Within the first week of school, Yew learned that their class was commonly known as group forty-four B. In the second week, he learned the reason why.
The first two numbers came from the cottage numbers, and forty-four meant all the cottages starting with forty-four hundred. The final letter specified each group of twenty-five cottages. Letter A was for cottages from one to twenty-five. Letter B was for cottages labelled twenty-six thru fifty, and so on.
On the tenth day of Byzh, almost all the students in the group forty-four B came to the Exercise class. Linden was among those who didn’t. It was Wednesday and it was the first time, when they were going to meet the fourth one of their tutors.
The students came out of curiosity, with little expectations, based on their prior encounters.
Maca Waterfall was a nice tutor, who tried her best to be helpful, but she lacked flexibility in her own learning, and she couldn’t help with problems, which she herself never encountered.
Chervil Sun was mean and often made nasty comments, which was why only several students came to the Exercise class yesterday on Tuesday.
Juniper Root, who tutored on Mondays, was quite a friendly guy, but he never explained much, so it was always up to the students to figure things out.
And now, sitting on the floor in the gym and staring at the front door, the students of forty-four B, were wondering what kind of person was their Wednesday’s tutor.
When a guy walked through, they were surprised to see someone, who looked outstandingly average.
He wore grey pants on suspenders, blue shirt, and a greyish green cap. His light yellow hair was a bit longer than short, and he had a face, which made him look much younger than a fifth year student.
He walked in, staring at the floor in front of his feet. He didn’t stop walking until he arrived at the wall across from the door. He looked at the wall for a moment. Then his face brightened up, as if he recalled something nice, and he smiled to himself. Then he shook his head sideways, as if he was denying something in his thoughts before he looked again at the wall in front of him.
The students of the first year began looking at each other, and some were quietly laughing among themselves, while commenting about their tutor’s odd behavior.
The guy heard the laughs and turned his body toward the students. With his face full of confusion and embarrassment, he addressed the boys, “uh, nice to meet you. I’m Beech Sanawbar Umsintsi Meadow. Juniper told me that I’m supposed to tutor you on Wednesdays.”
The students began to laugh out loud. Many of them couldn’t believe that a guy with such an odd behavior could be their tutor. After all, Beech acted like he wasn’t even aware that he had arrived in the classroom, until he had heard the boys.
Ignoring the laughing students, he continued speaking, “Juniper never told me what he’s doing on Mondays, but tutoring is like teaching, so let me know, if there’s anything you want to learn from me.”
One boy raised his hand, and said with a smirk, “can you teach me how to levitate a pen?” His tone of voice was a bit more mocking than it should have been.
Other boys around the classroom began snickering, because the boy who asked the question already knew how to do it. Pretty much everyone was aware that the request was made to test the tutor, and not to learn.
Beech looked at the class with his innocent baby face, and agreed, “okay, so let me explain how to make things levitate.” He walked away from the wall and moved closer to the center of the classroom.
“So, levitating,” he started then looked at the ceiling, trying to gather his thoughts, “first, you need to feel the air. Oh right, maybe I’ll start from the beginning. Not everyone knows, where magic comes from, but it helps, if you know it, so let’s recall the story of creation. When God created the world, he created six elements: water, fire, earth, sky, day and night. All magic consists of taking control of one or more of these elements, for the purpose of attaining a specific goal.”
The students stopped smirking, and started listening. Even though most of them heard the story of creation, none of them knew it in details.
Beech spoke on. “So later on, when God created men, he gave men the power to control the world, and that power is known as magic. The first man had what we call the absolute magic. It means that his magic had no limit. He could use it all the time, and it wasn’t dependent on his stamina or concentration. He also didn’t have to learn it, as he knew all about it from the moment he was created.”
Some of the students already heard about this, but for others it was a brand new world.
“However,” Beech continued, “just six generations later, all men began to sin. Some sinned more, some less, but God took away magic from all of them. Soon afterward men regretted their actions, and God gave magic back to them, but no longer as the absolute magic. This new form of magic came with limitations to its usage, and it was treated like a talent, so only some received it, while many didn’t have it at all.”
“Why?" One of the students shouted out. "Were they too sinful, so God didn’t give them any?” he asked without raising a hand.
Beech smiled in response. “No,” his answer was short. “There are many magic-talented people, who aren’t using magic in a good way, so it has nothing to do with your sins and virtues. The magic, as it currently exists, is a talent, and like all talents it’s a bonus, and not a regular capability. That’s why you should always be thankful for any of your talents, because you never know – one day you may lose it.”
“That’s not true,” another boy shouted out. “My grandparents were magic-talented all their lives. They never lost their talent for magic!”
“Okay, okay. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Beech waved down his hand. “You’ll learn more about it in higher years. Anyway,” he changed the topic before anyone could say anything. “In order to levitate something, you need to control the air, which belongs to the sky element. Of all the elements, the sky element is the easiest one to control, because we know this element the most. The air,” he pointed his finger up and moved his hand in a circular motion, “is all around us. We breathe it in. We exhale it. We feel the wind. We look at the sky. This element is with us all the time.”
Beech closed his eyes, “if you want to levitate an object, first you should let your body feel the air. Close your eyes, take a deep breath in, then a deep breath out. Concentrate on the sensation of being touched by the air, as it travels through your nose and let all your senses be full of it. And then,” he took a deep breath in, and right then, he began levitating his own body in front of the students.
When he was already half a meter above the ground, he opened his eyes and asked, "do you have any questions?”
Spruce raised his hand, “but I’m magicless,” he said.
“Me, too,” Beech responded and all the students were simultaneously surprised.
Spruce was also amazed at those words, as he continued, “but my magical item is using a fire element, so I cannot levitate things.”
“Wrong,” Beech said and lowered himself down to the floor. Then he walked up to Spruce, stretched out his hand and commanded, “show me your magical item.”
Spruce handed him the dagger. Beech moved a bit away from the boys and once again he closed his eyes. A huge ball of fire, which looked like a bubble appeared around Beech, and lifted him up.
“How?” asked Aspen, who was sitting next to Spruce.
“All elements are interconnected, and they affect each other,” Beech explained from inside the fire bubble. “You’ll learn about that later, but in this case, I warmed up the air. The warmer air always moves upward and the colder air moves downward. The air under this bubble is fairly hot, so it lifted me up. The bubble walls are protecting me from the heat, so I’m fine.”
And it truly was just like he described. The heat was coming off from under the fire bubble, almost as if there was a campfire burning right underneath Beech. Some students tried coming nearer, but as the heat from up close was unbearably hot, they quickly backed out. Beech made the fire bubble disappear together with the hot air, and jumped back onto the floor.
He gave the dagger back to Spruce, who took it and stared at it, as if it was the rarest treasure in the world.
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