Chapter 27 | PoV: Sanya
Sanya felt her body break apart. She screamed, except she couldn't scream. She had no mouth. She had no brain either. She couldn't think. She couldn't feel. So why did she feel? Why did she think to scream?
She could not move any limbs. Her heart did not beat. She did not breathe. She was not alive.
It still hurt and burned, like entering the tempest. Fire and wind assaulted her. Except air did not exist here, and neither could fire without air.
As quickly as she had lost herself, she emerged into a blinding room.
She was sitting—on a chair, in a classroom.
No, that was wrong.
Without anything to support her sitting position, she fell onto a stone stage, butt-first.
She lost grip on her staff, it clattered to the stage.
What.
The light dimmed as her eyes adjusted.
“Did you just . . .” Sanya blinked, mouth agape, face red with embarrassment. So many things.
She looked out towards the seats. Other students looked just as stunned, eyes wide. Some laughed while still in awe and shock.
“Did you just teleport me?”
Nur turned to her and smiled. “I might have gotten carried away. Finally, other abyssal mages.
“No. I'm sorry. I lied. Abyssal mage is so inaccurate, formed by the first forays into the rediscovery of this magic.
“Spatial mage would be more accurate.”
Sanya blinked again. She knew it. She knew it!
She found herself grinning. She picked up her staff.
“The Abyss is what we have named that other world that we, as spatial mages, can get to . . .” Nur cleared his throat. “Its weakest form acts quite like blindness, as the eyes are opened into that other place . . . Sanya and Esmat can—ah, nevermind. These are both topics for another time.”
“We can what?” Esmat asked.
The other world? Did Nur mean what happened back in the market, with the shadows and the purple air and the lack of people? Was that what he meant? So that was the blindness ability Sanya had—its true nature. She was shoving people partway into an alternate dimension? “Sanya and Esmat” again, after Nur uniquely pinpointed their mana.
“Talk to me after class. First, we must learn [Material Displacement] and [Pocket Space].”
“What,” Sanya said.
Did she just hear “[Pocket Space]?” Did Nur mean, like, a nice little space in another dimension? Would they be able to walk into it? Store things? Would it be like a back of hoarding from the stories?
A student in the seating fainted, body thudding against the floor after sliding off her chair. Everyone's attention snapped to her.
All Nur could do is scratch his head underneath his good. “Ah. Oops.”
Sanya snorted at Nur's response. Really? Sanya understood the student fainting, this was a strange reveal. Was this real? Was Sanya dreaming? Why had Nur kept this information on locks? Why the suspense? Why didn't he say any of this from the start?
“Say, Sanya,” Nur said. “Want a return trip to your desk?”
First, she paled upon hearing the words. Second, Sanya looked up and glared at him. Finally, she shook her head vigorously.
He pointed his staff towards Sanya anyway. Where had this clownery of a personality come from?
Sanya sighed, rolling her eyes.
“[Organic—”
“[Organic Displacement]!” Sanya said faster, in one swift motion with her staff, she aimed at Nur and then to the back wall, by the door to the classroom.
A flash of purple mana orbs.
A thump and a grunt, and the trademark clatter of a staff falling from a grip and onto the floor.
More stunned looks. Students turned their bodies and heads to see where Nur had ended up.
Nur stood up, grinning like a buffoon, reaching down to grab his staff. “Ah. You didn't even shape it. I didn't expect anyone to be able to cast it yet, either. That was wonderful!”
Nur clapped.
“Huh? Could we?” Needless Trouble asked. He tried to recreate the spell via mana spheres, taking aim at Sanya. “[Organic Displacement].”
He pointed towards her seat. Aw, thanks!
Sanya blinked. Anything? Aaaany time now.
Needless Trouble's spell broke apart. His orbs dissipated back into the background soup of purple mana that no one could see. Nothing happened. Sanya remained sitting on the classroom's stage.
“Oh . . .” Needless Trouble frowned.
Sanya stood and headed back up to her little corner where her desk was. She took her seat.
Nur returned to the stage.
“Let's learn [Pocket Space] first. I will tutor the fainted girl later.”
“Um,” Esmat said. “Shouldn't we take her to, I don't know, the infirmary?”
Nur dismissed Esmat with a hand. “She'll be fine.”
“It's right across the hall!”
Nur arranged the mana in front of his staff into orbs. Sanya watched intently, as did the others. Esmat glanced between the fainted girl and Nur, as if trying to figure out if they should help her or learn magic.
“[Pocket Space],” Nur waved his wand in front of him. With his other hand, he reaches into a strange black cut in reality.
Or, in, uh, space.
Nur retrieved a bouquet of flowers from the space. Multiple shapes, and colors, all similar length, wrapped together in a ribbon.
He smiled at the class, then cleared his throat. “Barakat's idea . . . Ah, whatever, this wasn't funny in the slightest.”
Nur tossed the bouquet onto the stage.
He arranged a new set of mana orbs. Both this one and [Organic Displacement] were two sets of close-knit orbs. This one appeared to have slightly less complexity. Students who did not get [Organic Displacement] would surely get this one.
Nur pointed at the flowers. “[Material Displacement].”
That said, he pointed up into the air.
The flowers vanished from the stage floor and reappeared in the middle of the room, in the air. The flowers fell to the floor. Flower petals scattered, coming loose from the stress.
“Alright. We can repeat this until everyone gets it. Before that, I shall quickly give you a tip on how to reveal your mana to others. You just give it an extra push with your intent. It's easy! Make it bright and intend it to be seen!”
Soon, students were playing a game to target the flowers in time and teleport them somewhere else. They played around for like half an hour.
Nur just stood back and smiled until he dismissed class.
Sanya messed around summoning and dismissing with [Pocket Space]. She reached in and felt . . . an underwhelming amount of nothing. It seemed like not much would fit in it. Would there be stronger spells with more space? If multiple items were in one space, how would she choose what she wanted? What would happen if she forgot an item inside?
Could she put her staff inside? . . . Well, she couldn't cast the spell without it, so would she lock her staff and magic into an inaccessible [Pocket Space]? Could she cast the spell without a staff?
Finally, because he was a cryptic vulture-tongued camel, he had said he decided to save whatever “after class” session with Sanya and Esmat for later.