Chapter IV.XLVI (4.46) - Fire’s Temperature

  “Not much to say on the subject of brewing,” the headmaster continued. “You still retain the top position in the student body. But keep in mind that Shinzou Academy has only 800 students. There are still plenty of brewers out in the world who could put your work to shame.”

  Kizu knew that better than anyone. He had never considered his fellow students to be particularly talented in the subject. Even Sene he thought of as minimally competent with a lot of holes in her education.

  “Though I have heard rumors of you creating your own laboratory?” Headmaster Ballarfulur raised an eyebrow. “As your headmaster and an academic advisor, I feel it prudent to encourage you to exercise caution. However, I also believe you may likely be even more equipped than I in the subject of potion-making so let us not linger on it.”

  Kizu blinked. The headmaster thought Kizu might be a superior brewer to him? Kizu opened his mouth but was cut off by the next ranking assessment.

  “Numerology now sits at 620. Respectable improvement once again. Music is at 302. Enchanting now 149. Those two are slight improvements but it’s clear they aren’t where your focus lies at the moment. Which brings me to the final two rankings.

  “Illusion now ranks at 52. You continue to excel despite the harsh competition of your peers. What is your normal regimen for the subject?”

  “I’ve been working both on auditory illusions and on combining my illusions with divination spells to make them untraceable. I dedicate a lot of time to both of those exercises.”

  “Demonstrate an auditory illusion,” Headmaster Ballarfulur instructed.

  “Demonstrate an auditory illusion,” the headmaster’s voice echoed.

  “Oh? So you can talk back to me now?” the headmaster asked, amused. “Can you make me say something unique?”

  “Noooo I can’t.” The illusion maybe very vaguely resembled the headmaster’s voice. But mostly it sounded like a dying frog’s croak. “I caaan repeat?”

  “Hm, interesting,” Kizu’s voice said. Kizu turned and looked over his shoulder, startled. His stupid brain immediately went to his doppelganger soul piece. Idiotic. In context of his current discussion it was clearly the professor performing an illusionary display.

  “Mastering ventriloquism can be quite handy,” Kizu’s voice continued to say. “I’ll assign you a little homework assignment. I want you to not repeat something you immediately heard, but instead something you heard from earlier in the conversation. Let someone you’re with choose the statement you’re to repeat. That should help you focus more on recalling tone and enunciation.”

  “Okay,” Kizu agreed.

  “Good.” The headmaster had returned to using his own voice. “Your last ranking also looks quite nice. From starting at 799 last semester, now all the way to 142 in elemental spellcraft. The largest improvement of them all. I’ve already seen your earth attack spell earlier. Anything else you’ve been practicing?”

  Kizu lit his hand on fire, then tossed the flames hand to hand. He demonstrated his control by increasing and decreasing the heat, then shifting the flames to purple and blue.

  “Nothing remarkable,” the headmaster commented. “But a nice minor addition to your skillset.”

  Kizu almost dropped the fire in disappointment. He rather liked this spell.

  “Oh, it’s flashy, and I do love flashy, don’t misunderstand,” the headmaster said, noticing his crestfallen face. “But I want to see more from you.”

  The headmaster rose from his seat and strode past Kizu to face the scarecrow on the other side of the room. He raised a hand and a beam of fire blasted out from his fingertips. The air warped around the stream of flames and after only a second Kizu had to raise his arm to protect his eyes from the heat. All moisture in the already dry room evaporated and Kizu could feel his skin cracking.

  And then it was over.

  Kizu wheezed and he had to cast an air bubble spell over his head to return air to his lungs.

  “Oh!” Headmaster Ballarfulur exclaimed upon seeing Kizu’s reaction. “There’s another nifty little elemental spell! Low tier and basic, but phenomenal utility.”

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  Once Kizu felt back to normal, he let the air spell fade and he returned to subjecting his lungs to the room’s air.

  Unlike with Kizu’s earlier attack on the scarecrow, this time only soot remained of the dummy. But Kizu watched with some fascination as ashes from across the room glided into place and slowly began building itself back into the form of the scarecrow.

  “Was that just raw power?” Kizu asked.

  “Not at all. I directed the flames with control and precession. Though, honestly, it’s not an altogether difficult spell. I imagine all of Shinzou Academy’s top ten elementalist students could accomplish something equal to it. And several of the top 50 as well. The elementalist branch of magic is perhaps the most competitive at the academy. As you are now, your climb will halt in place before you hit 100.”

  “What do you recommend?”

  “Here.” The headmaster created a ball of fire in his hand and tossed it to Kizu.

  Kizu panicked and swatted it down. It landed on the headmaster’s desk.

  “Ow!” Kizu gripped his now red hand.

  The headmaster laughed and put out the flames in front of him, then soothed the pain in Kizu’s hand with a healing spell.

  “Catch it this time!”

  “Catch…your fire?”

  “Percisely!” The headmaster formed another ball of fire in his hand and tossed it to Kizu.

  This time Kizu focused on the flames and reached out for them.

  “Ouch!” Kizu cried out again. But this time the pain only lasted a split second. Then the fire was under his control. It burned in his hand harmlessly.

  “Well done,” the headmaster said. “You’ve neutralized the damage to yourself. Quickly too.” Then he snapped his fingers and Kizu yelped as the flame's temperature rose in an instant. He dropped the fire on the marble floor and it spluttered out. “But you also need to be aware that a mage can again seize control and alter their fire.”

  Kizu stared down at his scorched hand. “You’re saying I can use elemental magic to become fireproof to spells.”

  “Yes. Fire is unique in its hunger. Mages lack the control over it that they have with a rock or shard of ice. Especially once it enters a closer proximity to you, hijacking it becomes all too easy. Learning to fireproof yourself is the beginning of that training.”

  Kizu nodded slowly. This could definitely be useful. He thought back to Otochi, who had wielded a terrifying disintegration beam spell even hotter than what the headmaster displayed earlier. Could even something like that be neutralized by practicing base elemental control?

  The headmaster continued to prod him with fire as practice for the next twenty minutes. Kizu considered this vitally useful. While nearly all his peers could probably do what the headmaster did with testing Kizu’s control over fire, significantly less of them would be able to heal the burns inflicted by mistakes with as much ease.

  “I’m afraid our time is coming to a close, Kaga Kizu,” Headmaster Ballarfulur finally said, snubbing out the last bit of flames in the room.

  “Will you tell me about my sister?” Kizu asked.

  “In total, your ranking remains at a total of 4,664. Sadly not yet at the 1,000 mark where I promised you familial information.”

  Kizu had expected as much, but he had to at least try. “But if my soul is split, I’ll never improve my conjuring rank. Can you at least give me some wiggle room there?”

  “Ha. Even if I deleted that rank from your assessment, you’d still be a long way off. And I currently have no intention of removing it.”

  “Seriously?” Kizu raised his hands in frustration. “But that means I’d need to be in the top 20 in every subject!”

  “Perhaps I will be convinced to part with the information on your graduation.”

  Kizu closed his eyes. Graduation was over two years away. But throwing a tantrum wouldn’t help his case. He needed to stay cool and show the headmaster that this wouldn’t phase him.

  “Top 20 it is, I guess.”

  The headmaster laughed. “I admire the gumption. Also, before we close this meeting, I want to congratulate you on cheating Basil’s final challenge in a spectacular style.”

  Kizu blinked. “Cheating….” His mind flashed back to when he formed a gate and deposited the last challenge’s drink in the sea.

  The headmaster’s eyes twinkled. “You didn’t think any of my handpicked professors would notice? You think far to little of us.”

  “I….” Kizu cleared his throat. “Do I need to apologize?”

  “Oh no, nothing like that. It was a fun little contest run by students. You are a far cry from the only student to cheat in that obstacle course. Just keep in mind that in a real tournament, cheating won’t be an available tactic. I warn you to not attempt anything like that next semester at the academy tournament.” The headmaster clapped his hands together. “Enough of cautionary warnings. Anything else you wish to ask before you go?”

  Kizu considered. “I wanted to thank you for sending over that quest in Tross for me and Evie to complete. It seems like a unique opportunity.”

  “Oh, that? Yes, I saw it and thought of you. Hope you’ve retrieved your dagger by now.”

  “My…dagger?”

  “Yes, the one you told me about. You might find it very helpful in the task ahead.”

  Suddenly Sojan’s retrieval skyrocketed up in Kizu’s to-do list.

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