Chapter 3
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With a number assigned for each room by their building, floor, hallway and number in the latter, the new system in place would no doubt make navigating the whole academy easier than my previous time there. I had figured out that that would be how I'd find the room with Mela's note as well. But I still had to look around a little to find where my lesson would be held, and as I ended up inevitably walking past groups of other students, I started to notice differences among their garbs, though all of the styles were more or less strange and unfamiliar to me, as well as in their physical appearances. Often like was grouped with like. It seemed that the Altrel academy's appeal had become a lot more international in the past centuries. Of course, I was fairly certain that the academy wouldn't have seen such a growth in size and scope if that wasn't the case, as there were only so many students that could come from the local region.

I also started to get a better picture of what had been bothering Celine, since it was hard to miss that there was a hint of fear in the way certain groups looked my way, and even took distance, as I walked past. As soon as the word 'homunculus' drifted to my ears, it became obvious what the root of the issue was. I couldn't help sneering in contempt, when I thought of what a pathetic reaction this was for an institution dedicated for the study of magic. In the first place, the term that I had heard was wholly inaccurate, not least because I had never even touched the suspect practice of alchemy when creating Mary.

Even three hundred years on, or perhaps exactly because she had lived for so long, Mary had clearly not escaped the stigma as an human created through an artificial magical process. And a part of that fear and distaste had apparently passed onto her descendants as well. I decided that I would have to ask Celine what exactly these rumors were about, whether she wanted to talk about it or not. I didn't care if such irrational fears were directed my way, but my pride was on the line, not only as a magician but as a father as well, so I didn't intend to just ignore any unfair prejudice towards Mary and her kin.

Once I found the right room and entered, I could see that the lesson would take the form of a lecture, as the room itself was clearly designed with a specific purpose in mind. Most of it was filled by rows of seats, all facing towards a lone lectern at the front, and totaling up to more than a hundred seats, making it quite a sizable space. I seated myself near the front, and soon enough I could see the seats closer to me conspicuously filling slower. It seemed that Celine's estimation, that I wouldn't bothered by anyone approaching me, was more or less right, though there were also those that appeared to be either oblivious to or unconcerned with whatever rumors she was worried about, who found seats near me.

In some ways, the academy clearly hadn't changed much. The usual chatter started to die down as soon as a certain older gentleman entered and headed to the lectern. Even if he didn't appear all that different from some of the other people attending as students, he had a breastpin with a symbol that I recognized well. The coat of arms of the academy had either a crow or a raven, and I never had quite figured out which it was supposed to be, as its primary motif. Predictably sharing in the symbology of Nefraos, the divine with domains of knowledge and magic, it marked him as an instructor of the academy, which at least in my time would have made him one of the most knowledgeable mages on the continent.

As the instructor lightly touched the side of the lectern, I could feel the spell array hidden inside activating, due to the change in the flow of mana, as much as I heard the low ping built in as an alert sound to catch attention from the room. As the last of the chatter died down, he put down a stack of papers, that he had carried in, down on the lectern, and proceeded to survey the seats before him, more than half filled, before clearing his throat.

"Welcome to the first lecture of our basic course on composite spell arrays. That is to say, any spell array that incorporates more than one type of fundamental component in its structure should work more or less according to the basic principles that I'll be explaining during these lectures. By the time we are done, you'll hopefully know enough to at least recognize one, and maybe we'll even get a little practice in before we are done. I'm Rapfrad Loen, your instructor for the entire course."

His voice seemed to carry from multiple directions, not as an echo but as a clear and crisp sound as if we'd been face to face. It was quite a nifty spell if you were going to be teaching a large number of people, one of those small improvements that I could probably expect to see in the academy's organization after three hundred years. The instructor's dry tone seemed to indicate that he would actually be happy if just his first stated goal was achieved, but being regarded with such little faith didn't seem to bother the students that burst into an excited chatter when he paused after introducing himself. It was, apparently, a name that didn't require further introduction. I still would have liked one, but he instead dived straight into the lecture once the students started calming down.

"Your array may take any number of forms, from the impermanent shaping of words and gestures, to the more complex and permanent magical circles. You will hopefully each have specialized in one of these to some degree by now, but sometimes you will find yourself needing to combine two or more of these to get the desired result. But before you get too ahead of yourselves, this is the first lecture, which means that I'll be reminding you in every detail of the difficulties, pitfalls and dangers attendant with the subject matter."

Such reminders were half the purpose of any theoretical lesson at the academy. Some spells might be cast as demonstrations by the instructors, but other than that actual magic was kept strictly within the confines of practical lessons, with an entirely different standard of observation and safety measures applied. And a lot of entirely practical courses, multiple years worth to be precise, that were mandatory for all students, were in turn designed to make every student internalize these safety measures for when they would be allowed to use magic without supervision. I had no doubt that Mela had finished with these, so her remaining lessons were bound to be heavy on the theoretical, but even these advanced courses should always include some hands on practice.

For the sake of safety, such might as well have been the motto of the Altrel academy. For any magic cast on the academy grounds one was required to have received the appropriate level of certification, and with several types of spells it was necessary to seek explicit permission for each instance of casting. With that in mind I reminded myself to check how much these regulations had changed and what Mela's level of certification was.

Of course there were other schools that, at least in my time, hadn't maintained such strict rules, and there's no laws, that can realistically be enforced, against learning magic by yourself. But the Altrel academy was the place with the highest concentration of spell arrays on the continent, and the academy was very particular about not letting any of them interfere with each other. The very end goal of studies at the academy for most students was to receive a level of certification that would reassure those in the outside world that they were capable of casting spells safely, which served as the basic qualification for being professionally employed as a mage.

"Composite arrays are widely used because of the flexibility they provide, but they are never the first choice if a simple spell array can provide the same function with comparable means, because integrating multiple different components into the same array introduces additional steps and thus more chances for you to screw up. Where a simple array requires you to ensure the coherence of form and function in a single structure, or multiple structures of similar type, a composite array will require you to maintain coherence between multiple structures that have no clear overlapping logic and then to integrate them into one. The complexity of this task increases drastically with each additional component or structure involved, as the the connections required to integrate them will be determined by the combination all of the different elements involved, all the while it is necessary to avoid diverging from the spell's function."

Put that way, it was once again astonishing to consider what Mela had done to bring me back. I tuned out the instructor as he began to give brief overviews on what sort of considerations would be required for integrating each specific type of component into a composite array. It was very regrettable, both from a professional point of view and because it closed any realistic chance to attempt to reverse the effects, that I had been unable to observe the entire spell array that she had used to insert my consciousness and memories within her body. It was clearly an exceedingly complex composite array, of which not all components had been left behind after the spell.

Not that I had confidence that I would have been able to reconstruct spell and its specific effects even if I had a perfect understanding of all the components and their arrangement in the array, since they were at least partly far outside my field of specialization. Unless Mela had hidden a whole research paper on the spell among the notes that she wanted me to retrieve, it didn't appear to be something that I would be able to sufficiently research in a timely manner, if ever. It wasn't the first time that a great mage had taken a masterpiece of a spell with them to their grave, but it was certainly the first time I felt so personally affected.

Most of all, I wanted to question whether her decision to use her own body had been truly necessary. It was something I'd thought of many times already, in the brief time that I had been inhabiting said body, but the answer remained the same, and I did not know whether it was a relief or disappointment. There was most likely no other method that she could have chosen. A live and healthy human body was most certainly required, and I did not think she would have ever thought to ask for that contribution from anyone else, even if it was possible. And most likely it was only within her own body, where her control over her magic was at its most precise, that she could successfully complete the unfathomably complex task of transplanting my consciousness. Likely the very structure of the spell was something that had a function only when applied to her own form.

"Miss Tannel, could you do us the favor of outlining what special considerations are necessary when integrating a machine based component into a composite array? Please take over the lectern if you'd like."

Taken by surprise, and not just by the unfamiliar form of address, I focused my eyes back on the instructor, who rather sharp eyes were on me in turn, and honed my mind on the present. I had the genuine thought to wonder if he hadn't just decided to pick on me because he caught me not paying attention. He did seem like exactly the type to do that.

But I quickly re-evaluated, realizing that the scope of the question was precisely within my field of expertise, and thus presumably something that Mela as a mage of the Tannel family would be well educated on. If he had intended to pick on me, it was a rather bizarre choice, and if his request was genuine then I could only be proud that Mela was someone that could be relied on in such a manner. It appeared that ignoring Mela wasn't quite academy wide policy at least. I nodded my assent and stood up to walk over to the lectern.

On my way, I took the time to consider what sort of an explanation would be sufficiently succinct for this type of entry-level discussion. Composite arrays were actually quite an advanced subject, as the lecture had emphasized, but it was still an introductory lecture, and there was no need to go to overt detail on the complex magic of machinery, which wasn't the primary focus. I made sure that I was at the center of the spell array that projected sound from the lectern before speaking.

"The first thing to bear in mind with any array using machinery is that that machine itself can be the source of a composite structure of multiple components within the array. This isn't entirely unique to machinery, but it does bear emphasizing the complexity of the instrument itself. Shape, motion, sound and the materials are all common elements used as components, and if multiple are chosen then they must be integrated in a manner similar to composite arrays. This means that the introduction of additional components on top of these will require an exponentially greater effort."

As I started talking, I found out that I didn't need to raise my voice much above regular speaking volume, and that it was in fact best that I didn't, since I could handily hear, from the feedback given by the spell in the lectern, that it didn't regulate the volume. Someone less used to standing at the lectern might have been nervous in front of all of those gazes, particularly the unfriendly ones, but for me the bigger issue was that I found my own voice distracting. It hadn't bothered me before, but when I could hear it repeated back to me it became obvious that it didn't really match my inner voice. The tone and inflection just worked differently from what I was imagining. I ended up abandoning my attempt to use the authoritative tone that I had used when lecturing previously in order to convince listeners near my own age to take me seriously. Instead I started to adopt a more calm and explanatory tone, that didn't sound as oddly dramatic in my newly higher pitch and smooth voice.

"It is often practical to use the more mundane functions of the machinery in question in concert with the spell that it's incorporated with. This often achieves the intended consequences more easily than putting the entire effort into the spell itself, but it is also somewhat harder for someone trained as a mage to fully utilize such elements without interfering with the spell itself. By way of example – to bring forth a pump's yield in haste, it's not of purpose to push your own fortitude by the power of spell, when one might complement the device in its designed purpose, lest –"

I paused with a frown, when I heard a loud giggle. The way the girl looked at me, she hadn't been laughing at a friend's joke, but at something that I said. I could see a number of other smirks in the crowd, but I was rather confused until I heard the instructor sigh, and then step closer to reach the voice amplifying spell's radius.

"Whilst the reference drawn upon may be a little archaic, it stands for a valid concern. It's not purposeful to dismiss the knowledge accumulated over the Tannel family's long history because of formulation. From now on, I'll thank you to remain quiet during my lectures unless called upon. Please continue, miss Tannel."

After briefly staring down the offending girl, who looked suitably cowed, the instructor returned the floor to me. I could feel my cheeks starting to heat up with embarrassment as I realized my mistake. A reference drawn from a research paper close to four centuries old was bound to sound out of date to my audience, something I hadn't even thought of. But almost as quickly I started to scold myself for getting flustered like that. It wasn't me, but rather these brats, probably looking to take a Tannel down a peg, who'd displayed their lack of comprehension.

Rapfrad had probably stepped in less to defend me, and more because he took the interruption as a challenge to his authority, but he wasn't wrong in that the origin of the reference had been drawn from deep in the Tannel family's history. It was drawn as valid reference from the recollection of a pioneer in the related field, and I knew that my explanation was perfectly good, which the instructor no doubt could see as well if he was worth anything. In the end though, I decided to discreetly leave the example unfinished, skipping to the next point rather than trying to awkwardly carry on from where'd I'd been interrupted.

"There are a few simple ways to counteract the difficulties attendant with the use of machinery in composite arrays. Thanks to their readily synchronized origin, the components resulting from the machinery may sometimes be sorted out into a single whole with a relatively clean and coherent logic, sort of an array within the array, from which they can be simultaneously integrated with any additional components through a single connection. You may also choose to simply exclude one or more of the potential components that can be drawn from the machine, to ease the process of designing the array, if the other components you are seeking to add are able to account for any possible shortfalls resulting from such a solution."

With a slight bow, and a curt thank you from the instructor, I departed the lectern, to some rather spotty applause from among the students. On my way back to my seat, my mind was already occupied with a realization that the minor incident earlier had brought to me. Until that point in time, when I'd directly referenced an old source, I had been communicating with perfect ease with everyone around me, barely even aware of the changes that the language that I was speaking had gone through in the past three centuries. Even without Mela's memories, it seemed that her understanding of language was another useful thing that she had passed onto me.

I was only woken up from my musings again when the lecture was already over, and someone was handing me one of the papers that the instructor had brought with him. It was a list of the common components of spell arrays and notes on how easily each among them could be able to be integrated together in a composite array. The boy, one of those who had sat close to me without seemingly minding it, gave me a small shock when he gave me what seemed to be the first genuine friendly smile that I'd seen since parting from Celine. I wasn't sure why, but I thought that he might have been among those who had actually clapped in response to my short impromptu presentation. It wasn't bad to find someone friendly, and he did have a nice smile, so I nodded my thanks and gave him a slight smile back, before leaving.

 

Constructing a narrative like this, chapter by chapter, is actually pretty interesting. For example, the prologue concept already effectively defined some base rules of the magic system, that can be extrapolated from the actions taken by the characters. That already defined some important plot points that I have to take care to not to contradict as I go on, even though I'm only now starting to get an idea about their overarching effects on the story.

That's part of the reason that I did my best to further develop the magic system, beyond the vague terminology mentioned earlier, in this chapter. It's still exceedingly theoretical, and I don't know what form it will continue to take throughout the story, but this way I at least have some rules defined for what I'm working with. Besides, the setting provides a neat backdrop for such explanations, without them becoming blatant exposition dumps, though I'll admit that it ended up being pretty dense anyway.

It's also kind of difficult to try to improvise to such a degree for someone with a very detail oriented writing style. There's definitely benefits to leaving things lighter on the details - I spent a lot of time in this chapter in trying to figure out how to phrase something in a way that seemed a little archaic, without going full Shakespearean, and I don't think I achieved a result remotely worth the effort. If I had a more fleshed out setting I could probably have instead just referenced something thematically fitting and explained how it seems archaic.

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