A few days later, Isyd was seated in a corner of the upper floors of the Library. It was early in the morning and there were few Pupils present. This section of the Library was relatively out of the way for people to forget about it. This was perfectly what Isyd had been looking for after his usual spot had been overrun by curious onlookers.

His confrontation with Olav Kazkan had made the rounds of the Academy; now everyone knew about the Pupil of 1st Opening who had defied his senior of 6th Opening. It wasn’t a story of incredible bravery as it would lead you to believe. Instead, the rumours talked about a young pup too stupid to know better and the magnanimous Lwieserce who could have roasted him on the spot but instead decided to spare him out of pity.

Still, people had come to take a look at him, just to make sure if what was being said was true. Isyd knew that he was the main person responsible for it, but he could have done without the attention at this moment. More specifically, he could have done without the onslaught of demands for him to join a Ring. Hours after hours, Pupils came to him to drop a word or two of the Ring they were part of. They handed him pamphlets or offered to buy him a drink. It had become so bad, that Isyd had not gone to any class yesterday.

He had used this time to think. He still needed to find 1 Gold and 11 Silver by the end of this week to have back his knife, or 2 Gold by the next. From the coin pouches he stole, he only managed to gather 3 Silvers and 11 Coppers. It was nothing to sneeze at, even more so knowing that Isyd had started with not even a coin to his name. Still, it meant that he had to find a way to make money and quickly. Despite his initial reservation, Isyd was starting to consider Naeht’s option of selling off his talents as an Artysta. He just had to make sure that the Academy could not trace it back to him…

He told so to Naeht and she glowed with joy.

“Finally!”, she exclaimed. “Maybe all those hours spent here reading about how to repair an [Arcane] will turn useful!”

“It is useful. I’m studying this so I can repair my palcat!”

“And have you made any progress?”

Isyd scratched his head. “Well… I can now draw the VonSee Diagram perfectly. Thanks to it, I have localized two fault points in the Meshing: one of the 7th and one of the 6th Opening. The faults of smaller Openings are harder to spot, but I suspect they are more numerous. I also have to figure out what to do after finding them…”

“Not a lot of progress then!”

Isyd rolled his eyes and wrapped his darkveil more tightly around him. He had taken now for a habit to always have it on him, that and his palcat. After what had happened to his knife, he was no longer letting his guard down even within the walls of the Academy.

He turned his head when his senses perked up on a now familiar presence approaching. Indeed, a few seconds later, the whiter-than-white head of Kewin Udachur peered around a row of bookshelves. His eyes widened when he saw Isyd standing near the window and he let out a sigh of relief. Kewin gestured for someone behind him and then walked closer. On his heels, appeared the figure of Jadwia.

“Grace,” Isyd saluted them as they approached.

“Grace!” Kewin said. “You are not easy to find. I knew you were in the Library, but the Library is much bigger than it appears…”

“Grace,” Jadwia simply said, avoiding Isyd’s eyes.

“You were looking for me?” Isyd asked.

“Actually, Jadwia was,” Kewin said. “She was asking for you in the Dorms.”

“I was… Hmm… Tutor Milwyk said that I… should come to you if I had any questions,” she said, still not meeting his gaze directly and colour rising in her cheeks. “So that’s why I’m here.”

From the little he had seen, Isyd had never imagined the girl to be so bashful; she seemed as shy as Kewin was. He then recalled how harsh his words had sounded after their class competition and he felt immediately bad. Her pride had been hurt, but she still had decided to swallow it to ask for his help. It said a lot about her character.

“Sure, I’ll be happy to help,” Isyd said. He closed the books he had opened on the tables as to make room for them. “Have a seat.”

Jadwia did so while Kewin took a few, hesitant steps back. “Well, I leave you guys to it, then…”

“You can join us as well. I can also answer your questions if you have any. See it as thanks for helping me with Olav’s situation.”

Kewin hesitated one second, then finally sat next to Jadwia.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” Isyd asked.

Jadwia pulled from her satchel a pile of papers that she laid in front of him. “I was practising Balance. After a few days, I managed to come up with a satisfying [Spell] Balance-wise, but when I tried it, the ice was of lesser quality. It wasn’t that cold and quite brittle as well, compared to the [Ice Spell] of Tutor Milwyk… or yours. So, I wanted to know if my Balance was wrong somehow, or if the issue is more regarding Concentration or Visualization.”

Isyd glanced down at the sketches. One could clearly see the different iterations Jadwia had gone through before arriving at a correct [Ice Spell].

“Your Balance is sound,” Isyd finally said after careful examination. “But it has issues and that’s why your [Spell] is of lesser quality.”

“You just said it was sound. What are the problems then?”

“It is too cluttered. There are too many symmetries and repetitions.” With his finger, Isyd followed the [SUBSTRACT] arcs and the [RELEASE] lines.

Jadwia frowned. “Tutor Milwyk’s [Spell] also has a lot of repetition. He’s the one who told me that repetition and symmetries improved Balance!”

“It is not always a good thing. Too much of a good thing can turn into a bad thing. It is the case for your [Spell].”

Jadwia frowned only deepened as she stared at her [Spell]. Isyd grabbed a blank piece of paper and a pencil.

“Alright. Let me try to explain it differently then. The reason why Tutor Milwyk advocates for repetition is the same way why a stool has three legs instead of one; you could have a single-legged stool, but it will make it harder for anyone to sit on it and find a Balance. Add three more legs and it is immediately more stable, the Balance is now all but assured.

“However, you must also understand what’s truly happening when you are casting a [Spell]. You are human and you will make mistakes, mistakes that will appear in your [Spell]. A slight offset between two points, two angles that are not entirely equal, two lines not precisely parallel… it’s just a natural thing, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Now, by adding more repetitions, you are essentially multiplying the probabilities for those mistakes to appear. It can come a moment when there are so many of those mistakes that they make the [Spell] weaker even though the Balance is sound.”

“Is that what’s happening to her [Spell]? The presence of too many mistakes?” Kewin said.

“I don’t think so no. I think of the problem as a mix of Concentration and Balance. You should imagine the Grace as a stream meant to run a watermill. The Commands are the canals that direct the flow, your [Spell] is the turning of the mill. The more canals there are, or in other words, the more Commands you use, the less flow – or Grace – is available to achieve your goal. This isn’t a problem for Artysta of higher Openings, since they can increase their Concentration – that is, the initial amount of Grace available for a [Spell] – to factor in the losses incurred by high numbers of Commands. Does that make sense to you now?”

Kewin slowly nodded, but Jadwia seemed to have a harder time. Her eyes observed the explicative drawings of Isyd as if they were written in a foreign alphabet.

“But… Tutor Milwyk told me to add more repetitions…”

“As I explained to you, he says so in an attempt to teach from very early on the importance of redundancy. It is something that becomes crucial when working with [Hexes] of 4th Opening or higher. Going back to the explanation with the natural mistakes that occur when drawing a [Spell], if your [Spell] only needs of a single Fire Essence to function, but you drew six of them, you basically assured that your [Spell] would work in most cases, even if badly drawn.”

“But they never said that in the books…” Jadwia gave him an uncertain look as if she hesitated to believe his explanation.”

Isyd sighed. “It is mentioned briefly, but again it is only for [Spells] of the 4th Opening or higher. The [Ice Spell] is of the 1st Opening, which is why they didn’t bother mentioning it in the sections you read.”

Jadwia’s shoulders slumped and she shook her head, defeated. “How was I to know…”

“With practice,” Isyd said. “You would have come to this conclusion on your own with enough time and practice. You will see that a lot of the Arts are like that. Not everything is known, and not everything will be explained to you. The Arts are a complex, evolving field of research and everyone is on the path of learning, only at different points on it. Do not lose heart.”

The girl nodded sombrely and reached for her papers. Isyd put his hand on them to stop her.

“There is another reason why your [Spell] is not suitable. It is its unnecessary complexity. In a time of crisis, a simple [Spell] is always preferred as it is easier to remember and draw it on the spot.”

“In a time of crisis… What do you mean by that?”

“In a fight for instance. You don’t have the luxury of recalling whether your [Spell] had eleven or twelve [SHAPE] Commands. If one is enough, then one you should cast, because it is faster and simpler.”

Jadwia rose a single eyebrow. “Fine, but I do not intend to join the army or participate in Duels. I don’t plan on defying a Senior of the 6th Opening if this is what you fear…”

Kewin next to her was nodding vehemently.

“I do not learn the Arts to go to war,” Jadwia continued.

Isyd looked at them for a long second and gave them a sad smile. And yet the Obcys will arrive all the same and there will be war… I am afraid none of us will have a chance in that matter…

“I just felt like mentioning in passing…” Isyd simply said.

Jadwia gave him a curious look. “I see… if it’s not too rude to ask, I was wondering how old you are Isyd Wybrany…”

“Twenty-one years old.”

Kewin and Jadwia exchanged a surprised look.

“Why are you guys so surprised?”

“It’s nothing! It’s just that sometimes when you speak… you sound so much older,” Kewin said with a shrug.

Isyd smirked. “It’s not often I am told that and, truth be told, I often do feel much older than I look… What about you two? How old are you?”

“I’m sixteen,” Kewin said.

“Same,” Jadwia said.

They were so young… Too young for what they’ll have to face.

“Anyway… Let’s go back to this,” Jadwia said. “I have another question if you don’t mind.”

“Go on.”

“Could I use the same Balance used for the [Ice Spell] but simply change the Essence and have a similar result, like making a [Fire Spear] or [Sand Spear]?”

“In theory, yes. In practice, no. There are few differences between each Essence you should take into account when casting and Visualizing your [Spell].”

“What differences?”

“The four Classical Essences are Water, Earth, Fire and Air, right? Well, you can divide them into two categories. Water and Earth are to be manipulated while Fire and Air are to be materialized.”

“I’m not sure I understand the difference…” Kewin said.

“It is easier to cast a [Water Spell] or [Earth Spell] when there is already a source of water or earth nearby to be manipulated. Similarly, it is easier to cast a [Fire Spell] or an [Air Spell] that do not require manipulating the element.”

“Why in the world did we never learn about it?” Jadwia exclaimed.

Isyd shrugged. “You would have eventually. Again, this kind of thing is only relevant after the 4th Opening.”

“But the [Ice Spell] we cast in class…,” Kewin said. “We materialized it, didn’t we?”

“Yes. I didn’t say it was impossible to be done. But it would have been slightly easier to turn an already present source of water into ice and shape it into a spear. The [Ice Spell] was of the 1st Opening, so the change would not be noticeable.”

“Why?” Jadwia suddenly asked, eyes unseeing.

Isyd was momentarily confused. “Why what?”

“Why is the Water and Earth Essence easier to manipulate? Why not the Fire or the Air?”

“Why indeed? And why is gravity an attractive force instead of a repealing one? I don’t think there’s much of a reason, except that it is how things happened to be. However, I must say that some Artysta find the distinction arbitrary. They argue that no one is actually ‘materializing’ Fire or Air. Instead, we simply manipulate the Fire Essence present in our body as heat or the Air Essence present all around us as the air we breathe in.”

Silence welcomed his explanation. Jadwia and Kewin seemed to contemplate what they just had learned and they took their time to internalize it. Kewin was the first to break the silence.

“How… how do you know so much?” he asked in an admirative tone.

“I read a lot,” Isyd shrugged. “Anyway, there's also another difference between the Essences and it is regarding the Artyst. Everyone has a certain affinity with one of the four Essences which make them stronger for certain [Spells], and weaker for others. And before you ask, no I do know why is it so. It’s just is.”

“An affinity?” Jadwia repeated with awe. “Do you know what is yours?”

“I am of the Waters,” Isyd said. “It means that I have a strong affinity with the Water Essence, a weak affinity with the Fire Essence and a neutral affinity with Earth and Air. The logic goes as follows: the Ever-Burning Fire mirrors the Ever-Quenching Water, the Ever-Still Earth mirrors the Ever-Moving Air.”

“And let me guess,” Jadwia drawled, “this becomes relevant only at a high Opening so there was no point for us to learn about it?”

Isyd grinned. “Exactly.”

“And how do we know which affinity we have?” Kewin asked.

“There are [Arcanes] that can help you figure that out. Not that different to the one for the entrance exam.”

“Grace, now I want to know!” Jadwia exclaimed. “How do we get access to—”

She stopped mid-sentence as Isyd’s head turned to the other side of the room. Before she could ask him what happened, she heard the sounds of quickly approaching footsteps. Klara Utro walked turned the corner of the Library, almost running, and raced in their direction. Her bright, blue eyes were solely focused on Isyd.

“How in the world did you do it?” she exclaimed, panting.

Behind her soon came Vasyl Amalb in equal excitement. Isyd eyed the two of them, with wariness and confusion.

“Do what?”

“Don’t play the innocent with me, Wybrany!” Klara said, bouncing up and down. “It had never happened! How did you do it?”

“I swear I do not know what you are talking about.”

Vasyl Amalb approached the table and presented him with a card. He was searching his face with curiosity and awe as if trying to find secrets in it.

“Tutor Hidrss is summoning you,” Vasyl said. “Isyd Wybrany, you are to go to the Atelier immediately.”