Grandmother was not exaggerating her warning. From the board, at first I smelled what reminded me of the ocean from my brief exposure to it. Next came a visceral jet of water that shot from over our heads and slammed into the other side of the wall, and then began to flood the room with such speed and ferocity that it lifted our seating area up, telling me precisely why it was shaped the way it was. I saw my classmates stabilizing themselves one by one, with the exception of Elodie who seemed taken completely off guard and nearly rolled off the edge. If not for the quick reflexes of Usk, she likely would have been swept under the lecture area…Ship? Sure, let’s go with ship. Grandmother herself was cackling at her own joke, which I kind of expected given her reputation, and Professor Ritter was relaxed to the point that you’d expect she’s used to this sort of thing.
The room continued to fill for quite a while before the lecture ship was suspended a good clip above where it rested before. At this, Grandmother snapped her fingers and the board shooting water out shattered like glass, sealing the spell in a way I assumed was unorthodox for mortals. This left us adrift in the small room, which must have been taller than I remember it being for us to still fit, and as the water ceased its swirling we all found our seats again.
“That’s better.” Grandmother said, walking atop the water around the class and clapping. “You all responded well to disaster, but this was small in scale compared to what you’ll be learning how to overcome, and not a single one of you knew any spells to help ease the situation.” Almost as if she was confirming her own genius, she crossed her arms before continuing. “Good, now I know what our base line is. We can start to build you all up from there.”
“That… was just to see how bad we’d fail?” I heard Pentagon speak. Grandmother confirmed with a nod.
“Obviously! Why would I endanger my students in a controlled environment if not to get a grasp on how they screw up? You need to establish the lowest point before you climb, or you’ll miss some rungs on the ladder.”
I giggled a bit, as quietly as I could.
“Nobody could stabilize with a spell, and nobody tried to plug the stream either. You all got out of the danger zone safely but couldn’t stop or even slow the disaster. Basic Flux Control should give you the fundamentals to at least keep yourself safe during things like this long enough to escape them, or help ease them. That’s the hope, anyway.”
Professor Ritter chimed in from here, as if the two scripted who would talk and when. They probably did, actually.
“You can physically avoid a whirlpool only for so long if you’re aboard a ship. Eventually it’ll get sucked in. Knowing how to stop the water from spiraling or knowing how to create a barrier between yourselves and the water could be life and death. I know this is an extreme first lesson, but that’s what we’re here to teach you.”
“Life and death.” Grandmother confirmed. “Fundamentals of Flux control can be powerful by themselves for that reason. Plus, a little trauma should have awakened some dormant abilities as your blood quite literally boiled as a fight or flight response. Anybody feeling warm right now?”
I raised my hand, as did Usk and Elodie, who I noticed had changed a bit. Elodie had a streak of red in her hair and Usk had his… Scales? Scales. Had his scales glowing a dim green. This prompted me to check my hair, and sure enough, I could pinpoint more white coming to the surface.
“Some new activations, that’s good. Now, let’s go over what each color actually means and where your Inherited Blood is from.” Grandmother nodded, a wave of her hand over to Professor Ritter who was now holding papers to pass around to us individually based on our color. Those in the class with no visible changes were asked if their hair had ever changed before, and some said yes. Some said nothing, and these people received a different handout than we did.
“Your Inherited Blood came from a member of the Pantheon that we all know, and they each mean something else. These Affinities aren’t the end of your potential, but they are where you should begin to look to practice.” Professor Ritter was saying as she handed us all our paperwork. I had a small understanding of this from earlier in the week with Grandmother, but it was good to have paperwork about it.
“Red affinity, like Elodie just awakened, comes passed down from the God of Order, named Vain by mortals. This inheritance allows the user access to pacifying spells by nature. Wards, aromatic calming agents, and all sorts of other things to keep the peace.” Grandmother spoke up. She then eyed Usk.
“Green affinity is actually the same as Tariah, so she should explain that.”
“Green Affinity belongs to Camulus, the Goddess of Creations’ great protector. This inheritance comes with more down to earth abilities like controlling healthy soil, innate understanding of the natural world, and the concentration of solar energy to be used for various things.”
Grandmother made her way into the lecture ship now, content in her showing off I’d imagine, and she addressed the rest of the colors briefly.
“Blue Affinity represents the mind and is inherited from a deity unknown, even to us in the Pantheon. It started showing up around a few hundred years ago and nobody has claimed responsibility over it. That said, it expands the persons’ mind to great heights, enabling things like telepathic communication and moving objects by the force of imagination. It’s been incredibly rare to find, so I’m not surprised nobody here has it.”
I thought back a bit, as that sounded very familiar to me for reasons that weren’t clicking right away.
“Pink or purple affinity are inherited from Blind Aeon, not a true deity but someone who created a new affinity through sheer magical prowess. This affinity is also pretty rare, but it taps into the empathetic part of people and usually is used for things like connecting to other creatures remotely. Blind Aeon herself used it to bond with creatures to replace her eyes for short periods of time and see the world through them.
Now that sounded powerful, if not incredibly strange.
“White affinity is sort of a primal inheritance that comes from the initial spark of reality. It’s an amalgamation of the known affinity types, but weaker than all of them by comparison. Think of it like a diluted ale. Still gets the job done and can become any flavor, but won’t ever get you quite as buzzed.”
“Faye, they’re kids.” Professor Ritter reminded her.
“Oh, right. Well, I’m not changing it.” Grandmother huffed in defiance. “And that covers the bulk of affinity types. There are some odd ones out there two-tone affinities but those are so incredibly rare that I only go over them if one happens to be in my class. And with knowledge of who gave you your gifts and what they do, you should all begin to think of what that means about your heritage.”
It seemed the class took a moment of silence for themselves amidst our classroom sized ocean, taking in the information that I was forced to acquire recently. I probably would have been more shaken or surprised by this revelation if my Grandmother wasn’t who she was. I decided to break the ice and try to snap everyone into a better mindset, and raised my hand. Professor Ritter called on me, and I stood.
“So in a way we’re all carrying the blessing of the Pantheon, but that doesn’t mean it defines us entirely. Like you two were saying before, this is just a baseline. We can still do whatever we want with this.”
I could feel Grandmother smiling.
“Absolutely.” Professor Ritter confirmed. “You are not the Divine who you inherited this blessing from. You’re still an individual. This is just where your innate power comes from and that will teach you the easiest things for you to tap into first. You’re not even obligated to use your gifts after learning how to tap into them. This is entirely so that you have the knowledge as a baseline.”
Now that the point of the class had been drilled into our heads at least four times, I could tell the students around me were coming to terms with it, some faster than others. Elodie was still a bit shaken, but I assumed this was because she had never been truly put in danger like that before, even simulated danger. I was going to try and talk to her and comfort her, but Grandmother began lecturing again.
“So we understand that Magic is the incorrect term now. We understand what this gift is, where it came from, and what it means to us. What’s next?” she asked, without expecting an answer. I could tell she was just having fun spooking the class now. “Well, next would be how to use the gift. Channeling that inheritance into power. As this stuff works differently for me, I’ll leave Tariah to explain this one.”
Professor Ritter took over then, again as if they had rehearsed.
“The way for us mortals to activate our gifts is fairly simple in essence, but the grasping of it as a concept can take time. For this, I’d like a volunteer.”
Before I could shoot my hand up, another beat me to it across the room from me; Elodie, of all people. She and I exchanged glances for a moment and had a wordless exchange in which she gestured for me, and I gestured for her respectively. In the end, she stood and thanked me in one of the most frail voices I’d heard since I got here. I started to wonder if maybe she was sickly and that’s why she couldn’t catch herself on the initial flood.
“Alright, good.” Professor Ritter turned to face Elodie and raised a hand, as if to stop her in her position. “Stand right there and close your eyes.”
As Elodie did so, Professor Ritter stepped away without a sound underneath her, moving to the edge of the lecture ship.
“Now, imagine your blood is a muscle. Muscles can contract and expand to fulfill certain tasks. Moving your arm, speaking, walking, and so on.” her voice was still coming from right beside Elodie. She continued. “If you envision your blood to be able to do the same, then the blood in your hands can stay where it is, retract, or fill specific locations. Try to envision your blood going into your palm and staying there. Do you feel your fingers getting colder as your palm heats up?”
“Y-yes, I do.” she spoke, louder than I’d heard before.
“Good. Now, with the energy left in your fingers, curl them inward to form an open circle with your thumb. Imagine this shape, this incomplete circle, and let me know what you feel.”
“I feel… Warm. All over. Except my hand now. T-the one I’m using for the-”
“Good.” she cut Elodie off. “Now, when muscles are exerted quickly, they can tear and rebuild, becoming stronger. This is what we do to work out our bodies. As long as you’re safe, this is how you will work out your blood, too. Elodie, this will sound strange, but I need you to rapidly open your palm and keep your fingers closed. “
She nodded to Professor Ritter and shook, as if struggling to complete the task assigned to her.
“It’s… Difficult.” she said. “Like it doesn’t want to.”
“That’s correct. But remember, you are in charge of your muscles. They respond to you, not the other way around. Give it all you’ve got.”
Elodie was definitely struggling to do something that we took for granted, opening and closing her hand had become an almost painful task. I could tell by the look of frustration on her face that this was truly fighting her at every angle. Eventually though, her hand shot open with force so great that we could hear her knuckles crack, and along with them, a sort of pulsating aura developed around her body, dim red in color. All at once Elodie began to shake at the knees and almost toppled over on herself, but it seemed her personal satisfaction gave her enough energy to fight that back. Her frustration faded into a sigh, and then weakened laughter. Professor Ritter began clapping for her, which made Elodie realize that her eyes were still shut as she heard the sound from further than she expected.
“Good, good. Your natural affinity for wards is apparent. Now, can you explain what you just felt to the class?”
Elodie summoned all her energy in a deep breath, probably winded from her exertion before still, and addressed us.
“When my blood gathered in my palm, it didn’t just… Inflate it or anything… Instead the heat started coming off my hand. When I curled my fingers, that heat became suction. In my palm I felt a… Heated pocket of air or something. It became so hard to open my hand, but… When I did, that pocket expanded and… Now I’m surrounded by a similar feeling.”
Professor Ritter nodded, and crossed her arms.
“The heat that gathered in your palm wasn’t your blood. In fact, your blood was still circulating the whole time. What happened was that the blood passing through the area at the time had received your intentions to deposit its energy there, at that specific location. The reason you imagine your blood gathering is because that’s much easier to do at first than explaining the process.” she began to walk back to the center.
“You feel tired because the energy in your blood was used to create this barrier. Much like you eat to restore energy and drink to stay hydrated, your blood carries this Flux energy inside it along with the air you breathe. It doesn’t deposit it anywhere unless you tell it to though. When it does, it takes some time to recharge it, typically using the energy in the air that we normally don’t interact with.”
Grandmother took over again at that, and Professor Ritter seemed to be right on cue for Elodie to lose her stance and collapse right into the teacher’s grip.
“When me and the other Divinity did our thing, we left residue of our existence behind in the air as a gas. The blood of those who inherited our gifts is able to pull this gas out of the air and use it for things like this. In a way it’s sort of inside everyone, but those with inheritance can use it like this. Mages, we call them. I’m sure you’ve heard the term.”
The class nodded.
“Mages of higher skill levels typically are adjusted to using this gas. The less of it is in your body, the worse you feel – at first. People that adjust to not having this gas inside them are the mages who can cast and cast, all day. It takes a combination of experience with manipulating the gas, getting your body used to lacking it, and growing your own resistance to your creations that makes or breaks mages.”
Elodie spoke up again, as she was helped into her seat.
“So, will this… Dispel on its own?”
“Yes.” Professor Ritter spoke. “For mortals, the fuel source for our spells is finite. Once the gas you’ve gathered for the spell is consumed by the specific thing it’s doing, it’ll wear out. Wards like this tend to last a while when under magical stress though. Think of it like adding fuel to a fire; throwing more magic at a ward won’t hurt the ward, it’ll just bolster it more. Of course, some of the attack will still make it through, such as the physical force of whatever is traveling at you, and this won’t protect at all from physical attacks as it is. But we’re not expecting you to use this for combat. You’re too young for that.”
I took note that a ward may be a good idea to learn. Hardening myself against magical attacks out in the field would be to my benefit.
“Next, June. Why don’t you show us what happens when a blank affinity does the same thing?” Professor Ritter spoke.
I stood, eager to try this out myself, and made my way right to where Elodie was standing, and closed my eyes.
“Remember what I told her, and go ahead. Let’s see what you’re naturally able to do with a basic gesture like that.”
I raised my hand, and tried to imagine my blood rushing to my hand to fill my palm. In a small time, I felt heat, and my fingers became cold, just as I’d heard earlier. Curling my fingers down caused a strong force to be applied to them, and I could feel my hand desired to close completely. To resist this certainly took more effort than I expected, even seeing it in action before. I could faintly hear Professor Ritter speaking to me, but I couldn’t fully understand it. Murmurs around me as well, all faded to the sound of rushing wind.
With one motion I ripped my hand open, and immediately felt the consequences as whatever gas this was enveloped the area in front of me, and I heard Grandmother call me out. I opened my eyes to see the classroom was back on the ground, water completely gone, and the hair I could see of myself had a slight glow to it. White strands were now radiating slightly, but faded as I came to realize that they were. I took a glance to the edge of the room where I’d had my hand pointed and found a singed mark on the wall. With some fear now bubbling up, I looked at my hand, and turned my palm to face me.
Resting in my palm was a small, purple flame.
Magna Varia 