The Lesson

A few hours before dawn, while the moon shines bright, a figure moves quickly and quietly within a hilltop home. They swiftly reach underneath a nightstand pulling out a small card, with the image of a cheerful jester embedded into the card with pure black ink. After hiding the card the cloaked figure stalks down the hall, and opens a rickety wooden door to see Arne sleeping softly, mumbling in his sleep, they smile, a golden lock of hair falling loose underneath their hood only to be quickly hidden. They shut the door and dash into the woods, eyeing the position of the moon closely.

Several hours later as the sun rises, Arne wakes up and quickly departs the house after eating and saying his goodbyes to his mother. On his way to school he meets up with Eli yet again, and they chat the rest of the way, much more comfortably than when they first became acquainted. They shortly arrive at school.

Once Arne, Eli, and Thea have sat down in the classroom, Mr. Gregory begins his daily speech.

"Good morning you three, today I will be covering briefly some basics on magic, geography, history, and I will touch on cards as the day comes to a close. I will take questions anytime during the session."

All three students sit eagerly awaiting this influx of new information, and when Mr. Gregory notices their expectant looks, he swiftly begins the lesson.

"Let us begin with magic." He draws a rhombus in the center of the blackboard, and draws a symbol at each corner. The top symbol is a swirl, the bottom is two semicircles one large and once small drawn to look like a hilly landscape, the left corner is a teardrop shape, and the right is a flame.

"Can anyone tell me the significance of these symbols? Thea?" Mr. Gregory calls. Thea swiftly answers, still attempting to appear aloof.

"They are the four elements: wind, water, earth, and fire."

"Exactly. Most know of these elements as they occur very commonly in everyday life, but let me introduce you to a layer of depth many in small towns like this don't think about often, in terms of magic at least." He draws another rhombus, this one larger, and directly around the previous one, so the core elements are within this larger shape.

Mr. Gregory draws four new symbols, the top being a star, bottom being a trapezoid, the right being a jagged line, and the left symbol being a teardrop with a circle around it with six fork-like shapes around it evenly.

"These," he says, "are the secondary elements: lightning, metal, summoning, and ice. They may appear separate from the primary elements, but those who have affinities in corresponding primary elements, may become specialized in respective secondary elements. As is the case with your affinity Arne."

Eli shifts uncomfortably before asking, "Does someone need to have an affinity to utilize certain elements?"

"To put it simply, no." responds Mr. Gregory, "But having an affinity will affect training speed, spell efficiency, mana consumption, and many other minor factors. Though in order to cast spells one must have enough latent magical affinity, you three are the only ones of the class that do that is why your former classmates left. Roughly half of the population in our Sword Kingdom has the capacity to cast magic, it is higher in other regions and lower in others though."

Arne quickly blurts out, "What is latent magical affinity, how is it different from regular affinity?" as soon as he hears a gap in Mr. Gregory's lecture.

"I would like to know the answer to that as well Arne," replied Mr. Gregory before elaborating, "that question is still debated amongst magical researchers still, and the simplest answer was the one my teacher at the academy gave, he said that 'If we quantified latent magical affinity into a currency perhaps, then, say one would need a total of one-hundred coins worth of latent affinity to be able to cast spells, and say twenty-five to have an affinity. You are born with a set amount of coins, some more than others, and when you are born you spread those one-hundred.... or however many coins you have randomly amongst those eight major elements, with the occasional point going towards a conceptual element, and those are your affinities. Those numbers will rarely change within your life, but rarely, when put under extreme stress, life threatening stress, your mana can spark a qualitative change to a certain affinity so those few coins are suddenly worth much more."

'If that was the simple explanation....' thought Arne, before pondering over his own affinities. How much latent affinity was he born with? How strong is his water affinity? Could he gain an affinity for another element if he were in danger? What are conceptual elements? How rare is Eli's element? Before he could drift too far into thought Thea raised her hand and asked.

"What are conceptual elements?"

"That is another difficult question," responded Mr. Gregory, stroking his chin to find a simpler way to explain to children, he explains: "They are harder to define. They are detached from the eight major elements, but still connected. Take the light element for example, it has enormous healing capabilities, but where it connects to the major elements in both fire and lightning, it is very different from the two, which are notoriously destructive. It is much harder to define conceptual elements, like Eli's element," he whispers "darkness," before continuing normally, "could be interpreted as absence of light, but it is much more, as why would there be an affinity for something at doesn't exist?"

"It is complex," he continues, "but do not think that just because you may not have an affinity it doesn't mean you can cast certain spells. There are many who utilize harmonizing elements as their main elements, and they are much more common than conceptual element mages. Though it is a difficult path, as a mixed mage has to go through the process of creating that combined element before it is usable."

"Anyways, let us move on to geography. We can speak more on magic in the coming weeks as we learn to circulate mana. We will begin with us. Can any of you tell me the name of the continent we live on?" he asks, resting his index fingers on his lips. After a few moments of silence Arne speaks up.

"The Sword Kingdom?" he asks, reluctantly.

"No," responds Mr. Gregory, "that would be the country we live in, but you were on the right track. We live on the largest continent, at a perfect temperate climate. Our continent is the Baccar continent, and any other continent is across the Great Ocean, the icy Outlands is to the north. To the east is the Ash Wastes, and to the far west is the Forsaken Isles. Eli, can you tell me the names of the four Kingdoms of our continent?"

"Y-yes sir, that would be the Sword Kingdom, the Wands Kingdom, the Coins Kingdom, a-and the Cups Kingdom." said Eli, clearly showing off his knowledge to Arne, who sits grumpy waiting for Mr. Gregory to explain more.

"Perfect answer Eli! Yes, those are the names of the four Kingdoms, out of all of the continents our government is the most complex. The Outlands have many individual city lords called 'Jarls', while the Forsaken Isles are ruled by a single cruel entity, and the Ash Wastes have little to no organization at all from my understanding."

"The history of each individual Kingdom is fascinating. The Wands to the north began in the Greatwoods as a nation of elves, but now they welcome all in pursuit of higher magics, while our kingdom to the south has been a warring nation of humans, founding our path through martial mastery. Historically we gained our power through beasts, rather than mana, and we created forms that are used by the military which correspond to certain animals, such as the Insect Styles for lighter weapons, or in my case, the Fox Style, which I use for nimble and precise movements."

"Mr. Gregory! Will we get to learn any styles?" exclaimed Arne, a bit louder than necessary.

"Yes, you will," said Mr. Gregory, "but you will learn it after you have mastered the basics of your weapon, and we are only allowed to give students the first stage of their weapon art, so they draw you into the military. Do not expect too much from it, as it is only meant as a parting gift for graduates, so you will have to wait until you graduate in two years." Arne's mood considerably darkens, but brightens when he thinks of another question.

"What were Lily and Roger's weapons and styles?" Arne chirped, curious about his siblings' fighting styles. Thea trembles slightly.

"Lily had a skinny sword called a rapier, and she uses Butterfly Style if I remember correctly, and your brother Roger was a handful since he insisted on using his fists instead of a weapon, we had to request a fist art from the military, but they followed through and we got Roger the Bear Style."

Arne's eyes shine in excitement thinking of what kind of art he will get when he graduates.

Mr. Gregory continues with the lesson, "As for the other two, the Coins Kingdom is a congregation of eastern merchant families in the Golden Desert, not of any specific race, in fact one of the only things that those families have in common is their greed. Finally is the Cups Kingdom in the western mountains, favoring technology over war or magic. They are a reclusive bunch, and from what I know, they are mainly dwarven craftsmen and researchers."

Thea raises her hand to ask a question, and asks respectfully: "You said you were going to talk about cards at the beginning of the lesson. Can we learn about that before class is over?"

Mr. Gregory gazes out of the window at the sun, and nods his head while stroking his chin. "I suppose we should, it ties heavily into history anyway."

Arne and Eli perk up, hoping that this may be more interesting than the geography lesson.

Mr. Gregory rubs his hands together before mumbling "Where to start.... hmm.... I guess I will work my way up." He faces the students intently before continuing, "Cards, are likely one of the most important and crucial centerpieces of this world. I will begin with the status card." A line on his palm begins to glow bright green before the edges of a card appear from within his palm. He grabs the edge and pulls the card out completely. It reads:

[Name:] Roman Gregory

[Race:] Human

[Titles:] Earth Mage, Metal Mage, Blademaster, Fox Style Master, Card Wielder, Scholar, Teacher

[Rank:] 50, 114,626/3,600,900 3%

[HP:] 10K/10K

[MP:] 50K/50K

[SP:] 10K/10K

[Affinities:] Earth, Metal, Teaching

[Attributes:]

[STR:] 141

[DEX:] 72

[AGI:] 65

[INT:] 206

[WIS:] 233

[PER:] 97

[LUC:] 1

[CHA:] 40

[VIT:] 136

[Cards:] Earthen Robe, Raevblade

"This," he says, "is a status card." He throws it into the air and it dissolves into green particles.

"Each of you will get a status card when you have learned to circulate mana, so that you may absorb the card and let it bond with you, so that it will update your condition constantly. Aside from your status card, there are many different items that can be created into cards, such as weapons or armor." As he says this he pulls out two different cards from his pocket, one transforming into a dark brown robe, the other into a silver sword with a fox head carved into the pommel, it appears similar in proportion to the training weapon he used at the training field.

"Most smiths have the skill required to change everyday equipment into cards, and it makes everything more convenient, as well as allowing one to fuse with a card once someone reaches higher mastery. It takes constant practice and conditioning to be able to fuse with a card, so under no circumstances will you attempt to fuse with a card that you aren't confident in being able to fuse with." he continues. As he explains the uses of cards Arne gets more and more excited thinking of how utterly awe inspiring those cards are.

"There are also summon cards and beast cards, but those are rarer and I don't happen to own any of them, but I will explain them anyway. First are the summon cards, which allows you to summon an ally from within the card temporarily, card summons are soulless and will only follow what you order them to, so it is not the most practical. Next are beast cards, which are the greatest feasible card to own, as it allows you to transform into a beast that matches the one on the card. Skilled users can do partial or full transformations, which can widely affect the tide of any battle, though I've heard that it hurts to transform so never use one lightly."

Arne's eyes glow with the thought of transforming into a bird and being able to soar above the trees, but before he falls too deep into fantasy, Mr. Gregory drops a final bombshell.

"There are more cards as well. The Arcana. These cards and the people or beasts that hold them are able to cause the rise and fall of Kingdoms, Major Arcana wielders may even be able to reform an entire continent to their will."

"W-what are the Arcana c-cards?" asked Eli half fear, half wonder gleamed within his mind.

"I doubt you will ever come in contact with any of them, but they are very powerful and very rare cards, they are Unique, only one of each exists in the entire world. The weaker Arcana, now when I say weak, I mean in comparison to Major Arcana. Minor Arcana can blow any card out of the water in usefulness. They are organized into suits, Swords, Cups, Wands, Coins and are further split into and Ace, King, Queen, Knight, and 2-10. The Kingdoms on the Baccar continent were founded by someone who possessed the Ace, and most of the cards in each suit have been contained within the borders of each kingdom, though some are still unaccounted for."

"What about the Major Arcana?" probed Thea, clearly excited, despite her intentions.

"There are twenty-two Major Arcana. Each one has the ability to make one unparalleled. Of the twenty-two only four have been identified as Major Arcana holders. The Temperance is held by a wanderer, nobody knows its goals or ambitions. The Death is held by a twisted and cruel Lich, who destroyed the Forsaken Isles to remake it to its liking. The High Priestess is rumored to be within the Kingdom of Cups, and finally The Empress who is a dryad that has allied herself with his majesty, the King. Only those who have the cards know what extravagant powers they give, so I would recommend steering clear of anywhere that ever mentions the Major Arcana. Class dismissed. I expect to see you ready to learn tomorrow."

Arne, Eli, and Thea all sit in class for a few moments dumbstruck, questions frantically exploding within their heads but unable to leave their lips. How powerful does a holder of a Major Arcana become? Where are the other eighteen Major Arcana? What would happen if someone owned multiple Major Arcana?

Arne flashes a wide smile, standing quickly. 'If I want my questions answered, then I will have to collect the cards myself!'