What We Do to Survive

My explanation went on for almost two full hours and by the end of it Lea looked… understanding, if not exactly reassured. I tried to highlight the good parts of the experience while underplaying the dangers somewhat, I didn’t want her to worry but I was also terrified that she would want to transfer in. She had been shocked when I cited some of the statistics Avalon boasted, she hadn’t known just how successful the Academy’s system was, nor the many other advantages that came with being a member.

Initially she didn’t believe that I’d gotten as good as I’d claimed in such a short time frame, but a few minor demonstrations were enough to convince her. It was disappointing to find out just how shoddy her mana sensing was, she should have easily been able to sense at least an echo of my strength by now, but apparently she couldn’t do much more than identity if someone was a mage or not with close contact. That was absolutely abysmal, I’d been able to at least get a general sense of someone’s circle at the end of my first year. It seemed no amount of time and dedication could forgive shoddy instruction.

Unfortunately there wasn’t much I could do about that yet. Passive mana sensing was a difficult skill to teach and had been something I’d just sort of… picked up after months of interacting with mages of varying strength. The key was intimate familiarity with your own mana and the feedback it was giving you as it interacted with the ambient mana around you, something that could only really be gained with practice and experience.

I momentarily considered trying to teach her some of the more active forms of mana perception, the sort where you surrounded something with a cloud of your own mana and viewed it directly instead of ‘listening’ for the echoes in the ambient mana, but discarded it almost immediately. She just didn’t have the control needed to even start trying something like that, if she tried to flare her mana the way I did it would just disperse into the environment moments later.

Lea seemed somewhat depressed by the end of it, mumbling rude things about her teachers under her breath. That was good, hopefully she would be more receptive when I started to teach her how to do things properly. Actually… I discreetly checked the time with a simple spell. It was getting late, but not that late, and tomorrow was a weekend. The more time she had to practice, the better.

“I have a bit of time, if you’re interested, that is. I could show you some simple exercises to practice on your own. Nothing particularly special, but hopefully it's a start.”

Her eyes lit up and she looked up at me eagerly. “That would be great!”

I smiled down at her, happy with her reaction. Hopefully it would last, I’d found that few of my classmates approached simple pure-mana exercises with the same enthusiasm as I did. “Great! Well, before we start, let's check how you are doing so far. This is going to feel a little odd, ready?”

She nodded, then jumped slightly as I slid a hand under her shirt, splaying my fingers across her belly. “Orion, wh–” A dozen intangible tendrils pushed past her magic resistance and into her body before splitting into hundreds of hairlike strands. “Oh, that… tingles.”

“Sorry. Should have asked. Anyway, let me see your basic eight.”

She looked back at me blankly. “What?”

“Your basic eight. Um, I don’t know what they call them here, the circulation exercises?”

“Uhhh…”

I closed my eyes and sighed. Through my mana, I couldn’t even feel a rudimentary circulation beyond the natural flows of her mana, but I’d thought that was because she just had poor control, not because she didn’t know any better. I’d noticed quite a few of the mages I’d passed at her school had them, and Adonia definitely had something as well, so maybe that was just another skill reserved for nobles? My dissatisfaction with this mockery of an education spiked sharply.

“I guess we can start at the beginning. Do you know what a circulation is?”

Lea nodded. “It's an internal spell you cast on yourself. Most magical creatures can cast them instinctively and that's what gives them their powers. A few of my teachers have mentioned them before, and I think the headmaster teaches a class about them to senior students.”

An… internal spell? That was one way of looking at it, if not quite how I would describe it. Circulations did use a number of similar principles, but functioned very differently. “That's… not entirely wrong,” I said after a moment's pause. “But it's also rather misleading. The key difference is that, unlike a spell, a circulation is not a discrete work of magic. When you cast a spell, you form your mana externally into the proper form. Then the spell casts, whatever you were trying to do happens, and the leftover mana disperses into the environment.” As I spoke, I demonstrated with a simple floating light spell, forming the spell matrix in the air over Lea’s head so that she could see it clearly.

I let the glowing ball I’d conjured float silently for a moment, then dispelled it and continued. “On the other hand, a circulation works by continuously forming your mana into the desired form within your body and then letting it flow continuously, just as your blood flows through your veins. As you said, this is something that many magical creatures do instinctively and is the source of most of their unnatural powers, like the imposing strength of a troll or the entrancing voice of a siren.

“Over the centuries, mages have learned how to artificially recreate the effects of these natural abilities, sometimes copying directly and other times creating new ones entirely from scratch. They’re very useful, and make for very good practice with raw mana manipulation.”

I paused, letting Lea absorb the deluge of new information. “That does sound very useful.”

“It is. I personally make extensive use of them, it's one of the things I’ve focused the most on over the last few years, but most mages I know at least know a couple. It's egregious that they don’t at least teach you all the basics, there are some simple circulations focusing on mental control that really help with memorizing spell matrices and controlling your mana.”

Lea didn’t respond, looking off into the distance with a thoughtful look on her face. I waited for a moment to see if she would say anything, then continued when it looked like she didn’t have any questions. “Well, no use crying over spilled milk. Let’s get started with the basics. I’m going to guide your mana into the basic shapes used in most circulations and then you’re going to try to copy me. Okay?” She nodded. “Great, now this is the simplest of the eight, just a nice long strand of mana…”

The room was quiet, only the barely-audible hum of the illusionary display glowing lightly at the end of the table disturbing the silence. After a long moment, Ulan finally verbalized what all three of them were thinking. “Damn,” he whispered, “That's… damn.”

Camille could only nod in agreement, eyes still glued to the image projected on the back wall of the room. It was somewhat grainy, a memory of a memory projected by someone unskilled in the use of such magics, and the original viewer had watched the fight from a bad angle, but that did not take much away from what she’d just seen.

They sat in silence for another moment, Alan fiddling with the faintly glowing memory crystal he’d traded for from some other student. Eventually she spoke up as well, “I guess thats why he wasn’t worried at all. Compared to that…”

She trailed off, letting the words hang in the air as they all sat deep in thought. Camille chewed gently on her bottom lip, a bad habit but one her parents had never managed to break her of. Compared to fighting, beating, a fourth year, a combat-focused one at that from what she’d heard, what was some chump who had to attack down at a couple of second-years?

“And I was always so worried about him,” she mumbled quietly. Orion had always been a reserved, silent student who rarely interacted with his classmates and was barely ever seen in public outside of the library. She’d known he was driven and intelligent, it was impossible to miss after even just a few study sessions with him, but well… It was Avalon. Everyone was intelligent and driven or they wouldn’t be here.

She’d always worried about him, even before they had become friends. Like her, he was one of the rare few who had applied and gotten into the academy on merit alone, with no family, organization, or government to support them. Like her, he also hadn’t really know what he was getting himself into, though she had thankfully learned about horrific statistics and the terrifyingly lax ‘rules’ in a slightly less public way than he had. That girl, Warback? Warborn? Something like that? hadn’t done herself any favors with her rant about how worthless someone without connections was. She couldn’t be certain, but she was pretty sure it was one such ‘worthless corpse’ that had arranged for the arrogant girl’s demise.

As the number of students like the two of them had dwindled, from accidents, fights, poor decisions, and far too many other reasons, that concern had only grown. Orion was always so reclusive, barely ever spending time with anyone. She herself had done her best to build those very connections she knew she was lacking, making friends and allies throughout their year and among some of the upperclassmen, but he had never done any of that. She was always terrified that one day he just wouldn’t show up to class, and that no one would even notice he was gone.

Well, apparently that had been an empty fear. She doubted any of their yearmates, or most of the older students even, would be messing with him any time soon. She didn’t know when, but at some point the rank amature she had seen in that very first Mana Control class back during their first year had grown frighteningly strong. He had tried to hide it, but it was obvious he was a complete beginner without a single spell under his belt. She had been shocked he’d managed to pass Avalon’s rigorous admission exam, but apparently the examiners had seen something that she hadn’t. She clicked her tongue, it was never smart to underestimate anyone at this place.

Outloud, she said none of that. Instead, after another moment of silence, she brought up a more immediate concern. “We should be extra careful for the next few weeks. Stick with someone you trust whenever possible.”

“Smart,” Ulan nodded somberly, “It’s clear he can take care of himself, dude was holding back on us! But until he figures things out, best not get caught in any crossfire.”

“Not like he got too many people he hangs out with,” Alan added. “Da three of us, the Goodwitch girl, and Miranda. Don’t think anyone’s going to be poking either of those two over this, so that leaves just us.”

“Buddy o’ mine was there when Clarient heard the news, said she was spitting mad,” he shuddered, “Yeah, good call Cam.”

“Have either of you talked to Orion since?”

They exchanged looks, then Ulan shook his head, “We all saw him in class, but he rushed out before I could say anything. Can’t say I blame him, he’s got a lot on his plate right now I imagine. I’ll try to talk to him on Tuesday.”

“Sounds like a plan. Maybe he’d be willing to give us a first-hand memory? People love this stuff and the next batch of honor-duals isn’t till the end of the year.”

“Maybe,” Camille said noncommittally, “but I doubt it. He’s always been very paranoid and careful, I can’t imagine he wants more people pouring over the way he fights. Even the best memories I’ve seen aren’t particularly clear so he hasn’t given away much.” She paused, drumming her fingers against the shiny lacquer of the table. “Wonder if anyone’s gonna challenge him. He didn’t fight last spring, right?”

“Don’t think so.”

“Then he’s available for challenges this year. Poor Orion.”

“I think I feel sorrier for whatever idiot decides to try their luck.” The two brothers laughed quietly but Camille did not join in. They fell silent and Ulan decided to blatantly change the subject, “So, how’s your progress on your ritual? Did you manage to get those samples you were looking for?”

Camille decided to go with it anyway. They only had so much time after all, and she did want some help with this regardless. “I did! Jaqueue came through finally, though he couldn’t find everything I was looking for. Still, I’m getting some promising results already.” She dug out a sheet of notes and slid them over to the boys, “Take a look!”