Olivia did her best to tune out the chatter in the enchantment lab while she began to study the runes in her text. Many of the other students were doing the same, quietly reading through their list of runes, but many others were babbling in outraged tones about the “absurd” way their instructor had kicked off the class. “Are you just going to read that book? Don’t you have an opinion about this?” Veena asked, nudging her.

“About what?” Olivia looked up from the list of base runes.

“We think the professor will use our first exam results as part of our score for the opening challenge.”

“Isn’t that obvious?” Olivia looked around, puzzled by their lack of certainty. Rald snorted, and Hanwol yawned hugely.

“Well, yes, I suppose it is,” Shani muttered, looking around the table. “So, who’s good at memorizing things?”

“I am.” Olivia shrugged and added, “I’ve always been good at it. It’s part of the reason I finished my undergrad so early. Oh, you guys don’t know what that means. Anyway, I finished schooling at age seventeen, which most people in my home country finish at age twenty-two. Unfortunately, I don’t have any good tricks to help you all - it’s just something I’m good at. Well, I guess that’s not true. I’ve had plenty of instructors teach methods for studying that might help those of you that aren’t good at memorizing things. We can do flashcards, mnemonic tricks, chunking, and a few others.”

“Yes, please!” Rald said. “I’m not great at this stuff.”

“Of course, we can start right now; let’s do flashcards first. You all know what those are?” Olivia looked around, seeing most of the others nodding. Adaida even started pulling out some thick paper sheets and cutting them up into little squares with a pair of gleaming silver scissors. They spent the rest of the period making flashcards and drilling each other on the first twenty runes. It became clear during this practice that Veena and Hanwol had already learned many of the runes from lessons they’d taken before coming to the academy. Rald acted like it was cheating, but Olivia thought it made sense - why wouldn’t cultures value education outside of this exclusive academy? They didn’t have much time to talk about it, though; other cohorts were starting to pack up and move to the next class.

First-year alchemy was held in a large, open-air shade structure that abutted an enormous greenhouse. There were lab tables under the high, peaked roof, though none were too close to the edge. Olivia imagined that was the case to keep the elements out of a student’s ingredients in the case of inclement weather. Their instructor, an older Cadwalli woman, introduced herself as Professor Ghall. Though Olivia found it hard to discern emotion in the Cadwalli face, she seemed friendly enough. Her eyes didn’t seem as expressive as other races, and her strange vertical pupils were a little off-putting to her. Additionally, the firm, leathery skin of her face didn’t seem to smile as readily as other races and, in fact, seemed to be in a perpetual frown.

They spent most of their class time introducing themselves to Professor Ghall. When it was Olivia’s turn, the professor walked up to her group’s table and stared at her openly while she spoke. “I’m Olivia Bennet. I’m from a small community called First Landing that is quite distant from here, near the Chebli Sea.”

“Is that right? Tell me, Olivia, what were the races of your parents?” Olivia was slightly taken aback by the blunt question and felt the blood rushing to her face. Everyone in the class had gotten quiet, though Adaida cleared her throat uncomfortably.

“My parents are human, as am I,” she said softly, looking directly at Professor Ghall’s face.

“Hmm, Human, is it? I’ve learned all there is to know of the fauna and flora of this great world, and I have never heard of your people. How is that?” The frown lines on Professor Ghall’s face deepened as she stared even more intently at Olivia.

“My people are new to this world. We arrived by traveling through the stars on a spacecraft.”

“Fascinating. Are you meant to be some sort of an expeditionary force? Will there be an invasion of your kind?” A low murmur broke out among the students as they started to speculate. Some of them sounded alarmed.

“No! I mean to say, no, my people won’t be invading. We didn’t even know this world was inhabited when we came here, and the journey took hundreds of years. Not to mention, the System took away all of our equipment and our ship.”

“Hmph. We’ll have some good chats; I’m sure,” the professor said, then turned to Veena, “And you? What’s your name?” Olivia didn’t hear any of the responses that followed hers; her ears were rushing with the heat of embarrassment and racing thoughts. As if things weren’t strange enough for her being the only human here, now this professor had planted the seed that her people might be hostile. A short while later, Professor Ghall finished her interviews and moved back to the front of the class. “Well, students, I’ll be teaching you four recipes over the next month. You’ll be evaluated on your ability to replicate those recipes and their potency. This is the only challenge you’ll have from my class with regard to the opening competition.”

They spent the next hour talking about reagents and some fundamental theories of alchemy. Olivia found it interesting in that it reminded her of chemistry, but with entirely new rules. Most of it revolved around a reagent’s inherent affinities and how they interacted with the Energy affinities of other reagents and the Energy of the alchemist. More than just mixing ingredients, alchemy involved active channeling from the alchemist; a person’s will attribute was critical when it came to getting the most out of the reagents. Professor Ghall spoke in broad strokes and generalities that first day, but Olivia found it all very interesting and couldn’t wait to start putting those theories into practice. She was disappointed when their time was up, and they had to move to their next class.

That disappointment soon faded when she met their next instructor. Professor ap’Rall was a diminutive Ardeni woman with white hair and gleaming orange-gold eyes. She had a friendly demeanor and told the students to call her Alyss. Their first lesson took place in a lecture hall on the ground floor of the main academy building, and Olivia sat near her cohort, listening with rapt attention as Alyss demonstrated the concept of spellcrafting.

“Spellcrafting is the practice of taking existing knowledge and proven technique and intuitively applying them in new constructions of Energy. The System recognizes this practice and rewards successful creation and refinement of spells.” Alyss spoke clearly and methodically, and when she finished this statement, she moved around her lectern to stand in front of the class.

“Let me give you a simple example. When I first gained my class, I learned a spell called Illuminating Globe.” She paused and appeared to concentrate, and then a baseball-sized ball of yellow energy appeared, floating above her palm. “This is a pure construction of Energy that simply sheds light in an area proportional to the amount of Energy I pour into it. If I wanted to make this room uncomfortably bright, I could. Now, later in my studies, I gained an affinity for water. I wondered to myself, what if I used my water-attuned Energy when I cast my Illuminating Globe? Instead of channeling pure Energy into it, I could try to channel my water-attuned Energy.” Again, she paused, and the glow from her orb faded slowly, and then it took on a blue, swirling sheen, and Olivia could see that it very clearly was now an orb of swirling water.

“Not a particularly useful change, is it?” Alyss asked, smiling at the audience. “Luckily, with a water affinity comes an understanding of all the states of water.” The ball in her hand started to crackle as the outside began to solidify into ice. The ball rapidly lightened in color, and then frost began to accumulate on its outer surface. Soon, vapors of cold air rose from the frozen surface of the ball, and waves of tangible cold wafted out over the rows of gathered students. The room temperature started to drop, and Olivia found herself shivering. “A new spell! Freezing Orb. The System gave me almost a full level when I figured this one out, and it wasn’t even difficult.” She snapped her fingers, and the ball dispersed in a puff of icy air.

Olivia thought back to when she’d made her Stunning Ice Shards spell and how she’d gained an influx of Energy. Just as she’d surmised back then, it seemed the System did actively encourage innovation with spells. She thought about her theory about the System being a parasitic entity and how this new revelation fit into that construct. She chided herself; she was trying to shoehorn data into a theory instead of looking at data and forming a hypothesis. She’d have to back up a bit and really come at the problem more scientifically.

Alyss spoke to the class about her experiences and general theories, and then she posed a question to the class, “Who among you have affinities for different types of Energy?” Olivia looked around before raising her hand, a little leery of sticking her neck out after their last class. About half the students raised their hands, though, so she joined in. She noticed that, among her cohort, Hanwol, Shani, and Adaida raised their hands. “Excellent. You’ll find that more doors are open to those of you with more than one affinity, though there are still many ways to innovate even with just pure Energy. I’ll teach you all, don’t worry. Tomorrow, I’ll be evaluating your abilities individually, and then I’ll be giving you an assignment. Your performance on my assignment will be the basis on which I award points for the first month's competition.” Some murmurs broke out among the students as they realized prior knowledge might mean they’d have a more challenging assignment. Alyss didn’t stick around to answer questions, though, simply dismissed the class and left through the doorway at the bottom of the auditorium. “Let’s see if we can grab a bite to eat before our next class,” Rald said. “We’ve got almost an hour.”

“Can everyone afford three or four credits? I know a good sandwich place near the academy,” Shani said as they all stood up.

“Oh, spirits! Not that sandwich place again,” Adaida said, laughing.

“What? They’re good!” Shani gave her sister a shove, but she was also laughing.

“I’ll eat anything right now, so let’s go. I can spot anyone the credits if you’re short,” Rald said as he started marching out of the building.

“Guess that’s that,” Olivia said, following Rald, and the others came trampling after them. They were laughing and amiably joking as they made their way down the main thoroughfare out of the academy, and Olivia enjoyed the feeling. She’d never have imagined she’d be a student again, back when she’d joined the Pilgrim expedition. The whole thing felt decidedly surreal.

“How old are you, Olivia?” Veena asked as she turned to wait for her; Olivia’s wandering thoughts had caused her to lag a bit behind.

“Hmm, well, truthfully, I’m not really sure; I was twenty-eight when we left Earth, but the spaceflight should have taken two hundred plus years. Hah, don’t look at me like that; I was asleep for the whole journey. Subjectively I’m still only twenty-eight.” Her entire cohort had turned to look at her, apparently quite interested in the answer. “Well, quit staring! How old are you guys?”

“I’m nineteen,” Rald said.

“I’m seventeen, and Hanwol is four minutes younger than me,” Veena laughed, poking her brother.

“We’re twenty,” Shani and Adaida said together.

“I guess I’m a bit old to be coming here, huh?” Olivia asked, feeling a little self-conscious all of a sudden.

“Nah, everyone’s different. Plus, you didn’t grow up with the System and Energy - you should be proud that you’re here at all! C’mon, guys; quit bugging her, and let’s get some food. I’m starved!” Rald started walking faster, and everyone hurried to keep up; Olivia silently thanked him for taking the attention away from her.