Derek and his friends stumbled out of the smithy two hours later, some apprentice and journeyman Rune Smiths taking their places in the forge. All three had wrung every bit of mana out of themselves they could and refined the steel at the fastest rate they could under Ander’s expert eye.

Derek had been the most successful of them, producing over three hundred and fifty kilos. His skill with smithing and his intimacy with his sprites had definitely enabled him to complete the process efficiently. Garrett and Desmond had been quite a bit less efficient than him, the two only completing just under four hundred kilos between them. Garrett had more skill in smithing but a weaker mana pool so the two had been quite matched in production speed.

They were haggard, they had run their mana dry only to squeeze more out after a short rest. All three felt like they had already practiced all day when the old smith told them to go get washed up to head to their classes. The showers were hot and relaxing and eased the burden on their minds. It helped that Rebekah had come by to see them off and had cast a high tier rejuvenation spell upon them.

The boys split up and headed to their classes individually. Derek had been dreading the return to his Statecraft class but was pleasantly surprised that his mounds of homework had been intended for the month of stay at the Cathedral the instructors had predicted. He was now ahead and was happy to be able to give a better showing in this class. Instructor Afua seemed quite pleased with him.

His next class wasn’t as positive as Eomer Windreach decided Derek needed more work now that he was ahead and assigned several new books to his reading list. Derek was aghast to find that these works were longer and more archaic than the ones he had already had to read. The old man gave him a predatory smile as he reminded Derek that he was going to have to write summaries of what he learned from each of these new books. This left Derek wishing he had stayed in the Cathedral.

The old man delayed their escape to the Cafeteria once again and the line was already extending out the door when they arrived, groaning at their bad luck. They couldn’t help but note the spring in the old instructor’s step as he headed off to get his own meal. Finally, several minutes later, Derek had his meal in tow as he walked over to take his spot in the seat Alicia had reserved for him.

He was happy to see that his dorm mates had been fortunate enough to integrate with her circle of friends. Tristan was seated across from him and was discussing magical theory enthusiastically with Alicia while the other two sat next to him and were discussing some news they had heard from the Colosseum. Derek was amazed to see Tristan so energetic, or well, as energetic as he was at this moment. While he wasn’t waving wildly and speaking loudly like the two boys on Derek's left were, he was still talking quickly in his quiet voice, some level of warmth having entered it.

Derek listened intently to their discussion and surreptitiously switched his dessert for her bread. She smiled happily at him before returning to her conversation. She had always preferred sweet treats over the bitter and grainy bread that he had always been partial to.

As they ate the whole table eventually took interest as talk turned to the yearly competitions. As the youngest class, they would all be competing with each other. Eventually the conversation turned to the students arguing over who would win for their year group. A few students claimed that this or that scion of House Windreach would win while some of the students pandered directly to Alicia claiming that she would win. Others believed it would be Tristan and Alicia insisted Derek would win with Desmond and Garrett backing her up.

As the table grew more rowdy, the bell finally rang signalling that their lunch was over. Derek grabbed his and Alicia’s plates and took them for cleaning. Hustling over to his next class he saw Dean Karl was already there. Karl happily welcomed him back before starting the class. Luckily the Dean was content with Derek’s learning while at the Cathedral and opted not to increase his work burden like old Eomer had.

Two hours later, Derek was once again in his Auras class. His grandmother, Madeleine, glanced over him as he came in and smiled but said nothing. His cousin, however, made a big deal of fussing over him before being silenced by the domineering Dean of the Mage College.

After a short introduction, they all moved rapidly into the practical portions of the lesson and began attempting to form a simple Earth based aura intended to provide a massive boost to defense and mass for all allies within the area. He had practiced auras with his granny at the Cathedral but was not quite fully recovered from the morning’s mana expenditures so he was forced to burn through his mana and recover once again.

By the time he was done, he was once more exhausted. Some of the older students had fared no better as their mana pools were either as small or smaller than his. Derek still practiced diligently, focusing on fine control instead of raw power as he had been taught in his childhood. Power was easier to scale with a large pool and access to higher level spells, burning mana for greater efficacy. Fine control on the other hand paid off in dividends the stronger the user got, saving mana, speeding casting, and sharpening the effect of the spell with the precision of the caster’s mastery.

As this class ended he waved goodbye to his cousin and grandmother and headed over to his Holy Magic class. There he saw Alicia sitting with the little Priestess. They were holding hands and whispering together while the others of their two groups sat around them. His paternal grandmother had arrived before him and saw his fatigued look. Laughing, she cast the rejuvenation spell on him again. “Haha, don’t look so tired now, you have to demonstrate the spells as I teach them and then you still have to help Ovid teach his Weapons Class.”

Derek’s face paled thinking of it. He had been quite worn out from the day’s events already and there was still so much more to do. This prompted another laugh from her. “Oh don’t start now, you can cast these spells in your sleep. This will probably be the easiest part of your day.”

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She turned to the class and spoke, “Alright everybody, now that my little helper has returned we can really get started. Let’s start with the basics, ‘Holy Light’. Most of you should be able to at least cast this at the lower levels. At level one, a simple healing effect is generated and mends wounds on the self or a touched target. The efficiency is poor, pretty much a direct trade of mana for healing. At this level, a water spell may be more efficient. Derek, if you will…”

Derek cast the level one Holy Light spell, deliberately making the runes of the spell visible and drastically slowing the mana as it flowed through. This took quite a bit of control, but his grandmother was right, he had been casting this spell since he was a small child. He could do this in his sleep. He was certain that even Elton and Feros could do the same.

They progressed through the spell, Derek slowly increasing the level of the spell, increasing its mana efficiency and increasing its range, until at level six he showed how it could become an area of effect spell or an incredibly potent single target spell. Deliberately slowing the spells beyond this point would put great toll on him so his grandmother opted to do them herself, demonstrating all the way to level ten where the spell was so potent that it could bring everyone within the space of the room they were in back from the brink of death if so necessary.

Her fine mastery of this spell brought awe to the students faces. Many of the professors here could cast level ten spells, but few could do so with compounded elements while deliberately manipulating the runes to provide students the greatest chance to see them being cast. Even the little Priestess could be seen clenching her fist and Derek was certain he heard her whisper, “So Fierce!”

He could only shake his head at the precocious young lady’s antics. He could see a fire glowing in her eyes, the desire to one day be able to do the same. Having met her mother and Ancestor he knew she definitely could do so, it was only a matter of time.

As his grandmother finished her spell, casting it and allowing the comforting holy energy to wash over her students, the bell rang once again. Rebekah demanded a peck on the cheek from her grandson before dismissing him to head over to Ovid's Weapons class.

In the training fields Derek was drafted to aid the other students of his class with their forms. Ovid was teaching spear forms that day and Derek quickly got into the swing of moving down the lines, correcting postures and explaining the moves. It was almost relaxing for him. Unfortunately for him his master seemed to think the same, so after their training finished he pulled Derek aside and had him practice his Weapon Channeling spells in his mother’s courtyard until just before dinner was ready.

Hearing from one of his mother’s servants that it was time to eat, Derek quickly stripped off his sweaty shirt and cleaned his upper body before donning the shirt she had brought him. At this point his body was just as tired as his mind had been earlier in the day. His friends clowned on his shaky arms when they saw him until Derek warned them that if Ovid heard them, it was likely they would be joining him in the training yard the next day.

Derek never begrudged his harsh training. Pushing his body to the edge every day had tempered his will greatly. Being from a clan of Holy Magic users, there was little fear of permanent damage from his training. He could drive himself as hard as he wanted, only having to pay the price in pain and fatigue if he ever took it too far.

When his mother saw him she came over and embraced him. He felt a cooling stream of Water mana flow through him. While not as potent as his grandmother’s Holy healing spells, this Water was still quite effective and soothing in its own way. Afterwards he felt earth mana being guided to the places where the training had caused the most damage. He felt it as it bonded to his muscles and bone, making him just that much tougher and stronger.

He leaned forward and kissed his mother’s forehead. It was comforting to know that even after their social circles had grown, she was still his number one advocator. Eona smiled and whispered to him, “Come eat, the table is set.”

He smiled and followed her to the table. The table had grown quite lively as Derek and Alicia’s friends mingled together. Ander came in late after finally closing his shop for the day. The old man clapped his back hard before sitting down next to him. “It was a good day boy, we completed a little over seven tonnes today and all of the smiths still under contract received the metal they needed. A few shops were subcontracted to provide the additional labor some of the others would need as well.

“We have a few leads on talented Association staff and have even scouted a nice warehouse and shop space for the Association in the Market District close to the docks. Also, most of the Smiths of the city have now joined the Association or expressed willingness to join. All in all, things are falling into place rather nicely. After all of our projected expenditures, I expect that the Association will be able to reimburse your initial expenditure of five thousand talents, and have an additional ten thousand as well.”

Derek smiled before a trace of worry crossed his face, The lesson on logistics and strategy from his Military Science class that day had crossed his mind when he heard this good news. “Grandfather, House Fontana didn’t get into their position of power through foolishness. When all of these smiths complete their contracts in spite of the House’s best efforts they are going to realize something is amiss and they will start taking actions against us assuming they don’t realize when they see our refined steel hitting the market.

“Their plot so far has been to strangle supply to the market. There is no reason to believe that they won’t try to strangle other avenues of supply as well. We should use a significant portion of the money we have gained to stockpile more of the low quality steel, wrought iron or iron ore to make sure that we have enough in reserves to compete with these people if they decide some other form of trickery and we should continue to do so until it is either no longer feasible to acquire more or until we have succeeded.”

The old man made an effort to look like he was thinking it over, "And if they choose to steal these products?"

Derek laughed, "What fool would steal something partially owned by the House of Wealth? They would only be signing their own death warrants. Besides, I am sure Nolan will have already thought of this and has guards on hand as the House of Wealth takes its investments very seriously."

His grandfather smiled at him and patted his head like he had done when the boy was younger and had answered a problem correctly. He withdrew a document from his coat before continuing, “Smart kid, so you saw this as well. Arbitrator Nolan has already drafted a proposal to do just what you proposed, if you would just sign off on the use of your funds for this, Nolan has guaranteed that you will see excellent dividends in exchange for this investment.”

Derek smiled and reached for the document but was stopped by a pain on his forehead and a matching red mark on his grandfather’s. Derek felt his eyes start to water from the stinging pain as he heard his grandmother’s cross voice, “You two had better save that for after dinner. I won’t have you spoiling our meal with your talk of business.”

The two covered their foreheads and meekly nodded in acquiescence to Rebekah, much to the amusement of the others at the table.