“Huh.” I looked around, unsure what I was expecting.
“What’s wrong?”
“I wasn’t sure what I was expecting.” I said aloud, turning to look at the Director.
“Well, most classrooms have had time to be worked on by their respective professor, but given your relatively recent hire…”
“Right, barebones.” I looked around again, shrugging. “I guess I can see about picking up something for the room for tomorrow, but their won’t be anything outwardly magical that I can get my hands on in such a short period.”
“Which is most likely for the best.” The Director sighed. “Too many things associated with the arcane might spook some of the more… ‘conservative’ students who come from anti-magic households or the like.”
“It’s a magic class.” I said, deadpan.
“Yes, so teach magic in an approachable way.”
“Do you want me to baby sit, or be this amazing professor you were searching for?”
“Yes.” The Director sighed again, shaking her head. “I told you before, the classroom is a battlefield. Given that, have you drafted your battleplans yet?”
“It’s in the process.” I looked away, walking about the room as a I spoke. “I have an acquittance who I’m in the process of reaching out to who I wanted their advice on some matters.”
“Oh, you looked for external advice even when some of the most esteemed scholars in the country work here?”
I stared at her, silent.
“Good choice.”
I exhaled, relieved I’d gotten her approval of my actions. Judging what she’d already told me before about how my… welcome was likely to be, I had figured that it would be best to avoid relying on the other professors for advice when I could.
“So, anything else I should be aware of?” I questioned, admiring how even bare of obvious décor implicating my field, the room was still better furnished than most I’d seen, desks and chairs that looked as if they could have come from a museum displaying the furniture of ancient royalty.
To be fair, some of these may as well be royalty.
“Aside from your schedule?” Reaching into the pocket of her coat, the day had been surprisingly chilly, she handed me a piece of paper which I quickly examined.
Let’s see…. Huh, No classes the first day. Then only a single class the next day. Oh then three the next. That’s doable - shit.
There, staring me down on the last day of classes of the first week, was a class that had been underlined several times, and as if that wasn’t enough, it had been circled as well. Written beneath it was a single word that made my blood freeze.
Regent.
“As you’ve undoubtably noticed, based on your expression, the regent-to-be will be your final class of the week. That was done on purpose. If there is one class you would prefer to avoid mistakes in, it would be that class. If there is one person in this academy you should convince of the merits of the magical disciplines, it would be her, as the future ruler. You do understand what the means, right?”
“You’ve set me up to succeed.” I answered instantly, before lightly biting my tongue. “Or, as much as you could.”
“I will neither confirm nor deny that those were my intentions.” The Director smiled lightly in my direction. “But I do believe it is fortunate that such circumstances have fallen your way.”
“Thanks.” I muttered, genuinely meaning it.
“Now that I have shown you were you will be teaching, is there anywhere else on campus you would like to see?”
“Not real- actually.” I corrected myself mid-sentence. “Say that I wanted to demonstrate or have the kids do something that might not be suited for a classroom, is there perhaps…?”
“A place you can take them?” The Director nodded to me before making her way toward the door. “Follow me.”
Walking at a brisk pace through the halls, the Director quickly guided me toward an outside courtyard, one that looked rather familiar.
“Huh.” I muttered as she waved an arm out toward the grounds.
“Is something strange?”
“Ahh, nothing.” I quickly answered.
Probably don’t need her to know I was here not long ago chasing down a Shadow Blossom.
Said Shadow Blossom’s kitten which now resided within my suite and made it a point of pouncing on my face every morning, the little bugger a biter when it got excited.
Which is cute, until you remember that once it got older, those bites would become fatal.
The courtyard was… routine would be the correct word, but it was difficult for one such as myself to use, given most of my life I’d received education either through my mother, or the village tutors. It was large enough that even running full speed it would have taken some time to run full laps.
“Is this enough for you to work with?”
“Yeah, and then some.” I said with a whistle.
“You will have to sign up for courtyard privileges, but I don’t foresee many cross overs between classes in need of using it at the same time.”
“Sure hope so.” I responded, not looking forward to being placed in a position where I would be forced to butt heads with another professor.
“Classroom, courtyard, anything else?” The Director turned to me, raising a single eyebrow as she questioned me.
“No, I think that’s everything.”
“Good, well then, I’ll be off. Classes officially start tomorrow, and while you have no classes the first day, the rest of the academy is all hands-on deck, and I must be there to helm it.”
I watched her leave in silence, the Director walking with the clear intent of someone who had places to be and people to whip into shape.
So…. Now what?
While I didn’t have classes tomorrow, I was expected to be on campus in case I was needed for whatever reason.
What reason that could be when it had been made clear effectively everyone here resented me for simply existing, was well beyond me.
I had a rough outline for what I’d use as my introduction to magic, as a very weak entry into the intricates of magic, I was trying to not scare kids off. For any of the kids who’d learn of any amount of magic in the past, I’d likely be saying nothing more than what they’d already heard, but then a foundation had to be built from something.
“A foundation, eh?” I glanced fondly down at my right arm, rubbing the arm wrap just beneath my wrist where my first sage ring, my foundational ring, lay.
Just how far I’ve come.
In a matter of eight years, three sage rings, with a fourth sage ring that I could manifest at nearly at point. Sure, I’d probably received boons few could dream of, the mana matrix within me alone was enough for countries to wage war over, or so I’d been told. To say I was a prodigy would be technically correct, if not a bit of a misrepresentation of my circumstances.
How long will it take to reach ten?
The thought was strangely harrowing, like being told you’d one day grow an extra arm or leg. I’d been given quick snapshots of what such power was like, a realm outside of human imagination. I could become a god amongst men.
Except that wasn’t what I wanted.
So, what do you want?
As with every time the question came up, it felt like a rock set in my gut, a question of my own self-identity, my own self-worth, that I’d yet to come up with an answer for.
A question for another time.
Nothing said I had to have an epiphany on the spot, I could take my time figuring it out. After all, I was no longer fighting for my life, be it adventuring or escaping secret magical enforcers.
I was a teacher.
“A teacher. I’m a teacher.” I spoke the words like a mantra before quickly turning around, looking to head back toward my classroom.
After all, I had things to take care of.
“You’ve faced horrid monsters, survived certain death, been mentored by not just an elevated magical beast, but also the vestige of a Great Sage. You can do this Rook.”
My expression in the glass didn’t seem to agree.
C’mon. Game face.
After a rather eventful if short few weeks since I’d arrived in Akadia, it was finally time.
The school year had begun.
Well, it had started yesterday to be exact, but I’d mostly just spent the day twirling about in my chair, having no class for the day but still required to be there.
This, this was my first day.
“Deep breaths.” I reminded myself as my eyes drifted toward the mounted clock within my classroom for the umpteenth time.
Any minute now the first of my students would start to file in through the doorway, taking a seat as they pleased.
Wait, should I have assigned seats?
It was too late, and anyway, I wanted the kids to feel somewhat comfortable for their first day of magic’s class.
Yeah, if only I was comfortable.
While perhaps internally I was freaking out, I kept a stoic, albeit friendly, smile plastered across my face, faking a composure I most certainly did not feel.
What are the chances they all decided to skip and – never mind.
At long last, I saw a kid stop in front of my doorway, glancing at the room number before entering.
“Good afternoon.” I nodded to the girl, who awkwardly nodded back, her gaze averted as she quickly took a seat.
“Good morning Sir.” The girl faintly squeaked as she all but scurried past me.
Great, already making a great impression.
As if the floodgates had been broken, more and more students began to spill in, some giving my mannerly ‘good afternoon’ others a simple ‘afternoon’, but perhaps most commonly the kids gave me side glances like I were some sort of strange bug that they would take great pleasure in squashing.
Perhaps the worst of the bunch was a small pack of around six kids, ranging from ages of thirteen all the way up to fifteen, snickering amongst themselves as they entered the room.
“Good afternoon.” I repeated to the kids, the words having lost meaning after saying them so much.
“Hmm. Magbi.”
I scrunched up an eyebrow as the kids walked by, snickering even more as if they had said or done something rather clever.
Magbi. I’m guessing that’s some sort of slur.
While it didn’t take a genius to have figured that much out, I had zero intention of wasting my own energy on figuring out what exactly the words of a little shi- of a kid even meant in the first place.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
I waited another minute and a half, but seeing as no one else walked in and the majority of the seats were filled, I nodded to myself.
Show time.
“In lands far away, the word mana as we know it doesn’t exist, instead it goes by the term prana. Now, given the similarities in the etymology, we can deduce that it is very likely that at some point, there was a linkage between our understandings of the magical and mystical. In our neighbor across the sea to our south Thlahzae, there is a belief in an internal manifestation of one’s spirit, of their internal energy as a force that can make physical impact on the world around. Even within the borders of our own country, a new school of thought has been born, labeling some of the mystical arts, and the power that fuels them, as anima rather than mana.”
Perhaps I had taken the class off guard, my sudden lurch into lecture entirely unexpected as I failed to even bother introducing myself, but I’d done as much on purpose, pulling the rug from under them to draw their attention.
“All these things, all these international views on the mystical, mean only one thing.”
I saw several of the kids curious, a sort of gleam in their eyes, while till others seemed as if they were already beginning to lose interest after the novelty of the sudden lecture rapidly wore off.
Gods I hope this goes how I planned.
I spun around dramatically, pacing toward the chalkboard as I quickly began jotting something down in large, bold letters. Spending several seconds at it I inspected my handiwork before turning back around, meeting the expectedly shocked expression of the kids.
“Words are shit.” I announced, broadly gesturing at the same words I’d written upon the chalk board. “For every whimsical or sagely lecture you’ve heard, every hard-pressed lesson and preconceived notion, the only thing that never seems to change, is that-”
I pointed at each word, dramatically stabbing my finger toward them for emphasis.
“Words. Are. Shit.”
“Now!” I stuck a finger toward the ceiling, feigning energy that didn’t match how I truly felt internally. “You may be asking yourself, ‘What could he possibly mean by that?’ and to which, I understand your feelings.”
“I was actually wondering who you are.” One of the kids spoke out, earning a quiet chitter of nervous laughter in response.
“Another fair question.” I smiled at the children-
Children. Some of these kids are about the same age I was when I set out from home.
-before twirling my finger and muttering under my breath, as a second later I was holding a circlet of ice, as several of the kids made involuntary sounds of surprise.
Really now, why is it always the ice that seems to impress?
“You may call me Professor Koor. I’ve done many things in my time, slaid a few dragons rescued a few princesses.” I cracked a smile, signaling to the class I was jesting. “And let’s just say there are few who are as well versed in magic as I am.” Looking at the quiet girl from earlier, I gave the circlet a light toss, landing it perfectly on her desk. “You can keep that by the way, it won’t melt.”
I looked around the class, pleasantly met with the looks of engagement from the kids who had walked in expecting something entirely different from what they were getting.
“When I said words are shit, it was simply that I meant that all the ways you’ve heard magic talked about, is largely farcical. I won’t beat around the bush with you all. Magic is a rather atypical study, with intricacies and strange nuances you may not expect, but also, it isn’t some entirely unknown realm that exists outside the norm. It has its rules and its standards, and while occasionally those rules are broken, more often than not it is simply a craft of practice, like any other craft. It is not necessarily my goal to have you all casting spells by the end of your time with me, and while perhaps some will, it is more important to me that I have you all understanding the unknown, or what was thought to be unknown. Now then, I believe I should go over roll.”
For the next several minutes, I went about calling off names down a list, all while at the back of my mind I mentally checked if any names rang a bell to me.
Lonhyre... Devuln… Eis… Nope, no names I know at the least.
Given I wasn’t exactly in the loop as far as the subject of important noble families went.
“And finally, is there a Rias Aizenbern?”
“Present.” The girl who I’d thrown the circlet toward, the same quiet girl who’d first walked in, raised her hand as she spoke up.
“Wonderful.” I nodded, only missing a single kid. “Now that we’ve gotten roll under wraps, and your minds have had time to process my comments, I’d like to cover a few things. This you’re in right now is as you should all be aware, a half-elective course. Meaning, you’ll be required to come to class, but classes will only be meeting once a week for the duration of the first semester. The general contents of this class, will simply put, be nothing but educating you all on the realm of magic, without touching on the details themselves, I simply wish to see you all begin to view magic as something that isn’t some abstract. But, if you wish to dive deeper, there will be an elective variety of the class as well, where we will undergo a much deeper investigation into the ‘arcane’ and even begin to develop some of your abilities to harness magic. Now, that aside, I would like to propose my first non-rhetorical question for you all.”
I scanned the class over, looking for any kids who looked to be following along nicely.
“Ms. Aizenbern, how about you. Can you tell me this, what is mana?”
The quiet girl seemed to shrink as the attention was piled onto her, but the girl, to her benefit, seemed to steel herself as she answered.
“Elemental forces that exist within certain locations of the world and people themselves.”
“Wrong.” I smiled at the girl, as she frowned in confusion. “Mana is not some amalgamation of many differing forces existing only within select concentrated areas. Mana is a blanket energy that exists within something like ninety-nine percent of everything. You’ve likely heard mana described as ‘fire mana’ or ‘earth mana’ but those are the simplest, and therefore, incorrect interpretation of what mana is. Mana if you will, is like the air all around us.”
I pointed to another unsuspecting kid, a boy who wide brimmed glasses.
“And tell me, what is magic then?”
“Uhm.” The boy froze up, before answering, a slight stutter to his words. “Applied mana?”
“You are correct, but only in the faintest of senses.” I nodded to the boy, before making my way to the chalkboard, quickly wiping away my words from earlier before scribbling down a quick sketch.
“While mana is used to fuel magic, magic itself is simply a construct. Now, a construct of what you may ask?”
I turned back to face the class, gesturing toward the board as I did.
“Ignoring my lacking artistic skills, can someone answer me what these three things I’ve drawn are?”
I waited several seconds until a boy near the back raised his hand.
“Yes?” I pointed to the boy as he spoke out.
“A vase, a water wheel, and uhm… a tube?”
“An irrigation channel, but good enough.” I answered. “And what do each of these three things do?”
“A vase holds stuff, a water wheel is turned, and an irrigation channel leads water to a crop field.”
“Exactly.” I snapped, drawing their attention forward. “These three all utilize water, but for different means. It is the intent that forms the basis of these constructs, if you wanted to store water, you’d use a vase after all, not a water wheel. Magic is similar. The most familiar forms of magic are Wild magic, Kin magic, and Inner magic, but that does not mean that is all the magic that exists within our world. Wild magic is often viewed as the army knife, it can be utilized in many different forms or fashions, but the specificity of the tasks that can be undertaken with Wild magic are often limited. A skilled user of Rentar, of earth magic, will likely be able to raise walls of stone of help shape the earth beneath our feet, but I challenge you to find any that could raise an entire sculpture of stone from the ground in a single try. Inversely, we look at Kin magic as the opposite of Wild magic. If Wild magic is a very broad tool, Kin magic is very specified. In my travels, I’ve met those with Kin magic that allows them to trick a person into overlooking obvious things, others I’ve seen with Kin magic to control granules such as sand, and others yet have had even more niche abilities. While they may not be able to raise a wall of earth, they can do extremely specific tasks to very astounding results. Finally we have Inner magic-”
“Inner magic isn’t magic!” A kid suddenly shouted, interrupting me.
“Ahh, you there, the boy from earlier.” I nodded as the interrupting voice revealed themselves to be one of the snickering kids from earlier. “It appears you have something you want to say.”
“Yeah.” The kid crossed his arms, clearly pleased with himself. “You’re wrong. It’s anima, it’s not something as low as magic!”
“I see.” I nodded to the kid, rubbing at my chin as if I’d just had a revelation. “I believe you’ve helped me see the light. Imagine that a kid, fourteen years old, whose barely been alive for as long as I’ve used magic. Wonders, if only I could have been wiser to such insight.”
Perhaps the snark was laid on thick, but I heard a chitter of laughter as kids turned their ridicule on the boy, for even suggesting he knew better.
Get the feeling I’ll have to keep an eye out for him.
“That aside, as I was saying, Inner Magic is an internalization of magic. All living beings have an innate level of internalized mana, of magic if you will, it’s why a mage can’t simply light a fire inside their enemy-”
Well, a Sage could, but let’s not tell them that.
“-and as such, Inner Magic effectively takes that baseline state all living beings have, an amplifies it further, allowing for external magic nullification, though it takes considerably more mana to nullify a spell outright then simply countering it.”
I turned around, once more facing the blackboard as I interlaced my hands behind my back, standing their stoically as if considering something for a moment.
I wasn’t I actually was just taking advantage of the moment to open my mana sense without a kid pointing out my face twitched weirdly for a moment.
“You, third row, second to the left.” I said, still facing the board. “Stand please.”
I heard a murmur of surprise, the kid called out without me ever turning around. When I did turn around, the kid was standing nervously her hands fidgeting with her auburn locks.
“Apologies, you’re not in trouble. Have you had mentorship in magical arts before?”
The girl received several dirty looks from the rude boy and his friends from earlier, but before the girl could back down I interceded.
“Or perhaps you simply have latent talent if you did not have lessons.”
“Uhm, yeah.” The girl said with a cough.
Got it. I’m guessing whoever her family is, they don’t want it known that they’ve dabbled or are outright practicing magic. Politics, bah.
“Are you aware what a mana core is?”
“Uh, no.” The girl answered quickly, too quickly if anything, the way her eyes widened for a split second I could tell she was lying.
That and I’d specifically sensed the larger than normal swell of mana within her abdomen compared to the rest of her peers. She had a mana core, I was certain, I just figured it wiser to beat around the bush considering how she seemed reluctant to own up to her magical history.
“Well, a mana core is an organ of sorts within humans and certain other creatures. At birth, it’s little more than a small nub of calcified mana, effectively a small nub of a bone. As a mage develops, they gradually will purify this core, refining it an even for some expanding its size and capabilities. The more refined a core, the more developed a mage, at lay in general terms. With that said, Ms…?”
“Audry.” The girl answered.
“Ms. Audry. I can sense potential from you. So, I’d like you to try two different spells, and worry not, it is simply for a general point I will make. Hold your hand out, close your eyes, and repeat after me.”
The girl did as I said, stretching a handout.
“Aulous.”
“Aulous.” The girl spoke, and while I felt the tiniest of swells of mana from her, nothing happened.
“Now class, we get to our next point of magic and mana. Everything has an affinity. If Ms. Audry here had a specified affinity for water, for Aulous, it is likely some water would have manifested. Given it didn’t we can assume she doesn’t. As far as discovering affinities goes, there are generally more practical ways of determining it then simply running down the list, but this is fore demonstration purposes. Now, Ms. Audry, once again, except this time, I would like you to speak the word of cold, Frezess.”
“Frezess.” The girl spoke, and as she did, I could sense a greater swell of mana, as the air before air suddenly shimmered for a moment as the temperature dropped unexpectedly.
“Wonderful.” I smiled at the girl. “You may take a seat now. Now, many of you may have missed it, but Ms. Audry here has shown an affinity for frigidity. She would be considered something of a rarity. As the affinities go, the most common two affinities are for Water and Earth, Aulous and Rentar. Following that you have fire and frost, Scorz and Frezess. Lastly, the rarest of the primal affinities is Kinzar, force itself. No one affinity is considered greater than another, and some have gone as far as to suggest affinities often align with personality and with a personal externalized perspective.”
I paused for a moment, giving the kids to digest what I’d said.
“Personally, I disagree. Affinities are nothing more than probability. Look around the class if you will.”
The children did as much, looking at one another.
“Tell me, what is the most common color of hair here?”
“Black?” One kid spoke up, though I couldn’t tell exactly who.
“Correct, Black and Blonde appear nearly tied in fact. Does that make them any better or worse than auburn hair, or brown hair?”
There was a general murmur of ‘no’s’, so I continued my spiel.
“And that is the heart of today’s topic, a topic I wanted to broach in a more roundabout manner. Magic, regardless of whether one has it or does not, of what affinity or type, does not make a person better or worse than another. It is no more noteworthy than whether I have a pinky toe slightly longer or shorter than most, it simply is a personal factor of what makes a person, a person, their own unique individual.”
I glanced toward the clock, doing a double take as I did.
How?
In what felt like only a few minutes, I’d used up nearly two thirds of my allotted time for class.
Crap.
“Now, while I’d love to continue on with this current pace of our lecture, I believe it is time we touch on the hands-on portion, which will lead into your assignment for next time I see you.”
I heard a unified groan at the mention of an assignment, to which I could only smile fondly.
Hah. When I was a kid I didn’t even get a real classroom. Be happy you get stuff like this in the first place.
Waiting for the discourse to quiet down, I walked about the front row of desks, handing out papers as I instructed them to pass them about.
“That there is just a simple questionnaire if you will, filling you what you know, don’t know, or think you know on certain aspects of magic. You may communicate with your peers, but there is no credit for knowing everything or nothing at all. It is simply a question of where you general knowledge stands. If you have any questions, raise your hand and I’ll do my best to address them.”
A task given, the class shifted from focusing on me, to their papers, I saw as faces scrunched in confusion at the questions written down.
To be fair, that was always the point.
I’d only written up the questions the other day, a hastily complied assessment of things I’d felt may be important for kids to know of, or else simply ways of weeding out those who might know more than they would otherwise let on.
Scyla would say it would be my way of determining what kids are likely part of what factions, but I’m also not Scyla.
Handing out the last of the papers, I made my way toward my desk, reclining gently as I watched the class.
You know, that wasn’t so bad after all.
-----------------------------------------------
“Well then, how did the class go?”
I jumped, in the process of sifting through the student answers to the papers I’d received back. Not every kid had finished in time, allowed to take their questions with them, but for those who had finished in time, I’d had them hand their papers back, no point in having them hold on to them when they didn’t need to.
“Did I scare you?”
I glanced toward the doorway, where the Director was standing with her hands on her hips.
“Director.” I gave her a deep nod as I acknowledged her presence. “Sorry, I was, ya’know.”
“Being a professor. Exactly what I like to see.” The Director said, the corners of her mouth tugging upward without outright turning into a smile. “But I digress. As I questioned a moment ago, how goes the class?”
“Fine.” I answered before pausing. “Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“I had one little ass- one kid try to talk big, but aside from that, I was honestly surprised that for a bunch of nobles they did a good job of listening.”
“Ahh, well that would be the B-list nobles. Up and comers, or those down on their luck. The kids there are more likely to be decent.”
“Well, that’s comforting to know.” I grumbled.
“Aside from that?”
“It was…. Good. I was honestly surprised how fast the time flew by.”
“Ahh, that will happen.” The Director said. “But I’m pleased to hear of such. How do you feel about your next few classes?”
“About the same.” I said before frowning again. “I don’t really plan to change up what I did from today too much for then, except…”
“The issue of the regent.”
“Yes.”
“Well, my advice is don’t take anything too far from the nom for her. Polish what you have, but don’t ever bend over backward for one kid. You’ll quickly find you make a bigger mess for yourself otherwise.”
“Thanks… I guess.” I sighed. “Is there anything else you needed to speak with me for?”
“No, not really.” The Director shook her head. “I simply was on my rounds when I figured I’d stop in and see how things went.”
“Mhmm.” I murmured, not sure how much of that I believed.
“Well, I must be off. I do have other parts of the school to be checking in on, after all. Have a good day, Mr. Koor.”
And just like that, she was gone, leaving me alone with my papers.
Thrilling.
I took a moment to lean back, reclining further in my chair.
Thrilling indeed.
I’d survived my first day of teaching.
“Only a couple hundred odd days of that to go.” I chuckled.
And that’s only the first semester.