After her meeting with Henry, Femble started to prepare papers and materials from her desk. "Henry being targeted makes perfect sense, he clearly is not like the others, no. He certainly bears much more in common with a certain someone else I knew well." As she stepped out of her office, she looked to her right, where there stood a statue of Wan, the founder of the Lucky 8, and original 1st member. She thought, "I still am only able to create flimsy replicas of your wards. You always really were the best at protecting others," before she turned left, and continued towards her first, and originally unscheduled, class of the day. Once she reached the classroom, she began to prepare the necessary materials for the upcoming class session. After rolling out a corkboard from the back of the class and placing on it various pieces of paper, Femble had finished preparing, and stood back at the front of the class. Just as she wiped some sweat from her forehead, the student's began to file in one by one. "Just in the nick of time, too," she thought playfully in her head.
As the last of the students settled into their seats, Femble took a deep breath. "Good morning, class!" she began, forcing a warm smile. "Today we're going to dive into a variety of elementary runes, how they function, and how they can be chained together to achieve more advanced effects! Now, rather than do some boring old explanation of what all the strange letters mean, I figured a more visual method may stick the knowledge into your heads a little better!" That was when Femble grabbed a tarp covering a nearby table, pulling it off to reveal the contents atop it. On the table, there were a set of four spheres quiet similar to the one's the student's used during their assessment. However, these ones were transparent, allowing the students to see the internals of the device. Small tiny holes on the gridded face surrounded each rune and appeared to burrow through the device to the other side. Separately, little burrows seemed to feed a light-brownish liquid stored in the center into each of the rune faces.
"These are effectively the same as the training spheres you will see around this academy, however as you can tell, you can see the interiors of these ones, as I have transmuted their metal casings into glass. Normally, it's a tricky endeavor to leave the runes and internals unharmed during such a procedure, but worry not, I have done this before." Femble seemed to smile as she said this, unable to hide her pride.
Her eyes scanned over the students, committing them to memory before eventually passing over Sarah, the reason she was here.
"Now, let's get started!" she said, her voice carrying a measured enthusiasm. "To illustrate how runes function in practical applications, let's examine one of the primary invocations." She gestured toward one of the transparent spheres. "This here contains a rune that will become quite familiar to all of you: the ρ rune, or 'rho' as it is often called."
As she spoke, Femble carefully positioned herself beside the sphere, pointing out its intricate design etched into the glass. The rune glowed faintly against its backdrop, pulsing with a rhythm that seemed almost alive. "The ρ rune is used to move particles within the air. It's an example of a primary invocation—one that utilizes just a single rune for its effect."
She paused for effect, allowing her words to settle in while she observed her students' reactions. A few brows furrowed in concentration while others exchanged curious glances.
"Primary invocations," Femble continued, "are considered even more trivial than novice invocations because they rely solely on one symbol and don't require any complex combinations or interactions between multiple runes." She took a step back and clapped her hands together excitedly. "But don't let that fool you! The simplicity of these runes doesn't diminish their power. In fact, mastering them is fundamental to building your magical repertoire."
Moving back toward the tarp-covered table, she picked up a second sphere—the liquid inside it swirling gently like caramel in warm sunlight. "Now watch closely!" With an effortless flick of her wrist and a soft incantation, Femble activated the ρ rune.
Instantly, wisps of air began to swirl around the sphere like tiny dancers caught in an unseen current. The particles within became animated as if responding eagerly to their call—flickering and darting about before gathering into small clusters that formed distinct shapes.
"See how I can manipulate air currents?" Femble continued enthusiastically as waves rippled through the room with gentle breezes brushing against her students' faces. "This simple invocation allows me to direct airflow—a fundamental skill for any mage! It can be applied in various ways: from creating barriers against projectiles to generating small gusts for propulsion during flight spells!"
As she worked with the sphere, Femble noticed Sarah leaning forward in her seat, eyes wide with fascination and determination—a spark igniting within her.
"Who can tell me what practical applications we might find for manipulating air?" Femble prompted playfully as she settled back down at the front of class.
Hands shot up across the classroom—some students eager to showcase their knowledge while others appeared merely caught up in excitement.
"Yes? You!" Femble called on David—a seemingly bright-eyed boy.
David cleared his throat, a grin spreading across his face. "You could use it to create a barrier against strong winds when flying!"
"Great example!" Femble replied, her enthusiasm palpable. "Air manipulation is crucial for any mage who wishes to excel in flight spells. Who else?"
Another hand shot up—this one belonged to Mia, a notoriously quiet student. "What about using it to disperse smoke or harmful gases?"
"Exactly!" Femble beamed at Mia. "Controlling air flow can help us in emergency situations where visibility is compromised or when dealing with noxious substances. One more—let's hear from someone else!"
Just as the energy in the room peaked, Femble felt as if a blaring sound started to go off in her head—a series of her own alarm spells activating in rapid succession. Fortunately, upon going off, it also alerted her of which ones they were.
Femble's heart skipped a beat as she instinctively turned towards the west wall; her training took over, and she swiftly clasped her hands together, forming her iconic gauntlets—a shimmering construct of magic enveloped both her forearms and hands, before forming a solid set of black scaled gauntlets.
She, in one fluid motion, reached out with her gauntlet-covered hand and caught a sphere crashing through the wall. The moment felt suspended in time as she just prevented a potential disaster. She immediately recognized that the ρ rune was activated, but even the spice-root should not have provided enough fuel for any students of their level and control to accomplish this, until she noticed the sphere quickly losing energy. As she held the sphere in her hand and tried activating it briefly, she could tell that whatever strangeness was affecting it a moment before has now subsided. "Hah, just like Wan," Femble thought. "Stay calm! Everyone stay seated!" she called out.
"Is everyone alright?" she asked, lowering her arm and glancing back at her students who were wide-eyed but remained seated as instructed, or more accurately had no time to react, before looking down at Sarah's expression mirrored shock and awe. Had she not caught the ball, it most certainly would have ended Sarah's life.
"What's going on?" Sarah finally asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"I'm not sure," Femble admitted as she took a deep breath to steady herself. She then looked at the hole that was made in the wall, and through two other classrooms, to see a blonde haired student she had seen only less than an hour ago. "Oh, Henry." Femble couldn't help but let loose a slight smile from the corner of her lips as she realized the culprit. "It could have been worse," she thought. "She was after Henry in the line, I suppose by then we had already resolved to save him. That settles that mystery then."
Now that the disruption was diffused, Femble addressed the rest of the class, "Everyone, please settle down. It appears that a student just had a magical accident a few classes over. There is nothing to worry about, as the situation is all under control." She then proceeded to lift her still-gauntlet-covered arm towards the direction of the spherical projectile, and with one swift motion, hundreds of small ripples similar to those seen during the training sphere demonstration appeared, rushing towards the wall, patching the walls up to perfect condition. This simple act by Femble amazed all the students, who had only ever heard of such advanced applications of magic. The actions Femble just took, would normally take upwards to three different individuals working in tandem, and even then they would never even hope to accomplish it with the speed which Femble just did. The students then had to remind themselves that she is the Arch-Magus of the academy, and considering that most of what she demonstrated were likely some form of transmutation incantations, the amount of power on display actually made perfect sense.
Femble then proceeded to take out a small stone from her pocket, a sort of enchanted stone that allows the user to dial a number to call another stone from the same set. She then proceeded to dial the professor who's class Henry was currently in, a Professor Eldara. A somewhat panicked, but otherwise assertive voice responded on the other end, "Er-Hello?"
Femble responded, "hello, yes Eldara, is everything alright on your end?"
"Yes- I mean mostly. However, the student who launched the training sphere through those walls has seemed to have passed out. Would you like me to send them with a student to the infirmary," Professor Eldara asked on the other line.
"No, there will be no need, just watch over him and I'll make sure to deliver him there myself right after my lesson." Femble couldn't help but let her excitement almost leak through the call.
"And Femble... is he really... one of them?" Professor Eldara's tone seemed to have taken a somewhat incredulous tone.
"I am certain of it." With a smile on her face, Femble ended the call before turning to the students. All of the students had fallen silent, as they had only heard Femble's side of the conversation. After reflecting for a moment, Femble realized that the students may be under the misconception that someone has just caused the academy massive trouble, and that she may be in a sour mood. The truth couldn't actually be farther from the truth, not to mention that that was not the sort of educator she was. Alas, these were new students, so it was not their fault for not knowing that. She quickly flashed everyone a reassuring smile, saying "don't worry, accidents happen at the academy all the time. I am sure everyone will have at least one public incident during your four years here at this academy. It is only natural to fail in the pursuit of success."
With that, Femble continued her lesson until the regular sound of a bell rang through the hallways, signaling the end of the lesson. Immediately following the student's as they funneled out of the classroom, however she was interrupted just before crossing the doorway by one of the student's of her class who had just exited. It was Sarah, the student she just saved.
"Ma'am, why did you teach today's lesson? On the our schedule, it says we were supposed to have Professor Rewari," Sarah was holding a piece of paper on which Femble assumed was her schedule.
"Us mages have our ways of knowing how to be in the right place at the right time. Just like how you found your way here." Femble said, seemingly to dismiss the question.
Sarah paused for a second, with a face which clearly betrayed that she wished to ask something further. However, with Femble's response, she decided to be satisfied with the response. "Thank you professor, I can tell that sphere would have seriously hurt had you not been here."
Femble felt a little self-conscious, as she felt like she had been thanked too much in one day. That's when she thought, "perhaps it's more-so that so much has been going on around here."
Once Sarah had walked off, Femble quickly continued on her way. She immediately passed two classrooms and headed straight for Professor Eldara's classroom. Upon entering she found Henry lying down on his back on the floor with the professor nearby. She had already cleared space around him. She had even taken some extra precautions by using a few spells to check his condition and ensure he has the optimal environment for recovery. As soon as Femble walked in, Eldara stopped what she was doing and turned to look at Femble. "Ah, so I assume you have it handled from here?"
"Yes, thank you for watching over him. You know how it is, I couldn't leave the students as was." Femble gave Eldara a smile as she picked Henry off the ground in a princess carry, and took him to the nurse's office. "You may think you're weak right now, you may be wondering why your life had to take this turn. You do not realize how needed you really are," Femble muttered to the resting Henry as she carried him up flights of stairs to the academy nurse.