“One such example of the dangers of over using magic is Helton Wardwright, who, famously, was killed by his own set of defensive wards when he forgot he had changed the decryption phrase a week prior.”

  — Excerpt from ‘A Simplified Approach to Spellcraft’ by Damian Fendt, a treatise that, amongst other things, cautions against use of spells when not expressly needed.

  Quinn’s eyes wandered around the classroom, noticing the same barely contained excitement in his fellows students that he was feeling himself. They were all sat in neat rows of desks, twenty in total, facing a chalkboard that dominated the front of the room.

  A few feet in front of the chalkboard and against the wall opposite the door sat the final piece of furniture in the otherwise sparse room, one that held the attention of most of the students. It was a single empty desk, identical to the rest except for the clock sitting flush against its edge.

  The clock ticked closer to noon.

  One of the students, a dwarf with greasy brown hair and an unkempt beard, broke the tense silence that had overtaken the room’s inhabitants. “The last of us got here a good five minutes ago, where’s the professor?”

  Across the room someone, who Quinn had made sure to choose a seat as far away from as possible, gave a response.

  ”I don’t know, but if he doesn’t show up I will be voicing my complaints to the University’s administration.” Said Max in the same stuck-up tone Quinn remembered from his first encounter with him in the Linton Tower common room.

  There were a few murmurs of agreement from the handful of nobles seated beside Max, all dressed in the same gaudy clothes of the well-to-do that he had already grown used to seeing his roommate in.

  The clock ticked again and, at the precise moment the hand reached its apex, a man strode into the room, focused entirely on the bronze pocket watch he held in his hand. He wore a finely tailored suit vest, had wavy blonde hair that remained impossibly still despite his brisk pace, and against his side rested a leather satchel that had to have been polished earlier that day. Looking up from his watch, he tucked it into the pocket of his vest. Pulling the door shut behind him, he crossed the room.

  Upon reaching the desk in the corner, he removed his polished satchel and laid it down. He gave the class a once over and, apparently satisfied with what he saw, turned to the chalkboard. Plucking a piece of chalk from the tray at the bottom of the board, the man began to draw, filling the room with a sharp staccato sound as a shape Quinn vaguely recognized began to form on the board.

  ”I am Professor Versint and I will be teaching you the most essential class you will ever take in your time here at University, Aether Control.” He said, voice just as punctuated as the chalk on the board. “We will begin today with a spell circuit you should all recognize, as it is with this circuit that you completed the practical portion of your entrance examination.”

  The sound of the chalk stopped and Professor Versint stepped aside. On the board, under an elegantly written ‘Professor Versint, Aether Control’, sat a near replica of the circuit Quinn had used a few days prior. There was one notable difference though, one that Quinn saw his classmates also picked up on when the person in front of him, a young woman with chestnut hair tied back in a messy bun, raised her hand.

  ”Yes Miss…?” Asked Versint– taking a quick glance at the clock as he did so.

  ”I’m Cassidy Hilton.” She replied.

  Versint looked back to her and gave her a wave of his hand to prompt her to continue her question.

  “Apologies Professor, but that circuit appears different from the one used in my examination, it is missing something at the bottom.” She said.

  A frown flickered across Versint’s mouth before morphing into a strained smile. “Excellent observation Miss Hilton, I have removed the portion of the circuit meant for actively drawing in an Aether flow. That would be contradictory to our purposes here today after all. Now-”

  Cassidy raised her hand again and Quinn could’ve sworn he saw the professor’s eye twitch slightly. Regardless, Versint gave her raised hand a nod of acknowledgement.

  ”What exactly are we doing today Professor? And will we be getting a syllabus like in our other classes?” Asked Cassidy.

  The professor turned back to the chalkboard and gave the words ‘Aether Control’ an underline. “We will be learning, as indicated by the name of the class, Aether control. There will be no syllabus. If anyone has any further questions, feel free to see me during office hours.”

  Quinn considered raising his hand to point out that, without a syllabus, they had no way of knowing when or where his office hours took place, but figured it wasn’t worth the effort. If he needed to find him after class, he was sure someone would know how. Maybe he’d ask Andrew— the RA had told Quinn to come to him if he needed help.

  Quinn brushed the thought aside as Versint began speaking again, voice raising slightly in volume to be heard over the rustle of papers as people pulled out journals to begin taking notes.

  ”Now, as you will have been told during your entrance examination, the Aether is not your friend. It is a lawless, chaotic, primordial thing that does not wish to be contained. While not actively malicious, it is safe to assume that what an Aether flow wishes to occur is not the same as what you wish to occur. In fact, odds are that what the Aether flows wants is antithetical to your continued existence.”

  Versint paused, giving a moment for his words to sink in. Around the room, pens stopped writing and Quinn saw a few faces pale at the understanding of the dangers their chosen field of study would be forcing them to face. Quinn, of course, pushed any feelings of unease aside. If his arrival on Locros had taught him anything it was that life is full of unpredictable dangers, adding a few more to the list couldn’t hurt. Besides, if magic was really that dangerous, no one would use it.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  ”Lucky for us, there is a method to this madness.” Versint continued, confirming Quinn’s thoughts.

  “Our forefathers found a way to make this substance of unfettered creation safer to use. They developed a methodology anyone with a sufficient force of will and a passion for knowledge could study. They then created this very institution to teach it.” Picking up the chalk again, Versint wrote ‘Standardized Casting’ on the board in large, blocky, letters.

  “Of course, that isn’t the only way of doing things” In smaller writing, he added ‘Free-casting’ followed by ‘Unbound Casting’ to the board. “But it is the safest and least complex method, which is why it will be your focus for the majority of this semester. Allow me to demonstrate how it works.” Professor Versint raised his hand and extended his arm all the way out in front of him before closing his fingers around something unseen.

  Then he pulled.

  A mass of writhing colors, that was simultaneously the most beautiful and horrific thing Quinn had ever seen, formed in his grasp. The strands of color, which stretched backwards towards the point in the air he had pulled from, lashed back and forth around the professor’s hand, trying to fight their way free. Emanating from the angelic monstrosity, which was held steady in Versint’s iron grip inspite of its erratic faliling, was a familiar aura.

  Quinn’s mind reeled at the display. He was certain it hadn’t looked like that when he took the entrance exam. Nor had he seen this… whatever it was… when others had channeled Aether around him. He filed it away as something to ask about once the demonstration was done.

  ”Now regardless of what method you use for making magic, there are two components. First is the Aether flow, which you see held before me.” Said Versint with a nod towards the reality-eating cancer held in his palm. “Second, is the guide, which, in the case of Standardized Casting, is a spell circuit such as the one on the board behind me. Once you have these ingredients, you simply combine them like so—”

  With a gentle flick of his wrist, Versint released the Aether from his grip and sent it streaming towards the board where it melded into the circuit, making it glow with a brilliant light as it pulled the Aether flow taut. “—and you get magic.” He finished, voice clear as crystal over the stunned silence of the room.

  After allowing a few seconds for the class to admire the effect, Versint made another motion with his hand that caused the light to shut off and the Aether flow to detach. Snapping back through the point in the air he had drawn it from, it vanished from view with a faint pop.

  Not waiting for the class to from the display, Versint forged on. Stepping back to his desk, he withdrew a stack of thin wooden squares, each roughly a foot across, from his satchel and set them on the corner of the table.

  ”Now, you will find that I am a strong believer in the practical over the theoretical. While I could stand here and lecture you until your minds grew numb with boredom over the intricacies involved in controlling the Aether, it would not be a valuable use of my time.” he said while retrieving his watch from his pocket. After stealing a glance at the watch, he cleared his throat and hastened to add, “Or your time of course!”

  Quinn saw Versint’s cheeks flush at the slip up.

  Sliding the watch back into his pocket, Versint fixed his gaze on his students once more. “Your first assignment will be learning to control an Aether flow to power a simple light spell circuit as I just demonstrated. As you have all passed the entrance exam this should be a trivial matter for you, even if we account for the complexity added by the altered circuit that Miss–” he looked to Cassidy.

  ”Hilt—“ she began.

  ”Hilton! Yes, that's the name.” Exclaimed Versint, cutting her off, “As I was saying, it should be a trivial matter. If my explanation of things was somehow not enough, then I would recommend reading the most recent revision of ‘On the Making of Magic’ to gain a better understanding— I believe this exact exercise is described in great detail. The Library is practically overflowing with copies, so it shouldn’t be hard to find…” He trailed off, brows scrunched slightly in contemplation before he shifted into a triumphant grin. “In fact, if you ever have any questions in my class, start there. If that isn’t sufficient, then you may come find me at my office hours.”

  The professor closed his satchel and slung it over his shoulder, adjusting the positioning until it sat snugly against his side— just like it had when he first walked in. “These tiles here-“ he gestured to the stack on his desk, “-have the spell circuit engraved on their face. You may take one with you to practice and we will start the next class with each of you demonstrating your mastery of this exercise. Best of luck!”

  Versint gave a curt nod and then crossed the room, opened the door, and set off down the hall, his footsteps slowly fading into the distance.

  On the desk at the front of the room, the clock ticked to ten past noon.

  A dwarf, the same one who had spoken up earlier, broke the awkward silence that had formed in the wake of the professor's abrupt departure. “I think we might be a bit screwed, eh?”

  Murmurs of agreement rippled around the room and the group of nobles Max was seated with started making their displeasure with the situation known to everyone else. Deciding that listening to them rant would have an adverse effect on his sanity; Quinn put his journal back in his bag and rose from his seat. Walking to the front of the room, he grabbed one of the tiles from the desk and dropped it into his bag before making his own swift departure.

  —

  There was a slight thud as Quinn shouldered open the door to his room. With a practiced motion, he slid his satchel off his shoulder, tossed it across the room, and watched it rebound off the wall and onto his bed. Giving a backwards kick with his foot, the door swung back closed behind him, and he joined his bag in collapsing into the comforting embrace of his mattress.

  What should’ve been a good day, it was his first day of learning magic after all, had turned into a series of headaches. After the fiasco in the Library he had thought it couldn’t have gotten worse, but his Aether Control professor went and proved him wrong with his clear disinterest in living up to his role as a teacher.

  Heading to his Runes class afterwards, Quinn had hoped for a more dedicated instructor, a wish that had managed to backfire on him when an overenthusiastic lecturer had rambled on for an hour about just one of the runes they had initially said they would be covering in the first class. To make up for this lost time, the professor had then assigned several chapters of reading that were to be done by next class.

  At least now his day was over, and he could relax a bit before getting to work.

  There was a resounding thunk that echoed through the room as Tome, who had still been in Quinn’s satchel and was quite irritated at having been essentially thrown against a wall, decided to get its payback by dropping itself onto Quinn’s head. With a jolt, Quinn shot himself upright, desire to sleep forgotten.

  How the fact that he had a sentient book in his backpack all day had slipped Quinn’s mind he couldn’t say, but he did know that now was the time for him to get to the bottom of what exactly Tome was capable of. Hopefully it would turn out to be worth the trouble it was likely to cause him.