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Mother of Learning:Volume 01 Chapter 010

2014-11-04T01:38:19Z

129.97.58.107: /* Overlooked Details */ minor, spelling

=== Overlooked Details ===

Zorian's eyes abruptly shot open as sharp pain erupted from his stomach. His whole body convulsed, buckling against the object that fell on him, and suddenly he was wide awake, not a trace of drowsiness in his mind.

"Good m-"

"No, it's not," Zorian interrupted. "How could it possibly be a good morning? I got killed again! Eaten by a giant worm this time. And waking up like this is really starting to get on my nerves! Couldn't have the time loop started a day later or something?"

He stared at his little sister expectantly. She stared back at him, confused out of her mind and probably a little frightened.

"Um, what?" she asked hesitantly.

Zorian wordlessly flipped her over the edge of the bed. She fell to the floor with a thud and an indignant yelp, and Zorian quickly jumped to his feet to better respond to any violence she might decide to retaliate with. Having learned his lesson during previous restarts, he immediately set out towards the bathroom before she could get her bearings.

She realized what he was doing quickly, but by then he had already locked the door behind him. Her screams of outrage were music for his ears, especially since they eventually caused mother to come after her and give her a scolding.

Maybe it ''was'' a good morning, after all.

<div style="text-align: center">- break -</div>

Trains… Zorian hadn't really liked them to start with, but he was starting to develop an intense dislike of them ever since he was caught in this time loop thing. Travelling via train on a regular basis was almost as annoying as Kirielle jumping on him at the start of every restart. He had toyed with the idea of killing time by striking a conversation with Ibery, so she'd be familiar with him when he got a job at the library, but scrapped the notion after a while. Mostly because he decided not to apply for the job in this restart. Working at the library like he had been doing was fairly time consuming, and he had a much more promising project to work on – mastering all the shaping exercises in Ilsa's book so he could woo her into taking him as her apprentice. Library magic was useful, but getting rid of Xvim would be absolutely priceless.

He wouldn't be present in Cyoria when the invasion came either. Not in this restart, nor in any near future one. Even if he had to reveal his secret to Zach because of it, he'd take the first train out of town on the eve of the summer festival. He knew that the smart, responsible thing to do would be to stay in the city and note what was happening – how the invasion was progressing and what could be done to stop it. He knew it, but… it was too much for him. And not just because getting himself involved in that mess seemed to invariably lead to his death, either. The emotional rollercoaster of the 'evacuation' was very hard on his nerves, but that was just a symptom of the real problem. He struggled with his thoughts for a moment, trying to identify the root of the problem. Every reason he could think of felt… not right.

And then it clicked. It was the helplessness. Every time his thoughts strayed towards the topic of the invasion, he couldn't shake the notion that the forces arrayed against him were vastly beyond his ability to handle, and that the only reason he survived as long as he had was through sheer dumb luck. It occurred to him that the manner of his most recent death could easily be an allegory for this entire invasion. So you repelled a murderous pack of winter wolves and reached safety, helped foil a traitorous ambush, and now you think the worst is over? No, stupid, a giant worm suddenly jumps out of the ground and bites your head off! How were you supposed to fight something like that? How was ''he'' supposed to fight something like that?

Maybe he shouldn't. A lot of things about the invasion seemed… implausible. About as implausible as Zach becoming an super-prodigy over the span of a single summer, Zorian learning all 15 shaping exercises in Ilsa's book within the span of a month, or time travel being real. What if his theory of there being a third time traveler was correct, and that someone was the mastermind behind the invasion? It would explain a lot. Then again, it would also pose a lot of questions on its own… like why hadn't this hostile time traveler dealt with Zach already? The lich had already proved it was very much possible to hurt people like Zach and Zorian, and was working for the invading forces already.

Regardless, he intended to involve himself again with the invasion only after he acquired some ''serious'' magic, or after he calmed down somewhat and felt emotionally capable of facing the situation. Whichever came first. It's not like he could study the invasion in any great detail if he kept dying at the very start of it, anyway.

Eventually the train arrived in Cyoria, and Zorian began his long trek towards the academy. He wasn't in a hurry this time, because he had finally found a spell to protect himself from rain in the last restart and was eager to try it. Well, he had actually found ''several'' protective spells meant to deal with rain and other adverse weather, but only one was within his ability to actually cast. That was okay, though, since the 'rain barrier' spell was the one best suited for his purposes anyway – it offered the most complete protection, at the cost of being horribly draining to maintain. He could see why the mana drain would be a serious problem for people who wanted to use the spell extensively, but Zorian only needed it to last for an hour or two in an exceptionally mana-rich area of Cyoria.

Also, being encased in an invisible sphere that repelled water was just plain more impressive than the more subtle, sophisticated wards. The barrier actually worked on water in general, not just rain drops, so he didn't even have to worry about stepping into puddles and soaking his footwear. Seeing water on the road part before him like in front of some kind of celestial emissary was mightily amusing. Also a bit of an ego boost, which is something he sorely needed after being so thoroughly outmatched during the invasion of the previous restart.

He'd probably never use the spell after getting out of the time loop, since an umbrella was good enough for most occasions and didn't consume any mana, but finding a store that sold them along his usual route from the train station had proved surprisingly difficult. Which, now that he thought about it, suggested that he probably ''would'' use the spell from time to time, since he doubted this would be the only time in his life he'd find himself without an easily acquired umbrella.

He shook his head. He really shouldn't be fantasizing about what he'd do after getting out of the time loop, since it didn't appear that would happen any time soon. He had to concentrate on the present… and boy did that sound weird, considering his situation. Like what was he going to do with Zach? He was sorely tempted to just admit everything to the boy and have them try to figure out this mess together – surely two heads are better than one? Impulsive he may be, but Zach couldn't have gotten as far as he did without having a good head on his shoulders. He didn't feel entirely comfortable with that idea, though – he strongly suspected there was more to Zach than it appeared, and he hated to charge in without knowing what he was getting himself into.

He decided to see how Zach interacted with him in this restart before deciding.

<div style="text-align: center">- break -</div>

"Zorian! Over here!"

Zorian glanced towards the happy-looking Benisek waving at him like a lunatic and wondered what he should do. He didn't really want to talk to him. Benisek might be his closest friend among the student body, but he was also rather irritating at times, and it's not like he could tell Zorian something he didn't already know at this point. In the end he sighed in defeat and trudged over to the grinning boy. Time loop or no, it felt wrong to blatantly snub someone so visibly happy to see him, especially since he shared so much history with Benisek.

He did find it interesting that Benisek was present in the cafeteria at this time, since that wasn't his usual behavior in the restarts Zorian experienced so far. These kind of unexplained divergences happened all the time, which was to be expected – there were at least two time travelers wandering around the time loop, changing things both inconsequential and crucial – but it was surprising to see a change this soon into the time loop. It has only been a day since he arrived in Cyoria. Usually it took at least a week until everything went off the rails, and even then a lot of things repeated themselves. Most teachers followed some kind of a fixed teaching plan, for example, and rarely deviated from it. As far as he knew, Fortov always came looking for him for help with the purple creeper salve, even though his accident with Ibery only happened near the very end of the time loop. Which, now that he thought about it, suggested the accident wasn't so accidental after all. Kind of suspicious for an accident to be so insensitive to changes…

"You just got to Cyoria, didn't you?" Benisek prompted excitedly the moment Zorian sat down beside him.

Zorian nodded hesitantly. Benisek was only ever this excited when talking about a particularly hot girl or when he got a hold of particularly juicy gossip material. Hopefully it was the latter, because there was no way Zorian would be staying otherwise.

"You're so not going to believe this!" Benisek said excitedly. "You know Zach? You know, Zach Noveda, last scion of the Noble House Noveda? He went to class with us these last two years."

Of course it's Zach. He really should have known.

"Of course I know him," Zorian said. "He is… very memorable."

"He is?" blinked Benisek. He shook his head. "I mean, of course he is. I kind of didn't expect you to know, though, since he's kind of a failure as a mage and you never interacted with him much."

Zorian shrugged. Truth be told, it was very rare for him to forget someone's name, regardless of how often he had interacted with them or how long it had been since he last saw them. Even before the time loop, Zorian would have instantly known who Benisek was referring to.

"Anyway," Benisek continued, "Zach escaped from his family mansion yesterday."

"Err, what?" asked Zorian incredulously. "What do you mean 'escaped'? Why would he need to escape from his own mansion?"

"Well that's the question, isn't it?" Benisek said. "Apparently he had an argument with his guardian that eventually descended into a full-blown magical duel. A duel which, get this, Zach ''won''! Half of the mansion was trashed, and Zach fled into the city and has yet to be found. They're searching for him everywhere!"

"Um, wow," Zorian said, honestly at loss for words. What the hell was ''that'' about?

"You said it," Benisek agreed. "I'm not sure I believe the official story, though. I mean, there's no way Zach could have taken on his guardian in a magical duel! Tesen Zveri is a 7th circle mage or something, and Zach barely passed his own certification! Then again, ''something'' sure demolished Noveda mansion…"

"How do you know this?" asked Zorian.

"It's all over the newspapers," said Benisek. "Besides, everyone is talking about it. I can't believe one of our classmates would be involved in something like that. What do you think, Zorian?"

"Ben… I honestly don't know what to think about that," said Zorian.

And he really meant it. He didn't doubt for a second that Zach could beat the stuffing out of his guardian, 7th circle or not – the man was a politician, as far as Zorian knew, not a battlemage – but why would he want to do that?

"I suppose he won't be coming to class this time, then," mused Zorian out loud. Then again, he would not have put it past Zach to just walk into class one of these days as if nothing was wrong.

"I doubt it," Benisek laughed.

"Did he kill anyone?" asked Zorian. Benisek shook his head in the negative. "So basically he didn't do anything ''that'' serious. What's the worst that can happen to him if he simply turns himself in?"

"Well, Tesen must not be too happy with him now, and he's too influential to brush off, even for someone like Zach," said Benisek. "Attacking one of the Elders of Eldemar is actually a fairly serious crime, and Tesen could really ruin Zach's day if he was inclined to pursue satisfaction. Not that I think he would, since that would just draw even more attention to what happened. This whole thing is a giant political scandal for him. I'm guessing Zach will come back after a month or so, after he cools off a bit, and Tesen will 'magnanimously' forgive him everything."

Zorian was silent. Zach had told him that it was rare for him to spend a restart in Cyoria, and even rarer for him to attend classes. In light of that, it had been foolish of him to expect Zach to be around in this restart. Zach may have found Zorian interesting in the previous restart, but probably not ''that'' interesting. Still, this was more than a little strange. If he had wanted to leave and do his own thing, couldn't he have just walked out of his mansion one day and kept going? Who would have stopped him? His guardian? Why would Tesen do that? The man was clearly very hands-off in his dealings with his charge, as evidenced by Zach's frequent absences from school during the last two years, as well as Zach's abysmal performance prior to the time loop.

There was no obvious answer, and Zorian didn't feel like trying to track down Zach. He probably couldn't find him, even if he tried, and he had more attainable goals to pursue.

Like getting out of Xvim's merciless clutches. What could be more important than that?

<div style="text-align: center">- break -</div>

The rest of the restart was pleasantly uneventful. There was no Zach, since the boy never showed up in school and couldn't be found by anyone. After a week or so, the newspapers stopped covering the story because there were no new developments to justify the articles, and the rumors making rounds across the student body died down soon after. For his part, Zorian threw himself completely into mastering the exercises in Ilsa's book. He neglected virtually everything else, often skipping classes when he thought he could get away with it. Akoja was furious, since he was apparently ruining the attendance record of the class, and got Ilsa to corner him one day about it. Fortunately, Zorian's ability to get top grades on every exam, despite his spotty attendance, blunted the impact of Akoja's criticism, and Zorian managed to convince Ilsa he was working on a personal project that was taking most of his time… ''not'' skipping classes for the heck of it as Akoja claimed. He assured her the project would be finished within a month, and that he would resume attending classes regularly after the summer festival. She made him promise that he would show her what he was working on when he was done, and he enthusiastically agreed with her.

His single minded focus gave results quickly – he mastered both vertical and fixed position levitation by the end of the restart. He didn't bother showing these advanced skills to Xvim, who was still having him work on the pen-spinning exercise, since he doubted he'd get a worthwhile reaction. Nothing seemed to please that guy.

He hadn't been present in the city when the invasion came, of course. Without Zach's ring, he was even more useless in combat than he was in the last restart, so it was doubtful he could have lasted for very long in the midst of it all. He did make sure to practice with combat invocations he learned from Zach each day, hoping to hone them into the same reflexive state that Zach displayed. That would take years of practice, of course, but that just meant he'd better start as soon as possible. He also didn't just leave via train like he usually did – he traveled by foot to one of the hills overlooking the city and observed the city from there.

Watching the invasion unfold from such a high vantage point was not only a lot easier on Zorian's nerves than being in the thick of it – it was also rather informative. It was interesting to see how the invasion played out in broad terms. It seemed to have several stages, the first of which was, of course, the disguised artillery magic barrage. The explosive flares mostly targeted three crucial areas – the city hall, the local military base, and one cluster of buildings that Zorian didn't recognize. The academy didn't appear to be a primary target, possibly because the invaders wanted it reasonably intact. Aside from the initial blast, the impact zones seemed to spawn scores of fire elementals that had to be dealt with. Fortunately, a lot of buildings in Cyoria were at least moderately warded against fire, because Zorian didn't doubt for a second that the entire city would've been aflame within minutes otherwise. Once the fire elementals had a few minutes to make a nuisance of themselves, monsters poured out of the sewers, and after they rampaged across the city a bit, the spellcasters finally arrived.

The battle was still raging when the clock finally hit two past midnight and everything went suddenly black.

All things considered, the army of monsters was the least destructive part of the invasion – if he could somehow prevent the initial barrage from crippling the city defense right from the start, or take out a lot of the attacking mages that followed in the monster's wake… well, it was worth a shot when he finally got some skills under his belt.

The next three restarts were essentially the same, right down to Zach dueling his guardian and escaping into the night. Apparently that ''wasn't'' just a one-time thing, but a rather routine occurrence. The exact details varied, but every time he roughed Tesen up before setting off god knows where. Unfortunately, Zorian couldn't find out anything substantial about Tesen – the man was a high ranking politician, and thus not exactly approachable, and nothing in publicly available sources explained Zach's apparent hostility towards the man.

His work with Ilsa's book progressed steadily, but he was frankly getting a bit sick of it. There was only so much of incessant shaping practice he could stand before he lost all enthusiasm. Besides, Ilsa said most students go through them at a rate of 6 per year, and he was already more effective than that – something that he attributed to his unusual focus in the matter. How many people could afford to focus all their energies on shaping exercises? There were so many things vying for the typical student's attention that shaping exercises no doubt ended up near the bottom of their priorities.

That was why he was currently in Ilsa's office, trying to see if he could get something out of her without mastering quite the entire book.

"What can I do for you, mister Kazinski?" Ilsa asked.

"Well, I'm a bit concerned about the program you outlined in your first class," said Zorian. "I'm not sure I'll get anything out of it, since I already have a solid grasp on all the topics you mentioned."

Ilsa raised an eyebrow at him. Hey, it worked on Kyron, why wouldn't it work on Ilsa too?

"I see," she said after a second of silence. "Would you mind if I gave you a couple of quick tests to confirm that?"

Confident he could deal with anything she tested him with, he agreed. Ilsa proceeded to rummage through her drawers and took out 2 different tests. One was an exact copy of the same test Ilsa gave to the whole class just before the summer festival, and Zorian proceeded to fill it out in 10 minutes flat by sheer memory. The other was unfairly hard, because it covered advanced topics that didn't turn up in class at all. Zorian only managed to fill out a quarter of the questions before time was up, and he was fairly sure not all of his answers were correct.

Ilsa skimmed through them quickly and then nodded to herself.

"Your theoretical knowledge is pretty spotty," Ilsa said with a theatrical sigh, and Zorian had to stop himself from scowling. That was such bullshit! She gave him that second test just to make sure he failed! "Here… I'll give you a list of additional reading to study in your free time."

Two minutes later Zorian found himself practically pushed out of the door, a piece of paper with hastily scribbled writing in his hand. He glared at the list of book titles, very much tempted to incinerate it on the spot. He was supposed to start on the variations of the flame producing exercise, anyway. But he didn't. He would not be defeated that easily! If he could survive Xvim's mentoring methods this long, he could definitely read a couple of theoretical manuals. He would be back. She could be sure of that.

<div style="text-align: center">- break -</div>

"Good morning, brother! Morning, morning, ''MORNING''!"

"Good morning, Kiri," said Zorian pleasantly. "Thank you for waking me up."

Kirielle stared at him for a couple of seconds and then huffed in disappointment at his lack of reaction and got off of him all on her own. Well damn – he should have tried that ages ago.

"You're no fun," she accused.

Zorian simply nodded in agreement.

"Mom wants to talk to you," Kirielle said. "Could you show me some magic before you go, though? Pleeeeease?"

Well… why not? He quickly cast the 'floating lantern' spell, causing an orb of light to spring into existence above his palm. He had the orb fly around the room while he repeated the spell two more times, producing a different colored orb each time.

The books Ilsa had told him to read were mostly boring crap, but they did tell him something rather interesting. All those variations he had been practicing had more uses than just improving his shaping skills, apparently – they also allowed him to adjust certain spells more to his liking. The same variation of the light emitting exercise that allowed him to produce colored light also enabled him to change the color of the glowing orb produced by the floating lantern spell. Mastering a whole bunch of light-related exercises would apparently also make light-based invocations more powerful and less mana intensive, and the same principle applied to other groups of spells as well… such as fire-related exercises improving invocations based around fire and heat, and levitation-based ones improving spells relying on telekinetic forces. He was a lot less annoyed at having to go through all those shaping exercises when he found ''that'' out. Hell, if they were that useful, he'd probably see if he could find more of them when he ran out of the ones in Ilsa's book.

"More! More!" Kiri demanded.

Distracting Kiri with a few more orbs, Zorian quietly slipped out of the room and went to the bathroom before Kiri could realize what was happening. Why was she always so intent on getting there first anyway? That was horribly petty, even for Kirielle. He'd have to ask her in one of the restarts.

Unfortunately, he sort of forgot he filled his entire room with multi-colored orbs of light by the time Ilsa came around to visit, so he thought nothing about inviting her into his room. He hastily swept his hand in front of him, casing them all to wink out of existence, but it was too late – Ilsa had already seen them and was looking at him curiously.

"That's not really a second year spell," Ilsa remarked, her eyes boring into his own.

"Daimen can be a pretty good teacher when he wants to be," said Zorian with a cheeky smile, shamelessly relying on Daimen's fame to deflect any concerns. Teaching first circle spells like that one to uncertified mages was illegal, but if Zorian ever learned something in his life, it was that Daimen can get away with anything.

"And you know how to produce something other than white light," Ilsa noted. "Impressive. I guess this should be easy for you, then."

She handed him a very familiar scroll, and Zorian was just about to flood it with mana to break the seal when he realized something was wrong. Ilsa was studying him like a hawk, expectant and alert. She had never shown this much interest in his scroll-opening before, so what made this one special? He stared at the scroll for a couple of seconds, unable to see any difference from the scroll he was use to. Even the symbols on the seal were the same. Wait...

A few moments later he remembered where he saw the symbols inscribed on the seal and promptly felt like banging his head against the wall or something. How… why… those sneaky little…

He had been doing it wrong! All this time he had been simply pouring mana into the seal to break it, when instead he had to channel mana into it in very specific ways so he could peel it off intact! It said so, right at the god damn seal! It required more mana control than simply flooding the seal with mana, but it was nothing he hadn't already been capable of, even before the time loop. All this time he had thought the symbols on the seal were purely ornamental in nature, but no, they were ''instructions''. Instructions written in a somewhat obscure form, but still. How could he have missed that?

He directed his mana to flow along the sides of the seal, causing it to pop off without resistance.

"Well done," Ilsa said with a smile. "Not many students have such a firm grasp on their magic at this stage. I see someone is continuing in Daimen's footsteps."

Zorian smiled back politely. He mustn't scowl, he mustn't scowl…

"Unfortunately, I'm in a bit of a hurry so we'll have to continue this conversation later," Ilsa said. "Visit me in my office when you get to Cyoria. Now about your electives…"

<div style="text-align: center">- break -</div>

Ilsa stared at him. He stared back. She glanced towards the two completely filled out tests on her desk and then returned her gaze towards him, this time with a speculative look. Zorian remained silent.

It actually felt good to baffle someone like this, Zorian decided. Apparently Ilsa wasn't as cold-blooded about improbable skills as Xvim was.

"I must admit, I didn't quite expect this level of knowledge and shaping skill when I told you to come and see me," Ilsa said thoughtfully. "That second exam I gave you is the one I give to students at the end of their third year, and you only got 2 of the questions wrong. On top of that, you know 10 different variations of the basic three, which is astronomical for a 3rd year student."

She tapped her pen against the table, lost in thought.

"You may be a bit too advanced for what I intend to teach your group this year," Ilsa finally admitted. "My class is mostly there to make sure the students don't have any obvious holes in their shaping skills and theoretical knowledge, and to teach them a few miscellaneous spells that are of general utility to most mages. You're way beyond that. What am I going to do with you?"

"Transfer me away from Xvim so you could teach such a promising student?" Zorian tried.

She laughed at him.

"Sorry," she said. "You're good, but not ''that'' good. Besides… you should have it easier than most of Xvim's vi- err, ''charges''. What with your amazing shaping skills and all."

"You'd be surprised how little difference that makes to him," Zorian sighed.

"Oh come on, mister Kazinski, you didn't even have a single session with him," Ilsa chided. "I'm sure that whatever rumors you've heard were greatly exaggerated."

"Right," said Zorian, unable to keep himself from rolling his eyes. "Can you at least give me a written permit to skip your lectures? You said yourself I have nothing to learn there, anyway."

That wasn't quite what Zorian was after, but he supposed it was better than nothing. It would give him a bunch of free periods throughout the week, which wasn't terribly useful while he was inside the time loop (where he could just skip classes if he needed more free time) but would come in handy when and if he got out of it. And besides, a written permit would cut down on Akoja's whining, if nothing else.

"No," Ilsa said. "I need you in class, if only to motivate the rest of your classmates to try harder. Don't worry, I'll make sure you're not bored during class."

Crap. Maybe he shouldn't have asked her that…

"In the mean time, I'm going to do you a favor," Ilsa continued. "While I am personally too busy to teach you, I will see if I can find a teacher willing to give you some private instruction. Do you have an area of magic you're particularly interested in? Personally, I would recommend you look into either divination or alternation, but it's your choice."

"Spell formulas," Zorian said firmly.

"Oh? Ambitious," noted Ilsa. "It's a hard subject. Not something your shaping skills can help you with, either."

"I'm certain," Zorian confirmed. Spell formulas had fascinated him ever since he started to learn magic, so there was no way he was wasting this kind of opportunity.

"Very well," Ilsa shrugged. "I don't foresee any problems, in that case. I'm sure miss Boole will be ecstatic to have such a talented and determined student."

'Miss Boole'? As in, Nora Boole, the orange-haired maniac that expected them to read 12 books within a week and gave them 60-question 'progress tests' every other lecture? Zorian resisted the urge to sigh. Why couldn't he have a normal mentor for once?

<noinclude>
==Author's Notes and References==
<references />

{{MotherofLearningNavbar
|[[Mother of Learning:Volume_01_Chapter_009|Chapter 009]]
|[[Mother of Learning:Volume_01_Chapter_011|Chapter 011]]
}}
</noinclude>

Mother of Learning:Volume 01 Chapter 003

2014-11-03T23:24:04Z

129.97.58.107: /* The Bitter Truth */ Thought this was obviously a mistake.

===The Bitter Truth===

If someone had asked Zorian at the end of the first week what classes he thought he would have the most trouble with, he would have answered spell formula and advanced mathematics. Combat magic maybe. 2 weeks later, he could safely say the answer was 'warding'.

Warding, the art of protecting things with magic, was a surprisingly complex field. You had to take into account what the thing you're trying to protect is made of, what its dimensions and geometry were, how the ward is going to react with the already existing magic… or you could just slap a general-purpose warding invocation on your target and hope for the best. But the professor would fail you for that answer, so that wasn't an option in the classroom.

But these complexities aside, the class should have been a breeze, or at least not this confusing – Zorian was a patient, methodical person when it came to magecraft, and had slogged through worse offenders than warding with decent results. The problem was that their teacher, a stern woman with hair cut so short she might have gone all the way and shaved her head completely, didn't know how to teach. At all. Oh, she clearly knew the subject matter very well, but she simply didn't know how to translate that knowledge into a proper lecture. She was leaving out a lot of things out of her lectures, apparently not realizing that just because they were obvious to ''her'', they were not obvious to her students. The textbook she assigned for the class wasn't much better, and read more like a manual for a professional warder than a student's textbook.

'''''Question 6:''''' ''You are tasked with building a research outpost on a first degree mana well in the Sarokian Highlands. The building is meant to support a staff of 4 at any particular time, and the prospectors have expressed concerns over heavy presence of winter wolf packs and an infestation of borer wasps in the surrounding area. You have a budget of 25.000 pieces and are assumed to be a certified second circle warder.''

''Assuming only mana extracted from mana well is available for powering the wards, which combination of wards do you feel would be a good choice for the outpost? Explain your reasoning.''

''Draw basic floor-plans of the planned outpost and explain how the planned room placement and shape of the building itself affect ward effectiveness.''

''Do you think the issue of the borer wasp infestation is best resolved by putting up a vermin repellant ward or by careful choice of building materials? Explain your reasoning.''

''Assume that you are commissioned to build not one but 5 outposts. The budget is still the same. How does this change your answer to question number 'a'. Do you believe it is better to make the wards identical on all 5 outposts or do you feel some amount of difference between them is in order? Explain the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.''

Zorian rubbed his eyes in frustration. How was he supposed to answer a question like this? He didn't take the architecture elective, and wasn't aware that you had to take it to do well in your warding class. Not to mention that the question assumed they knew what the market rates were buying the necessary materials, or that they knew where Sarokian Highlands were. Zorian was quite good at geography, and he had no idea, though considering the presence of monsters like winter wolves, he suspected they were somewhere in the northern forest.

At the very least he knew how to answer sub-question 'c'. The correct answer was definitely wards. Even if the outpost was made inedible to borer wasp larvae, it would still make a prime place to build a nest in. Considering how territorial those insects were, you don't want them living anywhere near you. Theoretically, the 'careful choice of materials' options would free up mana that would otherwise be spent on maintaining vermin repellant wards, but those wards required very little mana flow to stay active. Especially if they were keyed specifically to borer wasps.

His thoughts were interrupted by a girlish giggle coming from the back of the classroom. Zorian didn't even have to turn around to know what was happening – Zach was entertaining the students around him again. He wished the teacher would penalize the guy for the disruption he was causing, especially in the middle of the exam, but Zach was a bit of darling for the stern woman because he was the only student acing her exams. No doubt the guy had already finished his test with 100% accuracy. Which, by the way, made no sense whatsoever – during their first two years, Zach was a below-average student more distinguished because of his charm than magical talent. Kind of like a nicer version of Fortov, actually. This year, though, he was acing everything. ''Everything''. He had a wealth of knowledge and a work ethic he hadn't had at the end of their second year, far in excess of what could be gained through the normal passage of time.

How does one get so much better in the span of a single summer?

15 minutes later he threw down his pencil on the table, calling it quits. He only filled in 8 out of ten questions, and he wasn't sure how correct these 8 were, but it would have to do. He would have to set aside a couple of days for warding self-study, because the lectures were making less and less sense with every passing day. The only other student that stayed in the classroom as long as he did was Akoja, and she handed her paper only a few seconds after he did and followed him outside. Of course, he and she stayed in the classroom that long for very different reasons. He stayed so he could scrape in a few stray points. She stayed because she was a perfectionist who wanted to triple check everything to make sure she didn't forget anything.

"Zorian, wait!"

Zorian slowed down and allowed Akoja to catch up to him. The girl could be insufferable sometimes, but she was a good person overall and he didn't want to snap at her just because the test didn't go the way he wanted.

"How do you think you did back there?" she asked.

"Badly," he answered, not seeing the point in lying.

"Yeah, me too."

Zorian rolled her eyes. His and her definition of 'badly' differed greatly.

"Neolu finished in only half an hour," said Akoja after a brief silence. "I bet she'll get a perfect score again."

"Ako…" Zorian sighed.

"I know everyone thinks I'm jealous but that's not normal!" said Akoja in a hushed but agitated voice. "I'm pretty smart and I study all the time and I'm still having problems with the curriculum. And we've both been in the same class with Neolu for the first two years and she was never this good. And… and now she's beating me in every single class!"

"Kind of like Zach," said Zorian.

"Exactly like Zach!" she agreed. "They even hang out together, two of them and one other girl I don't know, behaving like… like they're in their in their own private little world."

"Or like they're a couple," said Zorian, before frowning. "Triple? What's the word for a romantic relationship between 3 people?"

Akoja scoffed. "Whatever. The point is the three of them do nothing but waste time together and antagonize the teachers and get perfect scores anyway. They even refused the chance to get transferred to 1st tier groups, can you believe that!?"

"You're too worked up over this," Zorian warned.

"Aren't you a little bit curious how they do it?" asked Akoja.

"Of course I am," scoffed Zorian. "It's hard not to be. But what can I do about it? Besides, Zach never did anything wrong to me. I don't want to cause problems to him just because he has suddenly discovered his inner prodigy."

Zorian felt Benisek join them suddenly, simply popping behind a corner so he could walk beside them. Sometimes Zorian wondered whether the chubby boy could ''smell'' gossip.

"I know what you mean," Benisek said. "I always thought Zach was no good at anything. You know, like me?"

"Hah. Well there's no way he got this good at everything over one summer break," Zorian said. "I guess he was pulling wool over our eyes all this time."

"Man, that's so stupid," said Benisek. "If I were this good I'd make sure everyone knew it."

"I don't think he was faking lack of skill for two years straight," Akoja huffed. "He would have slipped at least occasionally."

"Well, what's left then?" Zorian asked. He refrained from listing some of the more obscure ways such rapid growth could be accomplished with magic, because most of them were criminal and he was sure the academy checked Zach to make sure he wasn't a shapeshifting imposter or possessed by a ghost of a long-dead mage.

"Maybe he knows the answers in advance," she suggested.

"Only if he's an oracle," Benisek said. "Boole gave him an oral exam last Tuesday when you went home early, and he was rattling answers like he swallowed the textbook."

The conversation died down as all three filed into the alchemy classroom, which was really more of a big alchemy workshop than a classical classroom. There were about 20 tables, each one full of various containers and other equipment. All ingredients for the day's lesson were already prepared in front of them, though some would require some additional preparation before they could be used in whatever process they were learning about that day – he was pretty sure they weren't going to be putting live cave crickets into the boiling solution, for instance.

Alchemy, like warding, was a complicated art, but their alchemy teacher knew her stuff ''and'' knew how to teach, so Zorian wasn't having any issues with the class. Technically they had to work in groups of 2 or 3 students because there were not enough tables and equipment, but Zorian always paired up with Benisek which translated to working alone in practice. The only problem was getting Benisek to shut up and stop distracting him during class.

"Hey Zorian," Benisek whispered to him not so quietly. "I never noticed it until now, but our teacher is kind of hot!"

Zorian gritted his teeth. The blasted idiot couldn't keep his voice down if his life was on the line. There was no way she didn't hear that.

"Benisek," he whispered back to his roommate. "I need good grades in alchemy to get my dream job when I graduate. If you screw this up for me I will never speak to you again."

Benisek grumbled mutinously before returning to his ogling. Zorian refocused on grinding the borer wasp husks into a fine power needed for the particular brand of glue they were supposed to be making.

Admittedly, Azlyn Marivoski did look surprisingly good for a 50 year old woman. Some kind of cosmetic treatment probably – she ''was'' their alchemy teacher, after all. Maybe even a true youth potion, though those were really rare and usually imperfect in some way.

"I don't see why you like this class so much," grumbled Benisek. "I'm not even sure I'd call it magical. You don't need mana for it. It's all searching for herbs this, cutting the roots the right way that… it's like cooking. Hell, we're making glue, of all things. You should leave that to girls."

"Benisek…"

"It's true!" he protested. "Even our teacher is a girl. A hot girl, but still. I read it somewhere that alchemy traces its roots back to witches' covens, with their potions and what not. Even now the best alchemical families are descended from witches. I bet you didn't know that, huh?"

As a matter of fact he did know that. He was, after all, tutored in alchemy by an honest-to-god traditional witch before he went to the academy. She was so traditional, in fact, that she scoffed at the name 'alchemy' and referred to her skill strictly as 'potion making'.

But that wasn't the sort of stuff you wanted people to know, for a wide variety of reasons.

"If you don't shut up right now I won't let you partner with me anymore," Zorian told him seriously.

"Hey!" protested Benisek. "Who's going to help me with that stuff, then? I'm not good at this!"

"I don't know," said Zorian innocently. "Maybe you should find some girl to help you."

Fortunately, the teacher was currently too busy fawning over Zach's newest masterpiece to pay attention to Zorian's table – somehow the boy managed to make some kind of enhancement potion out of provided ingredients, and that was apparently very impressive. Azlyn didn't appear to mind that Zach completely ignored the assignment to make magical glue and went along with his own thing.

Zorian shook his head and tried to concentrate on his own work. He wondered whether he would have gotten the same reaction if he did something like that, or if he would be accused of showing off. The few times Zorian tried to wow the teachers he was simply told to work on his basics and not to get cocky, because arrogance kills. Was it because Zach was the heir of Noble House Noveda? Or something else?

It was in moment like these that he understood exactly how Akoja felt about all this.

<div style="text-align: center">- break -</div>

"And that concludes today's lesson," said Ilsa. "Before you leave, however, I have an announcement to make. As some of you know, the Academy traditionally organizes a dance on the eve of summer festival. This year is no exception. The dance will take place in the entrance hall next Saturday. For those of you who are unaware, attendance is ''mandatory'' this year."

Zorian groaned, slamming his forehead into the table in front of him, causing the rest of the class to snicker. Ilsa pointedly ignored his reaction.

"For those of you who don't know how to dance, dance lessons will be held every day at 8 in the evening in room 6. Those of you who do know how to dance still have to come to at least one of these lessons to prove so – I will not have you embarrass me on the night of the dance. Dismissed. Miss Stroze, mister Kazinski, stay after class please."

"Oh great," Zorian mumbled. He probably should have restrained himself from reacting so strongly to the pronouncement. Truthfully, he intended to skip the dance, regardless of how mandatory it was. Did Ilsa realize that? No, he could detect no disapproval in posture, and he was pretty sure she'd be rather annoyed if she sensed his plans.

"Now then…" Ilsa began when he and Akoja were the only students left. "I assume you both know how to dance?"

"Sure," said Zorian.

"Umm…" Akoja fidgeted. "I'm not very good at it."

"No matter," Ilsa said. "We'll iron out any gaps you may have easily enough. The reason I told you to stay behind is that I want you to help me with the dance lessons."

Zorian considered refusing outright – it wasn't something he wanted to spend his time on – but he figured this could be a favor that would make Ilsa forgive him a transgression or two. Like, say, not showing up on the mandatory dance? Before he could express his tentative agreement, however, Akoja decided in his place.

"How can we help?" she said, clearly pleased they were chosen for this 'honor'. Zorian raised an eyebrow at the way she presumed to speak for him, but let it slide for the moment.

"We only have 5 days to teach everyone how to dance," Ilsa said. "That's why we're going to use magic to help."

"Animation spells," Zorian guessed.

"Yes," Ilsa said, then quickly moved to explain for Akoja's benefit. "There is a spell that will guide the person's limbs and body through whatever dance it is designed for. It's not really suitable as a substitute for dancing skill, but if you practice dancing while you're under its effects you will learn a lot faster than you would otherwise."

"How does that work?" Akoja asked curiously.

"The spell moves you around like a puppet on a string until you learn how to move along with it, if only to make the feeling of something jerking you around go away," said Zorian. "Eventually you no longer need the spell to dance correctly."

"I see you have personal experience with this method," Ilsa said with a smile.

Zorian resisted the urge to scowl. Getting put under that spell by Daimen was one of his childhood traumas. It wasn't amusing at all.

"I sincerely hope you intend to give students a choice to refuse," Zorian said.

"Of course," Ilsa agreed. "Though, those who refuse this method will have to attend at least 3 sessions instead of 1, so I expect most will choose this option instead of the traditional one. In any case, I want you two to help me cast the spell on people during the lessons. I expect I'll have to dispel and recast the spell often, and I could use some help."

"And why did you choose us, specifically?" Zorian asked.

"You both have decent control over your magic and you seem responsible enough to be taught such a spell. Animation spells targeting people are restricted material, after all, and not something normally available to students."

Huh. So how did Damien get a hold of it then? In his second year no less?

Well, whatever. At least knowing how to cast the spell will make it easier to counter it in the future.

"Anything else?" Ilsa asked. "Very well, then. Come to my office after the last class and I'll set up some dummies for you to practice at before moving on to people. Poorly controlled, the spell is intensely uncomfortable. We don't want to give anyone traumas."

Zorian narrowed his eyes. He didn't. Not even Daimen would… oh, who is he kidding? Of course he would have. Practicing such a spell on your own little brother was right up Daimen's alley.

"Miss Stroze, you can leave – I have something else to talk about with mister Kazinski."

Zorian shook his head out of thought and focused on Ilsa, who began to speak as soon as Akoja was gone.

"So Zorian," she said with a faint smile. "How are you getting along with your mentor?"

"He's having me work on my basic three," Zorian told her flatly. "We're still on the levitation exercise."

Yes, even after 4 weeks, Xvim was still making him levitate a pencil over and over again. Start over. Start over. Start over. The only thing Zorian learned in those sessions was how to dodge marbles that Xvim kept throwing at him. The jerk seemed to have an endless supply of those things.

"Yes, Professor Xvim likes his students to have a firm grasp of the basics before moving on to advanced topics," Ilsa agreed.

That or he hates his students. Zorian personally thought his theory was a lot more plausible.

"Well, I just wanted to tell you that you might be able to change mentors soon," Ilsa said. "One of my students will be dropping out after the summer festival, and I'll have a vacancy to fill. Unless something comes up, you're almost certain to be the one I pick. That is, if you're actually interested in a transfer."

"Of course I'm interested!" Zorian half-shouted, much to Ilsa's amusement. He frowned for a moment. "Unless you also plan to throw marbles at me? Is that some kind of standard training method?"

"No," Ilsa chuckled. "Xvim is special that way. Well, I just wanted to see how you feel about this before doing anything. Have a nice day."

It was only after he was out of the classroom that he realized this development greatly complicated his plan to skip out on the dance. He couldn't afford to annoy his (potential) new mentor too much, else he'd be stuck with Xvim for the rest of his education.

Well played professor. Well played.

<div style="text-align: center">- break -</div>

"Why can't we just cast that spell ourselves once the dancing starts?"

Zorian let out a long-suffering sigh. "You can't make an animation spell do something you don't know how to do yourself. You don't know how to dance, hence you cannot animate anyone to dance either. Also, how are you going to break the spell once the dance ends if you can't move your arms where you want them to be? This really isn't the sort of spell you should be casting on yourself."

Really, there were so many problems with that idea that Zorian struggled to put them all into words. Are these people thinking about the questions they're asking at all?

"So how many dances do we have to learn?"

"10," said Zorian, bracing himself for the cries of outrage.

Sure enough, a rumble of complaints erupted after that statement. Thankfully, Ilsa took over the lesson at this point, instructing everyone to pair up and scatter throughout the spacious room to give everyone enough space. Zorian could already feel a headache coming and cursed himself from letting Ilsa talk him into this. Even though room 6 was fairly spacious, there was a lot of people and the invisible pressure they gave off was particularly strong today.

"You alright?" Benisek asked, putting his hand on Zorian's shoulder.

"I'm fine," Zorian said, waving his hand off. He didn't like to be touched much. "I just have a slight headache. Did you need help with something?"

"Nah, you just looked like you could use some company, standing all alone in your little corner," Benisek said. Zorian decided not to tell him he was standing on the sidelines unless needed on purpose. Benisek wasn't the sort of person who understood the need for some breathing room. "Say, who is your date for the dance anyway?"

Zorian suppressed a groan. Of course Benisek would want to talk about ''that''.

Relationships weren't something Zorian thought about often. The chances that one of his classmates would agree to date him were miniscule. For one, such a relationship would quickly be noticed by the rest of the classmates, and the resulting merciless teasing was something few relationships could survive to any appreciable length. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, all teenage girls liked older guys. Dating a guy that was 2 or 3 years her senior seemed to be a status symbol for a girl, and majority of them loudly disparaged male population their own age as crass and immature. When they were in their first year, all the girls wanted to date 3rd years. Now that they were in their third year, all the girls wanted to date apprenticed graduates. Since there was plenty of guys willing to play along, the chances that some girl in his class would give him a time of day was negligible.

And the girls that weren't his classmates? To most of them he wasn't Zorian Kazinski, but 'that guy who's a brother of Daimen and Fortov Kazinski'. They had this image of what he ought to be like, and once it became obvious the real him doesn't match to their expectations they inevitably became upset.

Besides, all this romantic stuff... well.

"Well?" Benisek prodded.

"I'm not going," Zorian said.

"What do you mean 'I'm not going'?" Benisek said cautiously.

"Just what I said," Zorian said. "I'm skipping out on the whole dance thing. Turns out I had an alchemy-related accident and had to stay in my room for the evening."

It was perhaps a bit cliché, but whatever. Zorian had already found a particularly tricky potion that was supposed to make a person more outgoing and sociable – something that was entirely plausible for him to try to make – that would make a person mightily sick when done wrong but wouldn't actually kill him. If he does it right it will seem like a honest mistake instead of a way to weasel out of the dance.

"Oh come on!" protested Benisek, and Zorian had to pinch him to make him lower his voice. The last he needed was to have Ilsa overhear him. "It's the summer festival! A special summer festival, with the whole… parallel… thingy…"

"Planar alignment," Zorian offered.

"Whatever. The point is that you have to be there. Everyone who is someone is coming!"

"I'm a nobody."

Benisek sighed. "No, Zorian, you're not. Look Zorian, we're both merchant kids, right?"

"I don't like where this is going," Zorian warned.

Benisek ignored him. "I know you don't like to hear this but-"

"Don't. Just don't."

"-you have a duty to your family to put on a good face. Your behavior reflects on them, you know."

"There is nothing wrong with my behavior," snapped Zorian, aware that he was attracting stares of nearby people but not caring at the moment. "You're free to go to whatever you want, but leave me out of this. I'm a nobody. A third son of a minor merchant family from the middle of nowhere. People here don't give a fuck about me. They don't even know who I am. And I like it that way."

"Okay, okay!" protested Benisek, gesturing wildly. "Dude, you're making a scene…"

"Whatever," scoffed Zorian. "Leave me alone and go away."

The nerve! If there was anyone who should take a look at the impression he was leaving to people it should be Benisek! The irresponsible leech would have been dumped into a tier 3 group if it wasn't for Zorian's constant help and this is how he replays him? Why was he even hanging out with that guy?

He scoffed, trying to calm down. Stupid summer festival and stupid dance. The funny thing is that unlike most people who hate these kinds of events, Zorian wasn't strictly ''bad'' at them. He knew how to dance, he knew how to eat without embarrassing himself, and he knew how to talk to people on these kinds of events. He had to know these things, because his parents used to drag him along with them when attending these kind of events, and they made sure he knew how to behave himself properly once there.

But he hated it. He had no words to describe how much events such as these sickened him. Why should he be forced to attend something he hates when the academy had absolutely no right to demand it of him?

No, they had no right at all.

<div style="text-align: center">- break -</div>

Hesitantly, Zorian knocked on the door to Ilsa's office, wondering why she told him to come here. There is no way…

"Come in."

Zorian peeked inside and was promptly told to have a seat while Ilsa calmly sat behind her desk, drinking something out of a cup. Probably tea. She looked calm and serene but Zorian could detect an undercurrent of disapproval in her posture. Hmm…

"So Zorian," Ilsa began. "You've been doing quite well in my class."

"Err, thank you professor," said Zorian cautiously. "I try."

"Indeed, one could say you're one of the best students in your group. A student I intend to take under my wing after this whole festival rush dies down. An example to everyone, and just as much a representative of your class as Miss Stroze is."

Oh, this is ''bad''.

"I don't-"

"So, excited about the dance this Saturday?" asked Ilsa, seemingly changing the topic.

"Yes I am," Zorian lied smoothly. "It sounds like lots of fun."

"That's good," Ilsa said happily. "Because I heard that you plan to boycott the event. It was rather upsetting, I must say. I was rather clear that attendance is mandatory, I believe."

Note to self: find something horrible to do to Benisek. A spell that causes the target's tongue to feel like it's on fire or something… or maybe piercing pain in the genital region…

"Just a bunch of nasty rumors professor," Zorian said smoothly. "I would never dream of intentionally boycotting the dance. If I am unable to attend-"

"Zorian," Ilsa cut him off.

"Professor, why is it so important that I show up there, anyway?" asked Zorian, a bit of crankiness seeping into his voice. He knew it was a bad idea to blow up on a teacher, but damn this whole things was ''pissing him off''! "I have a medical condition, you know? Crowds give me headaches."

She snorted. "They give me headaches too, if it makes you feel any better. I can give you a potion for that. The fact is I'm one of the organizers of that dance, and if too many students are absent I'll end up with a black mark on my record. Especially if someone as prominent as yourself were to not show up."

"Me? Prominent!? I'm just an average student!" Zorian protested.

"Not nearly as average as you think," Ilsa said. "Just getting this far requires extraordinary intelligence and dedication – especially for a civilian-born student like yourself, who wasn't exposed to magic your entire life. People keep an eye out for people like you. Also, the fact is that you're a younger brother of Daimen, and we both known how famous he is."

Zorian's lips stretched into a thin line. Zorian was sure the last reason was what it all comes down to in the end, and all the other arguments were just excuses and attempts to butter him up. Even with his brother on a whole different continent, Zorian still couldn't escape under his shadow.

"You don't like to be compared to him," she guessed.

"No," Zorian admitted in a clipped tone.

"Why is that?" she asked curiously.

Zorian considered side-stepping the question – his family was a sore subject for him – but uncharacteristically decided to go for honesty. He knew it wouldn't do much, but he felt like venting at the moment.

"Everything I do is always compared to Daimen and, to a slightly lesser extent, Fortov. It has been that way since I was a child, before Daimen ever became famous. My parents have never been shy about playing favorites, and since they were always interested chiefly in social achievements, I was always found wanting. My family has no use for a withdrawn bookworm, and made that abundantly clear over the years. Until recently, they ignored me completely, treating me more like I was my sister's babysitter than their son."

"But something happened recently that caused them to take notice of you?" Ilsa surmised.

"Fortov happened," Zorian growled out. "He bombed several exams, had to be bailed out by father's connections, and has shown himself to be generally unreliable. Which is a problem, because he was supposed to be a spare heir for the family business, just in case Daimen dies on one of his escapades. So now I am suddenly taken out of the metaphorical closet so they can groom me for the role."

"But you don't want to be the spare?" she guessed.

"I don't want to be involved into Kazinski family politics, period. I am not a part of that family anyway. Never was. At best, I was only ever a loosely aligned associate. I appreciate them feeding me and funding my education, and I'm willing to reimburse them for that when I get a job, but they have no right to ask something like that of me. I won't hear it. I have my own life and my own plans, none of which involve playing second fiddle to my older brother and wasting time on insipid social events where people suck up to each other non-stop."

He decided to stop there, because he was getting even more angry than he started with. Plus, he suspected Ilsa didn't empathize with him much. Most people thought he was simply being overdramatic. They weren't the ones who had to live with them.

When she realized he's not going to say anything more, Ilsa leaned back and took a deep breath. "I empathize with you Zorian, but I'm afraid such comparisons are unavoidable. For what is worth, I think you're shaping up to be a fine mage yourself. Not everyone can be a prodigy like Daimen."

"Right," said Zorian, refusing to look at her.

She sighed, running her hand through her hair. "You make me feel like a villain here. Family issues aside, why are you so bothered by this? It's a party. I thought all teenagers liked parties. Are you concerned about finding a date? Just ask some first-years and they'll jump at the chance – they can't attend unless invited by an upperclassman, you know?"

Zorian released a sigh of his own. He wasn't looking for a way to find a date – he had no doubts that simply dropping his last name would net him some impressionable giggly first year for the evening – he was looking for a way out. Something that Ilsa wasn't willing to provide him with, it seemed.

"I'm not getting a date," Zorian told her, rising from his seat. "I may have to come to the dance, but I'm pretty sure that bringing a date is not mandatory. Have a nice day."

He was surprised that Ilsa didn't try to contradict him as he left. Maybe this whole dance thing won't be such a chore.

<div style="text-align: center">- break -</div>

Zorian trudged through the corridors of his residence building wearily, not in any real hurry to get to his room. The teachers had refrained from giving them any substantive homework over the weekend, knowing that everyone would be too preoccupied with the summer festival to get any work done. Normally all that free time would be godsend to Zorian, but just thinking about what he would have to endure tomorrow was enough to make Zorian lose the will for anything fun or productive, so he fully intended to go to sleep the moment he arrived at his home in this place.

As he entered his residence building he noted that someone was already in celebratory mood, because the walls in the corridor he was passing through were full of colorful splotches in vivid yellow, green, and red.

"Zorian! Just the man I was looking for!"

Zorian jerked in shock at the loud voice behind him and whirled around to face the man who invaded his personal space. He scowled at the grinning idiot in front of him.

"Why are you here, Fortov?" he asked.

"What, I can't visit my little brother?" he protested. "You too good to hang out with big bro?"

"Cut the crap, Fortov. You never come to ''me'' when you just want to hang out with someone. What do you need help with now?"

"That's totally not true," he huffed. "You're my favorite brother, you know?"

Zorian stared at him impassively for a few seconds. "Daimen is not here so you'll settle for me, huh?"

"Damien is an asshole," Fortov snapped. "Ever since he got famous he's always too busy to help out his younger brother. I swear, that guy only thinks about himself."

"The hypocrisy is thick with this one," Zorian mumbled.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that," Fortov said.

"Nothing, nothing," Zorian waved dismissively. "So what kind of trouble are you in now?"

"Um, I might have promised a friend I'll make her an anti-rash potion," Fortov said sheepishly.

"There is no such thing as an anti-rash potion," huffed Zorian. "There is, however, an anti-rash ''salve'', which is applied directly to the affected skin instead of being imbibed like a potion is. This just shows what a total dunderhead you are when it comes to alchemy. What the hell were you thinking, promising your friend something like that?"

"I kind of pushed her into a purple creeper patch during our wilderness survival class," Fortov admitted. "Please, you have to help me! I'll find you a girlfriend if you do!"

"I don't want a girlfriend!" snapped Zorian irritably. Least of all the kind of girlfriend Fortov would set him up with. "Look, why are you bothering me about this? Just go to the apothecary and buy some."

"It's Friday evening. All stores are closed in preparation for the celebrations tomorrow."

"Well that's too bad, because I can't help you," said Zorian. "First two years are all theory and lab safety, and I'm just starting my third year. We never did any serious alchemy in class so far."

So true and yet such a bald-faced lie. He didn't do all that much alchemy in class but he had done quite a bit of private study in his free time. He could make an antidote for the purple creeper rash easily, but why should he spend his expensive alchemical ingredients?

"Oh man, come on. You can speak 3 different languages and you know all the silly shaping exercises they make us learn, but you can't even do something so basic? What the hell are you doing in your room all day long if not learning how to do stuff like that?"

"You're the one to talk!" Zorian snapped. "You're a year older than me, you should be perfectly capable of doing this yourself."

"Eh, you know I never cared for alchemy. Too fiddly and boring for me," Fortov said with a dismissive wave. "Besides, I can't even make vegetable soup without ruining mom's kitchenware, do you really want me around alchemical equipment?"

Well, when he puts it that way…

"I'm tired," Zorian said. "I'll make it tomorrow."

"Are you crazy!? Tomorrow is too late!"

"Oh come on, it's not like she'll die of a goddamn rash!" said Zorian irritably.

"Please Zorian, I know you don't care about these kind of things but she's crushing on this boy and-"

Zorian groaned and tuned him out. That's pretty much all he needed to know about this 'emergency'.

"-and if my friend's rash isn't fixed by then she won't be able to go and she'll ''never forgive me''! Please, please, please-"

"Stop it."

"-please, please, please, please-"

"I said stop it! I'll do it, okay? I'll make the damn salve, but you owe me big time for this, you hear?"

"Yup!" he said cheerfully. "How much time do you need?"

"Meet me at the fountain in about 3 hours," Zorian sighed.

Zorian watched him as he ran away, probably so he wouldn't change his mind or make some concrete demands. He shook his head and went back to his room to retrieve the necessary alchemical reagents. The academy had an alchemical workshop students could use for their own business, but you had to bring your own ingredients. Fortunately, he had everything he needed for this particular task.

The workshop was totally empty aside from him, but that wasn't very unusual. Most people were preparing for the dance tomorrow and were unlikely to do some last-minute alchemical practice. Unfazed by the eerie silence of the workshop, Zorian scattered the reagents across the table and set to work.

Ironically, the main ingredient of the anti-rash salve was the very plant that was the cause of this mess – the purple creeper, or more accurately its leaves. Zorian had already left them to dry under the sun, and now they only had to be ground to powder. This was generally the most annoying part of the procedure, as purple creeper leaves released a cloud of irritating dust into the air if they were simply crushed with a standard mortal and pestle set. The textbooks he read had all sorts of fancy ways to deal with this, usually involving expensive equipment, but Zorian had a lot simpler solution: he wrapped the leaves into a slightly wet piece of cloth, then wrapped the whole thing into a piece of leather, and then hammered the resulting lump until he felt no resistance. The irritating dust would bond to the cloth and the leaf pieces wouldn't.

After mixing the leaf dust with 10 drops of honey and a spoon of oblia berry juice, he put the whole thing under a low fire, stirring the contents until they achieved uniform color and consistency. Then he removed the bowl from the fire and sat down while he waited for the stuff to cool.

"That was very impressive work," a rather feminine voice sounded behind him. "Nice improvisation with the creeper leaves. I'll have to remember that trick."

Zorian recognized the owner of the voice though, and Kael wasn't really female, despite some nasty rumors. He turned around to face the morlock boy, studying his bone white hair and intense blue eyes for a moment before returning his attention to cleaning the alchemical equipment he had used. No reason to get barred from using the workshop because he failed to clean up after himself.

He struggled to formulate a response while Kael was inspecting the salve with the practiced eye. The boy was rather mysterious, having only joined their group this year by transferring from god knows where, and not being very talkative. Plus, you know, he was a morlock. How long has the boy been watching him? Sadly, he had a tendency to lose track of his surroundings when he worked on something so he couldn't tell.

"It's nothing special," Zorian finally said. "Now your work… that's impressive. I get the notion that you're on a whole another level from the rest of us when it comes to alchemy. Even Zach can't beat you most of the time, and he seems to acing everything these days."

The white-haired boy smiled mildly. "Zach doesn't have the passion for the subject. Alchemy requires a craftsman's touch and a lot of patience, and no matter how extensive his knowledge is, Zach just doesn't have the mentality for it. You do. If you had as much practice with alchemy as Zach apparently does, you'd surpass him for sure."

"Ah, so you too think he has prior experience?" Zorian inquired.

"I do not know him as well as yourself and the rest of your peers, having only recently joined your group. Still, once does not get as proficient in this field as Zach apparently is in a matter of months. He works with the practiced ease of someone who has been doing alchemy for years."

"Like you," tried Zorian.

"Like me," Kael confirmed. "I hate to be rude, but are you finished here? I'd like to make something myself today."

Zorian apologized to the boy for the hold up, which the morlock waved off as something of little importance, and bid him goodbye.

As he walked away, it occurred to Zorian that he should have probably made some kind of sleeping potion for himself while he was at it – he had to get plenty of rest tonight, because he certainly won't get any tomorrow.

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==Author's Notes and References==
<references />

{{MotherofLearningNavbar
|[[Mother of Learning:Volume_01_Chapter_002|Chapter 002]]
|[[Mother of Learning:Volume_01_Chapter_004|Chapter 004]]
}}
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