Teaching the Students (1/2)
[Author's Note: This chapter details a school arc, where Haalfrin is the head of that school. I considered stretching this out over a longer arc, spanning greater detail and many chapters. However, the idea of writing a school arc makes me physically ill, so this chapter will merely be a summary.]
[If anyone particularly wants me to write this arc out in greater detail… I'm really sorry. I hate school arcs. In fact, I have a school arc written in a completely different story, and I can't bear to do that twice.]
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After Haalfrin accepts his new calling, Das introduces him to one of his aides, and he tells him that he'll follow him back to the Threshold and help him make arrangements. Haalfrin doesn't have to be burdened with the bureaucratic paperwork involved with founding a school (for which Haalfrin is grateful).
As for the issue of getting students to show up… that's not much of a problem, what with Lareen's god personally vouching for Haalfrin's skill as a mage, despite nobody having ever actually seen him fight.
So, Haalfrin goes back to the Valor Hall, and he tells his Arkin what he's going to be doing in the Valor Hall.
Haalfrin thinks that the Arkin are going to protest his plans, since many of them are quite territorial about these walls – not wanting outsiders to come into the inner palace.
So, Haalfrin quickly explains before the others can object, "I'm getting old, and we won't be able to stay in these halls forever. We need to leave behind people in the living world who can carry on our work."
"It's fine, general," Captain Kaalhyme says while smiling, "We're just surprised that you're taking the initiative to do something other than lock yourself in your room and listen to sad music."
"Yeah, we were really getting worried for you," another Arkin says. "I'm just glad that you found something to do. Tell us how we can help, and we'd do it!"
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And so, the Arkin captains pass on the order to the other soldiers. 'Prepare training material, and brush up on your teaching skills.'
While the Valor Hall is being remodeled into classrooms and training yards, a steady stream of visitors from Lareen start trickling into the inner palace – mostly bureaucrats from the Ministry of Education, as well as many young misses and masters from well-to-do families – all wanting to negotiate sending their children here for education.
Everyone knows that Haalfrin has a way of elevating a human into a High Human by becoming his soldier, and they know that High Humans have a very stable afterlife in the Death Realm – being powerful and well respected individuals.
Naturally, with no wars here, and no apparent duties in the Valor Hall to worry about, the rich especially want to become a part of the Valor Hall.
Regardless of people trying to get into his new school through the back door, Haalfrin learns from the Minister of Education that the public schools in Lareen have a worldwide education schedule.
With education being so structured, it's not a surprise that every class is divided up into school years – each school year being taught slightly more advanced content than the last.
Due to school-years uniformly ending on the last day of the year and beginning 3 weeks later, Haalfrin knows that he has a few months to prepare the Valor Hall before students actually start showing up.
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So, in the meantime, Haalfrin diligently studies the curriculum that students are taught in Lareen's public schools; he even visits a few schools incognito, and he uses his scrying magic to peek in on some of the classes.
One of the things he learns really fast is that there are two sets of schools in Lareen – schools for general knowledge and schools for arcane knowledge.
Starting at age 5 and up to age 20, all children attend "general education" schools. Here, they're all taught basic things, like math, history and basic science.
Then, at age 20 to age 50, they're transferred to "arcane education" schools. Here, they study there for the next 30 years.
Magic teaching in Lareen is all about "discovering your true self", due to "knowing yourself" being a condition to learning your Soul Names.
Thus, the school years here are much more relaxed than the general education section. Every single class is an optional elective, where hobbies are taught more in depth, and people are taught to pursue their interests.
… Yeah. Haalfrin can immediately see a few problems with this method of awakening magic.
First and foremost, this teaching method seems geared towards White Souls while completely neglecting Black Souls. After all, White Souls awaken through becoming acquainted with themselves, and Black Souls awaken through passing the various tests of life – by doing hard things.
Even for the White Souls, who are supposed to be benefited the most from this Education, their Names won't be very strong. In fact, they'll be quite mediocre souls, in general.
After all, the education system depends on people shaping their Identities around a few, preset categories. They may get Names, but they won't be very good Names.
'Well, that's enough information,' Haalfrin thinks one day. 'I know what the problem is, so I can start coming up with a curriculum…'
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When the new school year arrives, droves of students start to show up. The first thing he does is divide everyone up into White and Black souls – White on the left side, and Black on the right.
As all the young people are splitting up, Haalfrin notices that there is a lone individual in the middle who is anxiously wondering where he should go. It's a young, scrawny looking boy with a confused look on his face.
Looking at the young boy (no older than 22), Haalfrin notices with his Spirit Magic that none of the kids here are very fond of this boy. Given the sad state of the kid's Spirit Threads, Haalfrin can immediately tell that he's a bit of an outcast.
Not wanting to draw unwanted attention to the boy, Haalfrin sends a telepathic message to him, "What's your name, kid?"
"Y-yohan!"
"Ok, Yohan," Haalfrin says, "How did you get a Grey Soul?"
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As it turns out, Yohan was on the verge of becoming a mage last year, but he failed in his awakening, and his soul was damaged.
Not much is known about Grey Souls, so everyone in his school thought that he'd lost his qualifications to become a mage. Frankly, all the new students were surprised to see Yohan actually show up here. Is that really allowed?
Sensing Yohan's distress, Haalfrin cheers the boy up by telling him about the two people he knows of who have grey souls.
Yohan doesn't know of Fisco very well, so he doesn't react much when his name is dropped. However, when Haalfrin tells him that the goddess of Arra, Queen Fina, has a Grey soul, Yohan is ecstatic.
While everyone is being sent off to their dorms, Haalfrin invites Yohan to his office, and he teaches him about Grey souls, and how they develop their Names.
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First, Grey souls get Significance from other people, from their surroundings, or their circumstances.
Some are born great (White Souls).
Some achieve greatness (Black souls).
Some have greatness thrust upon them (Grey Souls).
[Author's Note: Quote from 12th Night, by Willian Shakespear]
Basically, grey souls don't have a specific Key to open their Soul Gates; since the lock itself doesn't exist. In order to get a Name and open their Gate, they need to have something much more powerful than them imprint onto them.
This is actually the reason why Artifact Spirits (the lowest tier of Elementals) all have grey souls.
For example, a sword artifact may develop intelligence and grow a grey soul if it's wielded long enough by a powerful Soul, like a god, or a renowned warrior.
Then, there are the people who are turned into grey souls, due to a brief exposure to the Void. These people are like the Ant Queen, Fisco, and Yohan. These people gain more Names the same way.
The Ant Queen gained the ability to open more Soul Gates the longer she was embroiled in a Significant War.
Fisco gained his Yiir Name because he absorbed the after effects of a powerful god-candidate's own awakening.
Yohan… just needs to do something similar. He needs help in becoming a mage.
In a sense, this is actually good news for Yohan. A prospective mage with any other color of soul can't actually get much help in comprehending their Names… but Yohan is different. As long as he has the resources or opportunities, he can get all the help he wants in advancing his career as a mage!
And so, once Haalfrin is done teaching young Yohan about his real potential, the young boy is shown to his quarters, and he goes to bed that night dreaming of his grand future.
Feeling the boy's contented Spirit Threads, Haalfrin gets a warm feeling in his heart.
'Ah. I've already helped someone along,' he thinks with a smile. 'That was quick. And… That was actually quite satisfying.'
Perhaps being the head of an Arcane Academy… won't be so bad?