After lunch, I returned to the classroom. There was nobody there except for Hershel Arcinshire. He always seems to be the first one everywhere. I sat down at my desk, took out my Grimoire and examined it. I found it to be quite interesting, that the crystal changes its colour to my favourite colour. After a little while, everyone else was also present, with Robert Astorlight being the last to enter the classroom. Actually besides the Professor, who entered shortly after him.

The Professor went to his desk and took out his Grimoire. He told us to stand up and go to his desk to look at his Grimoire. Once we were all standing around his desk, he opened his Grimoire. The pages seemed to be empty, but as he opened it, writing appeared on the first few pages, looking like a table of contents. He moved his finger across a line in this list and then turned to the next page. Suddenly writing appeared there again and drawings and calculations with it.

He explained: “Although the Grimoire only has few pages, it can store much more information. The information stored in it is linked with your brain. Only you can make it appear and only you can change it. For writing in the Grimoire you have to use the attached pen. One creates a new spell, by writing it into the book. How exactly you design a spell will be taught to you in detail in future courses. Just let me tell you that it is no easy task. It takes much thought and work. In this academy, we will teach you some useful basic spells and the basics for designing your own spells. Please also note that there are rules applying to create spells. One has to inform the government of any spell one creates and there are forbidden types of spells. Breaking those rules results in the confiscation of one's Grimoire.”

“Interesting,” I thought, “The government seems to control arcane arts pretty strictly. Are they scared of an Arcanist becoming too strong and creating spells which could harm them?” Just as I was thinking this, Catherine Durandan asked the Professor, why this is so strictly controlled. He replied: “Not too long ago there was an incredibly powerful Arcanist called Victorian Evangelov. He was the previous emperor of the United Realms and the last of his age-old bloodline. His great great great grandfather Octavian Evangelov was the founder of the United Realms. But Victorian was overthrown and killed by a group of rebelling Arcanists under the Leadership of Emperor Gildheart. Before he was defeated he became more dangerous every day because he delved deep into forbidden arcane arts. So we learned from that crisis and employed new, very strict laws concerning arcane arts. But you will learn more about this in your history courses.”

After he told us this story, he said that he wanted to show us a spell and teach us how to cast one. He said that we should watch him and then stepped in the middle of the classroom. He explained: “I will show you a simple and harmless spell. It’s a spell that we will teach you and it’s called `Guiding Light ́. One can cast any spell in their Grimoire by thinking about it and wanting to cast it. Only of course if one's mana reserves aren’t depleted. I will show you the spell now”

He stretched out his arm and opened his hand. Suddenly a small, very bright ball of light appeared above his palm.

He continued: “Casting this spell has cost mana and now maintaining it costs mana every second. But it is a quite cheap spell and as a trained Arcanist, I could maintain this spell for many hours. This ball of light follows one's palm, is very bright but room temperature. It is a quite useful and harmless spell.”

He closed his hand and the ball of light disappeared. He then told us that this lesson today is over and that tomorrow we would learn how creating a spell works. He also said that in the following weeks we would learn some very basic spells and would be trained to use them. While we would learn that the Professor would examine us to figure out which type of spells suites us best and where our talents were. After this initial training and studying phase, we would receive a more specialized education to help us use our strengths and talents and to specialize us in a certain category of spells. I found this principle of specialized education quite interesting and I was wondering where my strengths and talents would be. I was quite excited to find that out.

After he gave us that information he ended the lesson and left the classroom. Soon afterwards everyone else left, me including. I went to my room to deposit my grimoire and then I went to the dining hall. As the day before, dinner was delicious and fulfilling. After dinner, I stayed in the dining hall for a while and talked to the others there. Most of the noblemen stayed, with Hershel and Catherine being the only ones leaving immediately after dinner. Of all the noblemen still present, I was most interested in Robert Astorlight. He and Hershel were the only noblemen present who already held a title. Their parents died in battle ten years ago when they were just six years old. Since then they have held the title of Lord. But then again, they didn’t hold real power until they finished the Arcane Academia.

I sat down right next to Robert and started talking. “Hello there, you’re Lord Robert Astorlight, am I right?” “Yes, you're right. But no need to refer to me as Lord Astorlight. Just call me Robert.”, He replied. He was a very talkative, laid back guy. We talked a bit in general about our arrival here and what we thought of the Academia. We then exchanged information about our homelands. As the Lord of the Eretra Realm, he had much to say about it. He started to explain: “The Barrdra Realm is the most eastern land. The climate is very hot and depending on the region quite dry or humid. The ancient forest is the oldest and greatest forest in the world. It is hot and humid there and the whole forest is overgrown with foliage. On the contrary, there’s the Barrdra desert. A dry and barren land, where one of the oldest civilizations of the world once resided. Other than those regions, the land is mostly consisting of tundras. The capital of Mayandra lies by the shore on the edge of the ancient forest and is a very old, beautiful city. The people of Eretra are known to be tough and resilient...”

His picturing of the Eretra Realm sounded quite interesting. It really made me want to visit it someday.

I wanted to tell him about my homeland, but unfortunately, it was already quite late and we had to go to bed now. So I promised him that we would continue our talk tomorrow. After that, I left the dining hall and went to my chamber.