I whistle as I lock the now empty classroom. With a smile on my face, I turn around to find a frowning Silah Silverman.

“Good afternoon Mrs. Silverman.” I say, doing my best to keep my smile. “I have to say, it’s a surprise seeing you again so soon.”

“You want to bring a revenant into a classroom.” She says, getting right to the point.

“I’ve already brought a revenant into the classroom.” I respond carefully.

Her eyes widen with fury, and I hurry to clarify, taking a pure white ring off of my waist. “I came across a revenant a few years back and caught it in this ring. The ring is enchanted so that if the revenant tries to harm anyone, it is immediately recalled back to the ring. It has been tested many times, and is perfectly safe. I will be drawing extra runic formations to make sure that nothing goes wrong even if it somehow escapes the ring’s enchantment.”

Mrs. Silverman watches me carefully, her eyes narrowing at me as her fury goes away. “I will be attending your next class, just in case.”

“That’s perfectly fine with me.” I respond, attaching the ring back to my belt “I’m sure the students would feel more comfortable with you nearby anyway.”

Mrs. Silverman turns around to leave, but pauses, “there will be a faculty meeting tonight after dinner. I hope to see you there.”

“I wouldn’t miss it.” I respond, but she had already started walking away.

I understand why she is annoyed with me, someone ignored her wishes and put me here. That doesn’t stop me from being frustrated with her attitude.

I was in such a good mood too.

Lost in thought, I walk around the academy campus aimlessly, trying to think of ways to improve my next class after my first day of teaching.

My students were smart, I’ll give them that. Alera is well educated, as a noble like her should be. The only issue I can see is that she is too confident in her knowledge, and doesn’t take corrections well.

I can’t fault her for her attitude, it is simply how she was raised.

Luna is another story, I’m sure she would stand out quite a bit if she wasn’t constantly hiding behind her brother’s accomplishments.

Levi, her brother, is meticulous himself. He refused to give up until he got the runes perfectly correct. I can admire that in someone. It’s obvious that the siblings managed to get here through merit, considering their commoner status.

Eric… well, I actually don’t know much about him yet. The one thing I can say about him is that he is too quiet, he didn’t tell me when he didn’t understand something, so I had to constantly watch him to correct him when he needed it.

Ira was brilliant in an academic sense, understanding things near instantly, but I could see her shying away from the looks the others would give her when she did something they couldn’t.

All of my students have potential, and I’m excited to help them reach it.

The sound of arguing draws my attention to the courtyard I had wandered into while in my thoughts. Two teenage boys seemed to be arguing about the recent death of a high ranking nobleman, and it was getting heated. Quite literally, one of the boys was starting to glow with fire attuned mana, heating the space around him.

I wipe some sweat off of my forehead, frowning as I realize that I left my temperature controlling ring with Ira.

The earth rumbles underneath the feet of the other boy, and all of the other students slowly back away from the brewing fight.

“He didn’t kill himself. How dare you even suggest such a thing, you bastard.” The boy, now practically on fire, says.

“It’s what everyone is thinking, you idiot son of a serf.” The other boy responds.

The fire boy’s eyes widen as he manipulates the mana inside of himself to do something.

I casually toss my dagger between them, hitting a tree.

Both boys turn to me, anger in their eyes until they see my instructor's robes. That seems to cool things down a little.

“If the both of you want to fight, don’t do it in the middle of the courtyard.” I say, activating the enchantment on my dagger to bring it back to my hand. “There's a proper way to do things.”

Fire boy calms down, reducing the mana that he was controlling.

“Coward” the other boy whispers.

Fire boy hears that and instantly turns toward the other boy, throwing a fireball.

I throw my dagger again. The dagger hits the fire ball, dispersing it. I mentally congratulate myself on the enchantments covering the dagger as I continue to move.

Using my foot, I draw a simple line of runes on the ground almost too fast for the eye to follow. Best not to give away my ability to use pure mana as a conduit.

Both boys fall to the ground before they can cast anything else, gravity pushing them into the floor. Any mana they had gathered disperses from the sudden impact with the ground.

“Now, why don’t the both take a moment to calm down and think about what you’re doing.” I say, calling my dagger back to me again and sheathing it. “If you two decide to fight outside of an arena, then you are facing suspension and possibly expulsion.”

The boy who controls earth opens his mouth to speak, but I cut him off.

“It doesn’t matter who started it.”

The boy's mouth snaps shut, as his face turns sour.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Now, when I let you up, I expect the both of you to bow to each other, apologize, and set a time for a proper duel. Is that understood?”

Both boys nod.

“Good.” I say, using my foot to scuff the dirt with the runework on it.

The both of them apologize through gritted teeth, and I breathe a sigh of relief. I turn around to head back to my office only to find a silent Silah Silverman watching me with an appraising gaze.

I nod my head to her as I walk past.

I feel her gaze follow me as I leave through an archway. As soon as I’m out of sight, I break into a brisk walk.

The way she looked at me was too calculated. I don’t like it. I feel like she’s about to involve me in some plot.

Thankfully, it doesn’t take me long to reach my office. To my surprise, Alera Deensa waits for me outside of the locked door.

She waits patiently as I silently unlock the door and let both of us in. Neither of us speak as I open shutters to let some fresh air in.

My mind isn’t actually on her or why she’s here. I’m sure she’ll tell me soon enough. No, instead I can’t get Mrs. Silverman’s look out of my mind. I feel like the other shoe is about to drop at the meeting I’m supposed to attend tonight.

With a sigh, I fall into my instructor's chair, appreciating the comfortable fur.

I open a drawer in my desk, pulling out a pitcher of water enchanted to stay hot. “Would you like some tea?” I ask as I set two cups down and pour the water into mine.

Alera pauses, considering the question for a moment. “That would be quite enjoyable.”

I give a half smile, recognizing the nobility’s speech pattern. It had taken me quite a while, and more than a few lessons from Sariah for me to understand the basics of etiquette. I still tried to avoid formal functions like the plague.

I carefully pour the hot water into her cup, adding some powder to both our cups and gently stirring them.

Alera takes her cup, but doesn’t drink from it.

I take a small sip from mine, watching her body language as I do. Most tells have been trained out of her by her upbringing. But there is an on-edge quality that is only noticeable from the weariness of her eyes and the slight tightening of her hands around the cup. I could be misreading her, but I’d like to think that I have a decent eye for people. Thankfully, I chose a rather calming tea.

“It isn’t poisoned.” I say, breaking the silence. “If you are worried about that, I’d be happy to take a sip from the cup first.”

Alera looks a little startled at my directness. She looks down at her cup before taking a small sip. “It’s how they would do it.” She says quietly. “Something barely noticeable in the tea or food.”

“Who do you think they are?” I ask, my gaze sharpening. I had been slightly joking, but it seems there might be more going on than I thought.

She looks up at me, her face quickly turning into a mask. “Excuse me Instructor, I was distracted by conspiracy theories. Please pay no mind to what I said. “

I watch her carefully, before shrugging and letting it go. I can’t force her to say anything she doesn’t want to, that would harm more than it would help.

“Then, what brings you here Lady Alera?” I ask, taking another sip of my tea as I lean back into my chair.

Alera pulls her bag in front of her, reaching into it to pull out a thick leather bound book.

The Science And Art Of Enchantment

By Gordius Lemonte

I frown at the sight of the book, recognizing what was coming.

“I was looking over the recommended reading from the previous instructor of enchantment, and I had a few questions…” She starts, opening the book to the first page.

“Go ahead.” I simply say, getting ready to be annoyed at the pompous bastard known as Gordius Lemonte.

“First, I was looking over the runes that Mr. Lemonte recommends for a ward made with salt. The differences are… something, to say the least.” Alera looks up at me for enlightenment.

I run my hand through my hair, trying to think of how best to explain why I despi- I mean, respectfully disagree with Lamonte’s work. “Lamonte staunchly believes in a rule called the law of order.” I start, appreciative of Alera’s full attention. “He expressly states it in the beginning of chapter 7, page 44, I believe.” My eyes unfocus as I remember the exact quote, “‘Runic structure is like our language, each rune has a specific meaning that stays the same, no matter where you put it in the structure of a runic sentence.’” I pause as Alera hurriedly flips to the page I mentioned, “Let me know if I lose you at any point, I’m happy to go back and explain.”

Alera nods, a light in her eyes that I appreciate.

“The issue with Lamonte’s theory is that runes are a language a hundred times more complicated than ours. While a rune has the same general meaning no matter where you put it. It’s specific meaning and creation changes based on every other rune in the sentence. The fire rune for example, is drawn like this.” I draw the rune out for her, “but when you put the explosion rune next to the fire rune, you also have to change the rune for fire to match.” I erase a line on the fire rune, and redraw it with a larger curve. “You have to do this for every extra rune written in the sentence, and since every rune changes based on every other rune, it gets immensely complicated.” I smile at how much of an understatement that is. “Luckily enough for you, you won’t be getting into the creation of runic sentences in this class. It’s a little too advanced for what I hope to accomplish in our lessons.”

Alera watches me with amazement, and a small amount of disbelief. “How are you so sure about that?” she asks.

I let the insult pass me by, recognizing that she is genuinely curious. “When Lamonte was still alive, I seeked him out and challenged him to a duel. My sentence structure beat his, but the idiot refused to acknowledge that I was right. He even accused me of cheating if I remember correctly.”

“You dueled Gordius Lamonte?” She asks, a slight amount of wonder in her voice. “He’s a legend.”

My smile falters at that last bit, while I know that he’s done a lot for the enchanting community, he was nothing but an angry old man set in his ways by the time I met him. “When I was really young, thirteen or so, I made it my quest to seek out every famous enchanter or runesmith I could find, learning what I could from them.”

I pause, remembering how I met Tilah. Back then, she was a slave to a famous enchantress who liked using humans as experiments. She loved to see how runes worked with humans that had already attuned their mana. Sometimes, the results were… gruesome. I’m grateful Tilah escaped from that

Alera interrupts my thoughts as she turns the book to another page, “There’s another thing I would like to ask you, Lemonte said that salt was…” Our conversation lasted us a surprisingly long time as I continued to disprove the nonsense that Lemonte had spread and shared stories about my time with various enchanters.

An hour later, the bell rang four times, causing Alera to jump at the sound, “I apologize instructor Devani, but I’m going to be late for my next class if I don’t hurry.”

I wave her off, letting her know it’s fine.

As she stands up from her chair, she bows to me. “Thank you for speaking with me, I truly learned a lot.”

“Of course, feel free to come to my office any time.” I respond, watching her thoughtfully as she walks to the door.

As she opens the door, I make a decision. I don’t like noble politics, but there is no harm in protecting one of my students. “Lady Alera.” I say, making her turn back to look at me. I take a ring off of my finger and toss it to her. “It’s best to keep that ring with you wherever you go. I’d recommend never taking it off.”

She looks down at the ring for a moment, before slipping it on her finger. “Thank you instructor Devani.”

I stretch in my chair, “I swear, if everyone keeps speaking to me so respectfully, I’m gonna feel a lot older than my twenty seven years.”

Alera smiles at my words before leaving.

My left hand feels the spot where my ring used to be. I wonder if every single one of my students will have one of my rings by the end of the term.

Hopefully not.