Hugo was delighted to see that both Oskar and Lenna were here today. They were going to take the formation domain too. Lenna had always wanted to be a formation expert, and Oskar must have been convinced when he talked with Hugo about it. They were all happy to see each other, but a little nervous too. The process was said to be quite painful. Hugo wasn’t convinced though. He suspected it was just one of those things they said to new students as a joke. It wasn’t like pain was a magical component.

They were in a stone building in the center of campus. Milling about were the rest of the prospective formation students. Hugo paid them no mind. Even though he would be spending much of the next four years with them, he didn’t feel like introducing himself just yet. He was staring at the locked door to his right. He knew that behind the oak door in front of them was the main reason this academy existed. The tamoko.

Right on time as always, Marta entered the meeting room. She unlocked the door with a key and a wave of her hands. Hugo would have to ask her about that hand wave afterwards. She motioned the group into the room. There was a large machine in the middle of the room with low benches along the walls.

“Alright!” Marta yelled as she clapped her hands, “Everyone here should have already gone through aptitude testing and talked with the Dean about your domain choice. Today we are using this machine here, the tamoko, to soulburn the formation domain into you. I am going to read off your name and I want you to step forward and say yes. This is your domain for the rest of your life, I don’t want anyone in here that doesn’t want the formation domain.”

One by one they were called forward to stand near the tamoko. The machine looked like a mash up between a reclining chair and a torture device. Restraints lined the armrests and leg areas, with a padded headband attached to the top of the chair. Above the headband was a pellucid, the control unit. Large metal rings surrounded the chair, with glowing manashards placed throughout. Hugo was interested to see several different variations, from fireshards to iceshards and even a green one that he assumed was a poisonshard.

Once everyone on her list was accounted for, Marta spoke to the group again, “Everyone is going to take their turn in the machine. The straps might look a little scary, but they are just there to stop you from hurting yourself. The procedure is painful, but you can take it. The academy has faith in you.”

She called a name from her list and a tall lanky boy was strapped into the machine. Once he was fully strapped in, she stuffed a leather tube into his mouth. She stepped outside of the rings and checked all the settings on the tamoko. Then, without warning, she flipped a switch on the pellucid and the machine hummed to life. A high pitched piercing sound filled the room.

The boy immediately started screaming.

His anguished cries were loud in the stone room, almost deafening even with the leather muffling it. His eyes were wide, unblinking for the entire procedure. After what felt like twenty minutes but was closer to two, and the machine shut itself off. The sound went from a high pitch down to a low hum and then faded away.

Marta went over and unstrapped him, showing uncharacteristic caring and kindness. Once the boy was situated on the bench against the wall, she turned towards the group.

Oskar backed up, almost walking into Lenna. She pushed him forward again, and Oskar stumbled forward.

“Oh? A volunteer? I was going to go alphabetical, but I suppose you can go next if you want to,” Marta said.

“Uh no. No thank you. That looked like it hurt, like really hurt,” Oskar said and backed up again.

“It does. It hurts so bad that you will have nightmares for the rest of your life. This isn’t soul tickling, this is soul burning. A precise magical rune is being tattooed onto the very fiber of your being. Of course it is going to hurt,” Marta said.

“Isn’t there.... Isn’t there a less painful option?” Oskar said, eyeing the contraption.

“Of course there is. How do you think people got their domains before the tamoko was invented? Head out that door and join a harvester crew. It will only take you five years or so to get your domain. Some even say you have better mana control after gaining your domain the traditional way. But then you have just wasted five years of your life. The rest of the class will have graduated from the academy by then, already making money in their first job. So go ahead, take your time, do it the old fashioned way. I will see you in five years, if you survive in the wilds that long without a domain.

“No one is forcing you to do this. Being soulburnt is a privilege only afforded to those in this academy. Every one of our students gains the domain they wanted, soul runes perfectly aligned to their chosen domain. You should be grateful for the chance to enter the tamoko, not acting like a scared little boy,” Marta said.

Oskar looked offended at the insult. He opened his mouth to retort, but nothing came out. He stepped forward and back. Hugo knew that he was working himself up.

“I volunteer,” said Hugo. He walked to the tamoko and nodded to Marta. He wanted to give Oskar the chance to calm down before he said something he regretted. Plus, Hugo just wanted to get this over for himself. That really did look painful. He didn’t want to stress about the procedure any more than he had to.

Marta gave Oskar a one eyed stare, but didn’t say anything. She nodded back to Hugo and quickly strapped him into the machine. Once the leather was stuffed into his mouth, he tried to prepare himself. His father had taught him centering techniques, mental exercises that were supposed to help him control mana easier. It helped him achieve a calmer mental state, and chased away his fears.

It wasn’t enough.

As soon as the machine activated, Hugo felt excruciating pain. All semblance of mental fortitude was gone and he was left with pain. Everything was pain. Everything. It wasn’t that his body hurt, he was no longer receiving input from his body. The pain was piercing deep into his very being. Parts of himself were being burnt, sloughed off into the ether. Bits of his ineffable self were being consumed by a fire without a source. He felt his sense of identity dying in the unending assault of pain.

A few moments after he was sure that he was no longer himself, the procedure ended. Marta stepped up and helped Hugo out of the machine. He was gently led to the bench on the side of the wall.

The memory of that pain, just the memory, was painful in and of itself. Hugo tried to think of something else, to distract himself from the horror. He couldn’t. He was just there, sitting with the psychological impact of the procedure. The rest of the room faded away, and he wasn’t sure what happened over the course of the next hour. He flinched every time the tamoko started up again.

Eventually, Marta stood in the center of the room and addressed the formation domain students surrounding her. She said, “Congratulations, the worst day of your life is over. Everyone was successful and you have all gained the formation domain. Do not try and use your new domain. Just go directly to your dorm room and go to sleep. I know it isn’t even dinner time yet, but trust me. Go to bed. You will feel better in the morning.”

Hugo stood up and wandered out of the room with the rest of the class. He saw Oskar walking woodenly ahead of him, and grabbed his arm. Without a word, he guided his roommate back to their dorm.

They lay in their beds, unmoving, for hours. They briefly discussed going down to the cafeteria for dinner before deciding against it. They both went to bed early. The psychic pain was just too much to do anything.

Hugo had nightmares all night long. Visions of runes flashed across his vision, then morphed into weapons that turned around and stabbed him. Then he was on the mountain again. Marion was there, being chased by a hoard of golems. Hugo wanted to protect his friend, but he slipped through his fingers.

The next morning Hugo still had a bit of a headache, but he got out of bed right away. He didn’t want to think of his dreams anymore. He just as soon would have forgotten the whole last day and the trauma it brought. After a large breakfast, Hugo started to feel better.

This morning Oskar actually got down to the cafeteria before breakfast was over. They didn’t talk to each other. Which is actually what Hugo wanted. He was still processing everything. He wasn’t alone in that mentality. Their athletics and mana classes were much more subdued than normal.

It wasn’t until after lunch that Hugo felt mostly human again. He got to his formation class a little early and was glad to see a friendly face.

Hugo walked up to Lenna to say hi. She was talking to a short girl near the back of the classroom, so he just waited until they were done with their conversation.

“Hello Hugo,” Lenna said, “Good to see you. This is my new friend, Alice. She was just telling me this wonderful joke.”

“Nice to meet you, Hugo,” Alice said, then she turned back to Lenna and said, “So the Duchess of Tallinn got what she wanted. A life size statue of herself. She even had it painted to be as realistic as possible. And do you know what she said when she saw it for the first time?”

“No, what?”

“I am beside myself with joy,” Alice said then giggled at her own joke.

Hugo smiled and Lenna chuckled.

“I have another one,” Alice said, “Why did the Duke of Reval behead all of those revolting peasants last year?”

She didn’t wait for an answer and just blurted out the punchline, “Because he thought they were getting a-head of themselves.”

Lenna chuckled again but Hugo frowned deeply.

“Oh what? Don’t like puns?” Alice asked Hugo.

“Not those kind,” Hugo said.

“I will admit sometimes my jokes are bad. Pun-ishingly bad,” Alice laughed.

“As a peasant myself, I am not fond of hearing about them getting beheaded,” Hugo said and walked away angrily. He found a seat near the front of the classroom and fumed. He didn't really consider himself a peasant, at worst he had just been a laborer. But he knew that rich people did consider the lower classes to be peasants.

The fact that she thought it was funny to joke about death was just too much for Hugo. The duke really had sentenced people to death last year. He didn’t know them personally, but they had come from his part of town. Alice just thought it was funny because she never had any interaction with the poor of the city. He vowed to himself to help out others from his neighborhood once he made enough money.

Lenna plopped herself down on the desk next to him, “You are too sensitive, it was just a joke. She feels really bad.”

Hugo thought about it for a bit. He knew he was right, but he didn’t want to be a jerk about it. He waffled his hand back and forth, “Maybe. The joke wasn’t funny but I guess I didn’t have to make her feel bad about it. Should I go say sorry?”

“Nah, she just wants to forget about it,” Lenna said. “But you should laugh the next time she tells a joke.”

“Sure. As long as it isn’t making fun of me,” Hugo said.

Lenna shook her head, “Especially if it is a joke at your expense. Nobles aren’t the only ones that take themselves too seriously. Everyone should just loosen up.”

Their instructor came into the room then, and everyone quickly sat down and stopped their conversations. He had an armload of papers and set them on his desk. He took a moment to organize his desk before turning to the silent students.

“Welcome to the first year formation domain class. If you aren’t in the right room, now is the time to leave,” He waited a moment and then continued, “I am Sage Rasmus and I will be your teacher for the rest of the school year. I am a rank forty-nine formation mage and I have been teaching at Blue Lion Academy for the last six years. In addition to your class I teach the fourth year class. If you don’t get yourself expelled, I will teach you all again in four years, and help you craft your thesis proposal,” he said and gestured to the papers on the desk.

“I expect the utmost respect from each of you and I will return that respect. Each of you has already earned a measure of respect simply by choosing the formation domain. It is by far the best domain. By the end of the year you will be able to create a wide variety of objects and solve endless problems. Formation mages are the foundation of modern life, essential in every industry. Even the best harvesters have the formation domain.

“But of course, there is a reason people choose other domains. This one is one of the hardest, the math alone has driven students to tears, let alone the complex interactions that occur when you add multiple elements to your design.

“You will have to work hard. I will be there to support you, but I expect every one of you to work harder than you ever had before. If you do, you can expect great things.”

He held his hands in front of him and created a metal object with a flourish. They didn’t understand what it was until it started to glow. It was a fancy mana lamp.

“Wonderful things,” Rasmus continued with a smile. “But first we need to assess general skill levels. I am going to pass out an assessment. This is just to get an idea of your base knowledge, it is not a test. No need to get worried.

He passed out tests, each one on a half sheet of paper. It didn’t look too intimidating to Hugo. He got out a charcoal pen and started filling out the assessment. There were a total of ten questions, all of them related to math in some way. Hugo was able to answer six of them, but the other four used completely foreign terms. He suspected that he would be able to answer all ten questions by the end of his first year as a formation student.

After class was over, Hugo hung around to ask the teacher something. “Excuse me, Rasmus?”

The teacher didn’t look up from the paper he was reading, he just said, “Yes?”

“I was wondering if there is an optimal build for formation mages. Like a guide for assigning stat points. I wasn’t expecting the question when I ranked up the first time, and I wanted to plan ahead for the next points. Is there a recommended way to assign the points?” asked Hugo.

Rasmus looked up and said, “The school doesn’t much care, one way or another. Since we soulburnt you with formation, your domain will put a point into strength with each rank up. Your other point is up to you. A lot of people balance out the extra strength with dexterity. It is also a good idea to upgrade your two R’s, Resilience and Regeneration will keep you alive when you get hit.

“Doubling up on strength is probably a bad idea. It will allow you to gain access to elements sooner, but I won’t teach you to use them any sooner. You would just have to get used to the extra strength and wait for your class to rank up so you can all learn together. Eventually you are going to want a point into almost every stat. If you go deep into dexterity, you have to put a point in intelligence, otherwise you won’t be able to use it quickly. If you want to create something precise, you need points in perception, otherwise everything will turn out crude. It’s all connected,” Rasmus said and interlaced his fingers. He continued, “But really, do whatever you want, your build is your own. Just as long as you don’t throw it all into charisma, no one cares,” Rasmus said.

“Oh, that’s right,” Hugo said, “I have been meaning to ask about that. Why do people hate charisma so much? Why would anyone care if I wanted to be a little more likable?”

Rasmus frowned, “I thought you were one of the smart ones. Did you already put a point into charisma?”

“No, no. I was just wondering, honest. My charisma is fine, I don’t need more of it,” Hugo said.

After a beat, Rasmus said, “Alright. But just so you know, I am going to have the light domain teacher keep an eye on you. You should have learned this in Marta’s intro class, but I might as well tell you again so you don’t do something stupid. Charisma is a bad stat used by bad people. We don’t even teach shadow magic at the school because of it.

“Charisma works by affecting your perception of people. They seem a little nicer and more trustworthy with every point they add to themselves. It is a minor form of mind control. Can you just imagine the power of someone at rank thirty with all the points invested into charisma? They can convince you to hand over the deed to your house right after they had their way with your wife. And you would thank them for it. If it wasn’t for the light domain, people with high charisma would rule the world,” Rasmus said.

“Is it really that bad? I heard that gangsters usually invest a few points into it, but it’s not like they rule the city,” Hugo said.

“Well, there is one flaw in charisma. It only works while you are close to someone. If you cheat someone, they will realize it as soon as you walk away. As soon as the compulsion is gone, they will get mad and won’t believe another word you say. That and the light mages we keep around the city limit the effectiveness of the stat. So you would never get away with using it. Don’t even try.”

Hugo had more questions, but he sensed that Rasmus was done with the conversation so he just said, “Ok, thanks. I won’t ever put points into charisma, don’t worry.”

Rasmus made a noncommittal noise and turned back to his papers.