With every day, he felt like he was falling farther behind. His situation could be partly attributed to the absence of anybody backing him. The lack of proper food and housing was a constant concern. However, The most important reason was his affinities. He was the only tri-affinity mage in his grade and probably even the academy. This meant that he had three times the amount of specialized classes compared to his classmates. Respectively, he had three times the amount of Spellforms to master.
To Zeke’s further dismay, he found that his experiences didn’t translate well from one affinity to another. Blood Mana wasn’t at all like Spatial Mana, nor Mind Mana. He realized early that the attunement to a different Mana type was more than a mere change of color. There was a specific way each of the three needed to be handled.
Zeke was also starting to get disappointed in most of his teachers. He had a feeling that the lectures were lacking. He couldn't tell if the school was hiding knowledge on purpose, or if the teachers were just that bad. However, the quality of the general lessons was not what he had expected from the best academy in the empire.
History of the Empire, History of Magic, Mana Theory, and all the other classes that were exclusively visited by commoners, were little more than a waste of time in his opinion. The teachers couldn't or, more likely, wouldn't answer him when he was asking seemingly basic questions.
In the same vein, Cenred had not shown up once since their initial meeting, abandoning Zeke to his fate. This was in stark contrast to the teachers of the practical classes, such as the one on Mana Control that was scheduled right now. From his seat in the back, he awaited the beginning of the lesson with eager anticipation.
The class was quiet as the man held his lecture. Many students even leaned forward so as not to miss a single word of the explanation. The lecture was held by a seasoned combat Mage with a no-nonsense demeanor. The man was strict but fair, and Zeke liked his classes the most out of all his general classes. The teacher was explaining how a mage was supposed to handle the flow of Mana inside their Core.
"Mana Control is the foundation of any magical practice," he began, pacing back and forth at the front of the room. "Without proper control, your Spellforms will be weak and unstable, and you risk damaging yourself and those around you. That's why it's essential that you learn to control the flow of Mana within your core." He paused, eyeing the students intently as they tried to complete his exercises.
"The key to Mana Control lies in the manipulation of the flow. You have to steer the Mana. It will pass through you from the surroundings through your body to your core and all the way back again. During this entire process, you have to guide it with a firm hand."
He swept his gaze over the students, checking if everybody was paying attention. “Who can tell me the best way to improve control?”
Immediately, a flurry of hands shot up into the air. “You!”
The student answered immediately. “Unattuned spells, sir.”
The teacher hummed non-committally. “Why unattuned spells?”
“Two reasons, sir,” the same student answered. “First, unattuned spells don’t put any strain on the Core and can be practiced for an extended duration. Second, controlling unattuned or ambient Mana is exceedingly difficult, requiring a very high standard of Control.”
“Excellent,” the teacher praised.
Zeke listened intently to this exchange. He had not heard of this before. Of course, he knew about the existence of unattuned spells, but he had always gotten the impression that they were generally looked down upon. Maybe, he had judged them prematurely.
As far as he knew, unattuned spells were simply the result of using ambient Mana to create a Spellform. As they didn’t require any specific affinity, every Mage could cast them. The downside was that they were far weaker in comparison to attuned spells. But if they were the best way to increase Mana Control for any affinity, this might just be what he was looking for.
“Unnattuned spells, or Cantrips as they are sometimes called, are the only spells you will be able to acquire easily, even without joining a family,” the teacher continued. “Because of their relative weakness, they can never become the trump card of any family, so there is no use hiding them.”
Zeke’s ears perked up. Wasn’t this his ticket to get his hands on more spells?
“In centuries past, it used to be somewhat of a status symbol for any family to develop new Cantrips. However, the practice is less common today, as it got harder and harder to come up with new spells. You can still acquire them from the Magic Association though.”
“How much do they cost?” a student asked. This was also what Zeke wanted to know. He might not be able to afford them now, but if the price wasn’t too high, he might be able to in the future.
“They are quite affordable,” the teacher promised. “The cheapest ones are sold for a single gold coin, with the most expensive ones not exceeding the hundreds.”
Zeke deflated. The times he even held a silver coin could probably be counted on one hand. But gold coins? Those didn’t even exist in his world. How was this affordable? He would be able to live in luxury for at least a year with a single gold coin. Uncaring of Zeke’s reaction the teacher continued the lesson.
“Fret not, I will be sharing one such Cantrip with you today,” the teacher said. He extended his hand, and after a moment, a blinding ball of light emerged from his palm, hovering in place. “This spell is called [Light Ball] and is mostly used to aluminate dark places. It can also be used to blind nocturnal creatures, but there are better spells for that.”
Zeke stared in fascination at the glowing orb. It was almost like looking at a dimmer version of the sun. But all too soon, the teacher closed his fist, extinguishing the light. He marched up the the blackboard at the far wall, and after touching it for a moment, a Spellform appeared.
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“Let’s see what you can do,” the teacher said with a teasing grin. “I will only show this today, and you are forbidden from copying it. Your only choice is to master the spell during today’s lesson if you want to obtain it.”
Zeke’s eyes were fixed on the Spellform depicted. So far, he had never succeeded in casting any spell properly, but the Spellform he was seeing now was a lot less complicated. Would he be able to do it? No, that was the wrong way of thinking about it. He had to do it. This was not a chance he could waste.
With his eyes locked onto the pattern, Zeke gathered ambient Mana. He held it in his Core, trying to mimic the form in front of him. He immediately realized what the teacher had been talking about earlier. Ambient Mana was even more unruly than anything he had worked with before. With the slightest gap in Control, the Mana dispersed completely.
He held it in as long as he could, but as his Core started to burn, he had to release it. Too slow. Ezekiel restarted his efforts, but again, he didn’t even come close. Even though he was making slight progress, it was not enough. He could only hold Mana for a short amount of time before his Core started to hurt.
The Core wasn’t made to hold Mana for an indefinite amount of time, the same as a muscle wasn’t supposed to be flexed for long. He was supposed to hold it for a brief moment, shape it into the proper form, and then release it as a spell. But with his current level of Control, he wasn’t even close to being able to do that.
Frustrated, he changed his approach. Instead of trying to get the Spellform to be perfect, Zeke focused on speed. Even so, by the time his Core started to burn, his spell was only halfway there. If he had to describe it, then he would say that his current result looked like something drawn by a toddler.
Despite its unfinished state, Zeke didn’t disperse the Mana as he was supposed to. Instead, he did something his teachers had warned him about many times: He tried to Imbue the half-finished spell with Intent.
From his understanding, this step was little more than imparting his will onto the Mana. He remembered the blinding ball of light he had seen and tried to impart that picture onto the Spellform in his Core, before eventually releasing it.
At this last step, his nerves caught up with him. The reason one wasn’t supposed to do this was that an unfinished or faulty spell was unpredictable. Nobody could say what would happen for sure. In the worst case, the Mana might even cause his body to implode.
But Zeke was confident that wouldn’t happen. For one, he didn’t use enough Mana to cause serious damage. On top of that, he was confident of healing any minor injury, even internal ones. With bated breath, he awaited the result of his first proper spell.
Nothing happened.
Far from being disappointed, Zeke smiled. He was happy to be doing anything else but repeating the same mundane exercise over and over again, without progress. Now, he at least had something to look forward to after each attempt. This might only be a small, psychological change, but at the moment, it made a huge difference to him.
After each attempt, he was eagerly awaiting the result. The first effects started to show soon after. Initially, his chest started to heat up. Other times, his hand started to sweat or even sting. But eventually, there was an actual improvement.
The Spellform didn’t look half bad. Of course, it was still a long way off from the perfect image on the far wall, but it was his best attempt yet. Elated, Zeke Imbued his Intent. He had learned that it worked better if he didn’t just think of the picture of what it was supposed to look like, but instead tried to put his sentiments into it.
Initially, he had thought of the sun. Bright and warm, as it shone down on him every day. But that wasn’t quite right, was it? There had been no heat, no warmth emanating from his teacher’s spell. No, this wasn’t the light of the sun, it was just a light. Its purpose was no other than to banish the darkness. Ezekiel focused on this very feeling, this idea, and Imbued it into his spell.
A moment later, he had to squint. There was no ball of light, but his hand had started to glow with the same brightness. Zeke was so astonished, that he lost control and the light winked out right away.
“Not bad,” somebody said from right beside him. Zeke turned hastily and found the teacher standing there. “You might have made it if you had used an incantation or gesture.”
“Incantation?” Zeke asked, puzzled.
The man clucked his tongue in annoyance. “What are those fools even doing? Who is your affinity teacher, boy?”
Who should he name? He didn’t want to get his Mind or Space teacher in trouble, as they probably had good reasons for not teaching him about this. As for his Blood teacher…
“Cenred,” he said without hesitation.
The teacher scoffed. “I should have guessed it was that good-for-nothing drunkard. Anyway, when learning to cast a spell, it is common to use an incantation or gesture as an aide. Those can be anything, a flick of the wrist, a catchphrase, whatever you want. Their sole purpose is to be connected with the effect you are trying to project, do you understand?”
Zeke thought about it for a moment. “How do I link an incantation with Intent?”
The teacher smiled. “Repetition is the most common way. But it also helps to use an incantation that is already linked with the effect you want to achieve. For example, it is easier to imagine a fireball when yelling [Fireball] than, let’s say, round flame attack, yes?”
Zeke nodded. That sounded easy enough. By using the same incantation every time, he would slowly start to associate the Intent with the spoken word. Upon seeing him deep in thought, the teacher left him alone, continuing to make his rounds.
After making up his mind about what he would do, Zeke went back to practice. He failed the first couple of times. But eventually, he managed to create the Spellform properly. As he thought of the same shadow-banishing light as earlier, he thrust out his hand and yelled.
“[Light ball]”.
When he opened his eyes, he could see that a small sphere had appeared, hovering just above his skin. It was the most beautiful thing Zeke had ever seen — his first spell!
The teacher nodded approvingly, and the other students looked on with a mix of awe and envy. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless. Only now did he realize how much he had needed this win. This small triumph was enough to fill him with renewed confidence and reassurance that his efforts weren’t in vain.
"At least little Zeke can find work as a lantern now," somebody said. This caused the surrounding students to snicker. It seemed that no matter what he did, he couldn't escape the ridicule and mockery of his classmates.
Somebody had spread the word that he only allowed his close friends and family to call him Zeke. Ever since that day, that was what everyone called him. Now, even his once-beloved nickname had been twisted into a mocking caricature of the symbol of closeness it once was. But at this point, he was way past caring about such things.
Zeke tried his best to focus, determined to improve his casting further. But the whispers and snickering from all around were a constant distraction. It seemed the others had given up on the challenge in favor of mocking him. Consequently, until the end of class, he didn’t manage to repeat the feat.
“Congratulations.” Before letting them go, the teacher pressed a sheet of paper into his hand.
After leaving the room, Zeke unfurled the paper and found a copy of the [Light Ball] spell. He gently traced the lines of the spell with his fingers, his lips curving slightly upward. That was right, he had earned this. With his own two hands — with his own efforts.
He had earned this!
With renewed purpose, he made his way back to the Blood Magic classroom to store his treasure. He would also need to prepare himself for the afternoon class. For a change, he was actually looking forward to it.
It was his favorite subject after all — Mind Magic. Not just because of the material, but also due to the fact that the students themselves seemed to be more mature. There was no comparison between them and his other classmates.
Also, he might be able to see her again…