Magic School

The Magic Research Academy at Iliad is a large school that vaguely resembles a European Cathedral. I remember the first time I saw it. It was almost shocking that it was a school and not a religious institution, but I guess everything is a bit different in Escapia. The town, Iliad, was founded long ago and named after the work of Homer. Yes, that Homer. The one from ancient Greece. In addition to being a great thinker and a poet, Homer was also one of the most powerful spellcasters of all time, leading to his work being the town’s namesake. Of course, I didn’t know that yet.

The first day at the academy, I was greeted by a small group of magic professors who were interested in discovering what “American incantation” would entail.

“Hello, I’m Dr. Dostoyevsky. I’ve been practicing magic for over 10 years.”

“Nice to meet you- wait. Are you THE Fyodor Dostoyevsky? The novelist?”

“The very same. I’m surprised people from earth still remember me.”

“I’m Dr. Fernandez from Argentina. I’ve been here for 8 years.”

“Nice to meet you too.”

“And I’m Dr. Suzuki. I’m a little newer. Nice to meet you.”

“Same to you. Are you Japanese?”

“Yes, why do you ask?”

“Oh, that’s the name of a motorcycle company from there.”

After exchanging some pleasantries, they gave me a little bit of information on how magic works in Escapia.

“Our goal here is to find out what might be the American method of incantation. But first, we should probably explain how magic generally works here.”

“Sounds good to me, I’m all ears.”

Dostoyevsky let out a light chuckle.

“That’s an interesting expression. Anyways, magic here varies in power based on the style of incantation. People from different places have different styles of incantations. There are challenge ratings for the different styles. The harder an incantation is to perform, the more powerful but the less flexible it is.”

“Interesting. What’s the strongest kind of magic, then?”

“That would be Greek magic, the only type of magic with a challenge rating of S. They must perform a very long incantation in the style of an epic poem. It’s incredibly powerful, but it has to be exactly like a chapter from Homer’s Epic of Magic.”

“Damn! That sounds impossible! And wait- are you talking about THAT Homer?”

“It’s not impossible, but it’s very hard to memorize and to execute in battle. Casting spells with Greek magic can take a long time, meaning Greeks often need to have someone who can stall enemies. The difficulty is both in the incantation itself and in the logistics of actually casting it. Also, yes, Homer from ancient Greece was the most powerful spellcaster of all time.”

“Wow, so how did Homer figure that out?”

“He said that the disembodied god of our realm gave him the poems in a dream. Strangely enough, he was among the first from earth to learn to cast magic.”

“Wow, and that was how long ago?”

“Let’s see, that would have to be well over 200 years ago, before this town was formed.”

As we moved into a room that resembled a gymnasium, Dr. Suzuki explained that often magic is usually based on a culturally significant form of art featuring words, but sometimes there is more of a performance aspect to it. Her method of casting was through haikus. She drew a katana from her waist and aimed it at a target.

“From my Katana, erupts a geyser of flame, blazing and precise.”

A powerful, concentrated beam of fire exited the tip of her katana and tore a burning hole through a practice target.

“This is my magic. It has a difficulty rating of C. There are no predetermined haikus, so there is a lot of room for customization. At the same time, though, it's pretty strong. That’s why I like haikus the best. With some difficulty, you can get both power and flexibility. It is perfectly balanced.”

“That was incredible! What does your magic look like, Dostoyevsky?”

Dostoyevsky pulled out a scroll. Raising it with his left hand, he touched the center with his right. A similar, but weaker beam of fire shot out of the page, destroying it immediately.

“Cool! Wait- No words?”

“I can’t use my magic very well. Russian casting is too difficult for me to do orally. Instead, I can make a scroll of the magic spell ahead of time. There’s a great reduction in power down to the rank of D, but it’s much more convenient.”

“Why can’t you use your spells orally?”

“The Russian incantation method is opera. You could probably tell from my appearance, but I'm not much of an opera singer.”

There were a few sparse chuckles.

“That’s understandable. What difficulty level is that?”

“A. Russian is in theory the strongest form of magic because of how easy it is to customize spells with such great power. However, performing it correctly is rather difficult.”

I had no words, but just stood there in awe of the idea.

“Since all of us are showing Grayson, it’s your turn, Fernandez.”

“Well, if you say so. I’ll have to grab something from my office first.”

Dr. Fernandez took off for a minute. Dostoyevsky explained that Fernandez needed a guitar to complete his incantations.

“A guitar?”

“Yes, Argentine incantation is very performance-driven. I’ll let him explain when he returns.”

He didn’t take very long. Dr. Fernandez had returned with his acoustic guitar. It was made with a light-colored wood that resembled willow. Without any further prompting, he began to play. The song was pleasant to the ear and surprisingly complex, intricately sweeping up and down with sparse use of full chords. Fernandez began to sing in a baritone voice, his words reverberating perfectly through the gym. At the end of his song, a beam of fire that dwarfed Suzuki and Dostoyevsky’s erupted from the sound hole and incinerated the entire target.

“Sorry, I guess we’ll have to move on to the next target.”

“That was incredible!”

“Although I’ve seen it many times before, your magic continues to amaze me, Fernandez. Grayson, this is what real A-rank-difficulty magic looks like.”

“Wow!”

“Thanks guys, but really, it’s nothing. Argentina’s incantation style is through playing Gaucho music."

“Gaucho?”

“Yes. It’s kind of where America’s idealized vision of cowboys comes from.”

“Huh. I knew that we kind of stole a lot of our culture, but I didn’t know about that.”

“It’s kind of like our version of folk music. It’s very powerful and a lot of fun to play. I should teach you sometime-”

“Ahem, but first we need to find out how YOU can cast magic, Grayson. We can try to help. What are some word-based artistic movements from America?”

“Oh uh, there’s a lot. If it could be musical, it could be anything from folk music or the blues to rock to even hip-hop. I really wouldn’t feel comfortable rapping spells, though.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, I’m white and I’ve lived a privileged life, and that doesn’t really go along with that culture. I feel like it could be disrespectful.”

“Alright, then let’s start trying methods you would be more comfortable with. How about folk music?”

“I can’t play the guitar very well, but I know a few chords. I’ll give it a try.”

We tried several methods of casting magic. Poorly playing a classic folk song from the early days of radio, I tried to sing some spells in the style of Woody Guthrie. It didn’t work very well, so I just ended up looking kind of silly. Next, I tried something a little different. At the time, I thought that maybe it was the lack of electric instruments with distortion, but Grunge didn’t work out either. Coming up with impromptu songs about making fireballs and lightning bolts was fun, but I still felt kind of silly because nothing happened.

“Okay, I guess I’ll try it.”

“Try what?”

“Rapping my spells. I’ll need some time to write and practice it because the rhythm is very important.”

“Alright, you can use my office for now. Take all the time you need. We’ll do some research on America to find some more options in case it doesn’t work out.”

On my way to Fernandez’s office, I passed someone else who was attending the academy. She appeared to be from southeast Asia, and she was really beautiful. On her way to the gym, she gave me a friendly wave and I reciprocated. In the office, I really tried my best. It just wasn’t something that felt natural to me at all. Rapping without a beat seemed even more intimidating. “Could my magic item be a boombox or something?” I banished the thought and started writing. When I was finished, I met with the professors in the gym.

“Yo Grayson, we just read up on American hip-hop culture. Apparently some of the new students really dig it even though they’re from different countries.”

I was surprised. ‘Yo?’ ‘Dig it?’ This was not how I expected Fyodor Dostoyevsky, author of Crime and Punishment, to speak.

“Sorry, he becomes obsessed with new styles of artistic expression very quickly. Especially those prominently featuring words. It’s just his thing.”

“Thanks for the warning, Dr. Suzuki. I think I’ll give it a try now.”

The result was too embarrassing to include. For your sake and mine, we’re just going to skip that part.

“Bruh, what the hell? That shit was wack!”

“Dostoyevsky!”

“Um- sorry!”

“No, he was right. That definitely wasn’t very good… Have any other ideas?”

“From taking a look at US history and culture, we’ve found some leads. They’re written in this list of different things for you to try. We’ll give it a break for today, but look over this list and we can run some tests tomorrow.”

“Thanks! I’ll make sure to be here.”

I was led to some on-campus housing. It was free for all students, but I also had amenities included because I was the first American. For a moment, free housing just felt wrong to me. Maybe it’s cultural, but in the past, it had been ingrained in me that we have to work or pay for everything. Free school and housing felt completely alien. In the end, the American sense of finding a good bargain won over, and I gladly accepted the room. When I looked at the list, I strangely could understand it even though I had never seen writing like that before. I spent the rest of the day studying the list and thinking about how I could cast magic until I fell asleep.