[The Lyceum] Introduction to Glyphing (Open)

[Louie Wein]

27th day of Winter 511 AV

Those three circles would be the first things that the students would see prominently displayed in the chalkboard up front. What exactly would they be learning today? Its a surprise because although Mr Wein never liked being kept in the dark, sometimes it was necessary to keep his student's interests but today was not about their interests was it? Glyphing...one the words used to describe the horrible thing which happened to Mihai as described by Cian Noc. Unfortunately Louie's lack of knowledge meant he had no idea what it meant and for that it meant that he had to find out. The good thing was that the Lyceum he spent a lot of his time in had a lot of books, some on magic for the special classes that they had too.

And Louie was having too even if he did not have the qualifications as well because he was thinking that it might be lucky if among all his students, there would be that one who knew glyphing and knew it well. Well enough to correct him and guide him to where he wanted to be. "Wishful thinking" since Ciel could only see students the same way as subordinates which are either really useful or as they were most of the time, really useless. However, teaching had its moments where there were students which truly stood out for Louie. Thinking that he would have no regrets in giving this class.

Once enough students have gathered Louie would ask if "any of you know the reason why I have drawn these out for you?" The drawing was the easy part. The hard thing was knowing what they actually do. "At least most of your students are not as stupid as they seem coming into your class" and Louie could agree with that much when he acknowledged "yes, they are all different but do you know why? What changes between each of the circles?" besides the way the look.

"I'll give you a hint" he said while tracing the near perfect circle in the middle like he did when he drew it, over and over again while clearing his throat until he was able to give a smile because one of the students pointed it out because "you are right. This is the the main focus for today's lesson" with the word focus being dragged on in hopes that someone would get it like the circle. None of them got the hint this time or they might have been afraid to speak out. "You are all students of the Lyceum. One of you at least has to know something?" he asked the class starting to regret even bothering to start this now because "what do you know, they are all not as smart as you want them to be."

It was fine if none of them knew what it was when they called out the glyph in front of them. They should know...Louie knew that as a teacher he should supply some answers to the students that they might get if he did not give them enough time to prepare so that the class can keep on moving. On the tables there were books. A lot of books which Louie has used as references in preparation for this class and if that was not enough, one of those books was in his hands as well. They all shared one thing in common that the most observant if not logical student can pick out and that was they all in some way had the word 'glyph' in their titles.

[Veldrys]

More than a year had passed since Veldrys had last been inside a classroom. There had simply been no time to continue his education in Denval. His life had been too busy with his duty at the Chapel, his patients, all those ominous things happening in the city. It had only been recently that things had calmed down a little.

And thus the Symenestra had decided to come to the Lyceum, at least every other day.

When he had found out that some of the classes were taught by Louie Wein, he had been surprised. He had never taken Louie for a teacher. The man seemed too narrowminded, too prejudiced, and his concern about the people of Denval seemed fake. He just didn’t give the impression of being the kind of man that enjoyed passing his knowledge on to others and helping them improve.

It would be interesting to see how he taught this course and if there was more to him than met the eye.

Since he didn’t want to attract too much attention or appear as if he wanted to make himself seem important, the Symenestra took a seat at the very back of the classroom. He had even brought a quill, ink and a notebook, just like any other student that was anxiously waiting for the course to begin and looking forward to learning something new.

As he saw the rather mishapen circles that Louie had drawn on the chalkboard at the front of the classroom, he shook his head lightly. What was that supposed to be? Were they going to learn to draw? Or how not to draw? Mathematics?

As Louie mentioned the word „focus“, the Symenestra arched an eyebrow. Glyphing? Could that be? He had never taken Louie for a mage. That was even more surprising than the revelation that he taught here. Louie had always seemed more like the kind of man that was supicious of mages and blamed them for all the bad things that happened in Denval.

He let his gaze sweep across the students in front of him. None of them seemed to have a clue. Actually he wasn’t sure if Louie himself had a clue either. The matriarch of the Orphine Web, his old glyphing teacher, hadn’t started her lessons like that.

„Glyphing, Mister Wein“, he spoke since it seemed as if nobody else could answer the question. „Today’s lesson seems to be about glyphing.“

[Xelhes]

Attending Louie's classes was almost becoming a hobby of Xelhes, as despite however uncomfortable he felt when the man directed attention towards the Ethaefal he did enjoy the experience. The human was a good teacher in his own way even if the classes did not seem to have any real predetermined structure to them but sometimes that simply added to the experience for the Ethaefal. Every time he attended he learned at least one thing and being forced to give his opinion in front of the class had slowly allowed him to become more comfortable with himself in general, as well as confident to an extent.

As others attending the class came in Xelhes paid them no attention, the Ethaefal sitting almost at the very front of the classroom. Sitting here he had noticed that less people talked which made it easier to concentrate on the lesson, an extremely helpful thing as Xelhes found that if he simply listened he would learn more than writing stuff down; his written Common lacking and missing details while trying to write down something. When he heard the sound of chalk against the board Xelhes looked up, watching as Louie drew what seemed to be three circles though one looked like it had been butchered.

As one of the students answered that the circles were different, only for the class to be re asked what changes about the circles, the Ethaefal gave Louie a confused look. What changed was obvious to Xelhes, yet he wondered if it was really as simple as he was thinking. As Louie traced the 'perfect' circle the Ethaefal eventually decided to simply try his answer, saying. "The internal structure of the circle changes. The first one has a single branching line, the second has nothing, and the third...I am unsure on how to describe that."

The third circle was a mess, that was the only way Xelhes knew how to put it, yet he did not say this just in case it somehow upset Louie. Aside from the differences between the circles Xelhes was unable to understand anything else. With the next question asked he looked from side to side, seeing if anyone knew what the topic was. To the Ethaefal it almost seemed like drawing would be the subject, yet that did not make sense and judging from Louie's past diagrams his drawing skills were the same level as Xelhes'.

When Veldrys answered Xelhes looked back at the Symenestra for a moment, not having noticed the man at all until now and that was only due to his strong accent. Without a word he turned back to Louie, waiting to see if this Glyphing thing was indeed the subject. He thought the word sounded familiar but was not confident in his memory as he had read many books during his time in Denval. Still, the word and poorly drawn circles stirred a familiar feeling in the Ethaefal, as if he had came across the subject before and simply forgot, or rejected it.

[Louie Wein]

Not that Louie Wein expected any proper answer since he did not understand much about glyphing himself. At most just a basic idea of what he scanned through some books just to see if he can get some answers today, perfectly evident from the way that he was going through the lesson with some books himself. In more ways than one he was not even a qualified teacher for this like Veldrys seemed to have known as well, he was just trying to learn about himself as well. Must be really lucky for him that Veldrys made an appearance here.

Too bad the same cannot be said with Xelhes. The poor ethaefal gave a very direct answer but at least it was better than nothing providing Louie a chance to ask again that "even the children in the Academy would be able to tell me that but, why do you think that the circles are like that?" When Xelhes said that "you can't even describe that, don't you think that it warrants less attention compared to the other two?" or at least it was that simple for Louie seeing that he was the designer of the monstrosity.

So it was with much joy that Louie was able to get the chalk off the board and point it to Veldrys who was "absolutely right!" and now that it was established it was time to reveal in passing that "you can probably find books like this in the Lyceum if you look for it" such as the ones near him. As Cian Noc had initially revealed to him "this is something that magic practitioners use" and on further investigation he found out that it was "to improve the use of their primary discipline."

Taking a pause to see the reactions of some of his students he said that "this might be taboo to some and for others something that you are already good at so if you are all not interested you can leave" through the door that he gestured towards. However for the rest especially "those interested in trying, pick up your quill" which he hoped that they brought along with them if they were really serious about the class. Not being able to write in common well was no excuse.

With a chuckle Louie drew two circles around his eyes explaining that especially those who are starting out, "the practitioners use this to increase the control over their djed" and like the first time he tried this out a few days back he started to force the djed to breach into the lines and settle down within the circle before like the glasses he was wearing, the things that he viewed became more focused into distinct colours which were their auras. The only difference this time was that it felt a whole lot easier.

Choosing the people which stood out like the ones who answered his questions, he would use his auristics to see if they were practitioners of magic while they tried out the lesson themselves. Just to satisfy as the spider would describe it, his prejudice until it was time for the next part.

[Veldrys]

As Xelhes spoke, the Symenestra turned his head and nodded at him. He hadn’t noticed the Ethaefal before. He then listened to Louie’s answer. He realized that he had just as little idea as to why the circles were the way they were as the rest of the people here. He wasn’t even sure what they had to do with anything. Were they supposed to be glyphs? He remembered that his teacher had made him draw something and then stand on the drawing while he morphed so that the magic would transfer into the drawing.

As Louie proceeded to claim that this was something that magic practitioners used to improve the use of their primary discipline, the Symenestra shook his head. „That’s not all, Mister Wein“, he remarked even though the human might not appreciate it. „Glyphing is most frequently used to store magic so that others can access it. At least that’s what I heard“, he added to make himself look a little unsure. He didn’t want Louie to make him leave because he knew too much, and he wasn’t ready to reveal the extent of his knowledge either. He wanted to listen to the human for another little while and find out just how good he was as a teacher.

So he picked up his quill. Unfortunately he had not considered the possibility that Louie knew Auristics and could find out whether he was a mage without asking him.

[Xelhes]

The moment Xelhes heard Louie say that an Academy student could have come up with his answer, the Ethaefal’s brow creased at the insult. If an Academy student could come up with such an answer then why did no one else answer, and better yet why would Louie waste time asking it? He knew better then to ask that though, and instead Xelhes asked, ”If it is something you cannot describe, should it not actually warrant more attention than the others? Being able to describe something means you can understand it to an extent, but if you cannot describe it than there is an absence of understanding. Something you do not understand normally is what some, myself included, would actually put more attention towards; I would rather learn the purpose of something I do not already know.”

A bit off topic, yet the Ethaefal hated it when Louie would treat him and some of his answers like an idiot. Xelhes knew he was not all that smart, but he also knew things Louie probably never would. Veldrys’ response caused a small smile to appear on the Ethaefal’s face, Xelhes turning around to look while the man replied. Xelhes himself typically refrained from saying anything even slightly negative towards Louie, yet he still felt the Academy comment to be too rude to get away with. Veldrys pointing out a lack of information in Louie’s explanation was something that normally would have made Xelhes’ shake his head, but right now all he could think about was how Louie deserved it. However, it took a moment for Xelhes to focus on the lesson again, unsure on if he should stay or not.

Magic was a scary thing to use as while it did have benefits, the risks that came with it were extreme. One wrong move and that was it, you could be dead or turn into something far worse. In fact Xelhes was surprised Louie was teaching anything that related to magic as while certain kinds of magic were acceptable, the Ethaefal believed them all to be highly dangerous. While the Ethaefal did tend to listen to the lessons rather than write things down, he was not so unprepared as to bring nothing at all. Reaching into his coat he pulled out some crumpled parchment, an old quill, and a very small vial that had maybe just enough non-crusted ink to get through the lesson.

None of it was really his, but rather materials that others no longer wanted due to their wear and tear, parchment aside. By the end of this lesson at the very latest, they would be useless. Setting himself up, he took his almost featherless quill and looked up at Louie, waiting for instructions.