NOVPUBEarly light cast through the high-stanned-glass windows of the academy, casting colours of red, saphire, and green across the waxed marble floor.
There was a scent of chatter in the air, the murmur of footsteps ringing out from high ceilings as students hurried through the lengthy corridor.
Today was the first day of proper lessons, where classes and training sessions would be under full way.
It also meant that the social strata within the students would start to become solidified as alliances were created, rivalries starting, reputations made and broken.
Lyrium, ever quietly, passed unseen through the corridors, footsteps unhurried and deliberate.
Beside him, Ren walked with his usual pace, fists lodged in the pockets of his uniform jacket, eyes sweeping gradually across the masses.
"Man, I always forget how ginormous this building is,"
Ren growled, stretching his arms overhead.
"And how early they want us up. I'm warning you, it's on-the-brink-of-cruelty."
Lyrium shot him a brief look but remained silent.
Ren snapped his tongue.
"Fine, fine. It's like talking to a wall when you're there in the mornings."
As they walked to the lecture hall, a familiar face in the crowd drew eyes.
Margaret Windsor.
She was all the way down the hall, talking with a few other student nobles if she resembled the rest of them.
Her face was serene, monarchic, as though she belonged to another world than that of the rest of the students.
Her bland eyes looked Lyrium's direction for an instant.
Long enough to notice, but not nearly long enough it was intrusive.
Ren caught right away.
"Well, well,"
He snarled, a slow grin spreading.
"Looked at you, didn't she?"
Lyrium didn't blink, but Ren wore him down.
"Gonna let it go and not say something? Come on, man. Margaret Windsor. The high-blood, icy-faced royal beauty. Looking at you? That ain't something every day."
"She looks at things,"
Lyrium replied flatly, his voice unwavering.
"Meaning nothing."
"Right. And then you'll tell me she just happens to sit next to you in class for no reason,"
Ren taunted.
Lyrium did not say a word, and the only thing his silence did was enhance Ren's laughter.
They walked into the lecture hall, a large room filled with rows of steel desks going up the walls.
Dozens of students were already present, their chatter blending into a hum.
Some were examining notes, others were engaging in quiet conversations regarding yesterday's test.
Lyrium went to his place and walked towards it, Ren following him.
But before they could sit…
"You're in my way."
The voice was precise, deliberate.
Lyrium turned slightly, his crimson eyes meeting the striking grayish gaze of Margaret Windsor.
The surrounding students quieted, their attention shifting toward the interaction.
It wasn't often Margaret Windsor addressed someone directly, much less Lyrium Blackwood.
Ren's eyebrows catapulted upward.
"Oh, this just got interesting,"
He grumbled to himself.
Margaret remained where she was, her face impassive.
She wasn't annoyed, nor was she especially hopeful.
She just waited.
"You have a whole row of other seats,"
Lyrium said to her.
There was the smallest glimmer of something faint amusement, perhaps, that passed across Margaret's face before it disappeared.
"I like this one,"
She replied, her voice neither argumentative nor submissive.
There was silence between them.
It was not the silence that came from doubt, but the silence that came before something was about to happen, something that was unspoken.
Ren, observing closely, leaned forward a little.
"Damn. You two fighting over a seat, or…?"
Without a word, Lyrium pushed out the chair next to him and sat down.
Margaret exhaled softly too controlled to be a sigh, but something akin.
Then, just as quietly, she sat down next to him.
Ren, watching them, shook his head.
"Okay. That was way too much tension for a seat."
Neither Lyrium nor Margaret said anything.
The lecture commenced, but the quiet banter between them went on in its own subtle fashion.
Margaret, though modest by nature, would shift her position slightly at times, her eyes darting at Lyrium for the tiniest moment before settling again on the teacher.
Lyrium, however, would pick up on those glimpses and for some inexplicable reason, he found himself capitulating.
It was not animosity.
It was not rivalry.
It was something else.
Something that neither of them had defined yet.
*****
The lecture room was quiet, except for the measured tone of Professor Shirone, who stood at the front of the room, speaking as usually composed as ever.
His black, long coat swept against his sides as he gestured toward the drawings he'd done on the magic chalkboard.
"Mana, in its simplest form, is a systematic phenomenon,"
Shirone told them, his deep voice resonating through the hall.
"Whatever it might seem, however natural or instinctive, all magic is based on exact calculations. It's a formula an equation that turns one's will into fact."
The majority of the students were listening, taking notes or sitting forward in comprehension.
Lyrium was conscious of Margaret at his side still.
Her stance was ideal, her face impassive.
A perfect noblewoman.
But beneath the icy exterior, Lyrium sensed something else a repressed, held-in energy.
Margaret Windsor wasn't just listening.
She was coming apart.
"High-order spellcasting is breaking down incantations into mathematical elements,"
Shirone went on.
"This is where most sages get stuck. They lean so hard on memorization through rote rather than honoring the underlying principles. Magic is mathematics. Magic is logic. And people who do not understand that will never move beyond middle-of-the-pack."
There was a scornful sound from somewhere in the room.
"Sounds absolutely restrictive,"
A speaker stated.
All eyes turned toward the source, Ren, of course, leaning back in his chair with a lazy smirk.
"If magic is just numbers, then what about instinct? What about genius? You're saying some people are just born incapable of being great mages?"
Shirone did not look surprised by the question.
"No,"
He said simply.
"I am saying that actual genius is to know the rules so wonderfully that you may play with them any way you desire. Instinct is simply unintentional application of patterns learned. People who think otherwise are simply unaware of what they are capable of."
Ren smiled.
"Honest."
"But true,"
A voice interrupted Margaret. 𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘱𝘶𝘣.𝘤𝘰𝑚
The room grew still once more as she continued.
"Genius is not rebelling against the rules,"
She spoke, not even giving Ren a look.
"It is to master them to the point where they come naturally."
Her voice was silky, but firm.
Absolutely.
Ren's eyebrow went up.
"That so?"
Margaret did finally glance at him, her ruby eyes unflinching.
"Yes."
There was a tension between them in a silence that was almost palpable.
Ren, affable as he was, was not a man to quit.
And Margaret Windsor was not someone who wasted time on futile arguments.
"Enough,"
Shirone broke in, his tone slicing through the moment.
"If you can afford to quarrel, do it by action to prove your argument."
The quarrel was at an end, but tension lingered.
Margaret drew back a step, and Lyrium saw for the first time something almost negligible in her expression.
Interest.
Not in Ren.
In him.
It was the way she was regarding him, even for an instant.
The way she seemed to wait.
For what, he couldn't tell.
The lecture had continued, but Lyrium's mind wasn't present.
He wasn't the sort to pay attention to things like this.
But for some reason, he did.
That this would not be the first nor the last that he and Margaret Windsor had encounters like these.
*****
When the conversation subsided, Professor Shirone turned back to the board, skillfully inscribing a complex magical equation with smooth, precise lines.
The enchanted chalk glided smoothly, leaving complex symbols and numerical codes in its wake.
"Yet knowing theory isn't enough,"
He went on, his voice stern.
"Practice is what distinguishes good sages from genuine scholars of the mystical arts. That is why…"
He paused, scanning the class.
"A theory test will be conducted in three days' time."
A hum of displeasure ran through the room.
Lyrium remained silent, but out of the corner of his eye, he could tell that Ren was slouching a bit, his previous confidence faltering ever so slightly.
"The test will challenge your magical arithmetic, formulaic reduction, and rules we've discussed to date. Spellcasting is useful in practice, certainly, but theory is the basis of all magic. If you fail this, you're not qualified to continue."
Grosser groans.
Ren audibly sighed.
"Professor, isn't mana and elements all about getting things done? Why so much theory?"
Shirone's face remained unreadable.
"Because ignorance is dangerous. A clever man who casts magic without knowing it is merely a child with fire. Such people don't last long in actual combat."
There was an uncomfortable silence.
Shirone let it sit for a moment before continuing,
"This is not a test to memorize. You have to know what you're writing. I hope that all of you will demonstrate that you are worth the magic you hold."
He turned to the board again.
"Class dismissed."
Chairs scraped against the stone floor as students picked up their things, some grumbling, others talking in low tones of study groups.
Lyrium rose, stretching a little.
He hadn't anticipated a theory test, but naturally it wasn't surprising.
Actually, though, he was more anxious about Ren and how he'd do.
Alongside him, Margaret sat silently, going through her notes with an air of utter unconcern, as though the test was hardly worth bothering to get up for.
Ren groaned once again.
"Three days, eh… Well, I'd best be getting on with it, or Shirone'll actually kill me."
Lyrium smiled sardonically.
"You should have been studying by now."
"Yeah, yeah,"
Ren grumbled.
"You're sounding more and more like Margaret."
Margaret didn't even look at him.
"Then maybe you should listen."
Ren moaned.
"Ugh, you two are a nightmare."
Lyrium just shook his head.
But deep within, he knew this test was not going to be simple.
Shirone did not make empty threats.
And if the professor wanted them to learn magic on a deeper level…
Then this test would mean so much more than mere words on paper.
*****
@fallen_angels26 gal finally appeared for the 2nd time.
