No one else spoke, but the curiosity and excitement in their eyes was obvious. Well, that hadn’t gone the way he wanted it to. His expression must have given him away, because Nadrina looked guilty.

“You don’t have to, Professor. I was just wondering...” she muttered dejectedly.

Well... maybe it would be a teachable moment? To temper their expectations? Snagging the stone from a surprised Nadrina, Aldric walked to the front of the room and faced the class, holding the Glycite in his right hand for all of them to see.

Unlike Nadrina’s, Aldric’s stone filled nearly instantaneously, the black specs appearing and coalescing much faster. Then they stopped before it had even taken up a quarter of the crystal.

The class stared in silence at the barely filled stone. Several of them had to lean forward just to see the tiny black sphere. When it became obvious that it wasn’t going to do anything else, Codrin was the one to voice their thoughts.

“That’s it?” he asked, incredulous.

“That’s it,” Aldric answered, a lazy smirk on his lips.

“But it’s so small!” Nadrina exclaimed, then seemed to realize how rude that sounded. “Um, I mean, I just thought—”

“Yep, it is,” Aldric agreed, not upset in the least. This was the reaction he’d gotten for most of his life. “Let this be a lesson for all of you. What you were born with and what you end up with at the end of it all can be two very different things. I think it’s fair to say that I’m more skilled in magic than any of you, and yet my mana pool would only fill up a tiny fraction of yours.”

He pocketed the Glycite and gave them all a wolfish smile. “It also means none of you have an excuse for falling behind. If I can do it, so can you. If I’m going to be calling you my students, then I’ll be expecting nothing but excellence from all of you.”

“A lesson well taught, Professor,” came a familiar voice from the room’s entrance. Kedrin was standing there, a delighted smile on his face. “We at the academy are only here to give you the right direction, but all of that passion and determination will need to come from within. That being said, whatever any of your circumstances might be, every one of you can overcome them, perhaps even surpass them.”

The class seemed rather shell-shocked to be addressed by the headmaster himself, but Aldric had been expecting him today. This was part of his “special arrangement”. Kedrin would periodically check on his progress and make sure the kids were up to academy standards. Aldric was more than a little confident that Kedrin would be both surprised and pleased with how far they had come.