Rebecca snapped her fingers and with a flash of light all around us, the illusion dispersed and we had the view of our classroom again.
"Meditation is both simple and difficult. Simple in that, once you have the right meditation technique it is easy enough to use it to develop your mindscape by just focusing and chanting the necessary laws but difficult in that you have to decide what meditation is right for you because if you choose a certain meditation technique and carved foundation laws in any way contradictory to that meditation, best case is that you will have weak magical energy, worst case is that you end up with 'empty skies' because the conflict destroyed your mindscapes ability to maintain any special form or characteristics. The mechanism by which this happens is fairly complex so I wont bother going into it with first years..."
Nick thought for a moment on what Rebecca was saying:
(So, apparently the laws of your meditation have to somehow be in harmony with your foundation laws. From what I've learnt so far from classes and books, the mindscape exists to nurture magical energy, giving it characteristics unique to the Magician. The foundation laws seem to attract magic and work like a processor for that magical energy; the foundation laws can also give magical characteristics but they should not be in conflict with the characteristics given by the mindscape. That begs the question, what is the range of characteristics that the mindscape can give as well as what characteristics can the foundation laws give.)
Nick only took a second to process this thought and didn't waste anytime in trying to ask Rebecca for an answer. Nick raised his hand while Rebecca was lecturing and waited for about a minute before she asked him to stand and ask his question. Nick got up with a serious expression and asked:
"Ms. Rebecca, you keep saying that meditation develops the mindscape by giving it characteristics, which from my understanding comes from the laws involved in the meditation and these characteristics also give the magical energy within the mindscape characteristics. The foundation laws are also said to give magic characteristics by processing it using its own laws. What exactly is the range of characteristics that can be given by both the mindscape and the foundation laws, as well as, what would a conflict between both even present as?"
Rebecca looked at Nick for a second and with a sincere expression answered:
"For me to answer your question fully, Let's start with the laws contained within your meditation. For meditations that give basic mindscapes, the laws don't do much except form your mindscape and give your mindscape the ability to hold magical energy and offer a degree of protection from invasion; for divergent mindscapes though, the laws enhance the magical energy contained within by maybe amplifying its nature or increasing its potency or giving it a qualitative attribute. Let me give you some examples of each: the laws of your meditation can make the magical energy within your mindscape have a certain feel to it or have it behave in a certain way like before when I said that the Death Magician's magic was prone to sucking the life force out of anything living that it came into contact with when the Magician used certain spells and that's what I mean be 'nature', I suppose you could also use the word 'affinity'; by 'potency', I mean that there are mindscapes that give the magic the characteristic of longevity, meaning that the effects of the spells done with the magic last an extremely long time just like how the smell from a skunk's defensive spray lasts for a long time, the mindscape could also have the effect of reducing the magic's potency; finally when I say that the mindscape could give your magic a qualitative attribute, I mean that it could literally embed absolute laws within your magic that create supernatural phenomena wherever it goes, not just when it's used in spells, for example, there exists a Magician living in the Unites States than can make time move slower or faster wherever he walks and there is a Magician in Germany that can heal people of non life threatening wounds simply by touching them. As for the characteristics that are given by your foundation laws, these often involve giving your magic a strong affinity with certain elementary phenomenon like making your magic especially suitable to be used in water related spells, shortening or lengthening the time required for your magic to initiate phenomena or even altering the magical requirements of casting spells, in truth, anything is possible and this really depends on the magicians skills in using laws. As for an example of a conflict between the laws your meditation gives to your mindscape and the foundation laws....imagine that you have a meditation that made your mindscape resemble a fiery hell and by extension would give your magic extraordinary fire related powers, however, your foundation laws process the incoming magic energy to have a strong affinity for water or ice related laws, I can tell you from personal experience that it would only take a few months for that Magician to experience 'empty skies' because the nature of the laws between the mindscape and foundation laws conflict, creating a backlash that completely spoils the mindscape's ability to do what it is supposed to do because it now cannot maintain its own laws. Whether the Magician can fix this in time is usually a very uncertain matter, so be careful."
Nick nodded his head and sat back down.
"Okay, that's enough for an introduction on meditations, you should try to get your hands on multiple of them and compare their laws and how they work in principle, you could possibly end up creating an original meditation, unlikely at your level but possible. Class is dismissed"
Rebecca ended class and walked through the room door without saying another word.
(She arrived in class so spectacularly but then just left through the door...was she trying to impress us at the start?)
Nick didn't really care about the answer and he was in a really good mood because Rebecca answered his questions so well, giving him invaluable information. Most of the other students seemed either bored or indifferent to the lecture.
(Maybe they already knew the information that Rebecca gave us, after all, this is an introductory class and considering how class went yesterday, a fair amount of first years have probably already formed their mindscapes.)
Nick left the room, making his way to a group of buildings that is supposed to be about a twenty minute walk from where he was now. Last night before bed, he already researched the various clubs that the academy had and found out that these 'clubs' are really instruction centers for students that want to continue their formal learning outside of the scheduled classes but in a flexible manner. There is always an instructor assigned to the club during class hours and all you have to do to join is state your intention to the instructor and promise to do some tasks each week to maintain membership.
Nick finally found 'Club Building Number 1', at least that was what the sign at the front of the building indicated. The building was nothing special in comparison with the others, being in a gothic style and made of bricks and concrete; it was certainly a large building but compared to the magical archives office, it felt boring. Nick entered through its automatic, glass front door that slid all the way to the left so that Nick could pass. Nick left the ground floor and made his way to the first floor where he found a room with a door that had the words: 'Spell Creation Club'.
"Alright, let's see where this goes."
Nick opened the door and entered the room.