NTR Quest 12 - Academy - Secret Seraph (Patreon)

Jean crossed her arms and tutted in your presence. “You are making things complicated, you know that?”

Your accord had returned from the expedition with a familiar, which was already quite the reward. Having skilled servants was very useful in the school. According to Esther, not only did it mean you could participate in 'pet battles' for clout, but you could also send the girl out on errands, or as a proxy to complete tasks that were too menial for any of you to do. Naturally, though, she was the groups familiar so she had to be shared. Setting that aside, however, you were able to take the dryder head back as evidence of the hunt. The kill put your group in the top running which brought you close to the prize at the end of the year, but also placed a target on your backs. Apparently it was not just a target for other students.

“I didn't know that.”

Jeane uncrossed her arms and leaned back onto her desk with light sigh. “People are starting to question why 'I' am the one that gets to tutor you. They are challenging my rights.” She shook her head. “Honestly, I never thought this would be an issue, even for a Hero. It just feels like everything around you fits into place somehow. You are like a magnet for change.”

“What are you talking about? The way I see it, I'm getting carried by Esther and Merit. Those two are real prodigies.”

She narrowed her eyes at you. “Those two are what students at this academy call 'prey.'” You cocked your head and stared back in disbelief.
“It is true. It seems as though in any other circumstance they would have driven themselves to ruin. There is always that type. Overconfident young mages that come only for the nebulous promise of a wish. This is a place of learning. In my opinion, the wish is just a trap meant to lure those that are not serious about knowledge into danger.”

“You really think that they would've been lost without me around?”

Jean looked up in thought. “The goblin girl would not be as driven without the support of others and the jackal would be far too driven to not get caught out by something eventually. To be frank, the fact that you all managed to defeat a dryder after being stupid enough to try and fight it on it's own turf is amazing-” You smiled at the compliment.
“-ly stupid. Congratulations on getting lucky.” You knew it was not luck, but how else where you going to explain it without revealing the identity of the woman that actually defeated the creature. Jean did have a point. Esther was cocky and far too clever to try and do anything too risky without being coerced, relegating her to obscurity. On the other hand, Merit was the one pushing to fight the dryder while ignoring the Seraph, which may have lead to disaster. You thought back to what the white figure claimed about you not being bound by fate and how that simple thought drew those two together through you. Then there was Aiden, a little prince that admitted he was on the cusp of disaster without your accord's protection.
“Could you stop putting yourself in a position to either die or get scouted by another instructor?”

You considered the request for barely a moment before letting slip. “What entitles you to teach me over anyone else?” Her elegant elven jaw dropped. Maybe it was because of the somewhat amoral choices you had gone along with, or maybe it was the fact that you were feeling rather confident after coming back on top after a dangerous expedition. You felt more callous and cocky. You reiterated your point and expanded upon it.
“Seriously. You brought me here and that is great, but what do you offer over anyone else? Would you stay with a teacher when you weren't certain they were the best choice for your own advancement?”

She looked disgusted. With a grimace the elf clarified. “Advancement, or education?”

“Both.” You shrugged.

“I am the best for both.” She offered assuredly, but you could tell by the way she was looking at you that she was annoyed to have to say it.

“Why?”

She seemed to be ignoring the question at first as she pushed off from her desk and sauntered over to one of her bookshelves. She lifted her finger and counted from the left on a certain row until finally she found the book she was looking for. She pulled it free of the shelf and handed it to you. The cover read: 'Advanced Magical Categorization.' It was heavy in your hands and you could tell it must have been hundreds of pages.

“What's this?” You questioned.

“That is the methodology for recognizing spells and types of magic through small, almost imperceptible clues in the casting, the aura, effect or result. Knowing them tells you the effect it could have on a persons body or core, or the mages surroundings. But you had better learn each individual one, because even intent presents a clue that could tell you whether an individual is about to light a fire or light you on fire with a Fire Ball.”

You felt stressed just thinking about it. “Do normal mages memorize all of this?”

“No. No normal mage memorizes any of it. They rely on expensive tools or bring someone that has made it their life work recognizing different types of magic via obscure clues.”

You immediately became unimpressed. “You're giving me extra work for something I can just buy a tool for?”

“No.” She plucked the book from your hands and levitated it back into it's spot. Jeane leaned forward.
“I can see all of it intuitively. That book was written by...” She paused, clearing her throat. She seemed hesitant to finish that thought.
“It is an old but necessary tome written by a people that could see magic intuitively. It was written into their core. As they learned magic they wrote down context clues to accurately correspond to that magic's presence or casting so that others could do it too.”

“Sounds like they were making themselves obsolete by doing that.”

Jeane rolled her dark pupils. “Do you 'want' to read that entire tome and memorize it? Or do you just want to ask someone else that knows? The book exists so that you can cross-reference it like an appendix, but that could take a while on its own. Do you really think they are obsolete if they can do innately what others have to have money or time to do?”

“I suppose... Who are those people?”

“Not important.” She snapped back.
“What is important is, considering your trait, it is possible I could instill in you the same ability. It would provide an edge over anyone else.”

You looked at her closely. “You're one of the people responsible for the book?”

“Descendant.” She gulped.
“But that is unimportant.”

“How are you going to instill in me a racial trait?”

Jeane finally lost her disgust once the focus shifted to her lecturing. She smiled subtly and explained. “Racial traits are not actually exclusive, they are just prohibitive because they are advantages or disadvantages that were ingrained in people's Core's over time, bit by bit through iteration. So, normally it would take generations to train the same trait into the core of other beings.” She stepped closer and looked you over.
“Considering your trait is learning quickly, you may be able to get a sense of it at first, then eventually master it while you still live. That is something no mortal could do. Elves can over their long lives, to some extent.” She mused out loud.

“How long. Also, shouldn't these traits eventually iterate themselves out of existence?”

“We can begin the process of teaching and see if it takes at all before we start in earnest. If it does, there is a good chance at estimating how long after that it will take to master. As for your second question. No.” She added flatly.

“No?”

“Traits that are advantageous to a creature are not going to iterate themselves out of existence, because 'advantage' is something that is decided after the fact.”

“After the fact?”

“After they pass on their core template through reproduction.” Jeane worded it coyly, but she of course meant sex.
“The simple fact that you were able to pass that on is evidence that your own Core is something that has succeeded and your progeny being able to do the same continues that trend. Sometimes the lines end, but the people and creatures that exist right now are the success stories that have come to exist on the backs of millennia of failures.”

The sentence awed you somewhat. It put into perspective how lucky and small you really were in the grand scheme of it all.
“But what about the negative traits you mentioned?”

“Negative is a word given by others. Those traits exist because they were positive at one time, or because they are positive in ways that we do not consider. Take the dog beastfolk, for example.”

“Okay. I know of them.”

“They have a trait that predisposed them to be loyal subordinates.” Jeane looked at you smugly.
“You are 'smart' so you are probably thinking that it is just a fancy way of saying that they are doormats. How could such people survive with that trait?” You shrugged at her, since she had said what you were thinking for the most part.
“When human kingdoms were first rising to prominence it is downplayed that wolf beastfolk being so noble and loyal contributed to them becoming the first to gain the trust of those rising kingdoms. This secured their descendants place as the most common type in Trysk to this day.”

“Wow... Alright.” You were not sure what to say. Jeane's ears drooped as you displayed what she read as indifference to the lecture. She brightened as you quickly added.
“I guess we can try?”

* *

Jeane waved her finger back and forth. It had been a week of private lessons that pulled you away from your friends in the accord, but the steady progress drove you to keep coming back.
“Do you see it?”

You nodded. “On the left side a small, barely visible, white translucent orb of mist slowly creeps into view before circling and disappearing. I think it's... The beginning of a mist creation spell.”

Jeane clapped her hands. “Not the beginning. The pre-beginning. I canceled the cast.”

Your eyes widened. “You canceled it? So that means-”

“It means you saw the clues innately before the spell would have normally been visible to a normal mage.” The reserved mage could barely contain her excitement.
“You are on track to have fully mastered this skill by the end of the semester... No, lets not downplay this too much. You have enough of the basics down that you can already infer what spell is being cast by someone. Even if you can not fully predict the exact magic, it is enough to get a range of ideas. Even that much is a skill that kingdoms would employ someone handsomely for.” She gushed. The elf was fairly standoffish and rude and incredibly cocky but you had to admit she was very cute when she was getting excited about magic. It had come up a few times over the course of your private lessons with her and it drove you to look at her more and more like she was a woman rather than just your instructor.