Chapter 33 - 32: Elemental Affinity

Chapter 33: Chapter 32: Elemental Affinity

The old man set the paper down in front of him, then gestured at the stone basin in the middle of the table. It was shallow, filled with a completely clear liquid so clear that Noah could see the bottom through it, where a fine magical rune sat carved into the stone itself. The man tapped a finger against the rim. A faint sound came, white light spread out from the center of the rune, and the liquid began to move, slow at first. As the water turned, the rune’s shape warped a little, as though it had grown deeper than the basin’s depth should allow.

"Look at the center of the rune. Don’t look away from it."

Noah sat in the chair opposite the sink and looked at the liquid. Since he got to the registration station, he had learned not to use his magic tool unless he understood how it worked. He had learned this lesson after the warning at the entrance.

But finding out, too late, that the tool could feel an attempt to probe it that was the kind of mistake there was no walking back from. So he settled for what his eyes could see.

Nothing happened at first. Then, after a few seconds, the light from the rune grew clearer, and the clear liquid kept turning in tight circles. Noah felt like something was wrong when he felt drawn to the center of the basin.

But the sounds around him seemed to draw back a little, and his focus on the rune sharpened without his meaning it to. He caught the effect at once. He didn’t fight it every candidate went through this test, and trying to force it off would raise more suspicion than letting it work.

The old man asked, "What do you see?"

The liquid changed in front of Noah’s eyes, slowly. Small white specks appeared at the edges of the rune first, and from them stretched pale blue threads that began to spread through the basin. Only moments passed before most of the liquid lay under a layer like frozen mist, and small crystals of frost started forming along the stone rim itself.

Noah watched it a while, then said:

"White, tending to blue... and frost covering most of the basin."

The old man didn’t look surprised. He took the pen at his side and jotted something on the paper before asking:

"Do you see anything else?"

Noah concentrated intensely. He saw faint red points at the far end of the rune emerging briefly between the white and blue. Few enough that he could have let them pass, if the man hadn’t asked him outright.

"There are some red points."

The man’s hand stopped for a moment.

"Many?"

"No. They barely show."

He nodded, then tapped the basin again. The rune went dark all at once and the liquid stopped turning, and in that same instant the faint pressure tugging at Noah’s attention was gone. He blinked a few times then looked at the basin without reaching his mana sense toward it.

"An illusion..."

Clearly the rune didn’t rely on direct interaction with mana alone. It pushed a person into a state of focus that made his natural response to the element easier to draw out. He didn’t know how it managed that, and he didn’t try to guess further than the information in front of him allowed.

The old man lifted the paper and said:

"Your main affinity is frost and ice. Very high, too."

He looked at the basin and added:

"You’ve got a weak trace of fire, but it’s small enough that it’s not worth bothering with right now."

Noah’s face didn’t change, though his mind snagged on that last part. The ice affinity was no surprise he’d used frost for years, and his response to it had been natural almost from the first time. The different thing was that fire trace. The original body’s memories told him the child who’d lived in it before the crossover had a clear leaning toward fire, while the affinity had shifted after Noah arrived and tied itself to ice.

"So not everything vanished."

He didn’t know whether affinity was tied to the body, the soul, or both together. But a trace of fire made it more reasonable that the body itself carried part of the old affinity. This was no place to raise that kind of question, though.

The old man wrote the result on the paper, then said:

"A mage can, in theory, learn more than one kind of magic. But affinity decides what he uses with the best efficiency. The closer the element is to your nature, the less mana you need, the faster the shaping goes, and the stronger the spell. Try to use an element that doesn’t suit you and it’ll cost you more for a worse result."

Noah said:

"So affinity doesn’t stop me from using other elements."

"No. It tells you whether you’re wasting your time."

The man rolled the pen between his fingers and went on:

"A mage with a strong fire affinity can use a water spell if he learns one. But why would he, if it burns twice the mana for half the result? In some cases there are reasons. For someone at the start, though, the best thing is to go with the element that answers him naturally."

Noah nodded. It matched what he’d noticed himself. He’d never had to force the mana into producing frost it was more like steering something that already knew where it was supposed to go. Only now did he have an official explanation for it, instead of leaning on his own experience.

The man sealed the paper and handed it back.

"Your test is done."

Noah looked at the new line written on it.

Main affinity: ice and frost.

Secondary affinity: weak trace of fire.

He folded the paper a little and held it in his hand, then left the room through the back door. The outer courtyard was more crowded than when he’d entered. A number of candidates had finished their examinations and stood in small clusters waiting for the next instructions, while others gathered near the buildings, talking over their results at the top of their voices.

Noah didn’t have to search long before he spotted Charles.

He was standing near one of the stone pillars, done with his own test. The moment he saw Noah he broke off from his group and came over.

"Finished?"

"Yes."

Charles looked at the paper in Noah’s hand.

"And the result?"

"Ice."

Charles waited a beat, then raised an eyebrow.

"That’s all you want to say?"

"Wasn’t it obvious?"

Charles laughed.

"Nothing. I’m starting to see you like giving as little in your answers as in your questions."

Noah didn’t comment. He looked at the paper Charles was holding and asked:

"What does affinity actually matter for inside the Academy?"

"Didn’t the examiner explain it?"

"He explained the basics."

Charles tilted his head a little before saying:

"Then there’s not much for me to add. Blood quality decides how far your body can go. Affinity decides the path where you use your power best. Someone with excellent blood and a bad affinity won’t necessarily end up weak, but he’ll need more time and more resources than someone who has both."

Noah looked at him.

Charles lifted the paper in his hand a little.

"There isn’t a lot of mana. Whether you want to train spells or raise your level, you need a plan. Imagine two people who can reach the same result, but one needs half the mana the other does. It’s clear which of them will last twenty or fifty years."

Noah found the explanation sound. Magic wasn’t just a matter of holding a big reserve the supervising mage in the ogre battle had proven that to him. The efficiency with which you turned that reserve into power mattered every bit as much, and affinity was maybe one of the ways this world set that efficiency.

He paused a moment before asking:

"And the reinforcement technique the escorts used in the mountains? Does that count as a kind of physical affinity too?"

Charles looked at him with mild surprise.

"It was useful. But it’s very limited, and meant for those of lower blood."

"It’s nothing more than a shortcut the nobles handed out to make that scum a little useful."

He lowered his voice a bit.

"By the way, the Academy’s a bit different. Unlike the five great families and the Church, the Academy was founded later, by a talented noble who doesn’t much believe in noble principles. Because it lacked talent and power, it recruited the families’ bastard children, and over time the gap between the Academy and the noble families turned into hatred."

Real interest showed in Noah’s eyes.

"Then why does the Academy accept us?"

Charles smiled.

"To try and win us over, of course. Do you know what portion of nobles drop their loyalty to their clans in exchange for chasing greater power? Close to half."

Noah didn’t answer. He waited for Charles to go on.

Charles noticed the silence and continued:

"You’ve probably noticed it already. The noble family mostly loses interest in the children it sends to the Academy otherwise, why wouldn’t any noble family just escort its own children instead of sending them with a caravan? The truth is, the moment we chose to enroll, Charlemagne already gave up hope of us coming back."