10 Small Truths

Wolfe took that message to heart. Just because they were wealthy and noble didn't mean that an academy full of the children of Witches would be any less dangerous than life in the lower levels.

"Where is the Academy anyhow? I don't recall seeing it on the map. Is it on the upper floors?" Wolfe asked.

"It isn't in the city at all. The academy is the wastelands outside the city limits. Well, we call it the wastelands, but lately, the area around the campus looks much more like a well-maintained forest than the war-devastated waste from the school books.

I don't think they want the people to know that the world is recovering. There are still loads of monsters out there. Mutated, magically created and risen from the dead, but the land itself is beginning to recover in the spots where the Witches have worked their magic." Maria explained quietly, as this wasn't a fact well known to everyone.

Life for most in the Mega Cities was hard and dirty. The honest sorts worked themselves to death for the good of the Nobles, which meant that many people would rather risk the monsters if they knew that the planet could sustain life again.

Wolfe didn't mind the dirt, and he had found himself good work, so he wasn't just barely scraping by, but even then, the thought of actual sunlight and fresh air was appealing to him.

"It must be tough coming back from the Academy and out of the sunlight," Max said to Maria, who clearly disagreed.

"The sun is dangerous. Most mutants and undead hunt in the daytime, but worst of all, the other Witches will be awake. Coming back was the first time most failed applicants felt safe in a year.

It was pleasantly warm on the skin, though." The old woman reminisced.

"We should excuse ourselves for now. Wolfe has a lot to learn before leaving at the end of the week." Roman told the others politely as everyone finished eating.

"Do come by again, Wolfe. You are young, but you are one of us now, and we will help you with anything we can." Elder Maria told him with a wink.

Wolfe smiled back at the female Elder, who supposedly could use enough mana to power their entire Family complex's everyday needs.

"I will hold you to that."

Elder Roman led Wolfe to a quiet office overlooking the back gardens, a true luxury in this crowded city, and sat down in a soft leather recliner.

"As I said earlier before you can go anywhere, you first need to know how to hide yourself. Fortunately, the former Matriarch of the family left us with a method to do just that.

Naturally, your power will want to radiate outward, which will help you perceive your surroundings and detect other living things. While that is useful, it allows any nearby witch, even those too weak to be properly called Witches, to sense your nature as a Magi.

This note and spell circle show you how to fold it in on yourself, so the difference will be noticeable only with direct physical contact. If you deplete your mana reserves first, they might miss you even then." Roman explained, handing over the spell.

Like the few other spells that Wolfe had encountered, this one was simple, just a fancy circle and an invocation. The note said that with practice, both could be done mentally and would stay in effect for a week at a time.

Wolfe took a photo of the circle to remember it later and focused on trying to activate it.

The incantation was nothing more than a short rhyme, which seemed silly and pointless to him, just a mental trick to make the spell work for those not strong enough to activate the inscription fully.

That was how Witch Magic usually worked, though. They cast spells with Incantations, reagents, and potions. But they were all for the purposes of letting the Witches use magic in ways that their bodies couldn't handle on their own. When they wanted to do mind charms on animals or affect plants, they didn't need any of that and, at most, only used a wand to help them focus, or so said the movies Wolfe grew up with.

It wasn't that they were weak at things like this, it was that their magic was never meant to be able to do it in the first place, and they had found a way to work around their limitations with various tricks and assistants, increasing their versatility far beyond the keepers of nature that they were born to be.

With a few seconds' focus on the circle in front of him and the effect he wanted, Wolfe snapped the spell into place.

It wasn't exactly what the Matriarch had described it as though. Yes, it turned the radiant power inward, but it also caused mana to flow into his body, absorbed faster than usual and without any additional effort on his part.

The note said that the spell was called [Guardian Crest], so Wolfe assumed it must be something learned at the academy, likely to empower their spells through their Guardians.

"Do you know what else this spell is used for?" Wolfe asked Roman suspiciously.

"I know that, as the name suggests, every Guardian's armour bears the mark of that circle, minus some of the spell elements. I have seen that reduced version on magical items as well. If I recall, they use it as a very basic form of a mana-gathering circle.

The Matriarch experimented with it until she found a version that worked to hide the Magi lineage of the men in the family." Roman informed him.

"And it works very well at gathering mana. I can feel the difference already." Wolfe replied, making the old man smile.

"A true prodigy. Be sure to keep it active, but also be aware that storing mana in the body enhances it. Soon you will be much stronger than your peers, and if any of the Witches notice you doing something supernaturally strong or fast, you could be in trouble.

The original Magi were supposed to be able to leap over buildings and punch through vehicle doors without using a spell. Some of that was surely due to their abilities with Gravity Control, but the Patriarch had already begun to feel stronger as a youth when he worked to improve his mana capacity." Roman explained.

Wolfe had felt the same way. Gathering mana into his body and channelling it out was already making him stronger with only a single day's practice.