"Morning young mystics, I'm Deborah Grinx, and I'll be teaching you Spirit Contracts."
Her glance swept across the room, taking a look at every single mystic, "Now, I imagine some of you may have already contracted with a Spirit. So those who have, come forward."
Sargon stood up and so did 4 other mystics. He joined them as they stood behind Deborah.
From the way they carried themselves, these 4 seemed to be children of nobility, and one among them was a familiar face.
And then the introductions began.
"Samuel Nightgale, 24, host to one Spirit."
"Hannah Flaunders, 22, host to one Spirit."
"David Krantzy, 23, host to two Spirits."
A few eyebrows were raised at that. Even the High Mystic couldn't keep the surprise off her face after hearing that.
"Naomi Brightstone, 24, host to two Spirits."
That was the redhead he had been looking for. Sargon hadn't expected that she would be in the same year as him. And since she wasn't the only redhead in his class, it wasn't easy to look for her among them when he was entering the class. He didn't wish to come off as a creep.
And now she stood right beside him. She was unnaturally fair skinned for someone from this continent. Perhaps one of the isles to the east of the continent then?
The Spirit Contracts teacher seemed quite impressed after hearing her and smiled.
'Perhaps she likes having talented youth in her class?' Sargon thought to himself.
And then the teacher looked at him.
"Um, ah, Sargon Gritaurs, 23, host to one Spirit."
"Great!" she clapped her palms together and turned around to face the class. "Now with that done, I want you five to remain here for a bit, I'll be asking for your assistance in a demonstration."
"In your previous Schools you learnt some of the theory behind the Spirit Arts, and now in your journey towards becoming a High Mystic you'll be learning the practical side of things as well as the rest of the theory."
'There's a lot of catching up I need to do then,' thought Sargon.
"But let me refresh your memory. Spirit Contracts come in 3 different types. Partial, Unity and Sacrificial.
Partial is when the Spirit hasn't yet truly taken your body as it's vessel.
Any among you mystics with a Partial Contract?"
Sargon stepped forward and without even needing any command, his blue-skinned Spirit, Baasha emerged from his cloak and solidified behind him.
"Ah," the teacher's eyes twinkled with delight, "that's a really good Spirit. I believe it can talk in human tongue, Sardon?"
Sardon nodded.
"Wonderful!" she clapped her palms together, "THAT, young mystics, is an example of a Partial Contract. If you were paying close attention you might have noticed that the Spirit emerged from his clothing. That's the most common case with a Partial Contract. The Spirit takes your clothing as it's vessel, and in some cases, it takes just the outer layer of your skin as its vessel instead."
"As for the second kind of Contract. Unity. A Partial Contract can grow into this Contract if the mystic gets an understanding of how to use their Spirit's ability or if the mystic grows skilled enough at chanelling their Spirit's power.
But the ideal thing would be to obtain an in-depth understanding of mana. You can skip the Partial Contract phase and directly form a Unity contract then.
And in this contract, the Spirit resides within your body.
Any volunteer?"
Naomi stepped forward, breathed out slowly, and then closed her eyes. She spread her arms and as she did so, a red gas emerged out of her. It surrounded her like a cocoon at first, and then moved away. It solidified slowly and what stood before us was a 7 ft. tall red-skinned, muscular woman with glowing white eyes and no lips. She was wearing a shiny golden armour with a red plume attached to the helmet.
'Woaahhh! That's some powerful aura that Spirit is emitting.'
"I see you're living up to the Brightstone name," the teacher commented with a smile.
"That's it for the demonstrations, unless Naomi or David are willing to sacrifice the life of one of their Spirits to show us how a Sacrificial Contract is made?"
Naomi stepped back at that and her Spirit dissolved into red gas and re-entered her body.
"I thought so," the teacher gave a slight smirk, "no mystic would even practice it unless they were confronted with certain death after all. So your assignment is to borrow 'Sacrificial Contracts: The Practical Guide' from the library and finish reading it before my next class.
And ah, before I forget."
The teacher then pulled from the pocket of her robe 2 pairs of silver studs and handed one pair to Sargon and one pair to Naomi.
"The earrings have always been part of the Mystic culture. It's proof that you've officially made your first contract. You three will get yours at the end of the day.
Come to my office after your classes end, and show me your Spirits. Then you'll get yours."
With that, the first class in Spirit Arts ended.
***
The rest of the classes flew by fast. High Mystic Bekarys Whittlehall taught the young mystics a class in "Arcenian History". After which was the class in "Spirit Research" taught by High Mystic Esther Clairewood.
She was passionate about studying every kind of Spirit out there and it showed.
And the day ended with a class in "Alchemy" where the tall and scrawny High Mystic Edward Prickles took them to a valley lush with greenery behind the School, and assigned them to pick a few herbs and plant new ones.
The entire class of 50 mystics was divided up into pairs of two.
Sargon couldn't be any happier with this since he was paired up with Naomi.
"So...what did you think of the classes so far?" Sargon said as they walked together to look for some twinkleberries.
"The history class was fun," she replied as she tied on her capelet, "I only wish the teacher didn't use such derogatory language while talking about swordsmen."
"I reckon the Headmaster is worse though, given how much he worships his own ancestry."
Naomi sat down and pulled on a white flower with red berries stuck to its stem, "That is possible, are you really from the desert tribes? Gritaurs is a common last name among the desert tribes of Arcenia," saying so she looked up and dropped the herb in a giant bamboo basket held by Sargon.
"Yeah, I am."
'Well, only technically' he thought to himself, 'But it isn't my real last name though."