Linked Together IV / Of Magic and Mages

Incantations—the simplest form of magic. Through the utterance of a single word, a mage could reshape reality in their favor, conjuring the impossible and bending the physical laws of the world according to their whims. A truly skilled spellcaster could even weave together many incantations in sequence to produce greater and greater results.

One would think, then, that learning to cast incantations would be a riveting ordeal. One, however, would be sorely disappointed.

“Lyos!”

I thought I felt a tickle of coolness at the tip of my finger, but I had been at this long enough to know it was probably my mind playing tricks on me. I let out a quiet groan at the soft throbbing in my head and marked another tally on the sheet of paper in front of me.

That makes 57 attempts. 43 more to go…

As it turned out, simply repeating a magical word was not enough to invoke the full power of an incantation, much to my chagrin.

To begin with, an individual had a varying level of compatibility with each and every one of the thousands of incantations out there. This on its own was not surprising to me; it felt reasonable that there might be people with a natural affinity for certain spells over others.

The problem was that there were no great methods of figuring out which incantations a person was good or bad at invoking. After thousands of years of human civilizations developing their skills and knowledge with magic…

“Lyos!”

… the best method they knew of was still brute force. 100 attempts with no results was considered the minimum necessary to determine if someone had zero compatibility with a given incantation, but even that was an assumption. As with any other skill, a person’s ability to perform incantations improved with practice, so what might appear to be a lack of talent at first could later reveal itself to be the result of insufficient training.

“There are many basic incantations we could start with, but fire and ice magic are great places to begin because they affect temperature as well as produce physical phenomena. Fire is naturally more dangerous, so we shall use ice today.”

After weeks of learning magical theory that went over my head, Professor Seris had begun to teach our class how to use magic in practice. It was just a shame that learning it was so arduous.

Breathe, focus, visualize, recite!

“Lyos!”

Echoing the simple four-step process the professor had outlined, I was met with a 59th failure. A dull pain resurfaced in my brain, indicating that the spell had indeed triggered but was simply too weak to deliver tangible results.

Even a failed spell was a spell, and the energy to fuel it had to come from somewhere. Professor Seris’s lectures had led me to believe this energy, mana, was more of a spiritual power source than a material one, but regardless of its true nature, using it certainly took a toll on the physical body. It was this cost that made the brute force approach unbearable.

“Lyos!” “Lyos!” Lyos!” Lyos!” Lyos!”

Again and again I tried to no avail. By my hundredth tally, I had acquired a migraine that was unlikely to pass anytime soon.

I know she’s trained for it her entire life, but Shina’s kind of amazing to be able to put up with this in the middle of a fight. I wonder if it’ll become less painful the more I practice.

Most of my classmates had finished their repetitions (or pretended to) and were quietly chatting amongst themselves, waiting for class to end. If Shina were here, there was a chance we’d be doing the same, but as she was a full-fledged mage, her schedule consisted of a slew of advanced magic courses rather than the beginner-level stuff I was taking. Still, I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of having someone to talk to later, even if she wasn’t here now.

“Achoo!” A new incantation of sorts rang out from the seat next to me.

While Shina might’ve been too skilled to be here, I wasn’t the only Inheritor who was an amateur when it came to magic. Akio was seated a couple of rows ahead, and right next to me was another Inheritor I was acquainted with: the magnificent archer, Mara.

“Bless you,” I responded, without thinking. I might not have been good at talking to people, but my parents at least instilled basic courtesy into me.

“… What?” Her reply was technically a question, but it sounded icier than any lyos I had performed today.

“Ah, s-sorry. It’s a thing we say in my world when someone sneezes.” I turned to my right and bowed my head awkwardly at her.

She clicked her tongue. “You don’t need to apologize. I was just confused. Get over yourself.”

If she had said something like this to me when we were first assigned our seats next to each other, it would’ve stung quite a bit. But after many days of cold treatment, I had grown numb to it. I avoided interacting with anyone in class, her included, so the infrequency made it bearable.

“Mara’s nice to me and all, but she’s nice to everyone.”

Shina’s description of Mara was a far cry from my direct experiences with her, but I’d observed the same thing whenever I paid attention during meals or in class. She seemed to have a lot of friends and was affable when she was with them. Given that, she must’ve just hated me in particular. I was sure her reasons were justified, but I didn’t have the backbone to ask what they were.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “That was a bitchy thing to say. Ignore me.”

“It’s fine. I didn’t mind.” I tried to reassure her, thinking it was the right thing to do. My read on social situations was questionable, but it had improved since I started talking with Shina on a regular basis.

“You’re a terrible liar.” She refused to look at me as she spoke. “Always were.”

I guess it doesn’t matter if I make the right move or not if I can’t sell it, huh.

Before I could think of what to say next, Professor Seris’s voice blanketed the room. “We have reached time, everyone. Class is dismissed. We will test new incantations tomorrow, so be sure to rest up and recover before then.”

No more than a second after he finished speaking, students began rising from their seats and gathering their things to leave. Mara was no exception, the long braid of her ginger hair synchronized with her movements as she bounced up, ready to depart.

I had an assignment to give to Professor Seris from our personal tutoring sessions, so I planned on staying behind for a few minutes. There was no reason I couldn’t give it to him now, but I always felt uncomfortable squeezing through frenzied groups of students eager to evacuate the confines of the stuffy classroom, so I opted to wait until things died down.

As the last of my peers filed out into the hall, I removed the necessary papers from my bag and approached Professor Seris’s desk at the front of the room. After Shina, Professor Seris was the person I felt next most comfortable talking with, even though I wasn’t fully at ease with either of them. He’d been there to help me since day one in this world, and I appreciated everything he had done for me since then.

“Professor,” I said to get his attention, handing him the stack of papers as he turned to me.

“Good work, Everett. I wish I could get Akio to be this studious too. Next time you see him, please remind him that he is now two assignments behind.”

I nodded and laughed awkwardly, knowing full well I wouldn’t speak to him the next time we crossed paths.

The professor then accepted my papers and pulled open a long drawer, adding them onto a stack of sheets on the left side. As he did so, my eyes drifted to a book resting against the opposite edge of the drawer. An odd sense of familiarity drew my attention to it, but I couldn’t place why. The title was written mostly with characters I still didn’t recognize, so its subject matter was probably technical.

“Interested in something, Everett?” he asked, noticing my gaze.

“Oh, no. It just looks… oh! I remember now. Shina got that book from the library a couple of weeks ago and talked about it a bit. It’s about illusion magic, right?”

Professor Seris, looking surprised, went silent for a few seconds, but he eventually chuckled and said, “Intriguing. This is out of her wheelhouse, but I suppose she has always been a curious girl. Yes, this is ‘The Theory and Craft of Tactile Illusory Magic’. Quite a dry title for a dry read, if I do say so myself.”

“Do all mages force themselves to read books they find boring? Shina complains about that kind of thing all the time, but she keeps reading either way.”

“Now that you mention it, many of us do share that quality, I am not proud to admit. In this case, however, I am researching in hopes of addressing an… issue of sorts. Have you met Fleur yet?”

Fleur was the seventh Inheritor, I knew that much. “We haven’t properly introduced ourselves or anything. I’ve heard rumors though.” Well, overheard them.

“So you should know she is a bit of a troublemaker. She is not malicious per se, but she is a trickster and a master of illusion magic.” He tapped the cover of the book. “That is beyond my field of expertise, so I would like to better understand how to deal with her antics when necessary.”

Shina had told me that Fleur and Vandan hadn’t been present when Akio and I were summoned because they grew uncooperative after the failed battle against Ames Nori. I certainly got that impression from Vandan after our one meeting, and I was beginning to piece together what made Fleur troublesome as well.

“I do not know if it is right for me to say this given your position, but I would recommend being cautious around her. You can never trust your senses when she is present.”

I didn’t want to lack trust in my fellow Inheritors, but after what happened with Vandan, I’d rather be prepared than not. “Thanks for warning me.”

With my business now completed, I turned toward my desk. As I started walking in that direction, however, I remembered I hadn’t actually said goodbye, so I spun back around to face Professor Seris. “Have a good day, professor.”

“You too. And tell Shina I said ‘hello’. I am happy to hear you two have grown so close.”

“Ah, I mean, we’re not that close…”

Scrambling to retrieve my bag and flee before my face got too red, I waved goodbye to the professor and ran out of the room.