Magistra Eire dismissed the glowing shield with a wave of her hand, patiently waiting for the applause to die down.

  When the classroom quieted down, she smiled, “Thank you. That was a basic Light Shield, a defensive barrier formed from light mana designed to protect the caster from hostile forces, and it is regarded as essential for any witch in the coven. Its full incantation is ‘Let the waxing crescent’s luminous embrace guard heart and flesh from harm.’”

  As she spoke, the silver light coalesced around her once more, though she quickly dismissed it. “As you can imagine, you won’t always have the benefit of chanting the whole thing, but you shouldn’t worry too much about that. With experience, you will be able to shorten the chants or even do away with them entirely. As long as you are familiar with what effect the spell should have, and with the underlying concepts that govern it, you will be able to cast it in an instant by the time you graduate.”

  Orion hurried to write her words down. An omnidirectional shield would have been very useful the other day. He might have even avoided the whole mess with Morliana, though he doubted it. The Veil Priestess had already set her sights on him before he cast that overpowered Torchlight.

  Not that I plan to ever use the incantation for casting, but there might be something hidden in the religious jargon that could assist me in creating a better equation. I still haven’t found a way to incorporate Light mana directly.

  “That is what is known among the scholars as a tier one spell, something that requires a higher level of understanding and power than the basic Torchlight charm, but is still easy enough for Initiates to cast after a period of study.” She continued, smiling amusedly as a few students wilted.

  “Now, I do not expect you to be able to cast Light Shield anytime soon; I want that to be clear. It will be something that will take you years to achieve, and I demonstrated its use today to show you the clearest expression of the defensive power that Light Magic can provide. Especially the kind that is taught here in the Sanctum.” Eire continued, sitting on the edge of her desk and watching them with keen eyes.

  “Light Magic is powerful and versatile. It can allow you to defend against any enemy, just as it can heal or harm. Masters of the school, like our High Priestess, are considered to be at the apex of the Cyril Magocracy. Everywhere you go, whether among the Archmages of Valderun or the Adventurers of the Tower of Ambition, all respect her.” There was a certainty in her tone that made it clear there was no doubt in her mind.

  Light Magic was mighty, Orion agreed. Though he didn’t particularly like the religious slant the Sanctum gave it, he could still recognize that much.

  He already had several ideas on how to cast such a shield. I imagine the biggest challenge is transitioning from creating a sphere of light to endowing it with reflective abilities.

  Looking around to make sure no one was paying attention to him, he began jotting down the bare bones.

  To convert mana (E?) into a reflective power (P_light), I need to endow it with optical properties. To achieve this, spread that power evenly over a sphere’s surface area (4 π r2) to obtain the radiant intensity (I_rad), which would make a shield. Reflection can be achieved by adding ρ as the reflectivity (0 ≤ ρ ≤ 1) divided by the speed of light c, which indicates that external pressure should be calculated by radius r, scaled by reflectivity.

  He was quite sure that it would work. Orion didn’t write down the final equation simply because he didn’t want to accidentally get too excited and actually cast it, but he was fairly certain that he had a workable formula.

  Maybe it’s not as efficient as it could be, but it’s a very good starting point. I wonder if just describing the light properties I want to induce would be enough to summon Light mana, or if I still need to add the external funnel…

  The coven’s method of using religious concepts and references for quick understanding was likely much more effective in teaching individuals with limited knowledge of physics. However, he had already perfected his craft, and it was simply a matter of combining it with his insights to finally get a handle on Light mana.

  It would take some time, but he would get there.

  “The key takeaway from this lesson is this: the Moon-Mother has granted us a remarkable gift for a reason. The abundance of light mana in the sanctum not only facilitates skill development for young practitioners like you but also symbolizes our shared belief in her. To prevent the past from happening again, we have a responsibility to ourselves and to the Moon to fully utilize her gift. That is more true now than ever before.”

  Orion didn’t know exactly how much the other children believed in the goddess, but it was clear from their eager expressions that they couldn’t wait to cast such spells.

  That’s how they get you.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Now that he had been essentially given carte blanche regarding his research, Orion was tempted to return to the library to flaunt his “unnatural practices” before the nosy librarian.

  She may not have been the one to set Morliana on him, but she definitely contributed to his troubles.

  However, he was more mature than that. Pride may have been his greatest sin, but that didn’t mean he should allow it to dictate his life.

  I’ve already seen what becoming overly fixated on my enemies’ opinions can lead to. No, if I want to achieve my goal of reaching the truth, I cannot give them more ammunition before the time is right.

  His room was a possibility, but he was reluctant to return there for anything other than theory work. It wasn’t nearly as spacious as the private reading chamber had been, nor could he experiment freely without the risk of something catching fire.

  Light could easily generate enough heat for that to happen, and he had already seen how fragile some things were during his levitation practice. Apply too much force to one part of a chair, and it splintered quite easily.

  There was also the fact that it no longer felt safe. But he was trying not to dwell on that.

  No, he needed a different location for his experimentation. He had several ideas on how to cast the Light Shield, but he couldn’t risk anyone connected to Morliana discovering it.

  That led him to the sixth floor of the Sanctum. Technically, it mostly housed private areas for individual members, but it was rare for a witch to be without family, and the larger apartments on the fifth floor were much more comfortable. The fourth floor also contained communal areas attached to smaller apartments, so the sixth floor was primarily used to host those few people who preferred their privacy.

  Given the number of people living in the complex, Orion would have thought that finding empty rooms would be more difficult, but that wasn’t the case. The Sanctum was truly massive, and even the thousands of inhabitants it had couldn’t fill more than a third of the space. Another third was taken up by classrooms, laboratories, offices, and religious spaces, while the remainder was used only occasionally.

  The portion of the sixth floor that Orion was exploring wasn’t considered good real estate. It was higher up, that was true, but the Sanctum was already very high on the mountain. The view didn’t change drastically from one floor to the next. Furthermore, this section didn’t receive much natural sunlight, and while there were skylights cut in strategic places, it was much darker than the other floors and too high to have many internal gardens.

  Only the seventh floor was emptier, but that was completely reserved for the High Priestess.

  Opening another unlocked door, Orion peered inside. “Empty again,” he muttered, closing it. All these rooms could work in a pinch, but if he was honest, he was looking for something more than just four bare walls. An abandoned lab would work well, but he would settle for an old training room. Those had enchantments that made damaging anything quite difficult, apparently.

  Selene had been the one to tell him that a few could be found around these parts, and now that his mother wasn’t keeping him on a tight leash anymore, he wouldn’t mind snagging one for himself.

  In the end, it took another hour of examining suspiciously clean yet empty rooms before he found what he was looking for.

  It was a significantly larger space than the one-person apartments he had been breaking into, and for once, it wasn’t completely bare.

  A long platform was placed at the far end of the room, which he could infer had once served for dueling. To his left sat a sturdy wooden table, while several chairs were arranged to his right. Empty bookshelves lined three walls, and the southern wall boasted a single window that let in some natural light. It wasn’t much, if he were honest, and it explained why the room had been abandoned in favor of more comfortable ones on the lower floors.

  When he closed the door behind him, he heard a distinct click that made his heart skip a beat. Orion hurried to grab the handle, sighing in relief when it opened smoothly. He did not want to get stuck in an abandoned part of the coven.

  Asteria will come looking for me if I don’t return for dinner, but that’s several hours away, and even then, I’m unsure how long it would take her to arrive. Or whether she’d be the one to find me.

  Now that he thought about it more, it wasn’t exactly a brilliant idea to find the most remote corner of the Sanctum right after he’d been put on notice by one of its most powerful witches. If Morliana or one of her associates were to find him…

  No, don’t be stupid. They will probably wait for things to settle down before making a move on me. If I were to disappear so soon after Eire saw her treat me so harshly, she’d be the first suspect. And with the High Priestess giving her blessing, she can’t afford to risk it.

  Not now, at least. In a few months, or maybe even years if she was patient enough… Well, accidents happened. Orion knew of at least two kids who had never shown up to the weekly garden playdates because they had drunk the wrong thing or their parents hadn’t noticed them while practicing some dangerous magic.

  Knowing he wouldn’t be trapped, Orion closed the door again. The gentle sound of the wind rushing by the only open window at the end of the corridor disappeared abruptly, and he lifted his eyebrows in surprise. Could I be so lucky?

  A quick knock on the door confirmed his suspicion. No sound reverberated off the wooden frame, despite his repeated knocking. So it is soundproof.

  Looking around with fresh eyes, Orion realized he didn’t mind the gloomy atmosphere as much. Although he would have preferred better lighting to read his notes, that was easily resolved.

  I = P/(4πr2) ∪ L?, his Torchlight formula, was perhaps overly engineered. He’d tried to account for too much, he could see that now. He probably could have achieved the same result by eliminating the structural components and regulating it manually by feel, but he felt strangely attached to it.

  I suspect it might work similarly to the coven’s incantations. The more familiar I become with the formula, the more I internalize its mechanisms, and the less I will need it. Given that Torchlight is technically the easiest spell, that might happen soon.

  As a sphere of light materialized over his palm, illuminating the training room, he decided that this place would suffice, at least for now.

  He had no way to dig below the Sanctum to create a secret lab like he’d done for the Cosmological State Equalizer, but perhaps he didn’t need to.

  This place was far enough from the usual foot traffic, and even the few people who lived on the sixth floor mostly kept to themselves. And they can’t hear me even if they pass by.

  Overall, it was a perfect hideout and lab space. He could really stretch his wings here without the fear of being discovered. I’ll probably still need to visit the library for reading materials, but I can easily arrange a schedule. We only have two lessons a week as Initiates, and Asteria will want to see me during her free hours, but with how busy she’s been lately, that might not be for a while.

  In fact, it was almost suspiciously perfect. Had it not been for Selene's suggestion to investigate this area, he might have assumed it was a trap. However, he didn’t believe she was foolish enough to direct him to a place she didn’t know. Given his suspicions about her, it made sense that she knew of the abandoned training room.

  Seers may be the most unscientific concept I’ve ever considered. But in a world where horses fly and corpses run, it’s not so strange, is it? It’s all a matter of probabilities anyway.

  Setting his bag down on the table, Orion took a deep breath. “Whatever. What matters is that I finally have a place to practice. No more lazing around. It’s time to finally crack this Light mana thing!”