I woke up to the sound of fanfare.

"Mmh. Mm...huh? What? What's going on?"

My ears still ringing, I walked to the large open window. A window on a stone wall.

"Huh?"

What greeted me was a large crowd gathered around a castle. A castle which I am apparently in.

"Oh yeah. I guess I'm their king... leader or something like that now."

You want to know how I got here? Well, let me tell you my story.

***

"That's right! Mana is the force that sustains all life on Gran Viride. Good answer, Leon!"

The kid sat back to his spot on the grass-covered dirt, grinning ear to ear.

"Our world, Gran Viride," I continued, "is the only known place to bear life. But it wasn't always like this. Long ago, magicka didn't exist. It was during that time that the cataclysm occured. A great catastrophe that almost ended Gran Viride. But then, The Maker descended from the heavens above in a bright light and purified and blessed the world. That blessing is what we call now Mana. It is through Mana that magicka is possible and we are alive." That was common knowledge. It is basically the history of Gran Viride as preached by The Church of Merciful Radiance on all teritories of the Holy Empire of Yggdrasil, which means, all of Gran Viride. A good basic history lesson won't hurt anyone.

"Teacher! Show us again your magicka! Pretty please?" One of my students begged. I sighed.

"Just one more time only Priscilla, okay?" I answered. "No more after."

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"Yey!" The class cherred. Children these days sure know how to burn their teachers' time.

I picked up my staff, which was leaning against the Acasia tree we're shading under, just next to my belongings. It was a generic standard issue staff for all priests of the Church of Merciful Radiance. Just a long straight wooden pole made from the branches of the Mother Yggdrasil tree. The shaft itself is covered with straight and spiralling grooves. One end has a metal part to act as a pummel in the event of a close-quarters combat. As I faced my students, an idea dawned onto me. If they are going to burn my time, I'm going to make it fruitful.

"Okay. Let me see who did their fair share of learning and studied in advance. Who knows how magicka work?"

"Ooh me teacher! Me me me!!" Prima shouted. She is the smartest kid in my class, also the liveliest of the bunch.

"Everyone has an innate Mana," Prima began "A magicka user controls the flow of their Mana. The user then changes their Mana to, uhm, a force? Like when my parents tell me to do chores? What was it called again?"

I smiled. "Willpower."

"Oh right! That's it!" Prima continued "So then, the user turns their Mana to Willpower, and they tell the ambient Mana around them to do some awesome things!"

"Wow!" I'm impressed. "That's very detailed. We will discuss that on a later lesson. Very good Prima!" I gave the little girl some well-deserved headpats, which earned me a sweet giggle in return.

"Alright then." I said as I began. I held out an open palm with my right hand and held my staff with my left. I pointed the metal end on my open palm and began to channel my innate Mana. My hand began to glow and that same glow began to flow onto my staff. The straight and spiralling grooves on the shaft was precisely made for that. It was to help it's user to channel their Mana and turn it to Willpower. Soon enough, the metal end of my staff, the one pointed on my right hand, began to glow and a circular glyph with different shapes and symbols inside it began to float in front of the tip. My Willpower.

"Rune Art: Aqua Sphere". I chanted. A jiggling ball of clean water began to form over my open palm. Small streams of water first began to form around the my hand, then it swirled and started to coalesce just above my palm, right in the center. Then it expanded as more water fed it until it is the same size as a child's head. It's a good thig that there was a river nearby, and it gave the ambient Mana water signature.

It is one of the basic magicka arts of many tradesmen and tradeswomen. Priests, of course, among them. Even those born without talent for Rune Arts can use this given enough years and study. It is useful for preparing food on long journeys. It cannot be consumed though, as it returns to Mana state after a while. It was also used in skirmishes in the past, mostly for distraction as it doesn't deal much damage, unless the user is a highly skilled magickamancer. A speeding ball of water slicing through the battlefield was feared when used by them.

My whole class went "Woah."

"So beautiful." Prisilla then poked the Aqua Sphere, which then jiggles again. How she described a floating ball of crystal clear water beautiful, I have no idea.

"That is so awesome!" This time it was Leon. "I want to be good at magicka!"

"That is why studying is important. You need to hone your skills so that you too can become productive subjects of the empire." I explained. "Okay, next lesson..."

The class groaned. Clearly, they weren't expecting that last line.

"Clergyman Fairsborough?" A voice sounded behind me. I turned towards the source.

"Yes?"