Wilt wasn’t exactly sure how the chant worked, but the teacher clearly wasn’t going to let him wait. Thankfully the chant was short, and he could try and use it. So, Wilt muttered the words quietly, trying to keep his voice from shaking.

“Element of light, your glow is but a reflection of my own. Summon the light of my Ein.”

His hands were laying on the table, palms facing up towards the ceiling. He focused on making it bright, not really caring about how much Ein he used. Failing was the only thing he didn’t want to happen.

The light started small but ballooned to the size of his head quickly. It kept growing in size and brightness, and he had to shut his eyes as the ball grew large enough to encompass him. Even with his eyes shut, it felt like he was staring into the sun.

Something collided with his head, and he moved his hands, breaking the chant. The light winked out, and he was left in darkness with his closed eyes. He opened his eyes slowly, observing the place where the light had been. The room definitely felt dark now, and it took him a while before his vision acclimated to the normal lights.

Sight came back in patches, and he kept seeing small black dots long after he could look around. He still managed to gauge the class's reactions and see what had hit his head. It was a piece of chalk that was rolling around on the table in front of him. He winced and turned towards the teacher.

He got a good look at the classroom when he did and pretty much everyone was turned towards him. Alice was still rubbing her eyes, and he saw her glasses were hastily put on the desk. The people around him seemed similarly blinded. In fact, the people around him seemed to have it worse than he did. Wilt didn’t know how big the light had gotten but was sure it had been large enough to cover Alice and maybe even the teacher.

The teacher was staring down at Wilt, his grin was even wider than before. His golden eyes seemed to peer into Wilt’s mind, and he couldn’t help but squirm a little under the gaze.

“What the lark was that?”

A student spoke behind him, cursing loudly as he yelled. Wilt felt bad for the people who had been blinded and was going to apologize but the teacher spoke before he could.

“That, mister Talon, is what we refer to as talent. I do need to ask though, how much Ein you have, mister Wilton?”

The teacher’s stare intensified as he asked the question, and Wilt hesitated before answering.

“I’m sorry sir, but I don’t know. I think you might have the information, but I have never tested it outside of the entrance exam.”

Wilt couldn’t afford to have something like that tested, and never checked the results of the exam. Even now, he hadn’t opened the letter. With the rush of the move, he thought it was unimportant to check after already knowing the results. He could’ve tried lying to the teacher, but he didn’t even know what reasonable values were.

“That’s fine, lad. It’s just impressive if I had to guess you probably have as much as some councilors. Here, go get it checked after your done with classes today.”

He moved on after speaking and handing Wilt a piece of paper. It was a permission slip to get access to the measuring device, and Wilt saw that it would let him use it whenever he wanted. He would still go that day. There was silence again, and Wilt could feel a dozen gazes meeting his own.

Finally, it seemed like Alice managed to regain her sight, and she was staring at him in silence now too. Unsure of how to respond to any of the gazes, Wilt turned back to his notebook. He didn’t exactly need to take more notes on the chant, and instead worked on his earlier sketch. After a few minutes had passed, he heard Alice speak.

“Well, this probably means you have enough Ein to make a toy or maybe a hundred of them.”

Wilt felt his shoulders relax at her words. It was relieving to hear someone talk to him normally. When he first arrived at the institute, he was worried about being talked down to, but now he was happy to receive normal words. The teacher’s words would spread, and he had no doubts that it would change how people looked at him.

If the teacher was being honest, and Wilt really had that much Ein, then he wouldn’t be surprised if his family’s status was raised. Not to mention everyone would start treating him differently. Despite all the good that the council has done, they were still conquerors and anyone who could join their ranks was feared as much as they were respected. Even if Wilt wasn’t fond of crowds, he was now worried that no one would be willing to talk to him. All this and class wasn’t even half over yet.

Thankfully, the teacher got everyone back on track, and once everyone managed the chant, he returned to the front. It had taken a while, most kids needing multiple attempts to get the chant to work. They had probably never used the basic light chant before. While the basic chants were available to everyone, they were not commonly taught or practiced. Only people like Wilt would even bother using them properly, and he was grateful for that now.

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The teacher drew a picture on the board. It was a list of the basic chants, and he stressed the importance of each one. The lecture had continued for the remainder of the class, and Wilt lingered until the rest of the students had left. He was tempted to run out but thought better of it. It would only draw more attention to himself, not to mention Alice had wanted to talk about something afterward. So, he sat slowly putting away his meager supplies before turning toward his desk mate.

“Alice, do you want to head out before talking?”

She seemed startled and then recognized what was happening. Nodding her head, she rushed to pack up her things. She had several pencils, and books out. As she was putting them away, she spoke.

“That works for me. I tend to keep each element in a separate book, so I had taken one out for all of the basic chants.”

She must have noticed his confusion, as her response answered his unspoken question. She quickly got up, and he couldn’t help but notice how jumpy she had gotten. Wilt got up too and followed her as she made her way outside. Once they left the room, they were stopped by a man in the hallway.

He looked to be a bit younger than Wilt and had long reddish hair. It was combed back, and he obviously used grease to keep it in place.

“Alice, we need to talk about—”

Wilt recognized the nasally voice and was surprised as Alice punched him in the face. The man stumbled back, cutting off whatever he was going to say. He looked up angrily and, Wilt thought that he was going to fight back. It wasn’t really unexpected, but Wilt panicked. Confusion and surprise mixing with his already building anxiety caused him to react impulsively.

He pushed between the two of them and froze as he realized what he had done. What was he supposed to do now? The answer it seemed was nothing, as both of them had gone silent at his movement. He glanced at the boy who was holding his jaw and was surprised to see him step away. Similarly, he noticed Alice shuffling backward slightly. They thought that he was a dangerous weapon, and he guessed that he was, in a weird way.

“Um, how about we go somewhere else.”

Wilt’s mind was in overdrive now, and his best solution was getting somewhere else. He was honestly fine with anywhere. Immediately he turned towards Alice and began heading towards one of the exits of the building. Redbrick walls passed quickly as he walked towards the exit. He was going fast enough that he was almost jogging. It wasn’t surprising to feel the gazes chasing him, but he was surprised to hear Alice and the boy following him. He could tell because they would occasionally mutter something at the other.

From their interaction, he gathered that they were siblings and he wondered why she had punched her brother. He didn’t really want to get involved and had merely spoken to get them away from wandering eyes. However, Alice was friendly enough, and he still wanted to talk to her about how to make the board. She seemed pretty smart, and her notes made it look like she understood how the item worked.

Once they finally got outside, he led them to a bench nearby. He left the dorm early in the morning and spent a little while aimlessly wandering around the institute. Wanting to find good places to read, he had stumbled across some relatively hidden benches. There were a lot of trees scattered around the grounds, and they were big enough that benches could easily hide behind them. he went to the nearest one he could remember and was glad to see that no one was there.

Trying to figure out what to do, he turned to face his two followers. They were glaring at one another, but not really saying anything. He decided to go with the approach he had with his little sister.

“So, I really only wanted to talk to Alice about the device from earlier, but I think I need to make sure you don’t get into a fight.”

He knew that he was treating them like children but was feeling a lot more confident now that he was out of the gazes of everyone else. Dealing with two siblings who were fighting, was a lot easier than dealing with hundreds of eyes tracing him. Honestly, seeing these two reminded him of some of the kids who visited the library. Even if the age difference between him and these two couldn’t have been that large, he still felt like he needed to act like the responsible one.

“Hello, my name is Fredrick Redwood. And while I am glad to meet you, this is not really any of your business.”

It was strange to hear mostly respectful words, despite the obvious venom in his tone. Wilt couldn’t really argue either. He had been acting automatically without really putting much thought behind it, but at the same time, he didn’t think it was very responsible to just let them fight. Plus, leaving them like that, might get him trouble for not intervening.

“Sorry about that, it’s just that I didn’t want to get in trouble. Plus, I needed to think of some way to stop you from punching one another in the hallway.”

Realizing that his words were doing nothing but angering the man further, Wilt decided it was a good time to find his exit.

“But I will get out of your way. Alice, let me know when you want to talk about the device, you can probably find me in the library on most days.”

She gave him a quick nod, and he didn’t hesitate in leaving them to do whatever they wanted. It didn’t look like they would get into a fight anymore, and he didn’t really have any right to get further involved. They both seemed relieved to see him leave, and he felt much the same.

Even as he made his way to the library, he was haunted by memories of the past hour. From his class going disastrously to the awkward situation he had forced his way into, the day was not going as expected. His initial plan to blend into the background was thoroughly ruined, and this was only the first day. Despite all of that, he felt his heartbeat quicken.

He was powerful, and apparently one of the strongest chanters ever. Not to mention the amazing devices he had seen, and the object he still wanted to make. The class had been interesting, and he learned a lot from the professor. The Ein light chant was a new way to use Ein. It had only been a single class, but he already felt fully immersed in this world. He wished he had more classes in his schedule. The wait for his next class would be a long one.