"No ma'am, I don't know"
August replied, knowing very well what his mother was trying to do. Trying to make him open up in front of his peers so that he could stand out and make any friends.
'That's right'
August tried his best to remain unnoticed by his mother but he failed. Even then, he thought his mother wouldn't react to him when she went nonchalant with the lesson after watching him sitting in the crowd of aspiring mages.
That would've been good. But he knew that was too good to be true. He knew her very well. She was his mother after all. She was very possessive towards her one and only son. She wanted him to have everything in the world. Like any mother would want of course.
The only thing Lady Sophia wasn't good at, was being able to hide her emotions. Excitement mainly. It was the same reason she was behaving so aggressively now to make August feel being a part of her class. To make him feel involved. Which he obviously tried to resist up until now.
August knew well the only thing his mother wanted was for her son to be happy. While it wasn't her fault
August hasn't found a core element up until now, she
sure used to feel somewhat guilty of not being able to help her son properly.
His ambivalence was like a blanket of worries on her thoughts. For August though, it was just a matter of time. He never felt left behind by his peers. The life wasn't a race after all.
To his mother however, —even August himself didn't knew what could've been the reason for her to be so afraid. While it was true that there weren't many ambivalent mages around or one could even say they weren't alive anymore but the fact that there was a time when all of the human beings were ambivalent once in their lifetime was also true.
Human infants were of the same case after all.
He knew all his mother was doing was for his sake. He understood that. But this wasn't the right way.
He didn't came to this trial class in order to join the regular classes. He was here just to observe. To know if there's something about mana he hadn't found himself yet.
The question and answer session progressed, making all the student mages stuck at something which was philosophical answer more than the logical one.
Apart from mana and the core element, there was another thing lady Sophia used to make that irregular crystal of ice, to shape and to break it at she willed —was ...her imagination. The creativity that lies beyond the simple understanding of the physical working of the world.
The will to shape the damn world according to one's wishes. What could've possibly been more important than that. August knew that well and also had the vague idea about how the world would never have slowed it's progress if there wasn't any mana to ease the process, present.
Human mind was capable of creating wonders even without mana, magic. August was sure humans would've done something else using their surroundings as raw material for their creativity, just like they do with the elements present in the surrounding.
To answer that however, wasn't in his interest. Hell, he would let others have the privilege of being called genius or scholar, whatever.
He was here with his own interests and was ready to see them through. But the thing here was August himself didn't knew what he was trying to find. So he never could guess what might happen next.
Also trying not to answer what he knew from the very beginning was like holding himself back knowing very well he had the right answer.
"Very well then" the teacher said with disappointment, her tone never losing the gentle touch, "it was quite good to hear that most of you present here were able to see through the basic components and workings of mana" slowly walking away from the podium towards the aspiring mages she said trying to make everyone visualise the answer, "the missing part however was .... your imagination."
The beautiful teacher raised her hand making the air around everyone present in the hall colder, "using your imagination, you can command your core element and any other element within your limits to bend according to your will" as she said that visually colder air started appearing around her slightly raised hand,
"It all comes down to your creativity."
As she walked slowly towards the students various spikes of crystal blue ice protruded from the ground beneath in her wake, "the element obeys you as well as you visualise it." In Just a matter of seconds the stage behind her was full of spikes of ice some even taller than teacher herself.
Students watched carefully, shivering due to sudden fall in the temperature as their teacher explained the mechanism, unfolding before their eyes. August, watched the show in nervousness.
'what is she trying to do now?'
"We talked about creation" teacher's voice resounded like a ray of warmth in the coldness of the grand hall, "now is the time for you to answer the question about destroying a spell"
The third phase of the class began after putting up the show, passing on various questions and answers. At last the main and —as expected, longest part of the trial class was here.
"Students who could form any spells" the teacher said smiling, "and are interested, could try to destroy these spikes of ice before you."
August watched in a bewilderment and somewhat curious manner —the excited young aspiring mages trying to counter the spell, his mother put up before them.
A boy with fire as his core element let out a blazing flame or similar to what he could muster up at his level got frustrated when the fire didn't do any damage to even one of the ice spikes.
August, he frowned trying to understand the situation. He knew there was something else missing. If it weren't the case there was no chance in hell ice would stand this tall against the blazing flames.
A mage came after him, then other, then another. The student named Nyra however never seemed to show some interest in trying to break the ice spikes. Maybe she wasn't the one to use brute force, recklessly. She felt as though trying to solve the problem inside her brain. But the same thing happened to the girl shivering from cold too. She also never seemed to get the spell or the thing protecting ice spikes from giving up against fire, wind or other types of spells the young mages were showering the spikes of ice with.
Elias, the boy from before did also try to break the spikes of ice in a way just opposite to Nyra's wait and observe strategy. Making his fist clad in his source element, which made his body unnatural strength making him extremely strong and durable.
The shockwaves from his punches against the ice spikes sounded loud enough to wake even the one's sleeping in the classroom, if someone was sleeping, that is.
Ground trembled from the vibration as his fists made contact with the cold spikes of ice. However, not even this immense display of strength was able to overpower the hardness of the ice their teacher put before them.
Elias was tired after a while. Due to his inexperience the boy wasn't able to keep up the strong front for long. But he was no doubt powerful in terms of strength among most of his peers present in the grand hall.
Students continued their desperate attempts to make the ice before them break but for some reason it wasn't easy to even put up a crack on those damn things. Their beautiful teacher watched them do their best as she stood at some distance away, smiling.
August, he tried his best to look for a weakness in the crystal blue ice upto the point he was feeling a bit of frustration by now. Not to mention the freezing cold in the classroom. It was enough chilling to affect his thought process and make him mad about it.
For a moment he looked at his mother thinking she willingly put this cold here to make him lose his mind and convince him to join those goddamn regular classes.
'Not happening, mom'
August observed in silence as other students did their best to break the never breaking ice before them. It was beginning to become a kind of mental challenge to all of them. Many were even taking turn after resting and recovering their mana strength only to spend it on that trial again.
Even if it was only to satisfy their ego.
'mindless fools'
August was about to fall asleep as he watched that loud boy Elias from before drenched in sweat even in this cold breeze, landing blow after blow on the ice.
The memories of conversation with him came flooding to August's mind.
'was that really true'
His gaze was about to become distant as his eyelids were getting heavier by the minute drowning in the conflicting thoughts.
Clank! Clank! Clank!
The noise sounded like two hard surfaces clashing against each other. August turned his gaze towards the girl trying to break the hard ice with her sharp blade. Nyra, as he remembered her was it seems done thinking her plan to break the ice.
Applying all of the pressure at one point on the icy surface by her sharp thin blade was the excellent strategy one could come up with in that environment.
Unlike August who couldn't form a spell due to lack of his core element, Nyra was trying her best to use her core element through her sharp blade to make the thick ice spickes break.
Ice, however never gave in, even against the desperate attempts of that calm but fierce girl. He looked at the point where her thin and sharp blade met the hard surface of tall ice.
Clank! Clank!
From afar, it seemed as though nothing was working against the spell formed by the teacher. Nyra, did well to counter the hard surface with sharp and pointed blade to reduce the surface of contact so that she could apply more pressure on that damn spike.
Time passed slowly. Even though it hadn't taken half of the time in comparison with the previous sessions for some reason though, this part of class which was designed for students to take a practical experience of destroying a spell —felt longer than the two combined.
His gaze moved among the student mages trying to hit the hard ice with all of they got. He also watched the other students sit on their seats, never showing a sign of boredom. If not more they seemed excited, trying to guess spell they'd use to counter the spell formed by teacher.
August, he also did watch everything carefully at first. But unlike all of them, he knew the spell couldn't be that easy to break. If it weren't for his loss of core element which held him back to form any spells— he would've been the first one to test his strength against hard ice.
Obviously he would've done that observing the result of his every move on the surface of ice. Not like those aspiring mages who thought using their attributes at full extent would made them destroy the spell.
Not like August wasn't observing the results from here though. His eyes were closely following every move performed by two individuals on the stage. One was with brute strength, the boy named Elias and the other was using her sword, she moved with precision and determination in her brown eyes.
Moments passed with no progression. After constantly watching others trying to break the ice August felt stiff and tired. Trying to relax himself he sat back making himself comfortable on his seat.
Massaging his temples, he looked towards the spot where the teacher, his mother was standing. Her graceful movements never losing their elegance. As though feeling his gaze she also looked at him. Her smile widened as though teasing him.
'What are you trying to do mom. I would never...'
Before he could complete his thought however as unexpected sound came to him. The tiny noise which could very well go unnoticed if it weren't for him.
Maybe it was his keen instincts or simply, luck.
A sudden expression of realisation came to him. He immediately turned towards where the noise came. His eyes widened in shock.
'Mom! You're a genius, who could've guessed'
Absentminded, he stood up from his seat and said something which instinctively came out as a shout,
"I've found it"
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