The class was astounded. But many refused to believe Aiken could suddenly do magic, and at that amazing level. He was called a fraud, a cheater, and was even accused of using illusion magic.

Aiken revelled in victory, but he was in no position to be swell-headed. “Instructor Watkins, if you’d like, I can still help you with your duties.”

“But you won the deal,” she said, quite confused.

“I know,” Aiken smiled, “but you’re a good teacher, you deserve it.” He walked a bit closer and spoke softly, “And I know what people look like when they don’t get sleep. That’s not healthy.”

She cautiously agreed, and class came and went like any other day.

Although Aiken chalked it up to being concerned about her, his real intention was scavenging for information. He needed people for that. However, the moment that class ended and Instructor Watkins left, a bunch of students surrounded him.

“So, what was that, huh?” his primary rival spoke up. It caught the attention of the rest of the class quickly.

Ah, her again. This queen bee sure has a lot of worker bees around her. “Ah, Queen Bee. Here to bully me again?”

“Wh–”

“Please hurry it up, then. I’ve got business to attend to,” Aiken leaned back comfortably and looked her straight in the eyes.

“How dare you speak to Lana like that, lowborn?” a fellow fumed, and backhand slapped Aiken.

He held his own face and licked his lips to see if they were busted. “Ah, so your name is Lana. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Word of advice, Lana,” Aiken smoothly faced a palm toward the boy that slapped him, “if you want to bully me, please do it yourself.” A gushing jet of water sprayed forth and flung the boy across the classroom.

Aiken stood up, and the encirclement of worker bees reflexively stood aside. He made his way outside and left them all speechless. His target for now was the school library.

“Good afternoon,” he greeted the librarian who served as the receptionist of sorts.

But before he could state his purpose, another voice swerved around the corner of her desk, “Claire, can you send me all the logs from yester–”

The man suddenly paused when he saw Aiken. “You, look familiar, kid.”

“Bryan?” Aiken questioned.

“Aiken?!” Bryan’s eyes popped.

They both erupted in laughter and were both scolded by Claire. It was a library after all. Bryan quickly pushed Aiken into his office and closed the door. “What the hell happened? We said cheers and drank and I suddenly ended up in this office, man! What about you? Why the hell do you look like thirteen?”

Aiken laughed once more, simply happy to see his co-worker, Bryan, whom he was drinking with before they got summoned to Harallen. “I don’t know. It’s still so weird. Did you realise this world has magic?!”

“Bruh, everywhere I turn, there’s magic. I could hardly sleep last night. I don’t even know where I live right now, man!”

“Ouch, that’s rough. Well, this lady called um,” Aiken took a few seconds to remember, “Natalie Fendora said she was the one who summoned me, and she said it’s top secret. Don’t tell anyone.”

Bryan squinted his eyes, then suddenly began going through some documents. “Aiken, that’s the headmaster of this school.”

They both sat down and decided to help each other with whatever information they could garner in their respective occupations. Bryan helped him pick out some books that would help him understand the basics of magic. “There’s something called the Magic Diagram Archives. Even I, as the head librarian, cannot access certain books there. It’s like cloud storage without admin access. Anyway, take this,” Bryan handed him a necklace with the school’s logo on it.

“Oh thanks, I always wanted one of these,” Aiken said sarcastically.

“Shut up. It’s a communication device, like a walkie-talkie. Wish we had phones with data,” Bryan sighed. “Let’s keep each other posted. For now, I’ve got a meeting. If you need help, ask Claire.”

Bryan shuffled out his office, leaving Aiken behind. The boy looked at the books and decided to skim through them all before he decided which he would start with. He found that there was a multitude of symbols in certain books.

They were called magic diagrams, and were apparently the structure of any spell that you wanted to cast. There were hundreds of spells in just one book. Something caught his attention that made him question the legitimacy of the books. The ‘Water Sphere’ spell, which they were tested on in class, had a different diagram documented in the book than the one he saw for water.

Strange. Why would they be different? Is that why mine was better than everyone else’s? Hmm, if so, why didn’t they ask me about the diagram I used? Aiken was a bit confused, until he realised that they probably didn’t even know which diagram he used. There was something he was missing, but he didn’t know what.

Ah, speaking of diagrams, I forgot to ask Bryan if he saw them too. Aiken sighed wearily and placed the books in one of Bryan’s drawers.

He decided to help Instructor Watkins like he said he would, despite her apparent disgust towards whatever a ‘lowborn’ was. So, he went to the faculty office, and instead of seeing important things like test scores, or the list of names in his class, he was instead used as someone to fetch and brew tea, fan her, or massage her shoulders. But it developed rapport between them, so he soldiered on.

Suddenly, the instructor swung around in her chair, “How did you do that today?”

Aiken froze. Was she talking about assaulting the boy who slapped him or his test? He calmed himself with a breath. It’s gotta be the test. “With, magic?” he shrugged.

“Don’t play smartass for me, lowborn,” Watkins stared at him ferociously.

He shrugged again, “Even if I wanted to tell you, I can’t. I’m not sure how I did it in the first place.”

“What diagram did you use? I doubt it’s what we teach here,” she said.

Hmm, so diagrams are the biggest variable to magic then. And somehow, she doesn’t know what I used. “What can you give me in return?”

“Damn lowborn,” she scoffed. “Full grades for this entire semester.”

“Not good enough. I’m pretty sure I can pass any exam you throw at me if something like Water Sphere is what you’re testing now.”

She gripped her chair’s armrest in annoyance. “What do you want then? Money?”

“I want something I can’t access right now. Information.”

“Like?” she crossed her legs.

Aiken leaned onto a cabinet, “School records. Names, and why those names are important. I need to know who is who in society, in this city. Be my informant and that spell won’t be the only thing you’ll know.”

It was then, Watkins realised she wasn’t dealing with your everyday student. She found something about him was scarily different, but she didn’t show what it was exactly.

“If you introduce me to people with influence, you will gain much more. But for now,” he walked up to her and turned her chair back around, “focus on the paperwork, will you? Do you want to be here all night again?”

She grumbled something and got back to work. After fetching whatever papers that she printed through some magical apparatus over and over again, she was finally done. “You can go home now. You did good,” she said.

“Yeah, you too. You finished before sundown at least. See you tomorrow, teach.” Aiken returned home and saw a rather interesting situation unfolding before him. Lana was sneaking out of a classroom. Wonder what that’s about?

Aiken dismissed the thought and went home, then proceeded to drown himself in wind magic. He was able to learn it just like he learned Water Sphere, by visualising the look and feel of something. Although air was invisible, he knew how it felt. Once he recalled that feeling, he suddenly saw the diagram for it appearing in random places in the air.

Before long, he could cast a gentle breeze or a terrifying gust of wind. They both had the same magic diagram to follow. He realised that the diagrams he saw all over the place was something different from a diagram for a specific spell. He knew the diagram for water itself, where-as his classmates learnt the diagram for the specific spell, Water Sphere. Many things were different about it.

Aiken made a mental note to research diagrams more thoroughly the next day. But he couldn’t even get to school properly.

The next morning, an organised band of criminals began randomly attacking civilians. He got caught up in the maelstrom because of the sudden attack. The attacks were indiscriminate, and lethal. They were not a flashy bunch because their movements were deliberate and they proved fatal.

People were dying around Aiken and he was frozen stiff. One of the attackers took notice and sprinted toward him, thrusting their sword in his direction. Aiken managed to block with his forearm and the sword stabbed clean through, nearly piercing his neck.

The pain greased his nervous system enough to push him into retaliation. He blew his attacker away with a concentrated blast of air. The sword sliced even more of Aiken’s forearm and caused him to yell in pain.

But he had no time to acknowledge that pain, lest he lose his life to the three men approaching him.