Chapter 25

By the time the pair arrived at the designated picnic table, several wooden platters were already waiting for them. Each platter was square in shape and seemed to slide into a matching traveling case that lay on the ground nearby. Lillian was hovering over her preparations as she added the furnishings and utensils.

“Good morning Lillian,” Jack called to her, eager to see another face, any face, other than the irritating one right next to him. He hadn’t forgiven Virtus just yet and wanted him to squirm a bit first. It wasn’t petty. It was...justice. Yeah, it was totally justice.

“Almighty bless you, Jack,” she responded. “I came prepared today. All of us will be able to enjoy a hot meal without any unfortunate incidents. Now sit down.”

“Unfortunate incidents?”

“Yes, I am the personal aide of Princess Laura after all. I have access to a very detailed report of actions since arriving on Terra Cognita. You accidentally destroyed no less than ten semi-permanent enchantments and dozens of petty glamour yesterday without even noticing. I hear the female students put out a bounty on the culprit.”

“Glamour?”

“It is a type of spell used to alter the appearance of a target. Most female magi have a cantrip or two to hide blemishes or enhance their...assets. A word of advise, never get between a girl and her cosmetics.” Lillian gave him the look. Yeah, that look.

“As such,” she continued, “your food trays are made from unenchanted wood. The heating and preservation charms are placed on that tray holder over there in the grass. Please do not attempt to touch it, Jack. It is expensive.”

The news hit Jack like a hit to the proverbial gut. He didn’t get winded anymore but he remembered the feeling well. The news that he couldn’t touch any cool magic items without eating whatever made them cool in the first place made him sad. It was like picking up a dollar on the road on a hot day and having it slip out of your fingers due to hyperhidrosis. In the back of his mind had been the image of him riding a charging dragon while waving a glowing sword of awesomeness. That image died quietly with only him to witness its passing and mourn the loss. Farewell hopes and dreams.

“Sorry about that.” He said finally, because anyone that made him food deserved his best manners. “Please tell me whenever I am about to touch anything that I might break.” He paused, he was missi—oh right. “Same goes for you Virtus.”

“With pleasure.”

“Affirmative.”

The two spoke over each other in reply to his request. Soon Casper and Aster joined them and they all sat down to have a hearty breakfast.

…

Once all the meals were finished and the makings put away, Casper pulled out a wooden board with a grid of carved squares that had been painted white. Two leather bags of rounded stones, one black and the other white, came out next. Lillian snatched the bag with the white pieces with a victorious grin.

“Are you prepared to lose your monthly allotment so soon?” She taunted him.

Casper grinned confidently. “I have been practicing quite rigorously. I fear it is not I but your own side that shall soon fall prey to the jaws of defeat.” he declared with flick of his golden main. With that, they started placing their pieces on the board one at a time.

Jack stared over the board in wonder. It looked like they were playing go or shogi, but that just didn’t feel right. The way they were placing down their pieces was completely foreign to any board game that Jack had ever seen. Finally, he caved and just decided to ask. “What are you playing?”

“They are playing Latrones, the game of soldiers.” Virtus answered for the pair embroiled in their passionate duel. “It is a common game in the Empire and is a requirement for officer training in the legion.”

Jack was surprised that a world full of magical wonder still had something as mundane as a simple board game, but he couldn’t deny that it looked entertaining. It had been a while since he sat down with someone that he liked and did something as childish as play a game. The match moved quickly, it was obvious from their body language that the two had developed a routine. Neither opponent's hands stopped moving as they moved and counter-moved their pieces around the board in an attempt to have their pieces surround the others. It was so quick that it was over before he could get even a general grasp on the rules.

Lillian smirked at Casper in triumph. “It appears that I am once more victorious. I will inform you of my demand after I have deliberated.”

“Arrgh, I was so close to defeating you that time.” Casper bemoaned himself.

“Close does not grant you any benefit when you are still defeated. Now be off to your first class everyone. The bell should be ringing soon.” She rose to her feet. “May the Almighty bless your day!”

Casper and Virtus repeated the blessing back to her before she walked over to her dishes and scooped them into a spatial bag before departing from the green and vanished from sight between two buildings.

“Let us be off as well,” Casper said after Lillian was gone. It was only then that the three men took their eyes off of where her figure disappeared and Jack was quick to change the subject.

“Yeah, we should be heading to class. By the way, how are you feeling, Aster? You have yet to speak this morning.”

The blonde girl blushed at the direct attention she was now being given. Before, she had been content to hide in Casper’s shadow and avoid notice. The Fire aster in her hair sparked softly as loose strands passed through unharmed. Was that supposed to happen, and is it bigger than he remembered? He thought with an inkling of suspicion.

“I slept real good last night.” She admitted after a second. There was a somber note in her tone that made it clear that this was not a regular occurrence for her. Casper moved a hand over to grasp hers in solidarity and gestured for her to continue.

“I remembered all of the stuff the teachers told us in class yesterday and I can spell my name now.” She said with more conviction.

“That’s great news!” Jack encouraged her.

“Indeed.” Virtus affirmed.

They continued to chat as they traveled towards their first class. Soon enough, they were at the door to the classroom, and Casper had to leave for his own class.

The bell rang soon after they were seated comfortably, only to be greeted with another fiasco on behalf of the quirky professor. Jack wondered idly how the honey badger had even gotten into a box that small but, like everyone else, was smart enough not to pry.

“Magic!” Fabian screamed without warning. “Can anybody remind the class what we discussed yesterday about it?”

The first few minutes were a review of the materials they had covered the day prior, with Fabian randomly picking people to parrot from their notes in no particular order.

After that, Fabian started to go into a question and answer session on the material for another few minutes. Jack just dutifully attempted to make legible notes whenever he heard new or interesting information. It wasn’t until he heard a particular question that he payed close attention to the chaos going on around him.

“Professor, are there other types of magic users other than the three major factions?”

Fabian positively beamed when he heard that question and answered with exuberance. “Oh, once upon a time there were many magical traditions as well as many who chose to create their own magical system for their own personal use. Such things have been abandoned since The Sentinels Decree during the Conclave over a millennia ago. There are still a few that deviate from the three schools, such as the Sorcerer and even our own dear Adjudicator.” He indicated Jack with a gesture.

As one, all eyes turned towards Jack. The commoner students gawked in confusion and the noble brats drilled into him with their glares. Their thoughts were clear, ‘how dare he turn his nose up at the magi’. He gulped at the sudden shift. He didn’t like being the center of attention and he certainly didn’t appreciate Fabian outing him.

“What makes you believe that I’m not a Magi, professor?” He asked while showing as many teeth as he could.

Fabian snorted in disbelief. “Boy, no one believes that you became a Magi. You bear all the signs of one of our oldest legends, Lord Adjudicator. Or should I call you Preceptor now?”

“How do you know about that?” Jack demanded. This wasn’t good. The biggest advantage that he possessed was that no one was sure what he was, thus they were forced to be cautious when dealing with him in case he learned how to make holes in space-time or something. But if someone got a hold of something more concrete...well that was bad.

He got up and made to move into the aisle when Virtus beat him to it. His powerful form seemed to grow three sizes as he proceeded down the stairs to the podium. The room grew silent as their breath was stolen by the guardian, no the soldiers, intimidating aura.

“As per the bylaws of the Great Conclave, I hold you in contempt! The charges are slander and public release of privileged information of a sensitive nature. If you do not wish to die for your transgressions then I recommend that you rescind your words quickly and refrain from such unseemly displays from this very moment going forward.”

Fabian scoffed at the threat and replied, though his manner was far more tense than before. A line of sweat also beaded his brow. “Noone follows those old laws anymore, Ferrum. What are you going to do, litigate me to death?”

Virtus sneered in derision. His hand moved from the pommel of his spatha and into his spatial bag. A second later, a scroll came out and flew on the breeze to the professor's podium before lighting on the lecture and unfurled itself.

“Cheap tricks will not intimidate me! Let us see what tricks you have up your oversized pauldrons boy.” He peered over the lectern as his eyes scanned the document. After a second his face grew pale. He hurriedly rolled up the scroll as if trying to banish the words that he had just ingested from his mind. With a flick, the scroll floated back into the hands of its owner.

“I believe we were about to move on to sigil memorization, were we not professor?” Virtus asked. The scroll disappeared with a flick of his wrist.

Fabian floundered a second before pulling himself together and clearing his throat. “Yes, yes that is correct.”

“Very good, professor. I look forward to your lecture.” With his lat threat made, he turned about face and returned to his charge.

“Where were we? Ah, yes!” He walked over to the board and drew a wiggle with a horizontal line through the center that resembled a frequency wave from physics class. “Can anybody guess what this sigil is?” Fabian asked, not for the first time.

Jack was still pissed off, so he raised his hand. He was going to spoil his surprise.

“Oh, Jack is finally ready to volunteer. Tell me, what is this sigil?” Fabian smirked.

“That is the sigil for Sound!”

Fabian grunted in surprise. “Well well, it looks like your master taught you something after all.”

“Not really. On my world, sound waves are common knowledge. Most anybody could have told you that. In fact—” wait, if he could apply science to this, does that mean that magic follows the laws of nature?

“In fact...what?” Fabian snarled.

“Nothing, please continue, professor.”

The class continued in that same vein. By the time it was over, they had covered another five sigils as well as several variants each. The best part was that Jack was able to use a mixture of cosmology and good old earth know-how to figure out each of the major sigils on his own. This made him excited to experiment. Before now, the sheer wonder of magic had enthralled him, the only downside was that he had no inkling of where to start. Now though, he was comfortably armed with SCIENCE! The scientific method was engraved on his bones. The possibilities were endless, and he couldn’t wait to learn more.

...

Basic runes was much the same as the day before, this class was perhaps the most routine of Jack’s class due to the sheer amount of rote memorization and note-taking involved. The period started with a review of the homework from the day before. They went over each one, in turn, the professor asked fundamental questions about each one. Jack smiled in triumph when he saw that he got all of the questions and details right. The homework had been tedious and involved.

From there, the professor went on to lecture about the inherent structure of a rune. A rune was a magical construct whose purpose was to channel mana into a function or change it fundamentally. Every rune had an intake and an output at the least. The professor went on to use specific examples from the textbook to describe which aspects controlled which functions.

While Jack was busy taking notes, he came across a familiar shape. He examined it in confusion before the realization hit him. This looks like a circuit board. Of course, each of these has all the same features. Energy goes in one end and a function comes out another. It’s like a magical equivalent of that light bulb experiment he had done in middle school! For the rest of the class, Jack was the most eager student professor Ferrum had ever had. He absorbed all of the knowledge like a sponge and frequently asked detailed questions. It actually started to make the professor uncomfortable towards the end of class. So much so, that when the bell rang, he was the first one out of the room.

“Oh, come on!” Jack complained. “I’m not that scary.”

“You were staring at my father as if he were a juicy steak and you were a rabid wolf. I would appreciate it if you would refrain from such behavior in the future.” Virtus crossed his arms and actually started to pout, lower lip and everything.

“Ok ok, I apologize for making your dad uncomfortable. I was just so excited, you know?”

“About basic runes? This is the most boring class you will ever take!”

Soon enough, the party was split apart as Casper came to take Aster to her next lecture. Jack was still riding a high from all of the cool discoveries he had made that morning. The ability to make magical circuits and directly tap into natural law was heady for a young man that had been told for most of his life that such things were out of his reach. He had been determined to do them anyway, but now instead of interacting with the world through a microscope or a computer screen, as one must back on earth, he had no barriers besides his knowledge and imagination.

Fire class passed in much the same pattern as the day before, the only difference being that his fellow students were slightly more proficient. Even the lecture was just the same information coming from a different angle for those that still didn’t get it. At their rate of progress, it would be at least a week before they moved onto any new material. He didn’t want to waste an entire period doing nothing, so Jack pulled out a piece of paper and started to deconstruct the basic Fireball spell that he had found in his Fire primer. It was crude compared to his own version, with only three runes involved, but it suited his purposes perfectly.

By the time class ended, he had finished taking the spell apart and identified most of the components involved. Though he grew confused upon raising his head to see that he had drawn the ire of all his classmates. Someone nudged him from the side.

Don’t turn, don’t turn! That’s what she wants. He told himself as he turned his back on the nudge only to be greeted by the very person he suspected it to be. Professor Rhys watched on in amusement as his eyes widened in surprise. Hurriedly, he rotated the other direction till he was face to face with a young woman with black and white striped hair. Her name was Mellivora, one of his dorm mates. Her eyes were bloodshot and her nostrils flared with rage like a bull.

“You have some nerve turning your back on me like that, Jack.” She growled.

Red crept up his cheeks until he more closely resembled a tomato then a man. This girl had been kind and approachable last night, having slighted her, even by accident, was something he had to do something about.

With far more alacrity then had possessed on earth, Jack rose to his feet. “I am sorry Mellivora. I had no intention of hurting you or ignoring you.” He didn’t bow, he didn’t approach her, he didn’t even reach out a hand or step closer; instead he met her bloody gaze and allowed his remorse to show through his normally stoic expression.

It seemed to have a positive effect, as her gaze softened and her fists unclenched. “Never ignore me again, you hear me?”

“I wouldn’t even dream of it.”

“Fine! I was just going to tell you that the bell rang anyways. If that is all then I need to get going before the food runs out in the mess hall.” Then she was up and away.