MANGUS

After being called out by the dead I sat quietly as she went over the basics of aether binding. Most of this was a review for me, and from the glazed eyes it was the same for most of the rest of the class. I saw some students perk up to different examples though.

Equipment Binding either binds an item to a new shape, or stores an item in another item. This will then require a flow of aether to retrieve or alter the item. The personal cost depends largely on the density rather than the size of the item. For example an empty waterskin would take less than a full one. Creature Binding is both the crafting of a Summoning Gem and the binding of a creature to it. The more restrictive the binding the more this will cost. Spellbinding is the art of binding spell runes, the activation sequence for the aether, to an object. When you pass your aether throw these runes the effect will take place. The cost is way too variable to explain. Image binding stores these other forms of binding in an image, along with a binding that gathers aether from the area to be used without the binder having to expend his or her own.

I let my aether flow to my vision and look around at the different students. Each one had a unique flow within them, though the siblings sitting in front of me were very similar in the overall pattern. Twins maybe, I couldn’t be sure without asking them. With the deans mention of Talent in mind I looked closely at the way the aether flowed in the main junction points. For the brother I saw his origin flow, the part that seemed to be where his aether flow started, was near where his heart would be. The pattern in that point was fairly simple, though large, and consisted of fourteen points within it and seemed to loop towards the base and then pass upwards before over and back down and then a long curve back up. What I assumed was his sister, who had that same binding but in a different part of her aetherical flow. There had to be some purpose to the location of the Talent, maybe the dean would get to it in her lecture.

“Okay, so that is the broad overview of aether binding as we know it. There are specifics to each that you will cover in the classes that focus on them. There are two subjects that I want to touch on today before you go on to your next class. Talents and Identity binding,” the dean said.

I let my vision drop and paid close attention, as most in the classroom appeared to do the same.

“Talent, and yes that is the now agreed upon term, is a recently proven theory. Each individual has proclivities towards a type of binding, a type of creature, or even a specific skill. How many students here have the ability to channel their personal aether into their eyes and see the flows of aether?” she asked.

Ten of the students in the class raised their hands, myself included, and she continued, “Aether Sight is considered a rare talent, meaning it is present in about one out of ten thousand people on average. Now the current sample size is a bit misleading considering all of you were chosen for your potential. Of those of you with Aether Sight, how many of you have seen the bindings within a sentients aether flow?”

Only my hand, the raven summoner, and the Kono sister still had our hands raised at this point. I would have thought all of us would have kept our hands up, but apparently I was wrong. Dean Brenner motioned and we lowered our hands as she continued, “Those of you who haven’t seen these bindings before please look for them before the next time you return to this class. While the theory has been proven we are still gathering data on it. What we know is that these bindings within an individual's aether flow actually channel the natural aether of that individual towards the bindings purpose. Some of these Talents actually negatively impact the available store of aether within an individual because of the Talents strength. Aether Sight to use as an example doesn’t restrict the aether, but requires you to channel your own to the purpose of activating it. Whereas another recognized talent, which we have taken to calling Fire Touched, reserves about the same aether as a Fire Bolt spell; but makes the bindings involved in fire aspected creatures and spells cost less.”

A young woman with dark blonde hair on the left side of the class raised a hand, and after being called upon, asked, “How many Talents have been identified?”

“Hundreds, but only a handful are properly understood at this time.Talents like Fire Touched seem to be relatively common, and yes before you ask, there are other elemental variants of this, Fire Touched was just the one we could identify first,” she answered.

I saw Amakakiri look at his bondmate before Kono raised a hand. Dean Brenner noticed and called on him saying, “I assume the young drake has a question?”

“Yes, he has two in fact. One, do sentient aetherical creatures have Talents; and two, how do you judge the rarity of a Talent?” the young man asked.

“Ahh, jumping ahead a bit young one. That’s fine we were about to go over that anyway. Aetherical creatures do have Talents, however as far as our research has been able to discover these are more passive traits tied to their natures. Those of you in Introduction to Aetherical Creatures will learn about this sooner than the others so I can give you a bit of information. The focal points of a creature's aether flow tells you how many traits or special abilities that creature will have. Do you mind if I use you as an example Amakakiri?” she asked; and at the drakelings nod she continued, “The Storm Drakeling, like most dragon type creatures, has fourteen focal points in his aetherical flow. This means he will develop fourteen traits that correspond to his type of creature. Now I see he has six bindings within his flow currently, which is above average for a tier one evolution. I recognize four of the six. Armored Hide, which is a common trait for dragon types as well as creatures like Red Ogres that have a thick skin. There are three Touch traits that I described; and if I’m reading the bindings correctly correspond to wind, water, and lightning. That is not unexpected for a creature called a Storm Drakeling for obvious reasons. Mr. Kono, do you know what the other traits represent?”

The boy thought for a few moments before he answered, “If the Talent is a representation of special traits I would assume that they are in regards to his ability to channel aspects of the storm externally. I can’t be sure though.”

“Most likely, but that leads into the second topic. Thank you Mr. Kono and Amakakiri,” she said before returning to the podium at the front of the classroom before saying, “Identity Binding was a recent experiment in showing a person their Talents. It is not truly its own type of binding, but rather the end goal. Now your assignment before the next class is to come up with a method of Identity Binding. I will give you a few minutes to discuss this with classmates before I answer a few questions.”

I looked at the others that were sitting near me for ideas. Vara spoke up first, “I don’t think beast binding will have much of an impact on it. Not unless you the being can see the flows, understand them, and tell you what they mean.”

I grinned and sent a mental nudge to the summoning crystal at my belt, “Varis, does that sound like something you can do?”

A sleepy mental voice came back to me, “Sorry, the teacher put me to sleep with the lecture. What do you want me to do?”

I briefly explained it to her as my friends tossed a couple of ideas back and forth. Varis finally answered, “Yes and no; I can see the bindings better than you can, and can even get an idea of what their purpose is. What I can’t do is show them to you unless I come out and actually explain to each person. It sounds like your teacher wants you to figure out a method that the majority of people can use.”

Well that wasn’t as helpful as I thought, though knowing Varis could get a sense for a person’s Talents raised a few questions that could be asked later. I let the group know, “Looks like some creatures might be able to do that, but they would need to be able to actually tell a person and not all creatures can speak.”

The young man from Azure turned and asked, “You have a creature that can speak? Or do you have a bond like my Amakakiri?”

I reached out a hand which he took in a firm shake as I said, “I’m Magnus, and yes Varis can speak. You’re the first person since my grandfather I’ve met who has a full soul bond with a creature.”

“Takahashi, Tak if you like, this is my sister Mai, her dorm mate Selena, and my dorm mate Ezekiel. I take it you don’t believe that meets the requirements for the assignment?” he responded.

I shook my head, “Varis doesn’t think so, and I agree. I think the assignment is to get us to replicate the effect of seeing those bindings, but also show what they do. Varis says she can do so, but not make it where others can see it also.”

“Interesting,” Mai said, “So do you think it is a spell glyph?”

“Possibly, which means it could also be done using image binding. I wonder if you could make an item binding that did the same thing though,” Richard said.

“That’s enough class, now you have time for three questions,” the dean said.

Hands were raised throughout the class and the teacher called on Mai first, who asked, “Is this limited to one type of binding?”

“No, when it was first proven as a possibility image binding was used, but it was later replicated in spellbinding,” the dean answered.

A dark haired boy in the front row got to ask the next question, “How detailed of a method are we supposed to come up with?”

“You will be graded based on how much of the method you come up with on your own. Just so you know your assignment for the rest of the week is to put this method into practice, or if it doesn’t work come up with another that will,” she answered.

Jessica was the last question, “Does this form of binding just show Talent, or will it also show other aspects of the person’s identity?”

The dean smiled like Fenris did on steak night as she answered, “The binding that was used to prove the concept showed all aspects related to the aetherflow of the subject. It didn’t reveal anything else. Now you have your assignments, you have until the bell to discuss, collect your things, and prepare for your next class.”