The frantic energy in the Academy continued to grow as the end of the term approached. Jeb was not immune to it any more than the rest of his classmates. Even though he felt like he knew the material well, he was worried about the upcoming exams. What if it turned out that he had been skating by the entire semester with some fundamental misunderstandings about the material for each course he was in?
Thankfully, not every course he was taking had a final during Finals Week. On the last scheduled day for his Independent Study, Jeb walked in to see a small cake and a few balloons around Professor Fredrick. “Congratulations!” he said, ignoring Jeb’s confusion, “you will absolutely pass this independent study. While I do not quite think that you are equipped for the standard curriculum, you are significantly closer than I would have guessed you would be at the start of the term.”
To Jeb’s relief, that set the tone for the rest of his courses. Theoretical Enchanting did not have a final examination in the laboratory section, which he was grateful for. Even though Jeb had really enjoyed the entire course, he had no idea how all of the very different laboratories that they had done could tie together into a cohesive final. In the classroom, Professor Bearson distributed a final examination to each of them on the final day.
Seeing the students start to mutter, he growled out good naturedly, “if you all want me to give a lecture from Advanced Theoretical Enchanting, I will. That material will absolutely make it onto the final examination, though. Instead, you can take your examination now, and then I do not have to do anything during Finals Week.”
The Professor’s comments shut down the complaining, though it did make Jeb want to complain a little. The course had been incredibly fascinating, and he was curious what would be covered in Advanced Theoretical Enchanting. Still, he had enough of a sense of self preservation that he was unwilling to draw the ire of the entire course by suggesting that might be a good idea.
The rest of his courses, however, stuck to the more traditional finals format that the Academy seemed to encourage. The final for Introductory Piano was almost exactly what Jeb would have predicted. He and the rest of the class were each called into the room one at a time to play a short piece that they had been instructed to learn. Once they played that, they were given a piece of music to play on sight, and then the examination finished with a few scales.
When Jeb had finished with all of his Finals, he took a moment to breathe for the first time in a long while. As he did, he finally realized that he had not gotten any Quest Notifications since his first day of Theoretical Enchanting laboratory. No one nearby seemed like they would be able to tell him why, so Jeb decided that he would ask the Dean the next morning.
With nothing else to occupy his time, Jeb debated what to do. Both Declan and Catherine had suggested that he should go to the end of term party that was being held at the College of Music. The fact that Declan was invited made Jeb fairly confident that it was not a College of Music exclusive party. Jeb searched his mind for any excuse. Coming up empty, he sighed and started trusting the halls of the Academy to take him to where the rest of the students were.
The party was exactly what Jeb had worried it would be. Bright, strobing lights filled the room while music louder than could ever be comfortable blasted from all directions. Though the music was too loud, Jeb did concede that it was still beautiful, even if it would have been much better at a lower volume. He scanned the room, searching for Declan or Catherine. When he couldn’t find either of them, Jeb sighed and started wading through the crowd of students.
After searching for a few minutes, he found a quieter section of the party. The music from the rest of the party still filtered in, but much more softly. There were no strobing lights here, even if it was still dimmer than Jeb would have liked.
He saw row of tables filled with food in the back that a number of students were passing by, picking up small plates as they did. Next to the food, Jeb saw a similar setup for drinks. Given how uncoordinated a number of the students were, Jeb knew instantly that a number of the drinks had alcohol. If he had been able to find Declan or Catherine, he might even have partaken. Alone and in an unfamiliar environment, though, he wasn’t willing to take the risk.
Eating something will give me an excuse not to go back out to the party, Jeb thought, moving to fill a plate. As he did, he nearly ran into Catherine. Her deep blue hair seemed brighter in the dim light, and her eyes practically shone.
“You made it!” she exclaimed, looping an arm around his. “Do you want to dance, or would you rather look for Declan first?”
Jeb tried to remember if he had ever introduced the two of them to each other.
Seeing Jeb thinking, she laughed. “Are you wondering how Declan and I know each other?”
Jeb nodded.
“You’re a fairly visible person on campus,” she said, making Jeb quickly look at himself.
Even after an inspection, he wasn’t entirely sure what was notable about him. He wasn’t much taller than normal, and he didn’t have any hair color that was unique to him.
Catherine rolled her eyes at the display. “I’ll explain later. For now, just trust that Declan and I met because of you. I think he said he was over by the games.” Without waiting for confirmation that Jeb wanted to talk to Declan, she began walking, dragging Jeb along.
They passed back through the crowd of dancing students, and Jeb closed his eyes, trying to ignore the sounds and lights. In a few moments, the sounds were once more muffled. Unlike the refreshment room, however, this room was not quiet from the lack of music. Excited cheering broke out every few moments as something happened at one of the tables.
Jeb looked around, completely lost, as Catherine continued moving directly to her destination. They found Declan sitting beside a table, joking with some of the other students from Theoretical Enchanting. The group waved when they saw Jeb, and Declan stood up to greet him.
“Do you know what you’re doing with your term break?” Declan asked the two of them as they relaxed by one of the calmer tables in the game room.
Catherine smiled. “My family and I are traveling to our estate. It will be nice to get out of the Capital, if only for a little while.”
Jeb wanted to ask a follow up question, but he noticed that Declan’s smile ha faded slightly at Catherine’s comment. “What about you, Declan?” she quickly followed up.
He put on a smile. “I’ll probably just tinker in my family’s workshop for most of the break. I have a few ideas from this past semester, and it will be nice to have the time to work on them.”
They both turned to Jeb expectantly. Jeb shrugged. “I’ve tried to work on most of my Skills during the term, but I haven’t really had a chance to explore some ideas I’ve had with my Farming Skills. If Dean Aquam doesn’t have anything else for me to do, I suppose that I’ll probably just work on one of them.”
The two nodded, and Jeb let out a silent sigh of relief. He had hoped that staying in the Academy over the break wouldn’t be too strange, and it seemed like he wasn’t wrong. The three chatted for the rest of the night before breaking apart, each going to their own dormitory.
In the morning, Jeb found Dean Aquam in the cafeteria. “Why haven’t I gotten any new Skills or notifications that I’ve finished any Quests this term?” he asked without preamble, setting his try down across from the Dean.
The Dean looked at him in confusion. “How do you normally get those notifications?”
Jeb mirrored his confusion. It didn’t sound like one of the Dean’s probing questions, which were designed to make Jeb think about what he’d always trusted implicitly. It sounded like the Dean legitimately did not have any idea how Jeb was used to finishing Quests. “For Quests, when I do what the Quest is for, such as-” he looked through his Quest Log, “learning a new single piece Enchantment, I get a Notification and then the rewards for the Quest. I’m less sure how I unlock Skills, but I’ve been told it’s something similar.”
“Interesting,” the Dean said. “Everything in the Academy happens along term lines. You should be getting all of your Quest Notifications and new Skills whenever grades are officially posted. I haven’t left the Academy in too many years, I suppose, since I forgot that not everywhere follows the Academy’s timeline.”
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Jeb nodded in understanding. The idea that the Academy would have used some great working of Magic to delay any new Skills or abilities to make everything neatly align with terms was completely in line with what he was learning about it. After a second, though, he realized an issue. “Wait,” he shouted, startling the Dean, “I got Notifications that I had finished a Quest five times at the start of the term.”
“Which Quests?” the Dean asked.
“They were all learning a new Enchantment,” Jeb said. “I learned them during the first Theoretical Enchanting laboratory.”
“Interesting,” the Dean replied. The liquids around them started vibrating, and Jeb sat in polite silence while the Dean searched for an answer. Jeb had nearly finished his breakfast by the time that the Dean stopped making the room shake.
“It appears as though the room you were working in was not, strictly speaking, part of the Academy during the first session,” the Dean spoke. “It was close enough that all of the students who had been enrolled for more than a term were still bound by the Academy’s restrictions, but I suppose that you were not. That is certainly an interesting piece of information, one that I highly doubt Professor Bearson would have been able to gather. I will forward him a report of the incident, assuming you do not have an issue with that.”
Jeb shook his head. “As long as I won’t be in trouble, it doesn’t really matter to me,” he said plainly.
The Dean nodded, and a ripple passed through all of the liquids in the room. “Now, then,” he said, “let us discuss your courses for the next term.”
“I absolutely want to take a course focusing on Glyphs,” Jeb said. “It’s been weird not focusing on it at all.”
The Dean nodded, and they began sketching out the rest of Jeb’s next term. Jeb spent the rest of the day saying his goodbyes to his coursemates and friends. When he ran out of people to say goodbye to, he moved to the Library to start researching for his new project.
While he wandered the Stacks, he considered how he would frame the question. Jeb was distracted enough that he ran into Margaret, and blurted out the question without thinking. “How can I more effectively Aspect water?”
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)