Melody of Mana

It was late summer and my first year was slowly coming to it's end. So I had to meet with Professor Magnolia. I hadn't had much to do with him in the past bit other than our General Bard class, something which was, to be quite honest, really boring. He would be the first of my professors who'd be having a talk with me, being that he was in charge of the bards.

"Well Alana, what are your thoughts so far?" He said as he looked up from a sheaf of notes, ostensibly on me.

"Um... on what exactly?"

"Your classes, are you happy with them?"

"Yes sir, I suppose I am."

"Well, let's go over them. You're doing quite fine in your general courses. You are perhaps more limited than your fellows, but what you are using is far more advanced and well honed. Frankly I'd like to see a little more flexibility from you, but... I suppose I shouldn't push too hard."

"Thank you for that."

"Well, I would, but then there's the letters I'm getting from some of your other professors. Both Hern and Rooke have implied that if I were to take you from their classes they might resort to 'extreme measures' against me for it. Endel is also insisting that you remain in his class. He does say that he doesn't think that you have what it takes to be a front line battlemage, but we need every combat able caster we can get, so he's keeping you as well."

"Do I get a say in that?"

"No. Let's see then... your history scores are abysmal, but it's required. On math though you seem to be dozing in most of your lessons and still able to answer everything with ease... Your instrumental courses are fine, dance..."

I dreaded where he was going with this. We didn't have exams as such, so our teachers would report to whoever a student's advisor was about their progress and assignments. I felt like I was doing well in most of my classes, or at least acceptably. That is except history, I didn't know why but it was just so boring, and everything just sounded the same to me. I honestly tried to think about it as little as possible.

"Professor Etia is happy to keep you for both her dance class and her language class, though she does want to meet with everyone in them both... I think that about covers it."

"You left out both Etiquette and Healing..."

"Oh, so I did. Well, you're doing fine, you have to continue in both anyway, and we're having almost nothing from Etiquette because everything is canceled, but neither sent me any notes saying 'She's a failure! How is she here!' or anything like that." Professor Magnolia made fake panic hands as he said that. It was kind of endearing.

"I still have to meet with all of them don't I?"

"Yup, here's your list of appointments." He passed me over a piece of parchment with times and days written, all of them in the next week.

"Wonderful."

"Have fun, and send the next one in if you don't mind." There were several other students waiting in line outside his office door. They looked a mix of worried, from the younger students, and tired, from the older.

Most of the meetings went roughly how I expected them to. We chatted briefly, and I confirmed that I wished to stay in their classes. For Endel it was almost a hand wave. Rooke had a brief chat with me where he actually asked about my personal time, but little else.

Then there was Professor Etia. I'd never been in her office before and found, to my delight, that it was large and open. The floor was covered in a thick rug and while there were a couple of books, from what I could see they seemed little more than the normal reference tomes.

"Come in, sit with me," she said as I entered, in Atali of course.

She motioned me over to a small alcove off to the side, where there were two chairs and a little table. There she went over a few simple sentences with me, holding a brief conversation in her native tongue. I was still stumbling through the language, but I understood most of what she said, and that I was welcome to continue learning that particular subject.

"Your accent is thick, but not the worst I've had so far. We'll continue in your language for now." She said after she'd finished up.

"Ah yes professor. So I suppose we'll be talking about dance now?"

"Indeed! I hope you'll be joining me for next year."

"I plan to, I still haven't gotten down casting through it yet." I had been trying, but it was difficult, and I had a lot of other things to study.

"I'm sure you'll get there in time, perhaps I should even focus a couple of lesson on it... Regardless of how that turns out, I'm glad to see you're continuing."

"It's a good way to keep in shape. Also nice to have something to take my mind off the war."

"That I understand my dear. I even considered heading back home once or twice."

"But you're staying?"

"Yes. I'm not much part of any government's forces, so it's doubtful that anyone would care about me very much either way, and the opportunities here, there too good to pass up."

"Is a job teaching that good?"

"Not really, but your land has a number of powerful casters who might be tempted to join me, at least for a time."

While our language class did cover some of the basics of Atali society, it was all surface level. So I wasn't too sure about what all she was talking about. She saw my look and nodded, explaining.

"Within Atali culture mana is one of the most important things. Those with it, and with it in large quantities are valued, those without... less so. For that reason we are encouraged to marry young and have many children. The problem arises in the fact that young elven men with large quantities of mana are viewed as hot commodities. Many will have a wife and several mistresses. The more powerful they are, the more they'll have."

"I see..."

"I do not like to share. Among my own people that would be an issue, as most who might match me will have one or more other mistresses. But as prudish as I might find your humans, you are far more dedicated to monogamy."

"You're being really rather forward about this professor."

"I see no reason not to be. What if one of my students has a brother or friends who would make a good match? Would I want to miss out on that just because I tried to hide my desires? That's sort of preposterous Alana." She waved as if that much was obvious.

She was a bit weird. No other professor I'd ever known would have had this conversation with a student. That said, I couldn't say she was wrong either. She knew what she wanted, and had no issues asking for it.

The insight into the elven way of thinking was also a bit shocking. They were so forward, even more so than the nobility about how important mana was to them. It really seemed to her that the first, and potentially only characteristic in a husband was how powerful he was.

"But wouldn't anyone you marry here be a human? We don't live nearly as long as you do I thought?"

"That thought did cross my mind. While there are a number of elves who care quite a lot about how 'pure' their bloodline is, I am not one of them. The fact is that I will easily outlive any human man I marry, but how is that a bad thing?"

"Huh?"

"I'll stay young and fresh while he lives, which I think most men will like. I can leverage that even if I think he has more mana potential than myself to try and get someone capable of being amazingly powerful." She tapped her chin as she spoke.

I on the other hand was rendered speechless for a few moments. "Ah, okay. Well professor, I seem to have lost track of time; do you mind if we cut it short here?"

"Oh, so we have. Do be well Alana."

With that I quickly fled from the room. I knew that the elves had a weird culture, but that was all just a bit too much. I wondered if I had felt the same way before being reborn. I think it would have probably been a little less jarring. I'd spent so long here, that I'd really lost a lot of my flexibility to adjust for other cultures.

I hiked back to the dorms where I joined up with Kala and headed off to the baths. They were the best place to sit back and relax and with our schedules that was something we all needed. She sat next to me in one of the larger, hotter tubs and laid her head on my shoulder.

"So, you know we have a few days off when they do the next rounds of entrance exams right." She led.

"I do, and I'd like to have a meeting with you, Dras, and Lucien, if you're up for it."

She pouted a bit. "You always include them in everything."

"Not everything, but in this I will. We all need to talk about what to do if things go wrong."

"Why Dras? You barely even talk to him nowadays."

"We talk, and... I feel a bit responsible for him. He's here because I helped him make it and I want to make sure that no matter what he has an out if things go wrong."

Kala absently got a handful of water, which she poured over my head. "Fine, but when we're done we go do something fun. I want at least a little bit of time away from the gloom and doom while the newbies see if they can make it in."

"I know what I'll be doing while exams are on." Pinea spoke as she walked up, slipping into the water opposite us. It was seriously rude to just join without asking, but I somehow doubted she cared.

"Oh?" Kala asked.

"I'm going to go and get myself a dancing outfit!" she beamed.

"Are... do we need one of those?" If that had been added to supplies I'd never gotten the memo.

"What? No, Professor Etia said that she'd wanted to put it on the supply list when she took up the class, but the dean had forbade her from doing so for anyone under their last year. I really want one though, so I'm getting one. I even found a tailor who'll make it for me. You have no idea how hard that was."

"Yeah I can imagine. Your family would probably be scandalized if they saw you in something like that."

"Which is why they will never know. Want to come with me?"

"Yes," Kala answered for the both of us while I was trying to find the proper way to turn her down. "It'll be just the thing. I also want to see what all of the fuss is about."

"Great! Do you want one to Alana? I'm sure you'd look great in it."

"Absolutely not. Someone would see it, and then they'd make a big deal of it, and it would be a whole thing. I'll come with after our meeting because Kala thinks it'll be fun, but I'm taking a hard pass on this one." I made a big x with my hands in front of me. Sadly that gesture was slightly lost on these two, but they understood the refusal for what it was."

"She can be a real spoilsport huh?" Pinea asked.

"Yup," Kala answered.