Neidr took a deep breath and looked over the precipice. Below him, a drop to certain death. His teacher had learned of his fear of heights... unfortunately.

Laslzo rested his hands on the edge of the floating island and did pull-ups miles above the ground.

"Student, if your mind is controlled by any phobia your opponents will use it to destroy you. Once you conquer this fear, your will will be strengthened. Do not worry, I will catch you." [Laszlo] Neidr pursed his lips and looked at his teacher as if he was looking at the devil himself. After Neidr refused to move for three minutes. Laszlo spoke up once again,

"If you would prefer to do regular push-ups that is acceptable." [Laszlo] Just as Neidr leaped up to do them, Laszlo spoke again,

"As long as you do double the normal amount."[Laszlo] Neidr froze where he stood and looked back at the precipice. Torn between more work and the sight of the ground from so far above... Neidr shut his eyes, bit his lip, and slowly crawled down to a position where he could do pull-ups over the precipice. He cursed his teacher in his mind,

'If I fall, and you don't catch me, I will definitely haunt you!' Nontheless, Neidr completed his usual rounds of pull-ups and he and his teacher went their separate ways. Neidr quickly gathered his things and hurried to the general studies class. Today was the first day of magic education. Neidr squeezed his way through the crowed halls of Rotham, forcing his way through to the introductory mana class. When he finally found the right room, he saw an enormous auditorium. It consisted of nine rings of seats. The smallest ring at the bottom held three-hundred seats. These rings were giant floating platforms that stayed in constant motion. The rings alternated movement, the top turned clockwise, and the next one down turned counterclockwise. So on and so forth. The rings got wider as they went up, so no floating platform cast shade on another. All the chairs overlooked a solitary flat disc that floated in the center of the array. Neidr looked back for the door he just entered through, but saw nothing there. It apparently teleported students into this array. Other than the rings of seats and the platform they overlooked, there was nothing but a starry sky in any direction you looked. Neidr had seen many awe-inspiring things, from the Guns of Rotham city, to the Tower of Rotham academy, but this... This was different. Neidr felt that this room was solemn, and so did the others who had already arrived, as no one made a sound. The entire array was encased by serene silence.

Neidr looked around and found a chair, he pulled out a pen and paper and prepared to write down everything this teacher would say. 'Afterall,' Neidr thought smugly, 'this is a classroom.' Class should start in ten minutes, Neidr sat on the edge of his seat filled with anticipation. The ten minutes passed and nothing happened. Then twenty minutes. Neidr started to worry, did he get the wrong classroom on the first day? Did he misread the time? After thirty minutes, Neidr felt that he had really fucked up this time. However, all his thought were soon proved to be for naught.

A woman appeared on the disk far below. She dressed sloppily, one side of her robe slacked down so far it nearly failed to cover her. Hair black hair was a mess and she held a bottle of alcohol in her right hand. Even though she was so far away, her voice still filled every edge of this void like space when she said,

"9:30 is too early for a class to start. Show up later next time."[Teacher] She slurred her words and took another swig of her liquor before continuing,

"My name is Professor Jezebel, I will be your introductory mana teacher. First lesson, *hiccup* what is mana?"[Professor Jezebel] Neidr sat in his seat in disbelief,

'Are you fucking kidding me?'

"Well, *hiccup* good question. All things, whether living or dead, produce mana. Everything expels mana from their souls. *hiccup* Yes, that means rocks have souls... Grass too... I mean I could list everything, but you get it."[Professor Jezebel] Neidr rubbed his brow, who would have thought that Laszlo was starting to look good in comparison?

"Well, don't worry about all the grass you stepped on either. There is a pseudo hierarchy of souls, with sentient beings souls being the most complete. Inanimate souls come from shattered and decayed souls that are no longer Conscious. This is why making automatons is difficult. Automatons are basically magical puppets with their own minds. In order to produce a mind good enough to follow orders you need to stitch together countless fractured souls together very precisely. Alternatively, all that trouble could be skipped if we could just use a human soul, but the council said that would be bad for our PR... Ah, I got ahead of myself... *hiccup* Oh, here's the important part, perk your ears up... Ahem ahem... Mana is uniform, but also filled with many different varieties. Does that sound contradictory, that is because it is."[Professor Jezebel] Neidr couldn't help, but to involuntary facepalm, Jezebel continued to lecture regardless,

"All mana is composed of the same base mana particles, but the way in which they arrange themselves, *hiccup* refelcts upon the source of their being. Mana born of the water forms into mana that flows more easily into water magic. Mana born of rocks forms in a way more cohesive to the use of earth type spells. So on and so forth. This is why spells are impacted by their environment. Fire magic will be weakened in a tundra, for example. So, I can hear you saying, well I can't actually hear it but you know... Anyway, So, I hear you saying, what does this have to do with me?" Good question. This effects you because of soul restructuring. Once souls decay entirely, they form again into a fully functional consciousness, which is transferred into a new life. Hehe"[Professor Jezebel] She pointed to someone in the audience and said

"That would be you," [Professor Jezebel] She pointed at someone else and said,

"Or you."[Professor Jezebel] She shrugged her shoulders and said, "Well, it could be literally any of you as long as you have a soul."[Professor Jezebel]

'Thanks,' Neidr thought sarcastically, 'I'm glad you went on that very helpful tangent.'

"Ahem, the point is that the recycled bit of soul carry some of their past with them even when they form anew, this is why certain environments are better for certain students to cultivate magic in. Souls formed of shards that were previously rocks are obviuously more conducive to earth mana which you would find near... rocks...

...

... Well, first assignment, I will tell you the most conducive environment for you to meditate in in order to improve your mana capacity. Go to that place and meditate and the nature of life and magic and whatnot."[Professor Jezebel] She slammed her foot into the disc causing and loud ringing sound and said,

"Class dismissed."[Professor Jezebel]

Neidr's vision went dark, and he appeared in his room. He was really starting to hate being teleported without warning. Neidr felt a note in his hand and looked down at it.

'Ice'