Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

I had to bring my brother back. He was the only one who could help mend our wounds.

I had some information about Keras to work with now, at least.

I destroyed the letter.

If Keras was heading toward the Edrian border, that certainly added to the hypothesis that he was working with Edria somehow. I didn’t have any good means to look into that immediately.

I went to try find Professor Orden, but she wasn’t around. I tried a few more times over the following days, only to find learn from Professor Teft that Orden had gone into the tower.

I’d have to get answers elsewhere for a while. For the moment, I had more pressing matters to attend to. I needed to make sure I was ready for the upcoming test; I would be no help to anyone if I failed out of the academy.

Professor Conway looked exhausted. He’d lost the usual effortless spring to his movements and deep bags were visible under his eyes, even from where I was sitting in the third row of the class.

“Since our last class was interrupted by an unsightly incident,” he began, not needing to explain to anyone what incident he was referring to, “I believe it would be pertinent to pick up where we left off. That said, our missed time will need to be covered to ensure we can cover the entire syllable, and I’m confident few of you would want an extra day of class. Thus, I will be consolidating the second half of our last lecture with today’s discussion. I will only have time to touch on each subject briefly.”

Conway pulled a chair behind the lectern and sat down, something I’d never seen him do in any of his previous classes. He was generally one of our most physical professors, always moving, frequently drawing diagrams.

It had been a full week since our last class had been interrupted. Was that still what was bothering him, or was it something else?

Did he know something that we didn’t?

I didn’t have enough information to speculate in any detail. I tried to push the questions out of my mind and put some effort into listening to the lecture.

“There are two main things that set the attunements apart from one another. The first of these factors is that each attunement gives you access to additional types of mana.”

Normally, this would be when he’d stand up and start drawing on the board, but — he didn’t this time. He just glanced around the classroom, then continued to speak. “As you already know, everyone has gray mana, and that gray mana has different properties depending on where you draw it from in the body. There are eight other types of mana that attunements on Valia can control. Every individual attunement gives you access to two of the eight.”

He paused for a moment, taking a drink from a glass of water. “We have eight attunements in Valia. Every attunement has a primary mana type and a secondary mana type that it provides. The primary mana type tends to be easier to use, but nevertheless you will find some people who focus on the secondary type.”

“For example, as a Guardian, my primary mana type is Enhancement. This type of mana is typically used to bolster physical characteristics, but it can also be added to other spells in order to stabilize or improve their functions. A Guardian’s secondary mana type is life. Most Guardians only learn to use this to rapidly recover from injuries and exertion, but there are some unusual Guardians who have learned to manipulate life mana in a way similar to a Mender, giving them the ability to heal others. This is more common for Guardians with lung or heart marks.”

I nodded along with much of the class. This was interesting material; I knew that every attunement gave users new types of mana to work with, but I hadn’t realized that it was always two types.

Actually, I was pretty sure it wasn’t. Didn’t Elementalists have three types of spells?

On a rare whim, I stood up to ask a question.

Professor Conway turned his head toward me. “Yes, Master Cadence?”

Dozens of heads turned toward me. I froze up for a moment before taking a breath and regaining my composure. “Don’t Elementalists have three types of spells? Fire, air, and lightning?”

“Ah, a good question. You’re getting a bit ahead of me; that would get into the second distinguishing characteristic of each attunement. You may sit down.”

I sat.

Conway continued. “The second thing that sets each attunement apart is how their two types of mana can be combined to create a unique result. For example, an Elementalist’s lightning is a combination of air mana, fire mana, and a bit of gray mana that serves to keep the mixture from detonating. Every attunement derives a unique function from the combination of two mana types that their attunement provides.”

Another student stood up. “If I got fire and air mana from two different attunements, could I still combine them to make lightning?”

That’s a way better question than the one I asked.

“Yes,” Conway responded, “In that case, you most likely could. Some of the so-called ‘unique’ characteristics of each attunement can be achieved in that way, but there may be exceptions. Some combinations of multiple attunements are so rare that we have not been able to prove if they can be combined at all.”

I scratched my chin, wondering which combinations were the rarest — and how I might obtain some of them in the future. Would it be possible to get four attunements with completely different mana types and cover all the types of mana? I’d never heard of anyone with that many attunements… aside from the visages, of course. And possibly Keras?

I still had no idea how Keras was as powerful as he seemed to be.

“I’ve already mentioned that the Guardian’s most unique characteristic is our ability to control our shroud immediately. Today, we’ll go over the mana types and characteristics for each attunement. This will be a brief overview of each type. More details can be found in your books.”

Conway rubbed his forehead and sighed, then pushed himself out of the chair and walked over to the chalk board. I was glad to see him up and moving again, at least, even if he did look exhausted.

He drew the Elementalist Attunement symbol first.

“As Master Cadence mentioned, the Elementalist commands fire and air mana. Their unique characteristic is the ability to combine these two types of mana to form lightning, which is often considered the most formidable form of attack magic. While fire spells are often popular for being able to cover large areas with a single spell, lightning is generally preferable in duels. It’s too fast for most attuned to defend against it.”

Unless you’re Marissa , I remembered with a grin. She was amazing.

“Next is the Diviner.” He drew another symbol.

“They primarily use mental mana and focus on information gathering spells. Their secondary mana type is enhancement, which in their case is usually used to improve concentration, retain memories, and empower spells to break through anti-divination defenses. Diviners are unique in their ability to create memory crystals, objects that can store a copy of someone’s memories. These are extraordinarily useful for both investigation and communication.”

Huh. Those did sound useful.

“Diviners are commonly confused with similar attunements from other regions. Diviners tend to focus on learning and preserving raw information. The Analyst Attunement, found among our allies in Caelford, is focused more on enhancing the senses and digging deeper into existing knowledge. The Seer Attunement from Dalenos is focused on remotely viewing distant locations, something only the most experienced Diviners can even attempt.”