The book Trillia had taken from the shelf was interesting. It spoke in-depth on weaving enchantments, though some of the language didn't make sense to her. It spoke of molecules and atoms, things she had no grasp or understanding of. It spoke of interactions with something called electricity and how mana could and would interfere with things.

From the context of the book, Trillia could tell it was written by a gnome or a dwarf. She'd read books from both races before, in Arlyss' library, and while she'd never say it to either race's face, the two were strikingly similar in how they went about writing.

"New blood, eh? So what's your story, beast?" Trillia wanted to berate whoever was speaking. Calling someone a beast was no way to have a conversation. But it wasn't her problem. For now, she didn't want to interfere. She'd need to see how the Professor handled such matters. So she kept reading and ignored the voice.

A few seconds of silence went by, before a loud tap on her desk, caused her to jerk her head out of the book. "I'm speaking to you. Pay attention." The voice belonged to a woman with alabaster skin and purple eyes. She wore an odd looking garment that was tied at one shoulder and acted like a dress the rest of the way, with a thin chain belt hugging her waist.

Trillia tilted her head slightly, staring at her. Had she been calling Trillia a beast? A little frown tugged at her lips before she turned her attention back to her book. Trillia had met people like this woman before. There had been plenty in her early days at D'Jamu.

That seemed to have been the wrong answer as the same growled in frustration and slammed a hand closer to Trillia. "Are you incapable of speech? I was informed that only the truly gifted could be brought here to learn."

Another voice sprang from the resulting silence. This one sounded a bit like boulders scrapping together. It rumbled Trillia to her core. "Bold of you to assume you know the worth of a creature better than a deity of knowledge. I would advise caution, M'Lady. Just because the Professor tempers our appearance does not mean we are without our individual strengths."

The woman snorted and walked away to bother someone else, who also promptly ignored her.

The woman in question was loud, and after an hour or so of bothering the now seven other inhabitants of the room, she finally flopped down in a chair herself while everyone else read.

The Professor finally stepped into the room - what felt like hours later - her appearance had changed. She stood at the height of everyone else but had a light brown complexion that reminded Trillia a bit of Kismet. Brilliant green eyes and flowing black hair. A long, flowing white dress brushed the ground with red and gold highlights. The only reason Trillia recognized the woman at all was her presence. What had been a faint whisper of divinity before now filled the room. Everyone sat a little straighter, and everyone put their books down.

"Your patience is appreciated. A few things of note while you are here. Friendly duels are not only allowed but encouraged. However, both parties must agree first. There are effective measures to ensure that none of you can die while you're here. Attacking someone, physically or mentally without consent will result in punishment. If someone taxes you verbally or emotionally, I'd recommend learning how to deal with that. You will face far, far worse in the Aetherian plane."

"Food is provided at six intervals throughout the day with a wide variety of types. By the time I'm done with this speech, I will be implanting a complete and total map of the student area into your minds that you will not be able to forget as long as you are here. You eight are new students. That does not mean your time here will be equal. Some will be here a short time, others a long time. A mistake many students make. "

The Professor now pointedly looked towards the troublemaker from before. "Is assuming that the people brought here are not capable. Amongst you eight - there are two lesser deities, four immortals, and two mortals. With all that said, failure to follow the loose guidelines I give and repeated offenses will be met with being thrown into the Aetherian plane. Make no mistake, I have agreed to teach you. I have not agreed to coddle you. If you are deemed unteachable and a malcontent, I will simply dispose of you."

Everyone sat a little straighter as worry crossed the faces of all present. The Professor continued. "I do not care who you are, who you represent. I do not care if your parents are beggars in the street or the axles themselves. Here. In this space, I have total and utter control and the ability to punish as I see fit. The things you will be learning to face in the Aetherian plane do not care for status, birthright, titles, class, or any other superfluous things that you all think are important. I have witnessed Greater Deities torn to shreds because they underestimated the Aetherian plane.

DO.

NOT.

Underestimate the Aetherian plane. It will cost you not only your life but your soul as well."

"While you are here, you will be incapable of learning new languages, but you will be able to understand one another's words with perfect clarity, even if the intent behind them may escape some of you.

There are a near-limitless number of books on these shelves. Over the coming weeks, the realm will grow accustomed to you and only show you books that are suitable for the realms from which you hail. Are there any questions?"

Trillia raised her hand, as did the boulder-voiced creature from before. "Fairtrade." Trillia lowered her hand before speaking. "Is there a way to ask the realm for specific books? This one is about enchanting, and it's really interesting, but there are a lot of words I don't understand."

The troublemaker rolled her eyes and rested her chin in her palm. The Professor nodded with a smile. "Yes, That will be something else you all have an understanding of once we are done here. Learning under me will mostly be about your own drive and ambition. Knowledge is not something to be forced into your mind. It must be offered, and you must be ready to make the effort."

Trillia nodded.

The Professor turned to the other raised hand. "Titan." Trillia turned to glance at the creature as its hand went down. The spatial magic had to be throwing her off. The creature looked a bit like a handsome human with deep red skin like hers. Except his eyes were glowing embers of orange. Two horns twisted up his forehead. "I understand that I am primarily here to learn about the Aetherian plane and the associated magic that accompanies it. However, I have heard that you are also an expert in many forms of martial fighting. Is that something we will be able to learn from you?"

The Professor contemplated the question for a few seconds before speaking. "There's some misinformation there, Titan. While it is true that your purpose here is to learn about the Aetherian plane, you are not here to learn just about the magic. You are here to learn about its very nature and everything you must do to survive there. Your status pages will vary from individual to individual. However, something you must all be aware of is that the Aetherian plane doesn't care about your status. It cares about your willpower, and I do not mean the thing that appears on your status pages. I mean it cares about the strength and content of your soul itself. You will absolutely be learning how to fight from me, Titan. Because there may be times when you are forced to fight in the Aether. Just know that you must be the sum of all the parts I offer. If you fail in any one area, you will not succeed or survive this training."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

After a few moments, another hand went up. This one belonged to what looked like a female elf, but her skin was made of blue leaves and a dark green bark. "Does this mean there is no way to save us if we falter?"

"I will do my best. I am skilled in the Aetherian plane and it's magic. But you must understand that there are entities there whose power I couldn't contest, even if I had a thousand times the power I have. Most of your early months will be learning how to avoid drawing the attention and ire of the more serious threats."

A few more minutes passed, and the Professor nodded. A stack of books three tall appeared on the desk of every student there. "Read these books and do your best to memorize their content. I will give you a week to do so before I test you. If you fail the test, I will suggest that you drop out and leave for your own safety. If ever you need to ask me a question, simply place your hand on the orb on this desk." Both the desk and the orb appeared at the 'front' of the classroom.

"Most of your status will be blocked this is for your own safety. We are outside of the reach of the axles and very close in relative terms to the [Universe Core]. This means system changes can happen at any time and often happen frequently. The area around us is often used to test how system changes will impact the lives of mortals and the realms they inhabit. It's for this reason your statuses are locked. In the hopes of sparing you the most drastic of changes."

"With that in mind, your health will be fixed at a hundred thousand, as will your stamina and mana. This is not going to be relative to what any of you have had before. For some of you, that is going to be an incredible increase. For others, it will feel as if you have no room to utilize your skills to their fullest."

"As I mentioned before, friendly duels are acceptable. A healthy goal for your first six months is to create powerful magical attacks and spells while using less than twenty mana. Try to aim for this during your duels here. A key component in the Aetherian realm is that you will all have access to truly infinite mana. You will each be capable of casting spells there that could level the realms you each hail from, but the creatures that inhabit the Aetherian realm feed off of mana, they seek large pulses of mana and wish to greedily devour it."

That caused everyone to give her very confused looks. Everyone in the class raised a hand. The Professor waved her own. "You will understand by the end of this week. Read, study, and most importantly learn how to control your power. All of you have some form of seeing mana as it forms. So I want you to watch and learn."

The students leaned forward slightly in their desks. The Professor raised her hand, palm facing them. She closed her hand into a fist and raised her pointer finger directly up. Trillia watched as the tiniest trickle of mana gathered at her fingertip. The flow of mana swirled in on itself and seemed to implode, causing sparks of bright red mana. Over and over, a hundred times a second before exploding out toward the students in a wave of heat that singed hair and caused blisters. The books were entirely unharmed. "That was seven points of the mana pool each of you has available. Something that none of you were informed of before you came here is that many of the traits needed to safely step foot into the Aetherian plane are also traits required for deities to break through the barrier from a normal deity to a greater deity."

The hands all went down, and Trillia could feel the healing mana coursing around the others in the room. Her hand remained up. "Fairtrade."

"I haven't gotten any notifications. Is there a reason for that?"

"As I previously mentioned, you're outside the axles. Changes will happen to your status naturally here. You will not receive notifications because the Universe core doesn't deem it worthwhile. There are only a handful of places in this part of the universe that have fully functioning, stable systems, and this is not one of them. The lock I put on your status windows is extensive, but ultimately, I am just a Greater deity. The [Universe Core] can sweep aside all that I do by accident. When you return to your realms, there is a very high chance that your classes will be different, and your stats will have changed drastically. This is normal, don't panic. In fact, Fairtrade, one of your classes is perfectly suited to this endeavor. Free-form casting is something that most classes do not condone. That is entirely what you'll all be doing here. While your classes will guide you, most of the heavy lifting will be done on your own time. If anyone has any questions about how to form spells without a skill or system behind it, I'd recommend making it worth Fairtrade's time to teach you."

The trouble-maker finally raised her hand. "Tempest."

"Isn't that why we are here? To learn from you? Why would I have to learn from....her." Trillia could feel the disgust roll off the woman's tongue.

The Professor sighed softly and shook her head. "The first magic I ever learned was from a beggar. That was before the realm you hail from had even been created. Knowledge cannot be forced. It must be sought after. Fairtrade is an incredibly capable caster for her age. Her understanding of free-form casting is perfect for novices to learn. Learning from each other is just as important as learning from me. Perhaps more so because I can no longer lower my thought process to the level all of you are currently at. While I am a good teacher, nothing in this universe is perfect. That's all for today. Get reading."

With that, the Professor vanished. No fanfare, no lights, no mana. She was simply gone. Without missing a beat, Trillia stood and walked over to Titan. "I'm Trillia Demonsbane 'Fairtrade'. You were asking the Professor about martial combat, right?"

The creature gave her an odd look but nodded. Trillia kept going. "Are you skilled at martial combat yourself?"

"That would depend on who you ask, Lady Fairtrade. I am considered gifted amongst my kind for my prowess with weapons, but many others would see me as a novice."

Trillia smiled wide at that. "I was just told by a powerful creature of my own realm that I was just playing at swords and that I should abandon it. What can I offer to learn about physical fighting from you? I don't have much knowl-"

The creature raised his hand and offered it to her. "Teach me free-form casting. My father is one of the greatest mages in the second axle, and I fear I have inherited none of his prowess for magic. If you teach me casting, I'll teach you everything I know about any weapon you are curious about."

Trillia grinned and grabbed his hand. "It's a fair trade in that case." A pulse of divine magic flowed out from the two of them, Titan looked down at his hand with a grin.

"I wondered how you got such a title... Let me know when you wish to practice. I'll be reading until such a time - I do not wish to disappoint the Professor in my first week."

Trillia thought about that for a moment and nodded. "That's smart. I'm not sure how to tell time here."

The plant woman from before approached them. "There is an hourglass that we can all summon. It's part of the magic that was imprinted on our minds. I believe they follow the same time scale."

Trillia searched her mind and found not only the map but a host of other temporarily bestowed skills. With the direction of the plant girl, the class summoned their hour classes, finding each of them in perfect sync with a number at the top. The plant woman twisted it and turned it. "It seems to operate on a thirty-hour-a-day scale. I fear I offer little in terms of skills, but if it's ok with the two of you, I'd like to at least be able to observe any training you do."

Titan was the one who spoke up first. Other groups in the class had started to form as well. "Let's agree to meet in the training grounds at the twenty-eighth hour of every day, for two hours?"

The two girls nodded. The plant girl extended her hand to each. "Meridia Everflow 'Blossom'."

Titan took her hand first with a smile. "Levant 'Titan' Darktone. A pleasure to meet you both."

Trillia's eyes widened a little as her gaze turned fully to Titan.