Sean’s POV

“I’ll be there, ‘til the stars don’t shine. ‘Til the heaven’s burst, and the words don’t rhyme.” I sang to myself as I prepared to help out Master Urushon’s class. Probably not the best song before a presentation, but Bon Jovi was one of Danielle’s favorites.

“Umm, excuse me?” I turned to see a confused looking gnome staring at me. “Is this where Master Urushon’s class is supposed to meet?”

“Yep!” I replied cheerfully. “Come on in and make yourself comfortable. I’m the guest lecturer, Sean.”

“Nice to meet you Master Sean, I’m Carniana.” She kept looking at me oddly, but that was fine. I took the time to double check that all my props were there. I had everything, and by that time the rest of the class had trickled in. Unsurprising for an advanced element, there were only eight students, including Master Urushon.

“Hello everyone!” I said. “I hope you are all here for the class on gravity magic. If not, and it sounds interesting feel free to stay.” Nobody moved, so I walked around to the front of the desk. I sat on the edge of it and continued. “So, I’m a firm believer that you can’t truly master a magic unless you know exactly what it is that you are manipulating. So we can start with that. Anyone willing to explain gravity? Just shout it out, no need to worry about being wrong.” I encouraged them. It must have been a somewhat novel experience, because they all looked around at each other uncomfortably.

“Sorry to do this to you then Carniana, but you are the only name I know here besides Master’s Urushon and Carrigan trying to hide in the back.” I said with a smile. “What does the word gravity mean to you?”

“Um. Well. It’s. Aaaaah.” She struggled for a bit. “The force that keeps us on the ground?”

“Correct!” I said with a smile. “Though that is only a part of it, but gravity does pull us towards Vitae. Anyone else? What do you know about gravity?”

“It’s a combination of earth and dark magic.”

“Great!” I said, pointing to the speaker. “It is indeed a combination of earth and dark magics. Now, do you know why?” I asked, and everyone looked at me like I had grown a second head.

“Why what?” The young gnome asked.

“Why is it a combination of earth and dark? Why those two, and not say, air and fire?” I asked. “Well, we can come back to it in a minute. Any other descriptions of gravity?”

“The bigger you are, the more you are affected?” Someone did the traditional student answer with a possible question.

“Yes, and that’s what I was hoping to start with. What’s your name?”

“Brennen.” He answered.

“Thanks Brennen. Now, let’s do a quick test of Brennen’s guess. I have here, a chunk of iron ore and a feather.” I said, picking up both items from the desk and holding them about shoulder height. “Any guesses as to what will hit the ground first?”

“The ore!” Everyone replied at once, finally getting a bit more comfortable.

“Heh, sounds like you’ve done this before.” I chuckled and gently set both down on the floor. “Since you are all correct in that, we don’t need to do that. Now, give me a second to think how I need to word this. Let’s start with this, is gravity the only thing affecting these objects as they fall?”

“No?” Carniana squeaked out after a second.

“That’s correct, but do you know why the feather falls slower?”

“Air.” Someone else said.

“Yes!” I replied, pointing to them. “Air slows the feather from falling. So what would happen if we could remove the air? Carrigan, you’re up my friend.” I said. As he sauntered to the front, I explained what he would be doing to the class.

“Carrigan here is going to start out with a flat sheet of mana beneath the objects, and raise it up so that it covers both objects. This will remove any air in there, and his barrier is sufficient that air can’t get in. He’s then going to raise everything up to shoulder height, again keeping the air out. In the end, we should have a box below the objects with no air, and a box on top that contains our feather and the ore that also has no air.”

“Done.” Carrigan said, and I turned to see he was finished.

“Right, so pay attention. Carrigan is going to drop only the mana that is holding the objects, letting them fall. If we did it right, then the only force acting on both will be gravity.” I nodded to him, and he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to add some flair. With a snap of his fingers, the mana disappeared, and both objects fell to land at the exact same time.

“Whoah.” A few of the kids muttered.

“Whoah indeed.” I said.

“Question.” Brennen said, confused. “You said that gravity is stronger on the ore. Why would they hit the floor at the same time?”

“The strength of gravity depends on three things. The first are the two masses of the objects you are talking about. I see some confused faces, so I’ll explain it like this. Mass is simply how much of something is there. Weight, which is something you are probably a lot more familiar with, is simply mass times the pull of gravity. The other thing that gravity depends on is the distance between two objects.”

“Do you know the exact equation?” Master Urushon asked.

“Yes, they have figured out the equation though I don’t know exactly what it is. I think you multiply the masses of the two objects and divide by the square of the distance between them.” I answered. That felt familiar, and I vaguely remembered a lot of forces depend on the inverse square law, but other than the name that was all I could really recall.

“So if you know the equation, and the masses are different, why did they hit at the same time?” Another student asked.

“That is something that is peculiar to the gravity force, and something we should all keep in mind. No matter how massive the object, the acceleration from gravity will always be the same. I see some confused faces, so let’s do a little bit of the math. Don’t worry, it’s only a few equations.” I said with a chuckle at some of the annoyed faces. “In our little experiment, gravity is the only force. So the force equals the gravity equation. Anyone know what the equation for force is if you know the acceleration? No? Force is equal to the mass times the acceleration.” I explained, writing both equations on the board. “Notice anything?” Nobody did right away, which was fine. I hadn’t combined the equations yet.

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“What if I wrote it like this?” I asked, writing a new equation on the board. The mass of the planet times the mass of the object divided by the radius squared equals the mass of the object times the acceleration.

“The mass of the object is on both sides!” Carniana said.

“Exactly! So we can eliminate it.” I said, crossing it out. “So even though the force is greater on the more massive ore, they will both accelerate at the same rate.”

“So we’re back to the force is bigger, but it takes more force to accelerate something?”

“There ya go.” I said with a nod. “Now, let’s go back to our first question for a bit. Anyone see the connection that earth magic has to gravity?” They all sat there for a bit, and Master Urushon finally gave me a smile.

“Leadweight.” Master Urushon said, and the class turned to look at him.

“Exactly right.” I agreed. “When you use the leadweight spell, you are altering the mass of an object.”

“And gravity is based on an objects mass…” Carniana continued, and I smiled. There really was nothing better than watching someone have a eureka moment. “But the dark?”

“Ah, dark and light are special elements. Both rule how matter and energy interact. Light tends to add energy, while darkness drains and redirects energy.”

“But why then does it take dark energy to use gravity?” Master Urushon asked.

“Well, what’s the biggest force of gravity in the area? Keep in mind, there is a gravitational force between everything.” I asked. As I did so, I used a gravity well to slowly raise up the ore from the ground. “I’m using gravity magic here, not telekinesis. The dark magic is required to weaken the pull of gravity from Vitae so that my little gravity well here can actually affect the ore.”

“So what?” Someone groused. “If you can only pull things with gravity, isn’t it fairly useless then?”

“Hmm. Not necessarily.” I said. I reached behind the desk and pulled out a peach. I had originally wanted an apple, but couldn’t find one. “Here we have a normal peach. Let me show you something special you can do with gravity.” I said. Concentrating, I made a gravity well that would only affect the peach and cancelled the pull of Vitae’s gravity. Tossing it, I smiled as I got a slightly wobbly, but still stable orbit. A few adjustments and it was soon circling the well nicely.

“Someone once described orbit as the ability to fall toward a planet and keep missing.” I said. “The only thing holding the peach around the gravity well is gravity. Orbits are rather special things. It’s what keeps the moon in the sky. It’s what keeps the planets circling the sun. And, if you know how to manipulate things properly…” I trailed off as I made a series of gravity wells. By dropping them in succession, I launched the peach at the confused student, picking up speed with each well.

“GAH!” He cried as it whizzed past his ear.

“You can use gravity to alter the speed and direction of projectiles.” I finished. “Have an enemy behind a shield? No problem. A volley of arrows speeding your way? Simple.”

“Can it deflect spells?” Someone asked.

“Yes, but there is an issue.” I said. “This is where gravity starts getting dangerous. Mastser Urushon, have they calculated the radius of Vitae and the distance from the sun?”

“We know the radius of the planet, but not the distance from the sun.” He said. “At least, to my knowledge.”

“Alright. So I can’t give exact answers, but think of this. Take the radius of Vitae. The distance from Vitae to the sun is over ten thousand times that number. The distance is so far, that the fastest thing in the universe takes about 8  minutes to travel the distance.”

“What’s that?” Carniana asked.

“The fastest thing?” I asked, and she nodded. “Light. It takes light eight minutes to travel from the sun to Vitae. Light is so fast, that it could circle the planet several hundred times in a single minute. And even with all that speed, there exists objects so massive that light can’t escape because of the gravity.” I paused, looking at every single student so that it could sink in.

“What are these objects?”

“We call them black holes.” I said.

“How do you know they are there if light can’t escape them?” Master Urushon asked. “You wouldn’t be able to see them.”

“That’s true, you can’t observe them directly. But, say this marshmallow is light.” I said, making another gravity well. “And this gravity well is a black hole. If it is directly between us, the light is stopped. But, what about the light that isn’t pointing directly at you?” I asked, pulling different marshmallows and tossing them. Eventually one was just far enough out to skip across the well and pass towards Master Urushon. “Light can be bent as well. I’m not sure how they determined that the light was being bent, but they did.”

“So why are they so dangerous?” Brennen asked.

“Vitae isn’t large enough to prevent light from escaping.” I explained. “If you somehow managed to generate enough mana to create a black hole, imagine what could happen. If it was held long enough, it might gain enough mass to self-sustain. If it reaches that point, it could theoretically keep expanding until it has eaten the entire world. Though I doubt anyone would be able to generate one of them. They are truly massive objects. As in several times the mass of the sun.”

“Right. No pushing the limits and inadvertently destroying the world.” Master Urushon said after a minute. “Do you have anything else for us Sean?”

“I do have one last thing prepared.” I said, again pulling out the ore. “I know some people are always going to be more of a hands on learner rather than explanations. So what I hope to do is this. I will balance the gravity and hold this ore off the floor. I want everyone to search it with their dark mana, and try and sense what I’m balancing. You will be looking for a force that is pulling up and down at the same time. When you think you have it, head back and try it on your own with some of the marshmallows.”

Everyone gathered around, and I felt tendrils of magic tentatively trying to figure out what was going on. Most took a while, but eventually they broke off to try their own hand at gravity magic. Oh they weren’t very good at it, but they were making progress. I gave them all a bit of encouragement, and the occasional pointer but for the most part left them to their own devices.

“Everyone, I want to say congratulations on the progress you have made and thank you for letting me try my hand at teaching for a day. Keep going, and I’m sure you will be able to become masters of gravity in no time.”

“Thanks Sean!” The group chorused, and I headed out. Master Urushon was waiting for me at the door with Carrigan.

“Sean, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this. I. I’ve got quite the new grasp on this magic now.” Urushon said.

“I’m glad we were able to have this.” I said. “I had a lot of fun teaching, maybe someday I’ll come back to it.”

“Well, you did a fantastic job.” He said. “Before you go, one last question. Once we have mastered orbits, what else is there to work on?”

“Heh, that’s where the fun begins. Multiple object systems. I’m only partially there, but by the end of the day I hope I can recreate this.” I said, casting the otherworldly solar system. “Imagine how difficult it will be to balance all the gravity wells so that everything maintains a stable orbit.”

“Is that. . . Vitae?” He asked.

“No, this isn’t Vitae. This is where I’m from.” I said, highlighting the third planet. “You might want to go check on them.” I chuckled as we heard a crash from the classroom. Urushon rushed back inside, while Carrigan and I headed out.

“Well Teach, what’s next?” Carrigan asked.

“Not rightly sure.” I said. “There’s a few advanced elements I need to finish practicing up on, then I need to head out and advance my species.”

“Sounds like a plan to me. Mind if I tag along?”

“I think it would be a great adventure.” I said with a laugh. “We might have to wait for Elendria to finish whatever she is working through.”

“Oh?”

“Lodrano has a friend helping her work through her issues.” I said. “You noticed how she freezes whenever a man starts yelling at her?”

“I was wondering about that. Something left over from her slave days I assume?”

“Most likely. I would hate to think what she went through under one of those collars for decades. I’m just glad that it was a special collar that didn’t have that abominable addictive crap on it.” I shuddered. “Anyway, wanna grab some lunch before I head over to the church of Bruin? Can’t practice merging spirit and mana energy on an empty stomach.”

“Sounds good to me. Let’s go.”