It was the next morning, Andromeda was sitting at the desk that was set up for her with a few textbooks, mostly just supplementary texts and some historical ones. She wanted to round out her knowledge about magic. She figured that the thousands of years of collective research on the subject was something she should at least take a look at.

While she read, she was doing some light flow practice at the same time. Listening to Alice speak about the flow being in all things, it made her realize that her view of flows was actually pretty limited. She already could repair things directly to her hand, but that usually required it being unbroken in her hand first. There was no reason she couldn’t stretch the flow out to do things from a distance.

To make things harder on herself, she was also practicing Refutei Mending. It wasn’t as easy as regular mending seeing as how it took her a few seconds to get it, so she was practicing that to the bone. Of course she was also doing the regular mending now and again to keep her skills sharp. Practice made perfect after all.

The book she was reading was a historical account of the last Magi-Medean War.

This was something that caught her by surprise. There had been no less than 23 major world wars between Mages and Medea over the course of a few thousand years, with several hundred smaller ones between. The text said that each war was numbered in the hundreds of thousands. The last one was around 75 years ago and was fought between Legoria and a neighboring country named Halth.

It seemed to be a pretty brutal affair that left many dead on both sides, the forces of the Medea won out in the end and forced the invading Magi Armies back. It seemed that not long after, the Former King Alderaus took the throne and maintained a relationship with Halth. In retrospect it’s tragic that his country went back to war so quickly after he died.

She put the book down, she had heard enough about war for a lifetime, so hearing about more wasn’t appealing.

Setting it aside, she picked up a new book she had requested from the library. In the book she learned about Refutei, she heard of another form of magic. Purification.

This time, she had the benefit of a nearly endless supply of material to look through. She was even offered some tutors on the occasion they were available, but she wasn’t too excited about putting someone out just to help her through.

After browsing through the book, it goes through the same motions she was used to. Find the mana flow, assess flow, etc.

While she could go through the same practice of closely adhering to the book's instructions, she wanted to try something different. From her browsing, the main issue with learning purification was mastering Refutei.

Seeing as how she was currently practicing Refutei while reading this book, she didn’t think she needed to go through the whole hassle of reading that section. She would be browsing the book while she was practicing anyway so it's not like she would be barking up the wrong tree.

She did realize that there was going to be one roadblock that she couldn’t gloss over. Her technique with mending only required her to visualize a mana flow through the object, but that didn’t require that she actually gleaned information from it. The visualization in her head didn’t even need to match reality to work, as a matter of fact, the idea that her visualization and reality didn’t match was why she could mend from a distance.

Before she started on this project, she had food delivered to her room. But that was sitting on a table near the door because she was focusing. The staff seemed increasingly puzzled by her insistence that she didn’t need particularly refined food to make it through the day, but not having to hike down several flights of stairs to get a sandwich was still appreciated.

She got up to go grab the tray and snack on it. The food would be a good distraction to get her brain going. This was the first day she had her stomach not feel awful, so she tore through everything with gusto. Just as she was about to throw back the entire glass of water, she stopped.

She put her hand on the glass of water. She closed her eyes to give her best focus and applied Refutei. In her mind, she didn’t imagine the same river she had seen before. In her mind she imagined a lake, spreading out in all directions, the ice frozen under her. Deep below the frozen surface, she could see fish swimming around.

When she opened her eyes and saw that nothing had happened. That was to be expected. Not everything could be done by picturing it in her head.

She consulted her book to see what the proper technique would be.

The art of purification is an ancient art, fir- not that.

To understand how to use this art, you must know how to use refut- got that already.

Many great people have learned this, such as- Not important right now. Maybe later.

Once you have mastered Refutei, you should start with these simple techniques- Wait, that sounds like the one.

She picked the book up and brought it closer to see.

Once you have mastered Refutei, you should start with these simple techniques. The first and most basic form of purification is the universally relevant ability to create purified water from non-purified sources.

While elemental magic of the aquatic persuasion is able to create purified water, their techniques are difficult and impractical. Purification is considered one of the basic tools on the belt of a mage alongside Mending and Arcanism, whereas Aquatic Elemental Magic is a precision instrument.

That was reassuring, she accidentally stumbled her way into doing the novice course work anyway. She made a note in a journal she had sitting nearby to look into Arcanism.

Purification requires that the user interactively observe a mana flow in an object. This is considered the middle point between the three novice level techniques. Mending requires the user to ignore the real flow and substitute their own, and Arcanism requires that the flow itself be altered.

To accomplish this, a Mending Student must learn to let their mind attune to a flow, rather than imagine it. An Arcanism Student must learn to focus their mind and not let the flow be altered by their whims.

Oh god, not this again. It’s telling her to do something without HOW.

Andromeda slammed the book shut. She tripped at go AGAIN. For some reason Refutei was no issue to figure out, she literally guessed, and got it right!

…

She took a deep breath, getting worked up over this wasn’t going to solve anything.

What did she need to do to fix this? Andromeda thought about it with a clear mind. She needed to sense a flow, but not imagine it first. The way she got around this last time was breaking it down with Argo, but he was hundreds of miles away and dealing with his own stuff now, that wasn’t going to work. Then an idea hit her.

Who was someone that she knew, that had an intimate understanding of mana and its flow, and was perfectly willing to speak to her on short notice?

Andromeda stood from the desk and took a pen and notebook with her. She just hoped Alice wasn’t busy.

-----

Finding Alice’s room was both easier and harder than she anticipated.

Despite her requests for no staff, there were still guards posted outside her door. That made sense because she only had dominion inside her room, but it was still unnerving. In this case though it was helpful.

She asked one guard if he could direct her to Alice’s room. Instead of just instructions, they both took it upon themselves to escort her there themselves.

The college was a maze, she didn’t realize this until she navigated to the library. Every room in the building was dedicated to something, whether it was just a classroom, or an office for a high ranking mage, or even a room dedicated to a specific branch of magic. There didn’t seem to be any uniformity to the organization of the rooms.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Andromeda was led to a room a few doors from her own, that was nice at least, but as she walked by she felt like the distance she was walking didn’t feel right.

There were two doors between her room and Alice’s room. But on the inside the door to her room was all the way to the right and nearly against the wall. She had a hard time believing her door and her neighbor’s could fit together even if they were situated in the exact same way.

Then there were the other details. She was absolutely sure that she was at the same door as she was when she first came here. She was at the very end of the hall and there were no doors beside the one directly to the left of hers, that was absolutely the same.

However, when she came back from the introductions, her room was entirely different. The finery on the wall was removed, all the trip and furniture was removed, and most damning of all the fireplace was entirely absent.

This was a mage college after all, she could expect someone to be doing some heavy lifting with magic, but she drew the line with removing entire feats of masonry out of the walls without at least making some noise.

Upon reaching Alice’s room, she knocked and was met with a maid opening the door.

“Good morning Ms. Noelle, how can I help you?” The maid asked. Andromeda didn’t see a room behind the maid, she saw a large hall. The roof inside was much higher than her own, and the hall behind the made was three times wider than the widest part of her room.

“Is Alice busy?” Andromeda asked. As shocked as she was, she still found the energy to ask her question.

“She is currently meditating, do you wish to have a messenger sent to your room when she’s done?” The maid said. Before she could answer, a door was thrown open in the hall far behind the maid. Alice walked out the door with several servants in various states of concern walking behind her. She spun toward Andromeda from a hundred yards and smiled ear to ear.

“Andromeda!” She yelled. Then, very unlike her timid looking appearance would suggest, she sprinted at full tilt toward her. The maid jumped out of the way just quick enough to avoid being body slammed by the person she was in theory there to serve.

She practically leaped at Andromeda. Andromeda caught the girl and was nearly sent toppling to the ground, if she had not been prepared for being tackled then the force would have sent them flying out into the hall.

Alice wrapped her arms around Andromeda in a hug. Andromeda looked to the staff around her for a clue as to what was happening and all they could do was shrug. So she gently returned the hug.

“Andromeda, I was worried it would be too long before I could see you again!” She said.

“It’s… Nice to see you again too.” Andromeda said, not sure how else to respond.

Alice stepped back with a goofy smile and motioned for her to follow. They moved at a brisk pace through the absolutely unbelievable mansion that seemed to be Alice’s “Room.”. She directed the staff in all different directions as she walked and asked others to prepare some tea for her and Andromeda. She smiled the entire time.

“Oh Andromeda, you have no idea how happy I am that you’re here.” Alice said.

“Why’s that?” Andromeda asked.

“Ever since I sensed the strange flow in your hands the other night I’ve been unable to focus on anything. I’ve tried meditating to clear my mind but it keeps finding me.” Alice said. She led Andromeda through twisting corridors that seemed to go on forever. Just as her legs started hurting Alice opened a door and led them inside.

The room was filled from wall to wall with jars and boxes, but not stacked randomly. Each and every one was filed and labeled, some were even given more ornate displays, it seemed like a mini-museum in the middle of her “room”.

She sat down in the chair across from Alice and a servant brought her a cup of tea. Though Andromeda could tell from the way the servant looked at it that they were afraid she was going to start throwing it again.

“So, my fellow student, what brings you to my home?” Alice said.

“I was wondering if you had any tips about sensing flows.” Andromeda asked. Alice turned up an eyebrow.

“What do you mean? Can’t you already do that with mending?” Alice asked.

“Not really, I just kind of imagine my own flow and let things handle themselves. I’m not actually seeing the real flow. Just what I want.” Andromeda said.

“Interesting, I’ve not looked into mending as a practice so I was unaware. Can you tell me what you have tried already?” She asked.

“I’ve tried to apply Refutei to a glass of water to see if there was any reaction, there wasn’t. I also tried just imagining like I did with Mending, but nothing happened with that either. Nothing I could look up told me what I needed to know,” Andromeda said.

“Ah, I see, then I might have something that could help you. I’ll show you what my dear teacher taught me when I was young.” She said. Alice stood up and walked around behind Andromeda.

“Close your eyes.” She said, Andromeda did as she was asked and closed her eyes.

“Try to clear your mind, remove all thoughts and just sit peacefully.” She said. Andromeda did so and tried to focus on nothing but the darkness behind her eyelids.

“Put your hands together.” She said. So Andromeda did.

Andromeda felt something brush along her left arm, then a moment later she felt the same brushing feeling on her right arm.

She didn’t open her eyes, or ask what it was. She just waited for instructions.

The brushing continued. From the left arm, then a brief wait, then the right.

It continued for a few minutes. She tried desperately to keep her mind clear, but every once and a while she would imagine what might be happening.

After enough times of this, she started to feel the brushing constantly, from the left arm to the right with no delay. It was a constant pulse.

Left, right, left, right, leftrightleftrightleftrightlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrl---------------------

She felt it in both arms at the same, it felt like a subtle charge of electricity was flowing through her arms. At last, she finally couldn’t take it anymore and opened her eyes.

Alice was sitting in her chair taking a sip of her tea. Andromeda looked down at her arms and felt the flow going through her. The hairs on her arms were standing up.

“So?” Alice said. Andromeda couldn’t even think of what to say. Was this it? The flow?

She could feel it coursing through her arms. Her arms felt like a circuit.

“My dear teacher once told me that mana does indeed flow. But to think of that flow as simply like water was to ignore the true meaning of flow. Electricity also flows, does it not?” She said. The feeling remained with Andromeda even after she separated her hands. It did still fade, but it stayed with her.

“That was amazing. Thank you.” Andromeda said. Alice smiled again and nodded.

“The thanks belong to my dear teacher. I thank her every time I get the chance.” Alice said.

“Regardless, thank you for showing me.” Andromeda said.

“You are very welcome.” Alice said. Then she leaned to the side for a refill on her tea. Then she was handed a pair of white arm length gloves. She then set them on the table.

“What’s this?” Andromeda asked.

“These are some special gloves that I had commissioned last night. I wanted to get a better read on the strange flow in your hands, but thought that it would be too invasive to invite you here for repeated investigations. I had these made to help with that.” Alice said.

“What do they do?” Andromeda asked.

“It's a bit hard to explain, it’s faintly like making an impression of an object in clay. It would allow me to understand the general shape of the flow without having to directly feel it.” She said.

“Do I just put them on?” Andromeda said.

“That would be all, yes. Feel free to wear them at your pleasure, the last thing I would want to do is impede your study.” Alice said.

“Don’t worry about that, if you ever want to ask, I’m more than willing to help out.” Andromeda said. Alice laughed under her breath.

“Andromeda, has anyone ever told you that you aren’t much of a mage in the heart?” Alice said.

That was a question she wasn’t expecting.

“Not that I can remember, what makes you say that?” She asked.

“Well, we mages tend to have a certain way about us. We always push forward no matter who or what gets in our way. We would hate to take even a moment to stop and help a fellow mage if our own goals must suffer for it.” Alice said.

“Is that wrong? I was always taught to help others when I could.” Andromeda said.

“No, it’s not, just different. It's refreshing even, you are closer to a Medea than any mage I’ve ever known.” Alice said.

“Medea are healers I guess, I’d like to think of myself as a bit of a healer.” Andromeda said, only a moment later realizing what she just said.

“Don’t we all?” Alice laughed. They visited for a bit longer. Alice got another look at the strange flow in Andromeda’s hands, and Andromeda got the answer she needed. She even got a nice pair of gloves out of the trip.

-----

As she walked back to the front door, the reality of this place really hit her. It just couldn’t have been that they fit an entire mansion into the college for the benefit of a single student, it didn’t matter how prestigious they were, that was not even a consideration she would make.

The only alternative, in her mind, was that either the rooms were somehow altered to be bigger on the inside, or that the doors were portals to another location. This was the foremost college of magic in the country, so if that was possible anywhere, it would probably be possible here.

It didn’t help her overwhelming feeling of being lost. Around here, if logic wasn’t something she could depend on, then what could she depend on?

She chuckled under her breath. Maybe she should just have faith it would all work out?

Wouldn’t that be ironic?