The first primal creatures encountered by men on Kaltis were discovered during the Age of Wonders. At the time, they were not classified as anything other than magical creatures. The extensive research and exploration conducted by the Midlian Empire discovered and classified the primal subset of magical creatures while studying stable Primordials in their conquered lands. At the discovery, the Empire forcibly relocated villages to these Primordials to observe the effects on sapient beings, but the Empire fell before the experiment could yield fruit.

Lidian’s Manual to Magical Fauna, 283rd ed

—

Eight o’clock in the morning found three hungover students mushing food around their plates in silence, and one gloating dwarf, seated in the dining hall of the art college. Rakin had navigated them back to campus, where Kole had said goodbye, and ran around a building before turning invisible and running to the library. His food stash had been disturbed by his rodent friend once more, but he’d passed out without noticing.

Kole stared at his breakfast unable to eat and contemplated taking one of his clarity potions to at least banish the headache. Only the recent revelation about their apparent price stayed his hand.

“I’m never drinking again,” Amara moaned.

Gus sat in her lap, somehow looking as pathetic as his master.

“Is Gus hungover too?” Zale asked, voice full of concern.

“No, he’s just understands the pain I’m in and feels bad.”

They eventually all forced down their food, and drank extra cups of coffee—or tea in Rakin’s case. While he wasn’t hungover, they’d gotten back quite late and the dwarf was as tired as any of them. Coffee, it seemed, was also on the list of foods and drinks the monks of his order avoided.

* * *

"Just this way. We're almost there," Zale told the group for at least the third time. They were navigating the bowels of the art college, passing room after room of statues and paintings collecting dust.

"Here it is!" Zale exclaimed, walking through a door into a room filled with Seafolk instruments that only worked underwater.

“Finally,” groaned Rakin.

They made their way through the instruments to a door on the far end of the room, hidden from view behind a free-standing dressing mirror covered in a sheet.

“Why the secrecy?” Kole asked when Zale scanned the room before opening the door.

“Um, no reason.” Zale lied terribly.

“I think she’s lying,” Amara whispered loudly to Kole.

“We know,” Rakin and Kole said in unison.

“There’s nothing to worry about,” Zale said and walked into the door, ending the discussion.

The room beyond was certainly not in the basement of the art college. It was similar to the adventuring class training room in a lot of ways, but both smaller and more ornate. The room was round, with a few doors along the walls, but where the walls of the other classroom were bare, these were set with stained glass windows of battles and scenes of the gods from the creation of Kaltis. One portion of the wall was covered with a slate, and had a dozen or so desks in front of it, while the rest was dedicated to training, with sand pits, target dummies, weapons, and anything one might need to train in combat martial or magical.

“Woah,” Kole and Amara said together.

Rakin let out an exasperated sigh.

“Why’d you put the door all the way down here!? We coulda gotten here from anywhere!”

“Wait, what?” Kole asked, “What do you mean, where are we?”

“We’re in the Dahn,” Zale said with a grin, “Not all of it is open to the public.”

“You can move the—“ Kole began to ask when a voice cut them off.

“Azalea dear! You brought friends!”

All eyes turned to a woman standing in the center of the room—a spot that had been empty a moment before when Kole had taken it all in.

“Azalea?” Kole whispered.

Zale’s—or “Azalea’s” apparently—face began to darken in embarrassment.

“This is my mother. Mom, these are my friends Kole and Amara.”

“So nice to finally meet you all! My darling Zale has told me very little about you. I’m Headmistress Shalia, but you can all call me Lia.”

“Please don’t,” Zale whispered, with her hand rubbing on her forehead.

Zale’s mother sighed and added in a bored tone “Or, ’Professor Shalia’, I suppose. Come sit, and let's get to know each other. We are waiting for two more students, but one seems to have gotten lost on his way to the city, so we won’t be waiting for him.”

They all moved to the desks, and before they reached them, another door in the room burst open and was quickly slammed shut. A tall, athletic girl stood, back pushed against the door, holding it shut as something banged on the back.

“What the flood Lia?!” the newcomer cursed as she gasped for breath.

“Ah, there she is now,” Shalia said “I would like to introduce you all to my apprentice Runt.”

The banging grew quiet, and Runt cautiously took her back off the door and walked over to the group.

“You never said anything about shadow hounds.”

“True,” Shalia replied, “But, I never said anything about there not being shadow hounds. You really need to learn to ask more questions.”

“You never answer my questions!”

“Well you should ask better questions,” Shalia said.

Up close, Kole saw that ’Runt’ was six feet tall, and looked to be stronger than Zale. She had long brown hair tied into a braid down her back. She wore black leather pants and a matching sleeveless tunic that had the top few toggles undone. Her arms and the area below her neck bore the black outlines of a half-finished tattoo.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Ehem,” Runt gave an exagerated cough. “My eyes are up here.”

“I—um,” Kole sputtered, turning red. “I was looking at your tattoos.”

“Fah, another one,” Runt said disappointed, looking at Zale whose own unique blushing had only grown deeper.

“Well, let's get started then,” Shalia told the group.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Uncle?” Zale asked.

“You know what it’s like to wait for that man,” Shalia answered with a heavy meaning Zale seemed to pick up on.

“You’re all here because you’re primals who, for some reason or other, have not received proper training in your Font. This group will be a time for you all to experiment with your abilities in a safe and supervised environment—if you’re into that sort of thing. Personally, I think it's more fun to learn on the job. Anyway, my… colleague—who will show up at some point, I’m sure—is something of an expert on Illusian primals. He will be here as a resource and guide for you all to better learn to wield your abilities.”

She directed each student to a desk, where paper sat with a variety of questions about them and their abilities.

“I know, I know, this is hardly exciting, but if you would all be so kind as to fill out the details of your abilities, your history of training, what you can do, and what you think you might be able to learn, this will make things easier for whenever he actually arrives.”

Rakin and Runt let out groans, but the rest got to work without complaint—save for Zale who took her mother to the side for some words. Kole watched as Zale spoke frustratedly at her mother, who simply took it with a smile and a nod.

Kole filled out the paper truthfully, giving a rundown of all that he could do all that he had tried. Most of his writing revolved around his trouble with wizardry, but he did mention his ability to turn invisible, its growth from a camouflage spell, and his other ability to make others ignore items.

After writing their papers, the group was given time to talk alone while Professor Shalia went to “find that bookish moron.”

“So, what's your uncle like?” Kole asked, and then added “Or, I don’t know, his name?”

Zale had a lot of “aunts” and “uncles” she spoke of frequently, but she wasn’t equally open about each of them and Kole had never gotten the name of most.

Zale gave an overly large smile, signaling to Kole that she was about to dodge the question.

“He’s pretty bookish, but I wouldn’t call him a moron.”

“You wouldn’t feel that way if you’ve seen him try to talk a town into abandoning their homes in advance of a coming horde of trolls,” the professor called from across the room, entering from a door she’d not left through.

Behind her walked an athletic-looking man of average height, dressed in a less formal version of the loose-fitting clothing the storm caller of the ship clan wore. He wore an open front tunic, but instead of tying with toggles, one side tucked inside the other and a belt held it all shut. While the storm callers wore sleeves, tied at the wrists to keep their magics from burning their clothes, his shirt sleeves were cut short at the elbows. Kole guessed him to be in his late thirties or early forties, but for some reason, he was having difficulty getting a sense for his age. He looked healthy and fit, in a not-particularly-muscular way, but had streaks of gray in his brown hair.

The man sighed, and then said with the air of an oft-repeated excuse, “Burning the town down with the trolls trapped was a good idea!”

“Class, this is…” Shalia gestured to the man and trailed off.

“Mage Tallen,” he finished for her. “I’m going to be popping in from time to time to assist you kids.”

For some reason, both Zale and her mother let out a small chuckle at his comment, though Kole couldn’t see the humor in it. The laughs drew a wide smile from the mage, and Shalia quickly stomped down on her own. Kole could tell he was missing some context for all of these interactions and it was beginning to annoy him.

“Well, your daughter thinks I’m funny at least.”

“Mage Tallen?” Amara asked uncertainly.

“Yes? And you are…?”

“Oh Amara, um Understanding primal Amara? I mean…” Amara sputtered, flustered by having all the attention of even this small gathering. “Are you a professor? A master?”

“Oh, that. No problem Amara—can I just call you Amara?”

He asked the last with a small grin, and when Amara nodded, he continued.

“I’m not a professor at the academy, but I’m, you could say, affiliated with the Dahn itself. I prefer the title of mage. You know, the first to use the title mages were the sorcerers who discovered the art of wizardry. It was reserved for only the most powerful of casters. After the Flood, the title got appropriated by the Tower and it came to refer to any wizard. As something of a ’traditionalist,’ I prefer to use that title. Honorifics like ’Grand Master’ and ’Archmage’ just feel so pretentious, don’t you think?”

Kole was a bit taken aback by the explanation. The titles of wizards were earned through years of study and toil. For this “mage” to just cast them aside for the antiquated term was odd. Could this man be weak? Ashamed of only being an Adept at the age of somewhere over 40? Or… could he be humble?

Kole had learned that Grand Master Lonin was the most powerful mage of the Dahn, and one of the most powerful of Basin. He’d not heard of this Tallen in his research into potential mentors, but from what Zale said he was a new arrival.

“So, let's get introduced, and you can show me what you can do.”

While he asked to be shown what everyone could do, Mage Tallen seemed to already know. Kole checked and saw all their papers still sat uncollected on the desks where they’d left them.

Was he spying on us?

Amara went first and demonstrated her ability to guide her ants to carve patterns. She also introduced him to Gus, and showed her how they could work together without communicating.

“Fascinating,” he said as Amara drew something that Gus was looking at. He turned to Zale and asked, “That reminds, me, did you ever get rid of those pack rats?”

“No,” Kole found himself answering before he realized it.

“Oh good. They began to grow on me. You must be Kole. Why don’t you demonstrate what you can do next.”

“Alright,” Kole agreed.

He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a quill, holding it out in his palm for everyone to see, but Willing them not to notice it with his primal abilities. He stood there still for a few moments until everyone began to wonder what was happening. At that point, he could sense as their attention tried to fix itself on the hidden quill, and his Will began to drain slowly from him. Then, he let the ability lapse, and all their eyes locked onto the quill.

“Where did that come from?” Zale asked, “Did you Conjure it?”

“No, I pulled it from my pocket, but I used the Font of Illusions to make you not notice it.”

“I could find a use or two for that,” Runt said. “What else can you do?”

Kole turned invisible, and Runt cursed.

“Well, that’s not flooding fair. Mage Tallen, do you think there's a way to trade primal abilities? I think I want his.”

“Don’t get distracted by the shiny magic dear,” Shalia interjected. “The real magic is convincing people they want to give you the things you take from them.”

“Anything else?” Tallen asked, bringing them back on topic.

“I can cast a few spells, but it's difficult. I struggle to open gates.”

“Oh, I see,” he said, not asking any of the follow-ups that Kole anticipated. “Whose next?”

They each went in turn, showing what they could do. As they went on, Kole felt a little cheated. For everyone else, Tallen had given some advice on ways to proceed, had offered tips, provided feedback on their current plans, and asked for elaborations, but when Kole had gone, he’d hardly seemed interested.

“Each of you should begin to work on building your mental vault if you have not done so already,” he said after Runt had demonstrated how she could walk up a wall, hands and feet adhering to the surfaces as she drew upon the Font of Bonds. “The mental vault is extremely useful, even for those with no magic to their name. For you all, it will be invaluable. If you do have a vault, we will discuss next week how you can use it. For now, work on what we discussed and I’ll see you all next week.”

What? Thats it?

Kole opened his mouth to protest, but then the man vanished, teleporting away. He stood, mouth agape, wondering what had just happened. He’d thought this man, this alleged primal expert would be able to help his—his veritable whale fall. But instead, he’d basically ignored him and then left without giving him any aid.

He collected himself—closing his mouth—and turned to Zale.

“That wasn’t very helpful.”

“I’m sorry,” she said in a low tone, the rest of the group was working on some of the items Tallen had suggested, and Zale had stood by Kole, having not received any additional feedback either. “I don’t know why he ignored you like that. He’s usually very helpful. He loves teaching.”

“You know that makes me feel worse, not better, right?”

“Sorry!” she repeated. “I’m sure next week will be better.”

“Class dismissed!” Professor Shalia shouted. “Girls, come along. I have a weekend trip planned for us.”

Zale and Runt both let out simultaneous groans and whoops of excitement respectively.

“I’m sorry Kole. Really. I’ll see you Monday. I have to go embarrass myself, or help Runt do something stupid.”

“Stay as long as you like,” Shalia told the others as she ushered her daughter and student out.

They left through a door that opened to a nondescript hall, Zale giving an apologetic wave as she closed it behind her and mouthed ’sorry’ yet again.