“It’s so simple,” Raehel said. “It’s just words. How do you not get it when you’ve already done it?”
“This is why I didn’t want a genius teacher,” said Archmund.
“You’re literally a genius yourself,” Raehel.
“I’m not.”
He wasn’t. He had the advantage of desperately not wanting to be a lesser noble and a clear vision of what his life would look like if he followed the road set for him, and just enough knowledge to try to avoid it. He had the life experience of someone older, which was inherently an advantage with an expiration date.
“You’re Attuned to a Gem, and you’re not even ten years old. That alone puts you ahead of 70% of nobles.”
“I’m not a genius.”
“You are,” Mary said, returning with a bowl filled with water.
“I’m not!”
Mary gave him a deeply skeptical look. He supposed he’d gotten too many lucky breaks for it to be purely coincidence. And he’d built enough of an early advantage that he could leverage it enough for comfort. But that was all. He’d exploited the one big advantage granted to him.
“Alright, Lord Genius,” Raehel said. “What’d you want to show me?”
His Ruby of Energy floated gently in the air before him, borne upon the currents of his magic.
“Could you stand back?” he said. He knew microwaves could be very painful if they hit the skin.
Raehel waved him off. “I’ve got magic resistance. You can throw whatever at me.”
“How on earth does that work?”
“I’m Attuned to a Gem that strengthens my body against magical harms, obviously,” she said. “How else would it work?”
He wasn’t going to attack her intentionally. Perhaps her nerves could resist being cooked from within by a concentrated microwave, but he didn’t want his father to spend money on a cover-up if she couldn’t. Even if she’d been an orphan or a bastard child or something else, somebody probably would care if she went missing.
He focused his attention. Now that he’d heard the theory behind Attunement, he understood the sensations of magic better. It flowed like a circuit, not just within the Gem, but through it and into him once more. Casting his Microwave sapped power from that circuit, effecting change in the physical world instead of strengthening his spirit.
Nothing happened for about ten seconds, so he dumped more magic into the spell. His magic flowed faster in the circuit, so proportionally more was shaved into the spell.
Still nothing happened.
“I can tell you’re doing something,” Raehel said. “But…”
He was beginning to feel rather silly.
Wait. There were reasons not to microwave water.
He didn’t remember the exact details, and he was sure he’d never seen it happen himself.
But the way microwaves transmitted energy was direct excitation of water molecules. Sometimes, if you microwaved water directly, it would stay liquid, even if heated beyond its boiling point. And then, if you disturbed it…
With a twitch of his finger, his Ruby Tetrahedron flew into the bowl of water. It erupted in a plume of steam, like a geyser.
“Oh, that’s certainly… curious,” Raehel said. She gave a light golf clap, even as a haze of mist infused the room. “Very curious. The invisible transmission of energy! And that’s definitely a Skill. Alright. You’ve Awakened that Gem.”
“What does that even mean?!?”
“It just means that!” Raehel shouted enthusiastically. “You have it, you get it, you use it, you make it do what it doesn’t want to! You’ve Awakened it! It’s the difference between slapping a guy or stabbing his eyes out with your fingers!”
“That’s literally it?”
“If there’s some deeper metaphysical implication I don’t know it,” Raehel said. “But they won’t let me into the deepest parts of the University Library yet, so who knows.”
Archmund nodded absently. Great. Wonderful. An expert had verified that he was Attuned but didn’t know what it actually meant.
“Anyways. Are you ready to move on?” Raehel said. She seemed on edge. If she was anything like him, she didn’t like being reminded when she didn’t know something.
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“I have a question actually,” Mary said. “What is a soul?”
“Oh, that’s a great question!” Raehel said. “No one knows.”
“Come on,” Archmund said.
“I’m serious!” Raehel said. “When I say soul, it’s the part of your self that’s not in your body or brain that lets you use magic. That’s all it is.”
“Does it reflect your identity?” Archmund said.
“Sure, I guess, the way your body and brain are your identity,” Raehel said.
“Does it persist beyond death?” Archmund asked. He knew the answer was either yes, or he was deeply delusional.
“You fought through a Dungeon. You should know the answer to that.”
He swallowed deeply. From what she said, the natural science of the day suggested he’d fought the ghost of his mother. But what did she know, really? She was fifteen and so her understanding of the universe was probably still simplified, though his own was likely as deficient.
And wait — how could the soul and brain be equal seats of identity, if the soul persisted long after the rotting of the brain?
“Look, these are questions for philosophers of magic,” Raehel said. “Not actual mages.”
At least she’d had the courtesy to give him his next lead.
“Now that you’ve seen what I can do,” Archmund said, “Do you want to revise the syllabus?”
She checked the syllabus.
“Well, you know what magic is. Mostly. You know what it does to your body and soul. Let’s see… you wanted to learn how to train magic effectively, and how to go from practicing magic and Awakening, to having and using Skills?”
That sounded about right.
“We’re better off doing practical exercises for those last two,” she said. “Let’s hammer out a plan for that.”
As the sun set they determined a training regimen:
- Practical exercises for encouraging the healthy flow of magic
- Best practices to Attune new Gems quickly and safely
- Awakening Skills from Attuned Gems
- How to develop and evolve your Skills
“Any other philosophical questions you want answered that aren’t on here?”
“Is there a System that governs the strength and positions of all things?” Archmund asked.
He knew the answer was yes. He’d seen his own stats. He had a magical artifact that let him visualize the state of his self.
Raehel’s face darkened. She started an answer, but silenced herself swiftly.
That was answer enough for Archmund.
“Everyone has natural limits,” Raehel said slowly and delicately. “There are standardized manifestations of Awakenings and Skills — Fireball, Flamethrower, Flashbang. But these could be culturally determined. Mimicry of what others do.”
She eyed the bowl. Most of the water had erupted in the steam explosion.
“Some people naturally grow stronger than others, faster than others. There are upper limits to strength that can be achieved with the aid of Gems of different sizes. If you want to break your limits, you need denser or larger Gems. But that could be a side effect of how magical flux works, like lifting weights.”
Archmund nodded. “I can tell this is sensitive.”
“The University has all sorts of metrics to measure and rank mages and heroes,” Raehel said. “But if there was proof of an objective numerical System that defined the potential and achievement of every person on Omnio, it could justify the overthrow of the Empire and its bureaucracy for a true meritocracy.”
Archmund snorted. “Right. As if the Imperial Princesses wouldn’t be exploiting the System from the age of four.”
“Assuming the System could be exploited in that way.”
He sensed pushing any further would be far more dangerous than he bargained for.
Raehel joined him for dinner, but she ate only cursorily, sitting across from him at the head of the wide and lonely table that felt just a little less lonely. His father had left again already. Mary, as usual, was not permitted to join him. The food was simple fare — wildfowl served with the last summer fruits in a butter sauce.
“Lord Granavale contracted my aid for a full semester,” Raehel said, as she wiped the last of the butter sauce from her lips. Though she’d implied she was a street urchin or a bastard and had spent most of her life in the Imperial University, her table manners were impeccable. “I thought he was exaggerating about how much you were capable of so I only drew up really simple plans, but I’ve got plenty of advanced techniques I can train you in.”
“He spoils me,” Archmund said. “Way too much.”
“Must be nice. If we spend six hours a day on your training, we can get you to the level of a fourth-year at the Imperial Academy probably by the end of the season.”
“That’s…”
He really didn’t want to do that. He’d stayed at his grade level in his last life, and even then he’d been poorly socialized. He’d heard horror stories of kids who took college level courses in middle school, though — how they couldn’t relate to their peers at all.
“You’re already past the level of an impoverished noble first-year who’s legally allowed to use magic but can’t buy any Gems before going to the Academy, by the way,” Raehel said.
“You want to cram three years of training into three months?”
“It’s theoretically possible,” she said, shrugging. “But if you don’t want it…”
He dropped his voice, noting that the servants were too far to overhear, and walked over to lean in her ear. “And Mary?”
“Does she have a Gem?”
“Gemgear.”
“Gemgear Attunement is easier, Awakening is harder. Depends on her natural aptitude.”
He moved back to his seat. She gave him a shrewd look.
“Nine years old, and you’ve already got a Gem-Attuned personal bodyguard. Very precocious.”
“Believe me, the last thing I wanted was someone willing to die for me.”
“That actually does sound pretty horrible.”
She was serious and wasn’t sarcastic in the slightest. He wondered what she’d been through.
“So that’s what you want? To train you up maybe a year or two ahead of everyone else, but to train her up as a warrior?”
He nodded. “This year will be the first Harvest Festival after the Dungeon opened and all of its wealth,” he said. “I want to make sure it goes great.”
“You’re just a kid! You want to do event planning and organizing too?”
“I’m the Granavale Heir,” Archmund said. “These lands are mine to govern and guard. An event like the Harvest Festival is a chance to see how the harvest’s doing, how all our infrastructure’s working, and how good the people feel about their lives. It’s a good chance for me to find potential allies and contributors to make my home a great place to live.”
“That sounds… quite nice, actually,” Raehel said, her eyes growing misty behind her glasses. “It must be nice to be grounded in the real world. So why’d you want me to come now instead of just waiting until the Harvest Festival was over?”
The truth was he hadn’t thought that far. He’d wanted to be trained quickly and effectively so he didn’t lose momentum, and chalked up inefficiencies as acceptable waste.
“Well, if magic reflects who we are,” he said, mentally flailing but remaining calm, “then it helps to know where we come from and where we’re going.”
“Yeah, sure,” she said, giving him a bemused look.
“And I figure it might be more fun to train through the festival instead of being cooped up in here for months. So why don’t you come along with me when I’m helping arrange things?”
“…You know what, sure. I’m getting paid anyways!”