The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 31 (Patreon)

Chapter 31 – Professor

Dr. Daniel Fletcher was quite reasonably proud of what he had accomplished in his life. He was twelve when the Awakening happened. By the time he reached college, the University of Seattle had just opened its Thaumaturgy Department, and he was part of the first class to be able to major in Thaumaturgy.

That was a heady time to be in academics. It seemed like every month, every week, sometimes every day, they were finding new answers to the questions about what had happened to the world. The ‘textbooks’, such as they were, were constantly being rewritten as the science of thaumaturgy evolved and developed in real time. And, as one of the first Thaumaturgy majors, he had been able to get in on the ground floor.

Naturally, when he’d finished his undergraduate, he had immediately joined the Department as a graduate student, eventually gaining both his Masters and his Doctorate in Thaumaturgy. While he specialized in the theoretical side of the discipline, he still made sure to keep proficient in the applied science, as well.

Really, he’d had no choice. Thaumaturgy was a science that could not easily be broken down into ‘theoretical’ and ‘applied sciences’ categories, like, say, Physics and Biology. Maybe later, it would develop to that point, when the science was more certain, and less new. Even today, they were still pushing the boundaries of what they knew.

Which is why he was so excited for today’s meeting. He could, without any hubris, count himself in the top 1% of researchers worldwide when it came to Thaumaturgy, and he’d been at the leading edge of that research for the last twenty years. However, he was not so proud that he couldn’t admit that there were those who knew more than he did.

And his guest most certainly knew more than he did when it came to magic. Sure, she only had forty years of experience with magic, same as he did, but she had learned about magic in a world that had always had it, meaning that many of the questions they were still figuring out, the other world had already found the answer to. Or, rather, ‘an’ answer.

That was one thing he’d been surprised to learn. Magic in that other world wasn’t like the science he knew it as. Instead, it was supposedly closer to an art form. One of his students had said that it reminded them of the summers they’d spent working in their family’s pastry shop. According to them, baking had a lot of science to it, mixing certain things in a certain order and doing tasks correctly, but there was undoubtedly a bit of artistic flair that went into it, as well.

Insights like that were why he allowed his students so much leeway in speaking when they were in class. Some professors would stodgily deny anything that went against their established view of things. Frankly, he believed that kind of attitude was better suited to the religious studies department, rather than any of the sciences. At least ignorance and dogmatism were expected there.

No, he was a Thaumaturge, a ‘mage’ of Science, and he would conduct himself accordingly. Data was collected, observed, and weighed against what was currently known. If it fit the current knowledge, then it was accepted. If it did not, it was retested, to ensure that there was no error or mistake, and, if there wasn’t, the current knowledge was updated accordingly. That was what scientists did. Ego only got in the way of the science.

Of course, he thought, as his office door opened to reveal the person he was waiting to see, it was understandable how lesser minds with greater egos could be put off by her. Especially when she came into the room looking like a teenage girl, wearing what was unmistakably a schoolgirl’s uniform. An image compounded by the fact that next to her was her sister, who looked older than her by several years at least, even though he knew for a fact that she was more than two decades younger. The fact that the younger sister was one of his graduate students only made things more surreal. It looked as though the elder sister brought her little sister to meet her professor, perhaps give her a tour of the department to convince her whether the university was right for her. That happened all too often, after all.

When you dealt with college and graduate students all day, the idea that someone who appeared to be a high school student might know more than you was preposterous and insulting. But, as he drilled into every class on the first day, appearances were deceiving. After all, some of the simplest magic to perform was little better than the sleight of hand and smoke and mirrors of stage magic, simple illusions designed to trick your mind. Recognizing what was an illusion and what was real was essential for any mage.

He smiled, and offered the ‘young girl’ his hand, which she shook. “Miss Akagawa, it is a pleasure to meet you, at last.” Looking to her sister, he nodded. “And Eri, I hope your revisions are going well? I know how difficult it can be changing your thesis partway through.”

Eri Akagawa nodded, with a smile. “Yes, Professor. And thank you for giving me the extra time to work on it.”

He waved her off. “Bah. If having your sister come back from the dead didn’t count as extenuating circumstances, worthy of a bit of a delay, then I don’t know what would. That said sister basically threw everything we thought we knew about the field of Thaumaturgy on its head when she came back? Well, the entire department was in agreement that anyone asking for delays this year would get them, provided they showed they were doing the work.”

His student smiled at his guest. “Dr. Fletcher is something of a fan of yours.”

“Oh, hell. I’ve been in the field of Thaumaturgy since its inception, and your return, Miss Akagawa, has been the single greatest event for the field since the Awakening itself. Everything you learned in the other world is making us question everything we knew. Even the fact that there are other worlds shook the pillars of our belief! It has the potential to rekindle the early days, just after the Awakening, when everything was fresh and new and we were finding out new ways to do things practically each and every day! What a time to be alive!”

The elder ‘schoolgirl’ chuckled, and said, “Well, I must say that Eri’s impressions of you were all accurate. She said that the research was more important than anything else to you. I’m glad that my first real lecture on magic will be done here.”

“Well, I can certainly say that we’re more than happy you chose us.” Fletcher took a breath. “So, I guess the first thing to do would be to go and give you a tour of the auditorium you’ll be speaking in, so you can get a feel of the space, and get an eye for where the lights and cameras will be.”

“That sounds perfect, Doctor.”

The three of them made a bit of small talk as they walked from the Thaumaturgy building to a nearby building. “Originally, we had you scheduled for one of the larger classrooms used for entry level classes in the department, but there were so many people interested in coming that we eventually had to move it a couple times. First was a small auditorium that seated sixty, but that still wasn’t enough. So, here we are.”

The building they walked into actually belonged to the Theater department. As they stepped past the box office and through the doors of the main entrance, another man walked up to greet them, with a smile. Daniel nodded to him. “Ah, good, you’re here. Kurt, this is Kaori Akagawa and her sister, Eri Akagawa. Kaori’s the guest speaker we have scheduled for next week, and I hoped to show her the space. Ms. Akagawa, this is Kurt Branson, the head of the Theater department.”

Handshakes made and introductions handled, Kurt smiled at the girls. “Well, as he said, I’m Kurt, and I’m head of the Theater department. When Dan asked if we could use the main stage for your talks, we were only too happy to help. After all, we shamelessly steal his students for help with effects, when practical effects would be too dangerous or expensive to pull off.”

“I see,” Ms. Akagawa said, sharing a grin with her sister. “I hope we aren’t putting you out by taking the stage?”

“Well, not for the room itself. We’re in the middle of building the set for the next show, but that class is scheduled for later in the day, and rehearsals are in the evenings. How much of the stage were you planning on using? Will we need to clear off the construction?”

As they stepped into the theater, Fletcher could see that there were indeed half-built set pieces littered around the stage. Most were platforms and flats that had been used in a dozen productions so far (as evidenced by the fact that they were all painted to look like last season’s Romeo & Juliet, and hadn’t yet been repainted to reflect the current show, an adaptation of a Japanese movie. Akira, or something like that.

Kaori, for her part, just nodded as she looked out at the three hundred and fifty seat theater. “Well, you’re certainly expecting a crowd. Should be fun.”

Turning to the stage itself, she looked at the apron in front of the arch. It wasn’t terribly wide, just five feet at center stage, and curving gently to be three feet wide at either side, where stairs let someone get up from the floor to the stage. She considered for a moment, and then nodded. “I can work with this easily enough. I wasn’t planning on a musical number or anything, so if we can close the curtains so the audience doesn’t get distracted, then that should work.”

Kurt just nodded. “Easily done, and that will make everything easier. If you want, you can get up on stage, and we’ll see about finding the light setup that works best for you.” He turned to Eri, and said, “Eri, right? I’ve seen you as one of the assistants before. Think you can get the curtain?”

“Of course, Professor.”

As Eri walked off to go take care of that business, Kurt turned back to look at Kaori. “Now, what form were you thinking on using for this? You have good skin, like this, and I don’t want to wash it out, especially since this is going to be filmed, but if you’re going to be coming as the Lich Queen, all bones and armor, then we might want to go with a slightly different setup. All depends on what you’re looking to highlight.”

Kaori smiled, and said, “Well, the idea is for this to be educational, not terrorizing, so I think I will keep this form. I’ll be wearing different outfits, day to day, but I’m not going to be suiting up in armor unless there’s a reason for it.”

“Right, right. In that case, if you and Dan would get up on stage, I’ll hit the light booth, and start setting up. Oh, but before we do that, what were you thinking for sound? Are you going to be staying at a podium, or walking around? Do you want a body mic, a wireless handheld, or a mic on a stand?”

“Hmm. Well, I don’t really intend to stand behind a podium the whole time, and I might need my hands for other things during the presentation, so we could do a body mic, or I could just amplify my voice with magic.”

“No, the mic would probably be better if we’re filming. We have the setup to mix it into the audio directly, rather than relying on the camera’s microphone. And we were going for three cameras, which we could cut between when editing the film to send out.”

“Oh, all right, then. Guess that means a body mic. Just make sure you use one that is rated for magic interference. Wouldn’t want my bones to start causing interference.”

Kurt blinked. “That… is the first time I’ve ever had THAT potential technical issue crop up.”