On the stick of the broom, there were engravings made by the students themselves.
The class that Andrea was currently in was Runes and Enchantments. There were 12 magical subjects taught in t
he academy:
-
Elemental Magic
-
Time Magic
-
Illusion Magic
-
Familiar Magic
-
Dimensional Magic
-
Healing Magic
-
Mind Magic
-
Prophecies
-
Alchemy
-
Botanomancy
-
Telekinesis
-
Runes and Enchantments
These weren’t just subjects taught in the academy; they were also the pillars of the magical community.
A student in the academy was supposed to pick a specialization, but Andrea just couldn’t. She loved magic. How could they expect her to pick just one? While students were supposed to pick a specialization, it wasn’t a written rule.
But there were pros and cons to Andrea’s decision not to choose a specialization. Mostly cons.
Firstly, her schedule would be packed. Really packed. She didn’t mind this too much.
The second was that she wouldn’t be taught advanced magic in any subject. The academy believed in full dedication, and someone who refused to pick a specialization didn’t seem very dedicated, so they didn’t bother teaching them advanced magic in a subject. However, Andrea’s mana reserves at the time couldn’t handle most advanced magic spells, so she took this as a pro. Kinda. She kept telling herself that it was.
The final con—the one that stung Andrea the most—was not being able to get a mentor. Mentors were like personal guides to young mages in the academy. They would advise students on how to practice their magic.
That sounded pretty good to Andrea. But mentors weren’t just regular teachers. They were teachers who formed close bonds with their students. And Andrea desired that greatly. Forming a bond.
After years of trying to improve and constantly failing, Andrea had neglected her social life. She didn’t have any friends. She kept telling herself it would be worth it when she finally achieved her goals, but that time never came.
A mentor could have been a nice substitute.
Andrea shook her head, trying to stop herself from thinking regretful thoughts.
How about I stop daydreaming and focus on my task, Andrea thought.
Andrea used the tip of her finger to generate a small, concentrated fire. She didn’t need to chant "Igni" to perform it.
The small amount of magic was easy for her, even before the strange evolution granted to her by her grimoire.
She looked at the board in front of her. It displayed a certain symbol that was meant to be carved into the broom, followed by other symbols that were interlocked.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
She began carving them into the broom using the fire spell. It was delicate work—one mistake would ruin the runes. But a mage could easily correct the mistake if they knew how to perform the spell "Chronos," the magical spell for time magic.
Andrea had finished carving the runes into the broom and grinned. Truth be told, she had been looking forward to this for a while. The runes were meant to give the broom the ability to fly using telekinetic magic.
Runes were sort of like incantations in a way. But instead of words that had certain reactions when spoken, runes sealed magical powers from other forms of magic and applied them to an object, making it enchanted.
Like incantations, there were runes for certain forms of magic. If a mage tried to store a form of magic in a rune that was not intended for it, there would be consequences—sometimes deadly.
Andrea didn’t specialize in any form of magic, but if she did, she always felt like she would have chosen Runes and Enchantments since it required knowledge from other forms of magic to study.
The engravings were complete. Now all that was left was for Andrea to channel her mana into the broom. She placed her fingers on the broom and did just that.
The runes began to glow. The first rune glowed first; now Andrea just had to channel that energy to the remaining runes. Not too much and not too little. Too much, and it might shatter the entire broom. Too little, and the runes couldn’t store anything.
Minutes passed, and the runes glowed one by one until they all shone brightly, and then the light slowly faded.
“It’s done,” Andrea said.
She turned her head left and right and found that students were still regulating their mana into their runes. It was harder than it looked. A realization hit Andrea.
“Wait a minute. Am I… AM I the first to finish?” Andrea grinned. “Seriously? For the first time ever.”
Andrea couldn’t contain her grin. She thought about what it would look like for her to show off to the others how much better she was than them. All she needed to do was make her broom fly to the teacher in the classroom, and she would be acknowledged.
“All right, let’s…” Just as Andrea was about to show her superiority, the grimoire flew out of her robe and slammed itself on the table, flipping to an empty page.
The action caused quite the noise, and Andrea apologized over and over, embarrassed. She looked at the grimoire, frowning.
But it’s not like the grimoire was a sentient being that could be terrified by Andrea’s gaze. At least Andrea thought it wasn’t.
The grimoire began to draw something. A rune. One that Andrea had never seen before, but it did look familiar.
“Wait!” Andrea said. She grabbed her broom and brought it closer to the grimoire. It did look familiar. The drawing in the grimoire was the same as the runes engraved on her broom. Well… sort of.
It looked like a combination of all the runes into one. Andrea had never seen anything like it before. She wasn’t even sure if such a thing was possible.
Andrea now had a choice to make. Either go with the runes she knew would work on the broom or try the new rune that might work. Might.
She contemplated.
It’s not like the grimoire has failed me yet, Andrea thought. “Chronos,” Andrea chanted.
A transparent bubble appeared over the runes on the broom. The runes slowly faded away as if they were never there at all.
She engraved the new single rune on the broom. “Let’s hope this works and doesn’t blow up in my face. LITERALLY.”
She poured her mana into the new rune, not sure of what would happen. What happened next made Andrea grin. There was no problem with the rune. She was able to pour mana into it more efficiently and faster than the other students.
The broom levitated a few feet above the table. She could control the broom’s flight with the mana she poured into the rune.
With one of her palms, she navigated it downwards to the teacher at the front of the class.
The teacher grabbed it and examined her work.
“Andrea Wildfire, come down this instant!” the teacher summoned her. Andrea gulped. Maybe using the new rune was a bad idea after all.
Other students watched her descend.
“What do you think she did wrong?” a student muttered.
“Probably something really bad if the teacher called for her. I bet she’s in real trouble,” another student whispered.
Andrea had the same thought. She was finally on the floor and in front of the teacher.
A woman with black hair wearing round glasses held Andrea's broom in her hands. Her gaze did not move away from the rune.
“What is this?” the teacher asked.
“It’s a rune,” Andrea said.
“I’m quite aware it’s a rune. But what kind?” the teacher asked.
“Oh. Uhhhhhh,” Andrea wasn't sure how to answer. “I kinda made it up.”
The teacher raised an eyebrow.
“What I mean is, I combined all the runes into a single rune. I just thought it would be easier.”
The teacher pushed the bridge of her glasses and said nothing for a while. The silence created a tension so thick Andrea felt it could be cut with a knife.
She had no idea what the teacher was thinking. Would she believe her? Would she be punished? These thoughts raced through Andrea’s mind as she waited for a reply.
“This is genius,” the teacher finally said, making Andrea feel relieved. “Combining runes into one is very dangerous, so it is hardly ever done. There are so many patterns and possibilities of how the rune would take shape that it’s considered useless to even try most of the time.”
The teacher took a closer look at Andrea and noticed her griffin crystal ball. She started to rethink her statement.
“Well, either you’re a genius or you’re just incredibly lucky. Either way, this is some fine work. Excellent job.”
Andrea bowed and returned to her seat, her cheeks red. She had received her first acknowledgement from a teacher, and it felt good. It felt really good.
“I’m not gonna stop here. Soon, I’ll get everyone in this academy to acknowledge me. Every… single… person,” Andrea declared.