Rothester

Out of the blue, Arierane arrives. Bought from nearby shops, she wears a simple shirt and trousers that would make her completely invisible in a crowd if it wasn’t for her voluminous blonde hair. Unkempt, messy, and full, Arierane’s hair looks like she had just gotten out of bed.

“Oh, it’s you. My dear sister Aria, why have you come?” Ken says sarcastically as he yanks his hand away, bothered that she came to interrupt him.

“You were missing at Lady Thorne’s estate. I was simply worried sick.”

“Worry no more then, I’m clearly fine, now if you excuse me.”

Ken tries to turn around and follow the mages, but Arierane yanks his arm once more.

“Where are you going?” she asks, expressing a concerned facial expression.

“To get help. Some mages from some academy just passed by here, and I wanted to ask about their magic.”

“Students of magic arts? What makes you think they would help?”

“I don’t know,” Ken frustratingly says, “but it’s worth a shot, isn’t it?”

Arierane sees Ken’s frustration and thinks it’s likely about his memory loss.

“You… want to see if they can help you recover your memories?”

“Yeah, isn’t it obvious? You’re my sister, right? Shouldn’t it be your main concern?”

“Of course I’m concerned! I just don’t know if utilizing magic is a good idea.”

“So then, what idea is better?”

Arierane frowns as she stares at Ken. He can only guess what she’s thinking and is careful to analyze how she acts. Other than regaining his memories, Ken also wants to figure out who Arierane is. Despite her insistence, he knows full well that Arierane is not his sister. Of course, he doesn’t tell her that. As far as he knows, Arierane fully assumes he has no memory of anything and is likely using that assumption to take advantage of him. For now, he has decided to play along with whatever games she’s playing. He’ll play the role of a lost brother to uncover what Arierane wants from him.

“Fine,” Arierane says, “I suppose we can try. Let’s go.”

Arierane grabs Ken’s hand and drags him along the road.

“Can you not be so rough?”

Arierane ignores Ken and continues to pull him as she walks relatively quickly.

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Near the center of the colossal city, the Scorrest Academy of Magic Arts is an institution for the research and development of magic. Built during ancient times, no one knows its origins as records were lost at the turn of the Glasse Era. It was one of many academies, but ever since the crisis caused a near collapse of all civilizations, it is now the only academy that still stands in current day Scorcia.

As the last remaining magic academy in the country, countless aspiring mages flock to the institution in hopes of elevating their capabilities. Any mage with a reputation has undoubtedly attended the academy at some point or another. From mages serving in the Scorcian Army to mages living the life of an adventurer, it’s a challenging quest to find a skilled mage who hasn’t attended an academy.

Even within the Mercenary Guild, the most potent adventurers are mages. First and Second Class adventurers are all alumni, and some are even professors and instructors guiding the next generation of mages.

The campus expresses nothing but excellence. Like a scene from the Renaissance, the buildings are massive stone structures with intricate carvings and designs. Its prestige is nothing less than elite, outmatched only by the Royal Family’s castle.

Near the campus’ entrance, an older man in embroidered blue robes is talking with another. Both are professors at the academy. With greying hair and their imposing stature, it’s evident that they are both knowledgeable and experienced. They wear jewelry of all kinds. Rings on their fingers, earrings on their ears, and necklaces with a variety of different stones embedded in them.

“And the students?”

“They are well. I say, they never cease to impress. Always striving for excellence.”

“As they should. And what of your recent project?”

“‘Twas as elusive as ever, but I eventually got it working. Surprisingly, it was simpler than I had predicted. It will be presented to the Royal Family soon as a method for distant communication. But after working on it for some time, I ponder on the new knowledge it may unlock.”

“Such as?”

“I know not; lightning has only been used for war. Using it for something so different was beyond our initial understanding of its application. Perhaps that is the difference between the Great Powers and everyone else.”

As the two professors are engrossed in their conversation, Ken and Arierane approach them from the streets adjacent to the campus entrance. Arierane is dragging Ken by the arm, much to Ken’s annoyance.

“Excuse me, sirs,” Arierane says,” terribly sorry to interrupt, but we seek help.”

“Are you students?” one professor says after looking at the two.

“Nay, I hope it need not be necessary.”

“It may. We are much too busy to lend our time.”

“Please, my brother is in need. He has lost his memory, and we believe you may be able to help.”

“Lost his memory, you say? How could that have happened?”

“Bandits ambushed us in the forests. One of them a mage who cast an explosion upon us.”

One of the professors sighs and says, “As unfortunate as that is, we can not help. As he stated, we are much too busy.”

“Busy with what?” Ken blurts out. He’s been silent and been letting Arierane act as the big sister, but he finally decided to interject.

“We are not obligated to say. It isn’t any of your concern.”

“Then I can only assume you’re not busy. I at least wanted to ask a few questions.”

A professor sighs once more. Usually, when commonfolk ask him favors, he always dismisses them. They have always been trivial and hardly worth his time. Firmly denying a request has typically been enough to dissuade people from asking, but Ken seems more stubborn than most.

“Make it quick. There is more I need to attend to today.”

“Thanks. My first question is what magic is; how does it work?”

The two professors look baffled. No one has ever asked them such an obvious question, while Ken seems completely serious. It’s like a child asked them; they can’t help but think Ken is an idiot. Arierane, meanwhile, feels slightly embarrassed at Ken’s stupid question.

“I apologize,” Arierane steps in front of Ken, “his memory loss is rather severe.”

“So it seems…”

“I’m still waiting for an answer.” Ken pushes Arierane away.

“In its most basic form. Magic is the divine power to manipulate the world around us. However, not everyone is capable of utilizing it. Only those descendants from the elves have the power of magic.”

“Can it be used to restore my memory?”

“Perhaps, but don’t expect us to help.”

“Why not? Is it because you’re busy?”

“That’s enough, Ken. We tried. Let’s go home,” Arierane tries to convince Ken.

“No, I’m not done here,” he argues.

“We are busy with a project entrusted to us by the Crown. We don’t expect you to understand, but this new technology will allow for distance communication using lightning magic.”

Nearly instantly, the first thing to come to Ken’s mind is the radio. He doesn’t know what exactly lightning magic is, but if it’s anything related to electricity being used for communication, then he might be able to convince these old mages to help him.

“What’s it called?” Ken asks.

“Telegraphy, it’s said that the Venesian Empire invented it. We are only just developing it ourselves.”

Ken thinks he might know what they are talking about. If he can somehow impress them, they might be inclined to help him.

“What if I said I might know something about telegraphy?”

“What? You? Telegraphy? What could you possibly know?” said a professor, dumbfounded at Ken’s claim.

“I’m going to take a guess and say that it’s just a metal wire that you run electricity through. One person on one end of the wire sends a pulse, and on the receiving end, another person interprets those pulses as some kind of encoded message. Am I correct?”

Arierane stares at Ken in shock, completely dumbfounded by what he said. The professors are also astonished. Ken described pretty much the exact concept of what they are working on. It’s a simplified description but accurate nonetheless. Commonfolk should have no clue on telegraphy, and Ken, a random stranger to them, somehow knows what it is. They begin to wonder how Ken could have known, especially since he isn’t a student at the academy.

“How could you have known that?” the professor asks.

Ken shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t know. I just do.” Ken then taps his head with his finger and says, “Memory loss is a crazy thing, isn’t it?”

“As impressive as it is, we still can not help. The project is already near complete.”

“Really? Then what if I told you that you don’t need the wire to communicate?”

“What?”

“Wireless telegraphy. You don’t need a wire. I know how to make it work. It would save you a lot of time, wouldn’t it?”

“Indeed it would… Fine, I can suppress my curiosity no longer. What is the name of you two?”

The professor finally gives in to Ken’s persuasion. He has been working on telegraphy for months now, a request from the Crown to the academy. It’s a technology that is known to be thoroughly already explored by Venesia. Unfortunately, their grip on the technology is tight, and Scorcia was forced to rediscover it themselves.

Though wireless telegraphy is thought to be theoretically possible, the academy pushed the idea aside until they can perfect wired telegraphy. It’s unknown if Venesia has already researched wireless telegraphy or even other communication technology, but it’s safe to assume they have. Needless to say, it’s a miraculous stroke of luck if Ken can accelerate the academy’s progress.

“Kenneth. Or Ken, whichever you prefer.”

“I am Arierane,” she bows slightly.

“I am Master Hartelle,” one of the old mages says.

“And I, Master Stoddard,” the other says.

“It’s a pleasure,” Ken says.

“Quite. Follow us. Let us see what you know,” Master Hartelle says.

The two mages go through the gate, with Ken and Arierane following behind.

Arierane, who’s walking in front of Ken, turns her head and whispers, “We’re entering the Kingdom’s prized academy. Don’t do anything stupid, please.”

“You got it, sis,” he mocks.

Arierane frowns and snaps her head forward.

As her head turns, her hair snaps around, and Ken notices something. It was just a glimpse when her head quickly turned around, but there was a brief gap in which Ken saw her ears. They didn’t look normal, it looked strange. It looked long, longer than it should be.

Ken now finds himself staring at the back of Arierane’s head as they continue walking behind the old mages. With the gears in his head turning, her puffy haircut suddenly makes sense. It’s not random.

Walking through a courtyard, countless mages swarm the academy. Students and instructors alike are all wearing a variety of different robes. Somewhat comically, most also have a wide range of bright appearances, particularly their colorful haircuts. If it wasn’t for a mage’s unique physical characteristic, this is undeniably a copy of some kind of convention.

Something noteworthy is the difference in appearance between the students and instructors. Other than the obvious age difference, the instructors seem to be fond of wearing a lot of jewelry while the students lack it. Even the two mages Ken is following have jewelry. If nothing else, Ken thinks it might hint at their status or reputation.

At this time, a group of students approaches them to speak to one of the professors.

“Master Stoddard, we apologize for interrupting, but we request assistance.”

“Assistance? Can it wait?”

“I suppose so. We simply needed guidance for our research in stamina.”

Just like the other mages in the academy, the group that approached them are wearing robes. None of them have the typical black or brown hair of most people.

Among the group, there is a female student. She has dark green hair and green eyes. It’s not something that’s seen much, and Ken takes a good look at her. The girl notices him and turns to glance at Ken, smiling mischievously.

“You may go on,” says the other professor, “I can lead these two to the laboratory. It shouldn’t be too much trouble.”

The two professors glance at Ken and Arierane before looking back at the students.

“All right. Let’s have a look, shall we? Lead the way,” Master Stoddard says.

The students then turn to leave, and Master Stoddard follows. As the group leaves, the green-haired girl briefly glances back at Ken, still studying the group.

Arierane shoves Ken forward as the other professor continues along.

“Relax, damn,” Ken mutters.

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“Here it is,” Master Hartelle says.

The group enters one of the academy’s many laboratories and approaches a table with an object on it.

Built of wood and metal, the rudimentary telegraph appears in shambles as it was still being developed.

“Take a good look. Study it. Tell me what you think.”

Ken walks around the table and inspects the telegraph. It looks relatively simple as there are only a few parts to it. Bent and coiled copper wires are all over the table, and one of the wires extends all the way to another table on the other side of the lab where a receiver is.

The part he’s looking at is the transmitter. He can see what is supposed to be the knob, the lower and upper contact. Looking at how it works, he realizes the only thing it can be used for is morse code, but he also notices something missing.

“Where is the power source?” Ken asks.

“What power source?” Master Hartelle asks.

“Electrical power, you don’t attach a battery or something?”

“It works with lightning magic,” he says as he holds up his hand. Electricity arcs between his index finger and thumb to demonstrate what he means.

“Right…”

“So, care to explain your theory?”

“Yeah. You got something I can use to draw on?”

Master Hartelle retrieves a paper and quill from a nearby counter and lays it on top of the table where the transmitter is. Ken then takes the quill and starts drawing.

He draws an oscillator circuit along with drawings of an inductor and a capacitor. While drawing the components of something that can produce electromagnetic waves is simple, explaining why it works is more of a challenge.

“This is the best I can draw at the moment. In a more concise explanation, this device would have electricity continuously change the direction it travels within the circuit. It will have to switch back and forth many times in a second for it to be effective. What this will do is generate electromagnetic waves that would travel through the air without any wire. You can modify the receiver over there to have an antenna, a piece of wire that sticks out into the air. When the electromagnetic waves hit the antenna, electricity will flow through the wire as a signal.”

“How will the device create electricity? The telegraph, for example, needs magic input from a mage.”

“Hmmm…”

The fact that a mage can replace a battery changes how many electrical components can work. As he thinks, he realizes he may not need an oscillator if the professor can alternate the current himself.

“Do you mind if I try something?” Ken motions at the receiver. Master Hartelle nods.

Ken detaches the wire that connects the receiver and transmitter. Instead, he attaches a small wire to the receiver and positions it to function as an antenna.

Then, Ken hands the professor another wire and tells him to stand near the receiver.

“Okay, we’ll conduct a little experiment. Pass lightning through the wire you’re holding and then send it back. Keep reversing the direction as fast as you can. Try to maintain a constant frequency.”

“This is a very peculiar process. I’m interested to see if it works.”

The professor does as Ken instructed but finds difficulty in reversing the current. It’s not something anyone does with lightning magic. Usually, lightning is sent out as attacks or as power for something like the telegraph. It never crossed anyone’s mind to have the lightning return to the mage.

So far, nothing seems to have happened. Everyone is staring at the receiver to see if it did anything, but it doesn’t. Doubt on Ken’s theory grows, but he persists.

“Might need more power. And at a faster frequency. If you can do it thousands of times per second, that would be great.”

“Thousands!? Can that be possible?” Master Hartelle asks.

“I’ve no idea. I’m just seeing magic for the first time here,” Ken shrugs.

“Perhaps my curiosity in your theory wasted my time.”

Once again, Master Hartelle attempts to send electricity through the wire back and forth. Regarding the absurdity of doing so thousands of times per second, he holds on to a string of possibilities that Ken isn’t some kind of scam artist. Meanwhile, Arierane stands at a distance to observe. Her eyes dart from the professor, to the receiver, and to Ken.

After a brief moment, they notice a needle in the receiver starts to move. It’s a magnetic needle that can only move with electromagnetism. If it’s moving, it means the receiver is receiving a signal from somewhere.

Master Hartelle’s eyes open wide, and he looks around. He observes the room to make sure nothing can be causing the needle to move. After confirming that he’s the only one doing anything, he becomes astonished that the receiver is receiving a wireless signal. Miraculously, Ken’s theory is correct.

“It works…” Master Hartelle mutters.

“Impossible…” Arierane also mutters; she’s astonished that Ken was right.

Not realizing what he just revealed, Ken is stared at by Arierane, who is forced to reevaluate Ken’s mental state.

“I must notify the Dean,” Master Hartelle says. “Come with me, both of you.”

“And what about my request?” Ken asks.

“We’ll get to that soon enough. Right now, this project takes precedence.

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Later in the day, Ken’s theory quickly made its way to the Dean and other Master mages who contributed to the telegraph project. Though it was frowned upon that a non-student stranger advanced the project further than any individual mage could, Master Hartelle insisted that it was true. While some expressed embarrassment, Hartelle expressed acceptance. The Dean also recognized Ken’s experiment and decided to allow his extended stay within the academy as Master Hartelle’s guest while encouraging further research into wireless telegraphy to impress the Crown further.

However, despite Ken’s help, his request was pushed back again. The excitement he caused created a push to understand why his theory worked. Despite Ken’s underwhelming explanations, the concept still eluded them.

Arierane also decided to leave the academy and return to Lady Thorne’s estate. For what reason, Ken doesn’t know. Arierane didn’t tell him. The only thing he knows for sure is that she’s likely up to no good.

With his request to recover his memory postponed, Ken decided to roam around the academy alone. He decided that while he’s in an institution of knowledge, he might as well see what he can find.

In the academy’s massive library, Ken walks past the seemingly endless shelves full of books. He’s not looking for anything particular, just anything that might help him understand what magic is. Coming from the scientific world of Earth, it’s hard for him to accept any mystical, mythical, or otherwise unrealistic description of magic.

Spotting one of many books about magic, Ken opens it and takes a peak. After taking a few minutes to read it, he is once again left disappointed. The book, much like the rest of the books, is extremely vague.

Ken puts back the book and takes another out to read. But again, it’s too vague. Any use of magic is spoken about like he’s already supposed to know how to use it.

In one section about conjuring flames, it instructs that the mage needs to ‘output their internal energy and ignite it’. Another book says that magic ‘comes from within’. Everything so far is too vague and generic. He’s learning nothing so far.

Ken decides to go towards another row of books and opens them up to read. One particular book speaks less on its use and more on its origins. Ken scans the pages and absorbs what he reads:

The exact origin of magic can only be theorized by the ancient remains of extinct civilizations. Magic emerged at some point thousands of years ago, at a time where humans were believed to have not yet appeared. Artifacts found and disclosed point towards just one dominant race and one civilization that ruled the world. Following centuries or even millenniums of evolution, the first elves appeared along with other now-extinct races. Orcs and humans also started appearing in the last millennium or so but are believed to be unrelated to elves due to their lack of natural magic capabilities. With elongated ears and an overall lack of pigmentation in skin and hair color, elves also differ from humans by having double the lifespan. The origins of magic crystals, like magic itself, are also largely unknown. The largest known deposits of crystals are reported to be throughout the Heimfara Mountain Range and around the Gulf of Mosstsar on the Mossstar continent. It’s with these crystals that contain raw magical energy that allows pure-blooded humans to utilize magic.

Ken hardly feels satisfied with what he just read. Even this world’s history seems too vague. Despite not knowing much more than he already did, he still gets some value out of it. Elves, he learns, are real. With the typical features he would have thought of, one person comes to mind. Long ears, blonde hair, pale skin, it checks out.

Arierane is an elf.