Vance spent an hour or so catching up with Thomas. He gave him the outline of what had happened in Ervis and on their journeys. To his credit, Thomas was able to push aside his curiosity over Mariah's affections in favour of the bigger picture.

When Thomas first heard about the battle in Ervis, he thought Vance was joking with him. Vance pointed out a large amount of travel-weary people making their way into town, some of them injured and eventually, Thomas realised from his tone that he was absolutely, and unfortunately - serious.

With the heavy news delivered, Thomas offered to escort Vance home. He accepted, and the two discussed the events of the last few weeks in more detail on the way.

A new Master had taken Telis' place, though they were still looking for a replacement for Elijah. The new professor was named "Master Hodson" and was apparently some kind of imperial delegate, someone who is technically in the employ of the emperor.

Thomas thought he'd probably just be a temporary fill in. Other than that, it'd been business as usual at the college.

Vance bid Thomas goodbye and made his way into his room. It smelled so incredibly different in here to his real home, largely because he'd burned so many candles in here in such a short time. He liked it.

He dropped his pack, cleaned himself up a little, then made his way back out. He went further into college. He strode up to Master Noelle's office and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's Vance Kalliea, Master Noelle. I was hoping we could talk."

He heard the clattering of equipment, then the door opened. "So, you're alive then?" She scolded.

"Sorry for not saying anything before I left. I thought my brother was in danger."

"Get in here." She swung the door wide and stomped back inside. Vance thought he could actually hear her fury. "I have half a mind to have you punished for this." She added as she sat down.

Vance was a little surprised, he didn't know they had punishments.

"I understand. But I actually came here for a reason, Master Noelle. I need to know more about the upper limits of an Arcanist. In Ervis, I..."

"You were in Ervis?" He didn't think it was possible, but she sounded even more furious than before.

"Yes, bu-"

"Sit."

He gingerly sat down on the chair opposite her. He moved so slowly about this simple task that it seemed like he was worried the chair had spikes.

"We've heard about what happened. We're gathering supplies to send a relief effort." As soon as that anger had come, it had faded. "I suppose all that really matters is that you're back and you're safe. What of Ms Veil?"

"Ms Veil?"

"Mariah. The young redheaded woman you travelled with."

Terrible realisation dawned on Vance that he'd never asked Mariah for her family name. Hopefully, she hadn't noticed, maybe he could get away with it. Probably not. Wait, why was that so scary?

"She's fine. She made progress, actually. She was able to perform a wind shift as of a few days ago."

"Ah, Excellent. Now tell me everything. Everything, you hear me?"

With a gulp, Vance explained, in detail, everything that happened the same way he'd done for Thomas. He'd probably have to repeat this process a few times over the next few days if today was anything to go by.

This time, Noelle was not taking notes.

After a while, she seemed satisfied and leaned back in her chair, the creaking of the wood betrayed its age.

"Fine, I suppose it is a master's duty to teach, especially after events like the ones you've been through. What did you actually come here to ask me?"

"I Want to know how those Arcanists are so much more powerful than I am. Before you tell me it's because I'm new, I know. But practically speaking, what are they doing that's so different to where I am now?"

She sighed, then closed a book that Vance hadn't known was there and slid it across the table, clearing room on the desk, where she rested her elbows and leant forward.

"I want to be very clear on one point before I explain." She took a deep, considering breath.

"Ordinarily, this is information that is reserved for third years. This is because it is simply useless, not to mention dangerous for those who do not have the requisite control over mana. Now I know you haven't read our books, so I will explain in a practical method. Gather a large amount of ambient mana, quickly."

Vance obliged, he pulled in as much mana as he could, gathering it above one of his palms. He realised he was capable of pulling in a lot more than he'd thought.

"Good, now compress it."

He squeezed his will around the mana and packed it into a more dense ball. He pushed fairly hard, but not too hard.

"Good. Again."

He wasn't quite sure where this was going, but he pushed a little harder, squeezing the ball of mana down to about one-third of its original size. Holding it like this took a considerable amount of effort.

"Again."

"I don't think I can."

"I said again."

Vance pushed with everything he had, the mana squeezed itself down a little further, then his will gave out. With a snap, the mana rebounded outwards and scattered throughout the room, sending waves of ambient mana in all directions. It harmlessly passed through whatever it touched, but the effect was widespread.

"Mana compression, in theory, is a simple act of shaping." She conjured her own ball of ambient mana in front of Vance, roughly the same size. He could sense it clearly and observed intently.

An instant later, she squeezed the ball of mana down to about one-tenth of the size, then one-tenth of that in quick succession. The ball of mana became so dense that it seemed to Vance like this tiny ball of condensed mana could, if shifted properly, become an absolutely devastating force.

"What do you suppose would happen if I relaxed my will while the mana is like this?"

"It would rebound as mine did, it'd fly out in every direction."

"Correct! Obviously, the more compressed the mana, the more force it will rebound with. Following so far?"

Vance nodded. "So, you're saying that more advanced Arcanists are compressing mana down into a smaller space to fit more inside their mana cores?"

"Precisely. Next, what do you suppose would happen if one of those Arcanists did all of this in their core, then lost control?"

Vance could imagine the consequences. Could an Arcanist just erupt into a flaming inferno from losing control of fire mana? Would they drown themselves in water mana? Would their body suddenly weigh as much as lead and tear itself apart?

"All of those scenarios I bet you're imagining right now are exactly what happens if someone with lacking control tries something like this. So with that in mind, I'm warning you now, do not attempt this in your core until I tell you you're ready, understood?"

She sounded genuinely concerned this time.

"Master Noelle, How much can you condense your mana? I Don't want to be rude, I just want to know what I'm aiming for." he realised halfway through his sentence that he didn't know if that was a particularly rude question, was their magic etiquette he didn't know about?

"Ordinarily, that is quite a rude question, but from a student, it's perfectly acceptable. I can compress mana to roughly 1/400th of the original size, though I tend to compress a little less than that in my core so that I can do so subconsciously."

Vance was stunned, he'd just seen her reduce it by perhaps a hundred times and it already seemed dangerous. He himself only managed what, one third?

"Much like all shaping skills, practice makes perfect. The rule of thumb is that until you can compress mana outside of your body around fifteen times, don't bother trying with your cores. Technically it's easier with your core, the mana is easier to shape after all, but still not easy."

"Are different mana types more difficult to compress?"

"Yes. Metallic mana is famously the hardest, whereas fire is one of the easier types. It should be fairly obvious why."

Vance nodded along, thinking.

"So, it's safe to practice outside of my body?"

"Up to a point. Like you saw earlier, dispersing a little ambient mana around is perfectly harmless. But if it's compressed this far...there are consequences. Your body's membrane can only protect you from so much pure mana at a time."

Vance was elated, he wanted to get back to his room and start practising straight away.

"Vance, I am going to need you to promise me that you will not tell this to any of your fellow students. One mistake and we could very well end up with dead Arcanists on our hands. If I find out you've told anyone, you will be out of this college before breakfast the next day, do you hear me? But before you ask, Yes, I will inform Ms Veil of this myself and give her the same warning, I know she will be pursuing this question as well."

"Alright, I promise. Not a word."

She nodded, then flicked a hand. Vance didn't see the gesture but he felt mana moving behind him, opening the door to her office.

He stood, bowed and made his way out.

Noelle waited until he was long gone, then stared at the little ball of condensed mana that she held. With a slow exhale, she carefully undid the compressed ball of mana. That had taken a lot more out of her than she'd expected. She regarded herself wistfully. Had she really fallen so far that she couldn't even meet her own standards anymore?

She pulled out a stack of paperwork that she kept in the drawers to her left-hand side. They all pertained to Vance and his unique case. She added an emboldened statement at the end of the document regarding an exceptional aptitude for compression. Further notes would follow.

Vance spent the rest of that night practising. Once again, he set up his array of candles and this time, practised external mana compression.

He found that it wasn't too hard to compress ambient mana to roughly half of its size and hold it there. He knew by now that constantly pushing the limits of his will was the best way for him to handle more and more mana. If all of that wasn't enough, he also took to performing these actions with his mana sense fully extended, pushed to its limits.

Just like before, he pushed himself so hard that he could only maintain that state for roughly a minute before it all fizzled out. He rested, then repeated.

He pushed himself harder than he'd ever pushed before that night. That strange sense of motivation he'd felt in Ervis was elusive and would not present itself now, but he'd discovered that the path of an Arcanist was longer than he'd ever thought possible, so he started walking and he was glad.

The next morning, Vance heard a knock at his door. He didn't bother moving, just asked out loud "Who is it?"

"It's James."

Vance got up and opened the door.

"Come in!" He said, ushering him inside. James stayed put, Vance turned back to him and tilted his head quizzically.

"Actually, I'm here to collect you."

"Collect me? What for?"

"Noelle didn't tell you? Trust her..." James tapped his foot on the ground a few times.

"You're scheduled to join classes today."