"Ok, class, before we conclude our lesson, I would like someone to describe what would happen in the event that all affinities merged and were released in the same output pathway?"
Professor Naeric's sudden, difficult question left an impression on those in the room of the weight of something that should not have been asked so casually.
The demonstration he projected simmered slightly across the wall; two affinity diagrams violently rejected each other, each producing a simulated backlash bright enough to make several students flinch. A few students were blinking away the afterimage it created.
Not a single person answered.
The silence became thick.
I looked around.
The noble girl who had answered earlier kept her eyes fixed on her notes, as if she were fascinated by the ink. The students beside her seemed to pretend that they didn't have ears. Even the girl I suspected might be Ilya had gone unusually still, though her fingers twitched once against her desk, as if resisting the urge to answer through sheer confidence.
Not a single soul knew.
Not even the noble students who looked as if their family libraries had personal weather systems.
I glanced toward Elya.
She sat a few rows below me with her usual quiet composure, but this time even her face had changed. Her eyebrows were drawn together slightly. Her lips pressed into what looked like a thoughtful line. It didn't seem like confusion exactly, but it was close enough, which was satisfying to see.
'The fact that not even Elya Veyrannis is certain about the answer makes me feel slightly better about myself.'
But that quickly changed to slightly worse as I started thinking about what the answer could be.
'Codex,' I thought. 'Any idea what the possible answer could be?'
The familiar pulse answered after a longer-than-usual pause.
[QUERY RECEIVED]
[SUBJECT: TOTAL AFFINITY MERGER THROUGH SINGLE OUTPUT PATHWAY]
[DATA INSUFFICIENT]
[PREDICTION MODELS UNSTABLE]
[POSSIBLE RESULTS: CORE COLLAPSE / AFFINITY DISSONANCE / TOTAL OUTPUT FAILURE / UNKNOWN HIGH-ORDER PHENOMENON]
[CONCLUSION: UNKNOWN]
I stared at the last word.
'Unknown? That's a rare sight. I didn't think it would be impossible, but I'm surprised not even you know the answer, Codex.'
[...]
[DATA INSUFFICIENT]
'Haha, I know, I'm just joking around with you, Codex.'
[...]
[USER'S JOKE FAILED ITS PURPOSE]
'Right...'
While I bantered with the Codex, Professor Naeric looked around the class as it endured its collective intellectual collapse for several more seconds, prompting a disappointed sigh.
"No one here knows?" Professor Naeric asked.
No one raised a hand.
"Well," he continued. "Don't worry, I'm not surprised. I ask this question every year to the elective class I teach, hoping to hear an interesting answer. Looks like this year will be no different. A shame. Anyway, let me tell you what exactly happens, so listen closely."
Professor Naeric's mini rant was so effective at drawing attention that several students leaned forward over their desks; even those trying not to look interested couldn't hide their not-so-subtle shift in posture.
I could see Elya's gaze sharpen as Professor Naeric took a few slow steps away from the teaching desk.
The students' eyes followed him as he moved across the room.
Professor Naeric suddenly stopped and faced the class, his mouth opening to speak only four words.
"A miracle will form."
That was it.
For a moment I wondered if there was more, perhaps even hoping it.
There was not.
The Professor let those four words settle with the students; he was absurdly calm, as if he had not just decided to drop a philosophical class in the middle of a scientific theoretical elective.
"This miracle," Professor Naeric repeated, "is not simply an impressive spell formed by technique or will. It is the unified point by which affinities stop resisting each other and express a single, joined truth. There is a very good chance that no one in this room can produce one; in fact, most of you will never see one. However, if you intend to study composite casting seriously, then remember this: believe in the chance of a miracle; your goal is not that in combination, but in accord."
The projection behind him started to dim and fade.
"That will be all for today. Class dismissed."
The room stayed silent for a slightly longer.
Then the classroom illusion broke.
Chairs had shifted. Notebooks had been closed and packed away. Students began speaking all at once in low, excited bursts.
"A miracle? What kind of nonsense is that?"
"I don't know. Is it even possible to use all affinities?"
"Is that even real?"
"Hey! Hey! My older brother said—"
"But I swear my tutor mentioned—"
I barely heard any of it.
My thoughts touched briefly on Professor Naeric's words.
Accord.
A unified truth.
A miracle.
Then a far more immediate concern overtook them.
'Elya.'
She had stood and was already gathering her things with maddening calm, as if she had not spent the beginning of class casually threatening my mental stability with references to a Memory-Relic that had given me nightmares for a week.
I moved before she could disappear.
By the time she stepped onto the aisle of her row, I was already there.
"Let's go have that talk now."
The nearby conversations died with almost frightening speed.
Several students turned toward us.
A commoner boy's eyes widened as if I had just challenged an ancient being to a fistfight. Two noble students stared at me with open shock. One girl actually looked mortified on Elya's behalf, as if my tone had physically harmed her and House Veyrannis.
Elya, on the other hand, looked delighted.
Not too obviously.
That would have been too kind.
But the faint lift at the corner of her mouth said enough.
"Sure," she said. "Follow me."
Then she walked past me as if there had never been any question that I would.
I exhaled slowly.
'And it's begun, just great.'
[OBSERVATION: USER INITIATED CONFRONTATION]
'Yes, I am aware.'
[OUTCOME UNCERTAIN]
'Thanks for reminding me.'
I followed her out of the classroom.
The walk was long.
Long enough for my irritation to cool into something more controlled, and long enough for far too many students to notice us.
We crossed the theory-related department of Aetherion, then a glass-walled corridor overlooking an inner courtyard where older students practised their spellcasting in neat rows. Elya didn't hurry. She moved with that quiet Veyrannis composure that made every step seem premeditated and determined. Students turned as we passed. Some whispered. Some stared openly until Elya's gaze slid toward them, and they remembered urgent business elsewhere.
Eventually, the Academy's surroundings changed.
The corridors widened. The stone grew smoother and paler, threaded with silver and pale blue designs that felt older and more expensive than the student halls. Portraits and House sigils appeared along the walls. Attendants moved quietly through the building intersections, carrying trays, folded fabrics, and sealed message cases.
'There's only one place this could be.'
"These are the heir dormitories. In case you were curious." Elya said it as if it were the most casual topic to bring up with a no-name commoner.
'Of course. Why wouldn't you take me to what might be the most prestigious, off-limits part of the Academy? Great.'
Elya led me through a set of double doors marked with the Veyrannis crest: an open book worked in silver, from whose pages rose a crystalline tree of pale blue and violet, its branches hung with small faceted shards and memory-orbs beneath a ring of stars and crescent moons. The design was beautiful in the same way Elya often was, elegant, intricate, and just unsettling enough to make me wonder how much it knew.
Beyond it waited a private chamber that looked less like a student room and more like a place where treaties went to develop anxiety.
It resembled an elegant tea room. A serious one.
The kind of room where important individuals sat across from each other and politely decided the future of people not considered important enough to be invited.
Tall windows softened the light through pale curtains. A low table sat at the centre; polished dark wood inlaid with silver patterns like branching veins. Cushioned seats surrounded it. Shelves merged with the walls, but instead of being cluttered, every book and object seemed placed with deliberate care. Banded scrolls, old maps, small crystal lamps, and several framed pieces of calligraphy in a script I could not read lined the walls.
I felt Aether running through the walls.
It wasn't loud and obvious.
Nor was it oppressive
Precise would be the most accurate description.
The walls had been treated to carry sound gently rather than echo it. The lamps didn't simply illuminate; they balanced the room's warmth. Even the temperature felt regulated; it was neither too cool nor too warm. It was the kind of comfort created by people who had never once had to ask whether comfort was possible.
Two attendants stood near the side wall. Another entered silently with a tray soon after we sat.
Tea was poured.
Small cups.
Clear liquid with a faint green tint.
Naturally, I stared at the room a moment longer than I meant to.
'Do all nobles get rooms like this, or just the heirs?'
"Only the heirs can get this sort of treatment," Elya said.
I slowly turned my head toward her.
She sat opposite me, hands folded neatly in her lap, expression serene.
"Good to know."
She smiled as she took a sip of her tea.
I looked around again, this time with more awe than surprise.
It was not simply the wealth of the room that unsettled me. That part was obvious. Anyone could throw expensive furniture into a room and call it refinement. This was different. Every line, every lamp, every faint thread of Aether in the walls had been arranged with care.
People who understood how a room could affect behaviour designed it with careful thought.
It was built in such a way as to calm the guest while elevating the host. It encouraged privacy while discouraging aggression.
Subtle yet effective.
Definitively annoying.
Elya glanced at me over the top of her teacup.
"You know, I've always wondered why you treat magic like an equation that needs to be solved?"
The question was so abrupt that for a moment I only stared.
Then I leaned back slightly.
"Is that what you wanted to ask me?"
"It is one of many things I want to ask you."
I considered giving a dismissive answer, but then decided against it.
Despite Elya's apparent calm appearance, I knew she was dangerous, strange, and irritating, and not stupid. A careless lie would only tell her more than my own silence.
"Most of my life has involved solving problems," I said carefully. "Complex systems, patterns within those systems. Cause and effect. You identify what something does and what it fails to do, find the rules that encase it, test them, adjust, repeat." I looked down at the tea. "Aether may be completely different to what I have experienced, but I don't see why the principle should change. It is the same thing. It's just wearing a different mask."
Elya was quiet for several seconds.
"You speak as though you've experienced a lot, despite being the same age as me. Interesting."
"I'm not often fond of people describing me that way."
"Oh? How come?"
"It usually means they have decided that I am a puzzle, one that needs to be put together."
"You are a puzzle. To most."
"But not you?"
Her smile softened, but her eyes remained fixed on me.
"As I thought, there is something about your shape that feels wrong."