"This is the widely accepted "God's box" theory. It goes like this, in the beginning, there was God. Then one day, God created the world. The world started as an empty sphere, with a Sun in the middle, and the first lifeform, ancient weed. I'll be calling it just weed from now on but know that it's not the kind you see anywhere.
It had only three functions. First, it absorbs sunlight. Then, it duplicates itself. Finally, it lets out water. This is going to be important later." Carter starts the afternoon class and reads out of his little notebook. He writes the topics and an empty circle on the blackboard, waiting to fill it up.
"Well, let's skip the trivial details for now and say animals and humans came to be because of evolution. Here's the important part, those weeds turned sunlight into matter, right? That's the first magic used, matter creation.
Actually, never mind that, the first magic would actually be the Sun. The Sun is the creation of God, so it follows two simple rules. First, it emits energy in the form of heat and light, and as you know, the weeds had a way to convert that energy back into magic. That could be interpreted as all energy being created from magic, and all energy coming from the Sun. Thus, all magic comes from the Sun. This is basic logic; you'll learn it later.
Now, for the second rule, imagine based on my words. As the day goes by, the Sun gets dimmer, and dimmer. This continues until the night comes, and at the darkest hour, morning comes, correct? That is the second rule of the Sun's operation, morning. Once the Sun runs out of energy, it will deploy the "excess energy" it absorbed during the day, naturally emitted by the world. The energy you use when you stand up, the heat radiating from your body, the impact of a gravel hitting the ground, all of that. This is how the Sun works, so now, back to the weed.
The weeds can only create a number of weeds at a time, but they can't stop absorbing the sunlight. So, they turned the excess energy into water and inject the excess energy into it, filling water with magic."
"You know this world is full of water, right? Humans are full of water, too. At least half our weight comes from water. However, much of the magic-filled water the weed expels has been diluted, either by the sun or by humans using magic. You can only rarely find them in the wilds nowadays. Sigh, a single puddle is already worth enough to let a man like me live his whole life in peace! Enough of that tangent, that belongs in the magic class. Let's get back to class. So, the weeds die when they don't get enough sunlight, and turn into dirt.
Oh, right, those weeds, they live and die like normal plants. So naturally, they have seasons, too. Once a year, they absorb a crazy amount of sunlight and create a lot of themselves, leading the world into the Winter. Of course, once it ends, the excess water will slowly gather as clouds in the sky, creating the Rain season. Then, things return to normal, and we welcome Spring. Finally, a couple of months later, weeds die more than normal, creating summer. This is the four seasons as we know it. You better note all that down, I'll give you three minutes.
You're done? Very well, let's continue. Dirt, a lot of dirt pile up and turns into the earth as we know it. The water gets evaporated by the Sun, rains down and gathers in the middle, turning into the great lake. That is how the world came to be, and why the map looks like that according to the "God's box" theory. The history of humans and mixed-blood beasts will be for later, even after evolution." Carter signals his disciple to erase the blackboard and continues the lesson when she's back in her seat.
"Let's start by memorizing the basic elements. At your level, there's only five elements you need to bother with. Light, Earth, Water, Wind, and your favorite, Fire. Of course, these are only the basic elements that we can see in nature. In truth, there are uncountable elements, only limited by your imagination. They are called sub-elements, such as Iron, a sub-element of Earth.
They're basically something more specific in an element. There are also mages out there that cast non-standard elements such as Boden the death mage, who curses his enemies with instant death, or that General McQuoid who manipulates humans.
These topics are for a much, much later time, let's focus on the five elements for now. Tell me, what happens when I mix fire with water?" Carter asks Farah a question she can answer, aiming to explain deeper into it.
"The fire snuffs out, and the water evaporates, turning into steam, master." Farah answers her master based on her experience of trying to steam some bread, but she spilled the water into the stove, creating an explosion of steam.
"Very good! That's correct, do you know why the water evaporated?" Carter aims to test Farah further, though kids who have never gone to schools shouldn't be able to answer this question.
"I.. don't know, master. Please enlighten me!" Farah really is uneducated in these matters. Her father was a mercenary, and her mother was a soldier. How would they teach her chemistry?
"It is normal not to know, and to seek answers is a mage's way. The answer is that the water absorbs the heat from the fire. The heat is a type of energy, so when they stored too much, they scattered until each part was so small and light, it's lighter than air! This is evaporation, one of the ways for matter to change state.
The reverse is also true, like in the winter where water turns into ice. You have to boil them to turn them back into water, right? Melting is just evaporation but for solids and liquids. Ah, a solid is something hard, and a liquid is something water-like. Any questions?" Carter passionately teaches his disciple chemistry while erratically drawing with his chalk, each stroke filled with flaming love for the subject.
Carter loves chemistry, every time he learns something new about the world, it'd explain many of the mysteries in his life, and give him a sense of satisfaction and ease of mind. He can't resist inserting a cool line when teaching, though.
"Thank you. I can understand steam scattering because it's really light, but how does ice become a ro- uh, solid? Since water doesn't get thicker as it gets colder." Farah poses a question that bugs her. But after she asked, she realizes water doesn't get lighter as it gets closer to evaporating either, because it has to reach the point where water has to release energy to occur, but it's too late to stop now. Farah has two choices, to answer her own question or to have Carter repeat himself. She chose the latter, since she might have missed something during the first round.
"Ah, let me enlighten you on this. As I told you, water has to reach a certain level of energy to evaporate, right? With the energy coming from heat. If it hasn't reached the threshold, the water can handle the energy, nothing would happen.
This is the same for freezing because when it gets colder and colder, the heat outside drops, right? The cold is the absence of heat. Since the environment is colder than the water, the water releases the heat to try to be the same as the environment, and when it reaches the freezing point, the energy required to stay liquid is gone.
So, since it can't move around anymore, it becomes solid. Same logic, just in reverse, as I said, right?" Carter explains it over again without an issue. If he decided to teach a child, he had to do it thoroughly! If his student didn't understand something, how can he go to the next topic that is built upon it? Leaving a student confused is a teacher's greatest shame, and he didn't want to experience this shame, not like his teacher did.
"Ah, I get it now. Thank you, master." Farah is enlightened by her master's explanation and image. She notes down what she has learned and decided she wants to show it to her parents when she gets home. They'd be so surprised to know I know so much! Farah thought to herself while writing.
"Now that you're done noting that down, I'll continue the class. Chemistry is the study of the elements and their interactions. Fire and Water turn into steam, Water and Earth turn into mud, common sense like that. We'll be exploring the reasoning behind why these things happen, just like when I explained how states worked earlier." Carter finally begins to teach what chemistry is.
This is to give a Farah an understanding of the subject's true goal, so that she would not stray from it. If she did, not only would she be at a loss of what to pursue, but she might also misunderstand what she is trying to learn and delve into an unpleasant rabbit hole.
"The study of the elements and their interactions... noted."
"I'll continue from the elemental chart from earlier. Let's take a look at it here. I'll draw some arrows signifying the element at the beginning suppressing the element on the end, okay? The ones without the arrows are neutral. I'll explain the reason to each of them as I go, too, so that you would understand why.
Fire suppresses Wind, because the fresh air brought by the wind helps fire grow stronger.
Wind suppresses Earth, because the wind will carry moisture away from the earth, making it crumble into sand.
Earth suppresses water, because water would turn the earth stickier and denser.
Water suppresses fire, because it shields the fire from getting fresh air or dry fuel.
Light doesn't really interact with anything, at least we're not aware of it. Ignore it for now.
But remember, all of these things I said are only guidelines. The real world isn't always so simple. A mighty fire can burn away a lake, or a giant wall can block a storm. These are for general situations where both sides hold around the same power." Carter writes on the blackboard as he explains, dropping in some fire-related examples to spark Farah's interest. Every time he mentions the word 'fire' her eyes sparkle and widen a little. It's cute, and a little humorous. It brightens his day every time he sees it. All the more reasons to teach her diligently.
"I... got it, master." Farah feels her wrist starting to hurt from writing so much, but it's all essential knowledge, so she can't really help it but endure.
"Very well, let's continue. I should elaborate on the reasons I gave you when I gave you these basic principles, shouldn't I? Let's start with fire. Fire ne- ah, Farah, if you will." Carter had been too immersed in teaching, forgetting the blackboard was not clear. When he realizes it, he calls Farah to come over and erase it, not noticing her slightly strained right wrist.
Farah walks up to the blackboard and grabs the cloth, the pain can't be too bad, can it? And it wasn't. She cleaned the blackboard with ease, mainly using her elbow, she even got her wrist rest.
"Thank you very much. Now, I will continue the lesson. Fire has three components: fuel, air, and heat. With any missing, fires can't exist. Here's how the three components come into play."
Carter draws a triangle with each element on each side. Aiming to explain the process of starting and sustaining a fire.
"Fire starts with all three elements mixing together, creating a spark." Carter then draws a spark and labels it as such next to the triangle.
"The spark, it generates heat, because that's what fire does. It consumes the fuel and the fresh air, turning it into whatever form the used fuel takes and smoke. Of course, this releases heat. The heat coming from this contributes back to the triangle here, reducing your needs only to fresh air and fuel. Of course, that is as long as the flame has already started." Carter draws some more, visually explaining with gestures and pictures.
"Then comes the question, what counts as fuel? Can you name me some?" Carter asks Farah, seeking class participation. This will play into his education plan to connect the topic to his disciple's daily life and allow her to perhaps discover more on her own.
"Fuel... There's wood, dry wood, coal, oil, candles, uh, fat? I can't name anymore, master." Farah answers honestly based on her experiences as a country girl who liked to be around the village.
"Very good. There is one thing in common between all of them, do you know what it is? The hint is that it's related to the elemental relations chart I drew for you earlier." Carter wanted Farah to figure it out for herself, she even said half the answer in her answer to the previous question. He really has high expectations for her.
To him, Farah is like a gem in the rough. He'd need to polish it, but he can't let it sit still and only receive polishing. It'd have to show its individuality, especially when questioned what kind of object it wants to be crafted into. In this case, Carter is testing Farah's wit. If she's fast, she could work as a combatant who needs to think of strategies in the moment, but if she was slow, he'd support her in becoming a researcher, with ample time to consider every possibility.
'Hm... something in common? The hint is also in the chart. Wind helps fire grow but that's not in the fuel, that's part of air. Dry wood, coal, oil, candles, and fat... dry? Water takes out fire because it prevents it from getting air or dry fuel! That's it, they're all dry! But oil and fat aren't dry... Actually, oil doesn't count as water, does it? That must be it. They are all either dry or containing oil.'
"Master, it is because they are all either dry or containing oil." Farah answers with confidence. She simply doesn't see how she can be wrong. She thought it through, and the logic is consistent.
"Correct. Well, partially correct. That is what all your answers have in common, but it is not all fuel have in common. Sand or steel fits your requirement, but it doesn't burn, does it? Here's the full answer.
Truth is, everything can burn, except for water or air, of course. It's just incredibly hard for some things to burn. Maybe they can distribute the heat away from one spot faster than you can gather heat, sometimes they require more air than a normal weather could provide, and sometimes they're simply wet, which is the answer you gave me.
Oh, by the way, oil doesn't count because well, they'll teach you in school later, but it's because it's made of something different from water." Carter doesn't want to delve in the topic too deep as he did states. He got a little too excited back then, but he won't make the same mistake anymore.
Carter then naturally moves on to the next topics. This afternoon, he plans to teach Farah the basics of chemistry, enough to make her perceive the world differently, some math, and linguistics.
Linguistics is important. Without a proper understanding of language, one cannot understand the more advanced lessons that use higher level vocabularies, nor the language used in high society, which is where many mages come from.
Since the majority of the mages usually stay within city confines and research, or work in militaries, they interact with the high society much more than normal society. Wandering mages like Carter and Paul are rare, and dedicated children like Farah are even rarer.
Thus, most mages come from high society, followed by children with their parents working in the military, children who live in a city, then finally, a country kid like Farah. Carter was the second kind, and even he had difficulties deciphering what the noble mages meant when they spoke at first, how could Farah, a thorough country child, survive without proper etiquette and language education?
As the class went on, the pair didn't encounter any troubles. Farah even showed wisdom surpassing her age in certain topics that require deduction and/or calculation. Carter is very satisfied with this. His enthusiasm can be seen in his teaching, but not his expressions. He remains professional while he basically flies through each topic, though he does get into enough details, and answers his disciple's questions.
Time flies by, and the end of the linguistics class is almost here.
"And this is the dictionary I copied for you. I'll be quizzing you on the words on this book every once in a while, so try to get them burned into your mind." Carter finishes the class by handing over a book he has set aside. He gestures Farah to wipe the blackboard, and escorts her out.
"Phew! Thank you. master!" Farah sighs a breath of relief when she finally reaches the front door. She relaxes her demeanor and thanks Carter from the bottom of her heart. Though he acts more distant and stricter than usual, she paid it no mind, maybe he was in a bad mood today.
"Haha, not so loud! Take that!" Carter replies with vigor and flicks Farah's forehead. Although he put energy behind his voice, he wasn't loud like Farah. Carter truly enjoyed the day today. He was able to teach a good child, a good and smart child. He got to enjoy the happiness of a teacher for the first time today, he is truly grateful towards Farah and the rest of the Aodh family for allowing him the best first disciple he thinks he could have, though she needs to work on her manners a little.
"Ow, that hurts! I'm going home now, stupid master!" Farah makes a face towards her teacher and ran for it. A question rang in the back of her mind, though.
'He didn't seem unhappy, maybe he felt better? But he was still grumpy and weird when he handed me the dictionary... so weird! I'll ask mom and dad later.
"Sigh, this kid... Well, it's about time I open up shop. Won't you help me?" Carter sighed and smiled to himself. She may be unruly, but she really does bring happiness. I should drill etiquette into her head harder tomorrow... Setting Farah's matters aside, Carter calls out to Paul, who was hidden in the gap between his shop and the neighboring shop.
"Ah, you got me. I'm not helping though. Anyways, that child, she's good. You got yourself a good disciple. Congratulations." Paul genuinely congratulates Carter for getting a great first disciple, unlike him...
"I knew you wouldn't. You know, about the disciple thing. She got herself a good master too, wouldn't you agree? Sigh, if only I was as lucky." Carter never expected Paul to help him. After all, he is the very person who made him who he is today, wishing others not to experience the same kind of neglect as him.
"What do you mean by that? Want to have a go, smelly brat?" Paul answers to Carter's provocation, because why wouldn't he? He isn't afraid of the child he brought up, nor is he afraid of inflicting too much damage, they're in the forest! Might as well show this kid who's the master around here.
"You ugly codger, what did you just call me?! I told you to stop calling me that since I turned twenty! Go, go die of old age somewhere else, don't even try to vent your frustrations on me. I have a shop to tend to." Carter shoos out Paul and goes back to open his shop, ignoring the shaking man he left behind.
As Farah is running home, she sees a group of children hanging around from afar. She slows down to try to make out the people in the group. She recognizes some people in there: Omar, Arthur, ...
'Ah, it's the gang. Oh, they're playing something too. Well, I'd better go give them a visit before I go home. I can't miss a game, can I?'
"Hey, gang, what's up?" Farah casually greets the gang, hoping to join in on whatever they're doing.
"Oh, hey, it's our magician! Guys, Farah's here!" Omar is the first to notice Farah and he shouts to notify the other kids scattered around the premise.
"Hey, Farah! How are you?"
"Hey, teach me magic!"
"Ignore that guy, come fight me!"
Many enthusiastic greetings overcame Farah, like in the morning, she doesn't react as strongly this time, though. She stays calm and answers each question like she did in the classroom. The askers seemed surprised by this change in demeanor, but they paid it no mind, only occasionally teasing Farah for it. Eventually, Farah asked a question that has been on her mind.
"By the way, where is Jon and Jane?" Farah looked around, but he can't see them anywhere. Jane acted a little off yesterday, too.... Ah, they must've gone together to see Uriah's scythe!
"Ah, they went together to the Conick brothers'!" Arthur answered quickly, having heard the news from his father. He jumps up and down while saying it because he can't see Farah, surrounded by other children. If only he was taller, he'd be able to answer Farah face-to-face, and it wouldn't be rude.
"Conick? Is that Frank and Fred's last name?" Farah asks in confusion; she never knew the brothers' last name since she didn't interact with them much.
"Yes! How'd you know? But yeah, they went and last I heard, they haven't come out. Maybe they went to work? Hahaha!" Arthur is surprised by Farah's answer, but it's not a secret so he doesn't really care about how she knew. He instead went back on topic and made a joke.
"Hehe, I'll go visit them later, then. What games are you all playing? Let me in!" Farah puts the situation of her two friends in the back of her mind and goes to play with the rest of the kids.