What happened to the small and easy class Kedrin had promised him? Aldric liked to think he knew more magic theory than most, but this rate of progress was ridiculous. Though, speaking of progress...

“Alright, how about this?” Aldric announced as he made his way to his office. “I’ve got a bit of a test for you.” Alek and Codrin both groaned in tandem, while Nadrina let out a cry of panic.

“Not that kind of test,” Aldric said, rolling his eyes. His students craned their necks to look through his office door as he went to one of his bags, pulled out the object he’d been looking for, and came back to the classroom and presented it to them. In his hands was a small, perfectly smooth and clear stone with no edges. It almost looked like glass when it caught the light just right.

“Is that a piece of Glycite?” Lilianna asked with a surprised gasp. “Aren’t those supposed to be extremely expensive?”

“Yep, made—,” Aldric started, then stopped himself. He was about to say he made it himself, but decided against that. “Borrowed it from the headmaster. Perks of being acquainted with him.”

“You’re friends with the headmaster?!” Nadrina asked in obvious awe. The other three looked just as surprised.

Crap.

Aldric plowed forward before they could ask any more questions. “Anyway, this mineral is most commonly used to measure mana potential, because of its unique reactive nature to mana. Someone probably tested you for mage talents when you first applied to the academy with something like this. Less commonly, it’s also used to monitor progress in a mage’s training.”

That got their attention. Codrin looked ready to leap up and grab the stone right then and there, but Aldric headed him off by tossing it to him. Codrin juggled it a bit, not ready for the throw, before he held it in front of himself. He had an almost reverent look on his face as he gazed at it.

“For those not familiar, imbuing some of your mana into that stone will reveal your overall mana pool size, affinities, mana control, and various other things. We’ll be using it from now on to measure your progress.” At the eager look from Codrin, Aldric hurried to continue. “And when I say some, I mean some. Dumping mana into it won’t make your results any better. It will screw your mana control measurement up if you try too hard.”

Codrin visibly reigned in his enthusiasm and concentrated on the Glycite. Within a few minutes, his mana filled the clear stone with a bright orange light. The light shifted to red as it swirled clockwise within the center of the stone, filling up about two-thirds of it.