The blank chalkboard was slowly being filled with arcane symbols, labels and doodles as Mr Bailey prepared for his lesson. ‘The Basics of Magic’ was written at the very top. Although Rhea couldn’t read, she could understand certain words that she see’s a lot, like Magic, and Danger etc. Mr Bailey inspected the board, checking to see if he had missed anything important, when he was satisfied, he turned to his student and began the lecture.

“What is magic, this is a question asked a long time ago, and also answered a long time ago, but not a lot of the common folk understands this shit because not a lot of people feel like spending a lot of time looking into it.”

“Magic occurs when a person makes manipulates a force called the Weave to produce desired results, that is it boiled down to its simplest, most correct terms. If I had the ability and followed the right procedure, I could create fire, acid, poison, ice or even lighting from my fingertips.” Mr Bailey refers to a few doodles he drew on the chalkboard.

“However, to cast some of the most spells, you need to have access to an internal resource, a storage of magical power, that magical power is used to manipulate the natural magic around you. You can think of this resource as a well or a fountain, as you grow stronger and exercise these wells, they will eventually grow bigger, and more will form with more potent magic.” Mr Bailey sits back down at his desk.

“Now I am not here to teach you about high-end magic spells or shit like that, I told you this so you can be aware of it. The spells I will be teaching are the kind of spells that will help you survive in the wilderness, or to enhance your capabilities as a marksman.”

“However, you still need to learn this shit, because there are people out there who use this shit to its fullest extent, and that makes them dangerous, I aim to make you more dangerous than them.” Mr Bailey gets up again, feeling a little more enthusiasm, and wipes down parts of the chalkboard he has used. “I’m gonna tell you about some of these magic fuckers. We have Wizards, who dedicate their entire lives to learning how to cast spells, and due to their research, they have the widest range of spells to use, but they are idiots, and keep all their research in one book, destroy that and they are useless.” Mr Bailey finishes off a drawing of an ‘Idiot Wizard’. “Next on the list are Sorcerors, they are more difficult to deal with since they are so innately tied to magic, that they can change the rules on a whim. These gits are born with the ability to manipulate the weave and cast spells, or some have some kind of experience with some kind of magical event that imbued them with the powers, either way they are not to be trifled with.”

“Now not everyone has the time to study, or are innately gifted, some people want to take a shortcut, they want to cut a deal with someone more powerful than them, getting a share of their power. These people are idiots, also known as Warlocks. They borrow power from some powerful creature from another realm, in return they are basically their slaves, forced to follow the whim of their patron. These assholes are hard to deal with if you don’t know who their patron is, knowing that will allow you to figure out what other weird shit they can do.” Mr Bailey circles his 3 drawings and slams his hand on the board, turning to Rhea. “I consider theses the big three in terms of spell casters, the ones you need to watch out for the most when fighting a spellcaster, the most powerful. That is not to say the others are not strong, they are plenty powerful, I just personally don’t like these ones the most.” With the board wiped down, Mr Bailey begins his lecture on what he believes to be the lesser spell casters.

“Not everyone takes their understanding of magic from study, or powerful beings or just being born lucky, some people come to a natural understanding of magic from their connections to nature. Druids are the type of folk that love nature so much, they want to become it. Most of their spells are designed to make the best use of the environment around them, and if they are strong enough, they can even manipulate these energies in ways that turns them into the creatures they protect, through a process called wild shaping, this is not to be underestimated. Since their spells are the most survival orientated, this school teaches some of their more useful spell to you students, as well as some of our own design.”

“These guys are ones you probably don’t need to worry about, they are called Bards. They have learned to manipulate the weave through the use of their music, but I have never really met an evil bard so its not really much of an issue. But on the off chance that a bard is annoying you, smash their lute and they will shut up for a while.”

“Lastly, and this is something that has only popped up recently, we have people that are referred to as Artificers. Rather than manipulating the weave like most people, they have figured out how to produce a number of spells, or well, effects similar to spells, by using technology and tools. You need to watch out for what they use, I can’t tell you the number of mad scientists I have had to deal with that go around throwing elixirs at me, making huge explosions on impact.” Mr Bailey wipes down his board once again, at the top of the board, he writes ‘Divine Magic’.

“Okay, time for those who are literally holier than thou, the Clerics. Clerics are servants of a deity, that move out of a desire to please their god. Their magical powers come from their training in rituals, and the favour of the god they follow. For example, an associate of mine, and someone I believe you have met, Mr Jostus, he is a cleric of the Order domain. While priests boast about their connection to the gods, clerics like Mr Jostus actually have a tangible connection to the gods.”

“Finally, we have Paladins, they are similar to clerics, where most of them are connected to deities. Paladins all swear an oath to someone or something, this oath gives them power, their beliefs give them power, for a paladin an oath means more to them than their own lives.” Mr Bailey sits down once again, tossing his chalk off to the side, breathing in deep, and letting out a long sigh. “Any questions?” Rhea shakes her head. “Alrigh-…”

“Actually, I do have a question.” A wave of dread washes over Mr Baileys face. He slowly forces a smile, replying, “And what would that be then?”

“Why are you so nice to me? Both with outside and here taking the time to teach me all of this.” Mr Bailey blankly stares at Rhea, “Is that a serious question?” Rhea nods nervously.

“I am your teacher, it is my job to teach you and to protect my students, even from other students.” Rhea does not recall there ever being a teacher that just, taught things to her. “But I’m a shifter.”

“why the fuck should that matter?”

“Mr Murphy said that…”

“I don’t give a shit what Mr Murphy said to you, I don’t give a shit if you’re a shifter or a human or even a changeling, why should I care.”

“My last teacher didn’t talk like you, he taught me that because I am a shifter, I need to work extra hard to not give anyone a reason to hurt me, he taught me that people will look for reasons to mess with me.”

“I am not one of those people, the kind of people your last teacher was referring to are humans, I am a Kalashtar. While my race should not make much of a difference, how I was brought up does. Unlike other humans, I know I am not the centre of all things, and that there are things out there bigger than me.” Mr Bailey pauses, looking at Rhea’s expression, she doesn’t seem too convinced. “Look I don’t have time to discriminate against you, I have better things to do, stop being so arrogant that you think your worth the time to talk shit to, you’re not.” Rhea had a confused feeling, unsure whether to be happy or insulted. Mr Bailey eagerly wanted to change the subject.

“Look a lot of this magic theory stuff is something you can read about, why don’t I get you started on marksman theory.” Rhea, wanting to be distracted from the previous topic, perked up and listened intently to Mr Baileys following lecture.