I was almost buzzing with excitement as the second mysticism class began. I was going to be able to use the elemental boxes as well as being shown the next Mana Control exercises. I was thrilled.

I gave Al a smirk as I walked past him for the front row, my chosen seat. I would be sure to look for an opportunity to taunt him about something later. I checked my schedule first. I wanted to be completely certain I wasn’t going to miss the time slot I signed up for with Professor Zwief, a time slot that I shared with Al. It was just another opportunity to nudge him.

Day 3

Time:

Location:

Mysticism

6:30-10:00

Room 1E

- Elemental Box

7:30-8:305

Room 1B

Cooking

10:30-11:55

Room B-Kitchen

Lunch

12:00-1:00

Cafeteria

Martial Skills

1:30-3:00

Stone Cut Training Field

“Welcome back, students,” Professor Waltz started the class, waving for everyone to be seated. “Professor Zwief is in Room 1B, make sure you are on time for your elemental box if you signed up for one. Professor Lichtenstien will be leading guided meditation in the back left corner of the auditorium. Professor Siqueira will be wandering around, be sure to flag her down if you need her assistance. For anyone seeking to learn the exercises necessary to move beyond Beginner Rank Mana Control, please come down to the first two or three rows, and we’ll begin in five minutes. I promise, my lecture will be done in time for those of you with the first elemental box appointment.”

Several students made their way down, but Al wasn’t one of them. I’d kept my nose open for his scent since we first met. I needed to know where he was as much as I could. He remained right where he was. I didn’t know what he was doing except for cursing under his breath occasionally. I would need to inspect that later. It felt like I was missing an opportunity.

“Last class we learned about the two exercises expected of those who have not learned Mana Control yet,” the cattlewoman smiled and said with her thick Blokena accent.

“Today, we will work with those of you who have a Beginner Rank in the skill. There are four exercises we focus on to help you develop to Intermediate Rank, though we recommend you only select two, one for each internal and external. You will need to spend a little time on each in the beginning and decide which you find more beneficial. Each of the exercises can lead to developing skills as you attain higher ranks in Mana Control. A word of caution, when I say higher rank, I am speaking of Advanced rank or higher if any of you ever even manage to go that far,” Professor Waltz stopped to survey the room. Her countenance was more serious than I’d seen from her and lent weight to her words.

“For internal exercises, by this point you know and understand that mana flows through your body following a set pathway. The first exercise is to diffuse the mana into your muscles. With time, you may learn to strengthen your muscles using your mana. Making you stronger, faster, or both. Again, don’t expect that until you reach Advanced Rank or higher,” she paused a moment to let that sink in. “The second exercise is to push the mana into your eyes or ears, potentially increasing your senses. This might some day lead to learning an advanced sensing skill such as Flying Beast Eye or Echolocation. If you already have such a skill, this exercise might even help it advance. I would advise caution with this exercise. Overuse risks taxing whichever sense you are already working to improve.”

This sounded fantastic. Without being able to take the Advanced Senses course, I wasn’t sure I’d find a way to help my Synesthesia grow faster.

“The control required is not as simple as it sounds. You don't just want to push mana into your sensory organs or muscles. You want to infuse the mana into them. You want to saturate them in mana. With enough control you can use that infused mana to toughen your muscles, then make them stronger. Similarly with your sensory organs, with time and improved control you will eventually be able to enhance your senses, make them stronger, and if you are truly dedicated, you may even develop a magical sense,” Professor Waltz paused again.

She smiled then continued, “The second pair of exercises we'll be working on is using your mana to create a thin but dense shell of mana around your body. Once again, with time and effort you might learn the skill Mana Shield, a powerful defensive skill against magic. The second exercise is to spread your mana out from your body as far as you are able and maintain control of it. With time you might develop the skill Mana Domain, allowing you a level of control and awareness over the area around you.

“These are all possible with Mana Control. You might also notice that each skill is an increase in difficulty of the first exercises. That is because they are. Mana Control advances linearly. Each step you take in your control builds upon the previous exercise. With that, choose one and begin,” she finished.

I was excited to get started on these. Throughout her lecture, I had started to paint a picture of just how versatile Mana Control could be. How many other skills were there that could be developed from Mana Control? I didn’t have all the answers, at least, not yet. But I had my entire life ahead of me to find out. I couldn’t wait.

I quickly started to work, choosing to focus on strengthening my muscles. It was an exercise I could put to immediate use in Martial Training. I pushed mana through my channels then slowly started introducing it into the bicep muscles of my right arm. I figured it would be best to focus on a small scale to start then go from there, just like how I started with Mana Circulation training. The exercise also reminded me a lot of my Mana Infusion skill, which made me much more cautious. I didn't feel like blowing up an arm or a leg if I pushed too much into one of them. Healers could only do so much.

I barely had ten minutes to practise before I needed to walk down the hall for my Elemental Box appointment.

Room 1B was large though not as large as the auditorium of room 1E. There were also no chairs or furniture of any kind. Not even pillows to sit on.

I looked around in confusion and was glad to see I wasn’t the only one confused. I spotted both Esteban and Al congregating together. I wanted to join them, but Robin spotted me first and waved excitedly, “Burion, you’re here. How are you finding Mysticism? Aren’t the exercises boring? Are you enjoying your professional skill class?” she rattled off rapidly in Rugirian. I couldn’t help but notice she was standing with a taller, burlier bearman.

“Mysticism is very informative, Comrade Robin,” I said politely. “I enjoy the exercises, and I am really enjoying Cooking. What about you? How are you finding classes?”

“I don’t like Smithing. I get why they want me to learn it, but I just don’t like it. It’s dirty and sweaty. Oh, and so very loud,” she answered, finishing with covering her ears.

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The bearman with her chuckled. “You would complain about the loudness, wouldn’t you, sister?”

Robin gasped as she took note of the bearman standing next to her, “Oh, right, where are my manners? Burion, this is my brother, Rober. He was put on a different Lair Team, but like me, he was chosen for a defender role. Rober, is this Burion Belov.”

“Pleased to meet you, Comrade Rober,” I said, giving the larger bearman a polite bow. Then turning back to his sister, I asked, “If you hate it, why do it?”

“Metal,” Robin answered with a sigh. “My brother and I have potential with Earth and Fire. We have both attuned to Fire already, but not Earth. Earth and Fire attunements, once strong enough, can let you gain a metal attunement.”

I had heard of combination attunement, but as far as I knew they were rarely ever actually achieved. I had become more interested after the dean told me I had an affinity for light. Combination attunements were rare, and Light and Shadow didn’t have a combination that I knew of. Still it was an interesting enough topic that I did a little more digging. Al, for example, could eventually unlock a storm attunement, something of a legend in itself if the travelling bards were to be believed.

“So that is why we are here. Why are you here?” Robin asked then quickly added, “Not that I mind or anything. Just . . . curious.”

“The dean advised me that I have a talent for Light. Illusions and such. She believed it would be worth my time to learn it,” I answered.

Rober hummed and nodded. “But do you not have an attunement already?”

I nodded. “I have the Shadow Attunement skill. Helps with my Stealth and makes me a very good Scout.”

“Or Spy or Assassin,” Rober said, giving me a measured look.

“Sure,” I said with a laugh, then with a roll of my eyes I added sarcastically, “I’m sure my father, the proud mercenary company commander, would love that. No, I’m good with my Shadow Scout Job.”

Rober chuckled, “I understand. Our father puts a lot of pressure on Robin and I too.”

“Yes, that does seem to be a parent’s prerogative,” I said.

Robin shook her head and defended him, “Papa is not so bad, brother.”

Rober snorted, “Ha, you only say that because he dotes on you, his precious little princess.”

Robin growled menacingly, but before she could retort, the professor cleared her throat, “Welcome to the elemental boxes. Please note the squares marked out on the floor, I want one student per square. Come along, get moving.”

I looked at the stone floor, confused as to what she was talking about until I saw very faded white paint on the floor. They were about a metre by a metre wide with a metre between each square. I shared a brief look with Rober and Robin before we spread out, each taking a square near each other.

Professor Zwief started as soon as everyone moved. “Now, these are elemental boxes. They will produce whatever element you need. Simply channel a little mana into the script surrounding the square, state clearly the element you want to train, and the box will do the rest. It works best with the elements you have a talent for, so if you try for fire, but your real talent is for ice, you might get a cold breeze at best and will have wasted a one-hour cooldown on the elemental box for almost no benefit.”

I could almost smell the guilt rolling off some of the kin in the room who were planning to do exactly that.

Professor Zwief smiled and continued. “Now, you can use the boxes to develop an already existing attunement or to work on a new attunement. Both have benefits, but it will be up to you to determine which you will pursue. Also, you can always switch to a different element for your next time slot. With that, this room is yours for the next hour. Good luck.”

I kneeled down next to the edge of the faintly painted white line that made up the edge of the square. In miniscule writing along the outer edge of the paint was a script carved into the stone. I put a hand on the script and pushed a little mana at it, making it glow, illuminating a script that looked like gibberish. However, I assumed it was ready for my command, “Light.”

I was suddenly engulfed in blinding light. There was light everywhere. I couldn’t see anything but light. I could still feel the ground below me. I could smell people around me. But the light was simply overwhelming.

I stumbled back slightly and fell on my backside. I felt the cold stone floor under my hands but still couldn’t see it.

I heard Professor Zwief start lecturing, “I know it can be disorienting at first, but that will pass. The sooner you sit and start to work, the sooner you’ll gain your attunement. And best of all, the element you’re sitting in is mana attuned. It means you can gain your attunement faster than you would be able to otherwise. Instead of six months of trying to absorb the element naturally, here you’re getting it injected right into you. But that’s enough talk. Time is limited. I suggest you get to it.”

I frowned at the lack of instruction, but like she said, time was limited. It helped that I had already attuned to Shadow. While Light was the opposite of Shadow, the principal was the same. Absorb the light into my mana until it attunes to it.

I sat with my eyes open to the light, trying to understand it, trying to understand how it worked, but there was nothing here to contrast it with. Light only worked when it was used to illuminate, but I knew from experience that light reflected off surfaces. It would have made more sense to be confronted by mirrors or something. This light didn’t make sense to me.

After a minute, the light around me began to change. The intense white had started to turn yellow. After a little more time, it turned orange, then red, violet, indigo, blue, and finally green before going back to pure white light and starting all over again. As the colours rotated, I finally began to understand. Light encompassed all colours, every colour. That explained the rainbow-coloured ball Professor Siqueira made in the Mystic Manipulation class. I’d always thought of light as just light. It was either there, or it wasn’t. Light just made it so you could see. It never occurred to me that everything I could see and the colour I was able to see was due to the light.

The third time through the rotating colour sequence, I found that each colour had nuances of its own. There was a deep lemon yellow, a saffron yellow, and a buttercup yellow. Scarlet reds and cardinal reds, burnt oranges and tangerines. A kaleidoscope of colours before me. With every breath, I focused on forming a connection to the light, willing it to enter my being. But I could feel my Shadow Attunement rejecting the light, and I had to fight to overcome their resistance.

The colour cycled through just six times in total before the elemental box suddenly shut down.

“And there ends your first elemental box session,” Professor Zweif announced, getting a few groans of disappointment. I couldn’t blame them for their reaction as I felt the same. I felt like I was just starting to get somewhere and the session ended. “Don’t give me that. Most of you will be back this weekend. Oh, and feel free to get started as soon as you get here. You don’t need to wait for me.”

“That was incredible,” I cheered as I saw Robin next to me.

“Ugh, I feel dirty,” she complained and shuddered. “So much dirt, ick.”

I chuckled, and she glowered at me.

“It was not so terrible, sister,” Rober said from a square over.

Conversations among the students halted when Professor Zwief cleared her throat again and said, “Hurry along students. The next group will need the boxes.”

We carried our conversation out the door and ran into Al and Esteban along the way.

“Ah, Al, right,” Robin said, getting his attention.

“Robin Dubois,” Al replied with a friendly smile, “How are you? How was your time in the elemental box?”

Robin sagged, “It was horrible. So much dirt.”

Al laughed and got a glare from the beargirl.

“How about you, Comrade Alphonse? Did you learn a new attunement yet?” I asked, needling at him.

Al frowned, “Not yet. I just started on Water. I’m sure I’ll learn it soon. And you?”

“Light, I think I will also master it soon,” I replied with some tightness in my voice.

Robin looked from Al to me and back before she looked down at Esteban, “Is there something between them?”

Esteban shrugged, “They are both alphas and trying to determine who’s the leader of the pack. It’s stupid.”

Robin laughed and agreed, “Indeed. But we should get back to Mysticism.”

“Right, I need to get to Magical Cooking,” Esteban said as if he just realised what time it was. “It was nice meeting you, Robin. See you around.”

Al and I glared at each other before Rober walked between us. “Let’s go before we get into trouble.”

That put an end to things. The four of us returned to Mysticism then went our own ways. I returned to the front row and went back to practising the four different Mana Control exercises Professor Waltz gave us.

Classes for the rest of the day went as expected. In Cooking I learned how to make a Rugirian dessert, a spiced apple tart. I followed the recipe carefully, measuring out the butter and brown sugar, then mixing them together in the bowl with my fingertips. I rolled out the pastry dough and cut circles with a sharp knife, then filled each one with piles of cinnamon-scented apple chunks. I watched as they bubbled and browned in the oven, then pulled them all out at once. While my tarts passed as acceptable, Esteban’s tarts filled the room with their bakery-sweet smell and were praised as exceptional. The small taste I got of one of the delectable treats made me wonder if I’d ever be as good as the dogman at cooking.

The afternoon Martial Training class was filled with the loud thumps of bodies hitting straw mats, as I grappled and locked arms with my sparring partner. Sweat beaded on my brow as I moved in and out of various holds, trying to balance strength with Wrestling and Grappling techniques.

Then I went home, practised everything I learned, did the exercises Signore Barducci assigned me, cooked dinner, and slept.