"It was a big big world, but we thought we were bigger
Pushing each other to the limits, we were learning quicker" ~ Lukas Graham

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 REECE took down notes as the curly haired woman continued her lecture. The class was quiet, with only the scribbling sounds of the movement of quills disturbing the atmosphere. It was their last class of the day, and even though it was rather boring and quiet, everyone's interest was piked. It was a crucial subject; Equations of Thaumaturgy. It was another step to the class they had two days ago on the amelioration of Thaumaturgy. While Dariad's class focused on how to use the internal energy within oneself to the fullest, this class focused on drawing the energy from the atmosphere using weird combinations of numbers, strange symbols and letters called Equations. The basic knowledge was drawn from the Grey era during the time of "King Alaroc" (who always finds a way to appear in every important moments in history, in fact Reece thought every thing important that happened to Egrimorth was drawn from the Grey Era, with Alaroc pioneering it all.) 

Today's lesson was mostly about the history behind the equations which Reece found very interesting. The equations were first found on an incomplete scroll they called the Helix Log. It was said to have been written by a mad elf who took interest in studying Thaumaturgy. The said equations were noticed to bare the ability to draw energy from nature, allowing them to use energies that didn't come from their own reservoir. Later on series of equations started to surface, and by the time King Alaroc conquered half the kingdom that made up Egrimorth now, series of scrolls and equations had been uncovered in different cities and different areas of land. No one knows exactly where they came from, but people believed the Helix Log found in the hand of the unnamed mad elf was the first and original, and the others were just fabrications of it's other parts.

Reece flicked his quill as Mistress Ceacilea  paused for a while to allow others who were slow to catch up with the class. Reece used the moment to ponder upon what he'd just written down. He wondered why thaumaturges are not all powerful with the equations. If he could possess endless supply of the energy well in him, he could pierce into people's emotions easily, barriers or not. He knew there was a catch, if only Lorna didn't go on a mission, she would have probably taught him all about this beforehand. Even if she hadn't, he would have learnt about the barrier Dariad put up. He exhaled angrily, almost cursing his guardian in the process. Erous was an idiot when it comes to stuffs like this, he didn't know how to teach them since he claimed to have been taught in a completely unorthodox way.

The teacher continued, telling them about how the kingdom of Egrimorth got to possess a very high amount of the equations and those who'd invented said equations. She literally drove completely off topic, talking about the history of the inventors. Reece groaned quietly, almost raising his hands up to protest the fact that knowing the background story of some folks were unnecessary to the current topic. But he didn't, instead, he kept on taking notes. After a while, the mistress removed her monocle and neatly placed it on the table beside a flower box. She appeared slightly younger than she was with the gold rimmed glass. Her brunette hair had strands of white hair appearing in between them and her face had started to wrinkle a bit. Even so, she still appeared very beautiful. She walked forward elegantly, facing the class with furrowed brows.

"However," she said in a very grim voice. "There is a law that guides this equation. I will demonstrate it to you." she pulled up her black long sleeved cloth to reveal series of equations tattooed on her arm."But before that, write this down." she closed her eyes. "The Universe is made up of a constant amount of components whereby nothing new is created and nothing is completely erased, hence, whatever is taking from the universe is always given back, in one form or the other," she paused and then made a final statement. "This is the Law of Constant Components." she concluded and held up the flower box on the table.

Reece took down the law, as his mind raced around the statement, trying to decipher it, but his attention was drawn as Miss Caecilia's tattooed arm began to glow, and after a while, specks of dust like particles began to form towards her hand in a linear shape extending more than a arms length from her hand. After a while the dust glowed increasingly and everyone instinctively shut their eyes, by the time their eyes opened, a wooden brown staff as long as four feet was in the hands of their teacher. The students clapped as their teacher twisted her staff twice in the air before striking it to the ground. Reece made a mental note of her abilities, she could create weapons from thin air. When the applause died down she continued. "I only used half of the energy required to perform this task, but it comes at a price." she then pointed to the flowers inside the flower box. They had all dried up.

All the class including Reece, gasped. "The equations help draw energy from the universe, but to every energy taken, something alive replenishes it. That is why it is a cardinal rule never to try using the equations without supervision. When you advance, more rules will be given to guide you. But remember the equations are not to be trifled with."

She exhaled and then signaled the end of the class. The students immediately began to pack their books. Reece rolled up two scrolls and arranged two of his hard covered books slipping them into the space in his desk locker. He locked it up and stretched, getting ready to go home when Patelon's smiling face zoomed directly in front of him. He knew that look, the mischief look.

"No!" he said before Patelon could finish inhaling.

"You won't even let me speak," his brown eyed friend complained.

"I am not interested in trying to get Miss Caece to open up her arm so we can draw up some runic equations!" he rolled his eyes, clicking his tongue audible enough to send a clear message to his friend.

"Why not?"

"Cause she just said not to."

Patelon grimaced, biting his lower lip in frustration. "When as that ever stopped us," he pointed out. "Remember the wand constituents we got?"

"Yeah, that was risky, but the risk only involved getting ourselves hurt. I don't know why, but I will find it relaxing if you lost two or three limbs and your tongue too," he scoffed. "But, look at what she did with that... that rune. It... It took practice, Pat," he exhaled. "How did she draw energy from just the flowers? If we were to try it and we ended the life of an innocent. I don't know about you but I can't possibly imagine it."

Patelon's face lit up in realization, he made a kitten face, and then flustered. "Jeez, you really do know how to suck the fun out of something." he tried saying it nonchalantly, but Reece could sense his fear. 

They didn't say anything anymore after that, they got up, and was about to exit the classroom when their classmates who'd already left started flooding back in.

"Get back to your seats!" Shaliah said in the most graceful tone. They all complied, causing a little ruckus while they tried to find their appropriate seat.

Just as they were done sitting, a senior with whom they were all familiar with walked in smiling, her black hair hung across her shoulders in series of tiny braids with star shaped beads attached to their tips. She had a slightly plump body, and a fair skin that was clad in a shirt and a flowing skirt. She turned to face the class, her smile spreading further. Reece almost smiled along with her while Patelon on the other hand was grinning like he'd been caught up in a mind enslavement spell. Beatrix Deguild had that effect on people, her gracefulness was intoxicating.

"Hi ," she clasped her hand against each other folding them tightly. "I am really happy to see the lovely faces of my young neophytes again," she stepped forward, her high heeled shoe clicking ground as the class chorused a reply.

Neophyte was the lowest rank a thaumaturge could possess. There were at least six other ranks and Reece only knew two out of those. Acolyte, the immediate rank above theirs and Sage, which was his guardian's rank along with six other thaumaturges. They called them the seven sages.

"I have been your class guide since your first year and today I am happy to say I will be handing that position over to one of you." she announced and the whole classed murmured. "Since I will be graduating this year, I can't keep being your guide. I have a few words for you today before I give you a chance to choose among the three candidates I selected." she said.

Reece made a mental note to urge the class to buy her a gift. He wasn't that outspoken and barely speaks with the rest of his class, but once he let's Shaliah know, he can be rest assured the whole class will know about it.

Beatrix continued her speech. "Your first two years was all about introducing you to the world of Thaumaturgy, familiarizing you with your own abilities. That is coming to a change." her ever present smile disappeared for a moment only to be replaced with a stern expression. "Like King Alaroc used to say. There are three stages of humanity. The stage of ignorance, the stage of choices and the stage of consequences. You have left the first stage, and you are in your second stage. You will be faced with a whole lot of adversities, a whole lot of change, even as a human this stage of growth will be difficult, as a thaumaturge, I am afraid it is no child's play. You have to be strong, mentally and physically. she paused for a moment. "As thaumaturges, we are the most important resource to our kingdom, and we can also be the deadliest force against it. I urge you all to always choose the right path, believe in yourself and always remember where you are coming from, as it will be a big influence in your most dire moments. I wish you the best of luck." she concluded, exhaling as her silence was met with a round of applause.

Reece felt the speech was somewhat sudden and didn't have the flow it had with the elders, which meant she must have prepared and memorised it. Her emotions the whole time was laced with a taint of fear that he didn't need to extend his well of energy to sense it. She smiled bowing a bit while lifting her long flowing skirt.

"Now to elect your new class guide." she continued, letting a hidden blue cardboard fall from underneath her black long sleeved blouse into her palm."I have selected three candidates with the best leadership skills. They were selected from the various tasks you have been given from your first two years. We chose those who had the best coordination and leaderships skill." she held up the blue cardboard and started calling the names of the candidates. "Andrea Marshkova, Reece White, and Shaliah Narroweye."

Reece shot up from his seat at the mention of his name, he was still a bit surprised at how he had shown enough skill to be nominated as a leader. While he was still standing there confused, his best friend, the idiot of the century screamed. "Vote Reece White and enjoy an homework free tenure!" the whole class burst into laughter as he flicked Patelon's forehead angrily.

The other two candidates stood up. Shaliah, the nature thaumaturge with long flowing brown hairs, brown eyes and a fair skin colour grinned while on her foot. The other girl, Andrea Marshkova with black hairs, grey; almost white eyes and a light skin held a stern face. She had the ability to divine the future and also alter time to a certain extent. She was considered the one with the most potential in their class. Reece heard rumors that  she had four expert thaumaturges tutoring her due to her rare ability. He also heard that a portion of her blood was taken to the Hallows every three months. Of course all these were rumors, he had always wondered if they had some truth to them. Though due to one reason or the other Patelon considered her pompous and arrogant. Reece on the other hand didn't really care, he'd never spoken to her before and nor has she. They always kept a respected distance from each other.

After they were on their feet, Beatrix ordered the class to tear out a piece of parchment and write out the name of the person they wanted as their class guide. Reece naturally wrote Shaliah. After the parchments were submitted. Beatrix checked it out and smiled. After a few seconds she announced Shaliah has their class guide. Saying the whole class except herself voted for her. Reece chuckled and almost said obviously. 

"Well, thanks for choosing me guys. Though I should warn you all. I am a tyrant," Shaliah joked, and the whole class chuckled.

Beatrix made a brief speech and bade the class farewell. Reece quickly seized the opportunity to inform Shaliah about the gift he thought they should get for her. Their newly appointed class guide almost kissed Reece at the idea. She acted like Reece just discovered a ton of gold or he just discovered a page of the Helix log. She told him she would think about what to get and inform him tomorrow. After a brief chat which ended in his best friend stuttering, Reece and Patelon then exited the classroom.

They had only walked past the corridor when they ran into Dariad and Reece's guardian. Erous was grinning mischievously at Reece while Dariad was fiddling with a pocket watch while trying to get himself together.

"I am happy to inform you that Alaina has agreed to send you two out on your first errand. As such, you need to go and see the Queen at exactly the seventeenth hour today." Dariad smiled.

Reece's heart slammed against his chest while Patelon's eyes bulged in anticipation. The scramble of emotions Reece sensed from him made him go into a forced meditation state to keep himself from being swallowed up by his sea of jumble emotions. 

"Wait, did you say the seventeenth hour?" Patelon suddenly asked.

"Yes!" Dariad smiled.

"it's already half past the sixteen hours!" he suddenly tensed up, pointing to the wall clock at the end of the hall.

Erous glanced at Dariad with an I told you so
look while the latter was staring at his pocket watch helplessly. "I can't believe I missed three classes because of this piece of ..." whatever he wanted to say, he stopped it and just wrapped the silver chain around his wrist and clasped it shut. He adjusted his monocle and turned to the students. "We leave now!" he commanded.

Reece and Patelon walked behind the two thaumaturges and started to head towards the palace. A part of Reece was excited, it was the first time he was going to the palace, and he will also get to meet the Queen. Thaumaturges are really important to the kingdom, if a neophyte like him could get an audience with the ruler of the kingdom because of a silly mission. He was piked.  For that second, he forgot about finding his sister or awakening his memory, he just wanted to meet Queen Minerva the first of Egrimorth!