The next day of the course, Jeb arrived to see the rest of the class already paired up. Dean Aquam walked over.

“Good morning, Jeb,” he said.

“Good morning Dean-”

The Dean shook his head.

“Good morning Instruc-” Jeb didn’t even get to finish that word before Aquam shook his head.

“While we are in this classroom and working on Rituals,” he explained, “I am just Aquam. Did you do the reading for today’s class?”

Jeb nodded.

“Fantastic!”

Aquam clapped and suddenly took on the role of the instructor again. “Before we begin practicing this Ritual, I thought that you all might appreciate some background that the reading did not cover. Today we will be learning a heavily modified form of a Ritual practiced by a people from the far north. It was traditionally performed before the season they called The Long Night.”

Once again, mist started filling the center of the classroom. It coalesced into the shape of two figures. A rising sun appeared on one side and quickly began to rise.

“In this region of the world, there is no sunshine for two months of each year. Two dancers are selected from each community, and they dance from the first light of the day until the sun has set completely.”

The two figures began dancing around each other, tracing the steps that Jeb had read about the day before. As the sun kept climbing, it seemed to start leaking light that began to swirl around the two dancers. They started to glow, and Jeb took a moment to wonder how the mist was glowing before being sucked back into the sight.

“When performed correctly, the light the Ritual gathers lasts until the end of The Long Night. For centuries, this was the only source of light that these people had.”

The mist dispersed.

“Of course,” Aquam said, tone much lighter, “I would not expect anyone in this room to be able to perform the Ritual that well, if only because each pair will only be dancing through one repetition of the dance. One unique element of Rituals is the element of repetition. Each loop through a dance increases the effect of the Ritual, binding more and more Magic to the Ritual. Of course, this increase in Magic comes with its own risks, but we will cover that later in the course. The goal of today’s lesson is simply learning to feel the Magic of a Ritual. Now then, taller members of the pair, line up over there,” Dean Aquam gestured to one side of the classroom. “Shorter members of the pair, line up beside me.”

Jeb took that to mean that he was taller than Aquam. From across the room, it certainly appeared that way, for all that he had never noticed it before. Jeb shrugged and walked over beside the taller halves of the pairs.

Dean Aquam began by instructing the shorter members on their part of the dance. When one student asked what happened if the two dancers were the same height, Dean Aquam replied, “in the three hundred years of observations, that did not occur a single time.”

“But what about in the classroom?” the student continued.

Their professor chuckled, “note that I assigned the partnerships. Unless more than six of you were the exact same height, there is always a way to make taller and shorter pairs. And, of course, I choose who to allow into this course. I do my best to ensure that the demographics of the students are able to perform the Rituals that I plan to teach.”

Mollified, the student nodded and returned to their line. Jeb started hopping from foot to foot, trying to mimic some of what the mist dancers had done. The other students in his line, by contrast, seemed content to just sit with their eyes closed. None appeared to be asleep, though their breathing did slow down as the time passed.

When Aquam came over to the taller half of the class, the other students stood and blinked a few times. It was clear that at least one of them had forgotten where they were. As he led them through the steps, however, Jeb struggled to keep up.

Each step that the Dean had them make seemed just a little bit wrong, for some reason that he could not place. The tempo was also just slightly off, and Jeb could not follow the beat. By the time that the other five students were gracefully flowing through their steps, Jeb had barely managed to string five in a row in tempo.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Dean Aquam nodded. “Go work with your partners,” he instructed, and five pairs of dancers began to slowly walk through their moves. Coming over to Jeb, he cocked his head.

“Is something the matter?” he asked.

Jeb frowned slightly. “I don’t know. This Ritual just feels wrong, somehow.”

Aquam nodded. “I had wondered how you would react to this course.” He pulled out a pad of paper and quickly jotted down a few notes. Putting the pad away, he spoke again, “would you like to try walking through the steps together? Some find that Rituals are easier to understand in parts, while others find them easier to grasp in their context.” Despite the fact that it was phrased as a question, Jeb understood the implicit demand. He walked over to stand across from Aquam.

Aquam began to tap his foot, and despite the fact that the tempo had not changed, something about it suddenly felt right. With a nod, both took their first step, and Jeb instantly felt a small spark of Magic. It had not come from his Mana pool, and his mind instantly jumped to Alchemy. But, no, nothing in the Ritual was pulling the Magic out of some object in the air. Where, exactly, the Magic was coming from, he could not say.

Without even thinking about it, his body moved to the next step. Jeb’s balance changed enough that he was pulled from his musings, body responding to the dance. It was not a perfect performance, he knew. His sense of tempo was still less than absolutely perfect, and his feet were frequently off position. What it was, however, was a good enough approximation of the Ritual for a small wisp of light to form between him and his partner.

“Great job!” Aquam praised. “Do you feel as though you could do the steps without a partner now?”

Jeb nodded hesitantly and tried walking through the dance. The movements still felt off without a partner, but imagining Aquam facing him made it feel more natural. Seeing that Jeb had a handle on the dance, Aquam walked around the room, offering gentle corrections to the other pairs. When everyone was covered in a thin sheen of sweat from the exertions, Aquam called a break and asked the students what they had noticed about the Ritual.

Most of the answers revolved around a vague sense of Magic in the air. Jeb had not been paying close enough attention to see whether the other groups had been creating lights of their own. His own light had lasted just a few seconds, so it was very possible that he would have missed any light that another pair had formed. Once everyone’s breathing was back to normal, Aquam had them draw lots to see which pair would demonstrate the Ritual first.

“Before we begin the full class portion of today’s session,” he started, once the pair was surrounded by the other ten members of the class, “I feel as though I should mention the final reason that Ritual Magic is hard for a lone few Researchers to study. I saw that each of you was able to create a light, if only for a brief moment. That is good. It implies an inherent control over the Magics that we will be using for the rest of the term. Given that most of you are advanced Students in disciplines of Magical control, I am unsurprised by this fact.”

He trailed off, seeming to realize that he had lost the thread of the conversation slightly. Coughing, he reformed the two dancing figures of mist. This time, however, the figures appeared to shrink, as though the view was pulling further out. Jeb saw the vague outline of many other forms surrounding the dancing pair. The crowd was also moving with the same rhythm, though they were simply stomping or clapping, rather than going through the entire dance.

“One group mentioned that they had trouble believing that this Ritual, even if compounded over an entire day, would be able to provide light for months. If the two of you,” he nodded in the direction of the pair, “were alone, that would be correct. However, Rituals are rarely performed alone. Each community’s dancers would be surrounded by their family and friends, who would also be pouring their Magic into the Ritual. Given that it is our first Ritual, I will ask that nobody intentionally push their Mana into the Ritual. The Magic you will add by virtue of active participation is likely near the limit of what any pair will be able to handle.”

Aquam nodded to himself, clearly satisfied by the way he had ended the lecture. Jeb looked around and saw that the other students were all nodding along.

“If there are no other questions,” Aquam spoke again, “then let us begin.”

A deep note began thrumming in the room. The walls seemed to echo it back, and it shook Jeb to his core. He started stomping his foot in rhythm to the song, even as melodies started filling the space. The two dancers in the middle began to move, and Jeb saw a light suddenly appear between them. They danced elegantly, and the light grew more and more solid as they continued their steps.

After just a few moments, though, they were back to where they had started. The music died suddenly, and they stopped. Both were panting as though they had been running for their lives for hours on end. The light between them continued pulsing to the now silent beat, slowly fading over the course of minutes. The two stopped breathing so heavily at around the same time that the light disappeared, and the next pair entered the circle. They also danced gracefully, though the dance felt somehow fundamentally different than the first pair’s.

Unlike the calm yellow light that the first group had made, this second pair’s was a violent thrashing red. The third group created a peaceful green light, and the fourth and fifth struggled to make a light bright enough for the class to see at all. Jeb realized with a start that he and Aquam were the last pair to dance, and that they were about to begin now.

Nodding at the Dean, he felt the music once again start to build. If he had found it overwhelming from the outside of the ring, it was nearly all consuming now. Jeb did not have the space to notice the feeling of Magic wrapping around him. He could not hear his own breath or feel his body move. For a few short beats, Jeb became the dance.