Professor Lobos Vitaminas had a just about the longest beard Alistair had ever seen on a man, so long in fact that it extended well past his abdomen, where it split, the ends of which curled upward and were straightened into points almost like an elephant’s tusk, only splayed outward. The bespeckled man seemed incredibly serious, especially with his dark black overcoat that had a sheen to it that almost looked magical, that, and the way he held himself, hands clasped behind his back as he looked the students over.
“This guy looks like a serious blowhard,” Juno whispered.
“Do you even know what that word means?” Zola asked him.
The three sat on the back row with Finnian, Dawn, and Lauren to their immediate left. It seemed like Lauren had been trying to sit besideAlistair, but Juno ruined that by sandwiching himself between Alistair and Zola.
“Blowhard,” Juno said. “Definition: someone who blows hard. It’s not that complicated, Zola.”
“That’s totally not what that means.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure, Juno,” she said. “I wish there was a card that could improve your vocabulary.”
“My vocabulary is decent. I would say it is most excellent.”
“You should know what words mean before you use them—”
“Ahem,” Professor Humboldt said at the front of the classroom.
“Ooo, here’s our chance.” Juno immediately shot his hand up.
Humboldt eyed him wearily. “Yes, Stonewind?”
“I have a quick question, real quick, Professor, I swear it will be super fast. And it’s not a stupid one.”
“Proceed.”
“Is there a card that enhances a person’s vocabulary?”
A few of the students at the front laughed. Laertes, who sat two rows ahead of them, turned back and dramatically shook his head.
“Laertes? More like lame-ass-bitch,” Juno whispered to him.
Zola buried her head in her hand at this comment and Ghost started to say something, Alistair hearing his unique ha followed by a groan, yet the assassin never finished his statement as Professor Humboldt spoke again: “Stonewind, where do you get questions like this?”
“It was Zola’s question, sir.”
Zola elbowed Juno. “It was not—!”
“Do you want to answer it, or should I?” Humboldt asked Professor Vitaminas.
“I most certainly can, Professor Humboldt,” Vitaminas said, his voice warm and soothing to the point it seemed to calm the anxious teen energy in the room. “A card that would enhance someone’s vocabulary would be an excellent choice for a statesperson,” he said with a chuckle. “But alas, I do not believe anyone has crafted a card like that, and if they had, they likely would have used it to charm their way to the top by now, meaning we would never know if they actually had one or not. There are cards like that, you know, ones that the inventor shares little about, and we will touch on that in today’s lecture unless there is anything you’d like to add, Professor Humboldt.”
“By all means, Lobos, the floor is yours.” Humboldt stifled a yawn. “Sorry. Please proceed.”
“Proceed I will. We need to first start with Celestial Binding. I am told two of you have already accomplished this feat. Please raise your hands if you can bind.”
Alistair and Juno exchanged glances. Juno’s hand shot up, Alistair following suit.
“Ah, I see. Future Invokers aren’t a bad thing by any means. They are powerful beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, really, and they are able to wield mana in profound ways. Depending on your course of study, the best Card Crafters can usually bind, which ties into your earlier question,” Vitaminas said as he focused on Juno, “one in which a unique card can be created out of thin air. The answer, of course, is yes. And I do not have the time to show you how that is done now as it takes years of study to master. But I believe you may appreciate the connection between the two, binding and creation.”
Ghost: Binding and creation. Write that down. You should be taking notes.
Alistair: I’m listening.
Ghost: It’s not the same.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Alistair scribbled the words down in his notebook.
“Yes, binding and creation. I am going to simplify this,” Professor Vitaminas said. “I know that you all won’t fully study this until your Mageling or Skyward years, but it is an interesting topic, a topic that I’ve been obsessed with for ages now, and I believe there is a lot to be said here to get you thinking about it. Card creation is a form of binding. That is the first thing you must understand. For you to create a card that has unique properties, you should have a firm understanding of Celestial Binding. That doesn’t mean you need to be an Invoker…”
Laertes coughed into his hand. “Slime boy!” He looked over his shoulder and gave Alistair a smug grin.
Juno held a finger up as if to suggest Laertes wait for a moment. He pretended to search around in his pockets until he finally found what he was looking for. “Fuck you,” Juno said as he showed Laertes a middle finger.
Ghost: Pay attention to the lecture, not the dumbass teenage boys that you surround yourself with. Focus, Alistair. If we need to wait in the shadows for Laertes later and make it so he can never speak again, then so be it. But that’s a discussion for later.
Alistair: We can’t kill him.
Ghost: I didn’t say anything about killing him. After all you know about me, do you really think I’d never silenced someone before without putting them down for good? A trophy tongue is a real thing, you know. Now focus.
Rather than explore the topic of trophy tongue, Alistair tuned back into Professor Vitaminas:
“In relation to your earlier question, I want to speak about a professor who, perhaps, took things too far. This is a controversial subject because he was, as many of you will recognize once I reveal his name, a famous professor here at your university. He started from nothing, really. While he came from a House, his had been disbanded, which meant he entered the Lumina Battledeck Academy under a different name, only revealing his true family name after he reached graduation.
“Professor Elias Dreadwell wasn’t a remarkable student until his Mageling year, where he exhibited all the traits of an Invoker, one who had great control over the creatures he bonded with. Dreadwell was able to bond with six by his Skyward year. And he could move fluidly between them as well. How do I know? I was a peer, a year younger, but my older brother shared a dorm with Elias.”
Juno shot his hand up. “Where’s the controversy, Professor? You said this was controversial.”
“Juno,” Zola hissed.
“Stonewind,” Professor Humboldt said, “No more questions. Please, Lobos, continue.”
“The controversy I refer to is what Elias discovered. Bonding and crafting share a common link. When you craft something, you are tapping into your soul’s depth of mana. That might not be the easiest thing to comprehend, especially because it is a topic that is often overlooked, but there are numerous grades of Resonant Mana. When you bind, or when you create a card out of thin air, you are using some of your soul to do it. Now, anyone who has been in love knows that while it is often dormant, the soul can speak in ways that only make themselves known at the most trying of times. Let me try that again: while we don’t have a way to gauge Soul Mana—which is not the term, there is no term, but it will work—we know it exists and we know it is powerful.”
Juno: So if I fall in love, it’s sort of like binding with the girl? Should I ask for clarity there? This is about sex, right? Soul Mana is about sex?
Alistair clenched his eyes shut to contain a fit of laughter he felt coming on.
Juno: Come on, ask about sex. It will be funny. I’m not allowed to ask any more questions, and Zola won’t ask one for me.
“So to better answer an early question,” Professor Vitiminas said, “one about a card that would improve a person’s grammar, this was similar to what Dreadwell was able to do. A card like that, one that would fundamentally change the way a person spoke and thought, would be tied to what we are calling Soul Mana. The controversy comes in when Dreadwell pushed things to a new level by creating the Card of Rebirth, for which he was murdered. He coded it with his own Soul Mana, but warped it in a way that allowed for his physical soul, if one could call it that, to continue on after his passing. So while he was murdered, he was also reborn.”
“You’re saying that he still lives?” Zola asked, only raising her hand after the fact.
“That is the controversy. We do not know if he still lives, but we do know the card was stolen because it was a forbidden card, and it was missing when we ran a mana autopsy.”
Zola’s eyes bulged a little as she whispered: “There’s a mana autopsy?”
“And I get what some of you are thinking,” Professor Vitiminas said as he showed the students the palms of his hands. “How is a Card of Rebirth in any way related to a card that could theoretically modify someone’s vocabulary? Those that have been listening will listen between the lines some and realize that intent is everything when binding and coding. If one can bind, there is an intent there that is stronger than someone who cannot. This extends to card creation. So there are several things you can take away from this. The first is that the sky’s the limit once you can bind, or you feel as if binding is something you’ll be able to do. The second is with the sky being the limit, this can often bring out people’s worst intentions. Our world does not need a Card of Rebirth. What if it falls into the wrong hands?”
Alistair: Like the hands of an assassin.
Ghost: Or the hands of an angsty teenage brat.
Alistair: I’m not an angsty teenage brat.
Ghost: I was referring to Laertes.
“The third is that this information is worth protecting. Now, all of you have access to the Resonant Mana system. Those in the Dracolich Empire do not, yet they have found a way through relics to use the dormant Resonant Mana in those objects. If they ever had access to the system, if they could crack the mana codes written so long ago, the world order would change. And likely not for the better because, and this will also be a controversial statement but Professor Humboldt has assured me that’s fine—”
“Please, continue,” Humboldt said after a short, stifled yawn.
“The Dracolich Empire has been the underdog for quite some time. If they were to have access, it would be devastating to our way of life. So to recap, binding and card creation are tapping into the same part of you that houses what we commonly refer to as your soul. This is why it can be so powerful, and it’s why some people that bind begin to exhibit traits of the summons they have bound with. The same understanding of Resonant Mana can lead to the creation of fascinating and dangerous cards, and this knowledge, everything the Dawncrest Kingdom has worked for, should be protected. We cannot let it fall into the wrong hands now because we have come too far, and the results would be disastrous. I hope that answers your question. If not, I hope you took notes.”