“Pauline, dear!” my teacher’s voice called out, the very moment I finished adjusting a line on my core projection. Nevermind that I was supposed to have total privacy thanks to the school’s magic tool… I suppose I should have just been glad that my eccentric teacher had given me time to finish what I was doing before nearly scaring me out of my wits with her sudden introduction.
“Yes, Professor Devulchas?” I asked, addressing not my teacher, but rather the small stone golem that had appeared on my desk. It was one of the professor’s many spells, and I knew from experience that she could hear through the thing as easily as she could speak through it.
“I’d like you to join me and Amy, if you would? I’m taking her as a pupil, and having you on opposite sides of the room is inconvenient for joint lessons.”
“Joint lessons?” I asked, trying not to let my dismay show. Not that I was upset about having another pupil join me, of course - though I did have to wonder who could have possibly gotten my teacher’s attention so suddenly - but because moving meant abandoning my work… for all the wonders the core projectors offered, they didn’t have a way to save or transfer the work you did upon them. Moving meant I’d have to start all over again! Not to mention the fact that going to the other side of the room would put me closer to… to…
“…Did you say Amy, Professor?” I asked, unable to keep the disbelief from my voice.
“Yes, it’s rather derivative, I know - hardly fitting for someone who claims she wants to distance herself from the body’s original owner - but there you have it. I trust that won’t be a problem?"
“N-no, Professor,” I replied, trying my best to put on the good girl face I always showed the world. I was lucky to have so much of Professor Devulchas’ attention as it was, and I wasn’t going to risk losing it just because of a little upset.
…Though sitting next to the woman who’d tried to kill me so recently did make me more than a ‘little upset’ when you came right down to it…
“You needn’t worry, dear,” Professor Devulchas said, her voice taking an almost motherly tone. “I’ve confirmed with my own eyes that this is not the same Lady Amelia who tormented you. In fact, as it stands, she’s so defenseless even you could take her…”
“Really?” I asked, frowning. That was hard to believe, considering the nature of my mana. It was so aligned with healing, that even my attempts at attack spells generally left people better off than it found them. Though that didn’t mean they couldn’t cause a fair bit of pain - and without leaving any evidence of a wound behind, at that.
“I know what you’re thinking, dear, but she really is quite defenseless. Like a newborn babe, almost. Except better, because nobody will get all upset at me for experimenting with her!”
“R-right,” I replied, reluctantly shutting down my core projection, and the associated privacy field. “I’ll be right over, then.”
There wasn’t much for me to gather before heading over. A few bits of parchment with practice runes drawn on them and my quill, mostly. Which meant I didn’t have much of an excuse to linger, unfortunately. I did walk a bit slower than need be, though, in the hopes of getting a better look at Lady… Amy?
It was hard to imagine Amelia letting anyone call her Amy. Though if she’d managed to win Professor Devulchas over to her side… Well, either she was even more cunning than Prince Jethroo believed, or she really was a different person. There were very few ways to sway the professor’s opinion of you, after all. You were either interesting to her, or you weren’t - and to my understanding, she’d never once shown an interest in Amelia before this…
Still, no matter what logic and reason told me, it was hard to overcome the pounding in my heart as I moved closer to the pair. Amelia wasn’t even facing me, at the moment, focused entirely on the professor as she spoke, but I knew the back of her head almost as well as the front. I’d watched her storm off after fruitless conversations with me more than once, after all.
She looked the same as always, from the rear, with her long black hair and her pale and slender form. I had to wonder if the girl had spent an entire day in the sun in her life, looking like that - compared to me, someone all tanned and muscled from a past of farmwork, she really did look like the perfect image of a frail Lady. We couldn’t be more far apart.
When I moved around to see her face, though, I got a little surprise - an expression I’d never seen Lady Amelia make before. Her brow was furrowed, and her lips were pursed, and it looked like her brain was about a step away from overheating.
“So, you see, from that we can conclude that the magic within us is somehow pressurized. I personally theorize that this implies a font of sorts within the core, an origin for the magic within us. Which of course brings us to the question of where magic truly comes from. Now, some would tell you that-”
“Professor?” I called out, trying not to giggle at just how overwhelmed Lady… No, Miss Amy was. It was an expression I couldn’t imagine Amelia making. She never let herself seem anything but fully in control of a situation. Though I think that a big part of what annoyed her about me was that I refused to be controlled completely… “I’m here to help Miss Amy with her core planning?”
“Oh, it’s much more than core planning, my dear,” Professor Devulchas told me. “This girl needs a complete primer - instructions from scratch. That means teaching her how to get in touch with her unconscious mind, so that she can personalize symbols. Not to mention the actual etching process - would you believe she knows none of it? Claims there’s no such thing as magic and cores where she’s from. Nonsense, I know, but the state of her core… why, I’m almost tempted to believe her…”
“You do realize I can hear everything you’re saying, right?” Amy asked, with a… pout? Was that a pout on her lips? I’d never seen Lady Amelia pout before. Though it was gone as soon as she glanced at me, replaced by the emotionless mask I was more used to seeing on that face. It was such a familiar sight that I almost stepped back, wondering if I’d been mistaken - if this was a trick of Lady Amelia’s after all… at least until she opened her mouth.
“You ah… Pauline, I’m… Well, that is to say… ah…. Thank you? For the help. With the healing. And the… the… Well, whatever this is, I suppose?”
“The core planning?” I asked, a small smile on my face. Nervous Amelia… Amy… was kind of cute? Not terrifyingly hot like Lady Amelia, despite having the exact same looks, but more… like a nervous little field mouse?”
“Yes, yes,” Professor Devulchas interrupted, waving her hand in a dismissive motion. “Flirt on your own time, you two. For now, I want you to focus on this!”
“I, we weren’t-” Amy tried to protest, but the professor ignored her completely, instead turning towards her desk. A moment later I heard the sound of a drawer opening, quickly followed by the sight of three stone balls flowing through the air towards us. Not a surprising sight, by most accounts - especially not coming from someone with an affinity for stone, like Professor Devulchas - and yet from the look on Amy’s face, you’d think she was witnessing one of the greatest wonders our world had to offer. Which… maybe she was, if she really was from a place without magic? Either way, it was quickly hidden behind that emotionless mask of hers, as if she were afraid her excitement might be spotted.
In fact, judging by the glance she gave me, that might have actually been the case… I wondered if she knew how close that expression brought her to the original Amelia? It was honestly pretty hard for me not to flinch back from it… but I did my best to give her a polite smile and a moment later the mask seemed to melt away, leaving behind a slightly nervous but more or less alright expression.
“This,” the teacher began, as one of the stone orbs landed in her hand, “is module one - which is to say the first of three variants I’ve designed for my self-sealing core theory. It’s rather simple, as you can see - four lines to make four quadrants, with little ‘x’s connected to each corner. That’s my way of signifying that they can each close, but you’ll have to let your unconscious mind take over if you want to draw what’s right for you. Regardless, the result of this one would be to allow you to shutter and reopen individual quadrants as needed. It's simple, but easy to work with so long as you're careful to track which spell is within each quadrant.”
“So that's the one you're recommending?” Amy asked.
“Not so quick! As I said, there's three variants. The next one…” she glanced at the ball, sending it floating back into the air so that another could settle in her palm. “See how it has the same quadrant structure, but without the ‘x’s? That's because, instead, you have these branches and circles,” she said, gesturing to the stone again. True to her world, each of the quadrants had multiple branches stretching from their walls, each ending in a circle.
“This one allows further control. Rather than quadrants, you can choose to turn individual spells on and off. Unfortunately, it leaves you with only a limited number of slots, and the spells you can cast are limited by the circles - though, in theory, you can make a spell first and then connect it to the structure, allowing for more adaptability.”
I watched the ball float off like the last one had, followed quickly by the final orb taking its place. This one had quadrants, like the others, as well as a circle that touched all four sides, leaving little pockets of free space behind.
“This one is a little different,” Professor Devulchas told us. “Like the second, you get a limited number of slots - only four, to be precise. One for each quadrant.”
“That seems rather low,” Amy pointed out, frowning.
I didn’t say anything, despite honestly wanting to agree with her. Knowing the professor, there was a bit more to it than that.
“It does,” Professor Devulchas confirmed. “But the difference is that those four spells can be big - huge, even, if that’s what you desire. As much power and complexity as you want to pack into it, almost. Though, if it was just that, there’d be no difference between it and the first. The big seller is the little pockets outside the circles - they should allow you to create what I’m referring to as sub spells. A minimum of four, but perhaps more if you’re careful. Every spell you carve in them will allow you to modify your main spell, customizing it as you desire. So if your main spell was to summon a cyclone, or some such, you could use subspells to better control the wind speed, temperature, or even create blades of wind hidden within its structure!”
“So, only four spells, but they’d be more versatile than average?” Amy asked, frowning.
“Exactly!” Professor Devulchas confirmed. “And considering your affinity is shadow - assuming that is still your affinity… Well, I imagine you could do all sorts of things. Why, I’ve seen shadow used in a myriad of ways - illusions, storage… Why, one person I read about even went so far as to manifest some form of shadowy limbs! Though accounts are unfortunately rather scarce on that one.”
“I don’t really know what it is,” Amy admitted. “But I kept her - I mean, that is to say, I have… uh… reason to suspect that things didn’t change that much.”
“Is that so?” Professor Devulchas asked, arching an eyebrow. After a moment, though, she shook her head, seemingly ready to let it go. “Well, as you will. You are allowed your secrets, I suppose.”
I was still pretty curious, but… I knew better than to pry.
Amy let out a sigh of relief, for her part, before glancing between the professor and me.
“So… when do we start?”
~~~
Author's Notes
Another exposition chapter - though I tried to make it a bit more exciting than it might otherwise be by shifting to Pauline's PoV. I hope that kept things fresh and interesting, even for those who aren't as interested in the magic system?
If you're interested in seeing where this is headed you can read two chapters ahead on Patreon for as little as $1~! You'll also get to read two chapters ahead on a bunch of my other works, including Naughty Magic, Double Trouble, and Hatching a Heroine.
Speaking of, my theoretical update priority list is as follows - Next up is Hatching a Heroine, followed by probably more MOV, and then maybe I finally give My Oni Love a revisit? After that there will probably be more MOV, and then... either a one-shot, or more of the Ranma fanfic. (I've actually written up to part 9 of that one, but I'm still waiting for the commissioner's seal of approval before releasing it)
Anyway, hope to see you soon!