The lecture hall was packed full once again. The groups had been divided in a different way compared to the previous lecture, as the members of noble houses had decided to split up. Now, the groups had formed by affinity. If Valar focused hard enough, he could see the students’ auras forming into differently colored blobs across the hall. Fire affinity mages created a zone of reds and oranges, water mages blues and so on.
Valar found that it was hard to keep focus on the class in front of him when he sat next to a prince of the kingdom. Of course the young man had told Valar to treat him as any student, but the boy found that was easier said than done. Arwen was a prince. An actual prince!
The idolization of royals wasn’t something that was unique to Valar in any way. The Aurelius family—most commonly associated with their golden hair—was highly respected among the nobles, but their status rose to mythdom among the common folk. Everything a child like Valar would have heard was that every single royal was a powerhouse or held limitless potential. The king himself was a legendary figure at the level of dragons, phoenixes and the demon lords themselves. He was a diamond ranker! Although that’s supposedly a myth…
Valar only knew of three humans that were rumored to be diamond rankers, although he was sure there were more somewhere. The luminous emperor of Khatesh, king Leon Aurelius of Leoria and the matron of war reigning over the northern wastes were all mythical figures among all of humanity. And the young man next to Valar was a son of one of these legendary figures!
When Brynn came on to the stage and started speaking, Valar found it easier to focus. Sitting in silence with one of the princes was nervewracking, but it wasn’t that bad once there was something to focus on.
“Good morning, iron rank students of the royal academy.” Brynn started. “I trust yesterday’s lessons were fruitful to you all, and hope that that continues today. As for this lesson, today’s topic is the iron rank rune of connection.”
The gold rank wind mage cast a quick spell, projecting a large image of a rune in the air above her head. It was quite similar to the tether rune, but much more simple. Even though Valar hadn’t gotten the chance to scrutinize the tether rune much at all, it had been way more complex from even a cursory look.
“Many of you are probably thinking that this rune is way simpler than the runes of your affinity,” Brynn chuckled. “And now some of you are questioning your own judgement.”
What? Was I wrong? The rune looks so incredibly simple… Is there something that I missed?
Just when Valar was starting to doubt his own eyes, Brynn burst out laughing and pointed at the student body. “Look at your faces! I fooled you good, didn’t I?”
She continued laughing for a while. The students didn’t join in on the laughter, creating an uncomfortable ambience. The woman didn’t seem to mind and just continued cackling. It took a while, but she managed to calm herself and continued speaking, although the grin on her face suggested that she was still quite happy about her little prank.
“Now… Those of you that thought that the rune of connection is simple, you are completely right. There’s even a good reason for that. Could anyone tell me what that reason is?”
Several hands were raised and Brynn picked one at random. “Affinityless runes are much easier in general?”
“True, true… But why is affinityless magic easier? What makes it so easy?”
Less hands were raised. Brynn ended up picking a young woman from the earth magic congregation. Her voice was deep. Really deep. “All the runes for affinityless magic have to work for all affinities, so they have been simplified.”
“And that’s our answer!” Brynn clapped. “Affinityless runes have to be compatible with all affinities. They wouldn’t be affinityless if some people couldn’t use them, right? Now, this makes learning the rune easier, but it isn’t all good. In order to make the connection rune affinityless and easy to learn, countless mages have researched it. Still, it isn’t as efficient as using the rune meant for your affinity.”
Why don’t I just learn the rune meant for my affinity then?
“Why don’t I just learn the rune meant for my affinity then?” a yell came from the group of fire magic students.
“Don’t yell in my class, Relwyn,” Brynn said flatly. “As for why you shouldn’t learn the rune of your affinity, be my guest and learn it! You will gain maybe five percent more power at your rank, but your stay at this academy will be double the length compared to all the other students.”
“Wait, what?” Valar blurted out.
The 17th prince of Leoria chuckled. “Listen to the professor. She’ll explain herself shortly.”
Brynn chuckled to herself and continued her explanation. “There’s a reason why this rune is so researched. Centuries ago, every single mage needed to learn the rune of connection for their own affinity. The problem is that the rune is deviously complicated for practically all of the affinities. They spent months, if not years, to study that single rune because casting spells without it is essentially impossible. Spells need linked runes, and you won’t be learning to link them without the rune of connection for a very long time. Luckily, the researchers of that time discovered that the rune could be simplified. That process of simplification and improvement has continued for centuries now, and no new discoveries have been made for a couple decades.”
Brynn’s speech was quite eye-opening for Valar. He had never thought that runes could be simplified from their original forms, and that revelation brought new ideas. Those ideas would have to stew in his mind for a while, as Valar was not ready to research magic, but that time would come.
“Keep in mind that these optimizations and simplifications become much harder to execute at higher ranks. Small errors escalate when spells use tens or hundreds of runes, so you’ll have to learn the rune of connection for your affinity at some point,” Brynn explained. “This simplification is made so that you can have an easier start as mages, not as a crutch for those at higher ranks. Luckily, your brains will be significantly enhanced by silver or even late bronze rank. That makes learning easier, trust me.”
Brynn went on to explain the basic form of the rune of connection, warning the students of any potential mistakes. Learning the rune wouldn’t be as hard as memorizing the ones meant for their own affinities, and the teacher was working to make it as easy as possible.
“Now, there are other affinityless runes too,” Brynn switched topics after a while. “The rune of connection is the only one that is absolutely necessary for spellcasting, but affinityless runes are important in another aspect of spellcraft: Customization.”
The rune hovering above the wind mage’s head changed form and split to several others. They were equally simple, mostly consisting of different shapes.
“Affinityless runes can be used to shape the outcomes of our spells. When you cast a shield spell, do you want it to be a ball around you? Maybe just a disk in front of your hand? All of these runes change the shape and direction of your spells. Luckily, they are even easier to learn than the rune of connection. Iron rank spellforms will have these included already, but their use becomes much more free in later ranks.”
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Brynn cast a quick spell. A large eagle entirely created by wind soared through the hall, causing chaos among the students. Papers flew into the air, students screamed and Brynn laughed. “That eagle is made with wind magic, but I modified its different aspects with affinityless runes. As you can see, a simple spell can become quite magnificent with enough skill in spellcasting and runes!”
Valar looked at the eagle of wind soaring through the lecture hall. Amazing… I want to be able to do something like that.
After the eagle ended its flight, it returned to Brynn and dispersed with a final screech.
“I do have to say that the runes meant for customization often fall short, and good skills in visualization become much more important as you all progress through the ranks. That wind eagle utilized affinityless runes, yes, but it also required quite a bit of visualization from my end. Now, enough of that! Let’s go over the runes in question!”
The professor went on to explain each and every rune that lingered over her head. Valar noted them down in his notebook while the professor explained them, as he knew that he would need to memorize them later.
Soon, the lecture was almost over. “We still have a couple minutes left. If you have any questions about the lecture or these first days, raise your hand.”
A couple hands were raised, one of them belonging to one of Valar’s classmates—the Relwyn life mage. To Valar’s growing dismay, Brynn picked him to speak first. “How fast can we expect to learn all the iron rank runes? Also, are there any outliers that have emerged on the first day?”
“I can tell you that the iron rank studies take four to six months on average,” Brynn explained. “That of course depends on the student, as some savants have gotten out of here in a couple of weeks. That’s rare though… As for any outliers, two savants and one really hard worker have come to my attention.”
“What the fuck is the difference?” a yell came from the fire magic students.
Brynn’s eyes thinned as she cast a quick spell. The fire magic student literally flew out of the lecture hall, screaming as he was forced out. “No manners… A good question though,” Brynn mused. “Sad that the student who asked the question can’t hear the answer.”
The class had gone dead silent. A professor had deliberately cast magic on a student. The nobleman had just been tossed out of the class, and no guards were coming to apprehend Brynn. There would be no yelling during lectures in the future…
“The difference between savants and hard workers… It’s hard to explain to someone who isn’t either,” Brynn deadpanned. “And I don’t mean hard worker in the common sense. I’m sure you have worked hard to get here and will continue to do so in the future; I commend you for that,” The professor smiled. “In my opinion, hard worker is the wrong term. I like calling people like that untiring instead. These people are those who just cannot give up on a task they have chosen to accomplish once they have started it. I know some magic researchers who have cooped up in their room for months, even years, to learn runes. They would barely eat and sleep, and if they were forced out of their room, they were often found practicing their craft on a random park bench instead. Those who could be described as untiring are not naturals at magic like savants are. A savant gets a rune right on their first try, an untiring tries to do it until they can. They don’t feel dismay when failing in a task, only when they are forced to stop trying. I have to say that I would not like to be untiring. Ironically, that sounds quite exhausting…”
Brynn sighed deeply and shook her head. “Now, some of you may be wondering why. Learning your runes faster than the other would be amazing, right? Those who wish to be savants or untiring, raise your hand.”
Almost every single student in the entire hall raised their hand. Strangely, no one in the back row did. Zeke, Arwen and Valar were all frowning deeply.
Brynn gestured for everyone to lower their hands. “I would not wish to be either, and neither should you.”
Many of the lowered hands raised again, the students themselves sporting indignant expressions. A frown grew on Brynn’s face as she continued speaking. “Yes, yes. You all want to learn fast and get to progress, be it as an adventurer, soldier or expert worker. Being a savant or untiring would help with that… But it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I’ll start with savants. Savants are really good at one thing. That can be magic, swordsmanship, cartography, cooking or anything else. The trade-off is that they are more often than not abhorrent at many other things. I’ve met a savant who could barely talk but cast wind magic at a level that was hard to comprehend for me—a gold ranker. They were still at bronze rank… That person was a great mage, but that was all she was: a wind mage, nothing else. As for those who are untiring… Let me be frank and say that you don’t want to be untiring. Their endless drive, that inability to quit, usually originates from deep trauma. What that trauma is depends on the person, but it usually leaves them scarred for life. Those people are often exceedingly unhappy people who receive little joy from anything but their accomplishments, and I feel profoundly sorry for their fate.”
For some reason, Valar’s face felt wet. It took him some time to figure out where that moisture came from.
He was crying.
Valar was sitting there, hands balled into fists and eyes fixed on the professor at the podium. He was crying, but didn’t know why. Brynn’s speech had touched a place he didn’t know was hurting, and he didn’t know how to fix that hurt. His soul felt raw. It hurt and had been hurting. Everything else had just muted that pain, but it was coming back with a vengeance.
He felt a poke at his side, but didn’t move. When the poking got harder, Valar finally turned to the man next to him, ready to snap out.
Arwen was holding a purple napkin made out of the finest silk. His hand was extended and he had a sad smile on his face. The prince was offering Valar a cloth to wipe his tears on.
“Take it.”
Valar could only muster up a nod as he took the napkin and wiped his eyes. The prince turned back to the class.
“Do you… want it back?” Valar asked.
The only answer Valar got was a shake of the head.
Valar couldn’t really focus on the rest of the lesson, but it was almost over anyway. Arwen didn’t join Zeke and Valar for lunch, and the half hour break was spent mostly in silence. Zeke didn’t try to start a discussion. By his own words, Valar’s energy wasn’t right and he needed time. He was grateful for that.
The life magic lesson wasn’t anything special either. Elaine got all the students started on the rune of life. That meant a lot of drawing in notebooks and looking at the picture of the rune. That was fine with Valar.
He was hurting, but the training helped with the pain. When he drew the rune of life over and over again, the burning pain in his soul retreated to the back of his mind. It didn’t go away, but it didn’t bother him that much either.
Training was easy. He could pour his whole consciousness into a single thing, perfecting his craft of magic. He was becoming more powerful. He was doing something useful.
Stopping was harder. Much harder. When Valar trained, the pain was distant. When he didn't, it was much closer.
Elaine only stopped Valar’s relentless attempts at the rune of life when every other student had left the classroom. She needed to practically shake Valar out of his focused state, and the boy damn near burst into tears the instant he had to stop.
Brynn’s speech hadn’t actually made Valar’s situation any worse. She had just made him realize what was happening. She had made him realize that the pain was still there.
Elaine looked at Valar with concern. “Do you want to talk about it? I think you’ve realized your problem already, but I’m not quite so sure that you are ready for a discussion.”
Valar shook his head. He wanted to go back to his dorm. He could continue training there. As Valar left the room with the purple silk napkin still in hand, still wet from fresh tears, Elaine looked at his retreating form..
This was a malediction the gold rank life magic could not heal. If Valar’s body had been maimed or burned, she could’ve done something. But this wasn’t a problem of the body.
It was a problem of the soul.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single healer in the world that was capable of healing soul trauma. Valar would have to suffer with his condition for the rest of his life. It would get better, then worsen. It was not a static malediction, but a cyclical one. Thankfully so. The boy wouldn’t be cursed to a life of suffering. He was only cursed to live in fear of it.
Elaine shook her head and returned to her office after Valar left. After that discussion… She needed a napkin too.
That evening, while Valar was training furiously in his room, Elaine walked up to an opulent door. It did not belong to the academy, that was sure. She slammed her fist down on it, causing a loud boom to echo inside.
Normally, she would have been turned away. The gold rank mage’s thunderous expression made that possibility disappear. She walked through equally opulent hallways, her goal a door she hadn’t ever visited before. That was no problem. The door in question wasn’t hard to find...
She knocked on the door with less vigour, but it was opened quickly. A silver haired man looked at the shorter woman with confusion on his face. “Elaine, why are you here? Did something happen?”
“Yes… We need to talk.”
Viktor let the professor of life magic in his room, offering her some tea. It was time for a lengthy discussion.
The silver haired man’s student needed help. They just needed to figure out how they would give that help to him…
