Chapter 6

Maston Academy

The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

Myles was exhausted and the day had just begun. True to her word, Primrose had put them through their paces. They had spent two hours practicing just the first four steps of the core way of the fist.

The first step, palm thrust, seemed like the easiest of the moves at first, but nobody seemed able to perform it up to Primrose’s high standards. She would sweep around the room constantly correcting the tiniest details for all six of the students.

The second step, a low sweep, had Myles repeatedly dropping to the floor to deliver a brutal sweep with his leg. This step was exponentially more exhausting to practice than the first step. Myles had originally entertained the idea of going half-speed to avoid tiring himself out — it was the aether space and aether engineering classes he was here for after all — that plan had quickly been thrown away when he realized how serious Primrose was about the training though.

By the time they had started practicing the third step, half the group had fallen to the floor in exhaustion. Myles, Seth, and Kate were the only ones who didn’t completely collapse although Myles felt like he would’ve been laying on his face in just one more minute, and it seemed that Kate had gone well beyond her limits to stubbornly try to show Seth up.

They all breathed a sigh of relief when Primrose had demonstrated the third step which she had called the iron turtle. The move was defensive in nature, and as the name implied, it saw the user curling in on themselves. The best part was that the movement involved in it was relatively easy.

They continued working on the iron turtle for a full hour before they moved on. The last part had been brutal though. When Primrose had demonstrated the fourth step, the falling javelin, she had jumped at least five feet into the air. While it was quickly proven that no one was able to match that inhuman feat, Primrose demanded that they put everything they have into succeeding.

By the time Primrose had called an end to their martial training, there was no longer anyone capable of standing.

They were graciously given a short break to “collect themselves” before they began their aether space training. Myles found that he was far from the only one who was excited about the promise this training held. While Silas and Jane were casual about the prospect, Kate and Seth were both loudly declaring how much they were looking forward to it. All their enthusiasm was put to shame by Mercy though. While she had been the most exhausted from the training of everyone, now she could hardly sit still.

After their break ended, Primrose called them all over to the elevated arena she had claimed. At some point during the break, she had managed to procure more tea, so when she gestured for everyone to take a seat in front of her, she had to put down her cup on the sand. As soon as she did, the sand around the cup immediately began to melt.

“Your first lesson,” Primrose began as she pointed at her cup, “is about mana.”

Mercy who had leaped back in shock rather than sitting down finally released a breath. “How were you drinking that!?”

Primrose smiled. “That is exactly my point. Mana is the source of power that arcaners draw from. Mana can only be harvested through one’s personal aether space though.”

Myles leaned forward. “Does that mean that a different aether space is tied to each person?”

Kate who had taken Silas’ place next to Myles, pointedly sitting as far from Seth as possible, glared. “Shouldn’t you already know stuff this basic; you were wearing a yellow band weren’t you.”

Myles turned to reply, others may have been angered by a statement that tactless, after all, it implied that Myles was a threat. Myles had always had to deal with questions like that though. They had stopped making him mad a while ago, it was still bothersome, but Myles had learned it was easier if he didn’t show anger. “My father was a soldier, but soldiers are strictly forbidden from talking about this stuff with anyone. Since some soldiers ignore that order though, the yellow band is a warning that I could be dangerous. I don’t know anything more than anyone else here though.”

Silas and Jane turned unfriendly stares towards Kate. Myles suspected that Silas was just annoyed at the rudeness of the question. Mercy looked a little more than annoyed though. Myles recalled seeing her wearing a red band around her arm before they had all changed and assumed that was the reason.

Primrose gave a quick cough to regain everyone’s attention. “To answer your question Myles, the simple answer is yes, and the complex answer is no.” Primrose looked around for something to write with, but when she realized there was nothing there, she shrugged and started drawing in the air. Wherever she dragged her finger, a clear energy seemed to form out of nowhere to form a drawing. While the energy was clear, it gave off a distinct low glow that allowed everyone to easily see the image.

In a matter of moments, Primrose had drawn a square directly above her head. “Consider this my personal aether space,” she said, gesturing upwards. “As you can see,” Primrose leaned over and drew another square over Jane’s head who happened to be sitting closest, “my aether space is completely independent from someone else’s.” Primrose paused and then drew two rough lines upwards from the squares. “The complicated part is when you start discussing how mana arrives at each individuals aether space. We don’t really know how this works, but the working theory is that all of our aether spaces are actually part of a greater whole and they each have a channel that connects them to a near bottomless well of mana.”

Seth slowly raised his hand to get Primrose’s attention. “Can you please explain what a mana well is?”

Primrose nodded patiently. “I was just getting to that. A mana well is a method of storing mana that naturally accumulates in your aether space.” She stood up, taking another sip from the impossibly hot tea. “The creation of a mana well is the first step in becoming an arcaner.” Primrose grabbed a pouch from her things and handed out the contents, what looked to be six leaves, to the six students.

Seth looked up when he was given his. “Is this an aurik leaf?”

Primrose looked back at him in legitimate surprise. “I’m surprised you know that.”

Seth nodded. “They were a major product back in the town I grew up in.”

Primrose took another sip of her tea. “That would make sense.” She turned back to include the rest of the class too. “Aurik leaves or as they are more commonly referred to in arcaner’s circles, delving leaves, have a unique natural property of impacting an individual’s aether space when consumed. These leaves will naturally scrape away the surface of an aether space.” Primrose gestured to the group. “If you would please.”

Myles shoved the leaf into his mouth. He found that it had a bitter taste and he grimaced as he chewed it into paste before swallowing it.

When everyone had finished their leaves, Primrose gave a condescending smile. “Congratulations on becoming arcaners.”

Myles looked around to find everyone else was as confused as he was. “In what way are we arcaners now?”

Primrose gave the same smile again. “You will soon find that consuming those leaves has opened up the smallest of cavities in your aether space.” She tapped her head and then closed her eyes. “The easiest way to view your aether space for the first time is by closing your eyes and then visualizing a square. In most cases you will see a representation of your aether space.”

Myles gave it a try, closing his eyes and then doing his best to visualize a square. At first, Myles started to panic because all he saw was black space, but then he noticed a small pinprick of a dim light coming from the middle of his vision. Myles quickly focused on that spot and found that he was able to immediately see that portion of his aether space. The spot had all the same properties as the squares Primrose had drawn earlier. It seemed to be clear but was dimly glowing.

Myles opened his eyes in satisfaction and found that everyone else was as pleased as he was.

“Back to the tea then,” Primrose said hefting her cup, “the reason I am able to hold this despite the heat is thanks to one of the two capabilities you have with a mana well.” Primrose lifted her finger again and drew in the air. “The ability of evocation allows you to bring raw mana into the real world by using your body as a conduit. Normally this is not particularly useful, and with particularly volatile mana types, it could even hurt you, but pure mana is different.” Before Myles’ eyes, Primrose’s hands and mouth began to glow dimly with the ambiance of pure mana. “Raw pure mana has the unique property of resisting any, and all forces used against it. In this case, the pure mana is protecting me from the heat of my tea. For this reason, arcaners generally call pure mana the universal defense.”

Myles looked on in awe as Primrose took a pointed sip from her cup without the slightest indication of discomfort. “Of course,” Primrose gestured towards the students, “you won’t be able to defend against anything as dangerous as a hot drink without more mana. And to do that we will have to look at the second capability you have with a mana well.”