I sighed as I passed my student slate over the entry to the common area and stepped in.

The moment I was in, I froze and let out a mental sigh. I didn’t let it touch my face.

“Hello Jackson,” I said with a smile.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like the man. He was just… A lot to deal with at times. I wondered if the tree had been the one to arrange this.

Jackson leapt off the couch, where he’d been studying some papers, and bounded over, pulling me into a hug. I endured it, not liking the sudden touch, but knowing Jackson meant no harm. After he let me go, I took in the room.

Plain gray stone floors, drab gray walls, accented by a ratty gray couch, pair of old gray chairs, and a gray table that was so flimsy that a stern look from Jackson would have made it start falling apart.

It was rectangular, and though I thought it was spacious, I had also just spent months cramped on a ship, and years stowing away wherever I could fit. The entire room was lit ambiently in a very natural feeling way, despite the fact that there weren’t any windows or visible weirlights, just light coming from everywhere and nowhere at all.

On the opposite side of the living area, behind the couch, was a set of doors. They were the nicest thing in the room by far, sturdy hardwood, with a brushed brass handle sitting next to a mail slot.

Above the slot was a plaque embossed with a name. Mine was third from the left, Emrys of White Sands, and Jackson Uyer’s to the right of it. The door on the left side of my room read ‘Salem Alderson’, and the furthest from me said ‘Wesley Illinor’.

I had a moment of surprise that Yushin wasn’t there, until I remembered that her mother had an ally in the city who was going to shelter Yushin.

“Pretty crappy, but they change,” Jackson said. “Have you met the other two?”

“I just got back from the tailors, this is the first time I’ve even seen the rooms,” I admitted.

“Well, alright then!” Jackson said. “Mysteries upon mysteries. For right now, though? Here!”

He maneuvered through the furniture, back to his room, then stepped in. Opening the door didn’t reveal anything on the other side, just more of the spinning silver mist that made up the cloud.

A privacy feature? Or something else?

I spun a bit of ether out, waved my hand in a delicate, spider-like fashion, then mumbled a short string of words of power. An instant later, the room glowed. Everything in the room except the papers that Jackson had left on the couch, was an etheric construct, conjuration magic.

Well, that certainly explained a few things.

Jackson stepped out of his room, and around him I could see the glow of his ether, augmented by twisting etheric gifts from his god, completely unsuppressed, blasting out into the world. That just felt sloppy – I was certain ethersight wouldn’t show anything at all about Yushin.

Ethersight wasn’t a potent enough divination to tell me more than that he had a bit of divinity and magecraft, though, and even if he wasn’t hiding, it was still rude to look, so I cut the flow of ether off.

Jackson picked his way through the furniture slowly, so his muscles didn’t crash into anything, then passed me the paper he’d gone into his room to retrieve.

“Team sign up sheet for Applied Mage Combat,” he said, “Yushin already signed up.”

I glanced it over, noting that this sheet had you create a team of four, since many classes would require default groups. The groups would be swapped around for some excercises, of course, but mages often worked in tight knit groups, or even established formal magical covens. If four people didn’t sign it, the rest would be placed randomly, until everyone was in a group.

Sure enough, Yushin and Jackson had both signed the sheet, and I took a moment to think it over.

I hadn’t seen Jackson’s combat skills in person, but as a fire affinity mage with a divine boon empowering his flame, he should be powerful on offense, so long as he wasn’t completely incompetent. His brawn also couldn’t be entirely for show.

That would combine well with Yushin’s demonic serpent bloodline, and her interest in stealth spells.

Frankly, I likely brought the least to the team. Oh, sure, in theory I was probably able to outspeed Yushin and outmuscle Jackson, but that would rely on tapping into my bloodline. Magically, I was a grab bag of random spells with no distinct focus.

Well, if they were willing to bet on me, I’d bet on them. I signed my name.

“Awesome!” Jackson said. “I’m going to–”

He was interrupted by the door opening and someone striding into the room.

The man who strode in was already in one of the basic uniform options, a navy blue overcoat, white button down shirt, and tan slacks. His coat had the seal of the university on it, the pure yellow color marking him as being truly a third circle spellcaster.

He was handsome, in his way, with the kind of polished-yet-rough look that reminded me of a soldier. His skin was darker than mine, but lighter than Jackson’s, and his brown eyes looked like he was used to scowling. He was clean shaven, and had his silver hair was shorn short, revealing his slightly pointed half-elven ears.

His smell was… Strange. I’d met half-elves before, of course, and they tended to be less odious than a full human, but less floral than a full elf, resulting in their default stench almost being like a perfumed human. This man smelled like salt and sand and sea, though, more like a selkie or a merfolk.

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The moment he strode in, he glanced over the two of us, then spoke. His voice was stern, but quiet, as if he expected anyone who heard him to listen well.

“I am Wesley Illnor. You will not knock on my door unless it is dire. You will keep the common space clean. I will extend these courtesies to you in exchange.”

Then he strode past both of us and into his room.

“Wow,” Jackson said. “He reminds me of Yushin.”

I stared at him.

“What?”

“He does!” Jackson protested.

“He’s a bit rude, Yushin is polite,” I pointed out.

“Yushin is not polite,” he argued. “I like her well enough, but she is anything but polite.”

Jackson put the sign up sheet down in the stack with the rest of his and shrugged.

“I guess,” he said. “Anyways, I’ll let you get settled in. Effervesce’s light walk with you.”

“And also with you?” I guessed. It must have been close enough, because Jackson settled down onto the couch, and I headed to my room. The moment I touched the door, I felt it scan my ether, matching it to the sample I’d injected into my student card, then it opened. I stepped through the mists, and appeared in another gray stone room. There was a slender cot on one side of the room, a small chest of drawers, and a curtain that headed off into a bathroom.

On the top of the dresser there was a cream envelope with my name on it, and I eyed it as I tossed my bags down. It didn’t take me long to unpack, and then I opened my mail.

Inside was a letter from the headmaster with a copy of my scholarship contract, another map of the school and surrounding grounds, and a copy of the course selection roster.

I pulled that out and spread it over my bed. As a first year, I was required to take Fundamental Magecraft, Ethics of Magic, and Core Studies, but I also had three electives, as was outlined in my scholarship. With one of them having to be Applied Mage Combat, that left me two spaces to learn magic.

I unfolded the course list, and was staggered by the number of options available. There were well over a hundred electives I could choose from. There were the courses for the schools of magic, of course, but there were plenty of entirely non-magical options as well: archeology, poetry, economics, mathematics, natural philosophy, and more.

I eliminated those without hesitation. If I had all the time in the world, I’d have loved to take every course possible, but for right now, I needed to make practical, stable choices.

Then there were courses on other sources of power: divinities, bloodlines, life enforcement, songcalling, psykika, and destinies. I had barely even heard of that last one, but I knew a bit about the others, especially bloodlines.

It was hotly debated if other sources of power were all different, hyper-specialized types of spellcraft, or if they were their own manifestations of Etherius within the spirit and body.

My bloodline didn’t directly affect my ether pool, but I knew there were bloodlines that could, like that of a succubus. At the same time, there were spells that could improve a person’s raw physical abilities, and rituals to permanently enhance a person’s strength. Was a bloodline just an inborn ability and completion of these, with a touch of flexibility?

Psychics – or psykika, as the sheet called it, though I wasn’t sure why there was a distinction – were mostly charlatans as far as I knew, but there were those who I’d met that seemed to have a truly terrifying ability to read what I was thinking and feeling. But enchantment magic could read minds, emotions, alter emotions, and more. Were psychics just learning to innately use those spells?

The others I knew less or nothing about, but I doubted they lacked the same question, and I certainly didn’t have the answer,

I sighed and looked over the sheet as I waffled back and forth on taking the course related to bloodlines. On one hand, I couldn’t imagine my family expecting me to take a bloodline course, so I might be able to use a bit of subterfuge to hide myself better. On the other, if any course was going to accidentally reveal me to everyone, it would be that one.

I dismissed it, and then considered the others. I had no hate for the gods, but I also had no special love for them. Life enforcement could potentially be worth the time, though its tendency to empower and activate any bloodline, even latent ones, was well documented. I was certain that was why Yushin wasn’t a practitioner.

I wasn’t a good singer, though there was the comment that the orcish Erudite had made, about me being a minstrel. Still, while having a power that didn’t rely on my ether pool or bloodline was good, I wasn’t sure branching out into a third branch of power was worth it right now. I was at a spellcasting college, after all, not a life enforcement sect.

That made me look at the supplementary classes: Alchemy, Artifice, Construct Creation, Ether Manipulation, Weaponry, and Runes.

Alchemy was right out. While I was sure that there were plenty of uses for it, I was on such a tight budget that even if the potions we made in class had components provided for us, I’d not be able to replicate them outside of class. Considering potions were one use items, that made it an immediate no.

I dismissed the weapons class for the same reason that I dismissed bloodlines – I could make a good swordsman in theory, but it wasn’t the path I wanted. Even if I learned a way to use my bloodline without any risk, I wasn’t going to become a blademage. Not that I’d ignore my bloodline if I learned a way to use it safely. I just didn’t think a blademage was the route for me. Not when my small form and natural proclivity to speed could make me an incredibly mobile mage.

I wasn’t entirely clear on the difference between Artifice and Runes, so I flicked over to the paper that had a more detailed description of both.

Introduction to Artifice: The creation of magical items using parts from monsters, demons, extraplanar creations, and naturally forming magical minerals like ether crystal. While this course will begin with one use items, by the end of the first year, you will have crafted several important magic items that are bought and sold across the planet. An artificer affinity is strongly recommended for this class.

I sighed. Unless I had an artificer affinity, I’d leave that one out. I flipped to the rune entry.

Rune Magic Basics: Learn to imbue the etheric constructs formed within an ether pool into physical matter, creating natural channels for ether to flow through, much like the staff, wand, or amulet you will create in Fundamental Magecraft. While runic items can only ever replicate spells with very little flexibility, it is open to anyone, unlike artifice, which stretches the boundaries of what a spell can manage.

I put that class down as a maybe. I could see uses for having spells already worked into items for sure – adding a precharged arcane armor spell into a shirt, for example – but I didn’t want to have to rely on items for fighting, since that felt like it was begging to have the item break or be stolen. Besides, I didn’t carry much with me anyways.

Construct creation, like creating moving scarecrows, animated armor, golems, and more was interesting, but it ran into all of the problems of artifice, alchemy, and runes wrapped into one. I didn’t have access to a bucket of miracles that would let me animate a powerful golem for essentially free.

All that was left was ether manipulation, the art of shaping the ether. Jackson had argued against it in favor of raw power, but I stood by my thoughts that learning fine and delicate control was worth it in the long term.

Still, I was a decent ether manipulator already. If I had four or five courses to choose from, it would absolutely make it on the list, but I wasn’t entirely sure that working on expanding my control even further was necessarily the best use of my time.

I sighed and put it in the maybe pile, alongside the rune course. I was about to flip to the more spell-heavy courses when I heard a knock at my door.