Chapter 16: The exam, part 2
Cael swiftly wrote down the translation of the text on the blackboard. This was the simple part—but the rest was harder. It required not only the knowledge of Arcani, but also knowledge of the magic theory.
Cael was sure he read parts of this passage somewhere. It must've been something from one of Father's spellbooks. Some words, though, he knew even without trying to recall the exact sentences.
The second one was "creation". The fourth one was "nature", or maybe "world"… No, it was definitely "nature". The fifth or the sixth was power, and the other one… Cael couldn't quite recall.
He returned to the beginning. What could the first word be? "Old"? Cael frowned. This didn't sound quite right. "Magic is the most OLD and noble art"?
'No, it should be a stronger word. Something like… Right! It's "venerable". I remember now.' And it wasn't from a book, at least not one Cael recalled. It was something Father liked to tell Vittorio during lectures… Especially when Cael's brother grew bored.
The last word took Cael the longest time to decide on, but eventually, he half-deduced, half-recalled that it could be only "shape". Shape, as in the shape that mana takes to become a spell.
Finally, Cael added the Arcani translations of the inserted words and read the full text once again.
[Magic is the most venerable and noble art. Mages use the original language of creation to shape mana, the sacred energy of the world. By calling upon aspects of nature, they make their mana take its power and its shape.
Below are two spells. Describe what they do based on their contents, and explain why. One of them creates an ice wall, and the other throws freezing wind at enemies. Explain why each of them calls out to different aspects of cold.
"Eternal frost of the far North, come to my aid. Let your power be my chilling shield and my indomitable fortress."
"Winter's wrath, lend me your fierce frost. Let the icy gale consume all who oppose me and bury them under everlasting snow."]
This was trickier, but also more interesting. Cael found himself engrossed by the task. He knew both spells from the hours spent memorizing every spell in his father's library: a Frost Wall and a Breath of Winter, both second-rank spells.
The differences between them were much like that between a Wind Blade and Windstride spells. Both belonged to the same subschool of Wind Magic, both called upon the power of air, but the text of said calling was different.
Cael recalled the texts of the spells. For Windstride, it was "Oh, winds that dance through the leaves, let my steps be as swift as the blowing breeze." The Wind Blade went with, "Winds of a raging hurricane, bring forth a swift and deadly blade of piercing wind."
Wind here and wind there. Cold here and cold there. Really, what WAS the difference?
Cael scratched his nose with a quill. 'So obvious, if you think about it,' he thought. 'Those spells have different purposes, so the aspect of nature they call upon must reflect it. Like everything in the spell! So the spell for Breath of Winter has words like "fierce" and "consume". It's all about attacking, while the Frost Wall spell is about protection.'
This was already a good enough answer, but Cael didn't want to give his father even a chance to say that his reply wasn't good enough. When he wrote it down, he explained how each separate word joined the united purpose of the spell.
By the time Cael finished, he filled two sheets of paper with his handwriting. He blew carefully on them to dry up the ink, then shook his tired hand and lifted his head to glance around.
The sun outside of the room's windows moved, showing that at least half an hour must have passed, but there was still plenty of time until lunch. Gianni still read through his paperwork, occasionally jutting down some notes or writing on the documents themselves. If he meant to check that Cael wasn't cheating, he didn't appear to be doing a great job of it, with how little of his attention was on Cael.
"Father," he called out. "I finished."
Gianni paused, then straightened in his seat to pin Cael down with a look of disdain. "Does that mean you give up, Cael?"
"No, I mean, I did what you asked me to!" Cael lifted his paper sheets. "Look!"
"This can't be…" Gianni muttered. "Give them to me."
Cael stood up and passed him his writing. His father immediately began to read, his mouth pressing into a hard line as his eyes ran over the words.
"Your handwriting is terrible, son," he pointed out.
"Good thing that it wasn't a part of the test, Father," Cael retorted.
Gianni harrumphed, but said nothing more.
The tension in Cael rose with every minute of that silence. His father didn't comment on anything else, didn't even change his facial expression. Every few minutes, he would set aside pages he finished reading.
It took him a dozen torturous minutes to put down the last one and turn to Cael.
"If you have read 'The Theoretical Principles of Magic' better, you would've remembered that the wording used in it to describe magic was 'Magic is the most ancient and noble art'. You should've also put 'shape' and 'power' in the last sentence in a different order. But—"
"Father, you are picking at my words!" Cael interrupted, bursting with anger. "I remember you telling 'the most venerable', too."
"I didn't."
A sharp pang of awareness shot through Cael. In this instant, he knew his father was… not lying, but definitely not as sure in his answer as he appeared.
Cael scowled, but before he could say anything more, Gianni spoke again.
"BUT, as I was trying to say, your overall knowledge is… impressive. Especially for your lack of proper education." Gianni sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Cael supposed this was as much as his father could admit his mistakes. "So, you asked for a ruby? It will fit well in silver. I will tell the jeweler to hurry."
He passed!
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