After a few minutes of intense panic, fortunately masked by his permanent poker face, Orion had managed to calm down enough to start paying attention.
Beyond that first glance, Morliana hadn't even looked at him, let alone tried to speak with him. Instead, she continued with the lesson, introducing the concept of Charms as a whole, as if she were a completely normal teacher.
“So you see, while all charms are spells, not all spells are charms. All kinds of magic cause changes in their environment, but only charms imbue an effect on a specific target," she prattled, effortlessly holding the class’ attention.
“Now, if we go too deep into the specifics, things get quite a lot messier, but that’s not something you should worry about,” she croaked a laugh, drawing a few chuckles from the students. “Some of the most stubborn mages in Valderun’s Collegium insist that temporary transmutations should be considered charms! One time, I happened to overhear such a claim and told the man that if that was the case, then potions should have been included too. And what did he tell me? That I was right, and he ran off to change his entire research!”
Now the class laughed fully, entertained and enthralled at the same time.
Everyone had been extremely excited to be taught by a Veil Priestess before their first Jewelcraft class, but once they realized that Elder Candra was more likely to rant the whole time rather than teach them, that excitement quickly faded.
Morliana, it seemed, lived up to the hype, because Orion could see children who usually barely paid attention sitting at the edge of their chairs, leaning in so they wouldn't miss anything.
He’d known she couldn’t just be a cantankerous old biddy. She had to have become a Veil Priestess for a reason, after all. But seeing how quickly Morliana managed to wrap everyone around her finger still unsettled him.
She flicked her finger, releasing a burst of multicolored light that hit a book on her desk. The book then opened, flipping to a particular page, and started to levitate, showing its contents to everyone.
An old mage was working on a large tome, taking notes and double-checking his work. Behind him, just outside an open window of his stone chamber, a witch zoomed by on a broom.
Though the image was drawn, it felt almost alive, and soon, the drawing became animated. The mage muttered to himself about levitation spells and how exactly he could increase efficiency, while the witch behind him did loop-de-loops, cackling merrily.
The class gasped and oohed, but Orion's gaze was only on the witch herself, whose expression had lost its friendliness. There was a hint of coldness there, something calculating and dark. It was visible only for a moment before it disappeared, as if it had never been there.
But he saw it. He would remember.
“As you can see, this depicts the most obvious difference between mages, witches, and wizards. While the first are fixated on the details of their craft, viewing it as a puzzle they must solve at all costs, we recognize that magic is a gift. It is a beautiful, magnificent gift given to us by the Moon Mother, who wished for her children to defend themselves from the ravages of the deep night. That is why we study magic—not because the pursuit itself is noble, but because through it we draw closer to Her and understand just how wonderful She truly is.”
Her speech ended with the book snapping shut, causing the teenagers to flinch back. Morliana smiled, and if Orion had been more charitable, he would have called it motherly.
Instead, all he could see was a peddler of truth scenting her marks. It didn’t matter if she was monstrously powerful or even if her intentions were pure.
She was trying to influence an entire class to adopt her way of thinking, and that was unacceptable.
Before he could formulate a response, however, she stood up and snapped her fingers. Behind her, the blackboard came to life as white chalk began to scribble. “Today, we will begin with the most fundamental of charms, the warming spell. A close relative of fire magic, it is nonetheless quite different, as you will find out soon. It can be cast with multiple mana types, from Light to Fire, but as you might imagine, doing so with Fire mana will yield stronger results, while using Light mana will allow for more consistent effects. Even a blizzard wouldn’t be able to stop you from casting if you learn to alternate elements.”
As if nothing important had happened, she started her lesson, causing everyone to rush to take notes.
“Now, there are easier spells, like [Levitation]. You could cast it within minutes because of your experience with brooms, but you’ll learn that the easy route isn’t always the best. Sometimes, we need to take the mountain road to get there faster, even though it may be winding and harsh. The warming charm will teach you to work with different types of mana, and once you master it—and let me be clear, all of you will—the winters won't be anything to worry about. That’s the true power of magic.”
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Despite his strong dislike for the woman, Orion had to admit that she could have charmed a starving man out of a meal. She knew exactly how to adjust her tone to capture everyone’s attention, and the mix of real-life examples and theological dogmas made sure her message was understood without losing anyone.
I’m even looking forward to it myself. Damn it, she’s good.
Waving her hand, Morliana opened all the classroom’s windows wide, allowing a cold draft to come in from outside.
That shouldn’t have been possible, not with the countless protections keeping the Sanctum at a steady temperature year-round, but she didn’t seem to care about that.
“Now, necessity is the mother of invention. Remember that the chant is “Mother warm us with your embrace,” and you will be fine!” She called.
As she spoke, a haze settled around her, and Orion could see with [Verification Principle] that the temperature around her rapidly increased from the near-freezing cold brought by the winds to a much more comfortable level.
More importantly, this was the first time he observed a master at work. While [Verification Principle] only revealed the underlying processes and didn’t provide any details about how exactly she went about casting, he could infer that information from just that data.
For example, she hadn’t released any heat. That seemed counterintuitive, given that the laws of thermodynamics still applied to this world, as far as he could tell. Nonetheless, that was what had happened. She had increased the temperature of the air around her without adding external heat.
That aligned well with what she had said earlier. The warming spell, despite what one might intuitively think, was not necessarily fire magic. It was, instead, a charm.
That meant she was applying an effect to the air. An effect that caused the temperature to rise. It could be achieved with fire mana just as it could with light mana.
She is shaking the air molecules. By introducing random agitation, she can rapidly increase the air's temperature without an external heat source. Smart approach, but how does she maintain stability?
The answer, it turned out, was control.
The first student to try the spell overestimated it and yelled in shock when they nearly burned themselves.
Several others tried afterward, much more cautiously, and barely managed any sort of result, far too worried about being hurt.
Orion, on the other hand, took his time. He could theoretically achieve a similar result by using mana as a battery and willing it to transfer energy into the air.
That, he imagined, was the way he was supposed to follow—what most people did.
But whether it was out of stubbornness or because he recognized that having one of the most powerful witches of the Sanctum show off her craft deserved a closer look, it didn’t matter. He would succeed in the same way Morliana did.
In kinetic theory, temperature was calculated by solving for ?KE?, which was the average kinetic energy per molecule and must equal 3/2 times kT, where k was the Boltzmann constant and T was the absolute temperature in Kelvin.
This alone could probably give him a decent spell, but Orion wasn’t so restricted anymore. He didn’t need to limit himself to parroting general principles and hoping they would be enough.
He could adjust the variables to meet his specific requirements. By establishing the necessary increase in kinetic energy as a constant, he could simply solve for the mana agitation coefficient μ multiplied by the energy E needed to alter the system, the frequency f of the air particles, divided by the number of air particles in the target volume—which was essentially an Avogadro number, now that he thought about it.
T = Δ?KE? = μ · (E · f) / N? ? ΔT was the extended form of the formula, but it could be simply reduced to V vibration, which included μ · (E · f) divided by N?. That was enough to determine the temperature increase.
V/N?= ΔT was a simple yet effective formula, and it worked exactly as intended.
Orion barely had to will it to take hold before the freezing cold that threatened to overwhelm him turned into a perfectly pleasant summer breeze.
“Oh, look at that, Orion did it,” someone called from behind, but he had eyes only for Morliana, who watched him neutrally.
Yeah, look all you want.
Initiates were expected to participate in only the bare minimum of religious rites, often sitting in the back and watching older, wiser witches handle the worship of the Moon.
Students, on the other hand, were not so fortunate. An allowance was made to accommodate their increased lessons and study requirements, so they didn’t have to be in the temple every day. However, it was expected that they spend their Saturdays either attending Religious Studies—something Orion had long decided he would not do—or, at the very least, participate in one of the rites, either in the morning or late afternoon.
Orion would have gladly skipped that requirement too, but Asteria quickly caught onto his intentions and rearranged her schedule so she could “accompany” him to the morning rites.
He initially tried to resist. He had important scientific work to do, especially with all the new and amazing data he had gathered during the past week of lessons, but she could not be convinced, so he was dressed in his best clothes and dragged to the main temple early in the morning.
Orion yawned, opening his mouth as wide as possible and groaning theatrically.
“This isn’t going to work. You are just going to make yourself miserable, you know?” Asteria murmured, not even bothering to shush him.
An older witch passing by gave him an amused look and intentionally slowed down to let them go ahead.
“Thank you, Madame Gisele,” Asteria nodded politely, receiving a nod in return.
“It’s always nice to see that our lineage’s children are growing well,” Gisele replied, and Orion turned to his mother inquisitively.
Sensing the question based on her long experience, Asteria gestured toward the witch and said, “My Mistress’ mistress taught Madame Gisele. Though we never shared a teacher, we are both considered part of the same lineage.”
“Who was your teacher?” Orion asked. Surprisingly, that had never come up before. As far as he knew, his mother had risen through the ranks on her own efforts. But then again, was that ever true?
“Why, the great Elder Yue, of course,” Gisele said, surprised. “She is the Veil Priestess of trade and diplomacy, and handles all the Sanctum’s external politics from Valderun.”
“Huh. Interesting,” he murmured, allowing himself to be pulled away. If that was the case, then why had his mother allowed herself to be so pressured by Morliana?
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