When class ended, Jeb went back to his room in a daze. After an hour or so of lying and staring at the ceiling, he finally felt whole enough to go to dinner. At dinner, he looked for Declan, but he wasn’t there, as far as Jeb could tell.
The next week passed in a blur. Jeb woke up at third bell to the feeling of his room shaking. After the third day in a row of being the first to the cafeteria by at least an hour, he took to doing his homework and studying in the morning, rather than the night before.
A week after Jeb gave Margaret the first letter to his family, he was studying in the Stacks. A page landed next to him, and he jumped slightly. When he saw Margaret standing over him, eyes blazing a pale blue, he jumped even more.
“I had been wondering where you were studying in here,” she commented, eyes roaming over his desk and the surrounding shelves.
“Hi Margaret, what did you set on my desk?”
Her eyes focused on him again. “Your desk?” The two words bore into him as her icy eyes forced him to sit back down.
“Yes?” Jeb asked hesitantly.
“In what way have you claimed ownership over this desk?”
Jeb cocked his head in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“This desk, like every other desk in the Stacks, belongs to the Stacks.” Margaret replied, tone still cold.
“Right?”
“So why did you say it was yours?”
“Because to the best of my knowledge, it’s the same desk that I’ve worked at all term? I was calling it mine in the sense of the desk that I use, not in the sense of a desk which I own.”
“Oh!” Margaret said, voice and eyes defrosting. “You should have just said that. Your family wrote you a reply.” She paused, considering for a moment, “or, at least, your hometown Librarian said that your family wrote you a reply. I suppose that this entire system does rely a fair amount on you trusting both he and I to accurately convey messages, does it not?” Without waiting for a reply, she walked back into the Stacks, leaving Jeb to replay their conversation in his mind.
Quickly shaking himself out of it, he read the letter that she had delivered.
Jeb, We hope this letter finds you well. The Librarian assures us that you are in no immediate danger, despite what your letter implied.
Jeb set the letter down for a moment, trying to think of what he could have said that would have made his family worry. Maybe they think that I’m not being safe enough in the laboratory courses? he thought. I guess that it could be related to when the Censusmaster kidnapped me, but I already told them that the situation had been resolved. Shrugging, he kept reading through the letter.
As he had expected, not much had changed on the farm or in the town. The Bard had apparently left towards the Capital, which was interesting. Other than that, though, the only notable news was that his bees had apparently split into multiple hives. His aunt claimed that they still all seemed to report to the same queen, for all that she wasn’t sure quite how that worked. Still, the fields were all growing well, and his family attributed at least part of that to the bees. Jeb’s sister asked if he looked at their stars still, or if that was just her.
As he read the letter, Jeb felt his heart grow warm and his vision start to blur. He hadn’t realized how worried he had been that his family would just ignore his letter, or that they would somehow blame him for having been taken away. When his tears dried, he penned a letter back to his family. Since nothing had really changed in the past week, he just wrote about a day in his life.
His sister’s comment about the stars made Jeb realize that he hadn’t been outdoors even once since the start of the term. For the rest of the afternoon, evening, and night, he tried his hardest to make it outdoors. Try as he might though, Jeb could not find the sky that he belonged under. There were countless skyscapes, clearly crafted by deft and fantastic hands. There were starry skies that told a story of what the sky could have looked like if the past had played out differently. None of them had his star.
That set the tone for the rest of the term. Jeb woke early, tried to find his way to nature in his free time, and studied whenever he gave up. Each of the classes was fascinating for their own reasons, though they all presupposed a lot of knowledge that Jeb had never been exposed to. His independent study was incredibly helpful for that, both because Professor Fredrick exposed Jeb to a lot of the content before it became relevant, and also because he would point Jeb in the right direction when something cultural came up that he hadn’t ever heard of. Even after the tournament ended, Jeb's sleep schedule had shifted enough that he was still able to make it into the cafeteria well before the fourth bell.
Dean Aquam was frequently there, and he always made a point of asking Jeb how his courses were going. After the fourth week in a row that he felt like the bees were closer after returning from his Introductory Piano course, Jeb finally told the Dean about it.
“Before I answer, do you mind if I ask a few clarifying questions?” Dean Aquam asked. Jeb shook his head, and the Dean continued, “how did Lecturer Thistle say that they were blocking you from your Bound objects and Skills?”
Jeb shrugged. “He said something about leaving our own reality for a moment.”
The bowl of broth in front of the Dean began to tremble. After a few moments, the Dean began to nod. “Ah, I understand.” Jeb waited for the Dean to continue. After the two stared at each other for a long minute, the Dean coughed. “Sorry, I had expected you to ask what I understand.”
“What do you understand?” Jeb obliged.
The Dean rolled his eyes and chuckled. “I suppose I deserve that. Do you find that you are less disoriented each time that you are blocked from your lute and taken to where the course takes place?” Seeing Jeb nod, he continued, “then the most likely situation is just that you are growing steadily closer with everything that you are Bound to. The constant disconnections makes your bond stronger when it is reformed.”
Jeb frowned. “Wouldn’t that make it harder when we are separated?”
The Dean shook his head. “I can see where you might think that, but Magical effects do not always operate the way that we would expect or like them to. No, it is a well documented fact that having a Bond temporarily sundered renders it stronger when reformed.”
“I suppose I’ll take your word for it,” Jeb replied. Privately, he was still unsure if he believed that explanation. The bees becoming closer felt different than the change to how his lute felt. Both bonds felt stronger, sure, but the bees also felt physically closer. Then again, Jeb thought, my family hasn’t said anything about the bees leaving the farm or establishing more hives off property. The feeling continued to puzzle him throughout the term.
Despite how isolating sleeping alone in the Remedial College dormitory made Jeb feel, he slowly gathered a group of friends. He most often sat and studied with Declan, and the two remained laboratory partners each week. As the term progressed, other members of their Theoretical Enchanting course started studying with them as well. Between the five of them that regularly studied, at least one person had an intuition on how to solve every problem that Professor Bearson assigned them.
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After the third week of Introductory Piano, one of Jeb’s classmates came up to him and introduced herself. “Hi, Jeb, right?”
Jeb nodded.
“My name is Catherine. It seems like you’ve been doing really well at this course. Do you already have the Piano Skill?”
Jeb shook his head. “No, but the directions are pretty straightforward.” Realizing that she might take his comment as an insult, he quickly followed it up, “I mean, I was mostly self taught in the lute, so having someone to offer corrections is already more than I’m used to.”
She nodded. “That makes sense. I was wondering if you might want to practice together sometime. I feel like I keep making mistakes when I practice alone, and I wasn’t sure if the same might be true for you.”
Jeb beamed. “I would love to! Are you doing anything right now?”
“Were you thinking now?”
“Why not?”
She considered the question for a moment and then nodded. “Alright. Do you have a preferred practice room?” Jeb shook his head and followed Catherine to a practice room she apparently used often. After that, Jeb and she practiced together most days, if only for a few minutes.
As the term grew to an end, Jeb felt the anxiety in the Academy begin to build. When he asked the Dean about it, Aquam nodded. “Final exams are stressful for almost everyone. Students who do poorly often have to repeat their courses, if not worse.”
“Oh.” Jeb said. “Should I be worried?”
“If you’re doing well in your courses and keeping up on the readings and homework, I do not believe that you should.”
“Thank you!” Jeb replied, getting up to go study a little more.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Humdrum Human Age: 16 Class: Wizard Level: 3 Experience: 1015/204
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Total Statistic Load: 633 Physical Load: 228 Strength: 52 Dexterity: 53 Endurance: 54 Vitality: 55 Presence: 14
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Mental Load: 405 Intelligence: 83 Willpower: 85 Magic Affinity: 89 Mana Depth: 74 Charisma: 74
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Mana: 1755
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Glyph Attunement: 31 Least Shape Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Earth - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Lesser Shape Earth (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Shape Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Water - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Lesser Shape Water (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Hold Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Conjure Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Conjure Water - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Destroy Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Mud (Modified) Tier 2 Spell Attune Earth Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Water Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Water Mana - Efficient (Modified) Tier 2 Spell Attune Air Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Fire Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Sand Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Least Create Sand (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Attune Sand Mana - Efficient (Modified) Tier 2 Spell
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Bard Songs Known: 1 Lute Enforcement
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Skills: Meditation Spell Glyphing Gift of Gab Identify Soil Savvy Animal Handling Fertilizing Lute Playing Singing Musician Pollination Brewing Distilling Smithing Wood Identification Woodworking Soil Improvement Glassblowing Magic
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic Glyph Specializer
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)