After eating a quick meal of a half a sandwich and some soup, I went out to Applied Mage Combat, where professor Alydia gave us a lecture on ember-rocs. None of it was anything new or staggering to me, but it was good to have the refresher, since I hadn't seen one in person in over a decade. Jackson, Salem, Yushin, and I then spent a bit of time strategizing ideas until a bit after class, where we each peeled away to study.

The following day, I got up early to open at the Charm and Fable, then, once my shift was over, I headed out to my meeting. Over the break, I'd set up a time to meet with professor Gemheart, and now was the time. It took me a bit to find his office, but when I did, he called for me to come in before I could even knock.

"Quite impressive," I said as I stepped inside and took a seat.

"Permanent wizard's eye on the door, nothing special," professor Gemheart said dismissively. "Now, what can I do for you, lad? It's a bit late to transfer back into my course. I'm guessing you need help?"

"Something like that," I admitted, flipping open my grimoire until I reached the page where I'd written out the ritual spell for rearrange organs and pointing to the component list.

"I would be able to cover the cost of the herbs myself, and due to all the overtime I worked over the break, I could probably cover the ether crystal cost, but the heart of a space-warping carp fish, the pharynx of a phase spider, and the liver of a baobhan sith? Absolutely no way I could cover it."

"I see," the professor said, leaning back in his chair and stroking his long beard. He pulled a pipe from nowhere, tamped some tobacco down in it, then flicked a finger and lit it with a cantrip. I waited patiently as the smoke puffed from his pipe, not bothered by the heat in the way a human might. He took several long breaths, then puffed out three rings in the air. They held there, rather than dissipating, and he pointed his pipe at them.

"Fire a coinshot through those rings."

I pulled a copper coin from my pocket and did as he said, shooting the coin cleanly, where it struck a shield I hadn't noticed the professor cast. He tossed it back to me and nodded.

"Explain why this is a transmutation spell. What principles of reality are being rewritten, how are they being changed, what parts of the spell do it, and show the mathematics going on behind the scenes of the spell."

I launched into an explanation of the changing of force, momentum, and impulse, the loosening of gravity to allow the spell to fire in a straight line, and which parts of the spell were responsible for which part. When I finished, professor Gemheart had me go over Scribe's Friend, explaining the evaporation and condensation process of the ink on the page, and the spellcraft that was needed to manage it without any apparent change in standard temperature and pressure. When I finished that, I moved onto describing the effects of telekinetic volley and erode matter.

I was glad that I'd been reading the theoretical books that he'd listed for me, because if I'd only studied the spell and learned to cast it, I wouldn't have been able to answer half his questions. It was only when he asked me to explain the hidden hideaway spell that I paused, and was forced to admit that I didn't know.

"Good lad," he said, smiling at me. I paused and tilted my head in curiosity.

"What?" I asked.

"If you could tell me the exact physical alteration that goes on in hidden hideaway, and more importantly, show the mathematics of how it happened, you'd be writing a graduate research paper to become a high wizard of transmutation," professor Gemheart said with a laugh. "I can tell you that the hideaway isn't another plane of Etherius, it's actually a part of our world, and that it seems to be some sort of pinched space. But the power needed to double space is far too low for a second circle spell. It happens regardless, of course."

"What, but… how?"

"When Magyk created her initial spells, she created them for a reason. Some spells work on purely physical principles, while others seem to work on more ethereal powers, like life force. I, and many other transmutation experts, believe that transmutation exists to bridge this gap. Many principles of reality have been discovered by reverse engineering spellcraft, and some even argue that these mysterious forces like life force or the universal note are not truly unknowable, but simply rules we have failed to reverse engineer yet. Hidden hideaway falls into this camp – there is some underlying principle in play that allows the mirror to supply a vast amount of power, without altering any ether or matter that we can detect. Perhaps it's the innately spiritual part of reality, perhaps it's a principle we've failed to grasp. I can't say."

I took a moment to let that soak in, and professor Gemheart sat in silence with me. When I finally nodded my head, he smiled at me and pulled out a sheaf of papers and put them down on the desk.

"This is the written midterm for the class. Please fill it out."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I glanced at the wall, where the enchanted portrait suggested it was about two or three in the afternoon. Each test took two hours, though I'd completed my conjuration and abjuration tests in half that time. Professor Gemheart tapped the table, drawing my attention.

"I know it's quite the time commitment for our meeting. But trust me and fill it out, give it your best attempt. If you do well, it should be worth it."

"I… didn't bring a pen," I admitted. Professor Gemheart laughed heartily and handed one over, where I bent over the desk and got to work.

It took me longer to finish this one than it had my others, since the mathematics took longer to go over and check, and it was on top of the spell diagrams that all of my others had contained. There was also the fact that I hadn't actually been in classes for these, where I had been for my others, and my understanding was commensurately lower.

Throughout the time I was working on the test, the professor headed in and out, taking care of assorted business, grading papers, and writing up works for his other courses. When I finally finished, he took the papers for me, setting the multiple choice section aside and using his floating quill to grade it while he looked over the longform questions.

"This will take me a little to work through," he said. "You're welcome to use the restroom or get some water or a snack if you'd like. Meet me back here in about twenty minutes?"

I thanked him and then left. When I returned, he'd completed the test and pushed it over to me, the B minus visible at the top of the page, with an A minus written next to it. Looking a bit closer, I realized that the B minus came from the written portion, while the A minus was the averaged score of the written and practical together.

"Frankly, I'm surprised you did this well," he said. "Most people who challenge the exam for credit struggle on the written part, only scraping through due to their average being raised from the practical. Of course, you'll still need to challenge the final, but you should absolutely be able to take my course next year."

"Well, that's good to know," I said. "It wasn't e–"

"I'm getting there, I'm getting there," the old dwarf said grumpily. "Hold on. Since you've passed the accreditation, I can use some of my discretionary mentorship funds to get the components for you."

"Discretionary mentorship funds?"

"Were you warned that after your first year, if you want a lot of help from the professors, you'll need to impress them?"

"I was. Something about first years getting all the help, while second and third rely on the teachers?"

"Most first year ritual and material costs are covered in tuition, as are a portion of second and third year funds, but fourth and fifth circle rituals are expensive. Teachers are given a budget from the school that can be spent on students we're mentoring – it's a bit of a pain, actually, lots of accounting – but it's there to give a chance for poorer students who are here on scholarship to not have to bankrupt themselves."

"Oh, then, thank you. I really appreciate it," I said, bowing slightly to the dwarf. "This will help me in my fight against my brother, and improve my understanding of rituals."

"Yeah, yeah," professor Gemheart said. "Now get out of here and go get dinner. I'm getting hungry. I'll get the components and drop them off at your locker."

I thanked him and rushed off to do as he said, then went to check my locker. I wasn't sure if I was surprised or not when I found that the supplies had already been dropped off within – there was definitely something strange about the extra-spatial lockers.

As I was leaving the room, I caught the scent of something fresh and clean again, but when I looked around, there wasn't anything I could see, and the smell seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. With no trail to follow, I let it go and brought the components to the ritual room that had appeared in my dorm, then started the ritual spell.

I used animate writing implement to outline my form on the floor with some chalk, then rose and started filling it with the depictions involved in the book, creating strange spatially warped areas in my body to alter the area of my heart, liver, kidneys, lungs, and several other organs.

With that done, I drew three massive rings of spellcraft around the outline of my body and filled them with the spell array that the spellbook had described, then placed the assorted components in their respective spots. Some, like the organs, were simple to place, while others, like the herbs, I had to place in specific parts of the spell arrays, careful to not let any fall outside of the swirling loops. The seven small ether crystals were placed in a line running from the base of my spine to the tip of my head. By the time I finished the components, it was getting late, but I decided that this was worth pulling another all nighter.

I stopped by the cart next to my bed, which had thankfully stuck around even after the holiday and knocked on it.

"Coffee please. A little cream, no sugar."

A moment later, the coffee appeared on its surface, and I started drinking, getting to work on the chanting and ether shaping.

While I was filling and shaping the ether of the spell, I debated trying to pour dragonfire into it. I hadn't had an opportunity to try it with a ritual yet, since the only ritual I'd learned was for the mage tool ritual. If I'd messed up my wand or staff, it would have seriously damaged my chances against Gerhard.

If I poured it into this and it broke, it would be a waste. If I poured it in and it worked, it would probably increase the spatial warping effect going on, which would be good… right?

I imagined it warping space around my heart so much that it took minutes for blood to reach my veins and shuddered. No, I'd try infusing dragonfire into a ritual some other time, when it wouldn't potentially have life-ending consequences.

It was well past midnight when I finished activating each of the sections of the array, causing them to glow the vibrant cobalt blue of my ether. I stepped inside, then laid down on the chalk outline of my body. There was a flash of blue light, and then I felt magic sinking into my body.

Then it was over. I sprung to my feet, and moved slightly faster, the blood flowing through my body more efficiently, the newly spatially warped organs connected in new ways and locations. It wasn't much, not when compared to the power of my bloodline flowing through me, but it was noticeable. More importantly, it had also given me a tool against Gerhard – if he partially shifted back into his draconic form and tried to stab my heart with his claws, he'd have a much harder time hitting.

I cleaned up the ritual room, putting the chalk away and wiping the floor down, then went to bed, knowing I'd curse myself in the morning.

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