Lessons and Fools

Libarius and Gracia walk into the classroom, his cane clacking against the wood. Callidus is, uncharacteristically, sitting near the door near the front of the room, next to Stella. On his other side is Lucky, who looks away when Libarius’ eyes pass over him. Callidus starts talking right as he sees them walk in.

“Well, Mr. Mitis? Everything went well?” Libarius ignores him as he plants his cane down in front of Lucky and stands above him.

“So it seems you have returned at last, Lucky.” Lucky keeps his eyes down as he answers.

“Y-yes sir.”

“Good. You ought not to waste your time with foolish trifles.” Lucky opens his mouth as if to argue but says nothing back. Libarius moves to stand in front of the lectern, leaving Gracia near Callidus and Stella.

“It did end up going well. Thank you for sending him there, Stella.”

“No, no, I didn’t do anything, really.”

Libarius, now in his place, begins to address the class still talking among themselves.

“Now then, today I shall elucidate the nature of the Abyss as a spell.” The room goes silent. Gracia is the only one who seems unperturbed by his declaration.

“Are you really so annoyed with Master?”

“It is nothing so petty, Gracia. I wish only to teach these students to tell truth from paranoid daydreams.”

“Libarius.”

“Well then, where to begin…” Theo hesitantly raises his voice.

“Mr. Mitis, are you sure that it’s alright for you to tell us about this?”

“It ought to be. I have no intention of teaching you anything that you might use to injure yourselves.” Gracia, contrary to Libarius, properly considers the question.

“Well, I have no idea what you’re about to say, so I’ll stop you if you shouldn’t be saying it.” She smiles at Libarius who sighs and moves on.

“Then, to begin—”

The door opens up just as Libarius begins to speak. Ripa walks in, glares at her classmates, then lays eyes on Gracia. She runs over to Gracia with a smile on her face.

“Lady Gracia, you really are here!” Gracia hadn’t thought about Ripa in the past day, and indeed, still does not know who she is.

“Class has already started.”

“Alright, let’s talk more after class, Lady Gracia!” Ripa turns and glares at her classmates some more, and takes a seat. Libarius taps his cane against the floor once.

“The Abyss, as a spell, creates a space in which its user’s body is flooded with magic, far more magic than a normal human body ought to be able to contain. Due to this, a secondary effect of the spell is the large increase in capacity. This capacity, of course, being prerequisite to the casting of many large scale rituals associated with the worst Taboos. However, forcing the human body to exceed its inherent limitations so greatly comes at several costs. One is the blackening of blood, the most famous of them all. However, any magic too strenuous can also cause black blood if applied to the body directly, even strengthening spells that seem innocuous can do so if they are too powerful. For this reason, black blood cannot be considered a proper sign that one has cast the Abyss. Another consequence of casting the Abyss is the fraying of magic, which can be sensed easily with only minimal training. This is also, of course, an unreliable sign. Frayed magic is a common enough injury, just as muscular strain is. It would be shocking for me to learn that any of you, sans two, haven’t experienced it at least once. Unlike black blood, however, the degree of damage is far greater, both in that it is universal throughout the body and far more severe, making it better suited for identification purposes. Further, due to the lingering effects of the Abyss in the body, the common difficulties related to frayed magic are entirely absent, the Abyss fixing them itself, though of course there is no shortage of normal fools who push their bodies even with frayed magic and end up making their injuries permanent. This leads us to the most accurate method of identifying one who has cast the Abyss: indelible marks left inside of them. Any who cast the Abyss have remnants of the spell left inside of them in perpetuity. If you learn the feeling of these remnants within the magic of another, you can confirm with almost complete accuracy whether or not you are facing somebody who has cast the Abyss. The only exceptions would be the strongest of the strong. Only the most powerful ought to be able to hide it, through clever manipulations and sheer force.” Theo raises a shaky hand.

“Mr. Mitis, what are we supposed to do with that?”

“With hardly the ability to cast even the simplest spell, you can do nothing with it regardless. And for the rest of you, regrettably, I cannot bring before you one who has cast the Abyss, so I suppose there is nothing to be done at the present moment.” Ripa chimes in.

“Hah, then what was even the point of you wasting our time?” Callidus laughs pointedly.

“Only a spoiled little girl could call this pointless. Won’t ever have to worry about this sort of thing, isn’t it?”

“Is worshipping every last thing that man says the only thing you do anymore?”

“Sorry, sorry, it’s just that you can go back to skipping every class whenever you want to!” Stella’s voice beside Callidus is quiet but stern.

“Callidus, you said you wouldn’t fight her.” Callidus sighs and leans forward onto the desk in front of him.

“Sorry, Ms. Sidus.” However, Ripa hasn’t given up yet.

“Is following other people around all you know how to do?”

Callidus stands up and jumps over the desk before Stella can stop him. He makes his way for Ripa, who stands up as well and walks out into the stairs leading through the rows of desks in the middle of the classroom. Seeing them both standing there, Castor, too far to reach them quickly, and Victoria, already almost in reach of either of them, stand up as well.

After a short and soft incantation, Ripa shoots out a great deluge of water in a thick beam at Callidus. Victoria pounces forward, blade at the ready, drawing it out right at Ripa. The sword gleams with some power, but is blocked by a hard barrier that forms between Victoria and Ripa. Callidus twists his body to the side and shoots a bolt of electricity at Ripa underneath the stream of water. At the end of the spell’s path is Libarius and Gracia. Gracia quickly puts up a barrier around the two of them.

As the water hits the barrier, though any impact it would have had is loss, it splashes over them. They both are soaked by the water, and Ripa squeaks as she realizes what she’s done. When Gracia looks ahead, she sees Libarius now standing in front of her, having taken the brunt of it himself. The black coat looks heavy on his thin shoulders, and though she cannot see his face, something seems different in the air around him.

“Sorry, Libarius, I didn’t realize how strong it would be.” He still doesn’t respond as she lowers the barrier, but from her vantage point Gracia can see Libarius’ grip on his cane tightening.

“Damnable.”

As he mutters quietly, to the point where only Gracia can hear him, Libarius’ cane snaps under his strength. The end is flung away and he drops the top of it without any issue. He then, without another word or even a glance at Gracia or the class, with his pronounced limp, walks quickly out of the room.