Chapter 12.

After waiting for the pupils to stop arriving, Master Iskitt wiped his forehead with a handkerchief (though it wasn't at all hot in the classroom) and quietly asked:

"May I begin?"

This was so unexpected (where's a teacher ever asked a student for permission!) that the pupils were confused a little. Someone finally nodded his head.

"Fine. Then let's begin. Where do we start? Probably with illusions, which are the easiest to learn. You probably already know what illusions are. No, no, we are not talking about unfulfilled dreams. Even the most sophisticated magic cannot make them come true. Is not magic omnipotent, you may reasonably ask. Yes, there are spells that can help you to achieve what you want, but at the same time they create a lot of problems. If you decided, for example, to get rich by borrowing some coins from treasury or coffers of some rich man. It's easy to do, Invisibility plus Teleportation, and the deal is done. But what next? Once you start living beyond your means, the neighbors will immediately become suspicious. Tax collectors and policemen are not likely to stay on the sidelines. Or you met someone for whom you have fond feelings. But here is the problem: despite all your efforts, the object of adoration remains completely indifferent to you. If you apply an appropriate incantation, you will be able to make the person fall in love with you, but it will be a fake love, zombie love, without sincerity and warmth of heart. It is unlikely that such a result will please most of you."

After a pause, Master Iskitt wiped his forehead again.

"I'm sorry, I seem to have gotten a little distracted... what were we just talking about? Oh, yes, illusions. Simply put, illusions are when you see things that does not exist. Or scientifically speaking, an optical illusion of vision."

"Are those ghosts flying back and forth around the school illusory too?" without even asking permission, one of the drow girls interested in.

"Not really. They are beings from the astral worlds. Unlike phantoms, you cannot create them, only summon them, as any other soulful creatures. Oh, of course, in the old days (maybe even now, but secretly, at their own risk), the dark druids experimented in the field of creation of homunculi and chimeras. Results of such experiments usually were deplorable: it was easier to create a golem than a chimera that wouldn't disintegrate or be extremely bad-tempered. But Master Nimikel, your teacher of Druidism, can narrate about it better than I. And we'll return to... what was it about before? Illusions? The magic of illusions is also called Pink, though the primary color of Mind magic is yellow. Has anyone ever told you about the coloring of different types of magic? If you look through a special biconvex glass, you'll see that the spell you cast leaves in air clouds of smoke, the coloring of which depends on which area of magic it belonged to. But the hue in the case of Mind magic can change within a very wide range - from pale yellow to dark orange. Orange, by the way, in this case is not a combination of yellow and red, but rather yellow and black. That's the spectrum of the combat section of Mind magic, like Insanity or Amnesia (the audience was noticeably more animated). But I'm sure you should have been warned not to use such spells on your mates!"

A couple of didactic examples followed, about how bad it is to be a bad guy and how it might end. However, Tim missed them intensely pondering a very different thought. If soulful beings cannot be created through magic, then who are their clones? After all, it is not enough to enclose mind in body, soul is also needed, otherwise the resulting creature will turn into a biorobot, or a creature with big strangenesses, innocuous or, on the contrary, harmful, will depend on the circumstances. At worst it may become permanent inhabitant of mental hospitals or prisons. It is strange that nobody else was concerned about it discussing any nonsense: the oddish teacher continually losing his train of thought, funny cases of some spells application, life before the school, and, of course, cute girls (if boys) or handsome boys (if girls). Do not they care about their own future?

A moment later that thought somehow went away, and Tim listened intently again to Master Iskitt, who was finally able to concentrate on the subject of the class.

"Illusions are unreal visions that reproduce fragments of the world or images of living beings. They are incorporeal and, as a rule, cannot cause physical harm, the main purpose of their creation is to surprise, frighten, or confuse someone. There are two fundamentally different classes of illusions. One of them is incarnated directly with the Fantasy World spell, and the visions will look as the wizard wishes. The other is based on the Deception of Sight formula, and the object will perceive reality in a distorted light - as suggested by his imagination, the activation of which is an integral part of this spell. In the simplest case they are pale, barely discernible shadows. This is where most neophytes who wish to become Masters of Mind Magic begin their journey. As your potential grows, their outlines will become clearer, fill with color, and remain stable longer. Great Masters of the past could build palaces that were indistinguishable from the real palaces from a distance! And those palaces stood for a very long time, sometimes outlasting their creators. And only then they slowly dissolved in air."

"I have a question," the freckled boy who had been lying in the grass next to Tim in Nature's magic class rose from his seat. "Is there a way to detect if something is illusory without getting too close? Who wants to go into a raging fire to see if it's real!"

"A very good question. Perhaps even worthy of a point or two (the audience became lively again). Indeed, illusions created by an experienced sorcerer are very difficult to distinguish from reality. An illusory fire can crackle and spark as the real one, unable only to burn. However, it is really hard to know it from afar. That's when True Sight comes to your aid. Under its influence you will see reality as it really is. Or you can simply destroy the illusion with a scattering spell. But it's harder to do, because it requires more mana. But in many cases partial success is enough: even if the illusion doesn't disappear, it becomes translucent and thus reveals its essence."

Master Iskitt refused to tell the pupils about the combat section of Mind magic.

"You're not going to war! And your magical potential is too weak for that. Sometimes later we'll study methods of mental protection and after it we'll talk about the simplest attacking sorcery."

Selkise dared to ask her own question.

"Excuse me, Master, I'd like to ask about the Directed Thought spell. If I understand correctly, it can be used to communicate mentally?"

"Not exactly, but close in nature. Directed Thought only works in one direction, so you can use it to tell your companion something or ask them to do something. He won't be able to answer you unless he also knows how to cast this spell. Here, see how it works. Dallbemt fragsakk gobfirg!"

A second later the orc named Shugiz stood up, nodded his head, and headed for the exit.

"I asked him to leave the classroom," the teacher explained. "That's all, thank you, you can go back to your seat."

Shugiz looked at him perplexedly and then hurried back.

"The ability to have a mental conversation is given by the Telepathy spell. Then there's full two-way contact, but only if you're close to each other. The farther apart you are, the more magical power you must have to maintain such a conversation."

In other words, Directed Thought could be compared to a pager, and Telepathy to a cell phone session, Tim thought with a smile. It would be great to learn to talk without opening mouth, of course. It would be very useful when you need to urgently discuss some delicate problem with the person you are talking to, and there are a lot of strangers around. And even if no one seems to be beside, where are the guarantees that there is no invisible person wandering around? And then it is better to use a spell to dispel the spell first. Ugh, how complicated things are in the world of magic.

"If I may, Master, I have one more question."

"Yes, yes, of course, ask!"

"Am I correct in assuming that the ability to maintain telepathic contact can be greatly enhanced if an empathic connection is established between the talkers."

"Oh yes, such a connection really does give the ability to understand from a half-word, even without any magic! And with sorcery it can work wonders - the interlocutors can hear each other at enormous distances, sometimes even being on different continents! Unfortunately, empathic connection is not available to everyone, and one can only be happy for those who have managed to achieve a high degree of mutual trust."

Master Iskitt did not go into detail. But he rewarded Selkise with five points - probably, he liked her questions more than others.

After that, there was a lot of noise in the classroom - everyone was eager to ask something, even if it was not related to the subject of the class. The teacher barely had time to answer, and only in the end he asked if anyone present had an innate gift for creating illusions.

"I have!" Za-Zu immediately responded. "I can make an illusory copy of myself!"

"It's very interesting! Please come to the rostrum and show us what you can do!"

Za-Zu's copy was pretty much identical to the original, except that it couldn't move or speak.

"And I can create illusory images," Zhu-Fi boasted. And with a smile she drew a flower in the air that looked like a lily.

"Great!" Master Iskitt approved. "Tilfings have always had an excellent abilities for Pink magic. Well, I think you deserve three points each."

"Tilfings are goats!" one of the anzimar girls loudly declared. Either because of an antipathy for horned creatures, or because her question was not scored a single point.

"You are the same!" Za-Zu answered with a snarl.

"When you'll beat each other?" the orcs (and not just them) livened up in anticipation of a free entertainment.

"What did you say, she-goat? I'll tear your hair out!"

"Aren't you afraid of getting my horns in your belly? That actually hurts!"

"Then you won't even live here!"

The situation clearly called for outside intervention, and Master Iskitt was not left out.

"Tsk, tsk, girls, that's not nice! You're setting a bad example! I'll have to use Pacification. Sullun terfik saur bhon!"

It was quiet in the classroom immediately after it. The girls sat back down in silence looking shamefully at the teacher and at each other. However, Master Iskitt did not tell anything else, just advised to borrow the book 'How not to get lost in the world of illusions' from the library.

By the time our friends got to the corridor, a large crowd had already gathered - for some reason no one was in a hurry to go their separate ways. As it turned out, the two elves, Faelinn and Namitil, were arguing over who had the best affinity to Green magic. They naturally found many eager to see the duel, and after some debate they agreed to the following conditions: at the judge's signal, each of them would plant one of the ultia seeds in the same spot and cast an incantation accordingly. The person, whose sprout grow faster, will become a winner.

It was a coincidence that an elf girl named Yumial had a whole box of these seeds with her, and so it was decided to hold the duel immediately, in the same glade where their lesson on druidism had taken place.

They came down as a group and headed for the exit. On their way to the dueling ground the crowd stretched into several small groups; being in rear-guard Tim noted that Mez'A'Shib whispers about something with freckled boy and girl, who nodded in agreement. Soon after it the drow left them and came to Tim.

"I'm afraid it will come to a fight."

"But they wouldn't be throwing fireballs, would they? They're just germinating seeds."

"That's true, but as to us, dark elves, such bets often end up in a bloody brawl. Of course, I hope it doesn't come to that here. But it never hurts to take some precautions."

The meaning of the last phrase became clear to Tim later, but for now he simply watched what was happening. He didn't care who won; he hadn't met any of the elves yet. He was simply curious to see how fast their plants would stretch upward. There was nothing to compare it to, he had no time to busy himself with his own seeds.

Finding out the best place for their aim the elves in turn a seed from the box of Yumial, chosen by the contest judge, and at her signal they stuck the seeds in the ground at the same time saying 'olpikki dunt immier'. After about a minute, the seedlings emerged from the ground. Their growth rate, of course, was far from the teacher's, but still fast enough not to be bored for hours waiting. And it soon became apparent that Namitil's sprout grows faster. And he would be the winner if not the orcess Rumara.

"Hey, you! You didn't play fair! I saw you secretly had used a couple of crystals before the contest began!"

"Now you've been found out," Eliavin laughed. "Now I understand why you claimed five crystals for the winner in a friendly match."

"You have to play fair. And if you've been caught, you should accept defeat with dignity!" Gmuruk remarked instructively.

"That's the last thing we need to hear from orcs!" Namitil got furious and took his staff ready.

"Light elves often have an ace in the hole," Shin'Ye'Het said in a sarcastic tone.

"And you, drowes, shut up! You are caricatures of elves, you evil creatures of darkness!"

"If we were here in Merzeran, you'd be on your knees begging my forgiveness!"

"Fortunately I'll never be in your filthy town. It's high time to teach you, dirty drowes, a good lesson!"

The elves grabbed for their wands - it looked as if a bloody battle was about to begin. But at that moment a strange beast, like a spotted leopard, sprang from the bushes on the right. It roared and darted toward the disciples. Some of them tried to be brave, but when a giant black with red stripes newt appeared from the bushes on their left they also hurried to the saving entrance in the mount. Soon there was no one left in the glade but Mez'A'Shib and Tim, who almost gave in to the general panic. But the drow grabbed his arm and held him in place.

"That's it, you can go back now!" he waved a hand, and the strange beasts obediently disappeared into the bushes from which they had sprung.

"I didn't think you are able to command beasts! I thought that's what light elves were into."

"We, dark ones, can do a lot of things, too," Mez'A'Shib smiled enigmatically.

What exactly he meant was clear when the freckled boy and girl emerged from the bushes, smiling.

"That's what your "precautions" meant!" Tim guessed.

"Yeah. Wasn't that a bad idea? Well, it worked!"

"It always works on those who aren't aware of our skin-changing abilities at first," said the girl. "Then, of course, they get used to it and stop being afraid."

"Only one thing I don't understand: why did you need it?" the lycos boy was puzzled. "Let the fight would be, nobody forces you to participate in it. After blowing off steam they would calm down almost certainly."

"I don't like such sort of things," Mez'A'Shib avowed. "The punishment then would be for all: who participated and who simply stood aside. What I want it for? In addition, pay attention: except us there is no one else in the forest now. And hardly someone dare to get out from the mount today."

"That's a great idea!" the boy agreed cheerfully. "The crystals will be useful for us too. And it was crowded after the druidism yesterday."

And he turned to Tim.

"In that class we were nearby but didn't have time to get acquainted. I am Yantau, and you?"

"Timothy."

"And my name is Meikli," the girl introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you. By the way, in the folklore of my people there are legends about werewolves which are able to transform themselves in wolves or other beasts. They could do it only in the full moon however and before dawn should have back their original identity. And after it they didn't remember what they were doing in the beast form."

"It's not about us," Yantau laughed. "We can turn our skin regardless of the location of the heavenly bodies. And we don't lose our memory. It's another thing to take off your clothes before you turn, or they'll be torn to shreds. That is why at home we wear tunics or long dresses without clasps; some of us limit themselves to loincloths. Therefore with the school uniform we have some problems: it had to take off its top and bottom separately. Well, gradually we'll get used to it."

"That's why you told me not to bother showing you the transformation! Though, frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing it."

"Don't you dare peek!" Meikli warned him with a fist. "I'm not always in control of my second form, and I can bite you inadvertently."

She said it in all seriousness, but it came out a little comically, and everyone laughed involuntarily.

"I'm not going to," Tim promised, smiling embarrassedly.

"In fact, there is another reason," Yantau took the floor again. "Transformations take up a lot of energy, after them we are feeling quite tired. Therefore making transformations twice in a row would be very hard for us and may not work at all. And not always it passes painlessly."

"But probably there are some perks here?"

"Certainly! As a kangur I can hear sounds that otherwise are inaudible or completely unheard. As far as I know, in druidism such effect is achieved by Sensitive Ear spell."

"And I can climb plumb walls," Meikli boasted shining with all her freckles.

"Cool! And can you get there?" Mez'A'Shib pointed at the mount spire where strange structure resembling Stonehenge was located.

"No! It's too high, I'll get dizzy and fall. But on some small rocky ledge I could probably do it. By the way, that's not a bad idea, I should try it sometime."

"No one of you, guys, can fly, by any chance?"

"Alas. Ivliar can turn into an efliko (an animal that resembles a panda, but with a different coloring), and Sitmis can turn into a zalsirb (something like a terrestrial porcupine, as far as Tim was able to understand). But in general, there are those among our compatriots, whose second skin is velhao, and they are capable of soaring through the air. Not like birds, of course, but still."

"It's a pity. I'd like to see what's beyond the mountains."

"Maybe in time we will find other ways," Yantau shrugged. "We haven't even explored the forest yet. I think it would be a good time to do that now."

"No problem. Your half of the forest is to the left of the fountain, ours is to the right."