“And who can tell me another use for the refined forms of oriculum?” asked Professor Sedgewick, a pale and wispy human with long black hair slicked down to his head. It reminded Emray of a pool of tar slapped onto a snow bank.
“Refined oriculum stones and powder are often used as components for spellcasting as well as forming the basis of most arcane channeling tools,” Luxom answered.
“Well spoken, Mr. Halaxir,” Sedgewick replied as he turned to the blackboard and began to write down Luxom’s answer. “In addition to its potent energetic properties that make it an ample fuel source, oriculum is also known as the ‘mage-stone’ for just this reason. If you’ve ever used a wand, staff, or other form of channeling device for your magical skill then you have benefitted from this property of oriculum.”
Emray could feel her eyes slowly start to drop close as the class wore on, held open only by her sense of propriety and the off chance that she might learn something new. All of what Sedgewick was teaching she had already learned from her mentorship with Professor Marigold. She’d even done some of her own tinkering with the stuff, although nothing fruitful had really come of it.
It was moments like this that made Emray resent only being a first-year student. She had already taught herself so much from casual study in her youth that most of her classes were spent reiterating things she already knew. She could rattle off the properties of oriculum in her sleep and could probably transmute it into gold while she did so. It was doubly bad that this whole week had been spent reiterating the reiteration since they were reviewing before the practicals.
“Remind me again, why do we refine it?” Elifas asked, her bright red hand in the air a signal flare of obtuseness. “If it’s so powerful, why do we need to process it at all?”
“An astute question, Elifas, very astute,” Sedgewick replied, “and you’re not wrong about the power that raw oriculum contains. However, raw oriculum is also very unstable on a fundamental level. Too much heat applied to it or enough physical stress to it could cause a chain reaction of molecular destabilization that would result in an eruption of explosive power. Even one ounce of raw oriculum set off in this manner would be enough to level an entire room.”
Emray rolled her eyes as she saw Elifas, as well as Luxom and most of the other students, furiously jotting down their notes. Her notebook laid bare in front of her as she’d learned nothing new so far this lesson, and the amount of pages she had filled barely constituted the first few pages.
“The reason we refine oriculum with the use of reagents, distilleries, and other such processes is that it allows access to all of that potent energy without any of the potentially lethal side effects that mishandling oriculum can cause. It’s why you don’t see skyships suddenly bursting into teal fire when they take a single hit during a battle.”
“Thank you, Professor,” Elifas replied in that cloyingly sweet voice that made Emray’s teeth hurt.
“You’re most welcome, Elifas. Now, if you’ll turn to page eighty-six you’ll find the diagram of the distillation process…”
Slowly but surely the class droned on, and Emray found herself more often than not staring out the window behind Professor Sedgewick than at him. The grey clouds passed through the sky like foam on an upside-down ocean, broken every so often by a skiff or a ketch piercing through. The taut sails bowed outward in the winter wind as the faint teal glow of their Ronston engines provided a welcome splash of color against the oppressive grey sky.
A smile crept across Emray’s face as she thought of climbing the rigging, using her magic to mend the sails. She thought of nights spent on the deck staring out at the vastness of the sky around her. She thought of fighting for her country, making her mark on the world so that all of the Enclave would know the name Emray Alvurshi.
She thought of her parents, gone to war and never to return.
The klaxon signaling the end of the class rang Emray out of her trance, to the point where she jumped and let her head fall to the desk with a resounding thump. Rubbing her forehead, she quickly stuffed everything away in her bags and quickly made her exit before anyone noticed her or she noticed anyone else.
“Emray! Emray, wait!” a dry and raspy voice called from behind just as she was about to exit the building. Emray turned to find Luxom jogging up behind her, one clawed hand clutching his bags and another wrapped around her notebook.
“You forgot your notebook. Wouldn’t want to lose all of the nothing you wrote down in it, now would we?”
“And who told you you could look inside my notebook?” Emray demanded as she snatched it away from him.
“The scatterbrained elf who left it laying open after face-planting into the desk, that’s who,” Luxom retorted with a sly grin.
Warmth spreading across her face, Emray quickly stuffed the journal into her bags and turned to walk off. Much to her dismay Luxom made to follow her.
“It’s not like there was anything incriminating in there anyway,” Luxom continued. “You just spent the whole period staring out the window, didn’t even write down he name of the lesson. You really expect to pass practicals with that kind of work ethic?”
“Considering that I already know everything in these ‘lessons’, I’d say yes, I do.” Emray sniped back.
“Oh, you’re one of those types,” Luxom said with a tone of dawning realization. “By Quvra, that explains so much.”
“What do you mean one of ‘those’ types? I’m perfectly fine just the way I am, thank you very much.”
“Maybe to you, but I know exactly the type you are. My older sister Okira is the exact same way; Self-assured, thinks she’s too good for anyone else to measure up against, learns everything so much faster so she never has to study or work hard at anything, all topped off with an ego the size of the Crown City.”
Emray felt a vein bulge in her neck as Luxom rattled off the list of her perceived character flaws, but took his assessment in stride since she knew he was wrong. It’s one thing to have pretensions to grandeur, but Emray really was that much smarter.
“Maybe your sister is just sick of dealing with the smaller minds around her, buzzing like flies and distracting her from the things she should be doing with their inane assertions,” Emray replied, doing her best to maintain a level tone.
“Considering she’s back home in Phothaf running the family farm because she flunked out of the military academy, I’d say maybe not. But hey, you do you, and we’ll see who the smaller mind is at the end of the day. Have fun with the practicals!”
With a fanged smile and a wave Luxom turned left down the street outside the Instruction Building, heading into town and leaving a fuming Emray in his wake.
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