It is Monday morning after breakfast. Disnomia, her friends, and most of the already seated class are excited for Professor Ashen’s lesson today.
Ashen: Hello class. I have made for you a spell which will temporarily tell your brain to ignore your eye’s red cones. I hope this will satisfy you Ava, it is the most that can be done that’s safe and not permanent. I’m also providing a basic telekinesis spell you can learn after, or if you prefer instead. It’s the typical spell we start with, and will take us a few days anyway.
He starts levitating the spell instructions out to students.
Ashen: Sorry but no imagination for either of these. It would be extremely unsafe for any of you to try that with the former, and still quite dangerous with the latter depending on what you wanted to do. Anyway I will plod around and be there if anyone needs help.
Disnomia: It can’t be this simple?
Alceste: Why not?
Disnomia: After what we suffered through yesterday with Professor Eli’s spell?
Uriel: Just accept it and do the fun wolf vision spell.
Disnomia: Fine.
She and her friends all say the incantation, which was all that was provided, presumably because Ashen as a wolf can’t easily make kinesthetic spells for humans to use, however nothing happens, except for Uriel.
Uriel: Wow this is cool!
Disnomia: Hey it didn’t work for me.
Alma: Or me.
Alceste: Me neither.
Uriel: You have to say it in your head I think, since that’s how Ashen talks.
Ashen: Good job Uriel. Did you hear that class, incantations I make you say in your head.
Mary (while looking down at her feet): P-Professor.
Ashen: Yes err…
Mary: Mary. Um, I- I can’t do that.
Ashen: Oh. I’m very sorry. Not to worry I did not make most of the spells for this class, and will have another professor make you an alternate for this, and any other spells that come up. You can work on telekinesis instead.
Mary (smiling): Thanks.
Uriel: Come on guys try it.
Alceste: Ironic when you’re the only guy.
Uriel sticks his tongue at her, while she and the rest of the group says the incantation in their heads, and the spell works.
Disnomia: Whoa
Uriel: I know right?
Alma: Please how do I turn this off?
Disnomia: Are you alright?
Alma: No this is very uncomfortable.
Alceste: Try not thinking about it.
Alma: Now all I can do is think abo-
Uriel: Firetrucks.
Alma: Wha- Oh it’s gone now, thanks.
Uriel: Anytime.
Alceste: Are you good now?
Alma: Ya. Can we work on the telekinesis one now please?
Alceste (smiling): Let’s. Huh it has a curse on it?
Disnomia: It says it’s actually a ritual to play a video to help with the kinesthetics.
Uriel starts the video on his, the paper showing a video like it’s a screen. It quickly fades away when he jumps.
Uriel: This is amazing, how did they do that?
Alceste (Chuckling): I’m sure we’ll learn someday, let’s figure out the spell we have now.
They all watch the video, paying attention to the required motions to lift an object, and if it’s still up loosing the wolf vision spell in the process. Once lifted it can be moved around you in an arc by pointing your wand, and you can make circular motions in the direction you face to move it towards or away from you.
Disnomia: It sure would have been nice if Eli provided a video.
Alma: Hey we all did that in the end.
Disnomia: Ya, still. Anyway here I’ll try with this pencil.
They and the rest of the class work on performing the two spells to varying degrees of success. Most of the students find the video cool and don’t even notice the incantation version on the back side, which Ashen reminds them to learn as well.
Everyone does manage to lift something small for at least a short time, but few move their object a significant distance before loosing the spell either from lack of adequate concentration, or energy put into it.
Ashen: You all did very well today. By the end of the week we should have you lifting coffee mugs at least.
–
Alcaster: Before we begin our lessons on dissipation, I am aware some of you may have cursed objects to show me. Anyone who successfully cast Aberro may come up now, or if you prefer see me after class.
Disnomia, Uriel, Alma, and Alceste walk to the front of the room. Along with Amity, Scarlet, Fabrice, Enrique, and Joan.
Alcaster: Wow a lot of you this year. Alright, place your items on my desk, and I will try to hit them with a basic force gust.
Alcaster attempts to force gust each item, failing to hit any of them, and sending some random papers he must have left out for dramatic effect flying instead.
Alcaster (smiling and clapping): Great work all of you. You may take your items back, and take these tokens to Eli for your extra credit.
Using a gloved hand he hands them each a small plain bronze coin with a curse on it.
Amity: Why is it cursed?
Alcaster: Watch.
The coins slowly engrave with a picture of the face of the person they were handed to.
Disnomia: Wow.
Alcaster: Fun curse isn’t it? Now please take your seats so I can give the rest of the class something to do you lovely overachievers.
Amity walks back to her desk coolly, while everyone else’s cheeks go red as they shuffle back to their desks after realizing the class was watching them.
Alcaster: Sorry to embarrass you all haha, now onto the lesson.
With a seemingly superfluous wave of his wand Alcaster levitates papers over to everyone.
Alcaster: Ok now I apologize, things are going to get tricky immediately in my class. Dissipation may put the energy from the attacking spell into your body, and for humans or werewolves this is fine, you can use that energy for your own magics.
However successful dissipation uses more energy than you get back, and usually happens so fast you will have little time to quickly gauge how much is required to stop the spell attacking you, but not to overdo it and leave yourself drained.
In the course of your learning at this school, you will be taught to experience magics with your various senses using active magics, or cursed objects. Which will help tremendously, but until then you will just have to do it the hard way of overdoing it at the start, and learning how much power your opponent puts in their attacks by paying attention to how much fatigue you feel.
To aid this, along with the standard imagination instructions and variable power incantation or kinesthetic instructions, there are alternate fixed power incantation and kinesthetic ones. This way you can get a feel for different power levels without having to focus on it, you either cast the spell or don’t.
To that end, I would like all of you to learn the first 2 or 3 fixed ones today, just casting it on its own. We will worry about the more draining ones and shooting safe spells at you later. And don’t worry, it’s perfectly fine to cast dissipation by itself, you will just get the full brunt of its magic drain if you fail to absorb any magics with it.
I think I have droned on enough. Have fun everyone, and do not hesitate to ask me for any help you may need.
Alceste: This doesn’t seem so bad.
Disnomia: Be careful not to exhaust yourselves like I did with the lightning.
Alceste: Oh right, thanks Dis.
Uriel: Wow th-
Alcaster: Students before I forget! Please if you start to feel tired stop for the day. You do not want to magically exhaust yourselves. Ok carry on.
Uriel: Uh, I was saying these instructions look extra easy, especially with these helpful drawings, but the incantations too.
Alma: Well you do need to be able to cast these fast. The difficult part is probably casting them while being attacked.
Uriel: Fair point. Well let’s get on with it then.
They work on casting the first 3 preset dissipation spells, Alma and Alceste getting to 3, while Disnomia and Uriel have some difficulty with 2, and practice it too much. Thus running out of class time for 3, as well as getting a bit tired.
–
Alceste: Don’t worry, you too will get it. We’ll help you at lunch, right Alma?
Alma: What? Oh sure.
Uriel: Thanks Alceste.
Disnomia: Thanks. Let’s see what Nazzareno has for us.
They walk to Nazzareno’s classroom and take their seats. With class starting soon.
–
Nazzareno: Hello students. We can finally get to the fun stuff! Making your wand was already technically a ritual. Rituals, and curses which rituals are a subset of: Are really just spells. But instead you have to imagine what you want it to do, sometimes with more abstract concepts like the ones Eli has to pass out papers when his watch says specific times
Just like other spells, as some of you may have already learned, you can take ones other people have imagined out, and cast them onto an object yourself, either by essentially recreating the spell with your imagination, or using other instructions they may have made.
Anyway, the foundation of rituals is that you want to cast a spell easily, or be able to cast a more complex spell at all. Like when Alcaster and I teleported the monastery we had to use other spells to build on the teleportation ritual as we went through the whole building for months to make sure it and everything in it was teleported.
And the foundation of making a ritual, is what you want it to do, and how you want to activate it. I like requiring wand contact to the object for a lot of mine, but others just require focusing on it kinda like it’s a spell you’re directly casting. Others still give it physical controls and someone skilled in magics doesn’t even need to be the one to interact with it. Though that kinda runs into the blurry line of more general curses.
Oh don’t give me that glazed look, this is all so interesting and fun.
I know that was a mouthful, you will have my speech typed up if you need to reference it. Who wants to curse a paper airplane to have its own propulsion when you tap it with your wand‽
–
After getting their airplanes working, the 1st years have too much fun with them in lunch, and start a chaotic war with most of the school.
Disnomia: Ha gottem.
Alceste: Who did you even throw that at?
Disnomia: I dunno.
Alma: Ha got you Uriel!
Uriel: I’m right next to you that doesn’t count!
Alcaster (his voice invading the minds of everyone in the cafe): Students this has been so very fun. However not everyone has been enjoying it. Please consider your fellow classmates, and the Academy staff. If you wish to continue pelting each other with magic airplanes, you may take it outside and find a nice spot like the sports field. Thank you.
–
Eli: Hello class. Today we are learning about the theory behind curses. Lest you be woefully unprepared. Take out whatever you’d like to take notes with and we’ll begin…
–
…I hope you all understand better now how to make effective useful curses like mine. It may be early, but everyone is free to go. Ah ah. Except anyone who was given a token from Alcaster. Please stay back for your extra credit.
Again Disnomia, Uriel, Alma, Alceste, Amity, Scarlet, Fabrice, Enrique, and Joan walk to the front of a classroom. This time not filled with everyone waiting on a lesson. Along with Augustus who presumably saw Alcaster after class earlier.
Eli: Hmm 10 of you. What a fantastic turnout. I commend you, and those who no doubt helped you. Just show me your coins, and I’ll mark each of your names down as having passed the first practical test already. Ah! Don’t complain just yet. And 15 free points on the first theory test. No off you pop my star students.
He smiles for the first time any of them have seen as they turn to meet the rest of their first years in the next class, which not many were looking forward to, just being a normal English class. The professor of which, Emilie, simply assigned them a book to start reading. She also got to know the students a bit.
Significantly more exciting for Alma and Disnomia was their first club meeting, Theater. They walked over to the sports field to find a stage magically raised out of the center of it, with students standing in two groups around it, and the professor with awkwardly medium length brown hair, wearing a button down shirt and skirt, they barely recognize from seeing her around, and at the booth they signed of for theater, on the stage itself.
Professor Aris: Ah the last two stragglers, welcome welcome. The group on your left is for acting, and the right is tech, which is stuff like building sets and special effects. Don’t worry you can change your mind later after a production.
Disnomia chose tech, while Alma chose acting. Disnomia instantly popular with even the older techs because of her lightning wand, and given a large number of weather spells by them.
Alma wasn’t so instantly popular with the actors, but put on an uncomfortably good showing for Professor Aris to assess her base skill, earning her respect. Though worry from Disnomia, since she knows why Alma would be somewhat good at acting already.
With Alma having practiced various parts in the first play they would be doing with the other actors to get a feel for what part everyone wanted, and Disnomia having attempted a lot of the weather spells with help from the other techs, it was all too soon time for dinner, where they met with a very tired Uriel and Alceste.
Disnomia: You two look like you’ve done nothing but run for an hour!
Alceste: Close enough. You two look beat too lol.
Uriel: Dorian had us active the entire time. Shut up and let’s eat dammit.
They all showered and went to bed early that night, especially Uriel and Alceste.
I'm really sorry for the people who enjoy this story, but life got in the way and I'm not interested in writing a long form story like this anymore. Thank you for reading it this far.