Soul Transmigration Chapter 2 (Original chapter Chapter 102)
Entering the small room off to the side of the classroom, I saw that Master Clarke was seated on a chair in front of something which took up most of the room. It was a circular engraving that resembled the circle of the Spheres that he had drawn on the board, symbols included.
"It seems like only yesterday I was teaching your parents." Master Clarke mused as I walked towards him. "Annette could have been a Master had she truly applied herself. Danny as well."
"Dad's a Mage?" I blinked.
"He has his skill mainly in the Spheres of Earth and Nature, just as your mother's skills are mainly in Water, Life and Light." The old mage said gruffly. "It's a shame that the Spheres of the Parents are not passed on to the children; if they were, you would be an extraordinarily talented Mage."
"So they don't run in families?" I asked.
"Not exactly. It is certainly possible, quite likely in fact, that you will be skilled in at least one Sphere that one your parents can use, but more often than not a child has completely different Spheres to either parent or even either set of grandparents. An ongoing, but rather fruitless, path of study is figuring out how a person's Spheres are determined. As of yet, all it has done is eat up a not inconsiderable amount of time, money and effort for no results." Clarke huffed.
So kinda like powers back on Earth Bet were to the general public (and most of the world's heroes, villains and rogues) sans those assholes called Cauldron.
"Anyway, please sit down cross-legged on the floor there." Master Clarke said, indicating the circle in the center of the ring of Spheres. "Once you do, the Spheres will light up to indicate which ones you are best suited for."
"A magic item?" I asked in shock. Even nobles had a hard time getting their hands on one!
"Not as such, no." Clarke explained. "There are a few tiers of such items. At the very bottom are Enchanted Items. These are one-use only items, or items that have to be periodically recharged with magic. Next are the standard Magic Items, which can range from the Sword of Striking issued to a Lieutenant in a country's Army, to a stove that can cook without wood. At a level above that, which is as high as humans can go, are the Ensorcelled Items, which is what this circle is. These are powerful devices that are usually in very limited numbers and created by Master Mages. The elves go even higher with what we humans refer to as Relic Items. They far surpass even the best Ensorcelled Items created by humankind by a considerable margin. At the very, very top, we have Sacred Treasures, created by people unknown. Even figuring out how to use one without a horrible accident will get you acclaim from the world's magic users. As of yet, no one has ever successfully created on in the past three millennia, not since the Great Cataclysm."
I made a note to look that period up. It was ringing alarm bells to me.
Nodding, I walked over and sat in the center of the device as instructed. To my shock, bubbles appeared above the symbols on the ground and started to fill with a coloured light, unique to each Sphere.
"The fuller a bubble, the more ability you have with a particular Sphere." Master Clarke explained to me. "It should only take another half a minute or so to finish."
Humming my agreement, I made a note to myself to see about getting some better quality robes tailored for myself; these off-the-rack ones were itchy like you wouldn't believe.
"And…done." Clarke said with a nod. "My, my, my. Like Parents, like child. I think we can expect a great deal from you in the future, Miss Hebert. You show exceptional talent in the Spheres of Mind, Death, Darkness, Water and Nature. You are also modestly skilled in Earth, Wind, Fire and Life. Your Talent with Sound and Light is below average, while you show no talent whatsoever with the Sphere of Shadow."
OK, I could see Mind, as I was experienced at controlling insects and…people…during my time as a Cape. Death…yeah, I'd been around a lot of it. Darkness was a surprise. Water and Nature, not so much. I'd grown up around Brockton Bay (in both worlds), so I could see Water. As for Nature? I'd controlled all sorts of bugs and spiders, so maybe that had something to do with it.
"Thank you, Master." I stood and bowed to him.
"Professor." Clarke corrected me. "Only call a mage 'Master' if it's either an official function and they are a Master Mage, or if a Mage takes you as an official Apprentice, in which case it is a requirement."
"OK, Professor." I replied. "Should I send the next person in?"
"Yes, please do." Master Clarke nodded.
Leaving, I sent the next person in and headed back to my seat, where Emma pounced on me. "What's the result?" she asked eagerly.
"Mind, Death, Darkness, Water and Nature." I answered. "Those are my main ones, anyway. You never said what your lesser talents are, by the way."
"Oh. Um, Fire, Wind and Shadow." She replied. "Wow, that girl looks pissed."
The girl in question was Sophia Hess. She had just stomped out of the room to the side looking as if she were about to punch someone.
"I think we should stay clear of her." I muttered to Emma, who nodded nervously.
"I hope we aren't in any classes together." She said, fiddling with her long red hair.
I winced slightly. If this Sophia was anything like her Earth Bet counterpart, then she was almost certain to have the Shadow Sphere. I had no talent with it myself, which meant that Emma and Sophia were going to be in close proximity to one another for at least one class without me.
This did not bode well.
Next Day
It was Introduction to Magic again and I was busy reading the textbook-slash-primer that we had all been given after this class yesterday. Not that I'd had much time to read it; after Master Clarke's class yesterday, there had been the whole moving in business and the tearful farewells (Dad's hanky was soaked from his crying), not to mention discovering that yes, this version of Sophia Hess was as big a bitch as her Earth Bet alternate.
As in my original world, the Hess family was poor. Not so poor as to live in slums, but poor enough that it took all hands on deck to make ends meet. With the great divide between poor and even middle class, this gave Sophia a chip the size of a ship on her shoulder when dealing with nobles. Fortunately for her family, Sophia having magic earned them a substantial stipend from the kingdom, more than enough that they didn't need to work fourteen hours a day in order to not starve or get thrown out of their home.
All this I gathered from Sophia and, surprisingly, Flechette, otherwise known as Lily. Apparently they both lived in the same area in Brockton Bay.
This was so weird; it was like every hero my age from Brockton Bay was here! Even Missy Biron, Vista, was here! Looks like she'd been born earlier in this world, even if she was just as adorably petite as in my old world. Clockblocker, Browbeat…was that Weld?! In human form? Good god, this was going to be a real case of déjà vu for me.
Master Clarke bustled in and brought the room to attention. "All right. Now, yesterday, we covered the Twelve Major Spheres, which will be the primary focus of your studies, as well as glossing over the Lesser Spheres. Today, we are going to cover the group of Spheres that no Mage is permitted to study…the so-called 'Forbidden' Spheres."
Gesturing at the board, five circles appeared at his command. "There are currently five Spheres which no Mage is permitted to study under any circumstances." He continued sternly. "Anyone who is proven to practice magic linked to these Spheres is instantly condemned to death. Be warned that there are excellent reasons for these Spheres being forbidden. Wiser and more intelligent minds than you or I possess have decided this, so do NOT practice them. Understood?"
After a chorus of agreement, Master Clark made a skull appear in the first circle. "The most well-known of the Forbidden Spheres is Necromancy. Or, to be absolutely accurate, Necro-animation. Necromancy itself is a spell used in the Sphere of death that permits the user to speak to the spirits of the dead. Necro-animation is using the energy of death to animate the bodies of the deceased, as well as a few spells to absorb life force from the living. The worst necromancer in history appeared a century ago in the Baltic Kingdom, laying waste to over half of the islands of that once prosperous and proud kingdom before he was taken down by the Great Mage Mordalfus. Necro-animation has been forbidden since far longer ago than that, but the death penalty for practicing a Forbidden Sphere was instituted at that time."
"Why's the Pirate Marquis still sailing around then?" Vicky Dallon asked suspiciously.
"Because, Miss Dallon, he does not practice Necro-animation." Clarke answered in resignation. "He practices the Lesser Spheres of Bones and of Locomotion in concert to make his skeleton soldiers move. How he makes those skeletons has never been proven."
I eyed Amy, but she ignored the verbal attack on her father. She must be used to people doing that.
"The second Forbidden Sphere is the Sphere of Pain." Master Clarke continued, gesturing and making a man's face, twisted in agony, to appear in the second circle. "This Sphere in entirely about learning how best to torture and torment someone using pain. One particularly twisted individual even learned enough to become a Master of the Sphere of Pain, gaining the ability to overload someone's mind with countless waves of pain, reducing them to gibbering vegetables."
I shivered at that. It was right out of that Earth Aleph book about a snake-faced guy with the three evil spells or something like that.
"The third is the Sphere of Mutation." Clarke stated. The picture this time was of some kind of ball with hands and tentacles coming out of it. Gross!
"Mutation is the corruption of the Sphere of Life, twisted to create monsters and warp people's bodies." Master Clarke said sternly. "There are already quite enough naturally occurring monsters without idiots creating new and more malicious monsters, so keep in mind that this is one that every soldier and mage will be most irked at you for doing."
Another wave created…a swirl? It kinda looked like the Milky Way.
"Fourth is the Sphere of Pestilence, otherwise known as the Plague Sphere." The old Master stated. "Disease, pestilence, plagues…all of these are governed by this Sphere. It is a very obscure, very difficult Sphere to learn, but you all might recall hearing of the Plague that swept through the Holy Union of Orion ten years ago. That was a plague generated by the infamous Master Mage known only as Bonesaw."
Oh…oh shit. The Nine. The goddamn Slaughterhouse Nine were here too! Fuck.
"Finally, the fifth Forbidden Sphere is the Sphere of Chaos." Master Clarke stated, placing a star in the last circle. "Of all of the Spheres that are proscribed, this is the most subtle, the most insidious. It infects people, nudging them to act with less rationality just a tad. That's all basic Chaos Magic can accomplish. At first, at least. As a Chaos Mage becomes more proficient in their Sphere, their reach becomes longer and their power becomes stronger. Fifty years ago, the Chaos Master Mage known only as Simoorg reduced the disciplined Military Empire of Nul into a blood-soaked land of the dead. Literally the entire kingdom, every man, woman and child on every single island in their island chain, was instantly driven insane and killed one another, even killing livestock and wild animals when no people were about. Even now, no one has set foot there again in fear of being driven mad by Simoorg, who still dwells there, for all we know."
The fucking Endbringers were here too?!
"You will be given a lecture on the dangers of these five proscribed Spheres once a month so long as you are at this Academy." The old Master went on. "I cannot stress enough that anyone who has learned any of these five to a reasonable degree is a danger to everyone around them. Should you ever be confronted by one, do not attempt to fight them. Turn and run, as fast as you are able, putting obstacles in between you and them all the while. It is quite possibly the only thing that you can do."
Looking around to ensure that his point had been driven home, Master Clarke nodded and continued. "Now, to explain magic in a bit more depth."
With another gesture, a single circle replaced the Forbidden Spheres on the board.
"Each Sphere is separated into Circles of power." Clarke started. "The most basic of basic spells in any Sphere are Circle 0 spells that any ordinary human can use. Examples such as [Call Lesser Light] and [Darken] from the Spheres of Light and Darkness respectively.
"Any Sphere has at least ten Circles in it, but there are frequently more." He continued, making concentric rings appear in the circle. "One can be called competent once they have reached Circle 5 in a Sphere and a Master once they reach Circle 10. Master Mages are far rarer than you might think, as most people who attend Magic Academies are either nobles who have lands and more mundane duties to attend to after graduation, merchants who have family responsibilities of their own or commoners who have signed a contract requiring them to serve in the army of the Kingdom for a handful of years in exchange for a stipend for their families and their education."
Made sense.
"The first three Circles of any Sphere, so long as you have a small degree talent in them, are relatively easy to attain. After that, it becomes steadily more and more difficult to attain the next level." Master Clarke stated, pacing back and forth at the front of the classroom. "If you attempt to learn a Sphere with which you have no talent in, it changes from difficult to almost impossible. I speak from experience, as I only showed talent in half of the Major Spheres. As of right now, the Spheres with which I showed no talent for are barely at Circle 4, despite all of my efforts."
Wow. The guy had to be pushing eighty and he hadn't been able to get the Spheres that he had no talent with above competent? Talk about a hurdle. Then again, it shows how much effort that he put into getting them to that level despite the hurdle that was presented by his lack of talent in them.
"The next thing we must talk about if the focus of a Sphere, as that has a direct correlation to how quickly you can learn it." The master said, ceasing his pacing. "Now, does anyone have any idea what I mean by a Sphere's focus?"
I hesitantly raised my hand, the only one to do so.
"Ah, Miss Hebert. Go on."
"The focus of a Sphere would be how narrow or wide it is." I said hesitantly. "For example, Nature, covering plants, animals, earth, growth, storms and others, would have a very wide focus, whereas a sub-Sphere of Nature like…the Sphere of Cultivation, would only deal with the growth of very specific types of plants, so it would be classed as having a narrow focus."
Master Clarke clapped once in delight. "Excellent! A perfect answer. That is indeed what I mean by focus. A Sphere with a wide focus has a lot to learn about it, meaning that you have to learn a variety of different but related subjects in order to master it. By contrast, a Sphere with a narrow focus does not require you to learn nearly as much, allowing you to learn it much quicker compared to a wide focus Sphere. It is for that reason that you find, for example, relatively few Storm Mages compared to Rain or Lightning Mages. It is simply quicker and easier to learn a part of it rather than the entire thing."
Looking up, he said, "For those of you, who have a relatively narrow Sphere, such as one of the four elements, I would recommend you focus on that one first in order to have at least one that you can have confidence in. Also, if you get that first one squared away quickly, it leaves you plenty of time to learn your other Spheres. Now, hands up if you are joining the army for a standard length of time after you leave the Academy?"
Most of the commoners in the room raised their arms, along with a handful of the nobles.
"I suppose I had better go into the various classifications of Mages while I am at it then." Master Clarke mused. "Now, a standard stint in the Army of the Kingdom of Sirius is five years. Mages enter the Magic Corps, where you are further subdivided depending on the style of Mage that you are. They can be roughly divided into Vanguard, Rearguard and Support."
"Vanguard Mages are magic users who can handle themselves with a blade as well as magic. The three main categories of Vanguard Mages are War Blade, Battle Mage and Shadow Blade. War Blades fight on the front lines, dealing damage to the enemy with blade and spell. Usually they specialize in only a single offensive Sphere above all others, but they are very effective.
"By contrast, Battle Mages are skilled with a wide variety of Spheres of both offence and defence. Some may not be ranked higher than the 3rd Circle or so, but with such a wide pool of spells to draw upon, they are usually considered more deadly than the War Blades. The Shadow Blades infiltrate enemy positions to sow confusion amongst them, as well as to sabotage equipment, assassinate officers and poison their food and water. Overlooked by most, but valued by those who do not, they have been the key to many a victory."
So One-Trick Ponies, Jack-of-All-Trade-Masters-of-None and rogues.
"Rearguard Mages are those who lack the ability to defend themselves in close quarters combat to the degree needed to be a Vanguard. There are a lot of categories, but the main ones are Wizard, Summoner, Bulwark and Shielder." Master Clarke continued. "Wizards are basically magical artillery, lobbing their spells at the enemy to great effect. Summoners are those who make pacts with the elemental creatures of their Spheres in order to call them forth to fight on their behalf. Bulwarks create, maintain and repair fortifications that protect the rest of the army. Finally, Shielders specialize in creating shields of both energy and of matter to protect an army from magical and mundane bombardment.
"Support Mages are basically where all other Mages who do not fall into either the Vanguard or Rearguard roles go to. This includes Healers, Seers, Communications Mages and others." Master Clarke finished. "There are no roles that are more important than the others; all are necessary in order for an army to succeed in battle. You may be wondering why I am telling you this, even those of you who are not planning on joining the army. The answer is simple; once you graduate from this Academy, should war be declared by the Kingdom, all Mages older than sixteen, aside from those of Royalty and those who have criminal histories, are required to serve in the army until the completion of the war. The only exceptions are those who serve a vital role in the government, such as Lord Hebert."
"Why's he get a pass?" Clockblocker…no, Dennis dammit…asked.
"Master Mage Daniel Hebert, Earl of Leviathan Ridge, is the first Master Mage of the Sphere of Cultivation." The old man smirked at the surprise in the faces of my classmates. Hell, I was surprised! "No one else has ever bothered with the Sphere of Cultivation, but because of Lord Hebert, the crops on the fields of Brockton Island produce more abundant crops than anywhere in the Kingdom. They are also disease and pest free because of his competency in both Earth and Nature Magic. His position is one of vital importance to the Kingdom's ability to feed its citizens and the army, so he will stay rather firmly put on Brockton Island during a war."
Wow…so Dad was a lot more important than I thought. That just made the Soul Magic attack on me all the more suspicious. This version of my Dad wasn't as likely to collapse in on himself as he had been in my original world, as Mom was alive and he would be slapped out of any depression with haste by her, but it would still be a hit to his abilities if I were to be murdered. Hmm…
"And with that…" Master Clarke said as the bell rung. "Off to lunch with you."
Evil Cutoff Point Technique…complete…