Once Esme recovered, she was still a little on edge, but she was clearly doing better.

  At the very least, she stopped curling up into a little ball and could even handle Eleanor feeding her snacks.

  Eleanor obviously thought it was hilarious, like she was hand-feeding a timid little hamster, and she kept offering bite-sized pastries until Esme’s cheeks puffed out. It was absurdly cute.

  Enid sat there quietly watching the two girls and thought, teenagers with energy were something else. Honestly, they were even cuter than Antonio had been when he was young.

  Somewhere far away, Antonio was just about to fall asleep when he suddenly shivered, wiped his nose, and thought, Someone’s talking about me again. Then he rolled over and went right back to sleep.

  Either way, tonight’s “social practice” was a real win. Esme could talk normally with both of them now, and she’d dropped a good chunk of her guard around Eleanor.

  Eleanor, the youngest in her own family, naturally had a soft spot for someone as adorable as Esme. She’d always wanted a younger sibling, and now she was pouring all that warm, protective energy into the moment like she’d been waiting her whole life to do it.

  By the end of their small talk, Enid finally learned why Esme had come.

  She’d heard Enid was about to give a public lecture and worried Enid might feel lost and overwhelmed, the way Esme had felt when she first arrived at the academy. So she’d worked up the courage to check on her, and if possible, help out somehow as a way to repay her kindness.

  Then she got to the door, panicked, hesitated forever, ran into Eleanor, and got marched inside. Simple as that.

  Enid told them not to worry about the public lecture. If anything, they should look forward to it. She promised it would be a class they wouldn’t forget.

  And just like that, the late-night visit came to an end.

  Enid was genuinely soothed by how sweet they were. Eleanor gained a new friend and a study partner. Esme made her first friend at the academy.

  Everyone walked away with something good.

  Nino didn’t come in person, but he did send a letter full of sympathy and encouragement. He also said he didn’t want to distract Enid while she prepared, and he included a neatly wrapped box of fancy-looking sweets.

  The snacks they’d been eating during the night talk were from Nino’s box. They were honestly great, and both girls praised them nonstop.

  As for Wolfgang, he did nothing at all.

  Enid didn’t mind. They’d have plenty of time to figure each other out later.

  The three of them walked back to the Nature Tower together. After they said goodnight, Enid did a quick wash and went to bed.

  The next morning, she woke on schedule with the sunlight.

  She washed up, got herself together, got dressed, went to the dining hall, and ate. Once everything was in order, she arrived at the large lecture hall where the public class would be held.

  This was the day. The verdict on whether she stayed or went would be decided here.

  When the bell rang, Enid opened the doors and walked straight to the podium.

  Antonio was there. Five deans who were still on campus were there too, along with a huge crowd of faculty and students, already seated on the tiered benches, waiting for Professor Ennis to begin.

  As the doors closed, Antonio tapped his cane against the floor to quiet the room. Then he smiled and invited Enid to start.

  Every eye stayed locked on her, curious to see how this “parachuted-in professor” who’d been doubted since the first day of term would prove herself.

  Enid showed no nerves and no hesitation.

  She didn’t say a word at first. She simply picked up the chalk and began filling the board at speed with dense, hard-to-follow theory, then drew an incredibly complicated ten-ring spell circle.

  In the modern system, spells were ranked by how much mana they consumed and how difficult they were to control, split into ten tiers. One through three were beginner, four through six were intermediate, seven through nine were advanced, and ten was a special tier beyond the normal scale.

  That classification had been set by Antonio years ago. And in the shift between the three-stage casting theory and the four-stage casting theory, the more demanding the spell, the longer the chant had to be and the more magic circles it required.

  So four hundred years ago, Antonio created the tier system based on the number of rings in a spell circle. Even now, it was still the most common way mages judged how much mana and skill a spell demanded.

  The ten-ring circle Enid had drawn was the set of formulas needed during a spell’s conversion process.

  Still, to everyone in the room, Professor Ennis putting a ten-ring circle on the board was baffling.

  For one thing, tenth-tier spells were not something just any mage could handle. High-tier casters were rare enough, and tenth-tier casters were the kind the Empire literally kept records on.

  Across the Empire’s history, fewer than a hundred tenth-tier mages had ever been documented, and the number still alive was smaller than that. In practical terms, it was easier to find a true-blooded, two-winged, four-legged dragon than a living tenth-tier caster.

  Of course, being able to draw a ten-ring circle did not automatically mean you were tenth-tier. Anyone could copy lines if they had the patience.

  Even so, if Professor Ennis could explain a ten-ring circle with real understanding, that alone would prove she was a high-tier mage. That would be more than enough to pass the public evaluation. Ten-ring circles were that deep and that hard to grasp.

  But the real question people couldn’t get past was this.

  Wasn’t Professor Ennis a nature mage, and wasn’t nature magic based on the two-stage casting model? Then why was she drawing a spell circle at all? Was she not even going to teach the nature system today?

  Whispers spread through the hall, until Antonio and the deans stepped in to restore order and the room finally quieted down.

  Right then, Enid finished a circle even more complex than a standard ten-ring diagram and looked out at the audience.

  “So,” she asked, “can anyone tell what kind of spell this circle is the conversion formula for?”

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  No one answered.

  Enid spoke again, “Can’t read it? That’s normal. Now let me walk you through something step by step, something that can leave a truly historic mark on how we understand nature magic.”

  “Just like you’ve all been taught, there are ten confirmed types of elemental magic, fire.”

  She lifted her left hand and formed a steady flame in her palm, not too big, but perfectly stable.

  “Wood.”

  A green cluster of wood-aspected mana appeared beside the flame.

  “Water.”

  A sphere of water followed.

  As she continued naming element after element, more and more orbs formed around her hand.

  Under a rising wave of gasps, she completed the set, ten different elemental orbs hovering at once.

  Most of the room fixated on the obvious shock, Professor Ennis had affinity with all ten elements. And since no one had heard her chant or seen her inscribe anything, it was clear this was not some generic spell dressed up to look like elements. This was real nature magic.

  So there really was someone in the world who could sense all ten elemental forces.

  That alone was enough to stun people.

  But the small handful who truly understood nature magic saw something even more terrifying.

  She was switching release processes between different elements, fast and clean, with absolute stability.

  It was like watching someone eat with a fork, stab a piece of meat, bring it to their mouth, done.

  Except Professor Ennis was like someone who had conjured ten forks at once, shoved them all toward the same mouth, and somehow never choked.

  Eleanor, seated below, understood how insane that was. Even the strongest nature mages topped out at controlling two different spells at once, one in each hand. Controlling multiple elements with a single hand was beyond common sense.

  Then the orbs in Enid’s hand began to spin at high speed.

  They slammed into one another, split apart, scattered, and faded in rapid succession.

  Enid murmured a short line of praise to nature, and the room watched as she revealed the first true peak of her public lecture.

  With Enid’s razor precise control, ten different elements began to manifest throughout the hall.

  A ribbon of flame twisted into a fire serpent that swept along the ceiling. Then its nature shifted and it became a stream of water, pouring down toward the audience.

  The instant the droplets were about to touch anyone, the water turned into flowing sand, sliding neatly around every body and spilling down the steps toward the front.

  The sand climbed upward, and a tree surged out of it, growing at a ridiculous speed. Fruit formed in its crown and dropped, but the sand changed again into an invisible current of air that caught each piece before it hit the ground.

  The fruit split apart, bursting into crackling arcs of lightning. The arcs tangled in midair, then hardened into several ice spears that breathed out cold.

  The surface of the ice flaked away, revealing metal sealed inside.

  That metal sifted like sand into two streams. One became a sphere of pure light. The other condensed into a ball of darkness that seemed to swallow everything around it.

  At last the two spheres slammed together, devouring each other until nothing remained.

  It took the crowd a moment to remember how to breathe.

  Someone started clapping, and then the whole room joined in, applause rolling on until Professor Ennis raised a hand and asked for quiet.

  “Like you just saw, I can switch an element’s attribute at will. In a single release, I can work through ten different elemental forces. That’s the topic I’m presenting today, the theory of natural element transmutation.”

  “In most people’s minds, sensing elemental mana is purely a matter of talent. If you weren’t born with it, you could never become a nature mage.”

  “But general magic challenged that idea. Anyone with magical aptitude can replace missing talent with conversion formulas, in other words, proper incantations and accurate circles, and use different elemental attributes that way.”

  As she spoke, Enid formed bead sized orbs of different elements in her palm, one after another.

  “Even with general magic’s reconstruction of raw mana, letting mages without elemental affinity mimic nature spells, the result still falls short compared to true nature magic. It’s less destructive, less controllable, less stable.”

  “What it does have is flexibility. It ignores elemental affinity and runs on what the caster understands, the formula they can execute, the chant they can speak, the circle they can draw.”

  She glanced across the seats.

  “For those of you who practice general magic, am I wrong?”

  A number of listeners nodded. Some answered out loud that she was right.

  “And my work focuses on this. If you do have elemental sensing, you can convert the attribute of a nature spell you’re already casting.”

  “For example, if a mage can sense both water and fire, this conversion spell lets them turn a fireball in their hand into a stream of water instantly.”

  “No re filtering mana. No canceling the spell and starting over. Just one ring array.”

  She pointed to the ten ring circle on the board.

  “That is the circle required for the transmutation formula.”

  The room erupted into noise. People started scribbling in books and on any scrap they could find. A few even pulled out recording stones and aimed them at the board, capturing the circle and its notes.

  “This is a ten ring circle, a tenth tier conversion formula,” Jules said, speaking up from his seat. “That would mean you’re already a tenth tier general magic caster.”

  “And I’ll admit this with some embarrassment, I didn’t see any chanting or circle work when you converted those elements. Could you explain that?”

  Enid answered him plainly.

  “First, I wasn’t using the four stage model of general magic. And who decided nature magic can’t use circle based conversion?”

  After that answer, it was Antonio, the founder of the general system, who leaned forward to question her.

  “Are you saying you used circle conversion inside the nature system?” he asked. “I’ve never heard of anything like it. That would shatter the two stage model and prove a new casting process entirely.”

  “You’re not wrong,” Enid said. “That is a new discovery. But it isn’t today’s main point.”

  “Let me finish answering Jules. The reason you didn’t see me draw anything is simple. I don’t need that step.”

  “I drew the circle so mages outside the nature system could understand the principle more directly.”

  Jules stared at her, still trying to process it.

  “So you’re saying you don’t need a circle at all to use this tenth tier natural element transmutation?”

  He had never seen, or even heard rumors of, someone releasing a tenth tier spell without rebuilding the conversion stage through either incantation or a circle. For a high tier musician caster who used melody as a conversion method, it was completely outside his frame of reference.

  “Yes,” Enid said, then paused.

  “But also no.”

  Enid answered.

  “Circle work in nature magic isn’t the same as circle work in general magic. This isn’t a reconstruction step. It’s a support array.”

  “Yes, the complexity is on the level of what people would call a ten ring circle, but that doesn’t mean the mana cost is on that same level.”

  “In nature magic, the mana you feed into a circle can be raw mana or elemental mana. That part comes down to personal preference.”

  “And when a truly top tier mage becomes extremely proficient with a spell, the conversion and reconstruction steps, incantation and circle work, can be cut down to almost nothing. Sometimes they’re skipped outright. Antonio knows that better than most.”

  “On top of that, I’m not well versed in the general magic system. I’ve heard of its formulas, but I’ve never studied them in depth.”

  “So if you’re asking whether I’m a tenth tier mage, I honestly couldn’t tell you. What I can tell you is this. I’m not a tenth tier general mage. I’m a nature mage.”

  After Enid finished, Jules, still coming down from the shock, took a sip of tea to steady himself.

  “…That’s hard to believe, and extremely impressive,” he said. “For the current nature system, this would be a powerful addition.”

  “And this can be paired with what you taught in class, the idea that all elemental mana can be sensed, correct?”

  “Exactly,” Enid said. “And I plan to teach that theory to my students this term as well.”

  That line set off another wave of murmurs.

  Eleanor and Nino, sitting in the audience, suddenly became the envy of half the room.

  Professor Ennis had just said she would teach her students this newly introduced theory.

  For the first time, both of them felt genuinely proud that they studied nature magic.

  They’d picked the right class. Choosing Ennis’s course might have been the smartest decision they’d ever made.

  Near the end of the public lecture, Enid delivered her closing remarks.

  “Some of you may be thinking this means nature magic will surpass general magic. Please don’t.”

  “General magic’s nature like spells are absolutely worth learning. It’s still the best way to get started. And I’ll say it plainly, Antonio’s work is still at the cutting edge. It’s not something you can just wave away.”

  “General magic also has schools and styles that nature magic simply cannot produce. Raw mana itself is not something that naturally appears in the nature system.”

  “Whether it’s the music school, the polyglot school, geometric numerology, astrology, or dance step casting, these are all parts of general magic, and there is no substitute for them inside nature magic.”

  “Magic is the clearest proof of talent, imagination, and a little stubborn persistence.”

  “Yes, different types of magic vary in difficulty, power, best use cases, control, and versatility.”

  “But what I’m saying is this. Magic is a precious gift the world gives to all living things. No system is inherently noble or lesser.”

  “Nature magic shouldn’t be dismissed as outdated. Divine magic shouldn’t be mocked as superstition. Cursecraft shouldn’t be branded as evil. General magic is no different.”

  “And the same should be true of mages.”

  “Because while magic brings progress and convenience, it is also a dangerous weapon. When it comes to taking a life, a dull blade and a sharp one both get the job done, don’t they.”

  The bell rang, signaling the public lecture was officially over.