Prismatic Education Begins With A Spark 17 (MTG/Multicross)

Prismatic Education 17

“Ah, Roy,  good to see you. Come on in,” Professor Alaric invited me into his office. 

I had been in this room a few times before, and its interior proudly proclaimed its owner as a scholar of life sciences, albeit from a mathematical point of view. In addition to the usual collection of reference books every professor had pertaining to their specialty, there was a board filled with sketches of plants and animals next to scribbled equations. In one corner of the room were cages filled with small creatures, though some of the inhabitants were fractal copies of their living neighbors, testament to the professor’s vivification skill.

Once we were seated across from each other, the human mage took a moment to scan through the records on his desk before focusing on me. “Before we begin, have you been to see my halfling colleague yet?”

“You mean Professor Frois?” At his confirming nod, I continued, “Then yes.”

“Alright. Then let’s review your educational progress from a Substance point of view,” The guidance counselor said. “So far, you’ve been taking five courses each year, and doing a fine job of handling the workload for each one. However, for your fourth year, I would recommend against taking that same number.”

As with the previous years, I had to pick what courses to take, and naturally I was going to make use of the help offered to me in the form of my guidance counselors. In Quandrix, the professor of Theory would recommend courses that focused on knowledge, or those that tried to expand the limits of magical possibility, while the professor of Substance advised picking those with practical applications. Then when neither of them were able to advise me on courses outside of Quandrix, they directed me to colleagues that could.

The professor’s reasoning for his recommendation was due to the fourth year workload being much harder, especially with the teachers focusing more on project work to give the students the practical experience they needed for their final project.

“Actually, I’m already thinking of doing that, because I’ve got an idea for what I want to do for my final project.”

The man blinked. “Oh. Now that’s curious. What exactly is this project that you have in mind?”

I took out the bundle of notes I had been taking over the years, having organized them recently for this consultation. “So to begin with…”

It took some time to explain what my idea was, how it comprised multiple fields of magic that I had learned during my time in Strixhaven, and why I had chosen such an idea. Though his expression was initially one of confusion, Professor Alaric didn’t interrupt me, and it was soon replaced by interested approval as I neared the end of my presentation.

“That does sound like a great idea for a project. Did you share this with Frois as well?” He asked me.

“I did. He said, and I quote ‘mathematically speaking, you’re likely to succeed with this, so I expect to see your proof’.”

The professor chuckled. “That sounds like him. Alright then, with that project idea in mind, let’s see which courses would best fit your plan.”

Just like his colleague, Professor Alaric provided several recommendations on which courses to take, with the reasoning that the practical lessons would help in my chosen project’s progress. The similarity to how Professor Frois had said the same about the theory covered in his recommendations made me laugh on the inside. Though there was one unexpected piece of advice he gave, regarding the compulsory course of Arcane Herbology. It opened my eyes to the potential of that course, so I asked for and received a list of books that would be useful for that class.

“That’s all the advice I can give you. Remember to submit your application to the faculty office by the end of tomorrow,” He reminded me.

“Yes, I will. Thank you, professor.” I got up and bowed slightly in respect.

“You’re welcome. Send in the next student, please.”

All of those in my friend group were busy with other stuff, so I ended up meeting with Nivall to discuss course selections. Our choice of rendezvous was one of the performance bars located in Prismari campus, and the sight of the blue-skinned genasi waiting in a short purple dress made me smile. Compared to Bow’s End, the bar was much quieter, with musicians playing relaxing tunes on the stage for the audience seated at small tables and booths. The whole place was softly lit, but there were table lamps for those who needed the brighter lighting. 

Like a jazz bar… ah, another memory. And here I thought the Rose Stage performances got all of them already. 

“What do you think? Nice, isn’t it?” Nivall asked me. “I hear the owner only allows music students he approves of to play here.”

“It’s got a great atmosphere.” I agreed. “How’d you learn about it?”

“A friend told me about it, and I thought we could check it out together.”

“It’s your first time too?” I asked, surprised.

“That’s right. Well, shall we get some drinks and sit down?”

Since I had the windfall from the dungeon, I offered to take care of the former. When I went over to the booth she was occupying, I saw that her books were already out on the table. I also noticed something else that I chose to comment on first.

“That necklace really does look good on you.” I told Nivall, smiling.

She reached up to brush her fingers over the line of sapphires hanging from a chain of gold. “It’s a gift from you after all. I almost can’t believe you found something like that on your journey, but I suppose that’s just like you, Roy.”

I chuckled, and changed the subject. “So have you picked your classes for this year?”

“I just finished.” Nivall patted the paper form in front of her.

My eyes widened. ALREADY?!

She started counting off her fingers. “Besides that compulsory one, I’ve chosen Managing Production and Performance from Silverquill, Advanced Elemental Expression, and Magical Dances III.”

“Oh, good choices.” I placed the drinks down on the table and sat next to her. “Then can you help me with mine?”

“That’s what we’re here for, aren’t we?” She replied with amusement.

When it came to planning my scholastic plan for this year, doing it together with a pretty girl over sips of mocktails and with pleasant music in the background wasn’t a bad way at all. 

…

“Senior Staff, sorry to disturb you, but could you help these new students?” 

I looked up from my books to see the dorm supervisor with another pair of new students. With a snap of my fingers, I applied a bit of mental acceleration, scanned the documents the younger students were carrying, and came to a conclusion.

“The reference books for this particular topic, right?” I asked, pointing at the subject on the front page. “You’ll want Glimmer’s Auras Experiment Records from the Biblioplex. Sorry I can’t help more than that.”

“No, it’s enough. I know how busy you are. Thank you for your help!”

“Thank you!” The newbie students echoed.

The trio left, and I returned to my studies, taking advantage of the acceleration while it lasted.

Just as I had been warned, the fourth year workload was more intense than ever, and almost every student was using special study methods to keep up with the theory; spells like Borrowed Knowledge, use of magical mnemonics, Wit-Sharpening potions… I used a few of them myself, but tried not to be too reliant. There were enough cautionary tales about students who had pushed their use too far, and some of them had been confirmed by the faculty as true.

My selection of courses for this year had been tougher, mainly because the advanced courses tended to overlap on the same lecture time slot, since there was only one professor per course unlike the basic ones. My project idea required knowledge from either poetry magic or light magic, and It took some time to weigh the pros and cons of the two choices to pick from, but so far, I hadn’t seen anything to make me regret the one I picked.

Advanced Lumimancy was taught by the Silverquill Dean of Radiance, Shaile Talonrook the owlin. Contrary to what its name suggested, it wasn’t just about manipulating light as physics would define it. Dean Shaile’s mastery of literature allowed her to expand her students’ awareness that light itself could come in many forms, such as the inspiring beacon of knowledge or the guiding flame of courage. From there, lumimancers learned just how to apply the effects of those forms of light, and it reminded me of some of the records I had seen of Clover Kingdom’s magic spells, like [Fire Magic: Phoenix Robe] having a self-healing effect.

And since colors were just different wavelengths of light, it was the perfect complement to my Prismatic Magic. When I showed Dean Shaile my grimoire and explained what it could do, she began assigning me extra tasks to work on. Despite the difficulty, I found my understanding and ability with Prismatic Magic improving by leaps and bounds under her tutelage.

However, being the Dean, she had other responsibilities, so some of her lessons were taught by the assistant teacher Helioz Sunmane, a male Leonin. Just like loxodons resembled elephants, leonins looked like humanoid lions, and his moniker came from his talent with light magic, which caused his thick mane to constantly glow golden. While not as eloquent as Dean Shaile was, Professor Sunmane’s expertise with the light of pride was something to admire.

As befitting a lion leading a group, I thought amusedly to myself, finishing up the essay describing my own merits and admiring the glow from the ink characters on the paper.

Setting it aside, I turned to my next homework subject. Similar to Advanced Lumimancy, Applied Arithmancy was taught by Dean Kianne of Quandrix’s Substance philosophy, and it really opened up my mind to working magic with numbers. There was a lot of back-and-forth in this mathematics-focused course, from breaking down magical phenomena into numbers and formulae, and using those with slightly altered values to manifest something different. The practical work was tough, and I had to refer to my past notes of Computational Magic quite a few times, but the satisfaction of seeing a magical calculation work the way I intended it to was a wonderful emotion.

I had initially considered taking only those two with the compulsory course, but after presenting my choices to Professor Alaric, he suggested taking one more, Advanced Applied Magic from the General Studies course. His reasoning was that it would be very useful with my project, as it dealt with multiple spells when they were interacting or acting in concert with one another, which my project idea would make use of. In addition to being focused on practicals, the course involved a good deal of creative thinking and problem solving, identifying potential issues before they could cause problems. Thanks to it, I had managed to refine my idea further, and would probably be able to start experimenting soon.

Arcane Herbology seemed like it was just about basic biology of magical plants, but just like the other courses, the name was an oversimplification of what was taught. Identifying and tending to the variety of magical flora might sound like basic things, but the Witherbloom teacher in charge of the course taught spells that would discern the properties of the extractable components, along with how to actually obtain those components from the plants. Some could be used for magical crafting, others for more mundane purposes. Of all my courses, this was the one I liked the least, mainly because it had practicals requiring the students to enter Sedgemoor. Thankfully, I had Nivali to call upon for help, though I tried my best not to impose on her too much.

And that’s the last of them… I glanced out the window, which was just starting to turn to twilight. Oh good, I have enough time to hit up the Biblioplex. 

While there was still some time before the start of final year projects for the fourth-years, I had already started on preparations for it. Interactions with past senior students had taught me about some of the steps involved, and it was better to deal with them early instead of getting caught in the rush towards the end of the year.

Taking the steps to the upper floors of the Biblioplex, I passed by the locked doors on the second floor, which I had yet to gain access to. Unlike the main shelves on the first and third that were freely accessible to the students and visitors, the second floor’s archives were restricted only to faculty and select students. The reason for that was because they contained books bearing arcane knowledge of the more esoteric and possibly dangerous kind. Only students preparing for their final thesis would be granted keys to the place, and I was fairly sure I would need the knowledge contained within for my idea.

For now, I went all the way to the third floor, the area known as the compendium. As I always did, I levitated myself up onto one of the shelves, taking in the sight of a library that extended out infinitely with countless books. The impressive view never failed to awe me. All that knowledge, still growing with the multiverse…

After I had my fill of appreciating the scenery, I went back down among the shelves and started looking for one of the cogwork archivists maintaining the place. Given the inscrutable cataloging of the books, actually trying to find the one you were looking for by yourself was an extremely daunting task. Much more efficient to just ask for help.

The automaton gave me directions to where the books I was looking for were, and I set off after thanking it for the help. 

“Oh, lucky! No one’s borrowed these yet.” Heck knows how many times I get told where a book is, only to go there and find out someone managed to grab it first…

Flipping through them quickly to confirm that they were the ones I wanted, I piled them into my arms and headed for the staircase. The plan was to loan them out under my name, and read them a bit while having dinner at the Biblioplex cafe downstairs before heading back to my dorm room.

“Hey, Roy.” A gruff voice greeted me, “Fancy meeting you here.”

I paused, blinking as I took in my bearded dwarf friend’s appearance. “Hofri? What a surprise, I thought you were busy with your spiritcalling project.”

“I am,” Hofri answered, “I came to look for some historical records about the era I’m researching.”

“Any figures of interest?” I inquired curiously.

“My professor suggested looking into the paladin orders, given all the recorded accomplishments about them.” 

He went on to describe how some enhanced themselves to fight off enemies beyond their strength, or wielded law magic to subdue or strike down criminals normal lawkeepers couldn’t touch. According to his Lorehold professor, there were several records of such paladin orders in the Biblioplex, so Hofri came to get references to better narrow down who to target for his spiritcalling spells.

I blinked, then glanced down at the book at the top of my pile. “Uh, I think I grabbed some of those you were looking for. Many of them were the last ones.”

“Really? Wait, why do you have it? I don’t recall you taking any of the courses related to history, unless you’re planning to transfer to Lorehold?” He squinted at me.

“Heck no, not at this point of time.” I said it more strongly than I intended to.

“No need to be so fierce about that, Roy…” Hofri stroked his beard. “So… you’re reading this for your own interest?”

“Something along the lines of the second.” I thought about things for a moment. “Say, I’ve got a suggestion.”

The dwarf shrugged. “Sure, let’s hear it.”

Later, we munched on sandwiches from the cafe as we took notes on the information recorded in the pages of the books, pooling our knowledge in cooperation. Hofri’s Lorehold expertise helped to identify the paladin orders and the areas they were based in, while I applied my Silverquill understanding to interpret the records of the deeds they were reputed for. Through this form of cross-referencing, we were able to match the accomplishments with the ones responsible.

“This will save me a lot of trouble. Thanks, Roy,” Hofri said gratefully, sipping from his cup of coffee.

“Yeah, wouldn’t be nice if you offended the spirit when you assume it did or didn’t do something while trying to persuade it to share its knowledge.” 

He snorted. “You know it. So what’s with this interest in their deeds? Don’t tell me you’re thinking of becoming a paladin.” 

I could tell from the way he said that, that he wasn’t even considering that as a possibility.

“Nah, I love studying magic too much for that. It has something to do with my-”

“Final project,” Hofri guessed. “No need to be so surprised. How long have we known each other? You’re starting early.”

“I thought it was better to. Fourth year’s workload is tough.”

“No truer words.” My fellow fourth-year agreed gruffly.

We stayed a bit longer than intended, commiserating over the intense study pacing of our courses. Before leaving, we split the pile of books between us, agreeing to meet later to exchange for the ones we didn’t have.

Slowly but gradually, my final project was taking shape.

Afterword: I think I’ve said it before, but thinking up original courses and descriptions for their class content is tough. Of the ones I mentioned in this chapter, Applied Arithmancy is the only original, but even so, trying to present the mystical and magical side of the courses listed in the sourcebook isn’t easy. I’m quite proud of the one I wrote for Advanced Lumimancy, by the way.

I’ve left a few hints about what Roy intends for his final year project previously as well, and I can say that it’s based on one of his triggered memories. Try guessing which it is.