The micro-acceleration lecture was a lot more theoretical in nature than the light manipulation one. Due to their lacking knowledge in physics, they only talked about general concepts and were shown patterns to memorize. Nathan still found it interesting but most of the other students seemed to regret their choice. When the lecture finally ended Nathan was sure, that many of them wouldn't come back.

He and Alina agreed to meet after school to go to the research group gathering together.

“How was your micro-deceleration lecture?” Nathan asked.

“Hm, it was fine. A lot of theory, same as for you I guess.”

“Yeah, but it was interesting to listen to the Magister. Hard to believe, that everything is made from tiny orbs.”

“Oh yeah, when I heard it the first time, I thought my mom was joking with me.”

“Your mom taught you magic?”

“Just a bit, she said that mana control is too dangerous for children's minds,” She shrugged. “But at least she told me enough that I knew what to chose to learn ice magic. I don't really understand your combination, though.”

“Well, I need to do something in the future and I thought what I chose fits it the best.”

“Now I'm curious, what would require micro-acceleration, light manipulation, and gravity control?”

Nathan's eyes narrowed as he stared in the air without answering.

With a comforting voice, Alina said, “You don't need to tell me if you don't want to.”

He let out a breath. “No, it's ok. My... my village was destroyed days before I joined the school. Everyone... no, everything is gone. There wasn't anything left I could bury. Not even...” He swallowed his last words, trying to hold back his tears.

Alina's eyes opened wide, as she looked at Nathan with a shocked expression.

“I... I'm sorry, I didn't know...I just.. just wanted...”

“I know, you couldn't have known.” His voice wasn't much more than a whisper. “I didn't plan to tell anyone. All of you probably have your own share of problems.”

“No! You're not bothering me! If you want to talk about it I'll always be there to listen. We're friends after all, aren't we?”

He looked at her, tight-lipped, before turning his sight towards the ground.

“Thank you.”

They continued to walk silently until they reached the research room. When they opened the door, Magister Duskvale's words greeted them enthusiastically.

“Ah, there are the last two of our new members.”

He walked behind them and shoved both into the room, completely ignoring their bleak faces.

“No need to be shy, we're all comrades now.”

When Nathan saw the five other students inside, he tried his best to smile at them, only the small twitching of the corner of his mouth betrayed his real feelings. Alina quickly took the initiative to greet everyone.

“Hello, I'm Alina and this is Nathan.”

Nathan waved his hand at them and greeted them with a short 'Hi'. However, they didn't seem to be offended by his briefness. There were a lot of magicians, who favored research in solitude over social interactions. A small but muscular girl close to the door stomped towards them.

“Hiii. 'm Val'nar, but you can call me Vally. Lohar to our small club!”

“Lohar?”

A sleek voice answered her question, “It's the language of the southern island barbarians, it means welcome.”

The owner of that voice put a book aside and came closer. His smooth movements made it seem as if he floated across the floor.

“I'm called Alrin, it's my pleasure.” He nodded at them.

“Just call this guy Alric. It's just too cute when he gets angry.” Val'nar glared at him.

“Scramble, barbarian woman.” He pointed his palm at her face and a ray of light shone directly into her eyes.

“You fucking asshole, I will rip your arms out!”

“Now, now. Stop it children.”

With a single step, Magister Duskvale was between them, before Val'nar could jump at Alrin, and a strong gust blew the quarellers apart. Val'nar gave Alrin, who straightened his robe, a fierce stare, but didn't follow up.

“Don't mind these two, they're just a bit bored,” Magister Duskvale said. “Now then, why aren't you also coming over, Ellen, Samuel.”

The last two persons in the room besides Devan seemed to be quite reluctant to interrupt their actions just to greet new students. The girl, Ellen, turned around, nodded at Nathan and Alina, and went back to whatever she was doing. Samuel, who sat bent over some diagrams, only raised his hand, holding one of the black cubes, as greeting.

“Oh well, guess they are busy.“

Magister Duskvale turned back and looked at the three newcomers, scratching his short, white beard.

“Now we need something to do for you. Normally the new students without any experience in magic or research are given some newly designed pattern, with the task to vary the pattern systematically and record the changes in the outcome-” he was interrupted by a raised hand from Alina, “yes?”

“I thought the patterns can be calculated?”

“In theory, they can. But we are still not at the point, where we know all the rules and magic laws. And even for those we know, as soon as a circuit is a bit more complex, the mathematics behind them becomes far too hard to be solved. I knew a research magician, who spent nearly ten years of his life to theoretically verify an observation made within a month of experiments.”

“Anyways, as I said... or maybe not … you will have to choose a spell. The spell has to be trained to near perfection and afterward, you can start making adjustments to the patterns and links. The best practice is taking a single element, make a minimal and a maximal change, and then do trials for a few data points in-between. It's imperative, that all changes and their effects are carefully documented!”

Nathan, Alina, and Devan nodded vigorously.

“Wonderful. Currently, we're researching four spells, you can choose any one of them. Just make sure to talk with the others researching the same spell, to make sure you don't repeat their variations. The spells...” he interrupted himself, “Oh wait, you're first-years. You can't control the mana well enough yet to cast hard-light spells. So we have only two spells which you can choose. Let me get the research documents.”

He went to the only organized looking bookshelf and took two thick folders out. After placing them on the adjacent table, he indicated them to come over.

“These are the documentations about the spiral deflection spell and the dull light pattern. As you probably learned in your physics lectures by now, light travels as straight lines, right? So if you see an object, you don't really see the object itself. You see the light coming from it. The object itself is only approximated by your brain, based on the light it sees, expecting it to come straight from its source. With the spiral deflection circuit, we can bend the rays, effectively forcing them on a spiral path. Let me demonstrate.”

Magister Duskvale closed his eyes to concentrate, and a few seconds later his body rotated and shifted half a body width to the side. They were stunned. Alina reached out with her hand, trying to touch him, but her hand went right through. When Nathan focused on mana, he could see at least a dozen circuits, stacked on top of each other on Magister Duskvale's original position, creating the picture of an arcane pillar that surrounded him. Seemingly looking at some point besides them, Magister Duskvale continued.

“Because your brain only knows light to travel in straight lines, you see my body from a different angle, rotated, and in a different place. What our brain works with are basically the tangents of the spiraling path. This spell, sadly, is very limited, though, because we can only control mana in a mere dozen or so centimeter distance to our body, and as soon as it leaves that region, the light travels straight again. So for a maximum virtual shift, the spiral needs to have the smallest possible radius. Was that understandable?”

This time their nods were rather hesitant. Magister Duskvale scratched his head and his image return to his original position.

“I guess one of our second-year students can explain it to you more thoroughly if you chose this spell.”

“And what does dull light spell do?” Devan asked.

“Ah, that is also a rather intriguing spell. Are you aware, that every soft, sharp or hard light spell can only mimic or produce radiant light? Dull light is the first pattern of its kind. With it, light like the one scattered on your clothes can be created. In other words, the simplest form of dull light can create an area that looks like a common single color blanket.”

“What's the use of that?” Alina asked.

“Oh, there are a lot of applications. You could create images or art with magic. You could cover up secret doors and hallways, or secret messages only visible by those who know certain mana circuits. But the most interesting aspect is the possibility to create an invisibility cloak if combined with a perfected spiral deflection circuit. If you can trap all light coming from you and project an image equaling your surroundings, then this would be immensely powerful.”

“But wouldn't a spell to bend light around an object be better for that?” Nathan asked.

“Yes, definitely. But there is no such spell. Applying a constant force to bend light in a single direction is far easier than complex shaping. And with far easier I mean still extremely hard. I don't know if your suggestion is even possible, but if you become a research mage, who knows.” He tousled Nathan's hair.

“Anyways, what do you chose?”

All three answered like a single voice, “Spiral deflection.”

Magister Duskvale sighed, “I should have known it. Everyone prefers this one and completely ignores the potential of dull light.”

He picked up one of the folders and gave it to Nathan.

“Here, you three have to make arrangements between yourselves. I'd suggest for each of you to first copy the circuit as good as possible. Then, for now, I wish you good luck and success.”

He gave each of them an encouraging look and put the other folder back into the bookshelf before going to Samuel to observe his work.

“Let's copy it!” Devan said, rubbing his hands together.

“How good are you at copying circuits Nathan? Good enough to make one for me too?” Alina asked in a jokingly sweet voice. Nathan, whose mood improved significantly after listening to Magister Duskvale, just nodded.

“I can do that.”

He grabbed one of the black cubes from the table, held it in his left hand and extracted some mana. His finger drew the illumination pattern on the spiral deflection circuit in the folder. Shortly after a light glow permeated from under the page. Then he took an empty paper from the table, put it on top of the document, and traced the circuit with a pen.

“Wow, how did you think about that?” Alina watched Nathan as he completed drawing the spiral deflection spell. He gave Alina the copy and repeated the process twice.

“Thanks a lot,” Devan said after being handed a copy. He looked down on the paper for a few seconds, then his slightly slumped body stretched. “Would... would you like to … to practice together?” He asked.

“Sure thing!” Alina clapped on his shoulder, causing him to flinch. “We're meeting every evening at one of our houses, you're very much welcome to join in. The more the merrier.”

“I can learn new spells easier when I'm alone for the first few tries. I will join in later.” Nathan said.

“Sure. As long as you teach me afterward, I will do your part of the homework today.” Alina put on a pure smile.

Nathan mumbled, “We don't have any assignments.”

“That's just my luck then.” She stuck out her tongue and skipped fleetingly towards a chair.

Nathan went up to the Magister.

“I will go home to practice, Magister Duskvale.”

Still concentrated on Samuel's work he answered distractedly, “Sure, sure. Do as you see fit. You can come and go as you like.”