Chương 33: The Imperial Bloodline (9)

Teren turned his eyes away.

"Not until a few days ago, believe it or not." Her expression suggested she wasn't sure whether he was serious. She turned back to her magic practice. The water above her hand divided into three narrow strands. She moved her fingers carefully, drawing the strands of water around one another without letting them touch. It was dazzling to see water flying through the air like that, when just a short while ago he used to think water always had to obey gravity, in his past life on Earth.

"Master Edras said you're going to the Mana Academy," Teren said, taking his eyes away from the water magic being performed so casually in front of him.

"I am." Teren exhaled. She really wasn't a big talker.

"Is this the sort of thing they teach there?" he asked after a moment.

"Eventually. This is mostly just mana-control practice for water mages." Teren turned his attention back to the water. The three strands crossed again and again in a pattern that looked far too complicated. Teren was about to ask whether she was trying to make a liquid version of the Gordian knot when two of the strands touched. Elaryn's fingers twitched in annoyance, and the whole thing collapsed, splashing back into the pool.

"Damn it!" Elaryn cursed loudly.

"Thought I had it this time!" Teren laughed before he could stop himself.

"So you do know how to talk like a normal person." The redhead glared at him.

"Sorry." He didn't stop smiling.

"I just didn't expect you to curse openly." Her eyes narrowed, but after a moment she exhaled.

"I am expected to speak like a noble lady, whether I enjoy doing it or not."

"That sounds exhausting." Elaryn sighed, and some of the careful formality left her voice.

"You have no idea." Teren looked at her, then at the water. Perhaps some of that earlier sharpness was simply how she dealt with being a duke's daughter and everything people expected from her.

"Nobody's life is easy, I guess," he said after a while.

"I didn't even know mana existed until I reached the intake yard. Now I have to learn everything from scratch."

"Most people who receive proper magic training begin considerably younger than you." Elaryn's expression became more thoughtful.

"How old are you, anyway?"

"Nineteen."

"I'm eighteen, and I'll be starting my second year at the Academy in a couple of weeks. Cassian is nineteen like you, and he'll be starting his third year." She considered him for a moment.

"Starting with the basics at nineteen will make things much harder for you." Teren thought of Cassian. He was the same age and already a third-circle mage. Teren had a lot to catch up on. He shrugged.

"I don't really have any other choice, do I?"

"No, I suppose you don't." For a while, they remained beside the pool. The garden was quiet apart from the occasional movement of the water. Somewhere farther along a hedge, a bird called once and went silent. The pool reflected part of the clear autumn sky, broken only when the water moved with the gentle wind. Teren realized that he was standing peacefully beside an elf, talking about magic as if it were an ordinary subject, and without anyone shouting orders at him or expecting him to fight for his life.

He could get used to that. Elaryn folded her sleeves back down, apparently done with her practice for now. Teren thought about what she had said about starting her second year.

"What is the academy actually like?" She looked at him.

"You really know nothing about Othmir?"

"I told you. I didn't even know mana existed until a few days ago."

"Right..." She finished straightening one sleeve.

"The Imperial Mana Academy was founded soon after the Corvadryn Empire itself. It has been training mages for close to a thousand years."" Imperial? Even though the empire is gone?"

"Well, the Academy is still there. It doesn't belong to any of the successor kingdoms, and students come from most of them." Teren frowned.

"Even kingdoms that are enemies?"

"Yes. Whatever their rulers are doing outside Othmir, the Academy remains independent. Or at least it's supposed to be." This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. That still sounded strange to Teren. The old empire had broken into rival kingdoms more than a century ago, yet somehow they were still sending their kids to the same place.

"So what do you actually learn there?"" Magic, what else?" A hint of her earlier sharpness returned.

"The first year is mostly fundamentals. Mana control, theory, learning casting without a beginners' wand, and enough practice to find out what you're good at. It becomes more specialized after that." Teren looked at the pool. A few minutes ago, Elaryn had been effortlessly weaving three separate strands of water through the air. Apparently that still counted as someone early in her training. A maid came through the garden arch and approached them.

"Milady, Lady Mariel is asking whether you will return before supper." Elaryn glanced toward her.

"Tell her I'll come shortly." The maid bowed and withdrew. Elaryn turned back to Teren.

"I should go, or Mariel will demand more magic tricks from me." Teren chuckled, thinking of the little girl he had seen yesterday.

"No problem." She gave him a small nod before heading toward the arch. The two retainers waiting nearby straightened and followed her out of the garden. Teren remained beside the pool for a while. An entire Academy where people from all over the world spent years learning magic. A few days ago, he would not even have understood what that meant. After another moment, Teren turned away from the pool and started back toward the guest wing with his guards.

As he walked, he found himself wondering what Edras thought about Othmir. Could he join the Academy too?

Edras sent for him the next morning. Teren had another restless night. The bed was soft enough that he should have fallen asleep easily, but he kept waking while the room was still dark. Once, he came awake with his hand pressed against his side, expecting blood between his fingers from Rulven's blade. Another time, he sat up too fast because he thought he had heard the red rune circle forming in the doorway.

But when he looked around, he was still in the guest room, with the crystal lamp glowing dimly and the guards outside the door. I am fine... I am safe. By the time a servant arrived with breakfast, Teren had already washed and dressed, and hungry enough to eat anything. The old palace clerk came by around midmorning to tell him that Master Edras had sent for him. Teren immediately agreed to go, but the clerk explained that he had only come to pass along the message and that the guards would show him the way.

Then he returned to his own duties. Soon, the guards accompanied him down from the guest wing, through a side corridor of pale stone, and across a covered walkway that overlooked one of the palace courtyards. A group of men were already training below. Not recruits like the ones from the intake compound, but likely highly trained palace guards. Teren noticed again that almost everyone he had seen inside the palace was human.

After the intake compound and the streets of Karthane, where goblins, lizardfolk, orcs, and others mixed among the crowds, the difference was hard to miss. The men below wore good leather or mail, and every movement showed long practice. Spears struck shields in measured rhythm. Two swordsmen circled each other beneath the eye of an older instructor who corrected one with a single word. They took him to a small training chamber built into the inner side of the palace wall. It had no windows.

The walls were smooth gray stone, marked with thin circles and runic lines that had been carved into the surface or painted in black ink. A square of dark sand filled the center of the floor. Brass lamps stood in each corner, though only one was lit. Edras was already there. He had changed into a different coat, but the weariness had not left his face.

On a table beside him sat a clear crystal, a shallow bowl of water, a strip of iron, a few candles, and several thin corked glass vials containing liquids of different colors. The guards waited at the open door. Edras told them to wait outside until they were finished, then closed and sealed the door behind them. He placed two fingers against one of the black lines beside the door. Pale light spread through the carvings across the walls before fading again.

"No one outside this room will hear us now," he said.

"The ward has its limits, but it should also contain any minor accidents." Teren glanced at the strip of iron on the table.

"Minor accidents?"

"You're about to try producing fire for the first time," Edras said.

"I would rather not have you burn down part of the palace. Given your bloodline, I'm not certain your first attempt will be a small one, so some precautions are sensible." Teren couldn't argue with that. Edras lit one candle with his own fire magic and set it on a low stone block near the edge of the sand.

"Before you try anything, you need to understand the difference between ordinary magic and what your bloodline carries. Every living person has mana. Most cannot sense or control it well enough to cast magic. Mages learn to draw on their mana, shape it, and release it through spells and techniques they have practiced."

"And purple fire is different?"

"Yes. The purple fire is tied to the Corvadryn bloodline itself. It draws on your mana, but it does not behave like ordinary fire. But you can still learn ordinary magic like any other mage. Fire, water, earth, air, or whichever other branch you prove to have an affinity for, though eventually you should be able to learn more than one of them if you put in the effort." Teren couldn't hide his surprise.

"You're serious?" Edras smiled.

"The Corvadryns were known for being unusually talented mages even without their bloodline magic. Many became skilled in multiple branches. Their purple magic was something separate, something no other bloodline could use. That combination was part of what made them so formidable." Teren looked down at his hand. The last time he had tried to force the purple mana out on his own, a fire smaller than a candle flame had formed.

The assay had still reacted to him, and the lineage resonator had formed the Corvadryn crest, but neither of those things had helped when Brakka raised the post to crush his skull or when the monster in Gate Seventeen drove him against the wall.

"I need to learn something I can actually use when I'm in danger."

"You need to learn control before anything else," Edras said.

"Trying to reach for more power before you can properly handle your mana is more likely to injure you than help you in a fight. Today, I'll teach you how to sense your mana and then try to produce a controlled spark of ordinary fire. If we have enough time afterward, we can attempt a small purple flame."

Teren had hoped his lesson would get him further than a single spark and some basic control, but he remembered the pit well enough to know that being desperate for more power did not mean he could skip learning how to use it properly.

"Alright," he said.

"Let's start." Edras pointed toward the sand.

"Stand in the center." Teren stepped into the marked area. The old mage picked up the clear crystal from the table and placed it in Teren's left hand.

"Don't push mana into it. Don't resist it either. For now, I only want you to notice what you feel." Teren turned the crystal over in his palm.

"What does this actually do?"

"It is a training crystal. It resonates with the mana inside you and makes it easier to sense. Beginner mages often use one until they learn to recognize their own mana without the assistance." Teren looked down at the clear stone.

"But how will I even know which mana I'm feeling? I have two kinds, don't I? Normal mana and the purple kind?" Edras paused.

"I keep assuming you know more of the basics than you actually do. You truly had no instruction in magic before coming to Karthane?"