Professor Sai shook his head at John disapprovingly.

“Please watch your language, Mister Newman.”

“It is from the thoughts of mind that spring the words of mouth,” John recited.

That earned him a pleasantly surprised look from his professor.

“Indeed,” was his only response.

John took his seat in the back of the classroom as about a dozen students started to walk in. They all filled the front few rows and began to chat with each other. Their professor stood in front of the class patiently waiting for the chatter to die down. Once the classroom fell silent, he began to lecture.

“Long ago, when the school of abjuration was not yet named such, there was a brilliant mage with a mind adept at magic. This mage pioneered the arcane field you now have the privilege to study. What you are to learn in today’s lesson is one of the first arcane techniques attributed to that brilliant mage. More advanced forms of this magic are common in illusion barriers, especially those designed with the express function of serving as discreet meeting places. Would any of you like to voice the assumptions in your minds?”

John, unfortunately, had no idea what the professor was talking about.

Looks like I was yesterday’s golden boy but am today’s disappointment.

A few students raised tentative hands. The professor looked intently from one student to the other, seemingly reading their answers from their minds despite his earlier request for the answers to be expressed vocally.

“Mister Khione, please tell the class your answer,” the professor called on the only other male student in the room.

“Scry blocking magic,” was his reply.

“That is correct. Today, you will learn to keep others from seeing or hearing what you don’t want them to see or hear, especially in regards to those who shouldn’t be able to see or hear in the first place. Do any of you know how this may be done?”

This time no one raised their hands.

I guess I’m not the only one who doesn’t know what to do.

Professor Sai nodded sagely.

“I see. Do any of you have any ideas as to how this may be possible?”

No hands. The professor nodded again, seemingly deep in thought.

I bet there’s a few ways to do it. Maybe cast out your magic with the intent to seek out and stop certain magic that you know you need to stop? Draw a specific rune circle that blocks all incoming magic and stand in it maybe? Cast out your magic in small shapes that connect you and the person you want to communicate privately with, keeping all other magic out? Magic is weird, the possibilities are endless.

The professor turned to John, a ghost of a smile on his face.

“Mister Newman, are you sure you have nothing to add to the class discourse?”

John felt the eyes of the classroom lock onto him, all of his classmates turning to see the new student.

“Magic is weird,” he began, earning him a few sniggers and giggles from his peers. “There are probably many ways that have come up over the years. I think it’s safe to say that there’s some sort of rune circle that blocks scrying magic.”

“You would be correct. Rune circles are one of the oldest forms of magic; there is a circle for every spell.”

The professor picked up a piece of chalk and began to draw on the chalkboard.

“The scry blocking circle is common knowledge among mages that still use rune circles, as is its counterspell. Though outdated, it is useful insomuch that not many modern mages are familiar with rune circles. This, coupled with the fact that rune circles are easily modified and therefore render their generic counterspells useless, makes them an invaluable tool to at least be familiar with.”

His next words were inaudible as he finished the circle and placed his hand at the center of it. There was a wave of appreciative murmurs throughout the class. He took his hand off and continued to speak.

“Though, as Mister Newman mentioned, there are other methods. Would any of you like to offer your theories?”

Elora’s footsteps echoed throughout the empty halls of the Earthen Inner Sanctum. Deep in a mountainside, stone tapped against stone at a measured pace, a casual march through new territory. The labyrinthine passages were of no difficulty to a being of earth, who could feel her destination and let her instincts guide her.

These halls were designed to awe, not to repel attacks. Too inefficient. The architect built this maze with no intent of defending from attackers.

She turned one last corner before reaching her destination. A grandiose hall, easily several city blocks long, with a ceiling high enough to be obscure from view. It was narrow compared to its length, just barely one city block. Elora emerged from a small hall that bisected the larger one, both ends stretching out before her. On one end, an immense window overlooked shadowy depths that reached out as if to continue the hall in darkness. Thin bridges criss-crossed the narrow expanse as far as Elora could see. On the other end sat a throne of stone; checkered patterns of marble, granite, slate, diorite, andesite, quartz, and obsidian adorned its angular surface.

A seat for an emperor, built to be uncomfortable to symbolize the duty of rule. An ever present reminder that their position is not one of lavish comforts but of servitude to their people.

“How noble,” she said out loud. She was alone, not even a golem in the abandoned ancestral home. There hadn’t been an Earthen Emperor in millenia; it was a complete mystery to her how such an amateur summoner had taken hold of the ancestral lands.

These halls have been lost to time, hidden within the folds of the Dream, concealed from the senses of even the greatest of earthen beings. This must be the work of the Earth Mother. It is no coincidence that this human has both the ancestral lands and my favorite runes and he… he… and he-

She interrupted her own thoughts with a nervous laugh.

“He’s going to give me command of his forces,” she said it aloud, hoping against hope that it would be true, that it could be true. A pebble pixie, the most looked down upon race of earthen beings, a summoner with faith in a pebble pixie was either incredibly stupid or lying.

We’ll prove them wrong, we’ll show them all just what a proper army of pixies can do.

“ BEFORE DISHONOR,” she shouted to the empty hall, her high pitched voice echoing for what felt like hours, a determined grin on her face as she marched off to explore more of her new home.

John sparred with the Khione guy from earlier; neither of them had bothered with names or much more than planning how to follow the professor’s order of “practice scry blocking and scry blocking counterspells”. It was a back and forth endeavor, with John and Khione switching every round between being the scryer and the scry blocker. John stood in his rune circle as Khione seemingly shouted spells that flew from his hand with a pinkish glow and were stopped midair by John’s rune circle with a flash of orange. He couldn’t hear anything but his own breathing inside the circle. It was an eerie calm that kept him on edge and alert. After two minutes or so, the orange flash would shatter and the cacophony of a room full of counterspell weaving mages hit him like a truck.

Khione stood in his circle with a smug smile on his face as John frowned at the info box observe gave him.

Level 5 Scry Block Circle

An imitation illusion barrier that keeps sound from entering or exiting its border. Only affected by attacks of pure mana.

I don’t have pure mana attacks. But it’s just chalk. What if I just… erase a bit of it?

John walked forward, his confused face still in place as he reached for the circle with his foot. Khione raised an eyebrow at John’s foot as it entered the circle only to drag across the edge, wiping a line of chalk away. There was a popping noise, and Khione looked more confused than disappointed by the easy victory John just had.

If getting rid of chalk is that easy, I need to use something else for my circle, John thought to himself as they erased the rest of Khione’s circle to start the next round. I made a circle out of mana to summon Ignis yesterday, maybe I can do that now. It’s at least worth a try.

John sat with his palm to the ground, concentrating on the pattern of the circle he wanted to make as he reached inside himself for the magic that resided within. He pulled flickering flames to the surface and pushed them out of his palm, and the scry blocking circle roared to life around him, mana flames dancing visibly at the edges of the orange glowing rune circle.

The room grew eerily silent again, and Khione began his shouting with renewed vigor at the sight of the flames. His attacks were absorbed by the flames, and they grew higher as if every shot was just fuel to the fire. Professor Sai, passing by in his inspection of his students’ progress motioned for John’s peers to stop what they were doing and look at John’s circle. There seemed to have been some sort of lecture on the nature of John’s circle, but he couldn’t hear it. Khione was relentless in his attempt to break into John’s scry blocking circle even as the professor spoke, eventually feeding the flames enough mana to have them burn higher than John’s head and make it impossible to see what was going on.

I should probably release the magic; class is going to be over soon and I want to know the professor’s explanation of my powers. But if I release now without any warning, Khione is going to keep shooting and he might hit me or another student. I can probably activate Sparkbody and use the agility boost to shoot his spell out of the air. That might still hit someone. I can cast flames in my hands and catch it. Or just catch it, I’ll have sparks on my hands already.

John took a deep breath.

Okay. Sparkbody, deactivate, jump, catch, land, deactivate. I can do this.

John activated Sparkbody and the flames seemed to dance slower around him. He deactivated the circle and looked to Khione to see where his next attack would hit. The flames died down quickly, even with Sparkbody, and revealed Khione in the middle of a spinning kick, his foot glowing with pink energy. The energy flew off his foot and arced towards a point a few feet above John in a trajectory that would surely hit someone behind him. John jumped into the way of the mana bolt and caught it in his hands, the mana dissipating into particularly vibrant red sparks as he landed heavily. His knees buckled a bit as he deactivated Sparkbody.

“An impressive show of , Mister Newman,” Professor Sai’s voice was thunder in the eerie silence of the classroom. “Thank you for providing the class an example of how modifying a rune circle can make it much stronger. Unfortunately, we do not have time for you to elaborate on your methods for your peers.”

John teleported to his next class just as the professor finished speaking.