Sofia Garcia, fifth-year Niria Academy student and aspiring Battle Magus, yawned as the dawn's light penetrated through the dormitory's windows. As usual, the light hit her directly in the eye, which prompted her to roll away. And, because she stuffed pillows on the side of her bunk bed, when she rolled that way and felt the resistance, instinctively rolled the other way. Which then caused her to roll off the side of her bed.
The sudden sensation of falling woke her up completely as her heart pounded hard. She pushed out her hands and caught herself before she could smack her nose on the hardwood floor. During her early years, she always had trouble waking up early and had been late for class more than once. This method, although it almost broke her nose a couple of times, was the best way so far. Other methods involving a bucket of ice-cold water or a hastily engineered slapper keyed to an alarm clock had been used in the past, but they didn't quite invoke the proper amount of fear that instantly woke her up.
Sofia stood up and tottered a bit as her knees had struck the floor rather than her feet. She reached for some ointment, then hesitated on wasting the expensive stuff on what was just a couple of bruises. She could work around the stiffness with her Fire Elemental Imbuement anyway if she had to fight. Not that she expected any of that. Yesterday had been their periodical exams, and while she hadn't performed spectacularly, it was to the point that her hastily built team had passed.
She took her uniform, a fresh one, from her closet and put it on, grumbling at the finickiness of her stockings and wishing that the garment was not a required part of the uniform. She could wear tights instead, but they felt unbearably hot. While she had a Fire Elemental Heart, that did not mean that she was immune to heat. Or cold, for that matter, but being cold is easier to remedy than being too hot, after all, one can put on heavier clothes or build a fire, but one cannot shed more clothes after being naked.
She exited to the shared common room. Her flatmate's bedroom door was still closed, but her friend and rival, Juliette, loved sleeping in. Well, they had just finished practicals, and the written exam wouldn't be for a couple of days yet. Most of her classmates would be cramming right about now, but not Sofia. No, she would continue her runescript conversion project.
As a Battle Magus, even as an Apprentice, Sofia would always be in the thick of things. Her trusty rapier at her side, and probably a backup pistol. The rapier, a steady and plain weapon, had the spell Fire Blade inscribed into it. Only a little bit of focus was needed to activate it, but like any other Apprentice, Sofia could only cast one spell at a time. A Magus would be able to cast two spells at a time. It was one of the hallmarks of the rank as well as the great divide that separates the wheat from the chaff. And despite being born to farmers, her ambitions were great.
So what was her runescript conversion project? Simply put, she wanted to convert a basic Fire Bolt spell's non-runescript nodes into that, while leaving the first activation node and the final one as they were. She didn't want to inscribe the spell into an intrinsic one as she only had two spell circles within her Fire Elemental Heart, and she needed to keep the first one empty to allow her to use enchanted gear. Her second spell circle was still blank since she hadn't decided what to put there yet.
She hurried down to the dormitory's attached cafeteria and snagged a sandwich–a relatively new innovation where people stuffed meat, cheese, and whatever they wanted, in between two slices of bread. It wasn't that much more efficient to eat than baking sausages into pastries, but being able to choose what she wanted into the sandwich was much better than being forced to eat spicy sausages just because that was the only pastry that was available for quick eating.
This particular sandwich was slathered in mayonnaise, mustard, and slices of roasted pork. She gobbled it down on her way to the library, and she opted to climb the stairs rather than take the cable car. Better exercise! And she couldn't waste time.
Runescript conversion mainly involved looking for the matching vocal or somatic component to its runescript version, but what Sofia wanted to do was more than simply convert the entire Fire Bolt spell to its written form. Pure runescript spells weren't all that good anyway as it was harder to direct the spell. Instead, she wanted to change the trigger component and the release component. The problem was that the triggering component wasn't the first one in the cast. Elemental spells usually had a gather component first, otherwise, there wouldn't be enough of the matching Elemental energy to actually weave.
She needed the trigger not just to shape the spell, but to actually start the weaving process in the first place, especially since she didn't want to add a vocal component to her finalized project.
Aside from being in the Battle Magus track, Sofia also minored in Artificer arts. Artificers and Arcane Brewers were two of four possible civilian professions that Magi usually took. The last two were researcher and geomancer. She saw little appeal in delving deep into theory crafting as she just didn't have the head for it, and geomancy involved way too much mathematics to be comfortable. At least Artificing and Brewing involved intuition and art just as much as science.
And Arcane Brewing involved combining several ingredients and Weaving Elemental energies into them in the process, which often meant a failed process meant wasted wealth. At least with Artifice, making a mistake with etching or inlaying only meant having to recast the metal. Before the expensive reagents got inlaid anyway…
Sofia's hand drifted to the pouch by her belt. Inside was the bracelet, chain, and ring combo she hoped to use for her spell activation tool. Ideally, she should have just used the ring, but her runescript wasn't that precise yet.
After several hundred steps up the stairs, she finally arrived at the fifth layer. Breathing heavily and knuckling the stitch at her side, she sat down on a bench for a long moment and stared at the horizon. The sun had long since risen above it, and painted the clouds orange. In an hour or so, it would rise high enough that the colour would return to normal. Classes would have begun at Nine o'clock in the morning, but examination week meant study period for everyone.
Sighing, Sofia headed to the library. She passed a few students taking advantage of the quiet as the foyer was already half filled with boys and girls in uniform. The area she needed to get to was on the third floor. Runescript conversion was not a popular topic for anyone other than Battle Magi.
She found Miss Priss, the librarian often stationed on the ground floor, looking somewhat distracted, enough that Sofia's wave was not even acknowledged. She made her way up the stairs and on the third-floor foyer. Several tables were already filled with students, as well as a few who distinctly weren't.
Sofia stared at the young man perusing a book. He was tall and pleasantly broad-shouldered. His dark hair was neat and short, and his black eyes were intently focused on the text. He was not in uniform, obviously, but wore a casual outfit that showed off his sculpted physique. Quite pleasant on the eyes, and evidently, Sofia wasn't the only one who did.
A gaggle of third- and fourth-year students were making eyes at the young man and barely paid attention to their books. Sofia abruptly realised that she was staring rudely when the young man looked up and met her eyes.
She expected some kind of smug look, as most handsome young men would no doubt find it quite appealing to be goggled over by a bunch of horny teenage girls, but his look had a profound look of calmness. As though the girls around him weren't worthy of notice, or perhaps he was already taken.
Sofia blushed at the thought and shook herself out of her stupor. Then she realised that the young man was hardly alone. Across from him was a young woman, probably Sofia's age, or maybe older, with her blonde hair set in corkscrew curls. From her angle, she couldn't see what the woman was reading, but evidently, the two knew each other since they exchanged comments in a language Sofia didn't know.
Anyway, why was she dilly-dallying here? She shook herself and headed towards one of the side rooms. That one had cosy armchairs and side tables and was her favourite place to read in.
She hurried over to the shelf that contained the references she needed, took a couple of weighty tomes, and scurried over to the cosy nook. Only, it wasn't unoccupied. Oh well, it wasn't as if she owned the space. There was more than one armchair there.
She sat down and turned to acknowledge the other occupant, but froze when her eyes landed on a goddess…
An open tome sat on her lap, but she wasn't reading. No, the goddess had her eyes closed, and Sofia could swear she could feel the Elemental energy around the space swirl in a vortex.
Swallowing convulsively, Sofia sat down across the gorgeous woman and opened her tome, trying to distract herself.
But the woman looked familiar and not because she rivalled the goddess of beauty. Rallying her thoughts, she realised it was back in the practicals that she saw her, and the other two as well, Sofia remembered.
Not a student, evidently, but the woman looked younger than herself. And she really shouldn't sit cross-legged on the armchair while wearing a pair of tights…
The woman grimaced and raised her fingers to her temples, kneading them slightly. Then, the godly aura receded and Sofia could finally think straight. Thank the gods.
The woman opened her eyes and looked straight at Sofia, her face smooth and unexpressive. Those pale blue eyes met hers, and Sofia felt…strangely drawn to the girl, even more so than that hunk in the foyer. The feeling brought about a sense of peace and righteousness, that admiring and worshipping this woman was the correct way.
"Hello," the woman said. "What are you reading?"
"Oh!" Sofia smiled, though she felt the intensity of the feelings recede. "I'm, uh, preparing for my project." She suddenly felt the urge to explain, to boast! "I'm building a spell activation tool and I'm adapting Fire Bolt to be cast without vocal components, and triggered only by pointing. I'm modifying the spell, too, to make it easier and faster to cast."
"Fire Bolt?" The woman hummed. "Why focus on one element though? Isn't the base the Bolt spell?"
"Huh? Different Elements? Do you mean casting multiple Bolts?"
"No."
"Ah, then you must mean…" Sofia trailed off. Why did she insist on Fire Bolt anyway? Just because her natural affinity was Fire? Hmm, but the Academy focused on mastering a single Element until it became so powerful that it could overwhelm its opposition…
The faculty was rife with such examples, and the Dean's Fire Domain could easily overwhelm everything else. The history books on his battles showed him overwhelming Ice and Water Magi who didn't focus on empowering their respective Elements with ease.
Sofia's eyes focused on the woman, who had a curious expression on her face. She arched an eyebrow and waited patiently for Sofia's answer. The tome she was reading was the Varied Theories of Arcana Weaving, a broad topic that didn't delve too deeply beyond the surface.
"It's not that simple, really," Sofia said. "But where are my manners? I'm Sofia Garcia, a fifth-year Battle Magus student."
"Well met. I'm Yuriko Mishala Davar." Her lips curved into an enticing smile. "Hmm, I suppose you can say I'm a new guest professor, though Blanca and Olivia haven't gotten around to assigning classes for me."
Sofia blinked. Then blinked again. This young woman, who looked about her age, was a professor? No. Someone who looks that young but can teach in the academy must be powerful! And she was willing to talk to a mere commoner student like her. Sofia couldn't help but smile. She had to take the chance, and if she didn't, she would forever regret it.
"I see," she managed to say calmly. "How may I help you, professor?"
Professor Davar smiled and gestured to the tome. "Well, you can help me by telling me about your experiences and education. I'm not from Bresia, after all."
"With pleasure!"