Being able to use magic was the entire point of being an arcanist, it was why everyone was here. It was what made each of them truly unique. And it was finally time to start learning how!
After morning training.
No one gave any instruction regarding their new lessons, so the entire class decided to go to the training fields as they usually would. If they were supposed to be somewhere else, they would be told. But no one wanted to be found doing nothing.
Everything was soaked. Lights along the pathways reflected off the trees like glittering diamonds. The ground was muddy, and leaves still dripped constantly. Yaric spotted one group of students cutting through one of the parks. As they passed under a tree, the lead student reached up and knocked the branch above him, jumping forward as a shower of water drenched those behind him. Yaric watched the whole group sprint off, chasing their friend down to the fields.
It felt weird to be back on the training fields after so long. Running laps now seemed like a distant memory. And although Yaric and his friends always arrived early, this was the first time that his whole class had arrived with him.
The thin band of indigo on the horizon had already changed to green as they made their way down, and was now starting to light up as dawn approached. Bright red shifted into a deep orange, banishing the stars and lighting up the ground, with the sky reflected in the water droplets that were scattered like glowing embers across the grass. Everything was completely clear and still.
“Good! You all came down! It’s always interesting to see which classes continue training and which wait to be told what to do!” Hiawatha’s voice boomed across the fields.
The wizard strode quickly toward them, his massive frame silhouetted by the predawn sky. The class instinctively started forming into lines as Hiawatha loomed over them.
“I know you are all excited to start learning magic. And today you will! But first… you run!” Hiawatha exclaimed, pointing down the side of the field.
They all ran as a group, slowly making their way around the fields. No one had fully recovered from their march yet, but everyone persevered together. It was nothing compared to what they had been through over the last few months.
The sun had already cleared the horizon when they started running through drills. Yaric found it easy to fall back into the routine, despite how long it had been. Finally, just after midday, Hiawatha called them all together.
“Alright, listen carefully. You all have one hour to eat and get cleaned up. Today only, an Initiate will meet you at your dorm building to escort you to your first magic lesson. Dismissed!”
Yaric jogged off with his friends, intending to eat first. He had skipped breakfast just like everyone else, so lunch was his priority.
An hour later, the entire class was being led through the campus to a building that was a 15-minute walk away. The campus was vast, and Yaric was glad to have a guide. It wasn’t a difficult route to remember however, and the large building would be easy to recognize.
It was built on a slope, and the entire building angled down with it. There were easily 500 seats, facing an open podium at the bottom. Long desks sat in rows beside the stairs that led down, each one lined with seats behind them. The arrangement made it easy for those further back to see over anyone in front of them.
It didn’t take long for everyone to rush to their seats. Excited conversations were being held up and down the auditorium when an older looking dwarven wizard walked in. The whole room quickly fell into silence.
“Welcome, fifth years. My name is High Wizard Emil Spyros, and I will be your instructor for your first two years of study. I hope all of you have been studying the textbooks you received when you first joined this Academy, although I have no doubt that most of have not.”
Yaric’s stomach fell as he glanced frantically up and down his row. Judging by the look on everyone’s faces, he was sure he wasn’t the only one. They only had two classes per week, and he already knew that they recieved a lot of work to do outside of class, so they should all be confident. Yaric had actually caught up significantly, but there simply wasn't enough time for him to do more than the work his tutor assigned him. He had lessons almost every day, taking additional time to study had never even occured to him. Only Lauren looked unworried.
“As you should all be aware by now, there are many opportunities for the more diligent amongst you to gain an advantage. This is one of them. No one who has not yet made any effort will be held back, but those who have will find these lessons to be easier. I suggest you all start working to correct this deficiency. And a word of warning, this test is not to be disclosed to any of those below your year.”
“Now, to the lesson at hand.”
Small stones flew out from cupboards at the back of the auditorium while High Wizard Spyros was still speaking. They swept over the students’ heads and settled on the desks in front of them, skipping all of the empty seats. Yaric thought they looked vaguely familiar.
They were small discs, engraved all over with complex looking patterns. The thick pieces of stones were definitely some kind of complicated magical device.
“Before each of you is a basic lighting stone. This is something most Novices possess, and many Apprentices keep theirs around too. All it does is project a focused beam of light when arcana is channeled through it. Very useful at night or in dark places. Useless to any Mage of course, as we do not need such a device to achieve the same affect, but an interesting bauble all the same.”
Yaric frowned at the simple piece of stone.
“We will be using these lighting stones to practice channeling arcana. It is essential to be able to connect to the arcana of the universe at will. Holding said connection is perhaps even more vital. So, I want everyone to pick up their lighting stone, and hold it with your hand underneath, the stone facing up. Don’t look down at it.”
“Now, everyone should close their eyes, and listen to my voice. Focus inside of you. Feel for anything that stands out as different, or anything that feels like it’s where you should be focusing. It will be different for everyone, but you will know it when you find it. Your goal is to try and seize hold of that place, connect to it, grab hold of it. Once you have it, just hold that feeling for a moment.”
Yaric ignored the whispers coming from all around him and continued to focus on that feeling he had grabbed hold of many times before.
“Once you think you have it, try to draw something from your connection. Simply will arcana to flow through your connection, down your arm, and into your lighting stone.”
Only the occasional shuffling of students shifting in their seats disturbed the silence that had fallen throughout the auditorium. Yaric focused harder, trying to will the connection to be made while he continued listening to High Wizard Spyros’s quiet voice. It was somehow different to the circuit he formed with the training cubes.
“Some of you will find it easier if you add some emotion. It helps if you desire a change to be made. Wanting to change the world in some way will make it easier to connect to the energy that you need to accomplish this change. Use this emotion to…”
A bright light flashed into existence in Yaric’s hand, visible even with his eyes closed. Yaric opened them in surprise, quickly raising the stone above his head to keep the bright light out of his eyes. High up above, a dazzling circle of light was shining on the ceiling. Everyone in the class had their own eyes open and their attention focused squarely on Yaric.
“Marvelous! We have our first success! That was sooner than I had expected!”
The light dimmed and cut out at the same moment that High Wizard Spyros finished speaking.
“What you need to focus on now, Prospect, is maintaining your channeling once the connection has been made. Try to repeat what you just did, and this time, keep the flow constant. The rest of you, get back to it! Close your eyes, and try to focus!”
Yaric managed to light his stone four more times before the next student succeeded, and by the time the class ended, almost everyone was able to light their stone with enough preparation. Yaric was even keeping his lit long after he opened his eyes.
“Excellent! You are all coming along nicely! Now, those stones are each yours to keep. I expect you to bring them with you tomorrow, and you can use them to practice whenever you are able. But do not forget to study your textbooks! We will not be holding your hands and reading with you. It is up to you to study! You may, of course, ask questions, should there be anything that you don’t understand.”
“Your assignment for today is simply to continue practicing. The sooner you learn to channel arcana properly, the sooner you will be able to learn proper spells. You are all dismissed.”
Everyone kept trying to light up their stones on the way back, and quite a few succeeded. Yaric had his going for most of the way.
“Quite the prodigy, huh,” Li Na said, bumping Yaric.
“Not really, I just have those training cubes I have to use every day. This is very similar.”
“But how are you keeping the channel going for so long?” Lauren asked in frustration. “I keep losing the connection.”
Yaric just shrugged. “I have to channel arcana for 30 minutes a day, with each cube. I struggled in the beginning, but I got better over time. It’s just repetition I guess.”
“So you do have an unfair advantage,” Li Na muttered, hitting Yaric’s arm over and over.
“If you call having crippled affinities having an advantage, sure,” Yaric laughed.
That perked Li Na up. “Oh yes! I forgot! You only have 2 affinities. I have four!” she added proudly, pretending that Yaric's atrophied affinities didn't exist. When you took into consideration that Yaric was limited to his other two affinities for the near future, she wasn't wrong.
The rest of the week went the same way, with physical training in the mornings, and magical training in the afternoon. The evenings were spent trying to catch up on everything in their textbooks. Much of it included the biology of humans, dwarves, and elves, but more of the books were on various aspects of physics. Yaric was sure he would never be able to look at lightning or fire in the same way again.
After a week of lessons, the students were finally getting the hang of channeling. Most could light up their stones within a second, and many were even having slow conversations while keeping their stones lit.
“All right everyone, put your stones down,” High Wizard Spyros said. “You have all gained enough proficiency to move on to your first spells.”
Lights winked out all through the auditorium as stones quickly clattered onto the tables.
“But what is a spell? There are many aspects to spell casting, and many kinds of magic. The first thing you need to know, is that arcana is the fuel that powers our spell. We draw on arcana to create all of the spells you will learn here. Even the inscriptions on your stones are useless without the arcana to power them.”
“Now pure arcana can do anything, and it is the ‘flavor’ of arcana that is most often used. You can improve the power and efficiency of a spell, however, by using a complimentary affinity. For example, a Mage who casts a spell to boost the crops of our farmers will find it easier, and much more effective, if they use a life or wood affinity arcana to power their spell. These affinities are already aligned with the intention of the spell, and will empower it further than a neutral affinity.”
“This is where your own affinities come into play, as each of you will have a natural talent with one or more affinities. You will find that you are able to filter neutral arcana to extract just the flavor of arcana you want, so long as you have an affinity to that flavor. I want you all to keep this in mind as we practice. Simply put, your affinities will play a major role in defining your maximum potential. Always take this into account when planning out your future.”
“Moving on to the spells themselves, these are a combination of shape and intent. Various spells require the channeling of arcana in different ways. Your intent is also vital! It is your will as much as anything else that will determine the success of your spells.”
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“And this leads me to one of the hardest things for young arcanists to wrap their heads around. The form of your spells require precision. There is vast meaning in the shapes that you form, and small errors can potentially be catastrophic. Each spell must be learnt exactly. No changes can be made until you begin to form a solid understanding of the theories behind the shapes.”
“At the same time, however, your intent is very different. There is no science behind intent, it simply is. If you cast a spell to set something on fire, but do not want said object to burn, your spell will likely fail. It will be greatly weakened at the very least. No healer can knit a wound back together if he truly wants his patient to remain hurt. And so, the spell form and the intent are in many way opposites. One is like a recipe, the other is like making a wish.”
“Some of you may be wondering how spells with negative consequences can be cast. How does a Mage kill someone in self-defense, if they do not actually want to kill their attacker? This is where emotion can play a major role. A healer may have reason to despise his patient, but if he can control his emotions, he can perform the spell regardless of his personal feelings.
“There is far more theory for you to learn this year, but we will begin with our first practical spell today. To accomplish this spell, you will need to channel your arcana through your own bodies, in whatever areas you desire to affect. But simply channeling your arcana will not be enough. No, you need to form a very specific pattern using the flow of your arcana. This pattern, to be precise.”
Suddenly, there was a glowing shape floating in front of each student, made of pure light. It looked like a complex series of swirls, and based on what Yaric had been learning from his textbooks, a few of the shapes appeared to be fractals.
“You will need to channel your arcana in this pattern. Note how the end of the pattern is able to continue on as is, or alternatively start from the beginning and repeat itself instead.”
“This spell is an augmentation spell, and one of the most basic and most important. It is the simplest spell for empowering oneself.”
Everyone started whispering to each other at the news.
“Any part of your body can be enhanced with this spell. Channel it through your arm, and you will strengthen the muscles, ligaments, and tendons, all while reinforcing your bones and skin. Cast this spell over your ribcage, and you will take far less damage from a strike to your chest. Use it on your legs, and you will run faster and jump higher.”
“But be warned! No part of our body is isolated from the rest. Use this spell to leap a great distance, without reinforcing your back or neck, and you will suffer severe injuries. I suggest you ensure that you understand your own biology before boosting your strength too much.”
“These patterns will remain in front of you, use them. Now, try to cast the spell. Begin.”
Everyone in the class began putting all of their focus into nailing down the pattern. Channeling was now easy, but making the shapes you want was hard. No one managed to accomplish it that day or the next. Yaric was getting close on the third day, when Lauren gasped.
“I’ve got it,” she whispered excitedly. “Stop trying to direct it along a path. Picture the entire path! It’s what High Wizard Spyros said in the beginning, you have to have intent! Just will it to create the complete picture!”
It only took a couple of minutes for Yaric to feel the spell snap into place. His whole arm felt heavier, and somehow more real. He didn't feel all that much stronger, however. Everyone around them had the same look of triumph.
“Excellent, excellent! I see there are some of you who have already managed to cast their first spell!”
It wasn't until Spyros pointed it out that the reality sunk in. Their first spell!
“I’m sure that you are all wondering why this spell does not seem very strong. Perhaps you think that you need to channel more arcana through the pattern? That would have some effect, yes. But the key is to keep repeating the pattern. Instead of forming one large spell through the entire area you wish to augment, you need to use its ability to keep repeating to place more in the same area. The smaller you can make each pattern, the more you can fit into any part of your body, and the more powerful your augmentation will be!”
The next two weeks were spent forming the repeating patterns. Each additional pattern required an even greater focus, both due to the smaller size and the increasing number. In less than a month, students were augmenting areas of their bodies before challenging others to take a swing. Everyone enjoyed having punches and kicks bounce off with barely a bruise.
It became much harder when they had to reinforce several areas at once. The strongest arms in the world couldn’t lift a thing if the back was too weak to support them, and this extended to almost everything. It took a lot of effort to become proficient with augmenting multiple areas at once, and even more to be able to work out what areas needed the augmentation.
Everything was worth it, however, when they began doing the obstacle courses. The first part of each lesson was still indoors, but every class ended with a run through one of the many courses on the campus.
Some required you to leap across a mud pit several yards wide. Others needed you to reach a bar four meters off the ground. Yet others had climbing walls with grips only wide enough to fit fingertips.
There were no complaints, however. The obstacle courses quickly became everyone’s favorite part of the day.
Yaric found that he was above average with almost everything, but he was especially good at running around and over obstacles on a running course. They reminded him a lot of running through the forest. The only trick was to look further ahead and take the second and third obstacles into account as well.
Lauren and Sven both excelled at climbing. Whether it was ropes, poles, or inclined walls, they were almost always one of the first to the top. Li Na, meanwhile, was an exceptional jumper. She could practically run across the tops of tree stumps, despite them being four meters apart. And she never even hesitated when faced with a hole in a wall, 8ft off the ground. Li Na just continued running as if there was no wall, jumping at the last second and threading herself straight through the middle.
It wasn’t at all easy. There was a steep learning curve from course to course. The hardest courses quickly turned out to be those that they had already finished.
As soon as they managed to increase the complexity of their augmentation spells, they would be moved onto more difficult courses. Courses that required greater strength, speed, and power to complete. Going back to the easier courses later was just embarrassing.
Everyone over compensated. Students who were finishing the course with ease were falling all over the place, until Cormac figured out that they could just reduce the number of patterns again. That immediately changed everything, and High Wizard Spyros was very pleased.
“Well done! Excellent! You are all doing very well. Yes, as Prospect Cormac has discovered, there is more to simply learning how to augment yourself. First, and most obviously, you need to learn how to move with your improved strength. When you learn how to increase your strength even further, and get moved to a more difficult course, you will find that you always struggle at first. This is not due to the course. It is, in fact, just as difficult as the previous course, once you take your increased strength into consideration.”
“You all struggle because you are all still learning how to control your strength. It is a very immediate and noticeable change that is difficult to adapt to. Once you have managed to adapt, you are able to complete the course easily.”
“Ending the spell also causes momentary problems, but you can adapt almost instantly, as you have spent so much time at your natural strength. It is far harder to adapt to weaker augmentation. Right now you are all cheating in a way. You are dropping back to whatever level you used previously. In the future, you will need to know how far to augment yourself on the fly.”
“Prospect Li Na Jakobson is cheating even more than the rest of you.” Li Na turned a bright red.
“None of you have noticed, but Prospect Li Na has figured out how to augment her entire body. She is not shifting her augmentation around like the rest of you, as everything is augmented. While this achievement is commendable, I must insist that you spend at least part of your time focusing on augmenting only what you must. This is an essential skill to have and cannot be ignored.”
Li Na was still blushing furiously and staring at her feet, trying to ignore the glares coming from her classmates. She had figured out a trick to make the courses easier, but kept it to herself. It was no wonder she finished in the top 5 each time.
Classes soon moved into more open ground. It turned out that pulling yourself up walls or jumping across obstacles was actually easier than simply running. Lower levels of augmentation were ok, even if you were effectively doubling your strength and power. But higher levels of augmentation created a lot of problems.
Just pushing off the ground became an issue, as each step threw you higher than intended. Most students were making continuous leaps, until Chelsea came flying past everyone, leaving them in her dust.
It didn’t take long for her to show everyone her technique. She was just shifting how she pushed off with her feet, propelling herself forward instead of forward and up. Someone else soon discovered that twisting your foot improved your traction, instead of having your foot dig deep divots.
Making quick changes in direction was much more complicated. It was Yusaf who realized that everyone was flying over their own feet, and he quickly worked out how to lower his body through a turn, keeping his weight behind his feet and preventing his body from going over.
Hiawatha took over once they had figured out some of the basics by themselves. He taught them some additional techniques and helped them to improve on what they had already figured out.
Yaric was soon enjoying the morning runs, augmenting himself to run far faster than was natural, and sprinting around the fields with ease. Lunges were now a joke!
Sparring wasn’t...
Augmenting yourself was starting to become a reflex. More than one student was badly hurt from an overpowered strike, and Hiawatha spent a lot of his time reminding everyone to tone it down. They also spent a lot of time practicing augmenting for defense.
Reinforcing yourself just before an impact went a long way to preventing injuries. Much of their training was about developing a reflexive reaction, as Hiawatha continually reminded them that they would not always be expecting the blow.
Fighting with weapons was just plain bad. The problem was very similar to the one everyone experienced when learning to run properly, but far more complex.
Now a sword thrust carried enough momentum to pull you off balance. If your kick was blocked, it would often propel you backwards. And shifting your weight while maneuvering around your opponent became a joke.
Students kept hopping into the air at odd moments, or else leaping away from the fight. Slipping and sliding happened in almost every spar.
The class had an unspoken agreement to hold off on all challenge matches for the time being. Not one student issued a challenge to anyone else. Lunch was now a big event, since the whole class was eating together each day.
Everyone slowly developed a more defensive style, no matter what weapon they were using. It was far easier to plant yourself firmly and use your shield than it was to control your balance and momentum when on the attack.
Hiawatha was beginning to get frustrated with the lack of initiative and aggression, when everything changed in a moment. A loud crack rang out from the sparring line, followed immediately by the sight of Rupert flying through the air.
He landed hard and didn’t get back up. Winded and gasping for air, Rupert lay on the ground, cradling his arm. Hiawatha ran over in alarm, but had him healed up in seconds.
“What was that?” he asked angrily.
“I don’t know sir,” came the sheepish reply. No one was really surprised to see Li Na standing there, shield and mace in hand.
Hiawatha picked up his own shield and moved to stand in front of her.
“Do it again.”
Li Na nodded and set her stance, before swinging her mace up from her knee, stepping forward as she did. The mace smacked against Hiawatha’s shield as it normally would.
“Do it again.”
Li Na struck a second time.
“Again!”
The third strike was exactly the same.
“I want you to replicate your last strike against Prospect Rupert. Keep trying until you get it right!”
This time when Li Na struck, her mace hit Hiawatha’s shield like a boulder. Hiawatha didn't budge, but he was grinning widely.
“Good! Very good! What did you do differently?”
“Ummm… I don’t know… I just did the same thing as last time.”
“Focus. Think back. How were you augmenting yourself?”
Li Na turned pink. “Ummm… I cheated sir. I augmented my whole body at once.”
“And?”
Li Na looked up at him, suprised and confused.
“What did you do differently. What was your intent?”
“I just swung my mace at him. He kept blocking every strike, so I wanted my mace to smash his shield.”
“And what happened then?”
Li Na’s eyes grew wide. “I smashed his shield! It broke into splinters!”
“How?”
“Because I wanted it to!”
“HA HA HA! No!” Hiawatha turned his head to look over everyone. “Prospect Lina here has managed to augment something outside of her body. She has empowered her weapon as well as herself.”
Rupert was standing and cradling his healed arm, forgotten by Li Na, who was now practically vibrating as realization set in. “I augmented my mace?”
“You pushed the spell through your body, but also through your weapon, yes. You augmented its properties.”
“So, I made it stronger, sir?”
“Stronger, definately. But also more rigid, and, it would seem, much heavier. Your strike knocked Prospect Rupert back several feet. You smashed his shield and broke his arm.”
Li Na flashed Rupert an apologetic smile, but quickly turned back to the Battle Mage. She was beside herself with excitement.
“We can augment our weapons when we fight? I can smash through any shield?”
“No. No you can’t. This is not something we will be teaching you until next year. Imagine the damage you would do if you struck with an augmented weapon as you are now. Half of you can barely stay on your feet. Look at the damage you just did a couple of minutes ago.”
“No, I must insist that you refrain from augmenting your weapon again. At least until we teach you how to do so properly.”
Li Na looked crestfallen.
“You should be happy! You managed to instinctively adapt your spell! That is quite an achievement... Now get back to work!”
Hiawatha glared at all the students standing around, causing everyone to jump and rush back to their practice.
The training slowed down noticeably, however, as every single one of them tried to replicate Li Na’s feat.
One student managed to thrust his spear right through a shield, while another shattered his sword with an imperfect spell; he had managed to strike with exceptional force, but the sword was now too rigid to withstand the impact.
Li Na, meanwhile, had found a way around her restriction. She now extended her augmentation to her shield, not her mace. Reinforced and enhanced shield bashes sent every one of her opponents flying, which Li Na seemed to find hilarious, until Sven was the only one who would spar with her.
After he dodged her shield bash for the fourth time, sending her face first into the ground yet again, Li Na spat out a mouthful of grass and grudgingly went back to sparring without augmenting anything but herself.
That didn’t stop her from trying to catch Sven unawares, however, as was made evident every time she flew past him and slid across the ground.
It only took two more weeks for the students to become proficient with using augmentation in combat. There were still issues, but they were now manageable. Some of them even managed to stealthily augment their weapons.
Yaric, meanwhile, was shocked to discover that he was now one of the better fighters. Lauren even said he should now be firmly in the top 16, and probably even in the top 8.
Using magic still hadn't gotten old. Students used every excuse to leap ridiculous distances, or to run at stupid speeds. They were all flying high when Hiawatha called them together at the end of a spearring session.
“Quiet! Listen up! The Summer Solstice Tournament is in three weeks time! That is how long you have to prepare for your next expedition. The day before the Tournament, you will all be heading out to one of the Academy’s training ranges, where you will be competing in groups to capture every other team’s flag.”
“Sir, we will be competing against each other?” Devin asked.
“Yes. You will be put into small teams. Each team will have their own flag, which you will have to defend. You will also be attempting to capture the flag held by every other team from your class,” Hiawatha stated, looking from student to student. A wide smile began to spread across his face. It was an ominous sign...
“Oh… and you will be trying to take the flags from every team from the other class that will be joining you - the sixth years!”