When Andromeda looked into it further she realized why Mending, Purification, and Arcanism are considered the bedrocks of a mage’s learning. The first factor was the relative ease by which it took to learn, it only took a few months to a year or two to pick one up. It was common for mages to learn these arts before they turned ten years old.

The second factor was that they were pretty much solved arts. Mending was such a basic and simple concept that it didn't have any complicated techniques that weren’t documented. Purification was one of the most simple implementations of Refutei and its complications only came down to precision rather than ease of use. Arcanism was similar as she would come to learn.

Andromeda realized very quickly that Arcanism was the art of moving mana around. This was a surprising and fortuitous discovery as she already knew how to do this, and it was by complete accident.

When she was first learning about mana and mending, she didn’t know how to find the flow of an object and tried something that seemed perfectly natural to her. She just let the mana flow from one hand to another. This was one half of the puzzle to Arcanism, the other was the reflex that Arcanism relied on specifically.

There were four reflexes in total, the first was Refutei. This was the technique that allowed a mage to reduce the movement of a flow to various effects. The second was the mirror to Refutei that Andromeda correctly predicted to exist. Expliza.Refutei slowed down the flow, so it was no surprise that Expliza did the exact opposite. It accelerated the flow dramatically.

This is what leads to the third and final point that made Mending, Purification, and Arcanism so essential, each was the most simple version of its respective technique style.

Mending used the “Mental” style, this revolved around the user imagining a scenario to use magic. Purification used the “Bodily” style, this was used through eliciting feelings in the user’s body. Finally, Arcanism uses the third style, “Spiritual” style. This is done through directly manipulating the soul of the user. Put simply, there was Mind, Body, and Soul Casting. Every other form of magic used one of these styles.

All of this was not in fact something that Andromeda suddenly figured out on her own, but something that was explained to her through both Alice and Albert. This was part of the reason they dedicated to come with her that day to practice.

There was a lot of testing Andromeda needed to do with both Arcanism and Expliza, She wasn’t sure how the later interacted with Mending specifically and that was something she would be looking into as soon as she got it, but for now she was spending her afternoon in the newly created field area to figure it out.

Because this field area had become so popular, the staff had decided to prepare the field more properly and it had now taken on the appearance of a campground. The three of them picked a particularly nice table that was shaded by the newly placed tree nearby.

Albert had brought some materials to take notes himself, the idea being that even if he wasn’t going to invest much time into learning Arcanism that he should still understand it. He was surprised to see that both Andromeda and Alice hadn’t brought anything to write in.

“Did you ladies forget your notebooks?” Albert asked.

“There isn’t a whole lot paper and pencil notes can do for me, I’m afraid.” Alice said. She laughed, but it only reminded him that despite her spectacular sensory abilities that there were still limitations she had to deal with.

“As for me, I think I’ll be fine. I’ll keep the notes in the back of my mind.” Andromeda said.Albert thought that might be a bit short sighted, but he knew that if anyone was going to make good on their word it would be Andromeda.

Andromeda stood up and did some light stretches. It had gotten to be a habit to stretch before she performed magic despite not usually being physically harsh on her body. That was just her experience though, as she understood from Albert and others magic was a physical challenge as well as a mental one. The fact that she didn’t seem to struggle with it was an anomaly.

She smacked her face to clear her mind and focus. The first step was to make the mana flow on her hand.

Back then she started by imagining the flow, but by this point she was familiar enough with the process that she could just make the mana flow between her fingers. Then came the reflex, the part that made it Arcanism. Arcanism as a concept was about increasing the velocity of existing flows, Refutei was the exact opposite which meant she already had an idea about how to do it.

Albert had set up a small table a few feet away for her and placed some small objects on it, things like metal weights or candlesticks. Things that either would be hard to break or easy to mend.

It wasn’t long at all before Andromeda figured out the way to use Expliza with the flow she created, mostly because this specific art seemed so natural for her. When Expliza was applied to the flow there was a notable increase in the rigidity of the flow, it was more similar to a durable rope rather than a flowing river between her fingers.

“Everyone stand back, I’m gonna try and throw it.” Andromeda said.

Albert and Alice were already a fair distance away by default, but each took a step back anyway to be safe. Andromedea did an overhead throw with the ripe like flow and it went flying through the air.

Her first throw missed, landing a few feet to the left of the table and landing on the grass beside it.

Andromeda broke and reset the flow. This time she turned herself to the side and did a pitcher’s stance. She had to modify the placement of her arms to make sure the flow still worked correctly. The Expliza altered flow didn’t have any weight behind it which made it hard to aim, but with a pitchers stance it was just matching the flow to her muscle memory.

It took a few more tries like this until she got it right and landed the flow around candlestick. Once it did she could tell that the technique had worked, despite being several feet away she could feel the candle stick between her hands. Not like she was holding it, but that it was part of a single whole with the rest of her.

“Did you get it?” Albert asked.

“I think so?” Andromeda said. She knew that she had done something, she just wasn’t sure if it was exactly the right thing to have done. Alice chimed in with good news.

“You did, I can sense the flow stabilizing between you and the candlestick.” Alice said. With confirmation she could move onto the second step.

Arcanism’s goal was to willingly control the flow of mana through other objects. There are many reasons you might want to do this, but one useful feature was remotely using magic like it was right in front of her.

She focused on the candlestick and started her procedure to use Refutei Mending. But instead did the opposite and tried to use Expliza, the mental image was just reversed.

Before her eyes, the metal of the candlestick started to corrode and chip, red rust crawled over its surface as cracks formed on its exterior, a few moments later the whole shattered into a rusty pile of tin on the table. Andromeda felt her connection with the candlestick break off.

“Already?” Albert said. He was surprised to see first hand Andromeda’s quick uptake, he did know that she claimed to have not known Refutei before she tried it the first time. Albert wasn’t totally convinced then, but he was now.

“It took me a few tries to hook the thing, I still have some work to do.” Andromeda said.

She didn’t say it out loud, but Andromeda pointed a question toward White in her mind if she had recorded what Andromeda was thinking while practicing in their notes

Y-yeshhh

White had been practicing more direct forms of conversation and was slowly getting it down. It surprised her earlier when she heard what sounded like babbling in her own head, only to prompt White if it was her. She confirmed and through some directed yes or no questions she found that White was learning to speak through their connection.

Andromeda hadn’t gotten a chance to properly speak since they split up the other night, but hearing that she was making progress towards speaking was good.

This led to Andromeda having the amazing idea of having White record her notes for her in her own mind. It seemed like after she left her mind space, the things she and White imagined stayed there. So Andromeda imagined some of her textbooks in her own mind space and White could read them.

This solved so many issues it was dizzying to even think about. She essentially had infinite capacity for recording her notes without having to stop focusing. Even better, she could ask for White’s opinion on something or to reference something already recorded.

The only sticking point was White learning to speak properly through their connection. Right now her thoughts were slurred and slow to come out. But it seemed she had inherited Andromeda’s natural predilection for learning.

“I just thought of something, if you can break something with Expliza Mending, couldn’t you also repair it again?” Albert asked. Andromeda hadn’t thought about that, but there was nothing to say she couldn’t.

She reached her hand toward the rusted and broken candlestick and focused on mending it. It took a surprising amount of effort, but the candlestick did begin to repair. It still took only a few seconds, but it was much slower than Andromeda could normally mend.

“Seems like.” Andromeda said.

That would massively improve her practice routine in the morning, until now she had been throwing various pieces of glassware at the floor to mend it again. It was a training technique that the staff hated because usually the sound of breaking glass in the morning was a bright red flag. Thankfully for their hearts they didn’t need to worry about it anymore.

“You make that look a lot easier than it is. It took me months.” Albert said.

One thing that Andromeda frequently dealt with is the understanding that she was, in fact, a novice. While she can perform mending fairly well, has a grasp of purification, and just figured out Arcanism, those are still pretty basic skills for a mage. Alice, Albert, and pretty much everyone else in the college could perform those techniques. They most often couldn’t perform them as well or as quickly as Andromeda, but none of those skills are really time sensitive activities.

Everyone was under the impression that she was here on recommendation due to her remarkable aptitude for learning, that was why no one questioned her…

Actually, that was a half truth, the major reason was everyone’s suspicions/fear of her being connected to an as-of-yet-unseen Arch Mage. That was more the reason people never questioned her, but in theory her aptitude was the primary reason. Definitely the official reason at the very least.

Andromeda clapped her hands together at a job well done and sat back down at the shaded table to deliberate with the others.

“Thoughts?” Andromeda asked.

“I said it before, but you make this stuff look like child’s play. I’d almost be mad if I wasn’t so impressed.” Albert said.

“I have to agree, your progress sometimes makes me feel as though I’ve been dragging my feet in my studies, I’m sure if you took a month to learn divination you’d walk out of it better than me.” Alice said.

“Thanks for the thought, but if you have any criticism that would be nice too. I can’t improve anything if you don’t point out where I lacked.” Andromeda said.

“Fair point, if I had to point anything out. I’d say you needed to find a more comfortable way of getting the line out there. You missed a few times and that’s not something you want to do in a pinch.” Albert said.

“Any suggestions?” Andromeda said.

“Couldn’t say, what works for me might not work for you. I’ve had years to practice, you might be good at learning magic, but a throwing arm is something you learn with experience.” Albert said.

“What about you?” Andromeda said as she turned to Alice.

“It might just be my recent trouble sensing you properly, but your flow seemed to flicker when you controlled it. I’m not sure if it's even a problem because you used it just fine, but I usually only notice that when people are distracted. Are you having trouble focusing?” Alice asked.

“I don’t think so?” Andromeda said. She was unsure of the exact cause, but had a pretty good guess. White was up in her head taking a lot of notes and because they technically shared the one mind it might seem like she was distracted.

“In that case, I don’t have anything worth mentioning.” Alice said.

She was happy that she did it pretty well on the first try, but there was something stressful about it. Usually things only work on the first try when you do it wrong.

“I have a criticism.” A voice spoke behind them. Everyone turned to see that Grant was standing there. Andromeda already felt a headache coming on just knowing that he approached them. She sighed loudly.

“By all means, go ahead.” Andromeda said.

“It’s not something I can say, stand up and do it again.” Grant said.

Andromeda stood up and walked back over to her spot. She looked over at Grant who was just standing there staring at her. He seemed displeased about something but not outright aggressive like he normally was.

“Here I go.” Andromeda said. She prepare the flow between her fingers and started the process of Expliza, then-

The ear piercing sound of an explosion rippled through the area. Andromeda’s ears rung and throbbed at hearing the sound.

“Grant! What the hell?” Andromeda yelled at him.

“Why did you stop?” Grant said. He wasn’t being rude like normal. He asked the question genuinely.

“Because you just blew my ears out!” Andromeda said.

“Grant, if you’re going to be a nuisance then-” Albert said.

“If that is enough to distract you, then you can’t be trusted to use magic under stress.” Grant said.

“Could you have not said that?” Andromeda asked.

“If I told you beforehand then you would have been expecting it. You never know when distractions will descend on you.” Grant said.

Despite his awful way of bringing it up to her, there was something to what he was saying. Until now she had really only used magic in a stressful situation once, and that ended up with her laid up for several days.

“I’ll admit you have a point, but that doesn’t excuse your attitude.” Andromeda said. Grant didn’t say anything, but it was obvious from the eye twitch and clenched fists that he wasn’t pleased hearing that.

“Good lord, this isn’t getting us anywhere.” Andromeda said under her breath.

“Andromeda, maybe you shouldn’t provoke him.” Alice said. Albert seemed to be of the same opinion.

“One moment.” Andromeda said.

She turned back to Grant and looked him dead in the eye.

“Look, It’s obvious that you would rather throw yourself off a cliff than hear me speak, and I personally think you are insufferable and disrespectful to a fault, so I’m going to make you a deal.” Andromeda said. As still visibly furious as Grant was, he seemed to be at least intrigued by her statement.

“What kind of deal?” He said through gritted teeth. Andromeda walked over to Albert and prompted him to giver her his dagger that he carried on his belt. After whispering something in his ear he grumbled in argument until he gave in and handed it to her.

She grabbed it by the blade and turned around back to Grant. His first instinct was that she was going to attack him, but that couldn’t be the case if she was holding it by the blade.

Andromeda walked right up to him and handed him the dagger. He looked at her with confusion and surprise.

“What’s this?” Grant said.

“Stab me.” Andromeda said.

Everyone was silent for several seconds, all unsure if they just profoundly misunderstood her seemingly obvious statement.

“Excuse me?” Grant finally said.

“Go ahead, you have my full permission. You have two witnesses to that fact. Do whatever you want with that dagger.” Andromeda said.

Grant was utterly confused, she was talking like a madman, Albert and Alice were both in various states of shock. Even White in Andromeda’s own head was setting alarms off despite knowing what her intention was.

“I would never attack-” He said. Then he stopped himself and looked down at the dagger.

He was about to say “I would never attack a fellow student.”. But they both knew that wasn’t the case. He had done it before, and in front of many more people, all without her express permission. But now it seemed that he didn’t have the heart to do it. He was still furious beyond reproach, but something in his heart wouldn’t let him consider it.

This wasn’t a conversation between two different classes like it was before. He wasn’t defending his pride in front of his fellows. He had full right to do as she requested, legally speaking there was no cost to doing it.

He wondered what her ploy was, why she would be so cavalier with her own life, she must have believed that he would relished in the chance to take his ire out on her with no reproach. He didn’t need to wonder, because she explained.

“If all it takes to set this straight is a gut wound from a dagger, then fine. Get it over with. But I won’t live with perpetual angst over a bruised ego. If you really hate me, then you have my permission to end my life, but if you can’t or won’t, then you need to understand that I won’t tolerate you acting like a child. Act like the man you are or get it over with.” Andromeda said.

Her words shook him.

It didn’t relieve his anger towards her, but everything he had thought until now was up in the air. He had the chance to end this right now, but he couldn’t. Why was that? What about her saying this made him stay his hand?

This was a line of thought that he had never taken, he would not act rashly. He didn’t accept that he was the problem, but he realized that there was more to this person that he hated. He wouldn’t destroy something he didn’t understand, only fools destroyed what they didn’t understand. He would be left for the rest of his life wondering what could have been.

So he made his choice.