Amy

It turned out I did have a different schedule than the original Amelia. As Bridgette had expected, I’d been transferred to all commoner classes. Not only that, but something on my schedule had caused Bridgette to visibly flinch. Even worse, I’d been unable to get her to elaborate on it. She claimed, instead, that it would only cause me undue anxiety if I found out. More than just not knowing in her opinion, apparently.

She was telling the truth, too, from what I could tell. Which was more than I could say about some of my teachers - especially the one in charge of teaching us history. She’d advised me to read the textbook to catch up on where we were in class as best I could, and had otherwise ignored me, like most of the teachers so far. Which was fine by me, considering she didn’t even seem to believe the vast majority of the political propaganda she taught…

Math was easy at least, being largely focused on fractions and percentages. Schooling I’d… mostly forgotten, but which largely felt intuitive and easy to pick back up. Etiquette was a special sort of nightmare, though, in that the teacher kept picking on me to try and show off what I knew. She didn’t seem to believe that I didn’t know anything at all, especially since I seemed so proficient in it from the outside. I walked properly, talked properly, and - according to Clara - I even knew how to eat properly. Except it was all just muscle memory and instinct to me - something that came with the body. Nothing I could actually put into words, no matter how many times the teacher called on me.

Still, every class of the day had been worth getting to, in the end, for the sake of reaching the final one on my schedule: core carving. I was practically vibrating with excitement as I walked through the doors, a full… Well, I wasn’t sure how early I was, exactly, seeing as how I lacked a timepiece, but the school bell hadn’t rung yet and the room was still largely empty of students - except for one, who my eye couldn’t help but be drawn to in the absence of all others.

Pauline. The redheaded heroine’s yellow eyes met mine as I entered, shock registering on her face for a moment before she studiously looked away. It was obvious from the grimace on her lips that she didn’t want to see me, and I must admit that the feeling was quite mutual. I didn’t want to get dragged into any more trouble with the prince, or risk any accusations of meddling with their relationship. While I did want to thank her for saving my life, something told me the best thanks I could give her would be staying far away.

To that end, I took a seat on the opposite side of the room as her. We were both still in the front row, but there was no helping that - she was a teacher’s pet, and I actually cared about this class. I wanted to know what was up with my core! With my magic!

To that end, I found myself waiting in silence as more students filed into the room. Eventually, almost every seat was taken - though the ones closest to me were still noticeably bare. From what I could tell my fellow commoners weren’t quite sure what to make of the former noble in their midst. While the nobles knew full well that I’d been ousted from their ranks, the commoners had only rumors to go off of for the most part. In theory, I was a nobody now, with no power. But who knew what games nobles played, or what revenge I might enact if they tried to take advantage of my seeming weakness? Best to leave me alone.

…At least, that’s what I assumed to be going through their minds. It wasn’t like any of them were talking to me about it.

Regardless, time passed as the other students chatted amongst themselves, while I fought with my own trembling excitement at the class about to commence. The bell, at last, rang to announce the classes start, after what felt like at least ten minute’s wait, but was probably no more than two or three at best.

The teacher still wasn’t present. The students didn’t even bother to stop talking. Not until several minutes later, at least, when the door to the room opened again and a woman dressed entirely in black stepped inside.

The class went silent, in an instant. Nobody said a word as the woman strode up to her desk, pulled back the chair and sat calmly in it. Not even when she scanned the crowd, her eyes stopping briefly on Pauline, but no one else.

“You may all activate your core projectors and privacy screens. You already know what to do at this point, so get yourself to planning. And remember - you can carve on your own time. Preferably near an adult that cares more about your well being than I do.”

There was no response from my classmates. They all simply reached into the hollow space under their desk, pulled out some sort of square device, and pressed a button atop it - after which their forms and desks began to blur, until I could no longer make anything out.

Reaching into my own desk, I found a cube of my own, and a button. When I pressed it, I felt a tingling sensation shoot through me, traveling up my fingers and straight towards my heart.

Then it fizzled out, leaving me confused. I looked about, hoping to ask someone for help, but everywhere I looked people were simply blurred out. With no other option, I reluctantly raised my hand to catch the teacher’s attention.

She didn’t even bother to glance my way. Too focused on writing in a book, with a quill.

“Um… teacher?” I called out, eventually. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Ask one of your deskmates, then,” she replied, still not looking up. “It’s simple enough.”

“I don’t have any deskmates,” I replied. “And everyone’s already got their privacy projectors or whatever up, anyway.”

A few seconds passed without response, and for a moment I thought she was planning to ignore me. Eventually, however, she put her quill down and lifted her head to glare at me. “You are Lady Amelia, are you not?”

“That’s… I’m not…”

“Not a Lady anymore, yes, but the knowledge you have should still exist, no? Use it. Unless you’re so desperate to drag me into your schemes that you’d show me your core?”

“It’s not a scheme!” I insisted. “I truly do not know how to use this device, of yours - it fizzled out when I attempted it.”

“Fizzled out?” She frowned, then sighed. “Very well. If you insist upon being a bother… Just know that I’ll have no problem reporting what I see to the king.”

“Good,” I declared, placing my finger upon the cube’s button again. Once more I felt energy traveling through me - and once more it fizzled. “Perhaps then people will begin to believe me.”

The teacher frowned, looking between me and the cube. “And you say that it ‘fizzled’? You felt the energy go through you, then?”

“I did,” I confirmed. “Do you think it might be broken?”

“It must be…” she replied, frowning. “Unless…” She turned to look at me, gray eyes drilling into mine with surprising intensity. Then she moved, snatching up my wrist and closing her hand about it like a snake catching a mouse in its jaws.

Again, I felt a spark of energy run through me, striking against something in my chest. This time it didn’t fade, though, but instead seemed to spread around whatever it had struck. Not my heart, I soon realized - not unless my heart had turned into a perfect sphere.

“Unbelievable…” she whispered. “A truly blank core… Could it be? Your story… You truly aren’t Amelia, are you?”

“I’ve been going by Amy,” I told her, trying - and failing - to extricate myself from her grasp. “Now could you please release me? Whatever you’re doing, it feels… weird.”

“Of course,” the teacher replied, giving me a wide smile. “My apologies.”

“…What’s with that smile?” I demanded, finally pulling myself free from her suddenly unresisting grasp. “You’re creeping me out.”

“Nothing, nothing… it’s just that I think we got off on the wrong foot, is all. I am Tereesa Devulchas. Professor Devulchas, if you please. The best theoretical core carver in the kingdom of Olithia.”

“The best?” I asked, frowning at her. “Then why are you teaching a class for commoners? Why not the prince?”

“Because helping the prince would be boring,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “That boy grew up with the best core carving tutors available - myself excluded, at least. He’s had his core carvings planned out for him since he was old enough to use a projector properly, most likely. What point would there be in serving him?”

“So you want to work with commoners because they didn’t have tutors helping them?” I asked.

“What? No. Don’t be stupid. I mean, yes, I suppose it would be a challenge to work around their haphazard carvings, but quite frankly I find it beneath me to do something so mundane… Besides, my specialty lies in theoretical models - things beyond the grasp of most commoners, even those working here. No, there’s only ever been one student actually worth teaching, in this class - except now there’s two, and I couldn’t be any happier for the change.”

“Two?” I asked, a sudden feeling of foreboding descending upon me. “Who’s the other one?”

“Pauline, of course - the light magic bearer with a healing expression, if you’ll believe it. They say light users make the best healers, you know - and yet it’s surprisingly rare for them to specialize in healing. Far too many focus on offense, instead. Some say it’s because it takes a gentle soul to gather healing magic - something that Pauline certainly fails to disprove at the very least… though whether she’s truly gentle, or just a push-over, I’ll leave it to you to say.”

“Me?” I asked, even as that foreboding feeling began to crystalize within my heart. “I don’t think me and Pauline will be interacting much, so-”

“Nonsense!” Professor Tereesa interjected. “As my star pupils, it’s only natural that the two of you will be sitting together, going forward - for my own convenience, that is.”

“And if I refuse?” I asked, dreading the answer already.

Tereesa smiled, again - but where before it had been almost sickly sweet, now there was something terrifyingly wicked about it. “It seems to me that you know surprisingly little about core carving… Tell me, then - do you know how to carve your core, at all?”

“Well… Not exactly… but I’m sure I could get someone to tell me.”

“I’m sure you could,” Tereesa agreed. “If you’re willing to waste your potential.”

“Waste my potential?”

“That’s right,” the teacher confirmed, with a more normal smile this time. “Your unlimited potential. Do you even realize how impossible an existence you are? A grown woman, with a perfectly intact core?”

“I… No? I mean, I guess I can see it being pretty rare, but-”

“Not rare,” Tereesa interrupted. “Impossible. Magic is too natural a part of us, too intertwined with our desires and our wants. Even babies will make spells, in their infancy - usually little harmless cantrips meant to entertain them. It takes up little real estate on the core, but it’s still there. Little breaks in the surface that must be worked around when planning out their core’s final form. But you? Your core doesn’t have the slightest blemish in it! It’s perfectly smooth. That means there’s nothing to work around - nothing that might interfere with the carving. Your core is a blank canvas, and if we carve it right we’ll be able to take advantage of every inch of it…”

“That’s… alright. So you’re saying I can fit more spells than most? Be more efficient?”

“In theory,” Tereesa confirmed. “But it goes beyond that. You could, in theory, do what has only been theorized until now. A core carving of my own creation, that’s proved impossible to implement. One that would allow you untold power.”

“Untold power?” I swallowed. My mind couldn’t help but flash back to my time in the alleyway, with those thugs. If I’d had ‘untold power’ back then, would I have been able to fight my way out of it? More than that - would it perhaps give me an edge in surviving, should the king’s court turn against me in the end?

“In theory,” Tereesa confirmed. “But in practice, it’s unproven. The carving I’ve designed is extensive, and intricate - it must be carved with precision, to the point where even the presence of a baby’s spell in the wrong spot could make the entire thing inoperable… I’ve been able to do some basic testing using unawakened beast cores, but never have I found a person whose core could possibly support it. Until now.”

“And what does this design of yours do?” I asked, unable to help the excitement that was creeping into my tone. I knew I should be cautious, but the woman was winning me over quickly with her promises.

“It would separate your core into four quadrants, three of which could be closed at any given time!”

“That’s… Why would I want that!?” I demanded, confused now.

“Because the more spells a person carves the weaker each individual spell becomes! My theory - the leading theory - is that the mana we store within our cores is inherently pressurized. That’s why it’s constantly spilling out of the cracks in our cores, filling our bodies at the cost of lowering our regeneration. When you have relatively few spells carved into your core, you regenerate quickly, and your spells pack a powerful punch - it’s why some military types and adventurers prefer to keep to only a single major spell, which they can put all their power into. Because, by contrast, the more spells you carve, the slower your regeneration gets, and the less power your individual spells can wield. The pressure within your core is essentially lessened.”

“So by sealing part of my core, I’d make whatever parts remained unsealed stronger?”

“Indeed!” Tereesa confirmed. “So you do have a brain in that head of yours - good to know.”

“Of course I do!” I replied, affronted. “It’s just that we didn’t have magic where I’m from. Or cores.”

Tereesa looked like she wanted to say something to that, but after a moment she shook her head. “If that’s the tale you want to go with, Lady… or rather Miss Amy. The point remains, that if you’re willing to work with me, I can personally promise to make you one of the most powerful women this kingdom has ever known. Perhaps the most powerful in the world! And all you have to do is follow my instructions.”

I opened my mouth to object - to say that I had no interest in being the most powerful being in the world - but… again, my mind flickered to the thugs in that alley. To the ones who’d so casually stabbed me. It wasn’t just them, either. There was also the executioner, who’d lifted his axe and almost beheaded me. The prince, who’d goaded him on. The king, who had stopped it - but for who knew how long?

Having that much power sounded troublesome to me. More trouble than I wanted, for sure. Yet at the same time, could I really afford to be as weak as I was?

“I promise to tell the king you can’t possibly be Amelia,” Tereesa added. “And it’s not as if you have to begin carving right away - I’ll need to teach you a thing or two about how to do it, for one thing, and you’ll need to make your own version of the mark I’ll be teaching you. It’s been well documented that even spells that are identical on their surface generally bear differences in their carving, based on the ones carving them, after all… Really, there’s a lot of work to do, and plenty of time for you to back out. Not that you will, I don’t think. Not once you realize the full extent of what I’m offering you.”

“And what do I have to do for it?” I asked, against my better judgement.

Tereesa smiled. “All you have to do is exactly what I tell you to do - starting with staying put for a moment, while I go fetch my other pupil. Something tells me the two of you are going to get along marvelously.”

“Marvelously,” I repeated, glancing towards the other side of the room where I knew Pauline’s blurred figure to be. “Yeah… I’m sure.”

~~~

Author's Notes

Chapter 10! A fitting milestone for the Magic Class, I think. In which we discover a little something of what's going on with Amy's magic, and get a hint of her potential... which is apparently limitless.

Will things really go so easy for her, though...? Guess you'll have to stick around and keep reading to find out! (Or you can read ahead to chapter 12 on Patreon for as little as $1~)

Also, I just wanna say thanks to my friend Sammy, for helping me brainstorm a bit for the magic system... She wasn't the only one, either. Another friend basically handed me the idea of an empty core as a fun way to do weak to strong in the first place. Honestly, I've got a lot of people to be grateful to, whether it be for listening to me ramble, or for pitching ideas themselves. And I also wanna thank all of you for reading, too~!