Professor Hanami slowly paced back and forth in front of the black board, his hands neatly tucked behind his back. His velvet eyes carefully scanned the audience of young weavers.

  “Todays lesson will focus in on your ability to weave. All of you understand the basic principle of forming threads from your soul, but from what I’ve seen, the speed at which you cast sequences is sub-par at best.”

  Watching as Hanami extended his hand outwards, Soren focused on the threads of pale white light that were slowly forming. Before he had a chance to see the formation of the runes, they had finished, creating sparks of blue electricity.

  After the sparks dissipated, he moved closer to the rows of students.

  “Most of you treat weaving like writing, creating the first symbol then moving on to the next. While this works as a base, it severely limits the speed at which the spell is created… This may not impact you now, but in a battle, whoever can create sequences faster will often be the victor.”

  Slowly moving up the aisle between rows, he raised his arm up, letting dozens of small shining threads flow from his palm out into the class. A single thread stopped in front of each student, swiftly weaving into a runic symbol. The symbols were all different, yet they formed at the exact same time.

  “What separates the good from the great, is the ability to create multiple different sequences at once. When creating a sequence, you should weave each of its parts at the same time.”

  The entire class stared at the professor dumbfounded.

  Making sure the runes were exact was hard enough, but asking them to make them all at the same time was ludicrous. If even one rune was slightly off, then the entire sequence would fail. It’s why they weave each rune individually.

  ‘The level of focus needed is absurd! I can barely remember the shape of the runes… How the hell am I supposed to weave like that?’

  The glowing symbols hung in the air for a brief moment, then shot back to Hanami, retreating back into his palm leaving no trace of their presence. The professor's voice came out as firm and monotone as always.

  “I want all of you to practice creating five separate runes simultaneously, you all are to work independently as I observe… Begin now.”

  The students began forming threads of soul, attempting to create five of the simplest runes they could remember. Holding his hands out in front of him, Soren let five strands of radiant light escape his palms.

  Focusing intently, he tried to form the easiest runes he could remember. Each thread formed slowly into a runic symbol, however, it took a few moments for them to fully form. Gritting his teeth, he mumbled a curse under his breath.

  ‘Damnit! This is impossible, I can’t focus on them all at once!’

  Unraveling the runes, he tried once more. Pushing out every distraction, he solely focused on shaping the threads.

  Ethereal threads of pale light moved swiftly to form arcane symbols. They moved quickly and with purpose, the first thread taking its shape. However, when attempting to weave the rest, Soren found that he would stop the formation of the others. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't have them do separate things simultaneously.

  “... Dam.”

  Again and again, he repeated the process. Each time he found himself stopping the other strands, he would unravel them and start again. But no matter how many times he repeated the exercise, or how much focus he put in, he couldn’t manage to do it.

  Over the years he became quite adept with controlling his soul. Forming and controlling the threads was no problem, but splitting his focus to achieve multiple things at once felt impossible.

  ‘... What am I doing wrong?’

  Letting the radiant threads vanish, he bawled up his hands. Looking over, he found many of the other students shared his frustration. The sight was slightly comforting, at least this time he wasn’t the only one struggling… Though, as he looked over to Amon, he was taken aback slightly.

  Amon was effortlessly weaving multiple runes, he even added a sixth one to the mix. Soren stared at the boy’s hand for a few moments, a bitter tang of jealousy crept up on him.

  ‘For a boy who can't use runes, you’re surprisingly skilled at it… Just how unfair can life be?’

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Letting out a deep sigh he glanced past the Amon to the blonde slum rat, the bit of jealousy festering in him only grew as he saw her. Cyra still carried that unreadable expression, her golden eyes seemed distant. In her hand, five runes were weaving and unraveling.

  The sight nearly caused Soren’s jaw to drop, he was both amazed and furious. She was so relaxed, like controlling the threads was the same as breathing.

  ‘Even you!?’

  Jerking his head away from the disheartening sight, he stared into his palms. He didn’t get it. Why couldn’t he do it? Most students had figured out how to do two at once by now, yet he was still stuck with one.

  First it was the normal classes. He could barely follow along, let alone retain any of the information. Now he was worse than a cursed child and a slum dweller.

  ‘Why? Why? Why? What’s different, huh? Am I just not good enough?’

  Resting his head in his hands, he inhaled slowly.

  ‘... What was different before?’

  Back in his aptitude test he managed to control his soul better than he had ever been capable of before. It felt more instinctual, like the threads moved based on his intention, rather than him mentally commanding them.

  Though, he wasn’t fully in control of himself either. The whole thing still confused him, why did he lose control in the first place? Most importantly, how did he manage to create multiple sequences at once?

  ‘That feeling…’

  During that fight, he could have sworn he felt something… Like his soul was beating. Was it that feeling that let him achieve such a feat, or was it simply the byproduct of something else? Maybe that’s what they were doing, perhaps he could do the same if he figured out how to trigger that thing again… If he didn’t go crazy again.

  Soren felt a strong elbow strike him in his side. Quickly straightening up, he turned to look at Amon.

  “Ow… What the hell, dude?”

  The boy’s lilac eyes flickered from between Soren and something in front of him. Tilting his head, Soren looked straight forward, his view blocked by the tall lanky body of his professor.

  Soren nearly fell out of his seat, Mr. Hanami was staring him down with those cold purple eyes.

  “Feeling tired Soren?”

  Before Soren could find an excuse to throw at the terrifying man, Hanami stared at him expectantly.

  “Let’s see how you’re fairing with this exercise.”

  Reaching forward with trembling hands, he formed several thin threads of soul. Just as before, the strings formed slowly. Soren tried his hardest to at least have two weave together at the same time. Maybe it was the countless eyes on him, or the debilitating fear radiating from his raven haired teacher. But his attempt bore no fruit.

  Staring at the sloppily formed runes, Hanami let out a disappointed sigh.

  “Mr. Grimshade, I would like you to stay after class.”

  Watching as he walked away, words clung to the back of Soren’s throat. He wanted to say something, maybe ask for assistance, or argue the absurdness of this task. But no, he simply sat in silence.

  Lowering his head to the desk with a small thud, he heard bits of laughter from nearby students.

  ‘Laugh it up… I’d like to see any of you do better under that kind of pressure.’

  Was it over? Did Hanami plan on kicking him out? No. He was probably going to scold him, professors had the ability to expel students, but there needed to be ample reason for it. At the very worst, Soren would be moved into one of the lower classes.

  ‘Maybe that would be for the best… It’s not like I’m excelling here.’

  Clutching his fists tightly, he fought back the urge to give up and wait for the inevitable. Gritting his teeth, Soren decided to go down giving it his all. Though, this sudden sense of determination wasn’t from any sense of pride. No, It was spite motivating him.

  ‘Laugh all you want, I refuse to let people like you discourage me.’

  Lifting his head up, he returned to practicing. Sadly, as the time passed by, he made little to no progress. He felt like he was banging his head against a wall. Even still, he kept trying. Over and over, he repeated the same process, trying to force himself to make any progress.

  ‘Damnit… Work… Please, work.’

  Soren grew so focused, the entire world around him seemed to fade. All that he had were feelings of anger and bitterness. He was alone in his own world, nothing else mattered.

  ‘I refuse to let them be better than me!’

  More and more he focused on the threads in his hands, his frustration seemed to resonate with them. After what felt like an eternity, something marvelous happened.

  Two strings of radiant light moved quickly and fluidly, each having a different purpose, but moving in unison. Soren’s eyes widened, as he commanded the threads. They started to form two different runes, however, before they could finish, the sound of the professor's voice drew him out of his focus.

  “That’s enough for today's class. Tomorrow we will be focusing on conserving the amount of soul spent when casting.”

  Watching as the students all collected their things, Soren stared at his palms. He was so close, sure, it was only two, but it was an improvement. Letting out a sigh, he looked over to Amon.

  The boy offered Soren a soft smile, as he stood from his seat.

  “I’ll see you back at the dorms…”

  The previous excitement faded from Soren. Looking over to the instructor he felt a deep sense of dread wash over him. Giving Amon a small nod, he watched the cursed noble leave along with the other students.

  Standing up from his seat, he walked down the aisle as slowly as he could. It was time to hear what was in store for him.