The Eyebright's Dimension

Chapter Seventeen: Sensory Class

With the first Final Round came the closing of the first trimester, and the frantic switching of classes that accompanied trimester ends. Kasity wanted to move up a magic class, but keep her special class. On the first day of the second trimester, Kasity was awakened by a scroll hitting the side of her head.

“Wazzat?” she mumbled, rubbing her crusty eyes and stretching her toes towards the bottom of her bunk.

“Schedules!” cried Karynn, and Kasity bolted up, fumbling for the scroll. “I tried to toss it onto your pillow, but I missed.”

But Kasity wasn’t paying attention; she unrolled her schedule and scanned it quickly. There didn’t seem to be any unexpected changes; there was her higher magic class, and her special class…

“I have Healing first, and then History and Geography, and then Arithmetic…” Karynn rattled off. “And Claia has a higher Healing class, but the same History and Geography—”

“What’s this?” Kasity interrupted, pointing to the Introduction to Sensory.

Karynn frowned, and found the same name on her list. “We have it right after lunch,” she said. “Don’t you remember, Kasity? It’s the next level up from Meditation.”

And then the memory popped back into Kasity’s head; her horrible Sensory Potential Quotient, and Calixte’s words: “Aptitude at sensory is not something one can learn.”

“Great,” moaned Kasity. “I bet I’ll be terrible at it.”

“Don’t be silly,” Karynn cried. “You’re never bad at anything.”

Kasity opened her mouth to reply, didn’t get the chance, for Rissy called, “You guys better hurry up if you don’t want to be late for breakfast,” as she dried her long red hair and ran down the stairs. Claia was already pulling on her socks, and Karynn gave a guilty jump and scrambled into the bathroom, closely followed by Kasity.

The boys were waiting for them at the foot of the staircase, and as soon as Kasity, Karynn and Claia emerged, they jumped up to compare schedules.

“We’re all in the same Sensory class,” Aidan commented after a moment’s silence of contemplation.

“Who cares about that?” Macom moaned. “I’m the only Sylph first step who didn’t get moved up a magic class.”

“I’m still in the lowest flying class,” sighed Claia. “That’s worse.”

“Well, you’re taking Healing with third steps. That makes up for it,” Karynn said comfortingly.

“Can we get down to breakfast?” Shant asked, giving his scroll a disinterested look and tossing it in his bag.

All the first steps agreed to that suggestion, and they trooped down together to the Centre Quad Dining Hall. Healing went by quickly; they practiced identifying potential beneficent plants. Then they met up with Claia, who was in the class right next door, and all the first steps went to History and Geography together, where they passed a boring hour through a lecture about all the nation’s capital cities. In Arithmetic, the class was evenly split; Claia, Karynn, Kasity, and Tal went to a basic class while the other three boys went to a higher one. Kasity never had any aptitude for math, and even though she did take basic classes from a tutor for almost a year or so, she still struggled through long division as much as Tal did, and he had never even seen an addition sign before entering the Academy.

Finally, they came back to the Dining Hall for lunch, where the menu was coarse brown bread, soup, and a shiny apple. Adely, accompanied by her usual gang, jostled her table so that her soup slopped over the edges of the bowl and onto the table. Kasity tried to get up, a hot flush in her cheeks, but Karynn laid a restraining hand on Kasity’s arm, and so she resorted to glaring at Adely’s back instead.

“At least it seems that we don’t have any classes with them this trimester,” Karynn said. “They were in Arithmetic with us before, remember? And we have magic with Eloko…”

Kasity nodded, crossing her arms over her chest and watching Adely through narrowed eyes until the end of lunch, when the first steps rose together to find their Sensory class. They had never taken a class in the Center for Clairvoyance and Cognizance, which was referred to as the CCC. The CCC stood on the western side of the Centre Quad.

As Kasity exited the dining hall and crossed the Quad’s grassy lawn, she noticed that the CCC gave off an unremarkable air that was distinctive only because it looked so shabby compared to the grand structures surrounding it. The exterior was one shade of dull gray, the roof a darker shade of dray, and the window shutters almost black. Some tired looking ivy crawled up the sunnier side, but seemed to have lost heart halfway through, for it barely reached the second story. The steps, constructed from white-gray concrete, led up to the gray door, which Kasity reached first. She pulled it open by the predictably gray doorknob, glancing over her shoulder to see Shant and Macom gawking at the CCC’s grayness.

The door led to a dimly lit hallway, painted (predictably) gray. Some light baubles hovered near the ceiling, and only one window at the end of the hall let in light, although outside a cheerful sun shone brightly. The rest of the windows were shuttered.

“We have to find Room 5,” Kasity shouted back to her stepmates, but even her shouting voice sounded dull and gray in this building.

“It’s over here,” called Aidan, pointing to yet another gray door. A peeling, black 5 was painted over it. Just as Aidan reached for the doorknob, a rising tide of voices and the sound of the front door opening diverted the Sylph first steps from the door. The Wyvern first steps emerged into the dark hallway, led by Adely.

“Oh, please,” Kasity groaned. She for sure did not want her Sensory class with Adely, not if she was going to be bad at it, as her SPQ predicted…why couldn’t she have Flying, or even Magic, with them? The eight Wyverns came forward, led by Adely, and stopped in front of the seven Sylphs.

“Are you going to open that door or not?” Adely asked, rolling her eyes at Aidan.

He didn’t meet her eyes and instead pushed open the door. Kasity expected to see another gray room, but instead, a sudden bright glare glowed, and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust. But when they finally did, she realized that this room had all the windows open, and that sunlight streamed in and filled the room as if it belonged there. It even smelled like sunlight—or at least how Kasity’s imagined sunlight to smell. There were no chairs, or desks on the tiled floor; only plain, hand-woven mats piled in one corner of the room. In the opposite corner, the teacher stood, talking with no other than Eunae Sun.

“Eunae!” called Karynn, waving, and Eunae turned around.

“Hello,” she replied.

The teacher, who had short, black hair that framed here face and very red lips, strolled over to where the first steps stood in a stealthy, catlike way.

“New to Sensory?” she asked, surveying them all with an unblinking stare. “Eunae here is a Master—literally. She just finished her test for that particular recognition, and I could sense she passed with flying colors.” The teacher turned to Eunae and said, “I expect they’ll want you in their Society after you graduate.”

“I don’t know if I made it, Miss Phaetra,” replied Eunae in her quiet voice, and Miss Phaetra smiled, curving her red lips high into her cheeks.

“Oh, darling, but you do,” cried Miss Phaetra with a little laugh. “We must talk, Miss Sun, and we shall—but I have a class right now, and I can feel the confusion dripping off their skin.”

Eunae made a small bow, smiled at the Sylph first steps, and vanished into the gray hallway.

“Grab a mat,” said Miss Phaetra, and retreated back into her corner with a slinky crawl.

All the first steps did so, and sat down—Sylphs on one side of the classroom and Wyverns on the other.

“I see we have a divided class,” Miss Phaetra murmured, noticing the large gap between the two groups. “But we’ll address that later. First, we have introductions…”

Kasity could barely hear what the teacher said, for she spoke so softly. She strained and tilted her head, but could not make out a single word of what came out of Miss Phaetra’s mouth, although the crimson lips kept moving… She glanced around the classroom to see if the other kids had difficulties hearing, too, but to her surprise, they all seemed to hang intently on her every word. She stared at Miss Phaetra, confusion rising in her stomach, and as she and the teacher made eye contact, her voice rose suddenly, and Kasity could hear, now: “…and though Sensory is a subtle art, and not one easily taught or learned, it is one of the most useful crafts in all of magic, prized for its rarity but often despised for its power.”

Kasity looked around once more to see if anyone else noticed the sound change, but saw no sign that they did so.

“I need all of you to pay attention closely, now,” continued Miss Phaetra, stalking to the front of the classroom. “You have learned in your magic classes how to do magic, but I wonder—does anyone know what exactly magic is?”

Kasity pondered the question, and realized she did not know. She knew only that if she wanted it enough, or forced her enormous will on an object, it would move.

“Ah…” said Miss Phaetra with raised eyebrows. “They always leave this delicate explanation to the first Sensory teacher a student has. So today, you will learn, and right now, we will delve into a little of other subjects, shall we? How about history?

“I know you have heard the bedtime stories that tell of the race that first populated our Earth. The legends say they originated from another world, another dimension, and arrived with great power. First these people conquered the Earth, and then they spread all over it, using their power to subdue the land. But something curious happened in later generations. Some of the children born did not possess the power, and, soon, with each passing generation, the number of those with the power dwindled, and dwindled, until those with the gift became oddities. We don’t know exactly what kind of power they had, but we know for sure is that they at least controlled magic, or, at its purest form—Aé.”

Everyone in the class gave a little start and looked at Aidan, and then Adely, who both tried to look as if this information wasn’t new to them, too.

“Magic is known as Aé only by those who study it, and know it intimately…it is the one word that connects all the languages on our Earth, for there is no tongue in which magic does not become Aé. Our own country of Irinifa used to be a number of smaller regions in which those who could control Aé had died out completely…a new ruling class, filled with the power of Aé, swept into the area and subdued it easily, and called their lineage by the word of their ancient power. Other noble families sprang up, and each and every one contained the great power to manipulate Aé, for that is all magic is: the power to manipulate Aé.

“And what exactly is Aé? No one knows. Perhaps it is the thrill that humans feel when they gaze upon a sunset, or the pounding exhilaration that comes from flight. Or maybe it is an omnipotent presence that we can only see…at any rate, not only nobles have the power to manipulate Aé. From time to time, others, too, are blessed with the gift, although that power is almost useless without the proper training. And that is what we shall do in this semester’s course,” said Miss Phaetra, brisk all of a sudden. “Class is dismissed for today. Please put your mats back in the corner. There is no homework.”

The first steps got off their mats and placed them in the corner, whispering amongst themselves. That was by far the weirdest class Kasity had ever attended, and she felt a bit dazed as she caught a glimpse of Adely imitating Miss Phaetra’s feline walk as they all exited the CCC.

“Why was she speaking so quietly at the beginning of class?” Kasity asked, more to clear her head than anything else. “I didn’t hear the entire first part of the speech.”

Karynn turned towards her, startled. “She never spoke quietly.”

“Yes, she did,” replied Kasity, nettled. “She just trailed off.”

“She didn’t speak quietly,” insisted Karynn.

“No, she more…let the words hang in the air,” Aidan put in, frowning.

“Oh,” cried Karynn. “You mean…that feeling that she sort of let us in…”

“I can’t describe it…” said Tal. “It’s as if they were right there, if you just sensed—”

All the first steps, except Kasity, exchanged excited glances.

“She wanted us to sense her words!” crowed Shant.

“It makes perfect sense!”

“Sensory! I did Sensory!”

“Well, I didn’t,” said Kasity, feeling lousy that everyone else seemed to get it fine.

Karynn put a cajoling arm around Kasity’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. It was just the first time.”

“But everyone else got it!” exclaimed Kasity. “Why couldn’t I?”
“ ‘Cause you can’t be good at everything,” said Aidan, rolling his eyes.

“I am not good at everything!” Kasity shouted. “I am horrible at math, and I can’t—can’t cook up potions like Claia, or speak Common like Karynn.”

Her stepmates glanced at her curiously for one moment, and Aidan snorted. Then the conversation meandered back to their lesson, and, much to Kasity’s annoyance, stayed there the rest of the day.