He looked down at the unused spell scroll on his desk, not even touching it. “Hey! Blow up or something.”

The scroll, to Liliana’s amazement, did just that. With a loud bang, the scroll burst into tiny fragments that fluttered all around the professor like confetti, some of them smoking slightly as they fell. The shouts of alarm and amazement mirrored Liliana’s own thoughts. Igni was only meant to heat something to the point of burning, not explode.

“Speaking the runes is not just for concentration, it conveys intent. You all heard what I said earlier, right? Mana wants to change. It just needs a direction to do so, and your intent provides that direction, even if that intent it not exactly what the spell was made to do. There’s a lot more wiggle room to runes than you would think.”

Every student, even Codrin and the other boy, were now paying rapt attention as the professor continued his lecture. “It’s not just limited to speaking, either. You just saw Lilianna cast double elemental magic without uttering a word, merely through what her intent conveyed. The sad truth is not enough people wonder what a spell is, and instead only ask what the spell is designed to do. This is why so many mages think that crafting your own spells is reserved for experts. Asking questions is always good, but asking the wrong ones can get you stuck in preconceived notions of how the world works.”

“That still doesn’t explain the white fire! How did you do it?” Codrin called from his desk.

“The white fire is a combination of three elements; Fire for the flame itself, wind to stoke the flame to a higher temperature, and earth to remove impurities from the air.” He moved to the chalkboard, probably to draw out the rune diagram, then stopped when he again remembered the chalk board was ruined. “Whatever,” he muttered irritably, again taking out his knife and carving a diagram directly onto the chalkboard.

“The principles are the same even if you don’t have the affinity for those elements, but this method won’t work without them. That’s why our resident Professor Glory is rather infamous for her use of white flames. She’s the only conjurer with the affinities and talent to pull it off.”

“But didn’t you use them yesterday?” Nadrina suddenly asked. Professor Aldric gave her a blank stare, like she'd just caught him in a lie and he didn’t know how to get out of it.

“That was... a bit different,” he hedged, clearly uncomfortable. “And beyond the scope of what we’re talking about.”