It was one of the most familiar runes, being the colour of their house.
He turned to the wallpad and, taking his glowing pen, started to draw with slow, even strokes. The rune was near perfect, the tiny circle above the cleft in exact proportion to the curve of the arch. Ella wondered if only she could see the minor flaw in the upper crest.
Master Goss waited while the class followed suit, drawing the rune on their deskpads. He walked down the front row, looking down at the busy young men and women, frowning at some, praising others.
Master Goss frowned when he passed Ella. She had already finished.
He returned to face the students.
"Good. All done? Now, what would I need if I wanted to make this into a matrix for something simple, say… a nightlamp?"
A tall boy in the middle of the room raised his hand. Master Goss nodded. "The activation runes?" the tall boy said.
"Correct." Master Goss added a basic activation sequence to the rune for green.
Ella wondered why he was going over such elementary material. They’d created far more complex matrices than those for nightlamps!
"What else?" said Master Goss.
Ella didn’t even raise her hand. A girl near her spoke up. "The deactivation sequence?"
"Correct." Master Goss added a simple deactivation sequence. "What else? Ella?"
Ella spoke in a bored tone. "The time sequence."
"That is correct — otherwise we might have a flare on our hands, rather than a gently glowing nightlamp."
Master Goss added a time delay to the matrix. Reading the runes, Ella could see no major problems — when activated, the rune for green would cause the enchanted object to glow at the rate and brightness specified in the time sequence.
A few of Ella’s classmates stirred, evidently also confused by the step down to basic lore.
As the class muttered, Master Goss put on a pair of silver gloves. He then reached into a cabinet and withdrew a tiny vial. Suddenly the atmosphere in the theatre changed, the students leaned forward, trying to get a glimpse.
Ella’s breath caught. It couldn’t be. For all the learning, the practice, copying the runes again and again, day after day, she had never actually seen it. Real essence.
There were no more yawns, no signs of tiredness. The students were sitting up straight, their expressions expectant.
"What do I have here?" murmured Master Goss.
"Essence," several of the students whispered it. The one word holding infinite import.
"No!" Master Goss yelled, shocking them out of their reverie. "What do I have here?" he said, looking around the room, challenging. This time no one answered.
"Poison," said Master Goss. "The deadliest poison in existence. The most vicious substance you will ever encounter." He bit the words off, gazing intently from face to face. "Essence — or raj ichor — is black, slick, odourless..."
"Tasteless?" Trellon, the class clown ventured.
"Would you like to find out?" Master Goss held the vial up.
"Umm, no…" Trellon said, at a loss for once.
Ella had heard this all before, but somehow, with the actual substance held up before her eyes, it was all the more real.
"No, seriously, Trellon. Come here, there’s something I’d like your help with."
Trellon stood up and walked down to where Master Goss faced the class.
"Wait here a moment," Master Goss said.
He left the room, taking the vial with him. Instantly murmurs rose up from the students. Even Amber seemed drawn out of her melancholy.
Master Goss re-entered the room. He still carried the vial in one hand. In the other he carried a large white cat. Probably a stray from the Poloplats, brought up scratching a living from the scraps of the food markets.
The cat mewled.
"Here," said Master Goss. Without ceremony he handed the cat to Trellon.
The youth struggled for a moment before the cat settled in his arms. Its eyes closed contentedly as it began to purr.
"Many of you are going to object to this. In fact, probably most of you. However the High Enchantress not only permits me to give these demonstrations, she approves."
Remembering everything she had been taught about essence, Ella began to feel sick.
"I take no pleasure in this, but I would rather a stray animal than one of my students, who I have spent so long teaching. Better the lesson be learned now, an unpleasant memory, than become a grim reality some time in the future. You may put the cat down, Trellon."
The boy put the cat down. It looked up at him in surprise, and then began to rub against his leg.
Master Goss separated the cat from Trellon with his boot. "Now stand back, Trellon. Further. Right back, by the door there. Good."
All eyes were on the cat. Ella heard a gasp from next to her and looked quickly at Amber. Her friend had her hands over her eyes, allowing just a crack to show through.