The black-haired girl was simply outraged. She belonged to one of the ancient noble families, admired and respected in all the Griffon Kingdom. She had always been treated like a princess of royal blood, no one had ever dared disrespect her. Now, not only she had to endure all those harsh words, but also had no way to bite back Professor Vastor. Threatening a mage belonging to an academy, was like spitting towards the sky, it would always backfire. All he had to do, was give her a bad evaluation to put an end to her career as a healer. Having five siblings and being at the bottom of the line of succession, magic was her only redeeming feature. She could only swallow her pride and answer: "The lower tiers of light magic have two insurmountable limits. The first being that light magic can only enhance the recovery of the patient. If he/she suffered from an excessive blood loss or is already on the verge of death, healing magic is useless. The second limit..." "Okay, enough. Your turn, edgy face." He cut her short, pointing his finger at Lith. "The second limit is that it cannot regrow lost body parts, be it organs or limbs. Clean cut fingers or extremities can be reattached, but only if well preserved and within an hour from the amputation." "Correct and correct!" Vastor almost sounded disappointed. "Now, who can tell me how, hypothetically, the first issue could be solved?" Everyone raised his hand, once again. "You, with the pauper face." He said to a petite girl with long brown hair, sitting a few desks away from Lith. Because of her small and scrawny build, it was hard to imagine her twelve years old, she looked barely a day past eight. Clearly, she had suffered from malnutrition for a long time. Lith’s sixth sense told him that the academy’s uniform was probably the first pretty clothes she had ever had. With all the stress from her first day of academy, the threats and insults from Professor Vastor had been the last straw for her. When she tried to answer, only hiccups came out, she was fighting back her tears. - "What a d*ck." Lith thought. - His hand instinctively played with the Ballot, but he didn’t activate it. It was her problem, not his. She had done nothing for him when he had been bullied twice that morning, that made him eager to return to favour. His movements, though, didn’t escape Professor Vastor eyes. - "Oh, for f*ck’s sake! I had almost forgot about the bum with the Ballot. If that thing is recording and he bothers reporting me to the Headmaster, I will be in deep sh*t. Linjos has been crystal clear that professors’ tough love is now considered bullying, and has tried more than once to fire me. He’s just waiting for an excuse to replace me with one of his angry lackeys. Dammit, I’m too old to lose such a good job."- "I’m so sorry, young miss. I didn’t mean to offend you. There, there. Take your time before answering." His voice was suddenly all milk and honey, offering her a handkerchief from his chest pocket. Despite her frail looks, she needed but a second to compose herself. "The only way to do it..." she replied sniffling from time to time. "...would be to somehow infuse the patient with an external source of life force. But that’s impossible. I worked as a healer since I was six years old, I’ve tried countless spells and always failed. Light magic cannot create or pass energy, only nourish what is already there." The whole class nodded. - "Heck if I know." Lith thought. "The only patients I have ever failed were those that arrived too late for being saved. Not even my true magic could transfuse life force." - "Correct, young miss!" This time he sounded genuinely happy, the class was starting to think he suffered from severe mood swings. "And don’t worry, here at the light department we will fix your growth problem in a snap, you have my word." After making sure to be outside hot waters, he resumed his snarky tone. "The little one is right, light magic cannot do it. No matter how talented the mage or how complex the spell, it’s impossible. Yet tier four light magic can. Anyone wants to take an educated guess?" The classroom fell silent, no hand was raised. Professor Vastor sneered at their ignorance, puffing his chest. "Oh, oh, oh! Seems you still have much to learn. But you have come to the right place. The answer is: it’s only possible by mixing it with darkness magic" "What?!" "How?!" "The f*ck?!" Professor Vastor ignored their shocked expression and the exclamations filling the air, while waving his hands in the air, generating with first magic a black and white circle identical to Earth’s representation of Yin and Yang. "The greatest legacy left us from Magus Silverwing, is the knowledge that light and darkness magic are but one. They perpetually dance together in all things. When one pushes, the other pulls. When light steps forward, darkness steps backwards and vice versa. When they are in harmony life thrives, otherwise only death awaits. The key to tier four light magic is weaving them together. Dark magic takes the energy from the donor, while light magic allows it to enter the patient’s body without backlashes. Balancing them is the key to success." - "F*ck me sideways!" Lith though. "How can I be so stupid? I read that goddamn book hundreds of times, I should have understood this years ago by myself. I wish I was more talented in magic, or at least smarter." "Hey, that’s offensive!" Solus rebuked. "I’m way smarter than you, and I have failed nonetheless. The real problem is that our approach to magic is too naïve. By my maker, I hate feeling so useless. If only I still had my memories..."- 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶 "Excuse me, Professor, I have a question." Snob face awoke them from their self -pity moment. "If here at the White Griffon we mix light and dark magic together for healing, what’s the difference between us and the Black Griffon? Can’t they do the same?" "The difference, dear snob face, lies in the purpose. Here at the White Griffon, we are proud of our light magic department, where we can cure almost everything. At the Black Griffon, they specialize in destroying things." The rest of the hour Professor Vastor showed them again and again the simplest tier four light magic spell, until everyone was capable of performing it. The fastest students turned out to be young miss, an arrogant faced kid, snob face, and edgy face, in this order. Lith had done his best. He needed to experience the spell with fake magic, before being able to reproduce and enhance it with true magic. Yet he ended up in fourth place. After that, Professor Vastor opened a Warp Steps that brought them right outside the academy’s hospital. - "Lith, by keeping open the portal for so long, the Professor gave me the time I needed to clear its mystery. The reason why the staff can open them with such ease, it’s because of the ring with the academy’s insignia they wear. The whole castle is a giant artifact, they simply use the rings to tap into its powers. If your uniform has so many functions, I can’t even imagine what something as big and powerful as this building can do." - Lith didn’t reply, he just wondered how powerful Solus could be, compared to the academy, if she regained her old power. He had only found mentions of magic towers in fairy tales, and they were described as something unfathomable. According to the lore, within his own magic tower a mage was nigh omnipotent. But fairy tales also told about fairy godmothers, elves, sprites and happy endings, and he had yet to meet someone that took any of those things seriously. When he had spoken about them with Nana, Lark and the Marchioness, they had all mocked him for his childish daydreams. When the students entered through the double doors, they found hard to believe to their eyes. The academy’s hospital ward would put any Earth’s hospital to shame. The floors were able to self-clean, the beds would move and massage the patients’ bodies to avoid bedsores, constantly keeping in check their vitals. The air was fresh and clean, free of the smell of disinfectants that usually plagues those places. Everything looked more like out of a celebrity resort rather than a place where people went to die. "What a marvel of magic!" Said the arrogant faced boy from before, a fifteen-year-old 1.65 meters (5’5") high with red hair. "But I suppose it was to be expected, since you were the one designing the whole thing, Professor Vastor." "Yurial, my boy!" Professor Vastor finally recognized him. "Long time no see. How is your old man, Deirus? Being an archmage is a big burden, you must be ready to step in and help him as soon as possible." "My dad is doing fine, thank you. I’ll send him your regards. With your help I’m sure I will be able to keep up the family tradition." "But of course! Mage bloodlines are highly treasured here at the light department. I hope you’ll show all those snotty nobles and poor commoners what a true magician is made of." - "I stand corrected." Lith thought. "He does discriminate, just not the way I am used to. He seems to be a sucker to magical families instead of noble ones. I guess not every Professor can be like Trasque or Nalear." - Just thinking her name sent a warm feeling through his body, that Lith hastily suppressed. He despised himself for his weak, hormonal body, wasting his precious time and energies on teenage delusions. Lith could not afford any slip ups, the trial round was about to begin, and he was determined to shine among his peers.