My first class turned out to be wind magic. My class schedule came with a map that provided directions to every classroom on campus. Lines of various colors mapped the way to their respective classrooms.

It took us a while to figure out where the lines originated from. Once we saw it, the point of origin was difficult to miss. Rainbow-colored lights emanated from a set of glass-paned double doors. Kalli spoke through chat. I know what this is. I’ve never been through one though.

What is it?

She pulled the doors open and stepped inside. These are portals. It’s a bit like the one we used to get to class. The difference is this one travels through the void while the other one uses it to fold space in on itself. The portal we went through this morning only works in a straight line. A proper portal like this one could travel to the other side of the world if it was powerful enough.

Multicolored columns of light stood on raised dais around a small round room. Each one correlated to a colored line on the map.

Wind magic is green. Who knew? It looks like you’ve got crafting which is through the purple line.

Kalli nodded and stepped up to her portal. It looks like we don’t have any classes together today. See you at lunch?

I nodded and made my way to the green line.

Sounds good to me.

The portal felt very familiar. I had already experienced it both with the man in red and with Lady Shaw. I had the temporary feeling that I couldn’t breathe and that the world was moving around me as opposed to myself moving through it.

Then I was instantaneously standing on the roof of the Los Angeles Times. It was obvious why they would choose that spot for a classroom. I could feel the wind racing up and down the nearby high-rises as if it had a life of its own. Perhaps it did.

The second thing I noticed was a small class that had stopped to watch me approach. Most of the 10 students were younger than me. I recognized one of the older ones. A green-haired girl stood at the front of the class next to an adult who I assumed to be the teacher. Wendy waved excitedly as I made my way over to the group. I decided to check out the teacher.

Name

Gustaf Soares

Class

Storm Lord

Level

21

Affection Level

Indifferent

I made a mental note to research the different types of wind mages. I returned Wendy’s wave and asked, “Why are you in a beginner class? I figured you’d be advanced or something.”

The girl nodded and replied, “I am in specialized training but I’m also a teacher’s assistant for the beginner classes.”

Gustav was a rather buff man with a handlebar mustache. I would have expected him to be in a more physical profession if I didn’t find him teaching the wind course. He extended a hand attached to a beefy arm in my direction and said, “Hello, Melvin. My name is Professor Soares. Since you arrived in the middle of the semester, Miss Mayuko will get you acclimated.”

I shook the man’s hand while nodding dumbly. Wendy laughed and took my hand the moment Mr. Soares released it. She whispered, “Come over here and let’s see what you can do.”

I followed her to another section of the roof that was quite a distance away from the rest of the class. I whispered, “Do we have to go quite so far?”

She replied, “Depending on how strong your magic is, I didn’t want to risk you accidentally blowing anyone off of the roof.”

I hadn’t thought of that. Suddenly worried, I asked, “What if I blow you off the edge?”

Wendy giggled and whispered a spell.

“Svroarzt”

As soon as the words left her mouth, the girl slowly started to rise into the air. After a few seconds, she was hovering 2 feet off of the ground. She explained, “While I can’t fly yet, I can safely hover with this spell. Even if I fall off of the building ill be safe.”

She gave it a few seconds for effect then landed in front of me. She asked, “Now, what wind spells do you know? It’s alright if you don’t know any. This is the beginner’s course after all.”

I grinned and answered, “I do know one.”

“Sviszt.”

I applied mana to the word out of habit. It was just a tiny bit and I didn’t blow a kiss as Kalli had demonstrated but when I exhaled a gust of wind blew out of my mouth and ruffled Wendy’s hair.

She crinkled her nose in mild disgust before covering it with a smile, saying, “Ah yes. The blown kiss spell. It has many names. It involves passing mana into your lungs and blowing it out. It’s one of the internal wind spells and probably the easiest to master.

I nodded in acknowledgment and asked, “Okay, what do I do next?”

She held up a paper cup that she had been drinking tea out of and set it on a wall. Wendy then took my hand and guided me about ten feet away. Pointing at the paper cup, she instructed, “See if you can knock the cup over.”

I stared at the cup for a minute. The few times I had used the spell had produced wildly different results. I tried to remember what I did when I fought off the griffon. I knew it was a matter of infusing mana properly to the spell. The words of mana already bound the words with sufficient mana but it could be enhanced in several ways.

I started by directing my mana into my lungs. The problem was that it wasn’t the right kind of mana. Kalliphae’s mana was a blazing flame. My mana was white and looked quite boring.

Is that better or worse than fire mana?

My thought caught Kalli’s attention. I could tell she was excited about a project she had just begun. She still took a moment to reply. Are you making fun of my mana?

No. I’m trying to figure out how to duplicate the effect.

She considered what I was saying and shrugged. Well, good luck with that.

If I wanted to take the class seriously, I needed to modify myself. I decided to add a trait.

Affinity: Wind (Edited)

I reached into myself and focused on my mana. Was white better than red? Could I make it green? How did affinities work anyhow? What would happen if I applied blood affinity to mana that wasn’t in my veins?

I decided to start with wind. I thought about wanting my mana to be wind essence. Nothing happened. It was frustrating not to be able to change the aspect of my mana like Kalli had. Was multi or non-aspected mana better or would it just produce a flat wind spell? I wanted to impress Wendy. It was obviously a test.

Wendy got my attention by leaning in front of me with a smile and saying, “Hey. You in there? Don’t stress about it. It’s just an evaluation to see what your current level of skill is at.”

I cleared my throat and replied, “Just give me a minute. I want to make sure that I hit the cup.”

She nodded and took a step back. I just barely heard her whisper to herself, “…competitive type.”

I reached back inside of myself and focused on my core. The mana was still white. It sat there in its ball waiting for me to make use of it. If thinking of wind as a thing wouldn’t work, I needed to make my mana take on the characteristic of wind. I recalled the feeling of Kalli’s mana. The warm flames washed over me and through my body. It blazed like a fire.

I concentrated on the breeze as it caressed my skin and tried to make my mana do the same. It was slow progress but it eventually started to obey my will. The mana moved into the channels and instead of flowing like a liquid, it behaved more like a gas.

I heard the sound and couldn’t believe I had just done it. Wendy looked at me suspiciously and asked, “Did you just…?”

She plugged her nose with her fingers but left me to concentrate on my spell work. I redoubled my efforts while focusing on not having any more embarrassing accidents. After a few minutes, I had managed to set my mana in motion throughout my body. When the circuit was complete and the mana found its way back to my core, it suddenly came to life.

Where a docile white ball of mana had existed previously, a raging green tornado had taken its place. Now I was ready. I infused my lungs with my newly generated mana. The effect was instantaneous. My whole body felt invigorated. It was the ultimate breath of fresh air and I didn’t even need to breathe to get it.

I took a moment to savor the feeling before readying myself to cast the spell. Taking a deep breath, I spoke the word.

“Sviszt”

Wanting to maximize the effect, I raised my hand to my lips and blew Wendy’s cup a kiss. The concussive wave that came out of my mouth knocked me off of my feet.

Kalliphae noticed and seemed concerned. Mel, are you okay?

I groaned and sat up, rubbing my head.

I’ll live. That spell had quite a kick.

Kalli laughed and asked, How did you do that?

The first thing I saw was Wendy floating 10 feet above me in the air. She slowly returned to the ground while holding a phone, “We’re going to need damage control across the street at the Sheffield building. Floors 4 through 8 were affected.”

I looked at the wall where the cup used to be. It was gone. Beyond that, I saw shattered windows on the building across the street. Stunned office workers hid behind desks looking back at us. Wendy hung up the phone and asked, “How the heck did you do that?”

I shrugged and offered a weak smile, “I just used the spell.”

Wendy laughed and educated me, “Even with wind affinity you wouldn’t be able to get that much damage at your level. You have to be using some kind of an amplifier but I can’t figure out what it is. That spell doesn’t usually have that much power.”

I decided to give her some more information, “I infused my lungs with mana before I tried it.”

Wendy’s mouth fell open. It took her a few tries to formulate words, but she finally asked, “You can do that?”

Throughout the morning, Wendy showed me a series of spells. The Svzorvm spell manipulated the air around Wendy into a tornado that swirled invisibly around her. It deflected pretty much anything that tried to pass through it. I called it Storm Shield.

The Svroarzt spell was a high-level technique where the wind mage balanced a downdraft beneath their feet to propel themselves gently upward. This worked for suspending a fall or hovering slightly over the ground but didn’t have the required complexity for sustained flight.

The final spell Wendy showed me was Svangzt. Wendy explained, “Svangzt is something we like to call Thundering Wind. You use your mana to remove all of the air from the area in front of you. This forms a vacuum that implodes on itself causing a loud crack. It sounds a bit like thunder.”

I was impressed by the ways wind was being used. I asked Wendy, “How many wind spells do you know?”

She laughed, “Surprisingly, not that many. You will need to practice those spells I just taught you thousands of times before you are ready for more. Don’t even think about trying Svroarzt while you are on the roof. You could get hurt. We are going to spend most of your first semester refining your technique with simple spells. You seem to have potency in the bag. Finesse is another matter which you need to work on.”

I started to play with my mana again, experimenting with different amounts of mana to infuse into my Sviszt spell. It was currently the only spell I could reliably cast and it had the added advantage of being born in my lungs where I could infuse it with mana directly.

By the time I managed to blow over the cup without breaking anything, the rest of the class had left. I looked at my watch then at Wendy and cried out, “I’m running late for summoning class.”

Wendy nodded and smiled, offering her hand, “Come with me. I know a shortcut.”