The teacher looked out at her students, all eagerly sitting, awaiting for her to begin. She knew they had been looking forward to today's lesson for quite some time. She grinned and cleared her throat.
"Everyone ready?" she asked, looking around the room. They responded with a chorus of "yeses" and "absolutelys". She grinned again. "Right, let's start."
She turned and wrote a single word on the blackboard and then pointed to it.
"Warlock," she said, letting the word sink in. "A male witch. An ancient name, for an ancient people. For as long as there have been witches, so too have there been warlocks. But what, if any, are the differences between the two? Does anyone know?"
They all shook their heads and there were a few scattered "nos" from around the room.
"Well, first, you have to understand a few more basic things," She said, writing more down as she spoke. "To start, where does magical power come from? The answer is, it comes from EVERYTHING. All living creatures generate energy. They do this because it is a natural process. It's how life goes on. However, living things also tend to produce more energy than they need. While most of this energy is consumed, some of it is not. Some of the excess is stored for later use, while some of it simply dissipates over time. However, the rest, indeed the majority, of the left over energy is bled off into the universe around the creature. This energy, overtime, has saturated the world. Where ever there is life, there is magic. It's literally that simple."
One of the students raised her hand, and the teacher nodded at her.
"So why can witches and warlocks use magic, but normal humans can't?" he asked.
The teacher smiled. "Good question, Jeremy. Well, that question is twofold, because the answer is different for witches and warlocks, respectively. We'll start with witches."
"A witches magical power comes from within themselves. Almost all living beings are born with magic energy inside them. For most, this magic is the most infinitesimal amount, barely even noticeable, and certainly not enough to do anything with it. Witches, however, are born with far more magical energy inside of them. No one knows why this happens; several theories have been thrown around, but none have ever been proven well enough to be accepted."
Here she paused and took a drink from her water bottle. "Now, when a witch taps into her magical energy, she is essentially tapping into her soul. This is why whenever a witch uses her powers, they sprout ears and tails. This is their soul-self showing through. This is also why witches powers vary so wildly from one person to another. Each soul is unique, just as the personality of each witch is unique. Therefore, each witch has different powers. Some powers, such as the famous Yoshika Miyafuji's healing ability, can be passed down from one generation to the next, but for the most part, the powers a witch has are based entirely on the witch herself."
Another student raised a hand. The teacher nodded at her.
"You said ALMOST all creatures are born with magic inside them," the girl said, making it a question. The teacher grinned.
"Good catch, Kayla! Yes, I did say that, and there was a reason for it. Warlocks are the exception to this rule. In fact, it's what makes them warlocks. Everything I've just told you about witches? None of it applies to warlocks. In fact, much of it is the exact opposite."
She took another drink. "Warlocks are born with NO magical energy within themselves. Now, as I've taught you, nature doesn't like a vacuum. Because of this, a warlock's soul acts like a vacuum, constantly pulling magical energy into them from their surroundings. This means that warlock's powers are mostly uniform across the board with variations according to personalities. Warlocks all have the ability to manipulate the seven base elements: air, fire, earth, water, light, shadow, and cosmic. This also means that it takes significantly longer for a warlock to tire out that a witch. Because they can draw on power from outside themselves, it's much less strenuous for them. There is a limit to how much power they can draw in, however. They can overtax their ability to draw power in, what warlocks call 'burn out', but it takes them longer to reach this point than witches."
"Another difference is that unlike a witch, a warlocks power doesn't fade as they get older. In fact, up to a certain point, they continually get STRONGER as they grow and their body can handle drawing in larger amounts of power. Now, like witches, when a warlock uses their powers, their appearance changes slightly to show their soul self. Unlike witches, warlocks can take this a step further."
"What do you mean?" asked one of the students.
"Warlocks have a secondary ability called anima proelium, which is Latin for 'battle soul'. In this form, a warlock fully manifests their soul self. There are roughly fifty seven known types of battle souls, each with different powers. While all are very powerful, some are more so than others. These types tend to appear far less frequently than the others, some of them taking as long as 500 years or more to reappear."
"So how will this help us?" asked one of the students.
"Nobody is really sure," the teacher replied. "With this new breed of Neuroi, nothing is certain. All I know for a fact is that they have resurfaced when humanity needed them most, and they, just like the witches they stand beside, may be our only chance of survival."
