After the second lecture I still hadn't really learned anything new yet, but I still had a good feeling that I would benefit from continuing to study at the academy. I was getting giddy just imagining how much research had to have gone on over a whole three centuries. Everything indicated that the study of magic had only grown more prominent and better organized in that time. Accounting for Mela's dedication and ability, I expected that I'd be dealing with studies advanced enough to be of interest soon enough.

"Over here Mela! Sit down, here's the food I promised."

It felt odd to be called out by that name, but I looked over to see Celine sat down at a table. On my way out of the building, I'd almost forgot that she'd promised to find me. A single look at the food reminded me of the reason and I sat down. I didn't know what exactly the food was, but it looked quite appetizing at that moment and Celine was already eating hers, so I just dug in. I got a few bites in before I managed to put it down long enough to express my genuine feelings.

"This is quite good!"

When Celine's answer was a hearty laugh it struck me that she had quite a beautiful voice. Her laughter in that moment sounded more genuine than the slightly strained way that she'd been talking with me until then. But I was still quite confused why she was laughing, until she reached over the table to with a napkin to wipe the side of my mouth.

"That's good, but do watch out with the sauce. It's just fast food from nearby, so you'll be able to find it whenever if you want more."

That was a new term, but I understood that it was something similar in concept prepared foods you'd find from street vendors. Suddenly remembering my table manners, I was neatly tapping my mouth after each small bite for the rest of the meal. I still finished it quickly and then, somehow feeling the need to excuse my overt enjoyment over the meal, I answered her comment rather sheepishly.

"I was quite famished."

She only answered with a smile that was slightly teasing yet warm, as if she was looking at the most endearing thing in the world. I didn't know if it was because she was thinking of her sister, or if I perhaps looked cute like a child or a small animal to her, but whatever it was she already looked a lot better than just a few hours previously, when she'd been struggling to keep up her spirits while trying to encourage me. What an astonishing pair of sisters. I was hesitating, wondering if I should ruin the mood by broaching the subject of the rumors, when someone else did it first.

"Mela Tannel, I'd like a bit of your time. Prefect business."

I looked up to see a neatly dressed young man standing by the side of our table. My first though was to wonder what a prefect was, but as if to explain he was pointing a breastpin, one not too unlike that of the instructors, that he was wearing. The motif was a lot more simple than the academy's coat of arms, and this time it looked to be a white bird. So maybe the dove that symbolized Vallos, the messenger of the divines and subordinate to Nefraos. Judging by his age, I figured that perhaps they were students that were given some sort of authority by the academy, perhaps as assistants to the instructors.

Seeing as he seemed to be expecting some response from me I nodded and waved my hand to indicate that he should continue. He glanced at Celine, as if to indicate that he didn't want to talk with her present. But then he just shrugged and looked back at me. The way he was acting was starting to irk me – he hadn't even bothered greeting Celine, and hadn't introduced himself as anything but a prefect, and then he was acting dismissively towards her? Based on her scowl, Celine seemed to think the same.

"The senior prefect asked that I inform you that he'd appreciate it if you refrained from casting such major spells, as the one last night, on academy grounds, particularly if you won't inform us first. Even if you are allowed to use your own discretion, you shouldn't abuse your privilege too much."

I seriously had a small fright when I heard what this visit was about, as I realized that Mela had indeed cast that spell to bring me back whilst on the academy grounds. It was obvious that the academy's magic sensors would detect such a thing, and for a moment I couldn't believe that Mela had done such a thing despite how strict the rules were.

Then he helpfully informed me that I didn't actually have reason to worry. I had no idea that Mela had such a high level of certification as to cover that spell – or rather, did he not just basically admit that I'm allowed to do whatever I want? Without even asking for a special permit or an observer? Even the instructors weren't given that level of latitude, surely. So, in a way, I could understand his look, which in no uncertain terms said that he didn't like it. But even if his words were nominally polite, I wasn't feeling particularly charitable with how he was acting.

"Of course, I'll not be doing anything that I don't consider necessary, in respect for the trust that the academy has placed in me. So you may inform the senior prefect that he won't have to worry about me. Have a good day!"

Telling him to just mind his own business might have been a little harsh, but on the other hand he had just admitted that this wasn't any of it. The look on his face was rather funny when he simply returned my greeting with a stiff nod and wandered off. Looking at Celine, she had a smirk that said that she was thinking the same thing. My next question was rewarded with a small laugh.

"So anyway, who are these prefects?"

"They are students that the academy considers trustworthy enough to do the organizational duties that instructors don't have time for. And more importantly, strong enough to apprehend anyone who breaks the rules on the safe use of magic."

So more or less what I thought. With the academy growing so much, they couldn't have the instructors running around doing all the minor chores. And observing those particular rules certainly couldn't be left to anyone that wasn't skilled with magic. That made them seem somewhat important though, so perhaps had I been a little hasty to dismiss him in such a manner.

"But no one gets to gripe about a Tannel's use of magic here, and everyone knows Mela's ability. The Fae rift's safe and open for the academy to access as long as we take care of it. And if the academy actually cared, the headmaster would just talk to grandmother. They certainly wouldn't go through the prefects. Really, him and the senior prefect are just getting pissy since their families don't get the same treatment."

Celine wasn't even trying to not to look smug about it, whether it was because of her sister's talent or the deference that her family was shown. It seemed that the privilege was well earned either way, and I certainly didn't mind the latitude to act as I wished. Not that I was being arrogant, since I understood the importance of the academy's rules, but I was quite confident that I'd be able to live up to such trust, and it was certainly likely that I'd need to be able to act at my own discretion if I was going to help deal with the Fae rift. As I was mulling it over, it occurred to me to ask something that I'd been wondering about since earlier.

"Do you know an instructor named Rapfrad Loen? He seemed quite famous among the students."

"Oh. Yeah, the Loens are another one, like the family of that brat earlier, who decided at some point to declare us Tannels their rivals, one-sidedly I might add. I'd tell you not to worry about them, but Rapfrad's actually the head of the Loens, and Mela thought that his reputation as a mage was deserved, so you should be a little careful."

Thankfully the instructor didn't particularly seem to have it out for Mela, unlike the prefect earlier, so maybe the respect was mutual. Celine continued her explanation after thinking a little more.

"A lot of the instructors come from such established families of mages, and most students from those families become prefects. Their egos are frankly a pain to deal with, but since they are taught by their families long before they enter the academy, it's kind of expected that they excel as students. They also apparently perform a lot of independent research into their own specialized types of magic within the family, all so that they can compete with us and each other."

I was a little bothered by the idea that mages might be hoarding their knowledge within families rather than contributing to the academy's shared pursuit in the study of magic. But it did make sense that such families could produce some good instructors, if they kept at the forefront of whatever they were researching, as long as they were willing to share a little of that with their students. Besides, even in my time a talented mage was likely to keep their best inventions secret and only pass them onto a disciple, like I'd left everything with Mary.

I thought then that I might as well ask about what was really bothering me, since we were on a serious subject. I could see an ugly grimace as soon as she realized what I was talking about.

"And what's with the rumors? It doesn't look like they are all just jealous."

"I'm not certain exactly which rumors you are referring to, but if you are asking about why people avoid us, then it's probably because they think we are some sort of mana vampires. Don't ask me where it started, but apparently someone thought that that's why grandmother has to stay near the rift. And the rest of us as well, supposedly we live long because we suck the mana from around us."

I could hardly believe my ears. To think that the academy was overtaken by such a stupid and superstitious rumor. In the first place, even if that hypothetically was the case, last I knew there was no proof to the theory that ill health conditions could be caused by a shortage of mana, even if the part about mana clustering within living beings, particularly in large and long-lived ones, was correct according to my observations.

I had to remind myself that I had a far more acute sense for mana than others. Most mages couldn't feel much more than the flow within their own bodies, and instead relied on specifically constructed sensors to identify other movements of mana. And to be clear, I hadn't seen any indication of anything like what the rumor posited. I had simply made sure to pass on as much my abilities to control mana as I best could to Mary, whilst enhancing her physical form to be able to withstand the strain. But since then, apparently people had started to figure that the Tannels were some sort of monsters from the age of myths or something.

Celine had stayed silent when I contemplated what she'd told me. She'd dealt with such unjustified superstition far long than I had, and it didn't seem that me bringing it up did anything to help her mood. Unlike the confidence she usually projected, she was staring down at the table when she spoke again, in a quiet tone.

"I wish I could help more than this, but I don't know anything but what Mela told me. I'm pretty much a nobody, and even my family ignores me since I can't do magic."

"Don't say that! You are doing far more than anyone would expect. I'm the one that feels awful for having to rely on you when I'm – like this."

I didn't know how to put it nicely, so I could only gesture towards myself, towards the body of Mela. I was basically wearing the face of her sister who, I'd just told her the previous night, was essentially dead. Celine's expression became very complicated after that. I could tell that she wanted to object, but at the same time the pain was clearly very visible in her eyes, even as I did my best to express my gratitude in my expression when words had failed me. Then she suddenly stood up, recovering herself with amazing speed, and made a declaration that seemed to come out of nowhere.

"What I can do is make sure that my new little sister has something proper to wear. We are going to go shopping once you are done with next class!"

I had thought that I should have looked for Mela's notes after I was done with my classes, but thinking more about it I thought it might be wise to delay. It seemed that the prefects really had their eyes on Mela, especially after the previous night. Even if they weren't supposed to be bothering me, it seemed that they could be more trouble than the other students, and Mela had seemed insistent on not letting anyone else see her notes. I thought it'd be fine to take a little longer getting used to my new situation before taking on the challenge of studying whatever she was worried about.

Besides, I couldn't object after Celine had called me her sister. Even if I'd rather she called me brother, and though she might have just been seeing me in Mela's place, I felt that I didn't have the right to reject her when she had so openly chosen to accept me. She couldn't stay for another night, which was probably good because Mela's bed still wasn't large enough for two people, but apparently she still wasn't in a hurry to leave and could spare the time to take me shopping.

She'd have to go back to Horthel, where she lived and worked, before the end of the day. The small town that I remembered had apparently become a decently sizable city, but what I found more curious was that she could apparently get there in less than hour, in some sort of carriage running on rails. I honestly would have preferred to go see this marvel that soundly beat out a horse carriage in speed, and supposedly comfort as well, but Celine had other plans.

We were instead headed into another town, one which hadn't existed three hundred years ago and which was small enough to not to even have a proper name. It was close enough to the academy to be reached by foot in a timely manner, so it must have been built right on the edge of the academy grounds. I'd have complained that that wasn't anywhere near enough of a safety margin when dealing with a place filled with spells like Altrel academy, but apparently the residents were crazy enough to also have set up as close to the Fae rift as they'd been permitted, on top of that.

"That just can't be safe."

"It's not, but it's not like the danger is on a constant basis either. It's when the rift acts up that things get dicey, but apparently that's also when being close gives you opportunities. If you are brave enough, you might be able to find something to make a profit out of when something new and fantastical happens."

Walking into town, it was rather obvious what she meant by fantastical. Actually, people without my sense for mana wouldn't have been able to see the majority of it, but the things that stood out to the naked eye were alone enough to start eroding my objections to the idea that what lay behind the rift could be the Faerie itself.

Namely, the vegetation that was running rampant as if we were in the middle of a jungle. Trees, bushes and vines had conquered sizable swathes even right in the middle of the town, with no apparent attempts to control it. There were multiple places where the streets would wind just to avoid the vegetation, or where the buildings were built with odd designs to not to disturb low hanging branches.

Strangely enough though, the plantlife didn't actually appear to be getting in the way in a serious way, excluding these accommodations. Where they grew completely out of proportion by roadsides, they seemed to not grow at all over these completely open thoroughfares, with no signs that the branches had even been trimmed in those directions. If anything, at a closer look I could tell that several of the buildings actually leaned on the overly huge vegetation for support. I could even see a place where an apparent tree root had become a bridge wide enough to pull a wagon across, though at the same time I couldn't tell where there was a tree anywhere nearby of size to match the root.

It wasn't odd that I couldn't recognize most of the species of plants – nor for that matter all the critters and insects that lurked just behind the thick veil of vegetation – but they were honestly far too colorful to match anything that I'd seen in the region three hundred years ago. I'd would have liked to have been able to believe that they were species from some other continent, but it was honestly easier to conclude that they weren't all from this world at all.

For me though, by far stranger was the mana that I could sense around me. If it was just the abundance I could have explained it as simply proximity to the rift, which I could constantly sense in the background as something akin to a giant fast moving river. But what was really odd was how the mana concentrated, specifically in those strange plants that I couldn't recognize. It was easy to conclude that the sheer amount of mana must have done something to help them grow to such unnatural size, but it wasn't like there was any spell anywhere that could have had such an effect. Maybe, I began to suspect, it was the other way around. Were the plants actually growing where the mana flowed, explaining how strangely controlled and directional their growth was?

We came to a halt in front of a little shop that probably would have looked rather quaint in architecture to most people around. To me though, it's simple wooden structures with a bit of brickwork mixed in had a rather familiar feel to it. Except for another huge and out of place tree root on which half of its foundation was laid. No guesses for where the second part in the name, 'Satin & Root', came from. Somehow it looked like it'd been there a lot longer than the rest of the town, though I couldn't say why, since there was no particular sign of wear on the structure. I followed Celine as she waved me up a few steps into the shop.

SootShade

I fear that one of these days my ramblings in the author's note will be longer than the chapter itself.

---

I was getting a serious urge to start a rewrite earlier, but I managed to resist, so the danger of this project stalling out and me returning to my procrastinating ways has been averted for the time being. I just realized that I had somewhat miscalculated when choosing this concept for this project. I wanted to avoid getting stuck on descriptions, since I'm largely improvising, and coming up with a coherent aesthetic takes time, but all sorts of things will inevitably catch the attention of someone that is three hundred years from the past.

So I thought that I'd pick out things that would be rather recognizable to the readers and thus wouldn't need to be described in detail, but would stand out to Tannel nonetheless. But I feel like I overshot with that, and referencing such things in the absence of contradicting information gives out an impression that comes out as too modern. The setting isn't actually supposed to be as advanced as it might seem based on that, or so culturally familiar, not least because it'd get incredibly complex to write because of the magic system.

Thus I had the idea to go back and rewrite since I'm barely getting started. I thought I could maybe borrow some from a steampunk setting I have planned out, since that'd match nicely with the main character's magic - speaking of, machinery being to motif for that was another whim that I had because it just seemed for fit the prologue concept. Unfortunately, I'm coming to realize that I don't really have the prerequisite knowledge to write out that concept very well, and thus the description on that subject will probably continue to stay vague.

Ultimately though, the whole setting is still just starting to develop, so I'd probably end up just as disappointed with whatever I came up with if I started a rewrite already. Besides, there's still a chance that I can keep going with this direction and come up with something conceptually appealing eventually, so I'll just keep up with being slightly anachronistic here and there. I can always start the rewrite if I end up writing myself totally into a dead end, and right now it still looks like there's still options for moving forward.