"Andy!" Aisling moaned, "It's our first Friday night together. Can't we go out and read all this shite another day?"
Andrea did not look up from the giant dusty book between her hands. "Again, Ai. If you want to leave, I won't hold it against you if you take up Valerie on her offer."
She raised her red-haired head from her hands and rolled her eyes. "Don't act the maggot, you beautiful Cajun twat you. You'd hate me going out with Valerie, so I'd only do it with you present."
This time, she did look up from the pages. "Oh, I'd hate it with all my heart, sweetie. But like the good lil' Christian that I am, I won't hold it against you."
Aisling snorted at that. "Turning the other cheek, ay?" Her phone buzzed and Aisling picked it up to look at it. Andrea sighed and closed the book to reach out to take her hand. "Get going. I appreciate you chilling with me, Ai, I really do. But I'm going to use this time to catch up to y'all."
This time she heeded the protest and got up from her chair to stretch. "Well, if you say it's grand then I'll take your word for it. Want me to tell you if they talk shit about you?"
Andrea was tempted but waved the suggestion away. "No," she said. "It won't do me any good to hear all that crap anyhow. Now go and pass a good time, Ai. I'll be here, probably."
She waved goodbye as she left Andrea to it, cracking her Easy Arcana for Fools book back open to continue her notetaking.
Professor Barden Robertson was as strange a fellow as his name suggested. He was long-limbed and hunchbacked, with black hair that were in a miserable state hanging over his pale face. His eyes were an emerald green and set too far apart on his otherwise long face. His nose was a good match since it was just as long and thin and sharp. His lips protruded from his face in a pouting gesture, even when he was lecturing in his bell-like voice. He did not speak loudly—Andrea had noted—but despite his meek demeanor, he spoke with passion and it was infectious enough to capture everybody's attention.
"I had thought to myself before entering here, how best to proceed with this lecture," he said, speaking as if he were alone. "Shall I ease the students in and lecture for them the basics, as my colleague Professor Gywendd would have done? Or should I take the route of Professor Goldman, and attempt to show you the height of this craft?" His smile tore into his face like a Cheshire cat's. "Emphasis on the word attempt."
There were small chuckles around the room as he moved beyond the podium he preached from. His classroom was like any other in their section of the college, save that the front of his classroom had a podium, and he used a projector to pull up slides as opposed to writing on a board.
"And so, in your first lecture with me, I was Professor Gywendd. Today, I will play the role of Professor Goldman and show you the height of this subject. For how can my students strive for perfection without knowing what form that perfection takes?"
His green eyes scanned the room before smiling. "Yes, Ms. Capell."
Juliet Capell was—quite easily—the most popular girl in their class. When the hate was strong within her, Andrea wished to chalk it up to her being the most beautiful girl in their year, hands down. She had long and beautiful dark brown hair that had ringlets towards the end, a cute aquiline nose, rosy and sharp cheeks, a heart-shaped face, and legs that might have been even longer than Andrea's. But Andrea at her wisest knew that it was because she was a supermodel from a powerful magician family from Dedham. She was—apparently—the aunt of the current Earl of Essex, and so some ass-kissers called her by her courtesy title of Viscountess. Andrea had wondered how magicians could come from aristocratic families because of their unusually long lifespans. But Aisling, as in many things, alleviated her of her curiosity. Magician noble families had proxy lines—as in those of their number who would forgo manifesting their Grimoires and continue to play the role of family head in public whilst the actual familial head would continue to operate in the shadows. Which was apparently the fate of the current Earl of Essex, who was over eighty years old but was still somehow the nephew of beloved Juliet.
Her big blue eyes sparkled with confusion as she bit her lip, a habit that apparently made the boys go wild. "Professor, forgive me, but I was told that it was a very dangerous thing for a magician to reveal their art—especially their Mastered spell."
Professor Robertson chuckled. "I am glad that you pointed this out, Ms. Capell. I would hate for my sacrifice to go unnoticed." Even Andrea laughed at that. "But no, Ms. Capell. I have no fear of showing off my Mastered spell. Well, this one, at least."
The class murmured before Ms. Capell continued, "I mean to say, Professor, are we to reveal our Mastered spells to you in order to pass this class?"
The Cheshire cat smile reappeared. "Perhaps. Part of me wishes to reassure you that no professor would ever use that against you. But I cannot make any guarantees for future me, for that man is a stranger to everyone, including myself."
This time, the laughs were a lot more uneasy. "But instead, I would suggest acquiring as many Mastered spells as possible to avoid anyone taking advantage of you."
The fuck is a Mastered spell? Andrea wondered, but there was no way she was going to ask that question in front of everyone. I act the fool enough as is…
"I am sure that there are many who believe that I am making no sense. And so, I will direct you to the first slide."
The projector came to life, and on the pulled-down screen was a scale with images of the fire emoji below each of the three notches, each emoji growing in size from left to right.
"Here, ladies and gentlemen, we have the scale and slide that you will live by for the remainder of your time at Camelot College. And dare I say, for the rest of your—hopefully—long and blissful lives."
Andrea noted that above the notches were percentages ranging from one, one hundred and two hundred.
"As discussed in the last lecture, magical spells require incantations—words spoken in order to bring your connection with the Source to life, in the manner that you intend it. Like so." Above his index finger, a flame the size of a watermelon came to life. "This is, surprisingly, known as fire magic. One of the four base forms of elemental magic that we know of, and quite possibly the first."
Andrea had read about elemental magic from one of the books Ms Demir had given her, and according to the author, fire magic was the easiest to do.
"Most magicians with a Mastered spell have those spells fall under fire, or one of the other elemental forms. So much so that there is discord on whether the use of these elemental forms should even be considered as sicut respiratio. Most elitists are against it, and most progressives are for it."
"Grow ever brighter." The flame grew and grew until it illuminated the entire room and burned as large as a truck's wheel. "My beloved students. Who here can explain what it is that I have done?"
Many hands went up, many of them came from the usual suspects. Now that she knew that they were talking about sicut respiratio, Andrea felt confident that should she be asked, she would be able to answer. But she was not so confident as to be one of the fifteen who had put their hands up.
As luck would have it, though, the professor would not choose any of them. "Ms. Salem, please come to the rescue of the ignorant who are too foolish to ask."
Here's hoping that you didn't waste my time, Ms. Demir…
"An incantation would have been needed to ignite the flame. But because this is a sicut respiratio of yours, you could ignite the flame without saying a word."
Professor Robertson nodded. "You have addressed half the question, Ms. Salem, but you have addressed that half well." His green eyes drifted to her left to stare at her tablemate. "Ms. Ryan, I hear you and Andrea are joined at the hip. Why don't you assist your other half and give that answer on her behalf."
Aisling nodded. "Well Professor, what you did was increase the power of the flame by saying the incantation anyway."
The professor snapped his fingers. "Well done, the both of you. Look towards the one-percent flame emoji," he said, pointing to the slide behind him. "Those who forgo the incantation whilst having no true mastery over the spell, will only output between one and ten percent of spell's power."
"But because the fire-ball is a Mastered spell for me—my mastery over it is unquestioned—I get one hundred percent of the output without saying any incantation, and about one hundred and twenty percent from reciting few words."
The flame's illumination turned the professor's Cheshire smile from something mischievous and uncomfortable to something outright evil, before he extinguished it with the snap of a finger. "And so, what would happen if someone such as myself, with complete mastery over this spell, were to say aloud the full incantation?"
He scanned the classroom once more before finally a hand was raised. "Ah, a first-timer. Please, state your name for me, and know that I shall never forget it."
"Edison Campos," said the dreamy Peruvian who usually sat at the back of the classroom, "and it would lead to an output of two hundred percent, doing double the damage."
"Mr. Campos, you are exactly correct. Were I in the gym or arena right now, or a younger man, I would give you all an example."
Rajesh, that bitch, raised a hand before laughing. "Come on Prof. You don't have to blow up anything. Just a quick example would be appreciated."
There were murmurs of agreement that grew to encouraging cheers, which were silenced by a laughing Robertson.
"Okay, okay… it will be my head should this get out of hand, but… oh what the heck—you cannot reach a goal without seeing it, after all."
The class clapped but this time, when he silenced them, he did it with a stern expression. "Move towards the back of the classroom, students, and shroud yourselves as much as you can."
Andrea and Aisling scurried to where Edison sat with the rest of the class. The professor raised his arm out and pointed his index finger towards the ceiling. "Spark of life, ignite this light. Grow ever brighter, until we conquer night!
A fireball appeared, hovering over his index finger again, but this time the fireball was the size of a very small car. Andrea had shrouded herself with every bit of magic that her—apparently—meagre reserves could spare and stood amongst a crowd of almost thirty children about forty-five feet away. And yet, she felt as if she was being pushed headfirst into a campfire. The hairs on the arms she was using to cover her face and eyes felt like they were being singed off, and she felt sweat beginning to form around her hairline.
Went and fucked up my hair, Andrea complained as she turned another page. The lecture had been the last of a long week, but her hair was still fighting for its life even hours later.
Getting hit by that thing would have me fighting for my life in the literal sense, though…
"Who am I kidding?" she snorted. "That thing would've killed me dead."
She had spent the last two hours sitting in the study hall trying to find out more about spells that were more suited to her. The professor had outlined the first term's criteria being based on their successful use of the four elements. There were others, of course, but water, earth, fire, and air were the foundational magic that the colleges pushed. Andrea did not know if they were the most used because the colleges pushed them, or whether the colleges pushed them and thus they were the most used.
"I did not think people voluntarily read books these days," a voice said from above her shoulder. Andrea was shocked by how composed she was able to remain as she turned to face the intruder. "Guess that was just me being ignorant."
The girl was Black, with braided hair that dangled over Andrea's forehead, weighed down with beads of several colors. She had a gap-toothed grin on her face and almond-shaped brown eyes that looked down at her, waiting for a response.
"Believe me, if my life didn't depend on it, this wouldn't be happening. And definitely not voluntarily," she said, deciding to play nice despite the intrusion. I'll save all my beefing for Valerie…
The girl took a seat next to her to pick up the book and skim through it. "I hate learning magic this way," she said in an accent that Andrea just could not place.
She's no villain from any action movie I've watched…
"How do you prefer it?" Andrea asked. The girl shut the book and her grin grew, "Good question. I like it more in the practical sense," she said, leaning back to show Andrea her index finger. "Spark of life, ignite."
And a fireball did appear over her index finger, as with the professor's, although much smaller.
"I had a mentor," she said, extinguishing the flame with the snap of her finger as she got up from her chair. "She taught me everything I know."
"She taught you well," she said, having tried several times and achieving nothing more than sparks. "I'm Andrea—Andrea Salem," she said, holding out her hand to shake. The girl grabbed her forearm instead, and Andrea awkwardly followed suit. "My name is complicated, but you can call me Cherri. I will see you around."
Andrea watched her walk away before extending her index finger. "Spark of light, ignite…." She sighed and threw the book back on the table. "I should've gone out with Aisling..." I wonder if they're talking shit about me after all…
She pulled out her phone to ask