The next morning in class, a man stood before them in the black robes of a priest. “Gentlemen,” he said. “Today we will be going over the basics of magical theory. Who can tell me what magic is?”

“A being’s life force made physical,” Eric said, almost automatically.

“Mr. Vagamon is right.” The priest turned to the chalkboard and began to draw a circle. “And can anyone tell me the elements of magic?”

“Water, earth, fire, and air,” Eric said, sounding almost bored.

The priest drew a cross in the middle of the circle and labeled the four ends. “These elements form the basis for magic—they are the source of magic’s colors. Blue magic pulls from the element of water, orange from fire, brown from earth, and clear from air. The most common magic, or soulforce, that humans can wield is green. White magic is divine, heavenly magic, useful for healing and cleansing. Black magic is evil, cursed magic that brings death and destruction. Any questions so far?”

“What about ice?” someone else in the class asked.

“Ah, you’ve jumped ahead of me.” The priest smiled. “In between the four basic elemental forces are a myriad of magical colors, each slightly different. These correlate to the element the user is most in tune with. Ice, for example, is a mixture of water and air elements, so it’s a light blue color. Can anyone give me another example?”

“A light brown would be sand?” Eric asked.

“Very good.”

Other students listed other colors and elemental pairings, and the priest added them to his diagram.

“What is the color red?” Illius wondered, not seeing it mentioned.

The priest’s somewhat congenial expression turned into a frown. “Illius, was it?”

He nodded, slouching more into his chair.

“Divine magic is white, and as a user masters it, it turns to a light purplish hue—soft, like lavender. Black magic, once perfected, is rumored to turn to red, like blood. But then, even the Demon Lord, Enixiel, has black magic, so it is safe to say that there is no one in the world with red magic. Our forefathers recognized the danger of destruction magic, and they nearly eradicated it. The two most famous practitioners of black magic are the Demon Lord and the Witch of Dotric. I am certain almost every one of you has heard of them at this point, but perhaps not the entire truth. Is anyone interested?”

Illius found himself nodding along with half the class.

“As you all are well aware, Noviad was once a part of Patria—our largest and northernmost state. The Witch of Dotric was the daughter of Debrick Tirethia, the Allchosen, just before the war. Most described her as an angel. The Demon Lord, Enixiel, was in the custody of our elders at the time. Why he was not eradicated upon the discovery of his powers is not clear, as that is what our law dictates.

“Those who have seen him describe him as a devil—horns, goat hooves, and a long tail. Sometimes they say he has wings, but other accounts do not say.” The priest shrugged. “Whatever the case, he was held in custody of the elders of the western church. The Lady Tirethia attended to him, but the beast corrupted her. It is unlikely that even the most powerful black magic wielders would have been able to accomplish this, but the Demon Lord is also a therian. Can anyone give me a definition?”

There was a bit of muttering, and Illius’ fingers itched with the urge to pull his hat lower over his ears. Finally, one man in the back spoke up. “Children born of intimate relations between a woman and a beast?”

“That is the common perception, yes.” The priest nodded. “But the truth is more complicated. Therians are thought to be corrupted creatures, originating from the eradication of dark magic from the world. An interesting side-effect of the creatures is that they can control raw elemental magic.”

Eric narrowed his eyes. “If they’re all corrupted by black magic, then why are their powers so much more potent than the average magical user’s? How can something good come from something evil? And why don’t they all use black magic?”

The priest sighed. “Make no mistake: therians are evil creatures. Many of them are born with horns on their head, feathers on their faces, cat eyes, rabbit ears… Such things are not natural.”

“Looking different doesn’t make you evil.” Eric shrugged.

“Their powers make them incredibly dangerous,” the priest cautioned. “They are known to have quick mood swings and display destructive tendencies. You and I wield magic that can materialize objects, power runes, maybe enhance our abilities, but therians can hold fire in their hands.

“Our elders keep a few for experimentation and research into their abilities, but it should never be thought that they are human or that they have any of the rights the Allfather grants to his children. They may look human, but they are not.”

Eric gave a little frustrated sigh, and then the priest turned back to his board.

“Let’s continue with the theory of magic.”

                         ~

“Hey.” Eric nudged Illius’ arm after class ended. “Lunchtime’s almost over, and believe me, nothing in this lecture is worth missing lunch.”

That made Illius smile, at least a little. He followed Eric to the lunchroom, where they met up with Sam again.

“Man, they are watching you today,” Sam told Eric, noticing at least four guards stationed about the room, each of them stealing glances at the three.

Eric smirked. “Bet I could take all four out before they could do anything about it.”

“And maybe land your butt in solitary,” Sam said.

“I’m the captain’s favorite.” Eric took a bite out of a chicken leg. “He wouldn’t do something like that to me.”

Sam held up his hands and turned to Illius. “You’re even more quiet than usual.”

“The lesson was… interesting,” he said.

“People in this country lose their minds about magic.” Sam shrugged. “Ever since the rebels won, they think training enough people in magic is going to somehow even our odds. But without our dragons, it’s clearly not gonna even out.”

“Wait, we lost our dragons?” Illius asked.

“Yeah.” Sam cocked his head at Illius. “I thought… Eh, I suppose it’s more military circles that would know. When Noviad split off, they took the dragon fields of Skyiad.”

Illius just looked at him blankly.

“Dragons are pretty rare—well, the ones large enough to ride are. The one place they get that big is in the dragon fields of Skyiad, and that’s in Noviad. There’s a fort up there called Abzu, and it’s the best spot to find dragons big enough to ride. Patria had one southern fort, Barpet, but during the war, the Witch of Dotric targeted the place—now it’s history. It’s what triggered the treaty, or so people say. No one really knows, but it was the last mission we heard about before the Witch of Dotric disappeared.”

“Wow, thanks for the speculative history lesson,” Eric said, rolling his eyes.

“What crawled up your ass this time?” Sam snapped.

“We don’t know if any of that’s true.” Eric pointed his spoon at the other man. “For all we know they still have dragons in Patria, and the Witch is locked up somewhere here. Bottom line is, we’re only getting whatever they’re feeding us.”

Sam shrugged. “Can’t really argue with you there.”