Prismatic Education Begins With A Spark 6 (MTG/Multicross)

Prismatic Education Begins With A Spark 6 (MTG/Multicross)

“Alright, everyone! This is our spot for tonight!” One of the professors announced. “Camping team, do your thing!”

The designated Lorehold mages pulled out their magic tools and began casting their spells. The earth began shifting, rearranging itself into the shape of various shelters for everyone in the excavation group. 

Archaeomancy doesn’t just use magic to reconstruct the past, huh? I watched, impressed at how they were using their magic to accomplish it.

A Prismari mage specializing in architecture could probably do something similar, but there was something impressive about Lorehold’s practical methods. I hoped I could emulate some of it for myself in the future.

My first schooling year in Strixhaven had been rather satisfactory; I didn’t fail a single course, and in fact did pretty well, even if I didn’t get top marks. There was a short break before the next year started, and I decided to spend it by joining one of the Lorehold archaeological expeditions going out of the campus. The plane of Arcavios was extremely rich in history, stretching back millennia with all sorts of historical events, lost kingdoms and other things. That was compounded by the large area of land. It was not for nothing that the place was called the Vastlands.

For me, this expedition fulfilled several objectives. First was that it paid money, better than my usual jobs. The second was the chance to interact with mages and artifacts, some of which were fascinating to observe. As for the third, it was to test some of my developed ideas.

“Roy Staff, you’re with my group.” The female loxodon professor beckoned to me, and pointed off to the east. “Our dig site lies over there.”

“Any idea what we can expect to find, Professor Losheel?”

“To be honest, I’m not expecting much.” The humanoid elephant admitted. “I picked the site because it has the lowest chance of finding things.”

“What? Why?” Another first-year student demanded. 

Unlike me, the orc was already wearing the colors of his chosen college.

“It’s more to let all of you gain experience in using your magic to uncover the past. Some students accidentally destroy valuable finds without meaning to, so this reduces the risk of such things happening. I will be supervising all of you even then, just in case.”

“Why don’t you tell them your personal motivation, professor?” The third-year student in our group asked with an amused smirk on her face. 

Losheel just began summoning out several clockwork workers, sending them out to mark the area our dig was supposed to cover. She preferred to have to do as little as possible, and if that required her to work hard to be lazy, that was just what she would do. The loxodon was shameless about admitting as such.

The other students wandered away, some accompanied by their spirit statue mentors as they embarked on their own search. If I had joined Lorehold, I would have been assigned one as well, to be educated by a spirit of some revered person who had passed on centuries ago. 

But I didn’t, so I only had my own smarts to fall back upon.

I pulled out one of my carefully crafted items from my pouch, letting the heavy metal ball rest in my palm. With a slight twist of my wrist, the sphere began to spin, somehow moving with more energy than it should.

Losheel noticed and stepped in for a closer look. “Is that an automaton you created? I don’t recall you in my artificing class.”

“I wanted to, but I didn’t have the time,” I answered. “Also, this isn’t an automaton. It’s just a simple metal sphere.”

“Quandrix magic?” She guessed. “You have my curiosity. Show me how you use it.”

I obliged, crouching down and dropping the still spinning sphere onto the sandy ground. The force of its landing shaped a bowl around it, and the sphere continued to spin without stopping. The next moment, the surrounding sand began to reshape itself, taking on a form representative of the area surrounding us.

“Oh my, a mapping spell? Except I didn’t detect any such magic from the sphere… how mysterious,” Losheel commented interestedly.

“We are here,” I traced a circle over the sphere, “And there’s a strange formation over in that direction, so I’ll start digging over there.”

I made to stand up, but Losheel’s heavy hand stopped me.

“No, allow my workers to handle it. In the meantime, I’d like to hear you explain this curious technique of yours.”

As her automata worked under her simple directions, I began to share some of the details behind the spinning sphere.

The idea originated when one of the Quandrix classes mentioned the ‘Golden Ratio’, which triggered a memory of a technique involving infinity. Basing on that foundation, I spent hours poring through books from the Biblioplex, learning the spells that could help replicate what I had in mind. At the same time, I devoted quite a lot of my free time to practice, until I could finally perform it.

The Spin.

It generated an incredible amount of energy which I could then channel into various effects. Hitting something hard was only the most basic application, and I was still discovering various new ways of using its power. Scanning and mapping an area was just one of my more recent discoveries, based on Newton’s Third Law about every action having an equal action. Though I had no idea who this Newton was.

I knew that it also could do some incredible things when used on a living body, but I had yet to reach that point. Nivali promised to assist me on that in the future, but for the time being, I was still exploring what I could accomplish on my own.

And that was without the possibilities offered when magic was added to the mix. 

“I see, so this was something you developed on your own?” Losheel inquired.

“Yes.” Guided by my memories, at least. “But I had a bit of help from my friends too.”

“That is good. Sometimes a little bit of guidance goes a long way.” She looked over at where her mechanical robots were working. “And it appears that your mapping was correct.”

The robots slowed down, working more delicately as they began unearthing what looked like the remains of a house. Attracted by the find, other members of the expedition began to approach, showering the loxodon professor with congratulations for the discovery. Losheel nodded to me; reading a loxodon’s expression was difficult, but I could tell that she felt more favorable towards me now.

That’s fine, let her have the credit. In exchange for the favor to learn some of her skills with automata when classes start. 

…

I channeled my mana into the spell, using physical movements to weave it together and let its results take shape before me. Fundamentals of Elemental Expression had been a course that helped students discover their personal somatic triggers for spellcasting, from a fingersnap to ignite a fire to stomps to generate rock from the ground. 

That had only been the starting step. The later classes taught how to alter the nature of those elements, like mixing paints to create the desired colors. Flowing water or raging fire as solid surfaces, those were the basics for Prismari apprentices who wanted to make their own pieces of artwork from the elements.

As for me, I wanted to explore the more practical aspects of element shaping.

Jagged streaks of shimmering ice in a roundish shape formed the shell first, then subsequently moulded for cute, stubby limbs with round mousey ears. For its face, clear oval dots of water made up its eyes, while the mouth was shaped like an open-mouth smile, fire-tinted for color. A spinning sphere of water on a twirling coil of mist formed its tail.

For the final step, I began tracing circles in the air over it with my palms open and flat. Within the shell, elemental energy in the form of water materialized, spinning in tandem with my gestures. When I ceased my actions, the sphere continued to spin independently, and the little elemental came to life.

“Riiiilll~” It purred, bouncing on its spherical tail tip.

“Excellent!” The observing efreet professor praised me, clapping her flaming hands in applause, “Very few students could create an elemental successfully on their first try!”

“It’s not my first try though,” I reminded her.

Arcane-Shield-Rock-Fire-Water-Arcane. 

Five balls of energy flashed momentarily into existence around me as a magic circle lit up around my feet, before a floating spirit appeared in a flash of blue light. Legless, its thick-shouldered figure was hunched over. I knew that if I struck it with one of my elemental spells, it would go into action with glowing swords of that same element, eager to slice any enemy in the vicinity.

“Yes, yes, I’ve seen that dull manifestation you call an elemental,” Professor Veyran said, “But it is nothing more than a puppet that you arm with your choice of weapon. This little one? It shows much more creativity, exactly what we would like to see in our Prismari students.”

I gave her an awkward and sheepish smile. “Sorry, but I made up my mind about my choice.”

“It doesn’t restrict you from pursuing art in your own way,” She reassured me, before producing a fiery version of my elemental, watching as the two romped about playfully.

Damn, she did that so quickly and in a different element too! I was a little awed by that, especially since it cost me more mana to create my water-ice elemental than the one I magicked up.

“Were you inspired by Octavia?” Veyran asked after a few seconds of examining my elemental. “Those streaks remind me of her.”

“A little.” I admitted.

Octavia was an enormous water elemental in the shape of an octopus, crafted as a past Prismari graduate’s final project. Rather than disperse, she chose to take up residence in a giant pool on Prismari campus, serving as a living art exhibit that could be viewed from shore. While she looked like a normal octopus it had been made out of water, there was a shimmering violet shell floating over her ‘skin’ that shifted with her movements, making for a magnificent sight.

My elemental, which I named Marill after the one that appeared in my memory, was curious and playful, rolling this way and that to investigate everything Professor Veyran had in her office. There was no denying that it was rather cute, especially the way it blinked by having its water droplet eyes ripple. 

However, I had another appointment to see to, so it was with some regret that I called it back to me to serve as the subject of my next spell.

Green light enveloped Marill, causing it to float towards me, shrinking as it did so. Its motion concluded as I enclosed the tiny elemental in a sphere of glass, which I patted before tucking it in one of my carry pouches.

“Do feel free to approach me if you need any help with honing your elemental techniques,” Veyran invited with a smile, idly making more elementals to fill her office. “And I wish you all the best for your next year at Strixhaven.”

“Thank you.” I rushed off after she dismissed me, heading for the teleportation circle that would take me back to central campus.

The next batch of new students were trickling in, so the place was a little chaotic, especially as second-year students were also moving out of the dorms and into the ones at their chosen college. I swerved out of the way of a colorful bunch of would-be freshmen, who were following one of the campus guide automatons as it led them around on a tour.

One of them, a wide-eyed half elf, didn’t look at where she was going and tripped, causing her books to fly out from her hands. I automatically reacted, managing to catch her, saving her from the fall. 

A dark blot flew out from the journal at my waist, sweeping up the books before they could hit the floor, and bringing them back to me. The flustered girl thanked me for the save, retrieving her books and hurrying off after the rest of the tour group.

I glanced at my inkling as it let out a proud whistle, in the shape of a messy crow with its wings spread, not needing to flap them to stay aloft. Its black flowing skin shimmered with the colored ink I had taken to using in my journal notes. From where I stood, I could see some of the text from my journal, inspiring phrases that came from my memories, and the reason for its name.

“Thanks, Lyric.” I murmured, continuing on my own way.

It responded with a happy warble, and floated after me, making no move to go back into the journal it inhabited. Unfortunately, that moment of freedom was brief, as I soon arrived at my destination.

“Hey, no mascots in the uniform store!” One of the staff reminded me, pointing at the list of rules displayed on the wall.

“You heard him, Lyric. Back in the book.”

The inkling made a disappointed hum, but obliged, diving into my journal and vanishing among its pages.

“Sorry about that,” I apologized, “I’m here to collect my uniform.”

I handed over the ticket stub, and was handed a clothesbag with directions to the changing rooms in the back of the store. There were several other students, but thankfully not enough to have to wait in queue. 

I changed into my new uniform, and checked out my appearance in the mirror.

The tailors do really good work with the instructions I gave. Even for something as complex as Quandrix patterning.

Quandrix uniforms had a bit of fractal symmetry as a theme, which usually manifested as pleating or patterned embroidery. Yet they still allowed for comfort and freedom of movement. I tested it out by striking a few bizarre poses.

Very Jojo-esque… I straightened up, unable to find anything to complain about this outfit. Better try the others too, to make sure that they all fit as well.

I was looking forward to my next year at Quandrix College. Hopefully I could handle the workload.

Afterword: And there you have it, the choice was Quandrix! Though to be honest, I was leaning towards Silverquill for a bit as well, but the potential of Quandrix just seemed more interesting. Especially when I thought about using Jojo's Spin as one of the techniques to develop.

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I'm considering putting this into its own thread once it gets long enough, but I still haven't reached the crossover into other worlds yet...