Chapter 32: Chapter 32: Is it One Lump or Two?

A small bell let out a shriek signalling the start of a new school day. The hustle and bustle of school kids rampaging through the stone hallowed halls of Trond began with fervour, most children eager to see their friends after the holidays. But for Sophia and Ursula it was the sign of the end of their holiday freedom and the beginning of months, to years, of boredom to come.

With regimented steps they made their way into their first classroom and sat together at the back row of tables, the other chairs quickly filled in around them with new and familiar faces.

From outside came a man who could be considered average in all respects. Middling height, medium build and brown eyes and hair, and yet he moved with fluid like grace.

“And so it begins…” Sophia sighed.

“Good morning class,” he began in a heavily Germanic accent, he briefly paused as glowing white writing began to bloom into existence behind him following along with his words, “My name is Professor Virding and I will be your instructor for magic for the next two years, prior to your excursion into the city’s dungeon.”

A few children raised their hands.

“Please, if you have questions about the dungeon, wait until Ms. Miriam, your history teacher, to ask them.” The hands fell, “Good. I expect you all to be sufficiently versed in magic to at least cast a spell. If you are not excuse yourself.” He said, his eyebrow raised imperiously.

A few teens shuffled nervously in their seats.

“Very well.” He began to pace across the front of the room with slow short steps, the metal heel of his boots clinking with each footstep, “I have three goals for my lessons this year. Firstly, you have spent the last few years learning to form a spell and interpreting the three essentials of spellcasting; mana, intent and understanding.” The three words flashed for emphasis, “That is my first outcome, to teach you why they are significant.”

“My second outcome is to have the whole class shape their own spell by the end of the first year. It must be outside the standard incantations for the apprentice level which I will instruct you all on later.”

“Finally, understanding is the most crucial part of this process. It reduces the mana expenditure and the required intent for a spell to go against the natural laws. Which leads me to my third and final outcome, what are the natural laws and how does understanding them help us?”

He finished his speech perfectly behind the lectern and with a short sharp stamp on the stone floor.

“Questions?”

No hands were raised.

“Good. Then let’s begin. You were all tasked for your final assessment at your previous schools to cast a single spell. That will be your objective today, come up, say your name and cast one spell.” He finished with a small smile, the first emotion he had expressed so far, “And I need not say what will occur if you cannot. We-”

One teen jumped up and quickly walked to the front, a smug smile plastered across his face, “My name is Aaron Anders, Sir.”

The teacher gestured for him to stop but Aaron was already in the process of casting his spell. His face was scrunched up in concentration and after ten seconds a small ball of light winked into existence on his palm. He shot a quick look back to check the class’s reaction and scowled at the result.

“Next time you interrupt me will be a detention, return to your seat, now.” The teacher said with an apathetic glare, following Aaron as he trod back to his desk, head hung low, “As I was saying, we will start with the first row and work our way back.”

The next person to stand up did so with the elegance of years of etiquette training, her voluminous dress barely moved as she nearly floated to near where the teacher was sitting.

“My name is Abi Havard.” She said with minimal inflection, though her voice sounded like a warm summer breeze. She closed her eyes, and a few seconds later icy butterflies grew from her palm and began fluttering around her long ginger hair.

Enraptured, the class looked on in awe as the icy beings spiralled around her and then flew out across the room before vanishing.

She flounced back to her seat and sat down; Ursula spied a small upturn of her lips that quickly vanished.

From there on there were no outstanding students, one by one a student would stand up and cast a simple spell. Every minute or two the classroom would glow from a simple fire or light spell, each successful teen strutting back to their desks.  

Finally, after nearly thirty people had gone before them the back row was being called forth. The first man trudged up, like a man walking to the headsman block.

“P-Peta, S-Sir.” He said, wiping his sweaty palms across his pants.

He closed his eyes and concentrated. One minute passed, and then two more.

“Leave.” The professor stated coldly.

“B-But Sir! I know I can do it, just give me a little mor-”

“I said leave.”

The young man bowed his head, tears beading at the corner of his eyes. He looked out towards the classroom for help, he saw the condescending smirk of Aaron and the pitying gazes of his classmates. His eyes briefly met with Ursula’s, but she ducked her head. With a sob he fled from the room.

“Next.” The teacher called out, his words cutting through the fugue that had settled on the room.

The taller of the orphans stood and walked up with steady steps, “Ursula.”

She stood there, eyes closed, for just over a minute before producing a tiny spark of flame that briefly licked at her palm before snuffing out. Sophia followed and copied her partner’s actions, only using a light spell instead, before returning to her seat.

“Now that is finally over,” He sighed, his Germanic accent even stronger than usual, “I can begin my first lesson. What is mana?”

Aaron quickly raised his hand high in the sky. The teacher gave his a dismissive glance before resuming.

“Mana is an omnipresent energy that exists between space. As far as we know it is inexhaustible and imperceptible physically-”

One of their classmates raised a hand and the teacher reluctantly nodded at him.

“Sir, what does imperceptible mean?”

He man standing at the front sighed, “It is inexhaustible and imperceptible physically because of the particles infinitesimal size, we only know of it due to mages being able to sense it within ourselves and our surroundings. But its most important trait is that it can be influenced by living beings, its pliable nature allows us to store it inside us, align it to us and then use it to fuel spells. Once a mana particle is depleted of its energy it drops out from the spell and re-joins your body, it is then quickly recharged by its brethren within you.”

 Sophia couldn’t help herself and raised her hand, the man sighed once again but gestured to her, “Sir, if each mana particle has a finite energy has there been any thought about quantifying the exact amount of mana that is used in each spell?”

Prof. Virding’s eyes gleamed, “There have been discussions. Due to the inherent wastage of mana in spells it has been very hard to narrow down but there has been progress,” he paused for a moment to think, “It is hard to explain but if you were to take one-thousand of one-thousand units and then have that number multiply by itself. If you were to repeat that again and then take about forty percent of it away that is the number, we have managed to estimate.”

The blonde processed the information, like a strike of lightning it came to her, “Avogadro’s number…” she muttered.

“What?” Ursula hissed.

“There have been discussions about what to name the unit, but so far – much to my chagrin – it seems it will be referred to as ‘Mana Points’ or MP.” He shook his head disdainfully. “But we have appeared to have gone off topic-”

The bell suddenly rung filling the air with its shrill noise.

“We will continue our discussion next lesson, in the meantime practice your magic – try to reduce your casing time. Ursula and Sophia, wait behind for a moment.” He announced.

Both girls nodded, anticipating such a conversation.

After the class had filtered out, the pair were left alone with the stern man. With a negligent wave of his hand the door quietly closed.

“Obviously, you both wish to remain unnoticed to the nobles.” He almost spat the final word, but he then looked to Sophia, “Therefore, ask your questions after the class, I will be more that amenable to have the discussion then.

“Sorry Sir, but the topic was just too interesting,” The green-eyed girl said, ducking her head.  

The man gave her a curt nod, “You have mathematics next, and it would be wise not to be late. Good day.” As he finished his sentence the door swung open.

The pair scurried out of the room and made a dash towards heir next classroom just managing to make it in time. The only seas remaining were at the front of the classroom, so they sat down there.

Soon their teacher walked through the door, or to Ursula’s point of view, he nearly rolled in. The doorframe gave out a loud groan of protest as he forced his way through it sideways, the floorboards creaked under the strain of his heavy footfalls and his breaths were loud, deep, and often. Behind him lazily floated a briefcase, the spell easily able to keep up with his walking speed.

“Mornin’ class, I am Mister Weilan. I will be your mathematics teacher. I have a small test for each of you. It will give me an idea of your current skills.” He said, the end of each short sentence punctuated with another inhale as if the very act of speaking was tiring him.

With a flick of his wrist the briefcase opened and out flew several pieces of paper that gently settled on all the desks.

“Writing implements are in your desks. If you don’t get at least half right you’re expelled. Begin.” He uttered, his voice a deep base. With a relieved sigh he plodded over to a chair and sat down.

The class watched on in awe as the chairs legs visibly bowed but held. His fat ham-hock like legs barely able to bend to reach the floor. And then his most recent words filtered through into their heads.

Most of the teens scrambled to grab the charcoal stick wrapped in wood sitting in the recess of their small tables and furiously read through the questions. Fingers were being consulted and some had even taken off their shoes to help with the lack of digits.  

But both Ursula and Sophia were staring blankly at the first question.

‘If I had one apple and then found another apple, how many apples would I have?’

They slowly lifted their gazes and met each other’s eyes. The desolate expressions on each other’s faces conveying all the words needed to describe their thoughts.

Eventually, they put pen to paper and began working through it.

 

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Lunch was a simple affair, the duo, used to not eating a midday meal, watched on from a courtyard as men and woman stuffed their faces.

“Should we get any food?” Sophia asked from her vantage point in Ursula’s lap.

The tall blacksmith rolled her eyes, “Going into the cafeteria on the first day of school is literally asking for trouble.”

The bell tolled notifying them to attend their last class of the day – languages. Which went in a similar fashion to the class prior, the lecturer Ms. Alyssa handed out a paper with simple questions and gave them the rest of the class to complete it.

They walked out of the school with swift steps and within a dozen minutes were in Ursula’s bedroom at the orphanage.

“Well, language class is probably going to be a bust and I’m not sure if Mr. Weilan is going to teach or have a heart attack.”

“I think if you threw something at Mr. Weilan it would just orbit him instead.” Ursula muttered, causing her partner to snort, “At least magic will be somewhat interesting.” She conjured a bean bag and slumped into it.

The short blonde nodded, “Yeah, he’s a very sink or swim kind of teacher but his knowledge is top notch at least.”

The tall teen then reached out for her girlfriend like a pervert, her fingers wriggling.

The girl at risk of those questing fingers rolled her eyes and let her plump rear fall straight onto her partners unprotected stomach.

“Oof, you’re heavy.” The blacksmith grunted.

“You wanted me, here I am.” Sophia answered, an unrepentant grin spreading across her face.

Ursula’s lips homed in for her lovers quickly wiping away the smile. At the same time, she focused internally on their connection and synchronized their souls, the rim of her irises gaining an emerald tint while her partner’s gained her brown.

A little more used to the sudden rush of feelings, their kiss only faltered for a second before it resumed with fervour. The sound of wet lips sliding across one another resounded in the room, their breathy moans resonating in the surroundings. Until finally their mana had depleted, and they were forced to sever the connection. They took a moment to break the kiss, their lidded eyes staring deeply into each other’s.

Breathing heavily, they both inhaled deeply of each other’s scent and let it out, washing away the stresses of the day. Allowing their limp bodies moulding into one another.

“So, what was that about avocado’s number or something earlier?” Ursula eventually asked.

“It’s Avogadro’s number, and it’s a thing in chemistry that basically simplifies the huge amounts of atoms in stuff.”

“…Right. Would it help at all knowing about for my magic?”

“Nah,” Sophia shook her head, her eyes noting a slight difference in colour between their person sets of armour and the ones they prepared for sale, “Hey what did you make the metal in all the armour from?”

“For the stuff we sold that simple steel. But for us I was allowed to use a small amount of Copavium, which helps with mana conduction.”

“Right, makes sense, I didn’t really focus on that magical metal much as Tartok had me focusing on silmavium and auravium, which while much more expensive they are a lot better.” The blonde grimaced, “It’s interesting to think that there’s basically a whole other periodic table of magical elements, but they really weren’t imaginative when naming them were they…”

Ursula shook her head, “Nope.”

The conversation trailed off, the pair letting each other’s body heat induce a content sleepy haze. What could have been minutes or hours later they were woken by the dinner bell.

“I don’t wanna get up,” Sophia mumbled.

Ursula wrapped her arms around the girl lying on top of her and delicately placed a kiss on her neck, “Me neither, but we have to eat.”

A naughty grin grew on Sophia’s face as she palmed her tall lover’s crotch, “I’d rather have this than the usual stuff – it’s sweeter.”

Ursula’s pupils rapidly dilated and she felt her gut clench as blood surged into her dick, “Holy shit that turned me on.”

The blonde jumped up from her spot, a saccharine smile on her face, “Whoops,” and ran out the door, her laughs echoing back into the room.

“You little shit!”

Ursula ran after her.

 

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The next day the pair were back in the magic classroom with Professor Virding. One of their classmates had just sat down after casting a spell.

“Good,” The teacher said with minimal enthusiasm, “I can see you have all improved since yesterday. I expect you to continue this trend into the future.”

“Yesterday we began our discussion with the topic of mana, and I will continue to expound on it. Mana is essential to our bodies function, it is why when we exhaust our supply our bodies enter a state of lethargy in order to conserve mana – if you wish to learn more, you will have the opportunity to select our healing elective next year.”

“On this topic I will be issuing you all some homework,” a chorus of groans entered his ears, “I expect most, if not all, of you will have never experienced full mana depletion and having it occur to you in a hostile environment for the first time is not recommended.”

The orphans sitting at the back gave each other a wide grin.

“Therefore, your task is to fully deplete your mana. Additionally, you must come up with at least one idea to protect yourself to share with the class for our next lesson.” His steel grey eyes bored into them.

“Yes, Sir.” Came the mumbled replies.

“Good.”

“Now, the first spell we will be learning is Create Water.”

Ursula and Sophia began to tune him out as he taught a spell they already knew, their minds already focused on the end on the day.

At the end of the lesson as the students filtered out one teen remained behind.

“Uh, hi Sophia, my name’s Mark a-and I really like you. Do you want to, uh, meet up sometime?” The slightly handsome man asked with a half-smile.

Sophia elbowed her partner in the stomach to stop her murderous glare, “I’m sorry but I’m already with someone.”

“I-I don’t mind if you bring someone along,” Mark stuttered taking a short glance at Ursula.

“I’m sorry but I’m only interested in one person,” Sophia’s smile grew strained.

“I’m sur-” The man began.

“That means leave. Take a hint.” Ursula stepped forward, her head looming ominously over him.

“R-Right. I’ll see you around.” He ran.

“Sometimes I wonder about the mental capacity of other people.” Ursula sighed.

“Come on Ursy, he was probably only thirteen to fourteen. He should’ve left earlier but that doesn’t mean you have to scare him.”

“We both know it can escalate very quickly.” Ursula said softly.

The short girl winced, “Right. Come on let’s get going.”

They walked out of the class only to be interrupted as soon as they stepped out of its threshold.

“Boy troubles?” A sensual alto voice called out to them.

They both turned to see the morning sun shining brightly onto a student’s uniform which emphasised her generous curves and bountiful breasts.

Ursula sent a tentative nod in her direction.

She took a step into the sunlight to reveal her feminine angular face and ruby red eyes.

“My name is Mel,” Her mouth split into a grin showing off her pearly white teeth, “I think we’re going to get along just fine.”

 

 

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