Alissa

  The sound of the door opening woke me up. It was the guy from earlier. I think his name was Paul? “Ah, I see you are awake then. Do you feel like eating something?’

  “What time is it?” I managed to croak out through my rough throat.

  “It is morning. I don’t know exactly what time though. Today, I want you to try to at least move around. Maybe even help one of the chore groups.”

  “And why would I do anything you tell me to?” My voice was cold. So far this guy had told me nothing. If anything, he generated more questions than he answered. I knew quite a few people like him and I was not going to put up with it.

  His eyes flashed golden at my words. Something about it caused my throat to tighten. “For now, just trust me. It will make more sense as time goes on. However, if you want to keep pushing, we can take the hard way.”

  Swallowing, I lowered my eyes to the ground. My head tilting a bit down and to one side. The involuntary action surprised me. Something about it didn’t seem normal, but I couldn’t place my finger on it.

  “I do have a bit of news for you though.” Head snapping up, I looked into his eyes. “Eli is alive. Though I doubt you will ever see him again.”

  Nearly jumping out of bed, questions started to fall out of my mouth. “Where is he? How do I get to him? What do I need to do?”

  His hands reached forward, gently pushing me back down to the bed. His face was dark as he spoke. “He is with the mages. Attending one of their academies. There is no way for you to reach him and even if you did, there can never be trust between us and them. That group, and all those like them, have done too much to ever be trusted again.”

  Shaking his head, the darkness evaporated. Vigorously shaking my head, I emphatically said, “Eli isn’t like that. He would never do something that could hurt me.”

  “Just forget about him. No trained mage is trustworthy. The academies are too good at their job.” He was implying that the academies, whatever they were, brainwashed and twisted people. The thought of anyone doing such a thing to Eli made me angry.

  A soft growling sound filled the silence between us. Vaguely aware of Paul in my anger, I did manage to notice when Paul’s eyes widening at something he saw. Trying to ask him what he had meant, I realized I couldn’t talk. My jaw was clenched. Muscles started to visibly ripple on my arms.

  “Ok, calm down.” Paul’s calm voice came through, muffled but audible. Thing was, I didn’t want to calm down. I wanted Eli. No one was going to stop me from going on and finding him. “God damn it.” The sound of snapping filled my ears as my vision became darker for a second. A door opened for a second, voices yelling back and forth before shutting again.

  Paul

  Alissa was shifting. It hadn’t even been a day since she came to and she was already shifting. Albeit, the shift was completely uncontrolled. Rushing to the door, I yanked it open. Yelling down the hall, “Barbra, Gordon. Lock this door, stay out, and keep everyone away.” As the door closed, I heard both of them running up.

  Those two would follow my orders, even if they heard me fighting for my life. Turning around, I watched as her body twisted and writhed. Bones broke and reformed as she changed. The heavy door bolt slammed into place just in time. She stood up on all four paws. Her head reaching my chest. A chestnut brown color fur flowed to a red-gold color at the tips.

  Her growl didn’t stop. Eyes a mix of gold and green watched me. Focusing on staying relaxed, I spoke “It seems like you managed to change, and your change is beautiful. I am sure that you will find your mate in no time.”

  Most wolves I have met love to hear that they might find their mate in the pack. They tend to stop growling as their tail starts to wag at the mention of it. Her reaction was the exact opposite. Lunging at me with her mouth wide open, I lifted up an arm. Mouth wide, I forced my clenched fist down her throat.

  Her mouth clenched down on my arm. I ignored the sharp canines digging into my muscles. Mind flashing over everything, I tried to figure out what was setting her off. One boyfriend would not cause this sort of reaction.

  Well, it would make the human side angry or sad. However, the wolf side would know that such a relationship was doomed. She would have pushed her other half to accept that. In this case though, the wolf was the more aggressive of the two. Forcing a shift and then attacking me, her alpha. No wolf in their right mind would do such a thing.

  It hit me. The reason she was out of control. Her wolf was convinced that this Eli person was her mate. Not that it wasn’t impossible. There were more beast to human couples than there were pure beast couples. But a beast to mage couple was nearly impossible. In fact, none had been recorded in the last four hundred years.

  Sighing, I relaxed. “So, that’s how it is. I will see what I can do.” Hearing me, her growling stopped. “Let me contact a few people. Hopefully someone on the mage council will still follow some of the older agreements.”

  Hearing that, she relaxed some more. Slowly, her mouth opened and pulled back. A tentative lick cleaned the blood as it trickled out of the puncture wounds. Seeing the wounds visibly healing, her body finally let go of the rest of her tension. She crumpled to the ground, passed out.

  Rapping on the door in a set pattern, the dead bolt clunked open. “How is the pup?” Came Gordons hard voice.

  “She is fine now. Probably will be out for the rest of the day.” I said as I walked out of the room. Being careful to make sure the door closed and locked closed.

  A gasp came from the other side of the hall. “Did she do that to you?” Barbra was standing there. Her eyes fixed on my arm. The wounds nearly healed. “I think I need to teach our new pup a lesson in how things work around here.”

  Grabbing her arm as she went to move toward the door, I shook my head. “The entire incident was my fault. I didn’t realize some things. We will need to see if any of the various new beasts have any mates already. If they do and someone tries to mate them…”

  Eyes widening, she finished my statement. “Things could get very nasty. So, where is her mate or do we not know?”

  “In an academy.” My hand rubbed at my face. I was not looking forward to talking with the damn mages. There were a number of agreements between each group. One of which stated that any mates needed to be allowed to live with their mate. A mates very presence helped to balance the beasts emotions and help keep it under control.

  No one wanted any beast to lose control. It usually meant dozens of people were dead and our secret was likely threatened. Unfortunately, there were those that tried to use a mate to try and control or threaten someone. It tended to end up with everyone dead.

  Still, I had to try. Rubbing my face one last time, I walked off in the direction of my office. Dreading the call I had to make.

  Eli

  I was dreaming about Alissa when an incessant buzzing started to come out of nowhere. Eventually I realized that it was some sort of alarm and opened my eyes. Laying in bed, I stared at the ceiling. Just enough light shone into the room to cast everything in deep shadows.

  Sudden bright light lit up the ceiling. My eyes shot closed as the light sent spikes of pain into my brain. Either Sàga had enough of the buzzing, or decided my cursing meant I was awake, but either way it ceased.

  “What time is it Sàga?”

  “Five in the morning. You have an hour to get up and get to your first class. I would recommend starting to fill a spell circle before doing anything else.”

  Groaning at the memory of the pain yesterday, I formed the simple spell diagram. As soon as I started to push power into it, I rose off the bed. My shower was only warm. Apparently this building suffered from not enough hot water.

  Getting dressed in my robes, I grabbed Sàga. Walking outside, I made my way to the field across from our dorm. I wasn’t the first person there. Two professors stood there, watching each of us as the group slowly trickled in.

  Moving to one side, I waited the last few minutes needed to refill my core. As soon as it was done, I started to pull the mana back from the spell. Pushing it in the center of the sphere. A slight pressure in my mind started. Quickly it developed into a small headache. As the minutes passed, the headache started to ramp up. At this point, my heart joined it in crying out for sympathy.

  As soon as the pain in both were just on this side of tolerable, I stopped pushing mana. Just letting the core flex and stretch to accommodate the new amount inside of it. A sudden male voice startled me. Nearly losing control over the spell, I quickly wrangled it back under control.

  “Not bad. Though it is a bit slow later down the road. Who showed you this method?”

  I bowed slightly as I answered him. “My device did, professor.”

  His eyes rose as he said, “So you read and followed the instructions enough to complete that task. Good for you. Many of your fellow students will come to learn why they need to be proactive in their lessons before the end of the day. For now I will let you get back to it.” With that he turned and walked toward another student. They seemed to be concentrating on something in front of them.

  A soft vibration from Sàga reminded me to finish what I had started. While I had managed to put more mana in on the first round than last night, I still had half a spells worth to go. For the next ten minutes, I slowly forced the last of my mana out of the spell and into my core.

  “Good job, your core has grown in size by fifty percent from both this and last nights session.” Sàga said.

  “That seems like less than it should be. I forced enough mana into my core to fill it four times.”

  “The area in the sphere grew by just under four times. Some of the mana was used to reinforce and fix some issues in the core wall.” That was impressive, though it would mean that I would need to force more mana into it to see any appreciable increase in size. “As soon as it reaches five times the original size, we will start to compress it down. But that is quite a ways off.”

  Standing, I started to pull mana back into the spell. “Everyone, gather around.” Came Professor Olivia’s voice. Jogging over, I joined near the back of the massive crowd. There had to be fifty people in this one class. “All of you should have taken the time to read over all the paper work and follow the instructions. How many of you have active devices and emblems?”

  I raised my hand. To my surprise, only a handful of the rest did the same. Some one yelled out “Why would we care? It’s not like we wanted to be here. Just send us back.”

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  Professor Olivia’s face seemed to gain a ferocious quality as she grinned. “That isn’t happening. You are here until you can prove to no longer be a threat to those around you, or until you are dead.” Above us, a small spell circle formed, flashed, and disappeared . It was so fast that I nearly didn’t see it.

  The air growing heavy as something pushed against my mana. It was trying to force me to the ground. Mentally, I tried to use my mana to protect my core. Pushing against the force purely out of reflex as I fought to stay standing. Around me, people crumpled.

  In the end, only the group that had raised their hands were still standing. The force did not let up as the professor continued. “This was a simple spell. A little more force and I could kill each of you. Do not think you get a choice in any of this. It is either you learn, or you die. Now, get up and run five laps around the field.”

  The field was larger than two football fields put together. Not only that, her spell was still going. Walking was a slog. My legs threatening to buckle with each step. My body felt like it was two times heavier than usual. Seeing the others starting to jog, I nearly fell as I forced myself to speed up.

  It got easier to move as I got used to it. My body starting to adjust my stride automatically as I continued to move. Nearly through the third lap, I was able to jog without focusing on my footing.

  Taking the opportunity, I focused inward and quickly formed the spell and poured mana into it. Surprisingly, the more mana I moved from my core and into the spell, the less the professor’s spell pushed on me.

  Neither of the professors had moved from where they had started. As I was on the leg leading up to them, both watched me. Professor Olivia’s eyebrows furrowed until the male professor said something to her. Her eyes widened as she smiled. Then she waved a hand in my direction as I passed. All the weight that had disappeared as I moved my mana suddenly came back, nearly causing me to trip.

  Gritting my teeth, I finished my last two laps near the back of the initial group. I was still a couple of laps ahead of the majority of our class. “That will be all for this class for the day. If you have not done so, take the time to activate your devices. For those that have already done so, you are free to go get breakfast.”

  A number of people around me started to fall to the ground. Sitting or laying down as they worked to get their breathing under control. I pushed my body forward, heading to get food. People flowed in and out of the lunch room steadily. Some with a piece of toast or a cup as they went off to their first class.

  Quietly, I walked in. Trying to look like I belonged. Trying to not catch anyone’s attention. Grabbing a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich, I started for the door. Just as it looked like I was home free, the guy that threw the fireball at me yesterday stepped into my path.

  “Well, well, well, look who we have here.” He said, sneering at me. His friends surrounded me, cutting off any hope I had for escape. “It seems like you are learning fast. I figured no one from your group would learn how to even pull a thread of magic for a couple months. Yet here you are with an active emblem. Congratulations on being on par with a mage child.”

  “I have to get to class. Can we get to the point of this whole conversation?” I said, trying to act as if I wasn’t afraid. I was sure that if he wanted to, he could attack me here and no one would do a thing.

  He stepped forward, his hand reaching around my shoulder and pulling me in close. “Know what. I think I will let you go. It would be no fun to attack someone as weak as you. So, grow and give me a challenge when I do come for you.”

  A sharp rap on my back sent me stumbling forward. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I took off in a fast walk to my next class. Sàga directed me back to the field I had come from. Again Professor Olivia stood in the center. Most of the class was sitting on the ground, meditating with their devices in their hands.

  Seeing my approach, the professor called out, “Take a seat wherever you like. Just make sure that you have enough room to swing your arms without touching someone else’s area.”

  Stopping, I sat where I was. No one was near me. Taking my time, I quickly finished my sandwich and my cup of coffee. Setting the cup down, I focused inward. Taking threads of mana out one after another, I formed the one spell I knew. After one night of practice, I could hold four without issue. Seven if I did nothing else and was not startled.

  “You need to get into the habit of experimenting with your spells. That way you can be more adaptable to different situations.” Came Sàga’s soft voice from my pocket. “Why not try layering the spells on top of one another? What would happen if you formed a box with them? Things like that.”

  Not wanting to waste the mana I had already stored, I used two threads to form the same spell diagram. It activated faster and stronger but seemed overly unstable. Somehow I could tell that they would fall apart as soon as I looked away.

  Holding the three spells in my mind. I pulled another thread out. Forming two spells with it. One after another. Activating it, I noticed that the two were slightly weaker. But together they were more stable. Almost as if the act of using the mana for one spell stabilized it for the second.

  Comparing the three sets of spells I held, I saw where my attempts were warped. Before I could explore what had caused the warp, Professor Olivia spoke, “Welcome to Basics of Magic. Does anyone know the difference between magic and mana?”

  “Isn’t mana what is used to cast magic?” One of the people across the place said.

  “Close, but not quite.” The professor said. “Magic is typically cast with mana but it does not require it. For example, Demonic and Angelic magic are not cast with mana. There are other cases of similar things happening naturally. All of the spells we will teach you will use mana, just know that it is not the only type out there.”

  A wave of her hand produced a series of six different circles, each with a different symbol. Light wave along the lines of each, showing how to form each in one continuous motion. Above each was a single word. For example, the circle with a simple three pointed flame had the word fire hovering over it.

  “You have each been told what elements you can use. Your emblems also show this. This does not mean that you cannot use the other elements, they will just be harder and cost more. Each spell will start with something like these as they help to input and control the type of mana entering a spell. For your first spell you will take one of these and combine it with this symbol.”

  In the air in front of her hovered a circle with a line cutting across the center. On the line sat another line. In the center of the smaller circle the line looped one time. I felt like I had seen that symbol before. It just sat just outside my reach.

  “First form the element input, then take the same thread and form the spell symbol.” Slowly a bright dot formed the two symbols. When it was finished, she continued, “after you finish, I would recommend casting the spell while saying a word. Choose something that you don’t typically say. You want your mind to associate the word with the spell. After a large number of casts, your mind will reflexively form the spell when you say the word.”

  Her lips moved, though I didn’t hear what she said. Suddenly her spell shrank, and a ball of yellow light formed around it. People around me gasped. It was our first time seeing magic after all. Well first time seeing magic cast from the beginning to the end.

  Someone spoke up with a question causing us to all stop our rush to try the spell ourself. “Why did you need the complex circle on the ground when you teleported us?”

  “That spell was built to use the circle. It allows the caster to define the radius and coordinates inside of it. That way you don’t need to memorize it which is useful when multiple people are going to use the spell and one may not have time to remember the long string of numbers needed.”

  With that, she turned and walked around. Making a point to not expand on what she meant. Shrugging, I recalled the circles she had demonstrated. Choosing fire, I slowly formed the spell. Pushing mana into it, I said “Lux.” Yes, I know it is Latin for light. I couldn’t think of anything else, plus it wasn’t like I spoke Latin. In fact, I only knew it because it helped with a few of the games I used to play.

  The spell failed. Breaking into pieces and dissipating as I felt something akin to heartburn. Clutching my chest, I breathed slowly as I waited for the pain to fade. Watching everyone around me cast their spells. Lights of five different colors were all over the place. The odd spell out was the black sphere.

  Light seemed to fall into it. The immediate area around the caster was visibly darker. Oddly enough, the caster seemed not to be phased by this. In fact, they looked transfixed by whatever they were looking at.

  Then a person next to them cast the spell creating a yellow orb. Where the two fields met, the two fields fought. Lightning shooting off as the air twisted. Based on the fact that none of the other spells nearby were interacting with the dark orb, I could make the educated guess that the yellow orb was the light magic version.

  With the pain gone, I focused on pulling a thread of mana to the palm of my upturned hand. It glinted as the light caught it as it waved in the air. Carefully forming the fire version of the light spell, I said, “Lux.” I watched as the spell activated and shrank. A small crimson orb encased it. A bit of heat was released, but it was nothing more than a warm towel that just went through the dryer.

  At first, the orb just floated there. It took in a tiny amount of mana as it gave off light, but did nothing else. Annoyed, I mentally pushed the thing to the side. The crimson ball moved as if it had been shoved. No matter where I shoved the spell, the ball followed it without delay.

  As soon as I stopped the flow of mana, the ball of fire started to sputter and distort. Looking at the spell, I quickly understood why. The spell was eating itself. With more and more of the diagram gone, the spell had a hard time running. Finally, the spell reached some sort of threshold and shattered. Millions of shards broke away, glittering as they dissipated.

  I raced through casting the other three elements I knew I had an affinity for. Each had their own specific color of light. The oddest being earth. Its light was a muddy brown color. Unsurprisingly, neither of the other two elements worked for me. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t even form the element input. Not that it worried me. Based on what the professor said, there was a way for us to use those elements we didn’t have an affinity for, so there had to be some trick I was missing.

  Looking around, I noticed the professors were helping students that seemed to be having issues. “Try casting the spells in different ways.” Came Sàga’s voice from my pocket. “Knowing what each combination does will make you far more flexible than your classmates. Mixing spells components may also help you make spells that are better for a given situation.”

  Thinking about what she said, I could go one of two ways, consecutively placing the parts or running them in parallel. Seeing as working two threads of mana at the same time would be a bit hard, I pulled out one thread and tried putting two of the elements consecutively.

  The fire element formed easily, and I started to draw the wind element next, figuring the two would go well together. As soon as I went to connect the last line, the element shook and flexed out of my control. By the time it had calmed down, the fire element was all that was left. I tried this with the two other elements. Each produced the same effect.

  Finally, I tried to add a second fire element. It snapped into place without issue. Finishing the spell, I cast it. The ball of fire was a darker red and much hotter. I had to yank my hand back as the fire seemed like it was cooking it. Cutting off the spell, I watched as the ball of heat shrank before finally sputtering out.

  Breathing in the cool air, I took a second before my next experiment. Pulling out two threads, I took my time. Weaving them both into different elements before twisting the final threads together and forming the light diagram. Suddenly I realized what the symbol in the light diagram was. It was the symbol for a lightbulb in an electrical diagram.

  Pushing the distraction to the side, I finished and cast the spell. Combining fire and air produced a spinning ball of orange-red. Swirls of fire flew up off of the ball. It looked like a ball of real fire. Well, except for the whole hanging in the air and there being no visible fuel, that is.

  Suddenly feeling tired and fighting a headache, I released the spell as I leaned back. Laying on the ground, I watched the blue sky as the small wispy clouds slowly wandered across. My mind slowly tried to figure out what was different between the three ways I had created that spell.

  It was almost like the elemental diagrams filtered and converted my mana into the chosen type as it passed through. Since there were no other elements in the end result, none of the other elemental diagrams would work. The odd part was that the fire mana had become stronger as it passed through the second diagram. Almost like more mana had been converted into fire mana. Was there a sort of null mana?

  “Sàga, is there any non element attributed mana? Something about how that second fire spell was weird and I cannot figure out what happened.” I asked.

  To my surprise, it wasn’t Sàga that answered, but Professor Olivia. “All mana in unattributed until it enters something. That object will affect what types of mana are attributed to it. How much of the mana is changed depends on how strong the affinity is. It usually takes a student a few nudges by a professor until they realize this though.”

  Tilting my face back, I looked up at the professor as she looked down at me. “How can one go about increasing their affinity to any element?”

  She smiled. “There are a few ways. One way is to pull the mana out, as you have been doing. The only difference is that before you push it back into your core, you convert the mana first. Just push the mana into one of the element diagrams. Over time this will increase your affinity for that element. The only issue is that you want to keep the elements in balance.”

  “What would happen if I have too much of one element?” While I could guess, I thought I might as well ask.

  In response, she held a palm out. A ball of reddish-hued steam formed in her hand. “This is a balanced ball of water and fire mana. Watch what happens if I add more water to it.” The ball expanded outward, nearly touching my chest before compressing to a small marble. “As the water mana entered, it heated up and expanded. Once the fire mana was no longer enough to keep the water in a steam state, the entire thing shrank as the steam turned to liquid.”

  “And any elements we don’t have? How would we go about getting their affinities?”

  “That is not something you should worry about for now. For now, I would focus on learning everything you can while taking what increases you can while you can. Now, off to your next class.” With that, she walked away.

  Groaning, I stood up and stretched. Taking a few seconds to look at Sàga’s screen to find my next class, I turned and walked toward Beginners History.