Rueln Layheart

I was late for my second class. I spent the break between classes searching the halls for the letter, but saw no trace of it, even with Kead’s help when he asked what I was doing. The only thing I could think of was that I dropped it when my stuff fell out of my bag when I fell and I didn’t notice it when I picked my things up and hurried to the washroom.

Angry for an entirely different reason now, I seated myself and waited for today’s instruction. Magical Study Grade one had one of the more unique classrooms I’ve seen here in the academy so far. During lectures, we all sat in desks, set up in rows like an amphitheater with an open arena at the bottom where the professor spoke from.

I just relaxed when Professor Blaire Goodwin lifted her eyes up to rest on me. “Rueln Layheart,” she said, her voice as serious as it always was. “Would you come down for a demonstration? I need a second volunteer this morning. Who shall it be?”

Pushing myself to my feet, I took a step down the stairs, when a voice behind me caught my attention. “I will, Professor!”

Turning, I saw Maques stand and start down the aisle parallel to my own, a knowing smile on his face. After the last class, I didn’t want him to make my day any more difficult than it already was. With little choice, I stepped onto the arena floor and walked up to the professor for our instructions. Maques stood at my side, the relaxed set of his shoulders giving me the impression that I missed something in the minutes I was late.

“What are we doing, Professor?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at Marques. I was going to ask as many questions as I could if I didn’t want to go into this in the dark.

“You will know in a moment, Rueln,” Professor Blaire said, before offering both me and Marqus the practice wands kept at ready for this class.

The wands helped young mages channel mana. They carved a spell into the wood to help draw mana through it and expel it into a workable form so the mage can cast a spell. It worked rather well, especially with someone who was inexperienced with manipulating mana through their channels. They reserved them only for class, however, to discourage magic casting on the academy grounds without supervision.

It surprised me when I first attended this class and the teacher introduced us to the wands. Cyrus had already taught me how to bring out Vhal’s mana nature, which had needed me to manipulate mana without a wand. I could use more practice, but the ability was already mine. The wand just seemed like an unnecessary step.

As my gaze shifted over to Marqus, however, I reconsidered. It took too much time for me to manipulate my mana through my channels at the moment. If this was a competition between us, then I wanted to win and would take the aid even if it felt a bit like cheating.

I wonder what mana nature Marques had. I guess I would find out soon enough, though I wish I knew the trick of how to see it like Cyrus had used on me when he discovered the mana nature of Imprint. Vhal’s mana nature was impressive enough on its own. I would win this, I was sure.

“Last week we have been practicing how to clear your mana channels. All of you have learned how to clear away your channels so your mana can flow freely throughout your bodies. This is a long road that you will have to walk for the next ten years or so before your channels are completely clear and you have reached your magical potential. You’ve all done very well, my students.” Professor Blaire smiled at the entire class, clearly pleased. Several students shifted in their chairs, already patting themselves on the back as if we had made leaps and bounds of progress.

From what Cyrus had explained to me in his few lessons, clearing out channels were equivalent of mining with a spoon. It was incredibly slow, taxing, and laborious work, with endless hours of meditation. I didn’t doubt Professor Blaire’s ability of magic, for she displayed it often for demonstration, but I had to wonder about the depth of her understanding. Cyrus’s lessons, as brief as they were, felt far more comprehensive, like he had spent lifetimes hoarding knowledge away.

“This week we circulated what mana we had through our channels, learning to move it to our will and creating the shadow of our magical aura.” It bothered me when she called it aura. I think I preferred Cyrus’s word for it, mana nature. I appreciated these classes. They were helping me, but I understood why Cyrus criticized the empire’s mages. It made me wonder why he didn’t join just to show them something different.

“Today, we are going to manifest that aura,” Professor Blaire announced, much to the excitement of everyone else in the class. Say what you will, magic was the most lively of all the academic classes, though there were fewer students participating in it since mages weren’t a large part of the population. “You will come up to the arena in pairs and gather your aura and manifest into a spell.”

That caught my attention. She hadn’t taught us about spells yet. “Professor?” I said, raising my hand.

“Yes, Rueln?”

“How do we change the natu-,” I caught myself and changed the word back the one one she had been using, “aura into a spell?”

“That is entirely determined by your mana aura,” she said, answering loud enough for the entire class to hear.

Closing her hand into a fist, her magical nature manifested in a turquoise light around her hand. With one swift movement, as if she were throwing a disk, she cast her spell and a flash of light appeared in front of each student. I reached out and caught the plain white paper in my hand, blinking past my dazzled eyes. Everyone else had a copy in their hands as well, flipping it over to see if she wrote anything on the back.

“These small pieces of paper will help you determine your mana aura’s power. When you activate your shadow aura, the paper will respond depending on what kind of mana you have.”

I frowned, glancing around at everyone, watching as a few jumped ahead of the instruction and activated their mana nature. A girl smiled in delight as her paper folded itself up and turned into a paper butterfly, flying around her while the boy next to her couldn’t get his to come off his hand. It had glued itself to his skin. When he tried to wipe it off, it stuck his hand to the desk instead and he had to get another kid to help him pull himself free.

Curiously, I pulled mana into my hand, concentrating on the fingers that held the paper. Although I had the shadow of my mana’s nature just under my skin as everyone else, the paper didn’t react. Frowning, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. Of course, nothing would happen with Imprint. Cyrus had said my mana nature was clear. It was only when I used the echo of Vhal’s fire that there was any reaction at all.

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The hair rising along my arm drew my attention to my left, where Marques stood. Red electricity sparked around his fingers, making the paper glow red. Seeing I was watching him, and my paper still showed no sign of my mana nature, Marqus laughed.

“Nervous, Rueln?” He asked me, tossing his paper away now that he had finished with it.

“You wish,” I scoffed, waving my hand with the paper and let Vhal’s fire cover my hand, burning it to ash before his eyes. Considering how I showed no surprise, it was clear I was already aware what my mana nature was. I liked the weariness that came into his eyes when he saw it. It was my turn to smile as I pulled the wand out of my pocket. I couldn’t get away with showing off how I didn’t need it, not yet, at least. “Are you?”

His hand tightened on his own wand, red lightning so quick to move to it now that it had a form to take. Red sparks danced at the wand’s tip. Professor Blaire wasn’t paying attention, helping other students with their ‘auras’, which seemed to make Marqus over confident. He leaned closer to me, his magic making static electricity dance over my skin.

“Full of yourself, aren’t you, Rueln?” he sneered. “You don’t deserve to be here. You should drop out before you embarrass yourself more than you already have.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, scowling at him. “What is your problem with me?” I would like a straight answer.

“My problem is you,” Marqus snarled.

“Before today,” I said, standing my ground and even leaning closer to him in return. “I didn’t know you existed.” Practically true. I hadn’t talked to him at least. There was definitely more to this than that. “Why don’t you tell me the truth?” I challenged.

“That is the truth!” He hissed, forced to keep his voice low as Professor Blaire worked her way back toward us.

“Liar,” I said cooly, knowing I was provoking him. The wasted magic coming out of the tip of his wand was proof. He was so new to this that it was obvious he had little control. Even mine was better than that.

“What did you call me?!’

“I called you a liar,” I repeated, meeting his eyes and knowing I was digging under his skin. He couldn’t retaliate and make it look like an accident here. There were too many witnesses. “What is your problem with me? Answer me or are you a coward too?”

Face flushing red, Marqus shoved me. “Just stay away from her!” he snarled.

Her? So he was jealous. Of who? Tris? That was the only girl I thought I ever was around, at least until I remembered our first class and the pretty fake girl who sat next to me all day. Oh. Well, this is the stupidest thing to be jealous over. I don’t even like her.

“What are you-” I shut my mouth when Professor Blaire stepped between us, glaring at Marques with her hands on her hips.

“If you put your hands on him again, Marqus,” she scolded him, “then I will have you writing lines until then the end of the semester. I will not condone that behavior in my classroom. Am I understood?”

“Yes,” he agreed, grinding his teeth together. He bowed, however, his expression growing composed in front of a teacher. I could almost see the thoughts churning behind his eyes, however. He would retaliate and he was going to use the spell the professor wanted us to cast to do it.

“Now, you know your mana aura’s power, why don’t you share with the class?”

“Lightning,” he answered.

“Very well. Take your position,” she ordered, gesturing over to the marked spot she had prepared before class started. Maques narrowed his eyes at me, then walked over to take his place, turning to face us. Professor Blaire took the position opposite of him, pulling a third wand out of her robes for the sake of the demonstration. “To create a spell, you must hold your hand out away from yourself and activate your aura.” She did so, and nodded for Marques to copy her.

“Like this?” He asked, red static sparks fracturing off the wand’s tip like the paper he had used to identify his nature.

“Yes, very good. Now, push your aura into the wand and will it to expel from it. I want you to create a steady stream of lightning, extend it as far as you can.” With a wave, turquoise light exploded forth from the wand and a stream of it flew across the room, waving like a whip before dispelling like stars in the morning. The entire class exclaimed and clapped their hands at the beautiful use of magic. Professor Blaire smiled and bowed, appreciating their enthusiasm. “Thank you.”

“I’m supposed to do that with lighting?” Marqus asked, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the flashing lights.

“Lightning will be much easier,” she assured him. “Your mana will want to behave like the natural element it represents. You will simply need to keep pushing your mana into the wand and picture what you want. It shouldn’t be more than a few meters to consider your current mana pool. The spell is called ‘magic ribbon’. It is near universal and can be applied to most magical auras.”

The boy who had stuck himself to his desk raised his hand. “What about mine, professor?”

She smiled. “No, yours is the exception, Joel.” Her eyes flicked over to the girl, who had the paper butterfly still flying around her head. “Yours as well. No worries. This isn’t the only spell I have prepared for the class to attempt today.” With that settled, she turned back to us. “Rueln, do you understand the concept?”

“Yes, Professor,” I answered, glancing down at my wand. “Step into place then. If it helps you concentrate, you may say the spell aloud. Silent spell casting will become more natural as you learn.”

I didn’t wait for anymore encouragement; I didn’t need it. Excited to cast my first true spell, I moved to my place, raised the wand and enveloped myself in my soulforce. Pulling mana through my channels, I sent it into the wand. “Magic ribbon,” I said, thinking the name was stupid. Instantly a whip like ribbon of fire formed and danced as I waved the wand in the air. I neglected to follow the initial instruction of sending it as far as I could, distracted by my achievement. A triumphant smile forming on my lips. “This is kind of fun,” I admitted, trying to scribble a picture with the dancing fire.

Marqus was doing much the same, the lightning not as responsive as my fire, but he succeeded in sending it forward nearly four meters. He seemed more direct in his cast than the more ribbon like form I was making with my own. Seeing I had yet to achieve it, he turned and sneered at me.

“Pretty ribbon dance, Rueln,” he snorted, straightening.

I pulled my mana back, my fire fading to nothing so I could start again. His provocation annoyed me and I wanted to try the extension method, as we were originally instructed. I readied my mana, set to cast the magic, but before I could, startled cries above us drew everyone’s attention. On the top level of the classroom, a student had attempted the exercise without a wand, and had little control as his power spread out, burning several students below him. I could see the heat waves coming off him, but saw no fire, and wasn’t sure what his mana nature was, though I sensed it was like Vhal’s.

“By the Lords and Gods,” Professor Blaire exclaimed before light flashed and she teleported behind the boy and swiftly cut his mana stream. “That was extremely dangerous. See me after class,” she scolded the boy before moving to attend the four other students who had the bad luck of sitting nearby. All of them looked as if the sun had just nearly fried their skin. Only one kid looked to have tanned, the rest were red in quite a lot of pain. A girl about my age was crying, holding her arms away from her body because of the burns. “There now, come on,” Professor Blaire murmured reassuringly. “We’ll go to the healer. All of you now. Let’s go.”

After instructing everyone that there would be no magic until she returned, she left, taking the injured with her. The door had hardly closed with a solid click when I felt the hair all along my body rise and instinctively I took a step back. A flash of lightning flew past my face, as I turned to look toward Marqus to see his wand still pointed at me. The spell had been only inches away from me. If I hadn’t taken a step back, he would have hit me while my back was to him. Red sparks still flared around its tip, Marqus’s building his mana to cast a second.