After several hours, I realized two things about myself. The first was that I was even less physically conditioned than I had assumed. My back ached from being hunched over, while my legs had cramped after sitting motionless for hours on the hard-wooden floor. The carpet had managed to soften the floor somewhat, but it was far from comfortable. Exercise had moved up on my list of priorities, if only to avoid this level of discomfort in the future.

The second was that I was absolutely, shockingly terrible at meditation. Nearly three hours of deep breathing and attempts to clear my mind had only resulted in a mild headache and much more severe irritation.

My training over the years had been focused on learning to constantly recall information and plan for as many possibilities as I could. In addition to that, for better or worse my own personality was deeply contrary to what seemed best for these sorts of meditative exercises. I was a thinker, always focusing on something and unable to relax to the level they recommended for this exercise.

Standing up, I slowly stretched and felt my aching muscles begin to relax as I did so. I then began pacing across my room as I thought about what to do next. I was confident I could eventually succeed at these exercises given enough time and effort, but I was not convinced this was the smartest or most effective way of learning this skill.

If it took me days or even weeks to be able to meditate on command, how long would it take me to gain conscious access to my magic on top of that? The book had noted that meditation was just the first step to controlling Mana, and that the next stage would be learning to access Mana without entering any sort of special mental state. It could take me months at this rate to progress to that level.

Even if I did have weeks of additional time at the Academy, I still was keenly aware most nobles had some level of magical training prior to their Awakening. I simply could not afford a delay of that level. I would need another method, one that would work with my personality rather than against it.

Suddenly, I stopped in place as I had a moment of inspiration. I had already felt my Mana before, during my Awakening. When the Draught of Awakening had taken effect and opened my Core for the first time, I had felt Mana surge through my body. While much of the sensations were likely the effects of the Draught, some of it had to have been my own Mana. Why bother with this clearing my mind nonsense, when I could simply try to recall the feelings from then, and replicate them now?

Before charging ahead with this plan, I took a few minutes to flip through the section on learning to control Mana. While I believed that their recommended method was unsuited for my demeanor, there was always a chance I was wrong. When my search only yielded some unclear bits of advice that would almost certainly not yield a breakthrough, I decided to press on with my experiment.

With this in mind, I sat down and closed my eyes again. But this time I instead focused on the memories of my Awakening. I recalled the searing sensation of my Mana coursing through my body and down my limbs. The problem was that even though I knew approximately where my Core would be located, attempting to sift through my memories for a more precise location was nearly impossible.

Minutes passed as I slowly went backwards through my memories, attempting to trace where I had first felt that sharp searing pain during my Awakening. After ten minutes, I felt confident I was close to the correct location in my body. After around twenty minutes, I finally felt something on the edge of my consciousness. It was nearly impossible to describe, but it felt almost like a rounded obstruction present in both my mind and body. Hesitantly, I probed this space mentally, and it felt as if my entire body was shaken by a minute tremor. When I felt that, I smiled a little in satisfaction. I knew that this was my Core, the only question now was how to access my Mana.

Focusing, I began to mentally push on the sides of my Core and probed for an opening of some kind. After some searching, I could sense passages leading out of my Core and tracing throughout my chest. These must be my Channels, circulating Mana through my system. As I sent my mind along one towards my Core, I felt a bizarre sensation of uncleanliness. The books had mentioned impurities in my organs, which I now realized was likely the strange sensation of filth.

As my mind approached the Core, I could feel the Mana gathered inside of the organ. It felt hot but far from the burning I had experienced during my Awakening. Reaching out mentally towards the mass, I attempted to grip a tiny portion of the energy. Immediately, the energy slipped from my grasp and returned to the sphere of Mana. Gritting my teeth, I reached out again and seized another, smaller piece of Mana more firmly this time and pulled it with me down the Channel I had been following.

Immediately, I felt the same searing sensation I had experienced during my Awakening race down my left arm. The pain it caused broke my concentration, and the Mana I was holding dissipated in an instant. Surprisingly, as I opened my eyes and swore from the pain, I saw a slight green glow emanate from my left arm, near where I had felt the Mana disappear.

It seems the Mana had to go somewhere, and had chosen to escape outside of my body into the air around me. Despite my failure to control my Mana for any longer than an instant, I felt a surge of triumph. I had managed to, for a brief moment, purposefully touch and control Mana. And I had managed to do so at a minimum several days earlier than I expected just an hour ago. If I could succeed once, I could do so again, and that meant full control over my Mana was simply a matter of time.

Over the next several hours, I continued to practice at locating my Mana and pulling from my Core. Even though I had already done it once, my Core was still extremely difficult to locate in the expanse of my mind. While the first time had taken over thirty minutes, the second time took only around twenty. The third time, a little shorter at eighteen. By the fourth time, I was able to locate my Core in just fifteen minutes, more than halving the time on my first attempt. However, my ability to hold onto my Mana after locating it was still nearly non-existent. I could only maintain my grip for a second before the discomfort broke my focus and the energy slipped away.

Before I could try a fifth time, my stomach growled loudly in protest. I realized that I had not eaten since the night before, a small dinner I had taken in my room shortly before falling asleep. Between my advisory meeting, my tour of the Academy and this extended practice session, it had been almost a full day since my last meal.

Standing up and stretching again to release the knots in my muscles, this time I smiled a little in satisfaction. It was a good start, and I was confident that before classes started in three weeks, I could have the skill down well enough to locate my Core and gather Mana faster than any of my peers. I knew I should take a break from my practice not just due to my hunger, but also because of the pain I felt when my Mana went down my Channels. The introductory book had noted that this pain was a symptom of weak Channels, and novices should be careful to rest often and let their organs slowly strengthen over time or risk injury.

In addition, I could also feel my headache worsening over the past few hours. It was impossible to say for sure that my training was directly linked to my headache, but I suspected it was a factor. Aether was destructive and dangerous and because of this rest would probably be more useful than continual stress at this point. Either way, any progress I had made would be lost if I injured myself and was unable to train for days.

Taking a minute to wash up and slip on my new uniform, I put my three books onto one of the bookshelves and stepped out into the hallway. Walking back towards the main square of the Academy and descending down the stairs, I noticed that every other Apprentice I passed had identical bronze trimming to what I had seen on Cynthia’s uniform. I suspected that this must be some sort of identifying trait for special Apprentices, possibly students given additional privileges in exchange for excellent performance. It may explain why these students had already moved into the dormitories a month early.

Stopping on the second floor, I approached a small open arch that Cynthia had indicated was one of the dining halls for students. Stepping through, I could see it was designed in a somewhat similar way to my room. Wooden floors, large oval shaped tables with chairs surrounding them and the far wall nearly entirely made up of massive windows. What confused me was that I could see no staff around anywhere in the room. A few students sat scattered about the room, nearly all of them with their heads buried in books, and they had food in front of them but I did not see any sign of serving staff.

Taking a seat close to the windows, I noticed a small sheet of paper and a pen lying on the table in front of me. Picking it up curiously, I saw that it looked to be a small menu of food. The selection was decently varied, with a choice of meats, vegetables and fruits, with several kinds of juices and water to drink. Small check boxes were next to each selection, along with portion sizes.

Shrugging, I checked off a chicken sandwich, some fruit and a glass of water, before setting the piece of paper back down on the table. The entire paper shone softly and when it cleared, the marks I had made were gone and the paper looked as pristine as it had when I first sat down. It seemed that the Academy used magic for all things, even as a way of replacing certain jobs they deemed unimportant.

After a minute of waiting, I saw from the corner of my eye a platter of food appeared from a small hole in the way and float towards me apparently unsupported. As it came within arm’s reach, it stopped in place until I retrieved the plates and glass it held. The instant I grabbed my food, the platter reversed and returned to where it had come from, disappearing into the wall again. While interesting, and certainly got my imagination racing about other applications, that seemed like more of a convenient piece of magic than a necessity.

Taking a bite of the sandwich, I was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted. It was certainly better than I was used to eating in the servant quarters of the Duke’s estate. As I ate, I considered what I had gone through today. I had managed to get a good amount accomplished, but I still had many things to take care of before classes started.

I would need to head down to the exercise facility after my meal and see about getting some sort of routine to follow for the future. Checking the library was also on my schedule, since I wanted to dig more into Aether and see if there were any accounts of other Mages with my aspect. The pain I had felt during my Mana training had given me even more motivation to research as many methods to strengthen my body as possible.

As I finished eating, I cleaned my face off before standing up and looking over at the nearby window. The sun was beginning to creep towards the horizon, which meant dusk was only a few hours away. That left plenty of time for me to check out the rest of the Academy facilities. Walking down the stairs to the ground floor, I decided to head towards the left side first. I was extremely interested to see if this so-called “Grand Library” lived up to its name.

Stepping through yet another massive archway, I came into a room that appeared larger than the entire Academy had from the outside. Bookshelves towered a hundred feet in the air and were filled to top with thick tomes. I could see desks nearby, with several students studying quietly at some of them. There were also podiums arranged near the entrance, with open books on each of them.

As I walked towards one, an elderly man dressed in the Academy uniform stepped towards me with a polite smile.

“Greetings Apprentice, may I help you?” he said courteously.

“Yes, thank you. Could you give me an idea of how to use this library?”

“Of course sir, it is very simple. The books on each podium are enchanted to assist you in locating individual works. Simply write down a subject you are looking for, and the automated enchantment in the Library will note the section, row and column you will find books dealing with the topic. The record keepers, such as myself can assist you further by recommending particularly popular examples if you would prefer.”

“I see, thank you. I think I will do some exploring on my own, I am not looking for anything quite yet but I would like to familiarize myself first.” I said to the man.

Nodding, the record keeper turned and walked away as I stepped past him. Walking through the library rows, I found myself marveling at the sheer scale of the Library. You could live a thousand years and likely still not scratch the surface of the information contained here. Stopping at one podium, I wrote down “Aether aspect” onto the book and waited for a few seconds. The ink on the page twisted, reforming into “Section 7, Row J, Column 3” before fading away.

Wandering towards the section indicated, I blinked in shock as I realized the size of the section on my aspect. There were at least a few hundred books to choose from, most of them at least a few hundred pages long. Choosing a few at random to take back to my room with me, I turned and walked back towards the entrance. As I stepped out of the aisle, I bumped into an older woman and stumbled backwards.

“My apologies for my clumsiness, are you okay?” I said nervously.

The woman looked to be around fifty, and wore intricate robes , which suggested she was a Master of the Academy. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a simple braid, and her blue eyes stared at me with more than a hint of intelligence. I would need to be careful, insulting a Master before the semester even started was a horrible idea. Smiling at my nervousness, she replied kindly.

“Not to worry Apprentice, accidents happen. You look rather young, I am assuming you are a first-year student?”

Nodding and bowing politely, I said “Yes Master, my name is Vayne. Sponsored student of Duke Estton, training to become a counselor for my lord’s children after my training.”

“A pleasure to meet you Apprentice Vayne. My name is Alexandria.” she said warmly.