The staffroom was bigger than Lewis expected. It contained a kitchen including a fridge and freezer, had eight chairs placed around a square table and an old black couch that he could’ve sworn was here when he first attended over a decade ago.

All the school kids were out on their morning break and as a result, all the teachers not on ‘break duty’ where in the staff room. Lewis sat alone on the couch all the teachers scattered around the table and kitchen. Most of them he recognised from when attended with only a few new faces, most of them being assistants or substitutes. He listened in on their conversations in attempt to cure his boredom, their chats on what they’ve being doing today, and last weekend carried him through the next fifteen minutes.

Morning break ended and they all started leaving the staffroom, all heading to the playground to collect their respective classes. Unlike them, when Lewis left the staff room he followed the grey floor to the right and headed up the school. As he travelled down the corridor, he passed the year three classrooms and the two computer rooms, or ‘suites’ as the teachers liked to call them, that sat near the centre of the school.  He eventually made it to a large open space, the grey floor designed in an octogen, and roof was completely made from glass forming a domed skylight. Halls travelled away from the octagon left, right, up all leading to different classrooms for their respective years. The school contained two classes for each school year. Years one to three were contained in the first half of the school and years four to six were contained up here, it hadn’t changed at all since Lewis was here.

Lewis walked straight across the open space and down the corridor ahead of him into towards the year six classrooms, where he has been teaching. In Elysia, children didn’t tend to get many magical lessons until year five and onward, using the lower years to develop non-magic-based skills such as writing, reading and basic mathematics.

At the top of the corridor were two doors. He pushed on the one to the right. It was locked. ‘Damn’. He waited against the wall and soon children started pouring into the halls following teachers to their classrooms. It wasn’t long before he saw Miss Whiteside walk across the daylight lit octagon followed by twenty-seven students, the light bouncing of her long blonde white her and blue eyes. She greeted him with a smile before unlocking the door and entering. Lewis watched as year six students funnelled into the room Eri and Sophie giving him a wave when they passed him. Once everyone had entered Lewis followed, gently closing the door behind him. Most students where still hanging their coats in the corner by the door which was filled with pegs and small cupboards for their bags. He walked past them and rows of tables towards the front of the room where Miss Whiteside’s desk was sat as well as two boards, one formed from a crystalline glass material able to project images on itself and the other was an ordinary whiteboard, markers lay in holders at its base.

“Lewis I’ve just got to finish what I was teaching before break and then you’re up” Miss Whiteside told him as he approached. She placed her coat on the back of her chair before wheeling it out and turning on her computer, its loud fans filling the room with a burst of sound before quieting down to a subtle hum. He watched as she quickly loaded up what seemed to be a presentation slideshow and then activated the main board, her slideshow instantly appearing on it.

“You can just sit in my chair and watch this bit” she stated with a smile as she walked over to the board. Lewis sat on her chair and rolled it further into the corner, it was surprisingly comfy. He watched as she finished her lesson, going over the answers to some math question. Observing the faces in the classroom most of them seemed to have done well. Or at least Eri did. After helping everyone understand any mistakes they’d made or anything they didn’t understand she introduced Lewis. He'd taught this class before and other classes multiple times however, it never stopped the teachers from introducing him. Trading places with Miss Whiteside, he stood at the front of the room everyone’s eyes on him. The first time he’d done this he had to admit it was slightly intimidating but now he felt use to it.

“Alright who remembers what we done last time I was here?” he asked. After a few moments a girl near the front raised her hand, “Amelia” he’d memorised most of their names in previous lessons and through Eri’s stories.

“Augmentation” she stated while lowering her hand.

“Correct. Now, does anyone remember what I said we’d be covering this week? Don’t worry if you don’t.” he watched Eri and Sophie’s hand shoot up however, he quickly shot them down “Not you two. I told you the answer earlier”.

He waited a few moments and just as he was about to reveal the answer the girl next Amelia gingerly raised her hand.

“Katheryn”.

“Was it Affinities?”

“Yes, good job. That was one of them anyone remember the other?”

“Magic techniques” Kathryn spoke again.

“Correct again” Lewis stated “Now. Can anyone who isn’t Eri or Sophie tell me what they know about magic affinities and techniques? Doesn’t matter how detailed just if you know anything”.  The room remained silent, confused faces spread across the room and Eri and Sophie gave him annoyed glares near the back.

He placed a comforting smile on his face “Looks like I picked the right lesson then.” He turned to the board behind him and realised he’d forgotten to put on his lesson. ‘Fuck. Just when everything was going well.’ He quickly pulled a tiny storage device shaped like a grey box out his pocket and walked over to Miss Whiteside who already had her hand out ready. In moments she had his slideshow of the board, and she handed him a remote, which also doubled as a laser pointer.

“We’ll start with affinities” he told them. “In basic terms a magic affinity is a measure of how well you can use a certain type of magic and your potential in that discipline. They can be quite broad or extremely specific. Now hearing that could anyone give me an example?”. After a few seconds hands began to raise in the room, he picked the first one he saw.

“Dylan”.

“Arcane”.

“Correct, that would be quite a broad affinity” he quickly pointed at someone who had their hand up “Katheryn. What would be a specific type of arcane affinity?”.

“…Jade?” she said but it sounded more like a question.

“Correct. Amelia gives me another”.

“Azure”.

“Good. Now there’s a second common wide-ranging magic discipline. Could anyone tell me what it is?”. Once again hands reached into the hair. He gave someone new a chance.

“Josh”

“Elemental?”

“Yes. Now could you me a more specific answer?”

“A fire affinity”.

“Good” Lewis stated happily “Now when I say it’s a measure of your potential and how well you can use a type of magic what exactly do I mean?”. The only person who raised her hand was Eri, a determined stare directed at him. Lewis gave in to her.

“Eri”.

“That you’re above the national threshold”.

“Keep going”.

“Erm… an average mage will have an affinity to most magic types. The average of this value is classed as the national threshold”.

“Go on”.  She gave him an annoyed glanced. ’You put your hand up’.

“…. Even though most mages will be able to perform certain magic types even if they’re not above the threshold we don’t state that they have an affinity for that magic. This is because your potential and ability to use the magic will be limited and they’d never be able to reach the level of some who had an affinity. Only being able to perform the basics if that”.

Lewis grinned “Good. I guess you do listen to me after all. Now let’s say a mage has high affinity for … we’ll go for arcane. What do you think happens to their affinity for elemental magic?”. No hands raised into the air, not even Eri’s but he assumed that was because she didn’t want to answer another question. Suddenly Sophie’s hand lifted off her desk.

“Sophie”

“It’d go down”.

“Good. Now what about weapon magic. Would that go down?”

“No I don’t think so”.

“Why?”

“They’re classed as … ‘opposite affinity types’ so as one goes up its opposite normally decreases … but I know that there are some rare cases where it doesn’t”.

“Good” Lewis said proudly “if you develop a high affinity in on type of magic your affinity for other types will decrease usually being its opposite type however, I will say there are exceptions”, he paused to let them absorb the information and put the slideshow on the next slide, “Usually an affinity develops for a specific type of magic such as fire or jade, but people can have an affinity for all of arcane instead, though it is much rarer”, he paused for moment “There’s one exception to this rule of magic of ‘opposite affinities’. Does anyone know what that is?”. The classroom stared at him confused however, his eyes went to Eri. She lifted her hand.

“Eri”.

“A universal” she stated.

“Correct. There are also ‘Bi-mages’ and ‘Tri-mages’, I won’t say too much because you’ll learn about them when you’re older. They’re all extremely rare and a universal maybe one of the rarest phenomena the world can produce. They’re extremely powerful having the potential to utilise many types of magic to their fullest, with the exception of techniques.” The class listened in awe.

“Do you know any Universals?” someone asked him.

“No” he lied.

He used the remote and put the next topic on the board “Now onto Magic techniques don’t worry this won’t take long. Does anyone but them two near the back have an idea on what they are?”.

A boy raised his hand “Matthew”.

“I’ve been told it’s like unique magic”.

“Sort of yeah. Magic techniques are basically special ways of utilising magic to produce unique results whether that’s just adding unique properties to existing magic, increasing your potential in a certain type of magic, or granting you access to completely unique types of magic. Now what’s a major difference between affinities and techniques?”. When no one raised their hands he continued “Techniques are carved into your body from birth whereas affinities are based on the properties of your mana. Techniques are pretty much guaranteed to be passed down through genetics, while affinities are not guaranteed to be. That’s why you can’t replicate the effects of techniques if you don’t possess them, as the instructions are inscribed into your very being”.

“Does that mean if a technique isn’t in your family you can never get one” a boy from the middle of the room called Charlie asked.

“No, although its rare, mutations can occur causing you develop one during birth, and also many don’t realise they have techniques till they’re older as they can manifest between the mana awakening to about the age of ten. In some cases even older” Lewis explained.

It didn’t take much longer for him to finish his slideshow and answer any questions the students had. After he finished Miss Whiteside and class said goodbye and he left the classroom.

After getting back to the orphanage, he worked in his room as the rest of the day passed. Everyone returned to the orphanage by ‘5:00’ and by’10:00’ they were settling down for the night or already asleep. Suddenly there was a knock on his door. He swung it open, revealing Arthur.

“What’s up” Lewis asked while letting him in and closing the door behind him.

“Lucina is going to do something dumb” he said bluntly.

“What’s happened?” Lewis sighed.

“At the gymnasium we overheard that Eric and Kate’s plans had to be moved to tonight instead of in two days. Lucina knew something about it, and she had that look in her eyes”.

“You sure it was that look?”.

“Yeah” Arthur confirmed.

“Fuck” Lewis grumbled already guessing what she was doing. He and Arthur quickly left his room and ran to Lucina’s room. Lewis knocked on the door. No answer. Even with the intense training for the Atlas games he knew Lucina wouldn’t be asleep yet. He opened the door and was greeted with an empty room.