Solaria

Maybe I should have gone to Lunario's house, as I'm sure meeting a war criminal is better than having the third day of class. The day’s classes were practical engineering and business, which made the middle of the week the absolute worst day of all, not helped by the Eyes staring at me every second of class. Practical engineering is geared towards casting and enchanting boxes to preserve or age depending on what specific application, with respective ideal amounts of time manipulation for every application. Worst of all, it was required of us to memorize all those for tests, even when anyone could just read their notes in any real life situation, without even mentioning that those ‘best practices’ amounts were almost always irrelevant, as clients will just ask what amount they will want. Even if you were to set up shop you can just make a bunch of different containers with varying degrees of casting.

Business was even worse than that, being completely irrelevant to me with a professor who didn’t know how it is to feel love and affection towards other living beings. A stale topic by topic talk of buzzword filled nonsense that really made me want to cast anything to make me feel something. I got so bored I picked a hair from my feather pen and started poking Lunario's face with it as he slept, as the faces he made as I poked and prodded were so funny compared to whatever was happening at class. We were in the front row, which I now realize was a mistake, so most people could see me torturing our fellow classmate, but apparently they also appreciated the bit of distraction, as people were watching with curiosity.

I wanted to see how much punishment this face could take before he woke up, so I increased the aggression. Poking eyelids, mouth and ears, he did react a bunch more, but was still sleeping as if nothing was happening, so I went for the final blow. I attacked the nose, instantly seeing I was succeeding, with his face morphing as more and more I was affecting him with the most primal and uncontrollable emotion experienced by a human body, the want to sneeze.

As it reached the point of no return, I sheath my weapon as I knew my job was done. He started to lift his head in the preamble of his last gasp. I hear extreme silence as everyone holds their breath in expectation, except the professor who just kept writing on the board. “Atchoo!” he sneezes, screaming loudly as well and haphazardly casting magic in front of him, which shooks me to my core. How can someone cast by accident? Spells require the use of both mana and intent to change the rules of the world, a complex action I’m starting to get to grips with and that Lunario can’t even do while conscious. The spell didn’t isolate the area, so it dissipated instantly and it probably wasn’t going to do anything even if it somehow did, but it was the principle of it all that didn’t sit well with me. It shouldn’t be possible. Shit, he could accidentally hit his own head and die, so I again ask myself: ‘how is he still alive?’

Well, Lunario having baffled me while unconscious was in my bingo card, I just didn’t expect it to be like that, which I guess does make sense. I looked at the professor expecting to hear a reprimand, but the scratching of the chalk on the board kept going like nothing happened. I knew it was risky to do this, but if I was to be guillotined it would be at least more entertaining, so I casted a tiny bubble that I soon collapsed, seeing if there was any reaction, making my heart drop as the professor turned to face the class. “So those were the principles of the market we will be exploring, anyone have a question?” they asked, clearly confused as to the panic reaction of the class, but didn’t seem to care too much and returned to the blackboard, I then let loose a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

So the professor probably wasn’t a Time mage, so I risked it again, casting a bubble and hoping for the last one not to be a fluke. No reaction. So I continued casting, feeling the eyes of the class drilling me as they decided if I was going to be publicly executed for my discrepancy, but I couldn’t pay attention to this class or I would die. The classmate directly behind me gave it a try, quickly collapsing any effect to see if something would happen. No reaction. So they tried again, collapsing the bubble not on purpose but as a legit try, soon followed by another member of class, then another, and some moments later everyone (except Lunario, who was still sleeping) was trying to cast.

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I was focused in pushing the bubble I had created the maximum amount I could, but, remembering my first day, I instead created one as slow as I could behind me, aiming at the top of the desk of my colleague, since I knew I didn’t have to look at the spot to cast magic on it. I then collapse it and remake again and again, hoping this was helping with something, which seemed to do something, as what they created next was much more similar to what I’ve done. After repeating enough times and trying to copy, finally I feel a bubble of time being formed behind me that doesn’t collapse. I repeat this process on the close desks and I’m proud to see that the ones I taught were replicating my technique, so as time went on I sensed more and more proper time spells being casted.

Wait, so seeing someone casting multiple times does help in learning. Why don't the teachers know of this, or do they know and are actively sabotaging our learning because they hate us? Is everything set up to inhibit our progress, so we can fatten up and let the Eyes eat us? Well, not going to let that happen, as it seems both the professor and the Eyes aren’t Time mages, so we can make it under their noses. Well, the professor’s nose, since this disembodied entity doesn't look to have a nose.

Unfortunately, even with all my hype, it seems like I won't be getting any super upgrades just yet, as I tried to change the bubbles shape, make it move and other stuff I knew technically were possible but I had no idea how to do them. So I just kept on improving what I already know. The problem was that I was casting on empty air, so I didn't know how well I was progressing, making it harder to understand what was helping or not. Wait, maybe if I could use my capability to sense time I could see how different actions impacted the time inside the bubble. Yeah, paying attention to the impact my mana was doing to… time itself? The relation between air and everything else? The height of the mountain the boulder is in? Again, I lacked language to put into words what I was doing and feeling, as if I was blind since my birth, suddenly had vision and now have to explain what color is.

Ok, solved not knowing what effect I was making, I could just feel what was happening. New problem, I have no idea how to interpret all these feelings that are getting to me. As I tried to wrestle with whatever I could understand, the bells rang. As soon as I get that the class has ended, I collect my notes (which are absolutely empty), my pen and throw it all in my bag to get going and then I see my desk neighbor. ‘Oh, I still have to wake Lunario up’ I think, quickly discarding all the devious plans my head was making up with impressive speed. He did deserve a bonk in the head, just in general, but I was going to let it pass since he did save me a world of boredom, even if unintentionally. So I just put my hand on his shoulder and gave it a shake.

He wakes up flailing his arms in panic, like he was put in a blender and had to fight for his life. Come on, I did put on a bit more strength than normal, but not that much, so I rolled my eyes at the theatrics. Doing so, I noticed the classmate that was behind me was looking at me, waiting for me to notice. I turn to face them and see in their eyes they wanted to thank me, opening their mouths to speak so. “No need, I'm getting out of the way” I cut them off, leaving the middle of the corridor, feeling bad to act like I didn't understand what they were trying to do, but I felt like I shouldn't let the Eyes know what happened and my colleague let it go, walking past me.

I pulled Lunario by the collar like a sleepy dog, leaving the building. I couldn't help but feel proud to have helped the entire class with learning the ropes of magic, making me have to hold myself not to gloat about it to my barely awake escort. Thinking about it, the class was for sure going to talk about it to other people in their life… Ah, it will be fine, it's not like the Eyes are going to eat me while I sleep, since I'm 90% sure that they don't even have a mouth. The worst that could happen is that they talk to the director and we receive a tongue lashing about how irresponsible we were and how the rules are there for a reason and yada yada yada. Surely that's the worst that can happen, right?