Chapter 108: Advanced Space Lessons

Location: Magicon Empire; Magicon System; Terra; Imperia; FBC

“Did you expect something like that?” Lucy asks me after five minutes of silence.

My head is still spinning… All the things, professor Oldridge just taught us. It’s crazy. I thought this would be a rather boring course. At most, I expected to learn more about Artifacts. But with all things concerning Talent, it feels like Artifacts are just a minor part of all this.

Even if I know this is not true. I mean Oldridge told us himself: Magic developed from Artifacts. Without them, the Awakening would never have happened. Still… My thoughts still cycle back to Talent, despite all this.

I didn’t even know about Talent a few hours earlier… And now it is the one thing that explains so much and affects me in so many ways. Why did no one tell me about it? Did they think I couldn’t handle it?

Sure, professor Oldridge’s explanation of losing motivation and all that is valid, but still. Ugh… Everyone probably tried to take things slowly as they didn’t know how I would react to things… I’ve been gone for 20 years after all. Hell, I don’t know how I would have reacted.

All I know is that I’m now sitting here, thinking about it… Maybe I wouldn’t have reacted the way I now expect? I guess I’ll never find out… Unless Space Lessons turn out to include time travel or something like that…

“Sara?”

Oh, I spaced out again!

“Sorry, it’s been a lot. And no, I didn’t expect it at all. Also, do you realize what this all means with Talent and all?”

“Yeah,” she answers and lowers her head. “How can we explain this to Lydia?”

This hammers it home even more. Lydia, our friend and roommate, is directly affected by this!

“I don’t know… Hey, now that I think about it. Why bother with all the secrecy stuff about discouragement and everything when professor Oldridge just tells everyone that people with awakening cores will never reach Archmage? Was it a lie after all? Because that’s a big reason to discourage someone with an awakening core.”

“Right… That doesn’t make sense. Maybe he checked and no one with an awakening core was there?” Lucy shrugs.

“Yeah, maybe. Clara, can you find out?”

“Sure, but this might take a while… I’ll have to look up every student from the course, and I’m not allowed to browse the student files. Maybe you can contact someone and ask them… That might be faster. That’s all I’m allowed to say.”

Right, I can ask my parents.

“She’s looking into it, but it might take a while. But I’ve got another idea, give me a moment.”

Lucy stands up. “Sure, take your time, I’ll get us something to eat.”

She leaves the room and I start casting the longer-range Communication spell I learned before attending FBC and aim for my mom. I don’t have the Video Call one ready yet.

Somehow, I hear the sound of Clara face palming. “I didn’t mean your mother…”

Before I can respond or maybe cancel the spell, it connects, and I can hear Mom’s voice.

“Hey Sara, it’s nice to hear from you! How are you? We haven’t spoken in a while.”

I swallow my annoyance at Clara. “Hi, Mom! I’m good, thanks. It’s been a while, yeah. But things have been busy.”

“Hah, you tell me. You just have to sit still and learn while Dan and I both have to do all the preparation stuff for your trip to Earth,” Mom replies with false annoyance, which causes me to grin. Then I remember something I wanted to ask her as well.

“Yeah about that… Can you pull some strings and have Maja’s cadet group or whatever they are called assigned to us? It would be so cool to have everyone back together again.”

Now it’s Mom’s turn to laugh. “Oh dear, don’t worry. We’ve considered all that for a long time. While you won’t be all aboard the same ship, you all will be forming one large team. That’s all I’m going to tell you though. A bit of the surprise has to remain.”

Oh, now I feel a bit dumb. Of course, they thought of all that…

“Thanks, Mom! You’re the best. But that’s actually not why I was calling you… You see, I had my first Magic and Artifacts lesson today…”

Mom just utters a single word. “Oh…”

She knows!

“We learned about talent… And now I know why I need an Artifact core for A&D magic.”

“Yes, that’s the reason. And I’m guessing you learned even more about Talent if I’m judging your mood correctly.”

I nod, despite Mom not being able to see it. “Yeah… So it’s true? Lydia, Shay, and all the others who got their first cores from Doctor Philipps can never reach Archmage?”

Mom sighs. “Yes, it’s true. The only possibility is getting them an Artifact core as well. That’s also the reason why we didn’t tell you and your friends. There is nothing worse for a Mage’s career than being told that you can never reach the peak of magic. So, if Lydia doesn’t know already, I suggest you don’t tell her. At least not yet when she just started her journey.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Hmm, she’s got a point there. Lydia has always been so excited about magic. I don’t want to crush her spirits.

Mom continues. “I’m curious though… Did you figure it out yourself or did your professor tell you?”

“He told us after someone asked. That’s also something I’m confused about. I mean, he told us the same as you just did with crushing a Mage's spirit and all, but why did he tell us the part about awakening cores not being able to reach Archmage? Isn’t that the definition of crushing one’s spirit?”

“That’s true… Maybe you had only born Mages in your course? That’s the only explanation I can think of right now.”

“Yeah, Lucy thought the same… I already asked Clara, and she said looking into it might take a while. She also said I should just ask someone else, that’s why I called you… But then she said she didn’t mean you. She… Oh!”

I trail off. I’m such an idiot. Now it’s obvious. Clara meant I should ask the professor!

“Thanks again, Mom, but I gotta go!”

She laughs and tells me goodbye as well, then I cut the call and look back at Lucy who has entered the room just a minute ago.

“You were probably right that there were only natural Mages in our course. I could ask the professor if you want, but actually, I don’t think it’s that important. Also, Mom said we probably shouldn’t tell Lydia about her not being able to reach Archmage.”

Lucy sits down and grimaces. “I hate to lie to her… But I also don’t want to hurt her. Shit, that’s messed up. We’re going to hurt her either way. But I think your mom is right… Telling her now is probably worse than telling her later when she is already stronger. Who knows, maybe we find a whole cache of Artifact cores on Earth.”

Yeah, that would be great.

“Okay, then we keep it to ourselves for now…”

I don’t like it, but the alternative isn’t better.

We eat in silence until Lucy breaks it some ten minutes later. “Should we head back down? You’ve got your Space magic class, right?”

“Yeah, let’s go. It’s been getting way too broody in here.”

That gets a short laugh out of Lucy, and I teleport the two of us back into our dorm room. Having Space Sense is such a cheat when it enables you to check your emergence point.

A bit later I find myself inside a familiar room. It’s the same one, I had my Beginner Space class a bit more than a week ago. This time the room is rather empty, probably less than a hundred people.

Hmm, there were about 500 Senior or above Space Mages in the introduction course… That would make five or six classes. The same number as the Beginner course I’ve attended before.

That must be it. Now I just have to wait if instructor Renner was right, and he’s the one to teach this course as well. But still, there should be a one in six chance, that I’ve got one of the other five instructors…

Ah, never mind…

With a purple flash, instructor Renner appears behind the lectern in the front, and with another flash of Space magic, the doors at the back of the classroom are suddenly closed. Silence descends through the room.

What was that? Did he use Space magic to close the doors? How? I immediately lift my hand to ask him, but for now, he ignores me.

Instead, he introduces himself again. Only then does he acknowledge my question. Right, the other Space Mages don’t know him yet.

“What spell did you just use with the doors in the back?”

I glance around and notice a few other students’ gazes sharpening. Looks like they noticed as well.

“Ahh, you caught that, did you? It’s something similar to Teleportation but also not. The spell is called Displacement, and one of the many spells you all will learn during our lessons. Unfortunately, not right now as we have more important topics to cover before.”

He pauses for a second before continuing. “Who of you knows the Starship Jump spell?”

This time, almost every hand goes up. Only ten or so don’t lift theirs and look a bit uncomfortable because of all the attention they are now getting.

“That’s good! It will speed up things by a lot. Can the ones who don’t know the spell yet please join me at the lectern?”

They quickly get up and do so. Instructor Renner talks to them for a while, then they return to their seats shortly after with big smiles on their faces. I wonder what he told them.

Instructor Renner addresses the class again. “Alright, as you all now know the most important spell for Space Mages, or learn it very soon,” he winks at the few students who have just talked to him, “we can immediately start with something even more interesting. It’s something to look forward to for all the Senior Mages among you. Can the Masters here tell me what I mean by this?”

He has to mean Space Sense, right? That ability is just overpowered. I lift my hand, and about fifteen others do so as well. That’s quite a lot of Masters… Sixteen out of a hundred. Renner points at someone. It’s a tall young man with dark hair who sits at the other end of the classroom.

“You’re talking about the fact that us Masters can ignore ship sizes,” he brags. “And that teleportation distances are almost tenfold, right?” He leans back with a satisfied smirk on his face when he sees the people around him looking at him in awe.

Oh my, did his power go to his head? How can someone be so arrogant when almost a fifth of the people in this room are just as strong as him or even stronger in my case, probably?

Instructor Renner seems to think the same, as he frowns slightly and shakes his head. “No, not quite. Sure, being able to teleport greater distances and all are very nice things, but it’s not what I meant as it’s just natural progression. No, I’m looking for something else. Something that sets a Master Space Mage a step above all the others.”

Only a few hands are still in the air, mine included. The arrogant dude looks a bit confused. Finally, instructor Renner calls out another student. This time it’s a red-haired girl. Her hair is much darker than my natural color though.

“It has to be Space Sense, and you’re absolutely right. That ability is amazing!”

Before instructor Renner can reply, the arrogant dude speaks up again. “Really? But that’s useless… All that weird ability shows me is the destination of my teleports… Who cares about that when we arrive there in the same second anyway?”

Is he dumb or is he just ignoring all the things Space Sense can do?

Renner interrupts him. “Miss Dellowa is absolutely right, I was talking about Space Sense. And Mr Franklin, it seems that you are underutilizing your own Space Sense. If you want, I can offer you an extra lesson on Space Sense sometime next week. That goes for all of you. Especially the Masters among you.”

I find myself nodding. I definitely listen to that lesson!

He continues to tell us some basics about Space Sense that I already know. Then he explains a few other things about Space Magic in general. And the time flies by. Before I know it, instructor Renner is finished with today’s lesson and asks us if we have any questions. He ended the lesson quite a bit before it ended officially. I guess he expects quite a lot of questions.

And he was right… Almost everyone lifts their hand and wants to ask something, so instructor Renner just shrugs and starts at the leftmost student sitting in the front row.

The questions come and go. Most of the time, the students ask for clarifications or something similar. Someone else asks if he can attend the Space Sense lesson despite only being a Senior Mage. Renner happily agrees and extends the invitation to everyone else a second time.

Then it’s my turn. I too have a question. Something that has bothered me since the Magic and Artifact lesson in the morning. “I don’t know if this is part of a future lesson, but I’ve been to the Magic and Artifact course this morning. There we saw the recording of the first Mage. He froze the people in Space around him… Was that a spell and can we learn it as well?”

Instructor Renner grins. “Ah, I was waiting for that question. This one is asked every year. Unfortunately, what you saw wasn’t a spell… It was part of the Awakening and the first Mage never managed to replicate it.”

My face starts to fall. That spell would have been so useful!

“But years later, someone else managed to create a spell that practically does the same. It’s called Space Freeze, and yes, that spell is part of the curriculum!”

His grin is affecting and I return it. He did that on purpose!

But still, I can’t wait to learn that spell.