Ar'Kendrithyst

Oceanside smelled of stone and the sea, with salt tainting the air flowing up from the Harbor District, as the sun shone down on the bustling city of learning.

Bright cream-colored stone formed open-aired hallways, while bookshops and bakeries hawked their wares to the mid-morning crowd. Towers and apartment buildings loomed, while kids and young adults, laden with books or bags, laughed and joked as they walked from place to place. But not everyone walked. Above the pastel blue or green or yellow or red roofs, some of the older students flew from the balconies of their residences with personal flight wards, or on platforms of Force, to join a secondary flow of traffic in the sky where the paths were delineated by lines of cream-colored light, instead of by the ground and the markings of the stone roads.

Here and there in the air around the city, floated the police and early warning system of Oceanside: cream-colored Robes, floating like sentinels, who watched and waited for trouble. But traffic in the air and on the ground was perfectly peaceful, today. The Robes would not get involved without justification, or at least that’s what Krigea said when Erick asked about them.

Krigea had an answer for everything, as they walked around on a tour of the city, while Erick held only a fraction of the questions. Kiri had her own fair share of queries. Poi even had a couple of inquiries, asking for clarification on a few of Krigea’s answers to Erick’s questions.

They toured the Low Market, where the roads were wide and items of every non-magical kind were sold under tents or in stone alcoves, from clothing to spices, and metal to meat, where voices yelled at each other, haggling down prices from gold to silver, or from 10 mana rads to 5 mana rads; from ‘marks’ to ‘chips’. They traveled through the High Market, where magical goods were kept and traded under the watchful eyes of a Robe every ten meters, and hushed voices spoke over enchanted items locked under glass. Prices were listed in dozens of ‘marks’, meaning 10 mana rads, though sometimes the prices were listed in ‘Quants’; those were the expensive items, because ‘quant’ meant ‘grand-rad’.

They walked through the town, from place to place. Food was sold on every corner, and the smell sent Erick’s stomach rumbling, even though he already had breakfast. The cuisine of Oceanside came from every part of the world; there were fried bugs and grilled fruit, glazed meats and raw fish. Breads and cheeses. Wines and beers. Tea shops sold pastries to a peaceful crowd.

And everywhere, young people walked, or talked, or just lived. Every once in a while Erick saw an older person, but they were usually the ones selling the goods, or making them.

Oceanside was a college town, and Erick loved it. Back when he was Kiri’s age, he had gone to a community college for a few years, but flunked out when sex and beer proved to be more interesting than studying and showing up on test days. It was only in his thirties, while he was taking care of a 6 year-old Jane and completing part-time courses at the local community college, that he scraped together his old college credits and finished a bachelor’s degree in social work. That took years, though; much longer than normal. Erick was only able to take one course at a time. Work, and life, hit Erick hard for the choices he made in his youth. But now, looking all around him, maybe he could make a few better choices. Maybe he had another chance at a proper education. He certainly needed a magical education, at least.

Erick found himself looking forward to the student life.

According to Krigea, the normal course of study that most students were required to learn included World History, Politics, Geography and the Underworld, Religious Studies, Warfare, Monster Ecology, and Basic Magic. From there, the course load bloomed into every other nuance that Erick read about in the course manual back at Windy Manor: Philosophy, Medicine, Engineering, Advanced Magic, all of that.

Erick was skipping those requirements, but maybe he should look into some of them. World History and Politics, in particular, seemed like good things to know. If they had a Cultural Studies program Erick would have to take that, too, as well as a course on Law and Justice, if they had such a thing. Back on Earth, those sorts of courses were part of his Bachelor’s of Social Work, and he used that knowledge almost every day; especially when it came to dealing with the police.

The only time he had ever been hauled before Silverite in a legal sort of way was just after the shadowolf ambush in the defunct Human District. Nothing had happened to him or Jane, thankfully, but ever since that incident, and because of what came later, Erick got the distinct, and correct, impression that Spur existed at Silverite’s discretion. Much of life on Veird seemed to be that way, with benevolent or otherwise dictators here and there, doing what they needed to do to keep their cities intact, but it would be nice to know what ‘law’ actually meant on this planet.

Knowing the culture of some of Veird might not be what was immediately necessary for survival, but it would make Erick happy to not be a such a blundering idiot.

And then the tour was over.

Krigea walked ahead of them, into the square where Erick had set down his [Teleporting Platform]. Trees grew on the sides of the square, but the center was an open, grassy land; a bit of flat space without nearby towers, located in the south portion of the crescent-shaped, mountain city. Other people set down on platforms of their own, or took off, while cream-colored Robes hung in the sky around the airy, unobstructed square; watching.

Krigea turned back to Erick, saying, “I hope that helped to orient you.”

“Thank you, Krigea,” Erick said. “It was nice being a little anonymous, too.”

Kiri murmured, “Someone should have noticed you.”

Poi said, “They did. And then they purposefully looked away when the Robes looked at them.”

Kiri went, “Oh.”

“Yup.” Erick said, “I noticed them.” He looked to Poi, adding, “Some of them, anyway.”

Poi smirked.

“I assure you—” Krigea stressed, “Oceanside is one of the safest cities in the world.”

Poi said nothing, as tendrils of thought continued to radiate from his head.

“I think so, too.” Erick’s eyes dropped from a floating Robe, to a gaggle of kids walking past, each of them joking with each other. Half of them were human, the other incani, with a short orcol to round out the group of seven. “I’ve seen a lot of human and incani getting along on the tour. It’s nice to see such a thing. Not much Quiet War here?”

Krigea said, “Not usually.” She asked, “Is there anything else you wish to do today, that I may assist with?”

Erick looked up at the sky. The sun was directly overhead. Normally at this time Erick would be occupied with raining on the farms, but that task would be postponed by 5 hours while he lived in Oceanside. Almost the entire day was his, and his alone. It was nice.

Erick asked, “Poi? Kiri?”

Poi shook his head. Kiri did the same.

Erick gazed up, to see Central Tower amid the other, smaller towers. He would be giving his lecture somewhere up there, tomorrow. It was a massive structure, a city block wide, twenty stories tall, and one of three. Balconies adorned the sides of all the towers; open-air platforms of stone that served as the entrances to each floor of the buildings. People flew in and out, on organized trails of light that snaked across the whole of the sky.

The other two main towers of Oceanside were North and South, both of which were currently mostly out of sight.

Erick pointed at Central, asking, “Up there tomorrow, then?”

Krigea looked to the tower Erick indicated, saying, “Yes, sir. That’s the one.”

“Then we can leave that for tomorrow.” Erick said, “I want to learn about Mana Sense. How would I go about learning this skill, here?”

Krigea nodded, then pointed to the tower left of tomorrow’s destination, one of the smaller ones, saying, “Then we should go there.”

- - - -

Erick stood in an airy stone room with a private, small balcony, that extended west from the tenth floor of the tower. Far below, the crescent crater arms of Oceanside stretched out before him, laden with city and stone and people, encircling the dark harbor waters. Bright sailing vessels plowed those waters, in and out of the harbor.

The room around Erick was rather spartan, with a few knickknacks on pedestals on the perimeter of the space and nothing else; stone spheres and little pyramids. The kick-up of the manasphere, as it struck the city, spilled into the room, though, like a second breeze, laced with possibility; a pleasant companion to the salt already on the air.

Poi and Kiri stood around the room, both of them perfectly patient. Krigea stood to the side of the balcony. Erick continued to look out over the waters of the harbor while Ophiel clung to the railing, enjoying the breeze, letting his wings flutter loose and easy to tangle in the wind. It was a very nice day.

The door to the room burst open, a small woman already saying, “Sorry! Sorry! I took longer than I thought I would!”

Erick turned, smiling, saying, “Don’t worry about it. I’m the one imposing, here.”

The woman was almost a pure white incani, with pale skin, white hair, and white horns, but her eyes were bright red. She looked older than Erick, but not by much, while her strong bearing and nice tan and brown, though dirty, clothes, told the story that she had been in a garden, planting, just minutes ago.

Erick introduced himself, “Erick Flatt, of Spur.”

The woman’s red eyes sparkled like rubies as she smiled, saying, “Professor Rue Downs! Uh! Archmage, sir. It’s nice to meet you.”

Krigea stepped forward, saying, “The Headmaster wishes for this juncture of minds to go well, but he knows that it might take more sessions than one to impart the wisdom of Mana Sense. He has instructed that a bargain of trade would be prudent, even if this exchange is just a few questions.”

“I accept,” Erick said.

“Me too,” said the woman. “Please, call me Rue.” Rue added, “Archmage.”

Erick smiled, saying, “Erick, then, for me, please. Thank you for taking time out of your day, Rue. When I suggested this idea, I did not expect to take someone out of their life like this. I especially did not expect to be placed on the same level as people who had gone through schooling for all of this. It’s very weird for me to refer to a professor on a first name basis.”

“Nonsense!” Rue added, “Erick.” She said, “Okay so—” She turned to Krigea. “A bargain of trade? Really?”

“Yes.” Krigea said, “This is the price the Headmaster has set for situations such as this.”

“Which is fine.” Erick asked, “Anything you’d like to ask me, first?”

Rue instantly said, “I want to attend your lecture tomorrow. This is all I ask. In exchange, I will assist you in training your Mana Sense.”

“… Okay?” Erick agreed, “Sure. I’ll agree to that.”

Rue smiled softly as she breathed in, then out. She said, “Thank you.”

“It only took my people a few hundred years to get to the knowledge I gave out.” Erick said, “With magic, it might take you far less to reach the same level. Though the Infinitesimal Ban is going to provide a very hefty block to most possible Particle Magic.” He added, “Y’all are going to have to do things the hard, non-magical way if you want to get past the sky, anyway. From my understanding, the manasphere is too thin up there to be workable.”

Rue smiled wide, saying, “I know. Isn’t it marvelous?” She quickly added, “I always tell students that some things are better done when magic is left at the door. Most of the stronger alchemical properties of many, many plants are only achieved when the plant grows naturally, in their preferred environment.” She said, “We might even be able to reclaim the Lost Planes.”

“The other planets?” Erick asked.

“If there’s a manasphere on them, at all.” Rue said, “Oh, sure. It’s going to be very hard work, but—” She said, “That’s two centuries away, at least. But it’s nice to dream. Maybe my great grandkids will be able to set foot on Yoril or Paal.”

Erick smiled. “Maybe.”

“Ah!” Rue looked around. Everyone was looking at her. She said, “My head is already in the clouds. It’s just that you grow up listening about people just casually visiting other worlds and you want to do this, but you can’t— Ah! That’s a topic for another day.”

Erick smirked. He liked Rue. Unless she was secretly planning on killing him, Rue seemed like a good person to know.

“Let’s begin!” Rue conjured two large, mostly solid pillows onto the floor of the empty room. She folded her legs, taking an instant, apparently comfortable seat on one of the pillows, sitting with her knees forward and her feet under her butt, saying, “Places to be, both for you and for me, no doubt.”

Erick gladly took a seat on the other pillow, though it took him more than a second to situate himself. When he was seated, with his legs outside of the pillow and his hands on the pillow, he realized that Rue was a lot more flexible than he was. Erick missed the effortless ease of having a young body, but Rue wasn’t young at all. Maybe she had just kept her flexibility in tune as she aged, in a way Erick just never had time for. He needed to get that ability back, and sparring with Kiri did not cut it.

He needed to do, like, yoga, or something. Maybe they had yoga on Veird? They had something, for sure; Erick just needed to find out what it was.

Rue asked, “How versed are you in the ideas of Mana Sense?”

“Almost zero.” Erick added, “Everyone I ask says that they’re either not proficient, or it’s like [Detect Magic], but different, or that it’s difficult. I only know one person who can do it back in Spur: Mage Ramizi Fieldsend.”

Rue smiled. “I must confess, I was likely tagged for this honor because I am the one who taught Ramizi. He told me something like this might happen, but I did not expect it to be today. Life just happens like that, sometimes.”

Erick had wondered when the first signs of whatever Ramizi’s hand in matters would show.

Erick said, “Ramizi is a good kid.”

“He is.” She asked, “I will start from the beginning, then.”

Erick said, “Please.”

Rue nodded. “Mana Sense is not a skill to be bought in the Script, but a personal ability, like knowing how to read a language, or understand the stars.” She said, “[Detect Magic] is useful as a starting point. If you have not done so yet, try to Aurify your [Detect Magic], and then activate the resulting ability.” She looked completely embarrassed for a hot moment, her eyes darting to the ground then away, as she added, “Uh! But you probably already have?”

“I have not.” Erick said, “I just know a bit about stuff you all don’t know, and have gotten a leg up on the path of the mage. That’s all.”

Rue smiled softly.

Erick held out his hand, channeling mana through—

“What are you doing?” Rue asked, eyes alight.

Erick said, “Ah.” He stopped channeling mana through his hand, and said, “You channel mana through your Stats to produce a Stat item, but you never tried channeling through the skills themselves?”

Rue’s eyes sparkled as she said, “The people of the Songli Highlands of Nelboor have a rich tradition of using harmonics to influence their spell creation. This method is known, but not widely used, because not many people are able to gain anything from this method, except to get closer to their Mana Exhaustion limit for the day.” She said, “But it helps you? That’s wonderful.”

“It does.”

Erick channeled mana through [Detect Magic], producing a sound of resonance. Like an echo, far removed. That made quite a lot of sense, considering [Detect Magic] was, well, all about detecting magic, or rather, about detecting intent imbued within the mana, which was another way to describe ‘magic’. From there, it was a short jaunt to Aurify the spell.