Nate paused in his brushwork to critique his own painting. The noise of other paintbrushes and the crumpling of paper filled the classroom around him as the few other members of Advanced art class continued with their own artworks. The class was almost over and he could sense Professor Hawthorn starting to stir from his nap in the corner. The older gentleman did the same thing every class. The old man would show up a little late, set the task for the day, then go fall asleep in the corner of the classroom. Somehow he always managed to wake up right before the class finished, where he would dole out a few compliments or rebukes, maybe hand out a few points towards graduating out of the advanced stream for the Art subject, then vanish out the door.
Nate could understand why Professor Hawthorn took the approach he did. Maybe they paid a little more attention in the Basic and Intermediate courses. The students in those grades might still be learning a bit about the history of art in Etrua or techniques and methods to apply when creating art. But for the Advanced grade, where there were only eight students, most of which had developed styles and preferences, interference beyond gentle nudging was unnecessary. Nate acknowledged that his peers in the Advanced course took their art seriously and so having a Professor tell them what to do or how to do it was a waste of everyone's time. Instead the course had focused on creating various artworks that could then be assessed for developments and improvements. In this case, improvements were a very loose view of how the artworks of the students had changed over the course. If Nate was judging it correctly, Professor Hawthorn just wanted to see that you were experimenting a little with styles.
Like clockwork, the Professor stood, smoothing his robe out before making his rounds of the classroom, spending less than a minute with each student. In a handful of minutes it was Nate’s turn and he stepped aside to let the Professor review his painting. The task today had been a recreation of an existing painting that detailed a battlefield. It wasn’t Nate’s preferred type of artwork, as he had shown a clear preference for paintings that detailed people up closer. His paintings almost always focused on a person, or people, with enough detail that you could identify the individual or individuals painted. His few landscape pieces had been incredibly personal and were not things he could paint in this class without raising questions. That brought him back to the painting of some battle. Professor Hawthorn had given it a name and it was clearly of historical importance to Etrua, but as far as Nate was concerned it could have been any other battlefield, albeit with magical elements included.
That wasn’t to say he hadn’t used it as an opportunity to experiment a little. He wasn’t sure how his riot of colours would be received by the Professor, but it definitely changed the tone of the painting. Where the original painting was done using a standard colour scheme that was clearly meant to replicate, at least as far as it could, what the battle may have actually looked like to a spectator, Nate had gone with a very different approach. Instead of looking like a battlefield it almost made the scene, excluding a few intentional changes, look like a circus. Instead of balls of fire and lightning bolts being traded by the armies, it looked like fireworks in the colours of the rainbow.
The armies matched, however, instead of creating a chaos of colours, he had literally painted them as a rainbow so the colour slowly graded across the armies present, making each one look like one of the two ‘legs’ of a rainbow. Of course, this changed the entire tone of painting, which he wasn’t sure would be appreciated. But he hadn’t wanted to paint something serious and perhaps, in his heart of hearts, it was his own commentary on war.
It hadn’t been lost on Nate that they had been given a battle painting, even as the University bubbled with rumours that Etrua would soon be at war with their neighbouring country, Asmuisil. Nate hadn’t been able to ask more about the details, but his sphere of awareness had caught more than a few discussions on the topic. He might have asked someone if it wasn’t clear it was all rumours so far with no real substance. Still, it was something he had to consider. What would it mean if the countries declared war?
Professor Hawthorn finally turned towards Nate, preventing him from considering the potential for war further.
“Two points towards your grade. The use of colour was clever and I am confident you’ve achieved what you wanted. However, you could’ve taken it further than what you have. You’ve mostly focused on the colours, while recreating the visual almost picture perfect. That ability to copy is impressive, but since, I assume, you’re trying to make a commentary on war or battle, you could’ve made slight alterations to other things, such as the commander of the armies’ attire, the weapons being held etc. You get the idea? I like where you’re going with it, but if you’re going to push the line of what is considered acceptable, don’t hold back. Keep up the good work, kid.”
Nate smiled at the praise and feedback. He acknowledged it was fair. He had mostly been experimenting with how colour could change the tone of an image, but he could have taken it further, making the commanders look like jesters or puppets.
As Professor Hawthorn moved on to the next artwork a voice behind him said quietly, “I always love your paintings.”
Turning he gave Helen a small smile. The woman was the exact same one that had overseen his induction. A third year at the Royal University, she had apparently only started taking art in her second year, working her way up from the Basic course. He suspected the noblewoman had a highly developed Dexterity and Agility, as she was spotless, despite having been painting for the past two hours. As he formulated a response she brushed her black hair over her ears and watched him with deep brown eyes that he thought contained an unasked question.
Glancing at her own rendition of the battle he noted she had also gone with some colour based experimentation. She’d used purples, reds and oranges to turn what he suspected was meant to be a heroic scene into one that gave him a sense of hopelessness and despair.
“The futility of war?” he asked her.
“That’s sort of what I was going for,” she replied with a bright smile. “I was aiming more for despair. But futility is close enough. How would you have changed it to get closer to despair?”
As she asked she reached out to touch his arm. He had to restrain himself from flinching and saw her surprise when she touched the barrier covering him instead of warm skin.
A sad smile formed on her face, “I don’t blame you. I heard about the things Fabien Lussier did.”
Nate experienced a flash of panic. How much did she know? Were they already onto him? Guards waiting outside of the room? His anxiety subsided though, as she continued.
“Your room and getting you kicked out of Enchanting. We’re not all like that, though.”
With a small and strained smile he ignored the comment and looked over the artwork.
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“Probably similar to the advice Professor Hawthorn gave me. The colours are a good choice for what you wanted to achieve but even slight detail on the faces showing their despair and hopelessness would probably achieve what you wanted.”
Helen nodded a little and glanced up at him, her hand retracted back to her side, “You’re right. I wasn’t sure if I should go that far. You know, with the rumours going around.”
She paused for a moment before she continued in a rush, “Could I paint you some time?”
“Clothed?” he asked carefully. He had never been on the other side of the painting experience and he was curious if it might be worthwhile to give him some context.
“Whatever you want,” she replied with a blush, before her lips curled into a hopeful smile.
“I’ll think about it,” he replied. “I’ll have an answer next class, okay?”
The noblewoman nodded agreeably and Nate turned away, starting to pack up his things. Art had been his first class of the day and he was about to go to his second. A class he had been waiting impatiently for. Upon their return from the Dungeon, his unigem had informed him that he had successfully graded out of four of his subjects. While he was perhaps another month or two from managing to get to the Advanced grade for Combat and Skill Development, he had achieved enough points to move to the Intermediate grade for both Dungeon Knowledge and Monster Studies. Those weren’t the courses he was interested in though. It was the other two that had him excited. As of today he was in the Advanced grade for Concepts and Embodiments, as well as Mana and Affinities. It was the latter class he was headed to, and he was hoping to finally get some answers around why Intent was important for Skill development, among other things.
The moment he finished cleaning up his workspace he was out the door and it was a short walk to the next building over for his new class. Kiri, Coralie and Karim joined him within minutes and he watched as the class slowly filled. Where the Intermediate grade had been an even split between Guildies, merchants and Nobles, this one was dominated by the Nobility. With almost thirty people in the subject, the four Guildies were matched by three merchants, who sat huddled together. The rest were members of the nobility, only divided by their cliques as three separate divisions formed around the room. The distribution wasn’t even with one clique only containing three nobles while the remaining individuals split evenly. He debated listening in but the few snippets he caught just spoke of the whispers of war and a gala to be held at the Royal Palace.
He was about to start whispering to Kiri when Professor Karne swept into the room, looking as well curated as ever with his oiled moustache.
“A full class. Excellent. For those of you who have just managed to join the Advanced stream for Mana and Affinities, welcome and well-done. Not everyone manages to get this far and while most of you are unlikely to make it to the Expert grade, you will find the information provided in this course invaluable. For those of you who are repeating the Advanced stream with a second, third or even fourth attempt to enter the Expert grade course, best of luck.”
The Professor paused for a moment, locking eyes directly with a few of the nobility, “For those new to the course, the grading for this course has some restrictions that were not placed on the previous grades. The Basic and Intermediate streams for this subject are almost entirely theoretical. As long as you can grasp and apply the information provided to a series of problems and ultimately simple tests, then you can grade out of those streams. In the Advanced stream, you will need to be able to demonstrate aptitude with the subject matter. To put it simply, you cannot move to the Expert grade for Mana and Affinities unless you are capable of applying some of the knowledge in a real-world setting. This is handled through an end-of-term project. So I want that to live in the back of your mind over the next few weeks. Start thinking about how you can demonstrate aptitude for the subject. More details will be given in the coming weeks. Questions? No? Good.”
While the dark haired Professor had asked for questions he hadn’t given anyone a chance to respond before he continued with the lecture.
“Today's topic touches on something that has been hinted at in other courses, as well as this one, but that we do not teach until you’ve shown some ability to grasp the simpler rules and logic that govern mana and affinities. That topic is, other energy types. It’s not strictly speaking a secret, but it is definitely kept from you and the reason for that is simple. Other energy types can be dangerous. Both to you, and those around you. Now, I am sure some of you are aware of additional energy types beyond mana. Anyone willing to venture a guess? I will say that to our knowledge there are four distinct energy types, including mana. Now, name another for me.”
Professor Karne turned to the board as he waited for someone to speak. The first answer came from one of the nobles sitting in the small clique.
“Celestial,” called out the noble.
“Correct,” replied Karne. “And it’s antithesis?”
“Demonic,” answered another noble from one of the larger cliques.
“And the last?” asked Karne as he wrote the words on the board.
“Soul or Mental energy.”
The last had surprisingly been from one of the merchants.
“We just call it soul energy, but correct. It will also be the topic we cover for the next few weeks.”
Nate and Kiri both leaned forward together, grinning at each other as Professor Karne launched into the lecture.
“The first question we have to ask is, what is soul energy? To answer that, we have studied in depth the cause and effect, as well as prevalence when it comes to soul energy. First, let us look at cause and effect. Most of you will be familiar with the Mentalist Classes and their related Skills. I doubt there is a single member of the nobility in this room who isn’t wearing an enchantment to protect themselves from soul energy based attacks. But, why do alterations to soul energy propagate into mental-based effects? That is because, to the best of our knowledge, soul energy directly interacts with the brain. The next questions you should be asking is why and how? This is where it gets interesting, at least as far as I am concerned. The how is a two way interaction between your mind and the soul energy that results in the copying of memories and information from one to the other.”
The Professor turned around as he made that statement and Nate could sense why. The looks on the new students' faces ranged from shock to horror.
“Have you ever had a dream that seemed so real that you were sure it was, only to wake in your bed? Soul energy isn’t static. Sometimes it bleeds off of us, or is actively used, and needs to be replenished. The result is an exchange between the source and repository of soul energy, the Spiritual Realm. Sometimes, that exchange involves the memories of the deceased or departed. How many of you have dreamed of flying?” asked Karne, pausing to enjoy the reactions of the students. “Exactly! Now, of course, there is an argument that such dreams are just a creative imagining of a sapient, but more likely, it is you experiencing some flying creature's memory. The argument against this is, if soul energy is really a form of sapient memories, then why aren’t we all just a conglomerate of fragmented memories of past-lives. The answer is simple and goes directly back to my comment on Mental Skills. Soul energy interaction can either build on or fragment the information contained within.”
Nate leaned back in his seat as his mind whirled through the implications. Even as he was trying to make sense of all the ideas floating to the surface, he sent off a mental message to his Familiar.
“Did you know that soul energy contained memories?”
“I did, Boss man. And now that you do, we can finally talk about it!” replied Frick, the spirit's voice tinged with excitement.
Nate smiled as he realised the block on Frick discussing soul energy by the Familiar Contract was finally broken. But Nate’s smile turned to horror as he realised the implication that this information had on his Class Core and The System. His mind really was being read.