned later, they could fill in details as necessary. Truthful frameworks with enough of a structure that it would be easy to remember what the intended lie was, but not so many concrete details that could flag anybody’s attention if the later story didn’t match.
Aida swallowed before gazing into Ezra’s eyes. This time she wasn’t affected by the striking young man in front of her. “It might be difficult for you to believe, but I found a reason to care about my future with my magic.”
Ezra held her gaze for a long moment - or was it only a few seconds? - before he nodded, acknowledging her statement. “I don’t think you’ll be able to successfully pull off the Circulation Blast exercise, but there might be a couple exercises you can do that can help you build up to it.” He paused, thinking. “What are you doing these restdays?”
“Ah…I didn’t have anything planned,” Aida replied, unable to keep her heart from skipping a beat.
Ezra nodded. “If you have time on Sun’s morning, meet me at the fork where the road splits for Shale Port and Buddington Town. I’ll show you how to do the exercises that will let you do Circulation Blast…eventually.” Ezra unfolded himself from the booth, towering over Aida. “Let’s meet at dawn.”
Shocked by her good fortune, Aida could only nod. Before Ezra took more than two steps away, she blurted after him. “Do I have to bring anything?”
Ezra stopped, looking over his shoulder at her. “Just your wand. And keep practicing your Mana Circulation.”
Aida nodded mutely after his tall form, despite him not even turning around to acknowledge her response. Only a few girls remained to cast dirty looks at Aida; the rest of the girls had drifted after Ezra, with a couple bolder girls skipping up to him and offering to take his tray for him.
Focusing back on her food, she methodically started chewing, barely registering how tender and flavorful the meat stew was. Thinking back to the notebooks and class schedule she reviewed, she knew she had four more days before Sun’s day, the first day of this world’s weekend (they also referred to a single week as one “star cycle,” and a month as one “moon cycle”), arrived. Four more days before she would meet with Ezra, and four more days for her to get a better grasp on her magic and geography so she could pass as a local.
Aida peeked at her mana and elemental levels, and was pleased to see that she had replenished the majority of her pool levels, and her mana was just a few ticks away from being full; indeed, she was feeling quite good physically.
Finishing her meal in a much more cheerful mood than she had been in all day, Aida dodged the chattering groups of students to deposit her tray and cutlery at the dining hall’s dish dropoff.
Before Aida took the staircase that led to the girls’ wing, she looked out the window and paused. The sun was inching towards the horizon, but there was probably still an hour or so left before it got dark…and the sooner Aida familiarized herself with the grounds, the easier it would be to slip into Maglica Academy’s student life.
Making her decision, Aida turned towards the door next to the staircase, exiting the central building that housed general services: teacher’s lounge, classrooms, the healer’s room, main library, and of course, the cafeteria.
The rear of the building (the side she was on now) was facing due north, and there were several paths snaking between a copse of trees. Rising above the trees a fair distance away was an expansive set of mountains, its stony fingers stretching towards the sky as if to wave the sun farewell. Aida could see snow still tucked between the crags at the top.
Aida took a deep breath, enjoying the fresh air. She had gone camping once as a child - at least, her parents told her she was going camping. Really, they just brought her to her godparents’ house and set up a small tent in their backyard, hanging a tarp over a line stretched between two fences. They also put down another layer of tarp below the “tent” to lay her pillow and blankets on. Annie was too young to argue that wasn’t camping, especially since the adults set up a small grill in front of her “campsite” and held a small barbecue party, complete with hot dogs and s’mores. After dinner, they handed her a small flashlight (they convinced her it was a lantern by tying a string to the handle so she could dangle it like a real lantern), promised they would keep the backyard light off, and bade her goodnight.
Young Annie had been excited for all of two minutes before she realized camping wasn’t much better than going to bed in her bedroom. It was too dark to do anything; there were no shooting stars to make a wish on, and she could only stargaze for so long (she knew constellations existed, but she didn’t know how to identify any); and she didn’t bring any toys or books, which made the flashlight useless. The biggest thing Annie missed from “camping” was the smell of plants and soil at night. There was something so calming about flora at night. The cool dampness of the night air seemed to trigger the plants to release some sort of wet scent: musky, but not foul like the smell of urine that would float up to her window at home in the city. Annie had the most peaceful and restful sleep that night, and woke up to the chirps of birds.
Shaking her head to clear her reverie, Annie chose the path directly in front of her, following it into the trees.