What We Do to Survive

As usual, I got to class with plenty of time to spare and took a seat in the second row. Professor Meadows was already there, wandering among the statues with a feather duster while humming an off-putting tune. She looked particularly cheerful this morning, which was probably a bad sign for someone or another.

Miranda arrived a few minutes later, and a jerk of my head had her coming down to sit beside me. I gave her an appreciative look as I reflexively blocked out her suggestive mental influence. She clearly noticed the attention, stopping to pose and throwing her long hair over her shoulder.

She was wearing a particularly alluring dress today, an open-sided red number that hugged her curves and showed off her lack of undergarments. I hoped I wasn’t ruining any plans, that would be a poor way to reflect my improved attitude towards her.

“Very nice, I like the new look.”

“Thanks Orion,” she simpered, leaning forward in a way that gave me a clear look down her dress, “I’m meeting with Phineas after class.”

Damn, well there went those plans. I didn’t want to be an ass to my first and only servant, not today. I took a moment to think, trying to identify who this Phineas was.

“You mean the blue haired one?” there was a fourth year Phineas I’d heard of I was pretty sure.

“No, no, not him. He’s way too short. Phineas Lutestrum.”

I raised an eyebrow at the name, “The second year?”

“Yeah, he’s positively delicious.” She closed her eyes as she said the last part, her entire body shuddering in feigned pleasure.

“Too much information Miranda.” I smiled at her pout, happy she was feeling comfortable enough to be her usual playful self.

“Though, isn’t that a bit of a risky target? I don’t think he’s much of a mage,” I hadn’t heard anything about him like I had most of the promising mages in the previous year, “but Lutestrum is a strong name.”

I was familiar with his family at the very least. The Lutestrum’s were one of the aristocratic houses of my homeland, primarily made up of bards and musicians but with the odd mage as well.

“Not especially. He’s from a branch house, though one that was allowed to keep the name.” She waved her hand dismissively, “Even if he was from the core house, he’s a backwater noble from a tiny island.” She bit her bottom lip and quickly added, “Sorry, no offense.”

“None taken.” It was true. Places and nobles that had felt so important when I was a child seemed mostly irrelevant now. On a world stage, my home was barely a blip. It only remained its own nation because conquering it would be more effort than the place was worth. If Warbringer couldn’t protect Adara, Lutestrum would certainly not shield Phineas.

Still, it was hard to remember that sometimes. I would hear a name I remembered learning of as a child and think of them as important, even though no one outside our borders had ever heard of them. Leaving that forsaken place had been the best decision I’d ever made. I only wished I’d made it sooner.

Eventually, I moved on to the reason I’d called her over. “I don’t want to mess up your date, but I need to talk to you later. It sounds like you won’t be free tonight,” she licked her lips suggestively, “but are you doing anything tomorrow morning?”

“No, that should be fine, though the later the better.”

“Eleven? A late breakfast I guess, or an early lunch.”

“That would be good, thank you Orion.”

“Of course. Have fun tonight.”

“Oh I will.”

We spent several more minutes discussing nothing particularly significant. Neither of us mentioned our interaction the day before but I felt that we’d sufficiently put it behind us.

Professor Meadows started class with her usual spiel, “Good morning students, we have a few announcements to get through before we begin. In local news, there has been a bit of excitement on campus. On Wednesday, one particularly foolish student botched a summoning and let a demon rampage for several minutes before it was unmade. Unfortunately, four other students perished in the commotion.” She shook her head in feigned sadness, “Truly such a shame.

Additionally, I would like to commend our own Mr. Tanner,” she gestured to where the fourth year was sitting on the other side of the classroom, “on his expert use of alchemy during yesterday’s honor duel. It wasn’t what I would have done, but I doubted your opponent expected that white phosphorus!”

Damn, that sounded nasty. At her prompting, he stood up and gave a sweeping bow. I clapped politely like everyone else. Professor Meadows liked it when you did that. It was a shame I’d missed the duel, I liked to attend as many of them as I could, but I clearly hadn’t heard of it in time. It had probably been scheduled at the last minute, but I’d been busy regardless.

“Moving on, my husband still needs an assistant, but I’ve already told all you about that. This way I can tell him I’ve done it without wasting any more time.” With a loud grumble about demanding husbands, she summoned her chalk and stepped up to the board.

“Today we’ll be discussing shape transformations during alchemy. I shouldn’t have to tell you that it's sometimes useful to change not just the material but also the structure of the object. However, we’ve already discussed all that. No, today we will be going deeper!”

She rapidly sketched out a diagram on the board, showing small circles tightly clustered in different ways. “As we’ve discussed, all matter is fundamentally made up of tiny specs. What is important here is how those specs are arranged. Look at these two different patterns, see how one is neat and regular while the other is broken up? Well, these are both the same material, but their structure is different. This one will be brittle and easily fractured, while the other will hold firm under much greater strain!”

I listened intently, pen flying as I copied down her words and everything she was drawing. This was fascinating stuff and not a topic I’d studied before. Seeing the two metal sheets she transmuted act so differently was eye opening, as was her description of why they acted that way. The way this was going, I might be remaking Mistletoe’s restraints earlier than I’d expected.

The rest of class and lunch passed quickly, and soon it was time for one of the highlights of my week. Lectures in Mana Theory was not so much a class as a lecture series. There were no assignments or exams and the professor was different each week. It was also a very difficult class to get into, accepting only those who could pass a rigorous test of their mana manipulation skills.

There were only seven of us in the class, myself and six upper year students. I’d initially thought that the low attendance was mostly from a lack of interest, and that was likely part of it, but after my conversation with Janna and Miranda, I wasn’t so sure. It was possible quite a few more people were interested and simply didn’t have the skill to get in.

I personally hadn’t found the test overly difficult, but even then I’d known I was better than most at that sort of thing. Still, I had thought that just about any fourth year that applied themself could easily pass it. That probably wasn’t true.

I took a seat in my assigned spot, giving a small nod in greeting to the older student beside me. I felt much more comfortable in this class than I did in most of my others. Not only was it a very casual overall experience, but it was very freeing to know that none of these students possessed a threat to me. They were all more powerful than I was, but the strict rules of engagement ensured that they would have long graduated or died by the time they could strike at me.

He returned my nod with a smile, turning away from his work to greet me. “Hey Orion, how’d your project go last week? I remember you were stressing about it all class.”

“Quite well, thanks. Any luck yourself?”

He groaned and shook his head. “No, unfortunately not. I’ve burned through two meetings and a thousand platinum pieces in materials trying to get this blasted thing to work. Still, I think I’ve found a promising lead.”

A thousand platinum pieces? I’d never even seen that much money, much less had it to throw at my own research! “Damn, that sucks. I hope it pans out.”

“You and me both, Orion, you and me both.”

He returned to his work, making minute changes to the intricate spell diagram he was working on. I respectfully refrained from peeking, not that I would be able to learn much from such a limited display. He was trying to craft an eighth circle spell, and this absurdly complex diagram was simply one facet of that work.

Liam was one of the remaining seventh year students, and was working on completing his graduation project. Each student had to contribute some piece of original research or spellcraft to the Academy in order to graduate. Liam had told me he’d originally planned to submit something else, but had decided he didn’t want to publicize whatever it was. Now he was scrambling to make something else that was sufficiently impressive.

I was about to ask another question when an oppressive aura flooded through the room, freezing me in place. A familiar oppressive aura. A dark shadow flashed in the corner of my eye and then he was just standing there, robes fluttering in a nonexistent breeze as he stared down impassively from the raised podium.

“Good afternoon students,” he said smoothly, aura vanishing as quickly as it had appeared, “Welcome back to Lectures in Mana Theory. Unfortunately Professor Manton couldn’t make it today, so I decided to take over for him. I’m sure none of you mind?”

I nodded rapidly, the rest of the class doing the same. It somehow felt like it would be wrong to say something, but if he wanted an answer he would get one.

“Very good, very good. Now then, I’m sure you all felt it when I arrived, yes? A pressure on your backs, a lead weight in the pit of your chest. If any of you have experience with some of the other Archmages, perhaps Madam Goodwitch or Lord Mire, you may have noticed something similar. It is a skill many of us use extensively.”

The pressure returned, but fainter, a heavy blanket instead of a smothering weight.

“You should remember the talk Professor Rainer gave a few weeks ago about mana leverage. A skilled mage can expand their mana to cloak their surroundings. This is useful in a number of areas, particularly in the more sensitive forms of mana sensing. I believe he primarily focused on suppressing the effect of magic items such as suppression bands?”

I nodded, that had been a particularly interesting lesson. I’d never been subjected to magic suppressing restraints like the collar I’d put around Mistletoe’s neck, but I’d heard that it was a terrible experience. The idea of being able to smother the effects of such an item was a very appealing proposition.

“Very good, it is an important skill, especially when dealing with the outside world. Many mages disdain the use of magic items, but they are a favorite among those who seek to hunt our kind. You do not need much skill to wield a rod of fireball or a spear of piercing, but they can be just as deadly as the spells they seek to mimic.”

He paused for a moment, fixing each of us with a piercing stare. I gulped as he met my eyes, but the expected void didn’t descend to consume me. I still felt almost naked and defenseless under his gaze, but there wasn’t the horrible darkness biting at the edges of my soul that I had felt the last time.

“We as mages are powerful, far beyond the keen of the mundane men and women you once were. However, you are all still mortal. Death comes for us all eventually, but do not invite her in through carelessness or arrogance. Even the greatest mage can be brought low if they grow careless.”

“Now then, back to our main point. As you may be able to guess, those same principles can be used to suppress other things as well. Plants, animals, even people. It is far more difficult, a person’s soul is much more complex than an enchantment, but with practice it is an infinitely useful skill.”

The aura around me changed suddenly and my heart felt like it was frozen in my chest as fear, blinding, mind numbing fear tore at every fiber of my being. I had to run, but my body wouldn’t move, frozen as every terror I had ever felt seemed to rise from the depths of my mind.

I stared at the most perfect man in the world, a paragon of beauty, eyes wide as I took in every twitch and expression. I’d never been attracted to men before, but for a single moment I wanted him with every fiber of my being.

Another flicker and the vision of beauty was replaced by a vengeful god. I cringed back, reflexively looking at the ground, praying that I could avoid his wrath. I was but an insect before a storm, a single grain of sand tumbling under the ocean.

I gagged, repelled by the revolting mess in front of me. I looked away, unable to focus on something so gross, covering my mouth with my hand as I pinched my nose shut against the stench.

Then it was over and I sat back heavily in my chair, gasping for air. Around me, I heard soft groans as my classmates recovered from the experience. I’d stayed in my seat, but Liam had collapsed at some point without me noticing and was leaning heavily against the back wall, face pale.

He let us recover for a moment, then continued on, pacing back and forth slowly as he spoke. “That is just a small example of what I mean. Everything you just experienced was simply an expression of this one skill, though taken to a level few have ever attempted. I do not expect any of you to reach such a level, not without decades of practice at least, but let it be something to strive for. No, instead we will be discussing a different aspect of the skill today.”

He stopped, turning to face the board with his back to us. “I want each of you to cast a spell, something with a visible effect would be better, something dramatic maybe. Attack me, break something, anything!”

I felt somewhat strange about doing any of that, I didn’t think I could hurt him but it seemed like a bad habit to get into. Still, none of us hesitated. I formed the matrix for an elemental third circle spell I’d been practicing recently. Mana flowed and I felt the spell form.

Then a surge of mana flowed into the spell, rending apart the carefully formed matrix and dissipating the mana harmlessly into the air. Instead of the expected icy attack spell, there was nothing.

I gaped at the display. He just… crushed it. Effortlessly. Just as he had the spells each of my classmates had tried to cast, some of which had looked to be of the sixth or seventh circle. That was incredible.

“That wasn’t a counterspell” whispered the girl sitting several seats to my left, shock clearly audible in her voice. She’d been the one trying to cast a seventh circle spell, only to see it fall apart before her eyes.

“Correct. I simply smothered the spell matrix out of existence with my own mana. Useful, no?” He paused and turned back to face us. “Now then, another demonstration. I can feel that you all maintain some impressive circulations. It's well known that traditional counterspells and suppressive techniques struggle to deal with that sort of magic. Now observe.”

The overwhelming presence of his mana returned in full force, except this time it was not content in just pressing against the edges of my soul. In a technique vaguely reminiscent of what I’d done to study Mistletoe’s mana currents, his mana slid smoothly past that barrier, simply pushing through any defenses I tried to raise. It rapidly surrounded my core, cutting off the numerous connections that powered my physical enhancements.

The weakness I so hated returned full force, made even worse by the constant pressure of his mana all around me. Worst of all, I couldn’t feel my core. I knew it was there, inside me, burning with the mana I’d cultivated for so many years, but my connection to it was gone. Like this, I was little more than an ordinary human. Powerless. Pathetic.

I looked with horror at how he just stood there. This was effortless for him, seven skilled mages and he wasn’t even breaking a sweat.

“As you can see, via this sort of manipulation, it is possible to entirely cut the connection between a mage and their mana. Fortunately, this is a very difficult technique and completely unreproducible with an enchanted item. It is also not as difficult to resist as you’d think. The key is to break the wave of the attack as it begins, as once it has covered the link to your mana you can no longer try to fight it off.”

He pulled back slightly and I gasped in relief as I felt the connection return. I clutched at that connection, fearing that it could disappear again at any moment.

“Now then, for the core of today's lesson.” He smiled, a hint of cruel pleasure leaching into his voice. “I will repeatedly smother your mana, though with less force than I used this time around. You will try to feel for how I am doing it, and resist the attack. Unfortunately, this is just about the best way to develop this skill, no matter how unpleasant the experience.”

Despite his words, he didn’t seem in the least apologetic about it. Oh this was going to suck.

“Let's begin.”