When Nathan was back in his room, it was already past midnight. After the group of five got bored training spells, Terran dragged Nathan, Thomas, and Revar to the nearest bar, forcing Revar to treat them to some drinks, because he clearly did not need money. Thomas escaped soon after, and Nathan told the service that he only wanted water. In the end, Nathan had to carry the drunk Terran back to their residence.

Nathan dropped hard on his bed, exhausted from the day. He threw his clothes in a corner and closed his eyes. Once again the images haunted him and didn't let him sleep, no matter how weary he was. For a while he lay on the bed, staring into the darkness. Then he started to collect mana again and casted the illumination spell. It didn't take long until he felt the mental drain, that was so familiar to him, and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

His headaches woke him up one and a half hours before he had to go to the lectures. He did his best to ignore them and went through his morning procedures. While brushing his teeth, he thought about the lecture schedule. Magic theory lectures would still be held daily, but only for 4 hours at once. They got an additional two hours of mathematics and physics afterward. On the next day they would have chemistry and history of magic instead and an additional lecture about the basics of magic engineering. Nathan didn't care much about history, but he could guess how physics and chemistry were related to magic. Mathematics, however… he saw the calculations required to create the perfect pattern in some of the magic books he looked through, but he doubted that he would ever be able to do this kind of complex calculations.

By the time the lectures began, his headaches were gone. Magic theory was interesting as always, Nathan wished he could just stay in the school forever and learn ever pattern that existed. However, the lectures for mathematics and physics were a bit different. The Magisters seemed to be slightly hostile to each other. The Magister responsible for mathematics started the lecture with a long introduction about how mathematics was the foundation of magic, because without exact calculations for movement, velocity, density, etc. no modern magic would have been possible. The physics Magister had a quite similar opinion, that physics was the foundation of magic. Without understanding the physical principles behind the elements and physical phenomena, no spells would ever have been understood or developed. When a student pointed out that the mathematics Magister said the same thing, the first physics lecture started with a half an hour-long rant about mathematics only being useful when applied to physics. Terran and Thomas seemed to have been greatly entertained by this. In the following two weeks, Nathan started to get acquainted with the other students during the breaks between lectures, and carefully inquired about vanished villages or towns. But his efforts were futile. The only answers were either 'I don't know anything' or 'There was a story that my granny used to tell me.' Nothing that would relate to the attack on his village.

Each day, in the evenings, Nathan and his friends sat together to discuss the lectures and solve their homework. His life was peaceful, organized and calm. The only thing bothering Nathan were his recurring nightmares. He was never able to fall asleep without first exhausting himself mentally through spell-casting. But after Nathan realized, that the range in which he could clearly see and manipulate mana, had increased, he didn't mind it anymore.

Nathan, Terran, and Thomas were walking along the road, on the way to their lectures.

“Finally! Only once per week those crappy history lectures! You don't know how happy I am!” Terran said.

Nathan nodded while grunting something inaudible. He had overdone it the night before, and his headaches would still need a while to disappear.

Thomas looked at him thoughtfully. “I really don't know how ye're havin' headaches 'very mornin'.”

“I trained a bit too much before going to sleep.” Nathan answered.

Terran shook his head. “No, no. That can't be it. I spent two mana marbles yesterday while training the heating spell. I cast it well over 100 times, and I don't feel anything. Either you're making something wrong, or you're ill.”

“Maybe it's because I always look into bright light while training the illumination spell.” Nathan made up a random excuse. He knew by now, that his headaches were likely linked to him accumulating mana breath, but he wanted to keep it secret.

“Maybe you should buy some colored glasses? One of the second-years in house 54 knows a spell to change transparent glass into brownish one, however, that's possible.”

“I read in a book that such coloring is done by accelerating particles of metals onto glass.”

Terran threw Nathan a funny glance and shook his head.

“Why do you even know that? Magic engineering classes only start today. Why would you read anything about it before that?”

“I just happened to come across a description of it when I read something about the production of airships.”

“That... doesn't make it any better?”

“Weren't you the one who decided to major in crafting related spells because of airshuttles?”

“But that doesn't mean I'm unreasonably enough to learn how to build one before I can even craft a simple one-pattern tool!”

“It's not like I read an in-depth crafting manual. Just some general stuff.”

“Oh well, whatever.” Terran shook his head.

A while later Alina and Revar joined the group when they were about to leave the small town.

“You guys are suspiciously often together.” Terran remarked.

“Don't always imply weird things, Terran.” Alina's face became slightly red. “Our homes just happen to be in the same corner.”

“Yeah, right.” He nudged Nathan. “Dude, we need to get us girls too.”

“Suit yourself.” He pushed Terran to the side and accelerated his steps.

“Woah, what's with him?”

Nathans spent the rest of the morning in a sour mood, barely talking to anyone. Only when his lecture about light manipulation began, did he brighten up again. The Magister, Tyrone Duskvale, entered the lecture hall with an expectant expression on his face.

“Good morning students.” His sight wandered across the 12 students sitting on the benches. “I'm really happy to see such a large group of future magicians showing interest in the mysteries of light magic. In contrast to common subjects like elemental manipulation or kinetics, light magic still has a lot of untapped potentials. We know, for example, that light magic can be divided into soft light, sharp light, and hard light. And we don't know how any of this fundamentally works! It's fascinating! Soft light is what you experience in your everyday life, sunlight, light from lanterns, the illumination spell too.”

He looked into Nathan's direction.

“Soft light has relatively low mana and control requirements, but can still be a powerful asset. Sharp light requires a lot more mana in comparison. It is a straight beam of light that can melt and incinerate everything in its path. An unbelievable potent kind of light. Hard light is the most confusing type of light. It has the ability to repel objects! Interestingly metallic objects require far less mana than let's say wood to be repelled. So if you ever have the bad luck to fight a magician who can use it, your walking stick might be more potent than your sword.”

A teenager in ruffled clothes and unkempt hair raised his hand.

“Yes?”

“If it can repel objects, can it attract them too?”

Magister Duskvale examined the student with a bright smile on his face.

“Yes indeed. Very well thought. It is one of the most anticipated topics of research in the light magician community. So far we haven't found a spell pattern yet, but we are positive that it is possible. What is your name young man?”

“I'm Devan, Sir, Devan Shire.”

“Good, good. If you're interested in joining a student's research group then stay after the lecture.”

Nathan also examined Devan. He saw his large frame two weeks earlier when the last batch of new students arrived. Due to his rather dull face, they didn't consider him as a potential group member. But it seemed like they were wrong about him.

“The properties of hard light are still mostly unknown, nearly all of our knowledge about it is based on ancient patterns that were handed down through the ages. However, hard light won't be a topic of our lecture as you will hardly be able to afford the mana required to train it. For now, we will learn how to properly use soft light.”

His eyes were on Nathan again.

“I heard we had a student that is able to cast illumination, would you mind demonstrating it for me?”

Nathan was uncomfortable to cast in front of a group of strangers, but declining the request of a Magister wasn't really an option, so he forced himself to stand up with a smile.

“Sure, Sir, but I have no magic tools to channel mana from.”

“Oh, that is no problem, come to me, I have plenty.”

Nathan walked the small distance to the stage, feeling the stares of his classmates in his back. When he arrived next to the Magister, he was so nervous that cold sweat ran down his spine. Magister Duskvale handed him a black cube.

“You're Nathan, right? Don't hold back, show me the brightest light you can cast.”

Nathan looked towards the other students. Most of them observed him with curiosity but some of them also had an annoyed or jealous expression. Alina, the only one of the attending students that knew him, gave him an encouraging look. He took a deep breath and closed his hand around the cube.

Then he channeled the mana to a sphere on his fingertip and drew the circuit in a well-practiced motion. A bright ball of light flared up. Magister Duskvale, who had stepped closer to look at the patterns, averted his eyes.

“A splendid illumination spell, very nicely practiced. You must have spent quite a lot of mana items to be able to cast it this fluently. However, there are many places where it can be improved. The point where you waste the most mana is actually where the spiral turns into a straight line. The angle has to be a lot sharper. I'll let you keep the cube so you can continue practicing.”

Nathan bowed slightly, thanked Magister Duskvale, and returned to his bench.

“Now then, the illumination circuit Nathan used is one of the most basic circuits used for light manipulation. Many many other circuits use it as a base or in a combination with other patterns. The great flare spell, for example, has ...”

While Magister Duskvale was talking, Alina whispered to Nathan, “Great job!” She gave him two thumbs up.

“You could have done it similarly well.” Nathan said.

“My light would've never been as bright as yours, though.”

She asked, “What do you think about the student research group he mentioned?”

“It sounds great, to be honest, I think it'll be the only way to train hard light spells.”

“Yeah, right? Do you want to join it?”

“Likely.”

The rest of the two-hour lecture, Magister Duskvale talked about a few basic usages of the illumination pattern and then gave every student a black cube to practice spell-casting. To Nathan's surprise, he got another cube as well. After the lesson, Alina, Nathan, and Devan stayed behind.

“Oh, you two are also interested in my little research group? Great, great. Follow me.”

He led the three students through the hallways of the castle until they reached a small room. Upon entering, Magister Duskvale immediately walked up to one of the three bookshelves on the opposite wall, right adjacent to a table filled with a chaotic mess of paper, weird instruments and black cubes.

“Ah, here we have it.” He gave each of them a five-page document.”This is a summary of our rules, security measures and field of research. Read it when you are back in Apprentice Village.”

He walked into the middle of the room where a large, complex pattern was engraved into the floor, covering nearly the whole room. With outstretched arms, he looked at them.

“This is our little research hall. Make sure to browse the bookshelves. We have many rare books there that you won't find in the libraries. The mana cubes on the table are for experiments or training, feel free to use them. However, don't waste them! You surely saw the mana circuit below me. This is our protection circuit. You will have to fill it with mana essence when you plan to conduct experiments here.“ He pointed to an enormous barrel in a corner of the hall that reached from the floor to the ceiling. “It's a large scale level seven circuit that combines water control, micro deceleration and structure manipulation patterns to create an ice wall from the water in our reservoir, with a dull, black surface to absorb light.”

Nathan hadn't yet seen such a large and complex mana circuit from up close. They learned in the basics of magic engineering that for large scale spells those kinds of circuits were indispensable because no magician was able to control mana over the necessary range. Instead, the circuit would be carved with an increasing depth along the patterns to stimulate the flow of mana essence in the wanted direction, and water control patterns between sections to elevate the mana essence before it entered the next part of the circuit. Magister Duskvale saw Nathan's interest.

“Do you want to see how it works?”

Nathan nodded eagerly.

“But doesn't it waste too much mana if you activate it for no reason?” Alina asked.

“Well, it does use up quite a bit, but don't worry about it, we aren't so stingy about it as other countries.” smiling, Duskvale answered.

He went to the barrel in the corner and used some levers. The translucent, blue mana essence gushed out of a faucet and flowed into the circuit. The first section that filled, was the outer ring with water control-related pattern. As soon as it was complete, a large half-sphere of ice, at least 4m high at its center, covered the circuit. Then the pattern towards the middle started to fill. The surface of the ice lost its luster and the translucent wall turned white as the smooth surface became increasingly rough. When the last patterns of the protection circuit were filled, the ice turned black. They were surrounded by darkness. Only the slight shine that indicated that mana was consumed, illuminated the inner sphere. Then a bright light appeared, hovering above Magister Duskvales open left hand.

“This is the protection sphere. Its surface is reconstructed in such a way, that it absorbs all light, hitting it.” He pointed his right index finger towards the black wall. A second later, a finger thick ray of light appeared. The area where it hit the ice showed signs of melting but was regenerated instantly.

“This is sharp light, as you can see, it melts the surface of the ice. But due to its reinforced strength and heat transfer properties, it can dissipate most of the energy and the rest isn't strong enough to permanently damage it.”

“And how do we get out?” Devan asked.

“Oh, that’s easy. See the blocked off part here? You have just to do this,“ he removed a small stone, that was hindering the mana essence from flowing into that section, “and a set of heat patterns will evaporate the wall.”

Within seconds the intimidating black ice dome vanished into thin air. Magister Duskvale went over to the barrel and turned the mana essence off.

“Impressive, right? That protective circuit was carved just seven years ago by our magic engineering department. At that time it was unique on the whole continent. But I think I have to conclude this introduction. You should probably hurry to your next lecture. Please come by in the afternoon, then you will also meet our second-year members.”