Fae smiled gently at Annis and patted her hand. He knew she was nervous, he was too. Shaina holding a lecture was exciting enough, but she was holding it the day after she was hit by her childhood friend. Her nerves had to be killing her, not that Shaina would ever show that in public.
Finally, it was time to begin. Shaina tapped the papers she was rifling through together and placed them on the desk. She then took two of the buckets from the floor and carried them out so they were more visible. There was some murmuring and soft laughter in the room, then Shaina began speaking, her voice amplified to sound through the room with a simple Wind spell.
"Magical theory is, strangely enough, one of the least researched subjects in magic. That might sound contradictory, so let me explain what's usually considered magical theory," Shaina started. She waved her hand towards the blackboard behind her, and a chalk flew up and started writing. The murmur in the hall increased, as it was the first time for most of those present that they witnessed chantless magic. As the chalk wrote, Shaina kept speaking. "Magical theory is what could be referred to as the science of magic. It's how magic works. Most mages don't think that far, they just know that magic... works. We have a system set up to categorize and simplify."
The chalk wrote. The ranks of magic, the categories of magic. They were concepts that everyone knew. Each mage there knew what rank they were in what element. It was the basis of all magic taught in the university, and beyond. Perhaps in the entire world.
"And yet, despite everyone following this system to a T, everyone also know that it isn't all-encompassing," Shaina continued. The chalk wrote in big letters, 'Teleportation'. "Teleportation is the most well known example. It's a spell used heavily in the past, but one we've lost all knowledge of how to perform now. We've all heard of the Teleportation Labyrinth in Lapan," Shaina said. The Teleportation Labyrinth was known as one of the most impossible labyrinths in the entire world, one that no known adventurer had conquered, but many tried. It was one of the few sites in the world with still active teleportation sigils. "But teleportation, like I just said, doesn't fit into our system. It's not exorcism, not shield magic, nor is it any of the four elements. It could be considered summoning magic, but it resists all rules that we know about summoning, so we know it's different from that as well."
Shaina went over to the desk and picked up an apple, holding it up for the hall to see. "What happens if I drop this apple?" Shaina asked, and there was some giggling in the hall again. Shaina promptly dropped it, and the apple went to the ground, a few bits of it smashing off. "We all knew what would happen, didn't we?" she said, and there was a general murmur of agreement. Shaina went over to one of the buckets, and swiftly conjured a ball of water out of thin air. It hung over Shaina's hand, seemingly suspended in the air.
"What should I do with this to get it into the bucket?" Shaina asked. "Should I cast it directly into the bucket? Or should I do with the apple, and simply drop it in?"
The answer, of course, was obvious. Despite that, Shaina demonstrated. She conjured another ball of water in her other hand. She first fired one ball straight into one of the buckets, knocking it over with the force and sending the water spilling on the floor. With the other ball, she simply dropped it into the bucket, and the bucket, naturally, filled with water while remaining still.
"What does that show us?" Shaina asked. "It shows us that magic, by itself, follows the same rules and laws as everything else. If it's dropped, it will fall down unless something is stopping it. The same goes for other things." Shaina suddenly shot a fireball from her hand straight onto the floor. There were a few screams at the sudden flash and heat, but everyone soon calmed. After all, Shaina had shot the fireball at the wet floor. It hadn't been able to take hold.
"Magic will naturally obey the same laws as everything else," Shaina said again. "This is both a huge obstacle and a huge boon for us, once we realize this. Let me show you." Shaina took another bucket, and conjured a strong flame in it. The bucket heated up, of course, but the flame remained alive inside. Shaina asked if someone who thought themselves a skilled water mage could come forward, and a youth with a somewhat arrogant demeanour came forward.
"I want you to use water to try to quench the flame in the bucket. At the same time, I'll be supplying mana to it to keep it alive," Shaina said, and the young man nodded, smirking a bit. After a short chant he held a ball of water similar to Shaina's, but bigger. He promptly dumped it down into the bucket with the flame.
There was a large cloud of steam as the intensely hot flame evaporated all the water instantly. The youth backed away with wide eyes. The flame had turned blue, and was visibly melting the bucket around it. Shaina snuffed it out with a clench of her fist.
"By making the fire strong enough, I can make it resist water, even though it would normally go out. I did this by supplying mana, but it took quite a lot for such a simple thing. Nature can do the same thing, without a mage," the Beast girl said. She brought up the examples of a blacksmith's forge, or a house on fire. In both examples, an amount of water that would normally be enough to quench a flame just wouldn't do anything, because the fire burned too hot.
"Magic obeys the same laws as everything else," Shaina said again. "But by understanding those laws, magic is also able to bend them. Summoning, teleportation, the act of using mana to change the weather itself, which is Water Saint magic. All of those disobey the natural laws. Through methods we barely understand, they can bend them."
Shaina's lecture continued, and Fae, despite not being a mage, couldn't help but feel enraptured by it all. He took Annis' hand again without realizing in his excitement. Shaina was just... amazing.
Kyva listened to the lecture with wide eyes. As Shaina spoke, and continued to explain the relationship between nature and magic, Kyva could feel something like a puzzle coming together in her head. How she used magic, how she used it to create her figurines and other things. It was all just... the practical use of magic theory, and she hadn't even realized. She could see magic as a real thing, more than just this amazing force that mages used.
Shaina was a genius when it came to magic, pure and simple. Despite having enough mana in her body to easily be able to cast simple spells, she still tried to find ways to refine it, new methods to do things. Her mana was ridiculous, but she was able to refine how she used it, maximize her methods, in order to use as little of it as possible. She was a great mage already, but she was trying to understand methods to allow lesser mages to cast greater spells. When applied to stronger mages like Shaina or Seth... It was unbelievable.
