As his slightly long black hair hung to the sides of his face, Will's blue eyes take one last look at his hometown of Rivik before he boards the train. He never thought he'd feel all too much when leaving it. And yet he did feel some sort of pain at the loss of his family. He didn't know why really, he'd never been on good terms with his family.
It doesn't matter thought Will, I'll write a letter after the first month or so. Will looked for a place to sit in the wagon but unfortunately all the seats were taken, a shame, for Will was hoping to get an entire seat to himself so he could revise his knowledge before arriving in Vallen. He moved on to the next wagon and spotted an empty seat opposite to an old man that appeared to be...a thaumaturgist?!.
Will was pretty shocked, but also intrigued, it wasn't everyday he could get to meet a thaumaturgist what with him living in a such a small town. Though he supposed that didn't really count if he was on a train on its way to Vallen.
He approached the man and said "Excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?". With a sigh the old man replied "If you must.".
Will seated himself and observed the book the man was holding,
"Advanced thaumatic exercises in case you were wondering"
"Why would you be reading a book about exercises you can't practice?"
"Now why in the world would you think I can't do these exercises."
"I thought it was impossible to use magic inside of official trains."
"And what makes you so sure of that?"
"The fact that there is a thaumatic mana blocker in every wagon of this train."
The old man raised an eyebrow at this, "Know some magic do you?"
"Well I'd have to if I plan to be enrolling in the academy"
This statement rather surprised the old man, "Well I certainly didn't expect to meet one of my students so soon."
"Your students?"
"Why yes, did I not introduce myself? I am Klyven, and currently I am the academy's only thaumaturgy teacher. But back to the point, you wanted to know how I'd be able to do magic in the train?"
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"Yes actually, I don't quite understand how to be frank, the mana blockers in this train obstruct any kind of transmission, even simple telekinetics are impossible to do."
"What you say is mostly true, but you are mistaken about one very important thing."
"And that would be?"
"That the mana blockers don't actually block mana transmission, they only limit it."
"I..., I don't think I understand."
"Think of it like this: when you are running you expend stamina, imagine that that stamina is your base mana, do you follow?"
"Yes, I do".
"Good, now imagine that you are running with heavy weights, what do you think will happen?"
"I'll expend more stamina, or in this case, mana. But I still don't understand ho-"
The realisation then dawns on Will as he figures it out, I'm an idiot.
"The weights represent the mana blockers don't they? It's not impossible for a mana link to be made, it just requires much more mana for a link to be made."
"Indeed, very good. The name "mana blocker" was mostly chosen to trick people into thinking the device blocked all form of mana transmission, though with the increased ammount necessary for even the simplest of things it doesn't really make much of a difference"
The train then comes to a stop as it arrives in Vallen, we've been talking this long?, the ride should have taken at least an hour.
"Well I suppose that about does for our lesson, I should return home, I look forward to seeing you in class mister...?
"Schmidt, Will Schmidt"
"Well then mister Schmidt, until the next lesson."
Klyven then goes his seperate way, most likely to his house in Vallen, it would be very strange for an academy teacher not to have one. Will immediately goes in the direction of the academy, finding the way will be easy, what with all the roadboards giving it away, not to mention the giant cathedral-like academy building that dwarfs all others in the city.
This is it, this is where my journey begins.
He takes a step, the first of many.