Eli POV

_____________________________________________

I sat down to my meal of ribs, buttered rolls and light fruity drink. At the far end of the table, I went over the days events and tried to decide on the next move.

'I have to admit I wasn't being the most mature person. Yapping off about someone I don't even know is always a great way to paint a target on my back. Welp, all's well that ends well. Once I get some practice with these crafts I want to also check out spells. I know I can't use them but seeing a fireball being thrown out of someones hand sounds really cool.' I said to myself. Not the most scientific reasoning but it was still an irresistible thought.

After wolfing down the food, I headed out and back towards the study. The book was exactly as I left it and picked up where I left off. After explaining the critical flaw it went on to describe how to do these diagrams imprints. One would have to force their spirit magic out of their body, then concentrate on it while thinking about what they wanted it to do. While holding these thoughts the crafter would then move their external spirit magic along the designated patterns. If they completed the thought before finishing the shape, they would have to run through the whole thought again until the very end. The shapes would then form their intended patterns so even if you didn't form a perfect circle or square it would smooth out into its intended shape.

It mentioned that certain materials reacted with varying degrees of resilience to the erosion caused by the repeated use of these mana diagrams on their host. Leather, plants, flesh both living and dead, all had very good resistance to mana erosion where as metals and stone suffered from it more heavily.

'Whether or not the material used to be alive seems to be the key here, organic materials are cheaper and more easily destroyed by external forces, whereas you have the opposite situation with the non organic materials. '

The only perfect material was mana crystals. They did not wear down from the mana usage but were also incredibly durable against outside threats. The only drawback is that they could be consumed by the enchantment if there wasn't enough ambient mana to fuel it. That and their rarity but that wasn't going to be a problem for me.

Leaving the room, I went out into the main library. Managing to flag down a staff member I asked if they had any place to do any hands on learning or practice. He directed me towards the stair cases 4th floor, off to the left coming up would be two large iron doors that would lead to the practice tower.

I followed the directions and as the doors opened I noticed that they were opening with less effort than I would have expected. The answer came to me when I looked at the hinges, which absorbed a few trace amount of mana when they moved. Coming onto the walkway I decided to take my time soaking in the scenic landscape with a wide view of the surrounding forest and grass plains beneath.

The inside of this building was similar to the main building but instead of shelves of books it had long stacks of tree bark and large....things that looked like eggs with small patches of wood on their backs. Making my way down the stair case I saw that the eggs were actually pods that probably had some type of spell working on the piece of bark on their back portion. Their fronts acted as an entrance with a white curtain that could be pulled over the oval hole.

"Excuse me, could you tell me what these things are?" I asked an attendant putting up some more bark.

The thin man pushed up his glasses and smiled.

"Ah a new guy. These are crafting pods. You see the bark on their backs? It puts out a field that keeps the surrounding air still with a few holes to allow air flow. This keeps the space in them near totally silent"

"Thank you. Are there any charges in using these?"

"Nope, the supply of bark and maintaining the facilities are all covered by your taxes. This is also part of an agreement with the lumberjacks who work on the outskirts of our forest."

I nodded in thanks, and picked up a arm length piece of bark. The inside of the egg was heavily padded with white and blue cushions which still allowed me to lean back and stretch my legs. It was slightly dark with the curtain blocking out most of the light leaving a soft glow for the rest of the space which provided me enough light to do this job. Sure enough when I finished pulling the curtain down the cloth touched two small wood balls which sent a magical signal up a line towards the outside into the bark. The sudden cutoff of the surrounding chatter and walking people into complete silence was slightly unnerving but I wasn't here to look over other peoples magic crafts.

Focusing on the frontal cortex, the electric sensation was then forced through my fingers. I made a circle to absorb surrounding mana as it flowed out of my index finger.

"Absorb the surrounding mana", over and over I forced this thought through the sensation moving in my body, feeling like I was moving a flow of prickling water through the finger across the smooth surface of the inner part of the bark. Finally I completed the pseudo circle, a jagged slope curving towards the middle on its bottom half. Sure enough the circle smoothed itself out into a perfect circle.

The faint glow of blue made it's presence obvious in this dimmed light. I then went on to make the summoning circle, which had its own different requirement. When making it you had to visualize what you wanted the subject to look like. So if you wanted to make a craft that summoned perfectly square stone cubes, you would have to constantly visualize a cube in your head as the triangle took shape.

Once I had made the circle summon a small stream of mana I then went on to make the square between the absorbing circle and the triangle with the three lines connecting the shapes. For the triangle, I just wanted to make a flame. Pressing on the square, I had the giddy anticipation of a child.

I was similarly disappointed when I got nothing for my efforts as I stared blankly at this piece of dead tree.

Thinking back over the design principles, I realized that flame needed to be materialized by a second circle as well. So I made a second circle of to the left of the triangle that would summon flame and made a connection out towards the triangle. I then had to make a mana connection for the new circle as well. But the results were still the same.

'All right, it feels like it's been an hour. I'll just go get my books. I can't believe I forgot them.'

I made the trip there and back, taking in scenery this time around as well. As I was getting back into the pod, a older skinny staff member blocked my path.

"Sorry lad, no books in the crafting pods. If people spend too much time in them they'd absorb all the surrounding mana, which created a lot of problems in the past before we started cracking down on people treating them like their own private chambers" She said sternly.

"All right" I grumbled in irritation. I headed over to a table to the side and started reading more of the crafting book. Once I got past the part where I had previously stopped, I found the problem. The crafts need a casters construct put into the circles to interact with the four elements, a tid-bit from Dunwhich that I had previously forgotten.

I had no idea what a construct was and decided to read the casters book. After a few meaningless introductions about their future greatness, the relevant subject finally came up. These constructs were apparently like crafting with a mix of spirit magic and mana but in the air. The main difference was that the constructs were static, you could do them one way and one way only. A fireball would only come out a certain size and intensity, just like a water jet, or an earth spike.

This made me smirk, their lack of scientific interest in their own magical workings left me feeling smug and rolling my eyes at the same time.

'This will be a chore to study with my limitations but it will definitely be a subject to pursue in the future' I thought to myself, as I shook my head. But I would be lying to myself if I pretended that I wasn't personally interested beyond just scientific curiosity. Finding the perfect excuse, a staffer I managed to flag down told me the casters would practice on the roof.

Making my way up the massive staircase, I came up to the top floor. The whole floor looked like a lounge. There were various people with towels around their necks, sipping cups of water, laying down sweaty and exhausted on benches. Off to the back right was a stone stair case with sunlight flowing down it. I walked up and out onto the roof and looked around.

The roof had a flat floor of grey stone around the edge with guard rails. A square of lighter brown tile made up the center of the roof. All around were flapping white and blue robes and odd circles of flowing dark blues, reds, browns and greens. In these were other circles with various patterns of squares and triangles in them. Most were working one or two circles while he saw Veronica working a blue construct with three circles.

"Ah crafter." A staff member, burly with a thick black beard called to me from behind a table under a tent with various refreshments and snacks. He was a taller man coming up to about an inch taller than mine with brown eyes and a fair face.

"What brings you to our neck of the woods?" He asked.

"I was learning about crafting but I need a fire construct to make it work." I said, with a tinge of excitement that I couldn't keep out of my voice. I displayed the bark craft to the man.

"Ah, well as a crafter I know this all looks weird to you. All these people playing with air, but if you could follow me. I am a fire caster but the rules of the academy states that caster students need to help crafter students with this or else we poor fellows wouldn't get anything done." He said coming around the table towards the students practicing in the middle of the stone field. I noticed that some of the students would walk towards the edge of the roof to suck in some of the surrounding mana into their mouths.

"John! We need a basic construct." The bearded man called to a taller man with brown hair. The guy scowled at the interruption to his training. Looking at me like I was an insect through his golden eyes.

"Where do you need it?" he said gruffly.

I paused for a second, confused by the question. Then pointed towards the circle directly connected to the triangle.

John then somehow pushed the mana out of his mouth into the air, like he was naturally breathing. This fire red particle show then formed into a circle with a triangle in the middle.

Moving it with his hands, John then put this circle into the circle on my piece of bark. The two glowed faintly before the red circle came down on top the crafts circle. The two didn't match precisely but once John stopped moving it , they adjusted on their own to a perfect fit. The replacement then glowed and put out a small flame.

But the flame didn't look right. In the faint movements of its body it seemed to fade then reappear at random intervals making it almost look like a bunch of smaller flames moving in sync. This mass was then captured by the triangle. The ethereal flame was then made whole as it burned for a short period of time as it went through all of the surrounding mana in a small space.

" That's pretty impressive lad, I can't say that I've seen you around here before. How long you been with us?" The staff member asked.

"I came in yesterday, this is my first time here, sir." I said, trying to be the meek new student I was supposed to be in spite of the fact that I was nearly an adult in just this bodies age alone.

The mans thick black eyebrows shot up, and even John seemed impressed.

"Kid I don't think I have ever heard of someone so talented, it takes 2 or 3 weeks before most people get the mental part of crafting down to make something that will actually do anything. Color me impressed. Names Brand, by the way." I shook his hand, feeling the faint squeeze of his palm.

"So what did you mean earlier about playing with air?" I asked.

"Ah well, look here" Brand motioned to John who made up a two circle construct, which he seemed pleased to show off.

"You cant see it but casters can absorb the surrounding mana. John has two circles of red mana inlaid with a series of squares and triangles. What these do is describe various attributes of the spell." Brand was making wide motions and pointing to various parts of the spell and how a crafter made similar shapes, acting like I couldn't see what he was pointing at. I began to feel something was off about this whole situation. So I squinted at various times to let Brand and John keep that impression.

"So what about the other types of elements? Do they all follow the same rules?" I asked.

"Well I wouldn't know for sure. Fire mages can only see the mana of fire spells, water mages see water spells, you get the gist. While spirit magic effortlessly transcends translation barriers in speech and writing, magic workings are different. Like how John needed your help to find the circle to put the construct in. Only the person who made a craft can see the underlying diagram." Brand explained, clearly loving having a student to tutor in basic knowledge.

"Thank you for your help, see you guys later." I gave a light bow and went back down to my study spot by the pod. Looking over the book, it said that the casters had to absorb mana with their throat and then use spirit magic to give that mana a form when they use it.

I really wanted to try this out, as I apparently wasn't as limited as I was lead to believe. The thrill of possibilities was exhilarating but it was getting late and unless I could get some artificial light, I would need to leave early if I wanted to get to try this out at the house.

I squeezed in an early dinner and borrowed the three books, which the head librarian said I had to return tomorrow or they would be considered purchased which would then have to be bought from the library for their cost. I headed out with the group of students leaving around mid afternoon. From the academy gates I dashed towards the warehouse, making my way through the crowd of peasant men and goat people. Locking the door behind me, I looked around putting house cleaning on the to do list.

I then took a deep breath and flexed the new throat muscles that had....grown? Yeah lets go with that, grown in my throat. Sure enough, I saw mana coming into my mouth. Then using the electric sensation I tried to make the construct Johnson had made. But it was not as simple as the crafting had been. Instead of making it one part at a time, the book said that each item had to be made in strict succession.

After the red mana spilled out like cloud with no real purpose, I was going to try again but then I noticed that the sun was going down so having no choice I cleaned my teeth and got ready for bed. It was a hard fight as the excitement from today's developments wouldn't be put down easily. Fortunately, the day had been taxing enough that sleep finally took its hold on my mind.

::

Unbeknownst to Eli, his movements were observed by an interested party who lived in his neighborhood.

A Kelton woman, with a soft grey fur covering her head down to her collar bones touching the rest of her green dress. Her smooth white horns sticking out on the side of her heads curving out like the handle bars of a bike. The head itself had a human shape with a slight snout that had a streak of white from the tip of her nose to the forehead. But the generous curves of her body left no question as to her gender. Although the dark grey of her skin would leave many in doubt as to how genuine her more human parts were.

She was looking at Eli pass by through the door way of her house in front of the warehouses. As a Kelton woman she wondered at how she could get a chance to get an exchange with this young man from the academy. Her pondering was interrupted by a tap on her shoulder.

Turning around she saw her mother, a skinny elderly thing about chin high with black ridged horns running down back over her head, and brown fur flecked with grey hairs coming in the same pseudo human anatomy. The mother then reached out with her spirit magic, Salamede like wise reached out to her.

"Great daughter of mine, have you seen that waste of fur?" she asked, the brown bottom of her dress showing the tapping of her right foot.

"Jayaga isn't here, maybe he's out working late" Salamede responded hopefully through the spirit magic.

Her mother could only sigh at this, tired of the game that they had been playing for far too long.

'Oh child. Even you don't believe that anymore. How much money has he thrown away this month in drink?' The mother responded in a mix of pity and exasperation.

"About 80 coppers." Salamede tried to look at her feet when she said it.

"NEARLY OUR WHOLE RENT" her grandmother was shaking in rage. "Make that a silver and 3 coppers. The money I kept in my room is gone."

Salamede sighed "That's not fair to automatically blame him. Maybe you misplaced them."

"Salamede, your better than this, better than him by a mile.'

The elder closed her eyes for a moment.

" Well its you and me by the docks for the next few days if we want to have a house this time next month."

The grinding brutality of bruised and bleeding hands scaling fish and splinters from moving cargo were a thorn in Salamede's side, but they didn't really have any choice now. The fish absorbed enough of the surrounding mana through their diet of algae or the smaller critters who feed on plant life to harden their scales to the point of turning them into razor sharp flakes while not absorbing enough to make their flesh a magical resource. This left the work painful yet barely worth doing unless you were desperate for a quick source of cash. The typical source of income for her was washing clothes and cooking but those didn't pay enough to make up the difference in the months budget.

Sighing in agreement, she went inside to get the rag gloves they would need tomorrow ready.