Fall of Autumn, Week 5, Day 2

"Neat," I said to no one, putting in the rest of the coins.

Finally, some magic at the Magic Tower.

I looked around, tucking the small velvet coin purse into the bag on my hip. Sir Neil would have to ask for it back if he wanted it. Then, I scanned the shadows in the room—catching sight of a shifting darkness that I knew was Noir. Shade and Haze had stayed at the manor with the remaining animations while they puttered out.

I stepped by where Noir was resting and saw him jump into my shadow as I passed. Climbing up the stairs, I saw Sir Neil shaking his head. I chose to ignore it. Once I was at the top of the stairs, there was a bland-looking hallway with six doors propped open and another staircase at the end of the hall. I looked to the curved wall to my left, glancing above each of the doors—and not seeing any labels. Looking to my right showed the same.

I took a few steps into the hall so Arlen and Sir Neil could get up on the landing, then I caught sight of another familiar face—Uriel Hyperion. He was talking with the same older man that had been with him at the Academy. His honey-colored eyes locked onto mine, and he snapped his gaze back to the man in front of him.

I looked at the door he was standing beside, it was the third one on the right. That would be our class. His name had been on my roster, after all.

"You'll be right outside the door, right?" I confirmed.

Sir Neil gave another scar-dimpling smile. "Of course, my Lady."

A sense of ease filled me, and I nodded seriously.

"Okay, I'm going in then."

Waving me off, Sir Neil and Arlen set up on the free area of wall by the door. Pulling it open, I braced myself for the sensation of too many eyes falling on me, wanting to talk to me, wanting to know me as more than who I am.

Instead, I found nine children talking to each other casually. Two I recognized on sight as they had been the first to introduce themselves to me at the Academy —Edwin and Juliette. Their eyes flicked over my way, and Edwin waved aggressively.

"Nora, we saved you a seat!" He called, and I flinched as it brought the other seven children to attention. But it wasn't as overwhelming as the thirty sets of eyes at the Academy.

I can do this. I am more. I am the God of Nora.

Power filled my mind, and I felt the tension in my stomach ease. Behind me, I felt Noir shiver in my shadow. The pitch black of my nails rippled, and the threads in my hair shimmied in place, causing my curls to roll. I let a smile fill my face as I approached the two nobles.

"Juliette, Edwin," I greeted warmly.

"Please—please call me Jules, Lady Dawn," Juliette said gently, her voice soft and barely above a whisper.

"Then, Nora." I widened my smile.

"Fine, Nora, you've convinced me," Edwin maligned snottily, but I was sure he was exaggerating himself, "you can call me Eddy."

My lips twitched as I held back a laugh and took the seat between the two of them. I did actually know who the Horus family was now—a Viscount family with several sons and a single young daughter just out of the womb. Eddy was the third oldest, with two younger brothers. Meanwhile, the Mithra family only had two children. Jules was the oldest, but her sister was only three years younger. We were all the same age and Awakened within the past lunar year.

Eddy was in mid-Summer, and Jules was in early Autumn, similar to me.

>Look at the things you learn, when you actually read.<

That's rich coming from someone who repeated the same lesson every day for a week with Lina when she taught you addition.

The rest of the room was sparse, and most of the other students had already gone back to what they were doing before—reading.

"How long have you been in the theory class?" I asked them, still looking around at the other students. Underneath my chair, Noir settled into a new shadow. Distracted by my people-watching, I pulled out the small black book that Gristle had given me and set it on the single long desk we shared. Every few feet, there was a row of drawers separating out the spots to sit.

"I just started in Fall," Jules said, halfway under her breath.

Meanwhile, when Eddy spoke, he did so loudly and with pride. "Since Rise —I've been in the course since I was able."

I focused my gaze back on the boy, his thick curly hair framing his face like the world's worst-tempered cherub. It was adorable.

"That's amazing, you must know so much then." I hid my smile behind my hand, leaning into my palm and propping myself up with my elbow.

"Of course! Ask me anything!" He boasted.

In the corner of my eye, I saw Hyperion slip in, but instead of looking at him, I flipped open A Theoretical Primer on Magic and picked a random page toward the front. Arbitrarily, I placed my finger down on the page and read the nearest few sentences.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"What's the runic charge of a—uh, spectral umbral enchantment?" I glanced at Eddy, whose smile had fallen. "What?"

"That's not the book we use," he said quickly.

I closed the book and re-read the title. "Odd, Gristle told me this was the usual book, though?"

"No, no," Eddy was quick to pull out his own book, a pastel yellow thing much larger than the small book I was holding. "Look! We're supposed to use The Primer. It was written by the Master of the Magic Tower—Hiram Kroll."

I took his book and flipped it open. The words were… simpler. Easier to understand for an eight-year-old, I was sure. With my other hand, I flipped my book back to chapter one.

They were both titled the same.

A Magical Lesson of the Nature of Mana

"No, I think we do have the same book, mine is just… odd," I said, trying not to be unkind.

Jules peered over my shoulders at the two books, the more professional and academic-looking black book to my right and the more childlike yellow book to my left.

"They have the same information, but you're right," she said. "Yours is odd."

It was as we were looking over the two books that a shadow covered them.

"It's because your book is the real primer." I looked up, surprised to see Uriel's honeyed eyes meeting my own blue.

"Oh?" I asked, intrigued.

"Yeah, Master Kroll only issued about twenty copies—fifteen within the tower and five to the nobles of Fellan. One went to the Dawns and one to the Hyperions. The other three went to the Queen's Contingent."

As if to confirm his words, he held up another black book that looked identical to my own.

"Neat," I said lightly, glancing at Eddy—whose face had gone red.

"No one asked you, Hyperion!" He ground out.

I blinked.

"Yeah, Uriel," Jules said, still softly but the loudest I'd seen her so far, "mind your own business."

Uriel's eyes didn't stray from looking at me, a far cry from the way he'd snapped his gaze away earlier.

I sighed, making a decision.

"Louis, Beck, and Remour are pretty nice, right?" I said conversationally to Uriel.

He furrowed his brows but still answered. "Of course."

Turning to Edwin and Juliette, I said the same in a jovial tone. "You two know Louis, Beck, and Remour? Aren't they nice?"

"Who? The commoners in Mithril?" Edwin scrunched up his face.

Juliette shook her head. "I've never spoken to them."

Nodding, I grabbed my book and stood. "Uriel, can I sit with you?"

Uriel looked rather put upon but nodded his head. I looped around and we began walking to the other side of the room. The unhappy set of his face never lifted.

"If you were just going to regret it, you shouldn't have intervened," I said lightly as Uriel sat in the front corner and I sat down next to him.

"You say that like it would have mattered," he grumbled. "You would have left them behind soon enough anyway."

I felt Noir jumping between shadows until he settled back into mine.

"Well, it probably would have taken me at least a day to care."

Uriel didn't respond to that, so we sat in companionable silence while I flipped through the primer in front of me.

"All right, class!" A booming voice filled the room, and a ball of white light manifested in the center of the chalkboard at the front of the room. I tensed as a man stepped out. "Who is ready to learn what it takes to master the basics of magic?"

I waited for an aura to assault my senses, for the sensation of being trapped, for the fear to take me and to collapse from the weight of it. None of that happened. The man was just a man, middle-aged, with salt and pepper hair, and a blue suit with a cape billowing around his shoulders. He didn't look like a researcher. He looked like, well, he looked like someone important.

The entirety of the room was silent.

The man's dark eyes settled on Uriel—whose back was ramrod straight—and me.

"Ah! A Child of Dawn!" The man said jovially. "How wonderful for your Light to grace us."

Puzzled, I looked from Uriel to the man.

"Hello?" I said, unsure of what I was meant to do. This man was clearly not who everyone was expecting.

"Oh, my, let me introduce myself," the man laughed, bowing deeply. "I am Hiram Kroll, the Master of the Magic Tower in Fellan."

"Oh," was all I could get out before I remembered myself. "It's nice to meet you, Master Kroll."

>Well, that's annoying.<

You can say that again.

"The pleasure is all mine." His smile was soft, but in the way of someone who was giving a great indulgence, not in the way of kindness. "I'll be the instructor for this theory session today."

Around the room, every child was perked up, nearly at the edge of their seat. Meanwhile, I couldn't hold back my sigh.

Yeah, okay. Beautiful. He may not be a God, but a Master of a Magic Tower is as dangerous to me as a man to an ant.

"Oh, and you've got my very own primer, wonderful! Then, if you don't mind," Master Kroll took my book from my hands and used his free hand to form a series of runes.

He did so in a split second, and five appeared at the wave of his hand—each with at least fifteen lines. They flashed before disappearing, and suddenly the chalk was lifting itself up and writing of its own accord.

"Very well, let's begin at the beginning. It will be a nice refresher for everyone!"

"Yes, Master Kroll," several students said eagerly.

As Master Kroll fell into a lecture, I tried to pay attention. I really, truly did. But while he spoke in understandable terms, he was describing things I could already do. From perceiving mana to what mana was made of. What mana looked like, and why it was dangerous.

The only interesting bit was that, apparently, mana felt different to everyone and was heavily dependent on personality and upbringing prior to Awakening. Also, without Awakening, there was no way for someone in Slumber to use mana. They could sense it, with limits, but they were unable to mold it.

It was one of the prices of the [System].

I wrote down notes on that portion of it all, but the rest? The rest fell away, and I watched as Noir slipped into Master Kroll's shadow and subtly altered its shape.

At one point, I had to hold back a laugh as he made it look like his arms were three times too long and his nose too short.

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