I could already see a few people frowning, and I could guess at one of the reasons why: some attunements weren’t overtly “magical” in nature. The Guardian Attunement, for example, was focused on unarmed physical combat. I knew they could do things that were beyond normal human capabilities — like breaking a wall with a punch — but I hadn’t thought of that as being magic.
“The most important thing to learn is that magic, as a general concept, is easy. Learning specific spells and getting them right, however, can be quite difficult. To properly cast a spell, you must remember the exact amounts of mana you need, and then draw that mana from the appropriate parts of your body.”
Meltlake twirled her cane like a baton, creating a trail of flame that emitted from the tip and followed her motions. I heard a murmur of awe as she drew a burning attunement symbol, which lingered in the air until she waved her other hand and dispersed the flames. “I am an Elementalist. My attunement gives me access to fire and air mana at the location of the mark — in my case, my right hand. So, what would I do if I ran out of mana in my right hand?”
One of the students stood up to indicate he had a question. Belatedly, I realized it was Patrick. “Um, we’d need to convert the mana from somewhere else in our body?”
The professor nodded. “Very good. Patrick, was it? You may sit down.”
She tapped her forehead with two fingers. “Let’s take the mind, for example. As one might expect, the mind primarily generates mental mana. As an Elementalist, I can’t actually use this to cast mental spells, but I can convert it into air mana or fire mana through the use of my attunement. This is less efficient than using the appropriate type of mana, and I would not recommend attempting it until you have more experience. That said, it is an essential technique for attuned to learn.”
She gave more examples, explaining that an inappropriate mixture of mana could cause spells to change in function or fail catastrophically.
Hrm, maybe I can deliberately create new spells by mixing different types of mana. I probably shouldn’t experiment with that until I understand this much better, though.
“It’s also important not to draw too much mana from any specific part of your body. Using too much of your heart’s mana will kill you. Using too much of your mind’s mana will also kill you. Other mana pools are less likely to cause immediate death, but nevertheless, overuse is a significant danger and often can cause permanent damage.”
Oh, good, all I have to worry about is brain damage or killing myself when I use my attunement.
Of the two costs, it was the former that made me shudder.
I was willing to sacrifice a great deal in the pursuit of the power I needed, but my mind...
Well, everyone had something they were afraid of losing.
“Your first assignment will be to head to the Divinatory before our next class on Tensday. There, you will be tested to learn your current mana values in your main mana pool locations: mind; heart; right hand; left hand; right leg; left leg; and lungs. You will also be tested to learn safe mana capacities for each location. If you are discovered exceeding your safe limits without explicit permission you will face severe punishments, potentially including expulsion.”
She gave another toothy grin after that line. “Class is dismissed.”
***
I escaped the lecture hall as swiftly as I could. I wasn’t quite ready for a reunion with Patrick or any other old friends that might have seen me.
It turns out that spending three years away from school made me less eager to socialize. Who would have guessed?
I figured I’d probably catch up with Patrick eventually and make some excuses; I couldn’t run away from old acquaintances forever. Not if I wanted to succeed, anyway.
Getting to graduation was one of my highest priorities. I needed to graduate and get a high enough score to ensure I could spend my years of military service as a climber rather than in some other branch of the service. To ensure that, I’d need to make sure I took my classes extremely seriously.
I needed allies if I was going to succeed in group tests, and I’d need people I could trust for when I eventually started climbing the tower. No sane person tried to climb one of the towers alone.
Once I’d gotten clear of sight from the lecture hall, my next objective was to figure out which elective I was going to pick. Five of my classes for the year were mandatory, but I had a single elective slot to choose. I should have picked it much sooner — possibly with some advice for the teacher responsible for overseeing Phoenix Division — but it hadn’t felt like a pressing concern. With some of the electives starting that day, though, I had to make a choice.
The most obvious options were the ones that were directly applicable to my attunement. I saw three of those: Introduction to Ritual Magic; The Art of Artifice: Permanent Enchantments; and Introductory Potion Enchantments.
There were also some options that appealed to me on a personal level. Introduction to Magical Dueling would have been the obvious choice in that regard. I’d spent most of my life training with a dueling cane and studying the techniques used by my father, his father, and so on down the line.
Of course, they’d all been attuned, and most of those techniques weren’t things I could hope to mimic properly. Even now, I’d be a sub-par magical duelist; my attunement wasn’t made for direct confrontations. People would probably laugh at an Enchanter for even trying to take the class.
If they did, I’d be the one laughing after our first match.
Enchanter or not, I was still a Cadence. I knew how to fight.
I looked at some other options, and a few of the classes focused on history and tactics sounded interesting, but I knew where I was leaning the moment I saw the dueling class on the list.
I also knew I’d potentially be less competitive with my own attunement if I didn’t take an elective to enhance my skills. I decided to find a way to solve both problems at once.