Mist of Shadows
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Rayne and Magic School Part 2
🕑 Added 2021-08-03 07:50:18 +0000 UTC"Can I help you find something?" Ms. Embris asked as she walked over to where the handsome young man was looking through one of the reference guides, looking a bit lost.
Rayne looked up from the stupidly large book and smiled at the voluptuous librarian dressed in a black and gold one piece swimsuit with a black cape and a witch's hat. "I don't suppose you have a book about the history of the school?"
"This isn't Hogwarts," Embris replied with amusement. "I can't see Ms. Bellafont allowing anyone to write a book about the School of Forbidden Arts or why anyone would want to. As magic schools go, it's not the most impressive or the least, it's merely a place for people to learn magic without worrying about distractions."
"Can you tell me about the town?" Rayne asked, trying to figure out where the school was actually located without admitting that he wasn't sure what was going on.
"The local village is a mix of magic users and normal people in the know so don't worry about showing off in town," she explained. "Beyond that, you'll have to poke around in your free time."
Rayne nodded. "I'll take a look when I have time."
"You should have plenty of time, things don't normally get intense until second year," Embris replied.
"That's assuming my eyeballs don't melt trying to read everything I can get my hands on," Rayne said as he glanced around the library filled with old fashioned looking books.
Embris laughed. "Don't worry, there are a couple of cheats for dealing with overly large tomes, I can even share one of them if you do me a favor."
Rayne raised his eyebrows. "What type of favor?"
"Nothing horrible, Fiore has had a book checked out for three months, I've sent her seven emails about it and haven't gotten a response yet. At this rate, I'm fairly sure she's doing it just to spite me as she could have copied the book a couple dozen times over. If you can get the book back, I'll teach you a spell that lets you instantly read the first book you touch after you cast it," Embris offered.
"Is she going to turn me into a newt?" Rayne asked warily, trying not to show how eager he was for a spell that would let him instantly read books.
"Considering she's the enchanting professor, unlikely," Embris replied with amusement. "She should be in her office, of course, every time I check, she's not there."
"I'll take a look," he said as he headed for the door.
Embris watched Rayne leave with amusement, figuring there was a slight chance the young man could get her book back without having to make a scene.
Rayne followed his map to the office next to the enchanting class and knocked on the door. He twitched slightly as the door swung open, revealing Fiore sitting behind a desk playing some type of handheld video game.
"What can I do for you?" Fiore asked without looking up from her video game.
"The librarian offered to teach me a spell if I could collect one of your overdue books," Rayne replied, figuring he might as well be honest.
"Right, right, the Codex of Nafellee," Fiore replied as she paused her game and looked at Rayne. "Which spell did she offer?"
"A spell to instantly read a book," Rayne replied as he glanced around her office, rather amused by the collection of odds and ends on the shelves.
"Huh, she must be more annoyed about the book than I thought," Fiore mused. "Now the question is, what are you going to bribe me with so that I'll give you the book?"
"Considering I don't know any spells and I'm just about flat broke, I'm not sure what I could offer considering your skill and talent," Rayne admitted.
Fiore considered the question for a few seconds. "How good are you at races?"
"Races?" Rayne asked, not sure what she was talking about.
"Yeah, I've been trying to do this stupid race for over an hour, if you can get first, I'll give you the book," Fiore offered as she held out the handheld towards him.
"Sure, let me take a look," Rayne offered as he grabbed the game and looked at it. "Oh, right, not a problem, you just need to turn on the sound," Rayne said as he turned the sound up.
"Why? It's annoying," Fiore complained.
"The music changes when someone is getting close," Rayne replied with amusement as he started the race, picking the giant purple bird.
Fiore stood up and walked around so that she could see his progress.
Rayne felt like laughing as he easily finished the race. "Done."
"In that case, there's no reason-" Fiore teased.
"I haven't saved it yet," Rayne pointed out.
"That's cold," Fiore mock complained as she walked back around her desk and opened the drawer. She picked up the thick leather book and handed it to him. "Here."
"Is there a reason you didn't just copy it?" Rayne asked as he handed the game back to the teacher.
"No, I copied it weeks ago, I just like harassing the librarian," Fiore replied with a grin.
"Either way, thanks for the book," Rayne replied.
"Thanks for the help with the race," Fiore replied as she saved her game to make sure she didn't lose her progress. "Are you thinking about studying enchanting?"
He nodded. "At least for a couple of years. I don't have everything planned out but being able to make magical items should help get around the limited number of spells per day."
"I've lost track of the number of magical items I have in storage," Fiore admitted.
"Do you have any advice for where to start?" Rayne asked, hoping for some direction.
"Imbue is an enchanter's bread and butter, it lets them create magical items for an hour, mastering the spell will let you create an item that casts a spell three times before running out of charges. It's a decent investment in time as it basically lets you cast multiple spells for the cost of a single spell," Fiore explained.
Rayne smiled. "Nice, I'll let you get back to your game, I've got a book to return."
"Thanks for the help," Fiore said as she sat down and went back to playing her game.
'There has to be a way to make permanent magical items or she wouldn't have a bunch of them lying around. Still, imbue is probably a decent start,' Rayne mused as he headed back to the library.
Embris stared as Rayne walked over with the overdue book. "How did you convince her to give you the book?"
"I helped her with the video game she was playing," Rayne said as he handed her the book in question.
"Let me get this checked in then I'll show you how to cast the absorb information spell," Embris said as she quickly checked the book in, ignoring the voice in the back of her mind that was wondering if it was the original or if Fiore had given her a 'fake' copy.
"Sure," Rayne said, eager to learn his first spell.
"Absorb information is a nice little trick that allows you to instantly read a book and remember it with perfect clarity," Embris explained as she pulled a scroll out of her pocket and unrolled it on the counter. "It's basically a logic problem, work through the diagram, internalize the way the magic flows then push your magic through the diagram in your mind, easy, right?"
'Yeah, right,' Rayne thought as he forced himself to smile. "I'll try."
"There is no try, only do," Embris said as she pulled a Mountain Dew out of her pocket.
Rayne stared at the librarian for a couple of seconds then shook his head. "That was horrible."
Embris smirked as she opened the can. "That's sort of the point, it's just a minor spell, try not to take things too seriously."
Rayne focused on the diagrams, trying to figure out how to cast a spell despite never having cast a spell before.
Embris finished her soda as Rayne flailed away trying to cast the information spell. "On second thought, let's speed things up." She pulled an eight inch wooden wand out of her pocket and handed it to Rayne then grabbed a copy of the basic spell casting theory and set it on the table. "Tap the wand on your head and will it to activate, then touch the book."
Rayne sighed in frustration then touched the wand to his forehead and blinked when he felt a static charge jump from the wand to his head. He reached out and touched the book then staggered as he suddenly 'remembered' reading the entire book cover to cover, back and forth as if he'd spent months memorizing every page. "Holy shit…" he trailed off as he realized he'd just cursed.
"Pretty much," Embris replied with amusement as she took her wand back. "Go ahead and try again."
Rayne grinned as he looked at the scroll and it actually made sense now that he had more context. He pushed that strange feeling of static through the mental forms, wiggled his fingers in just the right way and nearly fell over laughing when he realized he had the same feeling of potential as the librarian's wand had given him. "Is there a limit to how much I can absorb?"
"One book per spell, I recommend you start with your textbooks and go from there when you have extra spells," Embris suggested.
"How long until everything fades?" Rayne asked.
"It doesn't," Embris said smugly.
"You could make a living with that spell alone," Rayne said, thinking about grabbing various law books and absorbing the knowledge permanently.
Embris shrugged. "You still have to figure out how to apply it. On that note, best of luck and don't be a stranger."
"I won't," Rayne promised as he hurried over to the large dictionary sized book of magical concepts he'd been reading earlier and touched it, nearly falling over as information flooded his mind and he felt like his head was dunked in a tub of ice water.
Embris laughed, having done the same thing when she'd first figured out the spell. "Save the rest for your first couple textbooks, you're going to be using up your spells for the next couple of days."
Rayne rubbed his temples, still feeling like his head was frozen from all of the information floating around his head but ecstatic at having cast his first spell. "Thanks, you're the best!"
"I know," Embris replied smugly. "Speaking of being the best, try not to mention the information spell or at least where you got it, I'd rather not have to teach everyone, I normally reserve it for people that have done me a favor."
"I won't," Rayne agreed as he left, seeing no reason to upset her considering he was going to be a frequent visitor for the foreseeable future.
Embris smiled as Rayne hurried out, rather amused at his enthusiasm. 'He's certainly enthusiastic. I wonder if he'll burn out or become the next archmage.'
Rayne barely kept from sprinting back to his dorm, mostly because he didn't want to run into someone, trip on something the lamp posts didn't quite illuminate or look too enthusiastic though it was hard not to scream with glee. 'I'm a wizard!'
He slowed down after he got to his dorm, mostly because there were a number of unfamiliar people hanging around in the lobby including a dozen girls that were probably second or third years given they'd claimed the best couches and the pool table. On the upside, several of them were wearing skimpy pajamas that left little to the imagination, on the other hand he was starting to wonder if there was something in the water. 'Then again, maybe magic users are just perverts?'
He looked at the small group of girls that Derry was flirting with. 'I should probably be social.' He glanced towards the hallway that led to his dorm. 'Screw it, I can introduce myself later, I have magic!'
He barely managed to keep his shit eating grin off his face as he walked down the hall, feeling like the king of the world and trying to ignore the voice in the back of his head that was screaming that if something sounded too good to be true, it probably was. He used his key, opened the door and stopped in place when he saw Yelena coming out of the bathroom wearing white pajamas with strawberries and a green towel wrapped around her wet blue hair. 'So much for her lounging around naked like some of the girls.'
"Any luck with the library?" Yelena asked as she walked over to her desk.
"Yeah, I found what I was looking for," Rayne replied as he walked in and closed the door behind him.
"Cool." Yelena grabbed one of her books and climbed into her bed.
'It's going to take forever to get to sleep,' Rayne mused as he walked over and touched his Acciomancy book, instantly 'downloading' the information into his head. Thankfully it wasn't nearly as painful as downloading the stupidly large book of general information. 'I could get used to this, even if it's like sticking my head in a bucket of ice water.'
He grabbed his toothpaste and brush and walked into the bathroom, not surprised that it barely had enough room for the essentials. Thankfully the water was crystal clear which was a relief. He gave his teeth a quick scrub then cast his information spell. 'If this counts as a minor spell, the actual spells should be amazing.'
Rayne walked back out and touched his Enchanting book, downloading the entire book into his mind, rather happy with the results even if it felt like he'd just eaten ice cream way too fast. 'Two more books tonight then a day filled with spell casting, at least I've read the book.' He glanced up at his bunk then over at the clock. 'It's only eight and we don't have class until nine, I might as well try to be social.'
"I'm going to be social, I'll try not to make any noise when I come back," Rayne said, trying to be polite.
"Best of luck," Yelena said absently as she continued reading her textbook.
"Thanks," Rayne said as he left the room, heading back towards the lobby, knowing that he'd have a hell of a time sleeping if he tried.
"Rayne, free pizza," Derry called out as Rayne walked out of the hallway.
"No more than two pieces," a rather intense looking girl in a skimpy red dress said as she held up one of the boxes of pizza.
Rayne mentally weighed the sanity of grabbing food he didn't see delivered against the fact that he hadn't eaten dinner and had only had a bagel for lunch. 'Screw it, I doubt they'd resort to drugging everyone the first day, the teachers would probably object.' He walked over and grabbed the last two slices of pizza. "Thanks."
"You're welcome, we're going to be classmates for four years, we might as well start off on a good note, I'm Lissandra by the way," the girl in the red dress said.
"Rayne," Rayne offered. "Where did Derry go?"
"Some of the second year girls hauled him off," a girl with glasses offered as she patted the empty seat next to her. "I'm Miko by the way."
"Nice to meet you." He sat down next to Miko and worked on eating his pizza as he listened to the discussion about classes, trying to figure out the best way to get the most out of his next four years.
"Summoning is the way to go," Miko said cheerfully. "Between tentacle demons and fictional characters, I shouldn't have a problem keeping any boyfriends happy."
Lissandra shook her head. "I doubt most of them would be interested in tentacle monsters but the fictional characters should be a hit."
"What about you?" Rayne asked, making a mental note that at least one other person thought summoning fictional characters was useful.
"Nothing like destruction on a grand scale to get the juices flowing," Lissandra said cheerfully.
'Great, she's insane,' he glanced down at his half-eaten piece of pizza then took another bite, figuring there was no point worrying about it now. He was rather happy to find out that no one had more than a couple of spells which made him feel better about his chances.
0o0o0
Rayne wasn't particularly amused to be up at seven so he could get his shower and grab breakfast from the pizza place a block from campus so that he could be back in class at nine, nor was he particularly amused that the Ms Yumi wasted the first ten minutes of class talking about summoning tentacles. It would have been one thing if she'd given a practical demonstration but she was saving her magic for her more advanced classes or at least that was what she'd claimed.
Thankfully the rest of the class was more interesting as she talked about raising undead and summoning demons and monster girls as well as items, fictional characters and elementals before finishing up the lecture with a lesson on banishing unwanted summons. He was a little irked to find out that the actual spells, unlike minor spells, were large projects and not something that could be learned in a couple of hours of waving a wand around.
"Summon item?" Yelena asked as they left the classroom.
"It would give us plenty of material for enchanting," Rayne agreed, already planning on ways to make a decent living by selling antiques or expensive jewelry.
"Assuming you pick up the Permanency spell," Yelena replied as they walked down the hallway with the rest of the students.
"No reason not to," Rayne replied. "I'll need it for Imbue."
"Point," Yelena agreed, not seeing a point in making magical items that would stop working in a day.
"I'm looking forward to summoning tentacles," Jennifer said with a grin that made Amelia shake her head.
Rayne glanced at his fellow student. "Everyone needs a hobby."
"I'll probably pick up Summon Demon," Amelia mused.
"Demons?" Annika asked warily.
"My last name is Faust, it's tradition," Amelia replied, hiding her smirk with her hand.
"That doesn't help," Derry said as he studied Amelia warily, marking her off his list of girls to seriously flirt with.
"It wasn't supposed to," Amelia replied as she walked into the Malumancy classroom.
Rayne mentally reviewed what he knew of Malumancy from the book he'd absorbed when he got back from socializing. 'Curses and protection from curses or at least Hex Proof which is probably the most important spell if I don't want everyone screwing with me.'
Bronwyn looked over the students as they walked into the classroom. "Sit down, we have a lot to cover today. In case you didn't remember, my name is Bronwyn Black, you may call me Professor Black or Bronwyn, I don't care. If you get too annoying, you find yourself wandering around the New York subways with a sign that says 'Fuck me, 5 cents!' and probably a lot of stains on your outfit, don't annoy me."
"Isn't that legal?" Maia asked, sounding uncomfortable.
"Generally speaking, claiming that magic exists goes poorly in a court of law. Which isn't to say you should toss around hexes without any care for the consequences but people generally ignore shit they don't understand, just look at Woodstock, a couple of orgy spells to get the ball rolling and it changed a generation."
"Isn't it immoral to curse people?" Annika asked.
"What does morality have to do with anything? I teach curses, not morality, if you want morality watch Sesame Street," Bronwyn replied sarcastically. "If you want to learn to curse your enemies until they rip out their eyes or drive ice picks into their ears to stop the screaming, you're in the right place. Of course, some of you will only be here long enough to learn to defend yourself from your fellow magic users, but that's fine."
'Note to self, leave your morals at the door or at least don't complain,' Rayne mused as the teacher grabbed a remote from her desk and pushed the button, turning on the projector mounted on the back wall.
"Rather than waste spells by showing you the various effects of curses in person, I'll be showing videos taken from previous students that annoyed me." Bronwyn smiled as several of her students went a bit pale as the opening clip showed a guy being randomly attacked by a group of nuns. "The improved version of Hex will result in even the best of people attacking the target in interesting and horrible ways."
"What did he do?" Victoria demanded, offended by the vicious attack on the clip as a group of girl scouts joined in by kicking him in the nuts.
"He stole my parking spot," Bronwyn replied as she skipped to the next clip. "This clip shows the use of the advanced form of Hex Proof, the ability to reflect curses on the caster."
Rayne twitched as he watched a guy cast a spell on a man in a business suit and spontaneously combust. "What the fuck?"
Bronwyn laughed. "He would have been fine if he hadn't been trying to set the Lawyer on fire, I sell defensive charms to a number of Lawyers in the area, it's rather profitable."
'Yeah, it's like being in a much darker Hogwarts,' Rayne mused as he tried not to look directly at the burning corpse, having to work to keep his stomach under control.
"This is why magic users normally toss fireballs rather than going for direct effects. Hex Proof only works on direct effects like curses or mind reading or any of the rest of the nasty spells that we're happily teaching you," Bronwyn explained cheerfully as she skipped to the next clip. "This next one is my favorite, it lets you infect people with magical parasites that increase and feed on arousal. Your target will likely go insane before they die as the parasites burst out of them if they aren't removed."
"How is that useful?" Mei asked, feeling more than a little sick as she watched the girls on the screen mindlessly fucking like demented rabbits. 'No seduction or skill.'
Bronwyn shrugged. "The improved version lets you create versions that bring people back to life or turn them into werewolves or lets you create a hive mind of infected people."
'Potentially useful but I can hire a specialist if I ever lose my fucking mind,' Rayne mused as the teacher flipped to the next clip showing what looked like a ghost possessing a girl who then proceeded to grab a digital camera and take a bunch of pictures of 'herself' in compromising positions. 'Yeah, join the dark side, we kick puppies and have cookies, fuck that.'
Sitting through through the rest of the lecture on spells to cause nightmares, enslave people, drain their souls for youth or corrupt them via sex didn't interest him in the slightest. The only other spell that looked useful was the Dark Domain spell which merely prevented people from entering the area you claimed and the improved version which let you customize the area like a demon with a personal domain which was pretty cool and surprisingly moral considering the rest of the spells. He made a mental note to look the spell up in the library to see if it had any side effects because it looked like something to work on after he learned how to cast Hex Proof.
Rayne was quite happy to grab a copy of the pamphlet with the schematics for Hex Proof and leave when the bell rang, wanting to get as far from the teacher without offending her as possible as she seemed more than a little vindictive.
Derry grinned as he caught up to Rayne. "Heading to the cafeteria for lunch?"
"Right, food," Rayne muttered as he pulled his thoughts away from the insane teacher and the video the teacher seemed proud of.
"Is that a yes?" Derry asked with amusement.
"I could eat," Rayne replied, not feeling like eating after the video but wanting to stretch his remaining cash as far as he could and the food was free as long as you were a student which was nice.
"Good," Derry replied. "How long do you think it will take to master Hex Proof?"
"No idea," Rayne replied, thinking about the collection of curses they'd seen and knowing there were probably dozens or hundreds more floating around that had worse effects, "but I'll sleep better once I've mastered the ability."
"Same," Derry admitted.
