A World Of Decree: And The Seven Laws

The silence in the library demanded was always somehow interrupted. Whether it was students turning pages of old, ancient books, small bouts of whispers, or even doors opening and closing, the silence was never still. However, it wasn't distracting either.

Faibel found himself mindlessly checking the C section at least a dozen times, never being able to find what he's looking for.

He walked back to the entrance of the library, standing tall impatiently as he waited for the librarian to come back from her office. After a few moments, a short, old lady appeared from a brown door behind the counter. She wore clothes that seemed way too large for her, blending in with every wrinkle on her face.

Her smile seemed friendly, "What can I do you for dear?" she said in a quiet voice.

"Would you happen to know about any books that contain information about curses?"

Her face went still, followed by a swallow of fear and a concerned look. "Dear, we don't teach things like that. Curses are forbidden at Princewood." She leaned in a little closer, "But if you truly are curious… The Grandmaster might be able to help."

"Hmm," Faibel adjusted his glasses, looking unamused but thankful. "Thank you." He walked off, unsure of what to do.

It was currently 10am on a thursday morning; a sunny, but cold day. 10am was a pretty important time of the day. It was the time where most classes would begin, and the day truly started.

Elysia Gradheart stepped into her classroom, excited to see everyone on time. She dropped a small briefcase on her wooden desk, opening it to take out a few pieces of paper. She looked around the classroom, taking attendance like she usually would.

Laena, Paris, Atlas, and Leo were all sitting together in the center of the room. All the desks were singled out, but they still managed to find seats open next to each other. Besides, the desks were attached to the chairs, leaving them little room for flexibility.

Trey and a friend of his sat right behind Atlas, ready to disturb him as much as possible without getting caught. "Psss! Fartpiss!" Trey threw a crumpled piece against Atlas' back.

Atlas turned around annoyingly, seeing Trey and his friend laughing to themselves. He picked up the piece of paper, straightening it out to see a horrible drawing of a person, However, above the drawing Trey wrote 'Osiris' in bold letters, sending a chill down Atlas' spine.

"Afraid he might get ya!" Trey called out, only receiving an angered face in return.

"Mr. Bright?" Professor Gradheart repeated herself.

"Yes? Oh, Here. Sorry Professor." Atlas was still annoyed.

Once attendance was finished, Professor Gradheart began today's lecture on common spells and calls to action when in need of health related emergencies.

"Has anyone here ever performed a spell that healed or assisted another person when in need?" She asked politely, scanning the room for raised hands or nods she wasn't expecting.

Laena didn't want to, but raised her hand alongside another boy in the class. The boy sat tall in the front row, had a head full of brown curly hair, splattered with a dozen freckles on each cheek. He seemed confident, almost like he had no doubts he had the highest power level in the class.

"Excellent!" Professor Gradheart said excitedly. She wasn't expecting anyone to truly reveal themselves. "And what spell might that be... " She paused for a moment while trying to decide on who to call on first. "Mr. Stranton?"

The boy rose from his seat like a councilman at a conference, "I performed the spell 'Physical Enhancement' during a Guild Battle earlier in the year." A confident smirk appeared on his face, "The spell granted my ally a boost in all physical parameters in performance for 30 minutes. A rough estimate of around 500 power level points." He sat back down.

Professor Gradheart seemed intrigued, especially since this was just a second year student. She was aware that that kind of spell was quite common around the seniors, but still impressive nevertheless.

"And Ms. Emarin?"

Laena rose from her seat nervously, gazing at the class waiting for her to speak. She knew she couldn't say when she used the spell, so she avoided that part of her answer. "I, uhm, used the spell 'Healing Light' on an injured friend." She looked at Paris, noticing a shy smile in response, giving her more confidence while standing.

Professor Gradheart looked shocked, frozen as if she couldn't believe what she just heard. However, keeping her professionalism in place, she snapped out of it faster than anyone could even notice.

"Healing Light you say? I am truly surprised a second year student even knows of such a spell." She looked slightly confused for a moment. Healing Light was a spell some of the medical department staff couldn't even complete training for. It was a very simple healing spell, but took a lot of practice and dedication to learn.

Laena sat back down as she noticed the boy from before her glance at her angrily. His confidence was fully replaced by a look of hatred and cruelty.

Professor Gradheart didn't initially care too much about the students' acquisition of spells, but this time she was particularly curious. "Ms. Emarin, how did you come to learn such a spell? If you don't wish to tell-"

"My father." Laena cut her off.

The professor smiled, "Very well. This brings me to today's lecture." She got up from her desk, grabbed a small white chalk, and prepared to give her lecture.

During the lecture, she explained how support magic can be just as useful as magic used for combat. Support magic falls into three categories: Restoration, Enhancement and Rejuvenation (RER).

Restoration is used to physically heal wounds or restore partially lost bodily fluids or properties. Depending on how severe the wounds are, the spell cast will be more advanced and require a much greater magic depletion in the caster. For example, the spell Healing Light is a common spell used to fully restore small wounds or one large laceration to the skin. If the injured victim has multiple large wounds, the spell will only heal them partially.

Enhancement type magic is the most common type of support magic used in combat and everyday life. It focuses on improving physical or mental abilities for a certain duration of time on a given target or targets. Spells can vary in improvements in strength, defense, focus, alertness, memorization, magical capacity, and so on. Most Enhancement spells will raise the target power level by a given amount of points for their alerted time frame, making teamwork crucial in certain scenarios. The average amount of power level points a common spell raises varies between 250-500. More advanced and rare spells will impact it more.

Rejuvenation is almost never achieved by average magic users. It is by far the most advanced form of support magic and could take a lifetime to master. There are only a few spells known to ever be casted and most have resulted in death from the caster performing the spell. Rejuvenation spells have the ability of altering someone's age, bringing death back to life, and transferring souls into different bodies. Only one student has ever been recorded to successfully perform a Rejuvenation spell at Princewood; his name was Theodore Selvis, the current Grandmaster of the School.

"Can anyone tell me the difference between a Unity Patch and a Clearing Remedy?" Professor Gradheart spoke as if not expecting an answer.

"Simple really." Bennet Stranton raised his voice as if trying to regain his spot as line leader in a preschool classroom. "A Unity Patch is the most effective way to heal wounds without the use of magic, crafted by mixing together a drop of fresh blood, clay, candle wax, Angelheir, and citrus clover. All swirled together over dark flames."

"A Clearing Remedy acts the same way, healing internal damage through a liquified-"

"Yes." Professor Gradheart stopped him before he got carried away. "Well Done, Mr. Stranton."

The rest of the lecture involved the students attempting to create Unity Patches of their own, with only a few succeeding in the end.

After class was over, Atlas, Leo and Faibel decided to head to the Plaza for a quick afternoon snack before their next class. Their options were not limited, but they settled on buttered brown bread, a glass of milk, and a small platter of cheese to share.

"You guys have anymore classes for the day?" Leo asked as he placed a cube of cheese in his mouth, melting it with his breath.

"Just one for me. Got a class with Zelle." Atlas said.

"No. I have much more important matters to attend to." Faibel looked concerned, "I need can't find any information on curse anywhere in the library. Seems like the Grandmaster is my only option."

The table went silent for a moment, interrupted by Atlas shuffling through his small backpack in search for a journal.

It didn't take long for him to find it considering he looked through it everyday, handing it to Faibel politely, "There's some in here. I never truly understood any of it, but I think you might be able to. Calvin gave this to me a year ago. He called it an Index of some sorts of whatever."

Faibel grabbed it curiously, glancing at the first few pages as quickly as possible. "Atlas." His expression grew wide, almost as if he'd discovered treasured that's been buried for centuries. "This isn't just an index. This is an Alchemic Index!" For the first time during the day, he smiled. "There's only a few of these in the entire world Atlas! These have all the information anyone has ever gained on Magic, Curses, and.." He flipped to the last few pages, "Fusion!"

Atlas and Leo chuckled together, never seeing this side of Faibel during the day.

"Atlas, can I borrow this for a few days? I need to memorise every last detail of this."

"Sure, just bring it back by next week."

Faibel held the journal tightly, took a piece of buttered bread with him, and ran off to his dorm as fast as he could.