We approached in spite of being dangerously close to being late to class. It was just too interesting to miss.
“...and this one’s engine is powered by a combination of three types of mana, primarily motion. Unfortunately, the operating drain is too fast for it to refill itself, so we have to periodically refill the mana chamber. We use liquid mana for this model, but they have a few crystal-run models in Caelford.”
The speaker was a tall, black-skinned gentleman with an attractive suit and wide-brimmed hat. He was leaning back against the vehicle, near the wheel. From his accent and skin, I assumed he was a Caelford native, which also helped to explain how he had the wondrous vehicle.
The Caelish were famous for their mechanical achievements, including inventing trains nearly a century ago, and more recently these automobiles. I’d heard stories that they even had ships that could sail through the skies... I was interested in seeing one someday.
How’d he get the automobile all the way here? Did he drive across the continent?
I’d never heard of anyone making the trek all the way from Caelford in a small vehicle like this. The broken lands between Caelford and Valia were inhospitable at best, and rarely traversed before the advent of the railway. Maybe he was an inventor and constructed one here?
I tried to get close enough to the engine area to inspect the runes, but there were too many other students in the way.
The speaker laughed. “I wasn’t expecting this much attention. You kids have good eyes. If you like what you see, I’d start saving up now. I’ll be bringing the first ones to market around the time you graduate. And if you want a slice of the profits, I am looking to hire a few extra hands...”
I blinked. He was going to be selling automobiles? That seemed like a positively decadent product. A vehicle that ran on liquid mana had to cost an exorbitant amount to both build and maintain. Still, I had to acknowledge that it sounded like a smart strategy if he could build them himself. The wealthy would probably bid extraordinary sums to be among the first few Valian citizens to own one. It would be a symbol of success, and my fellow nobles loved those.
He started handing out trade cards to some of the students. Those were yet another rarity, here in Valia. I’d seen a handful of them in my life, but printing them was too expensive to be worthwhile for most small scale merchants.
I took one and glanced at it. Most of the card was text, but it was accompanied by a colored image — another sign of great expense — of the gentleman himself holding a stylized key.
Aloras Corrington
Corrington Carriages
All models and varieties available
Early orders for our unique mana-carriages available — inquire at our office!
Offices at 12 Edinger Lane in Beaufort
I didn’t recognize the address, but Beaufort was the name of the city right outside of the academy. That helped explain why he was marketing his business right here. A number of the students and professors would be wealthy. If he was the first person producing automobiles in Valia, he stood to make a tremendous profit.
Corrington? That name sounds familiar somehow...
I marked his name down on a list of people I’d consider working for if I needed to make some money during my second year. A “mana engine” undoubtedly would require Enchanters to work on it, so I’d probably be a good candidate for one of the assistants he was looking for. He’d probably need alchemists to make fuel, too... Learning how to do that would be useful.
I was still daydreaming about how I’d go about making an engine from scratch when we arrived at dueling class. Fortunately, Lord Teft arrived even later than we did.
Unfortunately, he was also carrying a large unlabeled box. Teft had toned down his antics from directly assaulting students down to merely pairing us up for progressively stranger forms of practice, but from his smirk, I could tell this was probably going to be worse than usual.
Teft lowered the box, dropping it the last few inches for a heavy ‘thud’.
“Today’s lesson is one of the most critical things you will ever learn.”
Right, just like every other lesson. Got it.
Teft sat on top of the box, folding one leg over the other. “By now, unless you’re particularly daft, you’ve picked up on the fact that the world has a large number of different types of mana, and each attunement only has access to a few. In a duel, you need to understand how to properly counter any type of magic you encounter.” He thrummed his fingers on the box, scanning the class as he spoke.
“In most cases, your best solution when a spell is hurtling at you is to get out of the way. This is not always practical, however, especially in enclosed spaces or for particularly quick spells. Thus, it is important to know how to counter them. There is a simple rule that I expect you to commit to memory: ‘Like deflects like, opposites nullify.’”
That actually was interesting information, if it was true.
After a moment of silence, he waved a hand expectively. “Repeat the phrase, class. Like deflects like...”
“Like deflects like...,” we droned, out of sync. At least it wasn’t as bad as when we tried to sing the Valian anthem. I shuddered every time I remembered that cacophonic dirge.
“Horrible, but good enough, I suppose. Now, what does that actually mean? A sufficiently powerful spell constructed of the same type of mana as an attack will deflect the offending spell onto a different trajectory. A spell is weakened from the impact and may lose cohesion, dispersing entirely. This is why you rarely see simple bolts from dueling canes bouncing off of shields. If you want to guarantee that you’re going to nullify a spell entirely, however, you don’t use the same type of mana — you use the opposite.”