The closing statements of Draxus were still fresh on my mind as I arrived at the space alignment class. What will I do if I lose myself? A basically immortal blue mage roaming the countryside seems like a recipe for disaster. Worse still, there’s Rhannu. If I succumb to the voice, will I take Rhannu with me, or will I just abandon him to his terrarium, alone for the rest of his life.

I can’t just abandon my dreams, abandon my oath to myself, but… Maybe it’s for the best.

I still have a space alignment. I can just focus on that. It won’t be a life of adventure like I hoped, but at least I won’t be powerless, right?

The space class lecture hall was held in the center of Aurelia Academy grounds, just ahead of the entrance. This class actually had walls, fine marble and white. The desks were arranged in a more standard classroom format, and the far half of the room was empty. The age groups for this class were rather split, half being kids likely taking their first class, and the other half being adults — likely mages who decided space was a good idea to learn spells or enchantments for.

I barely paid any attention to them,

At the podium in front of the classroom, the professor suddenly appeared in less time than it took to blink. Do all the teachers here make it a point to make a show of their entrance?

The professor was a dryad — a rarity to see so far away from the place of their birth. Usually we stay away from cities or humans, the atrocities of the age of wells and the war of Dryad independence still a vital part of our society. Mother and Rhannu were more the exception than the rule.

“Hello class.” She said, then looked at me. “Hello, brother.”

“Nephew.” I corrected. “I’m a half Dryad, not a full one, contrary to my appearance.”

“I see. Anyways, class, my name is Athro Gofod, and I will be your space teacher for the month. As I’m sure most of you are aware, this class will not be widely covering combat. Though there are a few spells that can certainly assist, we will not be practicing them in a combat setting. For most of you, your space alignments will be limited to two main aspects: Subspaces and enchanting. Today, we will be going over the most basic topic of subspaces: specializations.

For those of you who are actually space aligned, and not just a mage capable of casting space spells, your personal specializations will come from and apply to your personal subspace. For enchanted subspaces, you will have to specifically define them.

For the most part, these specializations will simply define the shape and size of a subspace. However, more intricate specializations are still common. Some subspaces are freezing cold, others boiling hot. Some are large, others small. Some are cubical, others spherical. Some can be molded to fit your needs and desires. Some are even capable of speeding or slowing time. Some are easier to enter or protect, which we will go over in our next lecture on Wednesday. Some are see-through, opaque, distorted, or bigger on the inside. Some are even visible from the outside world, as you can see by the space behind me. Yes, that room isn’t really ‘there’, it’s an enchanted subspace we’ll be using for this class.

Unfortunately, we won’t have time for much work today since we have to go through greetings, so how about each of you stand up one-by-one and introduce yourselves. If you have any questions about subspace specializations, feel free to ask them as you’re called. Mistral?"

"Here," a boy of about 10 called "so, you mentioned space-aligned get their own personal subspaces. A one-ended portal spell acts as a portal to one's own subspace. Where does a basic portal spell lead when a mage without a space alignment casts it?"

"Excellent question. To start, unlike a druid, you contain a source of power which you can draw from to create spells from nothing. This source changes the basic nature of a mage's spells. You can learn to control this, but without accounting for it, your spells will be unconsciously influenced. A fire mage casting a water spell, for example, will naturally produce boiling water. An ice mage's subspace enchantments will naturally be cold or icy.

A portal spell cast by a mage naturally leads to their own personal source. Something like a plane of light, fire, wind, or earth. This is a powerful tool for some mages, as these planes can contain incredible power, and cost only as much mana as it takes to open the portal. However, it should be noted that damaging this source is possible, so creating a portal directly to it is incredibly dangerous.

I'm not a mage myself, so you'll have to learn the details in your mage classes.

Next person. Sylas?"

"Present. I have a question about my specialization that has been causing some issues. For some reason, certain things I put within my subspace can't be removed. When I push them against a portal, or try to phase them out naturally—"

"Phase?"

"This." I demonstrated by taking my encyclopedia out, then phasing it back within my subspace.

"I see. It looks like a hybrid between a blink spell and a portal spell. Almost like a Filii Spatium Polypus's ability. Are you a blue mage, perchance?"

"Uh, yes I am."

"Fascinating. I wonder if you could make it an enchantment, or find a way to make it a learnable spell. Anyways, your question. There are things in your subspace that can't be taken out? Normally, we wouldn't go into this topic at all until at least space 18, but since it's likely related to your specialization, I can go over some vague explanations.

Simply put, subspaces exist in their own reality, different from the ones we live in. Usually, the two are basically the same. Sometimes, a subspace will be colder or hotter than it would normally be in reality, or alter the shape objects inside of it. When this happens, these objects that are returned to reality morph to fit the logic of this universe.

But every once in a while, either due to a specialization like yours, or extremely complex enchantments, a subspace will be so different that even its contents cannot coexist with reality. Its rules are so far removed from what can be that they simply cannot bend in such a way that reality will accept it."

"So, there's no way to bring them out? They're stuck in there forever?"

Athro paused a few seconds before answering, shifting her eyes back and forth, and stroking her chin. "It may not be possible to bring things out, but there is a spell that can do something similar. I'm sorry to say, but it's rather high rank, and the details are classified. You’d need to be approved on the project to receive more information."

"But it does exist?"

"Yes, but you'll need clearance to learn it. Any other questions?"

"No." I said, "That will be everything."