Art of Alchemy

Chapter 33 - Semester Exams

Khed had been right; two weeks could feel like a long time. For Vehya, it passed in a blur of hazy disjointed memories. By the end of the second week she was about to collapse with mental exhaustion.

Channelling Arcane had been the simplest; they were required to perform one pattern of their choice and show they could incorporate some form of their casting into it. Vehya had practiced this over and over with Rynden and so she was able to keep her blasts of explosive popping limited to merely accenting her kicks and punches. When she was done with her pattern, the others didn't seem very impressed, but Vehya knew Ryn would be proud of her. Khed gave her a firm thump of approval on the back when she passed him.

He had managed to master challenging his energy so that he could unleash a strike powerful enough to dent metal. Barngrend had been impressed, as had Vehya. Everyone in their class had completed their required hours of practice, with the exception of Vehya who was exempt on Scarfengr's orders, and eventually Barngrend dismissed them until the next semester.

Professor Sappella required a three page reflection piece on their learning. Vehya had stared at the prompt for a full minute unable to think; 'What have you learnt?' She touched her quill's nib to the page six times before she just had to start writing. Beside her, Ezerre seemed to be crafting some theoretical theory and every page he went through made her feel increasingly inadequate as a Speaker.

Crafting requires awareness and intent. As its name implies, cræft speaks of 'strength' and crafting will draw upon the skills of the speaker. Just as an artist needs to know their audience; a speaker must understand the circumstances in which they wish to manifest their intent. If the building blocks of a crafting circle are vague, then the resulting outcome with be weaker or fail altogether. Therefore, a speaker's true skill is not determined by their capacity for creation, rather their capacity to explain how to create. Clear runes paired with carefully chosen words can improve the results, but just like a piece of art; the intent of the mage is what drives them to craft. Motivation initiates a speaker's crafting, but dedication produces the results.

Her final paragraph did little to summarise what she'd written about and part of her wanted to rip the whole thing up and start again. Basic crafting was supposed to be... basic, not a philosophical debate on what inspires mages in their work. It had taken Ezerre a long time, much reassurance and a plate of creamegg toast with syrup, to get Vehya to move on from her botched essay.

Asla's Alchemy classes had been a good way to finish the week and had prevented Vehya from feeling like an incompetent mage. At least in this she had pleasant memories to draw on. Inspired and guided by Gigi's training, she'd written in great detail on the process of Albification linking the imagery of a swan to the desire to preserve purity after destruction and ash. When she'd completed that without much difficulty, Vehya also did the second option of Conjunction, inspired by the memory of Charlie staring at the moon. She knew Bogweed would enjoy the parallels to the process's incorporating the greater overarching work in Magnum Opus.

But it was her Components class which had been the most fun. Bogweed was not there when the mixed cohort of students entered the Alchemy classroom. It was the first time Vehya had seen her whole class attend. On the blackboard their professor had written instructions in chalk;

An Alchemist is perceptive, dutiful and demonstrates the ability to retain and organise information after long periods of time. Over the last ten weeks while you have been compiling a foundational list of alchemical ingredients, I have been cultivating quite the collection around campus.

If you have been perceptive, you would have already noticed the rosemary growing in front of The Grand Building. Were you dutiful, you would have recognised a pattern across the weekly lists. And dare I say, if you can identify and recall the common traits of at least five components then you will have demonstrated the qualities of an Alchemist.