It was, perhaps, my own fault that the first words I’d gotten from my mother in years were chastising me for delving into danger.
A part of me had hoped for more. Something meaningful.
There were so many things I’d wanted to say to my mother over the years. So many questions I’d wanted to ask.
Why had she left? Was I so inferior to Tristan that it wasn’t worth staying?
Now that I knew about Sera’s potential heritage, I wondered if that was a factor. Had Father been sleeping with another woman? Had Tristan’s failure just been the last in a series of arguments?
For years, I’d wanted to know the truth, but it never seemed like the right time to ask.
Perhaps more importantly, I was afraid of what the answer might be.
Was it my weakness that had driven my parents apart?
I didn’t think I could handle that.
So, I didn’t focus on finding the truth. I told myself I had a better approach, one that would reunite my family rather than just giving me potentially painful knowledge.
I had to bring my brother back. He was the only one who could help mend our wounds.
I had some information about Keras to work with now, at least.
I destroyed the letter.
If Keras was heading toward the Edrian border, that certainly added to the hypothesis that he was working with Edria somehow. I didn’t have any good means to look into that immediately.
I went to try find Professor Orden, but she wasn’t around. I tried a few more times over the following days, only to find learn from Professor Teft that Orden had gone into the tower.
I’d have to get answers elsewhere for a while. For the moment, I had more pressing matters to attend to. I needed to make sure I was ready for the upcoming test; I would be no help to anyone if I failed out of the academy.
Chapter XI — Enchantment
Professor Conway looked exhausted. He’d lost the usual effortless spring to his movements and deep bags were visible under his eyes, even from where I was sitting in the third row of the class.
“Since our last class was interrupted by an unsightly incident,” he began, not needing to explain to anyone what incident he was referring to, “I believe it would be pertinent to pick up where we left off. That said, our missed time will need to be covered to ensure we can cover the entire syllable, and I’m confident few of you would want an extra day of class. Thus, I will be consolidating the second half of our last lecture with today’s discussion. I will only have time to touch on each subject briefly.”
Conway pulled a chair behind the lectern and sat down, something I’d never seen him do in any of his previous classes. He was generally one of our most physical professors, always moving, frequently drawing diagrams.
It had been a full week since our last class had been interrupted. Was that still what was bothering him, or was it something else?
Did he know something that we didn’t?
I didn’t have enough information to speculate in any detail. I tried to push the questions out of my mind and put some effort into listening to the lecture.
“There are two main things that set the attunements apart from one another. The first of these factors is that each attunement gives you access to additional types of mana.”
Normally, this would be when he’d stand up and start drawing on the board, but — he didn’t this time. He just glanced around the classroom, then continued to speak. “As you already know, everyone has gray mana, and that gray mana has different properties depending on where you draw it from in the body. There are eight other types of mana that attunements on Valia can control. Every individual attunement gives you access to two of the eight.”
He paused for a moment, taking a drink from a glass of water. “We have eight attunements in Valia. Every attunement has a primary mana type and a secondary mana type that it provides. The primary mana type tends to be easier to use, but nevertheless you will find some people who focus on the secondary type.”
“For example, as a Guardian, my primary mana type is Enhancement. This type of mana is typically used to bolster physical characteristics, but it can also be added to other spells in order to stabilize or improve their functions. A Guardian’s secondary mana type is life. Most Guardians only learn to use this to rapidly recover from injuries and exertion, but there are some unusual Guardians who have learned to manipulate life mana in a way similar to a Mender, giving them the ability to heal others. This is more common for Guardians with lung or heart marks.”
I nodded along with much of the class. This was interesting material; I knew that every attunement gave users new types of mana to work with, but I hadn’t realized that it was always two types.
Actually, I was pretty sure it wasn’t. Didn’t Elementalists have three types of spells?
On a rare whim, I stood up to ask a question.
Professor Conway turned his head toward me. “Yes, Master Cadence?”
Dozens of heads turned toward me. I froze up for a moment before taking a breath and regaining my composure. “Don’t Elementalists have three types of spells? Fire, air, and lightning?”
“Ah, a good question. You’re getting a bit ahead of me; that would get into the second distinguishing characteristic of each attunement. You may sit down.”
I sat.
Conway continued. “The second thing that sets each attunement apart is how their two types of mana can be combined to create a unique result. For example, an Elementalist’s lightning is a combination of air mana, fire mana, and a bit of gray mana that serves to keep the mixture from detonating. Every attunement derives a unique function from the combination of two mana types that their attunement provides.”
Another student stood up. “If I got fire and air mana from two different attunements, could I still combine them to make lightning?”