Before anyone could say anything else, he finished his diagrams and addressed the class. “We’ll save the heavy experimenting for later, however. I don’t need you setting fire to yourselves trying something you’re not ready for. And before you complain,” he said with a pointed look at Codrin, who had just opened his mouth, “another heir of one of the Four Great Houses just tried only two elements together and nearly passed out. What do you think attempting white flames with just one affinity would do to you?”

Codrin’s mouth snapped shut at the professor’s words. It was clear by the nervous look on his face that he was imagining the consequences. Mana was inherent in everyone, even in trace amounts for non-mages. Losing all of it meant you dropped dead where you stood, regardless of power. Trying a spell you weren’t ready for was a sure way to die young.

“So, for starters, let’s try this. We’re going to practice activating a spell with our intent, rather than our words.” Lilianna suspected the professor’s pockets were just bottomless pits, because he somehow pulled out two more spell scrolls and gave them to Codrin and Nadrina. From what Lilianna could glimpse, they were incredibly complex rune arrays.

“For starters, try activating these scrolls with the rune arrays I’ve already inscribed them with. Not you, shaggy. You get a different assignment, since enforcers don’t use runes starting out.”

The brown-haired boy looked at the professor in annoyance. “My name is Alek. Alek Carlisle.”

“Sure. So Alek, when you want to punch something really hard with enforcement, how do you do it?”

Alek looked back at the professor with confusion. “Um, I just fortify my body with mana...”

“Your whole body?”

“Well, yeah? How else would—?” Alek cut off as a light filled his eyes. He began glowing with mana as he augmented his whole body, then stared intensely at his right hand. The glow there brightened considerably, then suddenly cut off when Alek yelled, “Ow! Shit!”

Professor Aldric just laughed. “Yeah, hurts, doesn’t it? You’ve got the right idea, though. Why fortify your whole body when you only need your hand to hit something? It’s a bit more complicated than stuffing your fist full of mana, but we’ll go over human anatomy later. Keep practicing. Start with one of your arms. It’s easier.”

“Lilly!”

A very excited Nadrina grabbed Lilianna’s view. “That was amazing! I’ve never seen combining two elements before! And you didn’t even speak the incantation! Have you always been able to do that? What did it feel like? Can all nobles do that? How did you—?”

“Easy, kiddo. Let the girl breath.” The professor’s voice broke through the tumult of questions from Nadrina. He squatted down next to her chair until he was eye level with her. “How are you holding up, Lilly?”