The sage looked in annoyance at the goopy liquid crawling across onto the stone floor, and then at Aurelius.

  Her glare would ordinarily have made Aurelius shrink back and wither pathetically in response, but this time, Aurelius was a little busy despairing over his spilled salvation.

  “NOOOOOO” Aurelius managed hoarsely, flipping over his aching body to observe the sheer tragedy of the puddle on the stony floor.

  This seemed to annoy the sage even more, as she massaged her face with her palms to rub away an oncoming headache.

  Seraphine looked rather amused at this display, as she stifled her laughter on the floor. She, learning from Aurelius’s rather unfortunate example, put in the effort to sit up and poured every drop of the liquid from the vial with incredible caution.

  Much to Aurelius’s annoyance, Seraphine would look back at Aurelius when she was done, giving him a small wink and teasing the poor, poor boy.

  Aurelius was contemplating whether to lick the liquid off of the floor when sage Yeltz snapped her fingers.

  “I hope you were not going to lick that off the damn floor, boy.” The sage complained, completely done with Aurelius’s antics.

  With the loud crack of her fingers, the liquid on the floor lifted up into the air, and slipped back into the glass vial that lay next to the spilled liquid.

  “I invoke my contract,

  By the nature of water,

  Purification.”

  The glass vial lifted off the floor as she chanted, and illusory geometric shapes appeared in the bottles, giving off a purple glow.

  Then, with a small tink, the vial dropped back onto the floor, oscillating slightly on its heel before coming to a stop.

  “It probably shouldn’t have any unsavory crap inside now. That vial costs a gold coin for the commission and I’m not giving you another vial. So either drink that, or don’t. Just know that tomorrow will be just as intense as today.” The sage instructed Aurelius in annoyance.

  Aurelius did not need to be told twice, as he took the vial back into his mouth and slurped up the foul liquid greedily.

  He felt a warm sensation spread through his body, enveloping him in the embrace akin to that of lying on a sandy beach in the summer.

  Unlike healing potions which healed injuries and supplied a form of anaesthesia, relief potions tended to work on the muscles, repairing the body throughout, and supplying the nutrients for the body to recover back to an optimal condition.

  He felt the feeling return to his battered body once more, as he lay on the ground a little while longer, ignoring the judgemental gaze from Sage Yeltz.

  “Thank you for your guidance today Ms. Yeltz. I’ll see you again next week!” Seraphine yelled out getting up to her feet unsteadily.

  Sylven jumped off Aurelius’s face to catch her ride on her partner, scampering on the floor over into her pockets. Sage Yeltz waved them off, a small smile on her face.

  “Thank you Ms. Yeltz.” Aurelius croaked, suppressing the complaints he had with the session deep into his mind and forcing politeness from the depths of his warming body.

  The sage cast a narrowed stare at Aurelius’s dodgy thanks. Turning her gaze back to the hobbling Seraphine, the sage called after them with a reminder.

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  “Remember to brush up on the other spells I’ve given you. I’d like to get you to use some of them in our sessions in due time.” She prompted, with Seraphine responding with a double thumbs up.

  “And as for you…” The sage started menacingly.

  With a snap of her fingers, three books appeared out of thin air.

  “Read these grimoires. They’ll prove useful for you at your level of soul manipulation and shape. The first book will teach you how to refine your mana manipulation technique with basic soul-shaping.”

  “You have built up a lot of bad habits regarding your shaping which was noticeable even on Monday. For example, you’re expending much more energy than required in basic magic.”

  “It seems you’ve not grasped the fact that magic is fluid, rather than rigid and procedural. Each movement of your soul must flow in sync and in line with the next move. Instead of doing this, you’ve essentially just been following the shapes as you’ve been taught step by step like a cheap Altamirano brand golem.”

  “This grimoire actually is specialised for mages with blueprints on their souls. It actively tries to help mages to shape their souls in line with the blueprints, meaning that you spend much less time getting used to the layers of souls that need to be made.”

  “To be perfectly fair, even with my background in research into magic, I am unable to fully predict your growth into the blueprint.”

  “I’ve personally written down pages that you should reference, although it would not hurt to read the entirety of the grimoire yourself. It will be useful in setting a foundation for a deeper analytical understanding of magic.”

  “The other two books are grimoires that will expand your arsenal from what you currently know. I understand that Locomotion, Disruption, and Aegis are the essential spells for mages, but you must expand your knowledge for both attack and defense, especially with regards to your air bullets at your level.”

  “You have the basic soul-shape at the moment, and it won’t hurt to enhance your soul-shape to handle more derivation magic, given that it will take a long, long time for you to grow into your soul-shape enough to handle its capacity for magic.”

  “It would be good for you to learn the derivation magic for mana bullets. They tended to be simple, effective and efficient.”

  “For example, Seraphine, even while being an elemental mage, is capable of conjuring 2 mana bullets with a single incantation. That means that she needs much less time to conjure her usual volley of 10.”

  “If you are to approach magic more aggressively, derivations such as lightning bullets, air bullets, and slingshotting are essential magics to learn.” The sage concluded gruffly, leaving Aurelius reeling from the amount of detail and the undercurrent of concern spoken by this usually rud- no, this polite woman.

  It seemed that the woman had been tracking his progress and abilities, and putting in the time to actually study his soul-blueprint imprinted on that imaging crystal that the Commission had in their possession.

  That was when Aurelius recalled a detail that Quetzalcoatl had mentioned in their… “conversation”.

  “Err, Ms. Yeltz, I just remembered that the Honourable Quetzalcoatl had mentioned something regarding magic.” He sheepishly said.

  This caused Sage Yeltz to frown, as she snapped twice in quick succession.

  The first snap caused the three floating books to disappear, and the second teleported them to her office in the Academy.

  “Your books are in your room.” The sage informed Aurelius, which slightly creeped him out. It was a little uncomfortable to think that the sage had such unrestricted access into his living area!

  “Now, tell me EVERYTHING.” The sage snorted, rubbing her glabella as she sat back in her cushioned office chair and kicking her feet up onto the desk.

  Aurelius regretted speaking up as he fidgeted with his hands behind his back on the spot, his throat drying out as he considered what he should say, and if he should lie.

  “If you lie, I will actively get myself fired for using mind magic on you. Do you really think you can defend yourself against me if I actually put my mind on peeking at your little teenager memories?” The sage threatened, the academic professionalism she displayed mere moments ago replaced by her usual crassness.

  Aurelius paled a little at this threat, as he caved into the pressure.

  “Uhm, well, I think He’s informed me that I was given this blueprint because my soul-shape is compatible with it.” He managed, shifting on his feet nervously.

  The sage frowned at this comment, clearly taken aback by what he was implying.

  “Boy, elemental layers are the only way for a soul-shape to get that complex. Not even the gods can escape this fact.” She stated.

  “Err, well, He mentioned that the circular soul-shape is theoretically capable of using all of the elemental magics… And err, he said that anyone using the elemental shapes are… err… taking a shortcut.” He managed, shrinking further and further under the sage’s glare.

  “...Did you have some sort of tea time with that damn god?” The sage growled, her eyes narrowing.

  “Ah, err, nonono. He, err, just ranted about it to himself.” Aurelius replied, worried if he was about to get mind-magicked.

  The sage paused for a brief second, as if bracing herself for something.

  “DON’T BLASPHEME A DAMN GOD YOU IDIOT.” The sage yelled, wiping a drop of sweat off of her forehead.

  Aurelius jumped back at her yelling, and let out a small cough into his fist sheepishly.

  The sage, with her eyes closing tightly, leaned back and gave Aurelius his final instructions.

  “We’ll talk about this on Monday. I need time to think about what you just fucking said.”

  With that, she snapped her fingers, and sent Aurelius back to his room.