"Mister Lith, would you mind coming over here please?" Professor Zeneff had him walk to her desk.
- "If this guy is a Necromancy genius, I must report it immediately to the Crown."– She thought. Each Professor had to keep their evaluation to themselves, notifying only the Headmaster or Crown of a promising talent.
It was a safety measure to avoid talented students from becoming targets of the hostility from noble families or of the interest of foreign countries. Being a Necromancy lecturer, Zeneff would report her observations only to the Crown.
It was too sensitive a topic for clerks to handle, all academies were known for having more leaks than a sieve.
"Can you please explain to me how you accomplished that?" She pointed to the still dancing rats.
Lith told her making Professor Zeneff burst into a chuckle.
"Really well played, but for today's lesson purpose it's like cheating. I wasn't going to teach you that trick until all of you managed to gain a decent degree of control over your undead. Still, it's very impressive for a student to discover it on his own. Twenty more points for you."
While Lith was disappointed learning he had just reinvented the wheel, Professor Zeneff was relieved instead.
- "I knew it was too good to be true. I can kiss my points goodbye." He thought. –
- "Thank the gods he is just very brilliant. I don't think the Kingdom can afford a second god of death." Zeneff thought. –
"Go back to your place and do the exercise properly." Professor Zeneff instructed Lith.
"Do not explain the trick to anyone, it would ruin my lesson. I'm sorry to send you back to square one, but I'm sure you will thank me later."
She smiled gently, knowing how hard it was for someone so young going from believing to be a genius to discovering it had only been a fluke.
Lith went back to his seat with a dejected expression. Soon envy turned into snickers and pointed fingers, when the other students noticed that he was back to controlling a single rat, apparently suffering from brain damage.
Lith was already able to move his rat in the direction he wanted, but every two or three steps, it would writhe like it had a seizure, prompting the ridicule from his peers. Even Quylla would chuckle from time to time.
"Sorry..." She said looking in his direction. "but it's too funny. Why don't you try shutting down the other one? It didn't act like that before. During the previous lesson, Professor Zeneff told us that every undead requires focus from the mage.
Maybe that's why you find it so hard to control it now."
"Quylla, you are a damn genius." He gave her a thumbs up while placing his left hand on the second undead and draining the darkness magic that possessed its body. Lith's words made Quylla smile for the first time since Phloria had asked him out, while his actions made Professor Zeneff swallow a lump of saliva.
- "Once it's a fluke, but twice? Is it possible for him to have the mana control to be able to take back his own spell?"– Her face was jovial as usual, but her eyes returned often to his desk.
As Quylla predicted, once the second rat was out of the picture, Lith was able to move the remaining undead with more ease. The rat was promoted from brain damaged to crippled.
The lesson continued and Lith kept falling behind. He felt like the others were running while he was forced to walk.
- "Damn, I must find a way around my limits. This time I can't pull all nighters to catch up with them. Think Lith, think. Normally, when I use Necromancy, I always keep my undead under control with tendrils of mana.
"It serves the purpose of constantly feeding them and makes their reaction time much faster, since I can control them with but a thought. Now I have to control a lump of mana after giving it a body instead.
"On paper, it should be easy for me. After I cast any spell with true magic, I can always alter its course or form, as long as I can see it. Why should this be any different?"–
Lith drained and injected darkness magic into the carcass multiple times, turning it into an undead and back while trying to remember the feeling he experienced when the mana passed from him to the skeleton.
- "This is not dimensional magic where I have to constantly manipulate and adapt different mana flows. Unlike a Warp Step, the undead is stable. I need to feel it just once!"–
Lith kept his eyes closed, repeating the spell over and over, until he was able to feel every drop of mana that came out of his core, manipulating it like it was a new arm.
To make things easier, Lith coordinated the rat skeleton's movements with his right hand's fingers. There were no tendrils attached, but thanks to the workaround he was soon able to move the creature at will.
After he got used to the feeling, he reanimated the second rat again, using one hand for each and moving them in unison.
By the end of the lesson, while most students had succeeded in correctly controlling a single undead and Quylla was close to perfecting the movements of the second one, Lith had expanded the number of his puppets, needing only a finger for each one of them.
Professor Zeneff had never been so excited and afraid at the same time in her whole career, fearing to have triggered the advent of the new god of death.
***
Time passed and soon the days turned into a month. Friya needed but a week to master the Switch spell, completing the dimensional magic course and receiving a griffon shaped honour badge from Linjos and Rudd to celebrate the new inter-academy record.
Aside from Quylla, the rest of the group had mastered Blink, but they had yet to succeed in the Switch spell. Quylla and Friya used that extra free time to cram healing magic together, becoming the rising stars of the Light Magic Department.
Lith kept Forgemastering successfully one elemental weapon after the other, making Professor Wanemyre so happy that at one point she offered to adopt him. It was a flattering proposal, but he gently refused it.
Necromancy helped Lith overcome his mana sensitivity gap, leaving Professor Zeneff in awe. He would finish the assignments so fast that she promoted him to her assistant during the lessons, giving tips and suggestions to the other students.
Receiving so much good news every day made Lady Ernas feel like she was walking on air.
"I hope you will now admit I'm always right." She chuckled reading the latest congratulatory report from the White Griffon academy.
"A dimensional magic prodigy, two geniuses at healing, and our little Flower has finally blossomed as a woman. The future of house Ernas is as good as set in stone."
At those words, Orion Ernas spit out his tea in the butler's face, spilling the rest on his own nether regions. The pain coming from the hot tea was nothing compared to the one he felt in his heart so he ignored it, treating the small burns with healing magic.
"Do you mean she… they… you know what I mean!" Orion was beet red from pain and anger.
"No, I don't." She giggled, sending the butler away.
"It's never a good thing for a parent to meddle during the initial phases of a relationship. Lith seems quite the gentleman, I'm sure he'll make her first time pleasurable."
Orion once again cursed Lith's name and the day he brought the little runt into his house.
"She is too young for that! How can you say such things and remain so calm?"
Jirni put down the report, looking Orion straight in the eyes.
"Didn't we start knowing each other intimately when I was fifteen?" She asked with a soft smile.
"Those were different times! Ages ago." Orion replied, noticing the trap when it was already too late.
"Are you calling me an old hag?" She stood up, scolding him with an indignant tone.
"No, gods no!" Orion hastily retreated. Admitting defeat was his only option at that point, or he would share the doghouse with Lucky for the days to come.
"You are right, fifteen is the perfect age to start dating."
"According to our little Flower, Lith is a very promising Healer, Forgemaster and maybe even Necromancer." Jirni was back to being all smiles.
"You could bring him to your forge sometime, for some male bonding time. I was thinking we should meet his parents one of these days. Nothing formal, just to say hi and introduce ourselves."
Orion Ernas was inwardly weeping blood at the thought of losing his little Flower to a brute whose only perk was being so similar to his beloved wife, but he could only nod with a smile plastered on his face.
***
Sitting alone in his office, Linjos couldn't help but have an eerie feeling that something terrible was about to happen. Things were going smoothly, there had been no more accidents and he received only good news.
It was all too good to be true. Linjos was the White Griffon Headmaster for three years now, he knew the rules of the game all too well. He had spent the first two years learning the ropes before finally implementing the changes he had always dreamt about to the academy system.
Despite being the trial year, his academy had already achieved the highest number of promoted students per trimester and the lowest numbers of expelled or injured students per month.
The healthy environment had allowed many students that had appeared unremarkable at their arrival at the academy to develop their talents. They were popping out like mushrooms in all departments.
The random checks for slave items had been fruitless. Members of the Queen's corps would search and interrogate the staff, but thank the gods every time they would come up with nothing.
Yet Linjos couldn't help but worry. According to the reports he received from the Professors and the Queen, despite the internal strife having been quelled, all academies were still experiencing an all time low of the students' grades.
Linjos knew that sooner or later, the other Headmasters would try to sabotage his academy. With such poor results, they would be forced to implement Linjos's system, losing a lot of face and looking incompetent in the eyes of the magical community.
No matter what the Queen ordered, he was certain that they would put their prestige above everything. Many of them were too old to accept the changes and would never accept retirement.
To make things even worse, it was almost that time of the year again. Thinking about how much work he had to do with so little time at his disposal, Linjos sighed multiple times before summoning Nalear to his office.
***
The Magic Crystal lessons were the most appreciated among the compulsory courses of the third trimester. There were no winners or losers, all the students had become capable of cutting and refining low grade gemstones.
It had no homework, since handling mana blades and crystals was too dangerous without supervision, nor was there a rush to complete the task. The most important thing was the quality of the final product, so students would take their time, facing each crystal like a challenge to oneself rather than to the rest of the class.
At the end of the lesson, after checking the results of the students' work, Professor Nalear had an announcement to make.
"Excellent work everyone. Now I have good news and bad news. The good news is that since the whole class is making progress at such an outstanding rate, our trip to the forest's crystal mines has been brought forward.
"We'll depart tomorrow first thing in the morning, bring along anything you think you might need in the next few days." The trip was supposed to last only one morning, the sudden change of plans made the class burst with chattering.
Nalear raised her hand, silencing them with a quick spell.
"This leads to the bad news. For security reasons, students and Professors alike will move out of the academy until the eighteenth day of this month. Temporary lodgings have already been prepared.
You'll be split based on your household rather than on your gender or academy year. Beware of your seniors and be nice to your juniors. No misconduct will be tolerated, we will keep everyone under constant supervision."
Despite her smile, Lith could see it was all a façade. A deep rage was smoldering behind her soothing manners. Something terrible had probably happened to her during her student days.
"I am not at liberty to give you any explanation. Just know that this is for your own safety. Dismissed." Nalear abruptly left, clenching her hands so hard she was bleeding a little.
Lith was so focused on all those small details that he missed the several glances Phloria threw at him, sighing every time she did it. They had much to discuss.