We spent a few hours at the lake that night. After Hunters' revelations, I felt more comfortable about telling him a little about myself; I felt like I should at least be able to tell him something like my favourite colour considering he'd told me about how he'd essentially grown up in poverty.
As it happened, we had a lot in common; we both had similar tastes in movies, music, and foods, although Hunters' experience of these things was limited considering he'd only really had access to them for the last two years. I'd also found he also wanted to be a medical necromancer following his graduation from MerPrep, which didn't surprise me in the slightest.
In return I told him all about Zac and my parents, and a little more about my difficulties trying to overcome my anxiety. I was a little embarrassed at first, but he never looked at me differently or judged me as I spoke. The more I spoke to him, the more comfortable I felt around him, and the less I tripped up over my words.
However, I didn't tell him about me being gay because I wasn't quite ready to take that leap of faith. I also didn't mention the Vazaria seed; for one thing I didn't actually know what it really was, and for another I wasn't sure how he would feel knowing I had essentially cheated my way into getting magic.
When we eventually went back to our dorm room, I was stunned to find that I had forgotten all about the masses of spells I had to learn; the sight of the books splayed across my bed reminded me and brought some of the anxiety back. Still, I was surprised Hunters' plan had worked, at least for a few hours.
"Why don't I run you through some of the basics tonight?" Hunter asked when he saw me frowning down at the books.
"Basics?" I enquired, "Like channelling?"
"No," he grinned, "I was meaning what the different disciplines of magic actually involve and how Classes of spells work?"
"A-are you sure? Wouldn't you rather spend the rest of the night doing something you'd enjoy?" I asked tentatively.
"Are you kidding? This'll be fun!" I thought he was lying but I didn't see any way to dissuade him, so I had no choice but to accept his help. I piled the books up on my desk and pulled out my chair. Hunter adopted his usual reversed pose on his chair. I sighed internally and grabbed a pen and notepad to start taking notes.
"Okay, so I'm guessing you know what the eight disciplines of magic are by now?"
"Yeah, I'd figured that much out by myself," I joked.
"Oh, sassy! Who knew you had it in you?" He winked and I immediately blushed. "Okay so you already know what Illusion magic is all about thanks to Madame Thornton; I don't care what she says, it's basically just making fake stuff appear out on nowhere, whether it's an object or a noise or a smell. Enchantment is similar to Illusion, except with Enchantment magic, you're actually making someone feel something fake or forcing them to do something. It's sorta like mind control."
"Okay, I think I'm with you," I muttered, scribbling quickly.
"Now, Abjuration. That's one of your specialities. Abjuration has two main branches. One is using magic to create shields, whether that's with a physical ward or by dispelling magical effects before they can cause harm. The other branch is using your magic to boost or reduce someone's abilities; for example, you could use Abjuration magic to make someone faster or slower. Mixed with Evocation, which is mostly just using elemental magic for offensive purposes, and you're a ready build Sentinel – that's essentially the magical equivalent of a police force."
"Transmutation involves changing an object or person into something else. Usually the changes need to make sense though; I mean you couldn't really change something organic like a grape into something inorganic like a rock, or into something much larger like a car. You actually can do things like that but you'd need to use a lot more magic to conjure up the atoms you need to make the change. But you could easily turn a grape into something like a blueberry. Advanced transmutation lets you fabricate things from thin air by conjuring up new atoms, but like I said before, that requires a lot of magic and a focus in Transmutation."
"Conjuration involves opening portals to the same or different planes of existence and then bringing creatures through breaches to do your bidding or using the breaches to transport yourself and others to somewhere else.
"Divination is a strange one that very few people have a Focus in. Diviners, depending on their power, can see visions of the future with different levels of clarity. They can also find people or objects by scrying. You can use it to read minds or communicate telepathically, detect magical objects and sense when magic is present or is being used."
"Necromancy is a weird one too. It's manipulation of life and death, like I explained; it can be used to heal the sick or to do horrific things like drain the lifeforce of something or raise undead creatures. Obviously, the darker side of necromancy isn't taught here – they focus on the healing aspect of it all."
"Non-Focus necromancy allows you to heal minor to moderate external injuries, but for larger external injury or internal injury, those can only be healed by a Focus necromancer. And non-Focus necromancy tends to leave a lot of scar tissue and isn't as definitive a treatment because it just sticks damaged cells back together, whereas Focus necromancy repairs the cells and the bonds between them to completely repair a tissue; it's like non-Focus necromancy is stiches, compared to Focus necromancy which is a complete resealing of wounds, no stiches required."
"And that's about it," he finished, shrugging as if it were no big deal. I suppose to him it wasn't considering he'd been studying it for two years already, but to me it was a bit overwhelming.
"That's a lot to take in," I said as I scribbled down the last of what he said.
"It is, but you'll pick up the basics of each discipline as you learn to use them. Trust me, it'll become easier after some practise."
"Okay," I nodded, not quite believing it was as easy as he made it seem, "What about spell Classes, how do they work?"
"Spells are split into Class based on how hard they are to cast and how much magic they need to cast; the higher the Class, the harder it is to cast and the more magic it uses up. Most people can eventually cast spells from Classes One to Six from all eight Disciplines, but typically Class Seven to Ten spells in each discipline can only be cast by sorcerers who have a Focus in that discipline; that's because having a Focus in a discipline reduces the magic required to cast spells from that discipline by a significant amount, and using those spells comes more naturally to the caster.
"For example, it would take you a fair amount of concentration and magic to cast a Class One Necromancy spell, but for me, I would use next to no magic at all and would be as easy as snapping my fingers. The only real way around the Class restriction is to have such a huge Vessel that it doesn't really matter if you need to use loads of magic to cast a Class Seven or higher spell, but it's not really practical."
"At MerPrep, you learn spells of Class One to Four for each discipline, with the year corresponding to the Class of spell you learn that year; so, Class One spells in first year, Class Two in second year and so on. In Focus classes though, you tend to learn spells a year early, meaning by the time you're in fourth year, you can cast a couple Class Five spells in your Discipline, maybe even a Class Six if you're good."
"So, I have to learn all of the Class One and Two spells from all eight Disciplines to catch up?"
"Yup! Honestly, they're not complex spells, and you're really talented. I think you'll breeze through it."
"I hope so," I lamented, "The sooner I learn them, the better I'll feel."
"That's a good reason to crack down and study, I suppose!" he joked.
"I think I'm too fried to do anything else tonight," I admitted, yawning.
"Yeah, I was gonna head to bed too. I usually get up pretty early to go on a run before class."
"Why?" I blurted before I could stop myself; I couldn't think of a single reason to get up at the crack of dawn to exercise.
Thankfully, he found my rudeness funny. Laughing, he said, "Well because I like it. It wakes me up, gets me pumped for the day. But also, because the stronger and healthier your body is, the less you feel the effects of magic fatigue. The emptier your Vessel gets, the more fatigued you feel. It's like a magical hangover. But if your body is healthier, you feel less shitty when you drain a lot of your magic. Some people say that physical activity can help increase your Vessel size too."
"Damn, I guess that's why I was feeling so weak when I used a lot of magic."
"Nah that was probably about a normal amount of fatigue; you look pretty fit to me." I knew he didn't mean it like that, but it still caused my heart to race. "You're more than welcome to join me though if you want? Olivia usually does. Az told me to go to hell," he laughed.
I certainly didn't need a larger Vessel, but I could do without feeling like death whenever I used a lot of magic. "Sure...I guess I could join you guys."
"Great! It'll be fun!
It was not fun.
We had gone to bed fairly early, but I was kept awake long after Hunter had fallen asleep by my racing thoughts. At the time I was glad I was struggling to sleep because I had gotten a call from Zac that I would have missed otherwise. I spent a few hours or so just talking to him, telling him about my classes and the ups and downs of the day. And then I mentioned Hunter.
"Oh, Hunter?" Zac teased, "Who's Hunter?"
"Zac!" I whisper shouted, glancing over at Hunters' sleeping form, irrationally worried that he might wake up and somehow hear what Zac was saying.
"What?! I didn't say anything."
"You know what you were doing!" I grumbled.
"I'm just asking who Hunter is, that's all."
"He's my roommate...and m-my f-friend...I think."
"Charlie, that's great!" He sounded genuinely pleased for me, "I knew you had it in you! What's he like?"
"He's um...nice. Really...nice."
"Oh my god, you're in love," he stated matter of factly.
"What?! I am not! I just said he was nice!"
"Dude, I could hear the attraction in your voice. I can't wait to meet the future Mr Hill. Hunter Hill, that is adorable," he laughed.
"Zac!" I whined, mortified.
"Calm down, I'm only joking! Seriously though good for you Charlie. You deserve another friend. And I'm glad the school hasn't been too bad so far."
"So far being the term. I still have a shit ton of books and spells to catch up on."
"You're a little book worm, you'll have them read in no time."
"I guess so." A silence followed for a few seconds before I spoke again, "I know it's only been a day, but I miss you. I keep thinking about how cool you would find this stuff, and how you could help me with it all."
He sighed, "I know. School here isn't the same without you either. To be honest I've been feeling really lonely. I have other friends yeah, but they're not you Charlie. I miss you."
"I'm gonna come home to visit as soon as I can. I'll ask Mr Beck about it next time I'm in class with him."
"I hope it's soon. I really want to see you. And hey, who knows, maybe you really could bring Hunter with you so I can meet him."
"Zac!" I warned.
"I just want to meet your friend!" he reassured me, "I promise not to say anything about your crush on him!"
"You're the worst!"
"Don't lie, you'd be lost without me."
"I would."
We eventually said goodbye around midnight, and I tried to get to sleep. But it took a while, and so my personal hell started when my crystal – which apparently could also double as a personal alarm – started making a high-pitched screeching noise at six in the morning and I regretted all of my life choices.
My personal hell continued when I had pulled the covers over my head and I felt Hunter shake me.
"Come on, Charlie," he said, prodding my sides through the sheets, "You agreed to come!"
"I take it back," I moaned, "Leave me here to die."
"I'm no evocator, but I will magic up some water and dump it over you if you don't get up," he laughed.
I pulled the sheets down from my head, my eyes half shut because of the light streaming in through the blinds he had just opened. "You wouldn't?" I asked nervously. His response was to point a finger at me and spray me in the face with a small jet of water. I jumped up in bed, spluttering more from shock than the water he'd fired at me.
Hunters' response was to laugh maniacally. Maybe I should rethink this whole 'friendship' business. Regardless, I was well and truly wide awake now, so I thought I may as well go for a run with this asshole.
So, there I was, ten minutes, outside, wearing the one pair of shorts I owned, feeling like I looked stupid with my skinny legs and riotous hair on display.
"Oh, hey Charlie!" Olivia called cheerfully when she saw me, "I didn't know you were gonna join us this morning!" She jogged over to us and hugged Hunter, and then, to my shock, hugged me too. I tensed up a little and she let go before I had time to even consider hugging her back. She was much too cheerful for this time of the morning...but to be honest I did actually enjoy the hug, unexpected as it was.
"He almost didn't," Hunter remarked, "We had a bit of a sleepy start." I yawned unwillingly and then glared half-heartedly, which just made the pair of them giggle.
Hunter and Olivia started stretching and I attempted to copy them, not really knowing what the hell I was doing and feeling progressively more stupid. Then they were off, and I followed along behind at a slower pace.
You'd have thought all the running away I did this summer would have made me a little fitter, but half an hour and about five laps around the school grounds later, I was panting and stumbling along, exhausted. When they stopped running just outside of our dorm, I decided the ground looked super comfortable and that I really wanted to lie on it, so I dropped onto my back and genuinely considered trying to channel my magic and attempt to make it stop my lungs from exploding.
"You okay, Charlie?" Hunter mocked, standing beside me, grinning and still looking stupidly hot even though his hair was damp with sweat.
"Peachy," I gasped, "I just...need...a couple...hundred...seconds." Olivia giggled from my other side and sat herself down beside me, offering me a water bottle. I accepted it gratefully and downed about half of the water in seconds. "Thank you!" I spluttered, feeling like I could breathe again.
"You're not really the athletic type, are you?" she joked. I shook my head no and she giggled again. "We'll whip you into shape soon enough."
I shot up, wide eyed, and yelled, "Y-You want me to do this again?!" which only made them laugh more.
"The more you do it, the easier it'll be!" Hunter offered.
"This school is gonna be the end of me..." I muttered, throwing myself back onto the ground.