The Fire hall was a black building made from sculpted volcanic rock. The smooth walls shimmered as the various embedded minerals reflected the light of the sun in a dazzling fashion. It transformed what would have been a fortress of doom ambiance to something cleaner and more wholesome. He could imagine this as the home of a legendary blacksmith out of myth. Once inside, Jack could see burning brackets and metallic art everywhere, the vibrant atmosphere was now replaced with one more sinister.

People made way for him as he passed. It looked like he was infamous now. Sigh. The hate sign posted outside the building served as a fresh reminder of his outsider status. He shook off the dour thoughts, these people were the bright stars of the Empire.. Even the poorer looking students had a bright future. As such he felt no compulsion to get friendly with or ‘assist’ them. They weren’t worth it.

His next class was just inside the building. Virtus claimed that all of the specialty buildings were built in a spiral formation. The more advanced the class, the farther in you go.The implication was clear. Advance further to be inducted into our mysteries. It seemed like blatant elitism to him but how could he complain. On earth they have the entry level classes on the top floor and he did not want to walk that far.

The pair quickly located and entered the classroom, and classroom it was. No more long benches and large podiums. The room was rectangular, about thirty feet to one side and sixty feet to another. There was still a chalkboard but not a single table or desk. Instead there were simple stone seats, stools really, spaced evenly at five foot intervals so as to give each other space. Only a ten foot wide strip to the left was empty.

Half the seats were half-filled with young adults, a tanned woman was standing at the head of the class. Her short, spiky hair was jet black. Her Almond-shaped eyes glared at Virtus as he filed in behind Jack. “No bodyguards are allowed in this classroom!” She commanded. “It is simply too dangerous to have someone in the line of fire when I am teaching novices.”

Virtus was nonplussed at her words. “Professor, I was aware of the situation before entering the class. You might remember that I took this class too.” He pointed to a spot off to the side. “I will stand there and cast a flame ward spell. Is that acceptable?”

She sighed heavily. “Yes, yes I suppose it is. You are a real stick in the mud Ferrum.” She lamented before pulling herself together. “Everyone find a seat so that we can begin!” they all found a seat.

“My name is professor Rhys and I am here to show you how to wield Fire. Everyone, hold up your dominant hand!” Hands went up all over the room. Jack raised his left arm. On earth, ‘lefties’ are a rare breed but he could see an even split among his fellow students, strange.

This seemed to be within the teacher's expectations. “For now, this will be your casting hand. Unlike other disciplines, Fire needs to be ejected from the body quickly at lower levels. You do not want to burn yourselves.” At this, she stared everyone down. A promise, that failure to listen would not be pleasant.

“Left-handed people are up first. Stand up and make a line over there by the firing range.” This was outside of Jack’s expectations. In previous classes, there was always a lecture at the beginning. Not here, she obviously wanted them to perform on the spot. He got up though and ambled over to the middle of the line.

By the time everyone was standing in a way that pleased the professor, she took the very first student and pointed them at a target at the opposite end of the range. “Focus on the sigil of Fire. For those of you that are bound to an offshoot sigil, You can still use the base sigil. All Sigils that heat or ignite can be broken down into Fire.” she gave the student a minute to get into the proper mindset. “Good, now focus on creating a copy of it in the palm of your hand.” They all waited for a bit while the unlucky volunteer struggled.

In the end, the attempt failed and he was shuffled to the back of the line. The next person had some time to prepare so they managed to make a few sparks before also going to the back. Professor Rhys seems to be impressed, which made Jack think that she expected all of them to fail the first time.

As time wore on the students all went through the paces. Some managed to make a small effect, others didn’t. Now it was Jack’s turn and he had to decide how much he wanted to reveal. After mulling it over, he decided on showing her nothing. So when his turn came up, he just grunted a lot before ‘giving up’. Professor Rhys wasn’t fooled. She just gave him a haughty look before shooing him away in disappointment, but not before calling him by name. Oh yeah, the jig is up. She must have seen my picture when the guards were searching for me.

Once everyone had gone, they were swapped out with the ‘Righty’s’. If you expected things to end differently, you thought wrong.

“Fire is the manifestation of three things. Can anybody tell me what those are?” no one responded. Most of them just looked at her in confusion.

She didn’t seem perturbed by this. She just answered it for them. “Fire is composed of air, fuel, and an ignition source. In the case of Fire magic, the Magi serve as the source of ignition, and their mana is the fuel. As for air, it is all around you. If you can breathe then you can use Fire. The problem that most of you had just now was that you only attempted to add fuel. Or, in the case of those that got sparks, an ignition source. To succeed, you must burn the air around you, feed it your mana and spark it to life simultaneously. Now, we are going to try that again.”

The rest of the class was just putting her short lecture into practice. Almost everyone was able to make sparks by the end and a small handful managed a flame the size of a candle. Nothing that Jack found particularly impressive. Well, one idiot managed to light his pants on fire. The hole was impressive. He was hoping that he would be able to learn a new spell, but they had just gone over the same material his master had shown him. No, we didn’t go over even a quarter of what I learned last night. This was incredibly frustrating to him.

When the bell rang, Jack was already on his feet. He stomped towards the back door in frustration. A small hand settled on his shoulder and he instantly knew that lunch was going to be late.

“Trying to run away so fast? Makes a girl wonder whether you don’t like her.”

Jack froze. He was not prepared for this level of provocation. His experience with the opposite sex was usually more pragmatic. They offered ‘services’ for either money, food, or protection. The food and money he shared freely for a little company, though he declined their services. As for protection, life is hard and you can’t save someone from themselves. Any woman of means or self sufficiency wouldn’t give a street kid like him the time of day. This level of casual intimacy was completely new territory to him.

“I have somewhere to be, professor. Several people are waiting on me.” I need to come up with some new material. I can’t believe I used that line again. It took everything to reply with a steady tone.

“Mmhmm, I am sure that’s it. It isn’t because you are avoiding me is it? I could practically feel the frustration radiating off of you this whole time. Did you want to burn that target so badly that it soured your mood.”

He turned to face her. Now that he was looking at her as a woman, and not as a source of information, he finally saw how beautiful she was. Her features were a blend of strong Roman and something more tropical. It gave off an exotic atmosphere. He also noticed that she was only in her late twenties. Not so much older than him.

“Fabian tells me that you set off a Charball in the middle of his class this morning. When he said that you somehow took a fireball spell apart and put an incompatible sigil in its place. Well, I found it hard to believe. I think that we need to have a private talk, Adjudicator.” She gave him a predatory smile.

“Another day, perhaps. My plate is full right now. Speaking of plates, I really have to go eat lunch… Alright… Good talk.” He ran!