That following Monday I was excited to finally begin my studies on magic with Mage Reginald.
I was told that today's lesson would begin with the basics of circle formations. I have a vague idea of what concepts we might cover, but I've never had anything in depth to read. My books were to be provided today as well.
Entering the small study dedicated to the education of the young members of the House of Arkesh, I saw Mage Reginald seated at a large desk facing the door. Behind him was a chalkboard with some circles of varying size drawn on them, all of which were empty. The smell of the books and ink was calming, and I could feel my excitement tempered by the environment.
"Hello again Young Lady Arkesh. As you know I will be your teacher for magic circles and runes, so you may take a seat. I've placed the book you'll be using for the first part of our lessons on your desk. You can read it at your leisure as what I'll cover will not be in any particular order from the book. I've found that there are more natural ways to convey the instructions from textbooks, and the writers of them often overlook the natural instruction in favor of utility and expedience."
I quickly took my seat and opened the book on my desk. 'Circles, Runes, and their Formational Foundations'. Not the worst book title I've read. Not the best either.
Reading on I discovered that the first chapter was all about forming a circle using your magic. That's pretty basic, so maybe we'll just glance over this and go into a more in-depth subject.
"First we'll need to talk about how each circle is structured and the different types of circles. Do you already know the answer to that?"
"Yes Mage Reginald. There are two types of circles, engraving and carving. Engraving circles are used to 'engrave' runes into our environment. It can be done with any material: chalk, salt, carbon, ink, or carved into the surface of a solid for permanence. Carving circles are a Mage's way of creating a circle quickly from only their magic, requiring little to no time to place the runes and cast the spell."
"Good, but there is a third type of circle which I'll not be going into. Just know that the third type is for large scale spells and cannot be duplicated without the proper materials. As for the names of each type of circle, there is actually a reason. Are you already aware of it?"
"No Mage Reginald."
"Engraving circles are called such because they can only be applied to non-living materials, such as stone or wood. It's also believed that they were called that because ancient Magi only carved the runes into circles in solid surfaces like stone and wood. It might have been later that it was discovered that runes could be written with temporary and semi-permanent materials like chalk and ink. The word 'engrave' as you may well know means to carve something into a hard or solid surface, usually done by an artisan in wood or stone. Carving circles have a bit more of an unclear meaning as it could be said that both words, 'carve' and 'engrave', are synonyms. However the word 'carve' means to 'cut into' and isn't usually just about a solid surface. Some Magi that focus on the study of ancient runes and their uses believed that the original reason for the name comes from the idea that ancient Magi practiced finalizing the 'carving' of a rune into your mind by also carving its shape on to your body. I'm not convinced of this because it seems a bit barbaric, and it would limit the number of runes you could memorize. I believe that they were just unoriginal and couldn't think of a different name for it. I know I rambled, but it's just a little bit of an interesting history lesson for you."
"No, it's an interesting topic. I enjoy history a lot, so I wasn't bothered at all."
"I tend to ramble though, so if you already know the subject matter, or you think I'm going off topic, feel free to speak up, yell, or throw something soft at me."
Mage Reginald has an interesting way of speaking, and it still reminds me of Venna. I'll enjoy this class for more than one reason I think.
"Are you aware of the number of runes possible in each type of circle, how they can be cast or empowered, and what the main purposes of each are?"
"I know that 'carved' circles are for casting quick spells using one or more circles at a time separately and they cannot be overlapped. 'Engraved' circles are for larger scale casting and can be overlapped, but they have limitations on the number of circles you can use together. 'Engraved' circles also allow you to empower the magic slowly into each circle one at a time. I don't know the exact number of runes that can be contained in each circle, or how to implement them."
"That's good enough, and better than most potential Magi who've yet to have official instruction. It's only half-true that 'carving' circles cannot be overlapped as there are methods to do so, but only skilled Magi with years of practice accomplish this effectively. You will still learn how, but don't expect to easily do it. Both types of circles can only have a maximum of four circles overlapping as every circle must overlap with every circle. It's possible to draw more circles in this manner, but no one has ever been able to succeed in casting a spell in that way. It's also usually a mess to manage, so I wouldn't recommend trying. The maximum number of runes in each circle is different though, with sixteen in 'carving' circles and thirty-two in 'engraving' circles. It is required that at least one rune be dedicated for linking the circles together, so you can only get a maximum of forty-eight runes in 'carving' circles, and one hundred and twelve for 'engraving' circles. Sometimes more linking runes are required, for example like you saw with your Magi Circle Ceremony. Any questions on that?"
"How do we know that's the true maximum number of runes within a circle possible?"
"This question is asked often, the answer never changes, and there's no shortage of Magi that haven't tried to test it. Simply because every Magi has tried, and no Mage has ever succeeded. It's been tested time and time again, and I'd dare say by almost every Magi in existence, to see if it's possible to put more runes into a circle."
"How many circles is it possible to create simultaneously using 'carving' circles and your 'carved' runes?"
"As many as you want. This is however limited by the Mage's magic, the time required to imagine and cast the circle spells as it's limited between each circle before they fail, and the Mage's ability to process multiple runes and circles simultaneously. It's a daunting task for even the most gifted Magi. I've heard of one Mage casting over one hundred circles simultaneously. It's a myth really, but theoretically it's possible. Most Magi stick to the general rule of four as that's easy to manage and is also the maximum number of possible combined circles. Even just four could take time to master."
"What is a Mage's magic? How do you know how much you have?"
"A Mage's magic is determined by the number of times and how quickly they can cast a circle before they reach magical exhaustion. There's no real way to get an exact measurement, however most Magi know instinctually when they're close to running out. It's also notable that it 'refills' at such a rate that almost no Magi have issues continuously casting a single circle with a few simple runes every minute for an entire day. There are some, very few actually, that cannot do so, but it's not something many have to worry about.
"Now, do you have any more questions on circles, rune numbers, linking, and formations?"
"No Mage Reginald."
"You don't have to repeat my name, I'm not a noble and I don't like formalities. Plus I hate my name."
"Yes Mage… Sorry, I'll try to stop."
He laughed a bit at that.
"No worries. May I call you Lady Marisilea?"
"Of course Ma… I'll get it right eventually."
"Alright, so our next step is simple enough. Are you aware of how to access your magic and utilize it to cast a circle?"
"Yes."
"Good, you'll just need to show me how many empty circles you can cast as quickly as you can. Don't worry if you fail to cast more than one right away as you have a limited time to get each circle out after the first one."
"Okay, I'll attempt it."
Focusing inward and meditating to just before I'd reach my meadow, I find the gentle and flowing magic in my consciousness. I look for a single thread that I can guide out when a thought occurs to me. Wouldn't it be simpler to guide multiple threads for each circle so they can be cast simultaneously without any delay? That's probably what he wants me to figure out here.
Searching for more threads I find that there are too many to count around my magical essence. Since I know I'm only a potential ninth circle mage, I'll start with nine circles until I'm more comfortable with it. I find the most obvious nine threads I can and begin laying out the structure of each circle in my mind before casting to allow me to plan the guidance of each of them more easily. Then I let the flow of the threads move through the frames of my imagined circles at the same time.
Quickly nine circles form at exactly the same time in front of me. It's so exciting to finally see what I've always dreamed about doing. I can't wait to start memorizing runes and applying the ideas.
I let the circles float there for a while and turned my focus back to Mage Reginald. He seems to be focused on the structure of my circles.
"Well Lady Marisilea, I knew you were gifted, but this is certainly impressive. You figured out that guiding a single thread to attempt it might be difficult to do in time and managed to use nine threads simultaneously. Well done. Of course, doing this and applying runes at the same time is different altogether, but the first step to multi-casting is to discover this trick and practice it. Which is what I'll be asking you to do from now on. Try to reduce the speed at which the nine circles appear. You can start by speeding up one circle at a time until you notice an improvement."
"I will do so Mage Reginald."
He gives me that look that Venna gives when I'd forget to leave off her title.
"And I will work on not using your name and title so often."
"That's better. I finished what I'd like to talk about for today, so you can spend your remaining time here reading through the textbook you've been provided."
"Thank you."
The remainder of my classes that week were just introductions to the curriculum and early tests to determine the basics of my knowledge so they could tailor their courses to my needs. A lot of the material was things I'd already learned from the lessons with Lizabeth, except for politics and war. Some of those questions were about past events and asked why a decision might have been made or what purposes certain laws and edicts might fulfill. I don't think I did poorly, but I know that I might get a lash for each question missed. Rebecca has been here supervising me as I take my lessons, and I know she'll report back to my father if the professors don't do it themselves.
That Thursday I showed Mage Reginald my progress in reducing the time needed to cast my circles and he was happy with my speed. He gave me a quiz on the textbook he provided, which was just simple memorization. After he checked my answers and said he was happy, he declared that we would move on to rune memorization in preparation for 'carving' them into my nine potential circles and then gave me a textbook on basic runes. Since my potential circles are different from my casting circles, I'll need to pick and choose which runes to memorize so I can make greater use of all nine potential circles. There's a multitude of runes to choose from so most mages take a lot of time to choose, but since I can 'carve' into nine circles, I don't have to be as limited. They can also be changed later, so I can always adjust what I don't think I'll need in the future.
The swordsmanship course was just Sir Verret giving me a training regiment to increase my stamina and strength in preparation for practicing the blade. He says he wants me to be able to hold a certain weight of practice blade properly for a specific amount of time before we move on to forms and strikes. I of course will have to do more than just accomplish the training while in class as that wouldn't be enough to increase my level of fitness. I already have time each day set aside for doing exercise, so changing it to safely incorporate this new regiment won't be an issue. He also cautioned about overworking the body and being aware of the signs of potential injury. He scoffed while commenting on the idiots who preach 'pain is just weakness leaving the body' and then end up injured and unable to train for a while.
This is how my schedule stayed for the next month, and I enjoyed putting in the work and seeing the results.
Things were bound to change after Healer Yumi left though.