Chapter Text
The next day the paths were clear, the sun was shining, and Yuu was so bored. With most if their friends at the Atlantica Memorial Museum, Yuu had decided to tackle some of their winter break homework. The alchemy homework was just about identifying ingredients and what they did, no labwork required (though Yuu planned to request some lab time later, to check their answers), but they had to keep stopping the history reading to look up random names and places that “everyone knew,” and magical theory was not exactly their strong suit. They were just taking a walk outside the dorm (They’d been staring at a blank page for 30 minutes! They earned this break!) when they noticed the telltale sparkles of Malleus paying a visit.
“Morning, Hornton, any progress on that name?”
”It’s Hornton. I was surprised Grim came up with it because my name is actually Hornton.”
Yuu stopped walking to look at Malleus. Was this his way of apologizing because he was just as bad at naming things as they were? “…Sure, Hornton Draconia it is, then. Want to come inside? I’m just doing my winter break homework though, nothing too exciting.”
”Very well.” Malleus followed them up the hill and into their dorm, for once actually walking the whole way.
Yuu shifted a little under Malleus’ gaze as he looked over the blank document on their laptop and the million open tabs. “Yeah, it’s, uh, slow going. It turns out googling sources when you don’t know literally anything sucks. For all I know, this crap about the unicorns going extinct from overhunting by lions is true!”
“If you need help with history, I could ask Lilia. He… happens to own a lot of primary sources”
”Lilia? Oh that’s your vice housewarden, right? The vampire?” Yuu ignored Malleus’ surprised cough, “I mean, you can ask if you think he won’t mind, it’s not like I’m getting anywhere with this paper right now. How about the other one, magical theory. You got any tips?”
“It depends. What are you specifically struggling with?”
”I understand what the elements are, and how they interact, but all this stuff about energy flow and how the crystals work is flying right over my head. I mean, Grim got a better score than me on the final! Grim! It’s just all too abstract for me to deal with! The textbook has examples, but they’re all like “Cast such-and-such spell. Concentrate on how that feels,” and so on, and I just! Can’t! Do it!”
Malleus waited for them to calm down a little. “Can you sense other’s magic? You might be able to figure it out that way.” At Yuu’s shrug, he continued, “I happen to know a spot where I can practice my magic without disturbing people, however we’ll need to take the main mirror if you want to go.”
”Why can’t we try this here?”
”I mentioned before that I’m not good at delicacy. The truth is that I cannot perform minor magic at all. If I try to copy the exercises in your book I will likely destroy your dorm, which I would rather not risk. The place I am thinking of is suitably far from any towns that might be destroyed in columns of flame.”
Yuu swallowed audibly at the thought, “Well, I’d love to see that, but the Mirror Room is so far away! I’m still recovering you know, and to walk that whole distance, in the snow…” Malleus snorted and rolled his eyes, holding out an arm. As soon as Yuu took it, they were in a picturesque forest clearing. “Wait! I need a coat!” They were back in Ramshackle House. They ran up the stairs, grabbed the mystery coat from the infirmary that they had never figured out how to return, and dashed back downstairs. It was only once they were pulling it on that they noticed Malleus’ stare, and that he was wearing a damn near identical one under his weird cape thing. They thought they saw his throat bob a bit before he took their arm, and they were both back in the forest again.
”So, like, how are we doing this? You throw fireballs around and I watch?”
”More or less. I’m going to wait between preparing the spell and casting so you have time to try and sense what I’m doing. Just watch the first few times, then start trying to guess.”
Malleus stepped away from Yuu, wand held in his outstretched arm. The magestone at the tip sparked brightly, and started to glow. They tried to focus on the wand, to feel whatever it was mages felt, but Malleus just looked like a guy pointing a glowing pen at a tree. Then he flicked the wand, and they had to shield their eyes from the sudden burst of heat and light as the tree burst into flames. They lowered their hand and stared at the pillar of fire, so entranced by the flickering, popping flame that they didn’t notice Malleus shifting position or the clouds gathering overhead until a sudden downpour extinguished the entire thing in an instant, splashing at the two of them. At least the coat they grabbed (Malleus’ coat??) was waterproof. Malleus turned back toward Yuu, took in their slightly manic grin, and resumed the demonstration.
The next few attempts were pretty much the same. Yuu kept trying to focus on different parts of Malleus, his stance, how he held his wand, but they just couldn’t detect anything particularly magical until he cast the spell and pulled a mountain from the earth, or flooded a new river, or just vaporized another section of forest. It was beautiful, and they could watch him rewrite the landscape all day, but they really weren’t getting anywhere with this.
”You might as well stop, I can’t sense anything. Guessing based on how you hold your wand would be more reliable than this.”
Malleus turned from where he was just finishing a new valley to look at Yuu. “Wait, can you actually tell from the wand position?”
”Yeah, like when you’re about to summon lightning, you point it more up, or you shift your grip closer to the end of the handle for fire. Actually, pretty much everyone here does something similar, even if you don’t all use the same gestures. I think it has to do with how you visualize the spell?”
”Huh, I never noticed I did that.” Malleus looked at his wand and saw how he really had started to shift his grip for the next spell. “That’s incredible!”
”But I can’t sense anything at all! That’s not magic, that’s just reading people! I barely even get it right more than half the time!”
”That’s 50% more accurate than I would be if I couldn’t just sense magic. I didn’t even know I had any physical tells! What are some other ones?”
”Hm. Well, start preparing more magic, I’ll guess what it is, and then tell you what gave it away, ok?”
In the end, not much homework got done, but Yuu did get to watch Malleus burn more stuff down, which was a win in their book.