Introduction To Void

Has it really only been a week since you started going to this school? With how much has happened, it feels like it has been years already.

That thought is lodged in your head as you stand before the door that will lead into your own, private class. It is a room in the basement, the cool grey walls and the black painted oak door before you giving the place an oddly foreboding feeling. You hesitantly reach up to knock on the door, the sound echoing louder than you expected it to. An equally loud creek rends the air as the door opens, Professor Aspecta sticking her head out and smiling at you. "Ah, welcome," she says, stepping aside to let you enter, "I hope you are ready."

Once inside, you look around at your surroundings and see a fairly sizable, if drab room with a teacher's desk in one corner in front of a chalkboard and a desk for you not that far in front of it. On the other side of the room is a lab table and several beaker-filled shelves, along with cabinets filled with other lab equipment. "We're borrowing one of the Advanced Potions classrooms for this, since they do not meet on Mondays," Professor Aspecta explains, "and I cleared a bit of space for when we eventually get to spell practice."

Adjusting her glasses she adds, "To be perfectly frank, this is uncharted territory for the both of us. I have estimated the best time table I can on the material I have available, but if you should prove to be as much of a prodigy as I am hoping, I thought it best to always have the room prepared for any possible lesson. After all, I hear someone quite convincingly won a duel against one of our top students, which means your power is either greater than your score already implies, or you have wit to match such strength."

You let out a surprised gasp and for a moment you wonder how she knows about that and, to your further surprise, she smirks in a knowing way as she says, "When Professor Zizana asked me to undersign the permission slip so that you and your friends could be out after curfew with her supervision, I had to at least ask how it turned out. She would not go into any details beyond that you won though."

A part of you wonders if that is really true, given what you remember from that dream you had... or stepped into... or however that worked.

"For now," Aspecta continues as she makes her way towards the desk, snapping your thoughts back to the present, "We are going to start with what history we do know of Void and its most famous practitioners."

You take your seat, which is the only other chair in the room, and pull out your notebook as the Professor checks the open, yellowing scroll on her desk.

"As I said during your first class," she begins, "It has been over one hundred years since a student has shown an affinity for the Void. Before that, in the entire time of recorded magic history, there have only been five others confirmed with such an affinity. There have been one or two more suspected of it but never having been verified due to either records of the time no longer existing or the tools for judging such affinities were not yet invented."

Pausing for effect, the teacher gives you a very firm look as she adjusts her glasses, the light in the room momentarily making the lenses look opaque as she does so. "To date," she continues, "every one of them has proven to be a highly influential figure in the development of the art of magecraft or the society around it. So I do hope that impresses upon you why it is so important to learn what those before you have been able to accomplish."

You suddenly feel the return of the nerves you experienced on the first day as right off the bat you are reminded how intensely unique your situation is. "To that end," Aspecta continues on, "We shall start with the oldest known Elementalist with a Void affinity. He was one of the four founders of this school, the one who created and first oversaw your house of Wyvern, and who influenced much of how the societal norms of the world of wizardry function to this very day. The man named Roh'demus Eldric."

Your head snaps up in surprise. This is the second time you have heard that name and, like the last time, you feel a strange tingle in your body because of it. Was that not the person the Professor, Susan, and Zizana had been speaking of in that other place?

Noticing your reaction, Professor Aspecta asks, "Oh, have you heard the name before? I'm surprised. He's a fairly controversial figure in some circles, to the point that many in the magic world do not speak of him regularly despite enjoying some of the progressive advancements they enjoy today."

Her voice sounds legitimately curious, as if she is genuinely unaware of what happened in the dreamscape. Is she testing you?