Interlude: Attaboy

It had now been seven visits from the old woman who brought him food and water, and carried away his chamber pot. In the early days of his confinement, Attaboy had been too exhausted from his recovery to fret much, but now he was full of nervous energy. The cell seemed smaller every day, and he felt like he would wear a path into the small area of floor between door and cot with his pacing. As always, the star in his vision guided him, reminded him that he was failing his quest. He flopped onto his cot and struck the thin mattress several times in frustration, sending clouds of dust into the now ever-present white light.

He took a moment to thank his eye picture for helping him to see, as he turned his thoughts once again toward escape. He still had no idea who was holding him, or why. The old woman was no help, and he was beginning to suspect that her words were truly meaningless babble. Perhaps she had been injured in the head and couldn’t speak properly, like some of the Bros. Still, the woman was careful to close the door behind her every time she came into the room, and though she was old, she was still almost twice his size, and probably four times his weight. He couldn’t try to overpower her and take the keys.

He toyed with the frayed reed bracelet on his wrist as he sat, staring through the walls towards the direction he knew was north. Something was there, far away, a distance beyond all reckoning. Grabby had told him that. She had told him to follow the star.

Chapter 13: Class

“Welcome to Basic Elements of Magic. For the next two weeks, you will be learning about the four levels of magical structure, their identification and acquisition, the theory of mana management, and the basics of thoughtful rank advancement.”

The instructor, a lanky young Foxkin with enormous furry ears, was doing his best to act excited about the course material. Looking around at the other students, Lilijoy saw various degrees of apathy and excitement. She herself was definitely in the excited category. A boy who looked like he felt quite differently raised his hand,

“I already know all that stuff. Are you teaching anything useful?”

The Foxkin blinked once and scratched behind an ear. “Do you have a source?”

“Not yet, but...”

“Have you learned any clades, classes or spells?”

“What’s the point without a source?”

The instructor shook his head. “I’m sure your advisor must have made a terrible mistake when they suggested this class to you. Please feel free to take it up with them.”

The boy sat back with a disgusted sigh.

“Now,” the instructor continued, “a short overview so that we are all on the same page. There are four primary levels of magical structure, forming a pyramid of sorts. At the top, we find the primal element, or source. Elemental magic is all about using your own relatively paltry mana to draw out power from a source. Without a source to provide the raw energy, even the greatest mage could do little beyond crafting with her internal energies. You might think of internal mana use at this stage as opening a door. A little mana will open the door a crack and allow a trickle, a large amount will throw it wide open and allow a flood.”

He looked around the class for any signs of confusion.

“Looks like everyone is with me so far. Now, the next level of the structure tends to be a bit more confusing. You can imagine it as something like a screen that goes in front of the door to the source. It determines which intrinsic property of the element is allowed to emerge, which we call the Clade. Can anyone name the three primary fire clades?”

The boy from before spoke before anyone could raise their hand. “Flame, Heat, Radiance.”

“Correct. Please wait to be called on in the future. Can someone else tell me a different element’s clades?” He called on a somewhat amorphous purple humanoid who raised its left upper appendage.

“Mass and Matter for Earth source,” It said in a surprisingly high pitched burble.

“Good. There’s one more important one for Earth, but we’ll circle back to that if we need to.”

Over the next couple minutes, Lilijoy learned that Water had Phase, Pressure and Matter, and that Air had Charge and Pressure, and that she had many, many questions.

“Not bad,” said the instructor. “Now there is one important Clade for Earth and Air, and potentially even Water, that hasn’t been mentioned yet, which is not surprising due to its rarity and confusing nature. It is called Aspect. Aspect is the property of identity. It is what allows an earth mage to cast transmute spells, changing one type of material to another. Or an air mage to turn breathable air into a deadly poison. If you were to become more interested in Magic Theory as a subject, you would spend a great deal of time studying and debating Aspect, but this is hardly the time or place for that. Just memorize it for now, and save understanding for later. Aside from that, are there any questions?”

Lilijoy raised her hand. “If you know a clade for one source, can you use it for another one? Like Pressure for Air and Water?”

“Great question! The short answer is yes. Though it may take some study and experimentation, a clade can apply to all the elements. Though you might have some trouble applying Radiance to Earth, for example. As in, it wouldn’t let anything through. Most spells are based on the primary clades for each source, so if one is so fortunate as to have both Air and Water sources, it would make sense to seek the pressure clade.” He ignored some other raised hands. “Moving on for now. The next level on our magic pyramid is Class.”

He explained how Class shaped the energies.

“Imagine that we have opened the door, and allowed the type of energy we want to emerge. Now we need to do something with the raw energy, and that is what the Class does. It turns the energy into something we can utilize, so you can learn classes such as projected, shaped, manifested and so forth. What those mean will become clearer as we examine the bottom level of the pyramid, Spell. The Spell is what brings it all together and applies the finishing touch. For example, a fireball spell uses the projected class. You will notice that the spell acts in many ways like another class. For example, I could design a spell that used the shaped class to make a literal ball of fire, and then send that ball on its way with a different spell, perhaps called thrown fire. The end result would be almost indistinguishable. Questions?”

Lilijoy looked around the room. Some students were nodding, others looked at the instructor with glazed expressions. A few appeared to be lost in their own internal worlds, perhaps reading or watching something on their display screens. No, internal awareness, she chided herself.

She raised her hand. “So how do you actually learn all these different parts?”

“Well that’s the heart of the matter, isn’t it?” he replied. “Sources cannot be learned, only discovered. The higher your affinity, the more likely you are to find one in your travels. The very luckiest Outsiders may find one in their Trial, before their affinities are formed. All the other levels may be learned from teachers or discovered in the form of runes, scrolls or books"

His tone became serious. "However, if your affinity is not high, or your mind sufficiently prepared, it may take years of study to understand a clade, class or spell enough to use it. The same goes for advancing your understanding, your rank. It’s not enough to just throw points at it. You need both points and comprehension. The purpose of this class is to help you know what to look for as you quest for a source, and to prepare you on a theoretical level for learning clade, class and spell.”

As he said that, the bell signaling the end of the session rang. “That’s it for today. See you next time.” he said, his form fading away as the students gathered themselves to exit the chamber. Lilijoy had been amazed to learn that the Instructors of the Academy, through some power inherent to the building itself, had the ability to split themselves and their room, instancing it was called. Classes occurred throughout the day on the hour, so it was no trouble to find a schedule that worked. Which was a very good thing, she thought, looking at the class list Rosemallow had drawn up for her.

Class List

Basic Elements of Magic

Crafting: An Overview

Field Medicine

The Subtle Arts: An Introduction

Apprentice Acrobatics

Private Instruction

Traits Conditioning

Weapons Instruction

Charm

Focusing on the name of the class created an active location on her map, so she always knew where to go.

She was in love with the whole idea of classes. Sure, she could learn about Outside subjects just by thinking about them; the terms and definitions would emerge in her mind as if she had always known them, and if she asked herself questions, very often she would find she knew the answer. But she was absolutely stuck when she didn’t. What she really needed was a guide to help her through those sticky parts. Her Inside classes just felt more natural. She learned the material, and could ask about things she didn’t understand.

She had already been to her crafting class and her field medicine class. Crafting on the Inside was amazing, and she already had many ideas she could share with Mr. Sennit to help him use his ability. It was a crime that he had been taught the bare minimum by the clan he was working for; he didn’t know about all the different magical effects he could craft into his creations. As far as she could remember, he only knew how to speed up his crafting. She thought that even after one class, she would be able to help him add defensive properties to woven garments, and she could only imagine what else a fully educated master craftsman could do.

Field Medicine had also been very interesting. Much of it was very familiar to her, as she could draw on a wealth of instant knowledge from the Outside, but it also included caring for the health and injuries of numerous Inside species besides humans. She had learned that using a tourniquet on a dwarf was useless, and using one on an elf was actively harmful. She learned proper bone-setting technique for avian species, and a huge amount of information on magical medicinal herbs. Her Medical/Healing skill was unlocked at Natural Initiate (2), and by the end of the first class had risen to Natural Apprentice (3). Perhaps most important, she learned that by investing points in her healing skill, she would be able to magically heal as well, up to the level of her VP. It wouldn’t be much at first, but it was a skill she really looked forward to growing.

The next class she was heading to, The Subtle Arts: An Introduction was a mystery to her. As she made her way through the bowels of the Academy building, she checked her messages to see if Marcus had replied. Thankfully he had, and his response made her feel much better about life.

Lilijoy: Don’t be too worried. Renaissance are a bunch of smart idiots pretending to be actual idiots. I doubt that they believe Anda, and even if they do, they would be extremely cautious. I will keep a close eye on the ice tunnels for any visitors, and let you know should anything change.

Enjoy your time Inside!

With some of the stress from her Outside life relieved, she moved to her next class with a spring in her step. She arrived at the location on her map, and it was a small room, barely large enough for the twenty students who were waiting for class to begin. She squeezed into the group, who were all standing due to a total lack of chairs or any furniture, and found her way to a wall so she could avoid being stepped on or otherwise accidentally assaulted in the crush of comparatively huge bodies.

Plus it was just nicer not to have her face pressed up against random butts.

After a few more arrivals, the bell to begin classes rang, and immediately the room plunged into darkness. This didn’t bother Lilijoy much at all, though she could tell many of the students were alarmed. A voice came from above them.

“The subtle arts are not for everyone. Prove your merit by passing the gauntlet.”

Lilijoy could clearly see the speaker clinging to the ceiling above with her extended senses. She could also see the wall on the far end of the room opening, rising on some kind of cantilever. Soon, the students realized that there was more space available and began to move tentatively into the darkness. Lilijoy hung back for a while, watching with some amusement as the students with no dark sensing capacity fumbled blindly into the open space.

The first obstacle was a knee high wall, and several tumbled over it. Others were more adept at navigating the darkness, sweeping with their hands and feet. She saw a few like herself who seemed to be watching the mayhem. One of those was striding comfortably across the large open area, stepping over walls and walking around pits. Their confidence in their vision was misplaced, as they ran into a section with thin threads running between floor and ceiling and the sound of bells rang out. Lilijoy was glad she had hung back; now that she knew they were there, she could pick out the threads as a haze within her passive echolocation. She was also able to see walkways suspended above the room at varying heights.

Struck by an idea, she returned to the original room and scrutinized the ceiling where the mysterious speaker had been hanging. She noticed two bumps that glowed faintly in the infrared. Handholds. She took a running start in flash mode and kicked off the wall. Her mind was now able to speed up to match her Flash level, at least for a couple seconds, and she felt almost as if she were moving in slow motion, drifting and rotating to catch the holds with both hands. The jump was just at her limit, and she missed the hold with one hand, but caught the other. As it was a recessed handle, she was able to curl her fingers around it and secure her swinging weight until her other hand caught hold of the next handle.

Now that she was up to the ceiling, she could see other holds and she was able to go hand over hand across the ceiling until she arrived at a small panel that pushed open with ease. She swung herself through feet first, and found herself on the walkway above the obstacle course. She didn’t see anyone on the walkway, so she moved as stealthily as she could above the heads of the struggling students until she reached the other end of the room, which turned out to only be about a hundred feet long. She dropped down into the finish area, joining another student who had reached the end before her. There she waited for the others to arrive, sitting silently and trying to figure out where the instructor was hiding, if not on the walkway.

After twenty minutes, light began to creep back into the room, dim and red at first, then steadily brighter, revealing that the entire class had arrived at the end.

“Good!” Came a voice. “Raise your hand if you received the low light vision ability or something similar during the test.”

No one moved.

“Well, that’s normal. Some need to repeat for two or three entire class terms before it happens. Those of you who do not possess such an ability, you will return to the beginning and run the course until the end of class. Those of you with applicable sensory abilities please go through the door that will open momentarily.

Soon, Lilijoy and six other students were in a new space. The floor was covered with a variety of materials in long strips running the length of the thirty foot room, creating a number of different paths. There were leaves and twigs, gravel, a wooden floor, and a path full of junk and debris.

“Pick a path. Get to the other end without making any noise.”

Lilijoy still couldn’t figure out where the voice was coming from. It was beginning to bother her. Rather than start immediately, she shut her senses down, other than smell, and began to inventory the room. Each of the other students had a distinct smell, as did the dead leaves and twigs. She could smell the cedar from the wooden floor and a host of faint smells from the other paths. And something else, musk underneath smoke, faint but moving slowly behind her.

She whirled around and focused all her senses, catching a faint shimmer, a quick reflection of sound.

“Oh! It looks like one of you is ready to start another game,” said the voice. “Don’t get ahead of yourself girl. You have to crawl before you can walk. Do what I have asked of you and then we can play hide and seek.”

Fine, she thought, I know what you smell like now.

Walking on a variety of crispy, crunchy and squeaky surfaces without making sound was not as hard as Lilijoy had feared. Her training with Rosemallow had given her superb muscle control to slowly lower her feet, while her experience in the lava cavern during the trial, walking silently over sharp lava shards with her game-life on the line, had clearly prepared her for this less stressful test of her abilities. It didn’t hurt that she had broad feet carrying a relatively small amount of weight.

All around her were the crunching noises of gravel, the snap of twigs and the tortured squeaks of the wooden floor. The voice was calling out advice and tips to each of them.

“Small steps and flat feet on gravel! Transfer your weight slowly! Where’s the fire, boy? Consider the materials; distribute your weight more for crunch and squeak, use toes for rustle and crack. Watch where you step – the path lets you know how you’re doing; You don’t pass this section until you can do all four with no orange or yellow.”

That last comment referred to a particular property of the paths. Any sound was converted to light so the students could see clearly where they were making mistakes. The louder the mistake, the brighter the color. Lilijoy was mostly dull reds, with an occasional spark of orange or yellow. The system provided great feedback; with so many of them working on the skill at once, it was difficult to hear which sounds were their mistakes and which were due to the person nearby. It was mostly the wooden floor that was tripping her up; she could put her foot down silently, but lifting it up always seemed to create some squeaking as the floor boards rose.

The voice sounded just behind her. “This is a nightingale floor, designed to make sound as a security system. Best to avoid entirely if possible, or follow the walls if not. Since that’s not an option here, think about how to spread your weight more.”

Before Lilijoy got to experiment, the class bell sounded. She decided to head outside for a bit, and was walking down the long cedar-paneled hallway to the rear doors when Magpie fell in beside her.

“Hey Lily, how’s it going?”

“Really good, I think? I’m learning so much I can hardly think straight. I was headed outside for some air. Did you meet your trainer?”

“Yes and no. I keep finding notes with things I’m supposed to do. So far I’ve climbed the Academy building on every side and snuck into a bunch of places I wasn’t supposed to. I think they’re testing me or something.”

“So you do a lot of sneaking around? That’s something I’m trying to learn now.” Lilijoy told her about the Subtle Arts class, and Magpie had some ideas for her to try. It made Lilijoy wonder how on earth she had learned all this before coming to the Inside.

Since she still wished to avoid the whole subject of the Outside, she tried a different tack.

“What do you think you’re going to do on the Inside? I mean, you’re really good at all the sneaky stuff – how do you think you’ll use it?”

Magpie kept walking beside her without saying anything for a minute, and Lilijoy almost worried she’d said something to offend her. They passed through the doors into an overcast, breezy day. Lilijoy could smell rain in the air.

Eventually, Magpie replied. “It’s a good question. I’d like to work more on my magic and be an adventurer. You know, find treasure, kill monsters; the usual stuff. But I’m probably going to get dragged into a bunch of politics and clan stuff instead. My clan has trained me for years to have a certain skill set, and I doubt they would let me do whatever I wanted.” She shook her head. “But how about you? I know you don’t like talking about the Outside, but you must have had a pretty cool background to do so well in the Trial and get such a legendary trainer.”

This surprised Lilijoy. “I didn’t know Master Rosemallow was legendary- what have you heard about her?”

“Really? She was the most sought-after trainer at the Academy for decades. She probably taught half the combat teachers here. The good half. And Cerlewn, and Ardiceps, and Mengsing. I could go on for days. Then she quit about ten years ago and nobody heard anything about her.”

Lilijoy hadn’t heard any of the names Magpie dropped before, but it sure sounded like they must be important. “I had no idea! How did you find all that out?”

“Oh, I guess I mentioned the name to someone back home and they told me.” She shrugged. “I wouldn’t go around telling everyone though. It might make people jealous and attract a lot of interest.”

She looked over at Lilijoy. “I get the idea you aren’t looking for a lot of attention.”

“You have no idea.” Lilijoy replied.