Four days really wasn't a lot of time to prepare anything extravagant for a thing like lifting a chair while using the most creative way possible, especially when that lifting had to be done with magic. And even more so when most of the people participating wouldn't have the slightest clue about how to really use magic or how to code without causing some sort of catastrophe.
In hindsight, the assignment wasn't a good idea at all. But then again, is there a better way of teaching than letting your pupils truly test their limits? Yes, doing the same, but in a safe environment where no one can get hurt. Though that is beside the point, Kanrel was fine, and that was all that mattered. At least to him.
He had avoided the chaos in the dormitory halls, the vomit and desperation and stink that wouldn't leave even after a hundred baths. The laboratory had been a sanctuary, a safe environment that he had needed, far from the unsightly things that his peers must have displayed over and over again. But then again... he had missed the chance of testing further codes for the purposes of burning said unsightly things from this existence.
Now that they were all waiting for their highly motivated professor to arrive, Kanrel could see the lack of sleep on the faces of many. He could see that some felt disgusted, even now. Oh, how he couldn't wait to see the things these people would conjure, for each creation would tell a story; each success a story of suffering, of failing continually until you managed to move a chair for a mere centimeter.
Some might've stopped trying when they managed to do that, but some would push through even further, forming codes more suitable for themselves; those were the ones that he was most curious to see.
And so was the woman who again shut the lecture hall door violently, causing a loud bang that, with its echo, touched each of them.
"Wonderful, you all look chirpy as ever. We are all chirpy because someone had to clean, and I quote, 'the mess that they had caused.'"
"How wonderful it is to think that you might get to spend four days with your own research, but instead you are forced to burn vomit and to recuperate dim-witted students. And not to mention the random graffiti I had to clean here and there; something about fake passages in the Book of the Heralds," Oidus said and paused for a moment.
Kanrel couldn't help but furrow his brows at such an audacious thing. Who would dare to question something so sacred so disgracefully?
Oidus shook her head, then continued, "So not only am I dealing with dim-witted students, but also a moron or a group of morons. Marvelous."
She sighed. "Alas, I am here again, with you, my dear priestlings. But enough babble; starting from the back, you may come to me and show all of us your little codes, and don't worry, I have plenty of critique to give, as well as plenty of readiness to suffocate any accidental fire or unexplode any fatal explosion."
Oidus placed a chair in the front, and she herself sat on the floor in anticipation. Then the first brave individual came down to showcase their creativity and progress.
During the next many quite normal and unimaginative showcases of lifting a chair, Oidus spent it giving simple words of criticism and encouragement, such as 'boring,' 'useless,' 'pathetic,' 'waste of my time,' and 'waste of air,' and so forth.
Most would just do the same thing that Kanrel had done on his first try, though there obviously were some differences in the formatting of the codes; Kanrel could distinguish the talented from the untalented quite easily: there were those that, in their code, managed to do multiple things at the same time, making the process of lifting a chair much quicker, and then there were those that were awfully slow and were actually just 'wasting time' or 'wasting air'.
Then there were the special few who thought it would be funny to use their hands to lift the chair. Oidus would just laugh emotionlessly at their poor attempt at a joke in a room filled with people who wouldn't be able to find things funny.
They, of course, had to then showcase some magic, or Oidus would 'rip their heads off, even if that meant that she could no longer indulge herself in her research and would have to spend the rest of her life being slowly eaten to death by maggots the size of a fruit fly.'
At last, it was Kanrel's turn. He got up from his seat and stood right beside the chair, and began: "I am Kanrel Iduldian, and what I've conceived is a set of codes which allow an object to be moved via magnetism."
He turned toward the chair. "Firstly, I create a magnetized zone or a point in the air at the wanted distance from the object which I want to move," he explained, and focused his attention on the space in the ceiling just above the chair. "What I'm doing in practice is quite simple: I'm altering the properties of the air, making it function similarly to magnetic stones and metals." A wave of nausea rushed through him.
Nothing seemed to happen, but to make a point that something did happen, Kanrel revealed a nail that he had brought with him. He threw it at the newly magnetized point. It flew in a nice arch, then suddenly, it got ripped away from its course and stuck itself to the stone ceiling of the lecture hall with a nice 'snap' sound.
"Then, we move to the object itself, we wish to move from one point to another," he said, and took a few steps back so that he could more easily see the ceiling and the chair. "Similarly, as with the created magnetic field, I will now alter the properties of the chair to whichever material suits my needs," Kanrel's expression darkened slightly as he fought against the familiar disgust. At the same time, the chair rushed toward the ceiling and attached itself to it. Thankfully, it had not broken because of the contact.
A wave of applause filled the lecture hall, but it quickly died down as Kanrel simply levitated the chair back down, not wanting to break the chair when it came down.
Oidus made a quick note, then locked eyes with Kanrel, and with a simple word of criticism: "Magnetic," she dismissed him, allowing him to sit back down.
And her criticism made a lot of sense; if the room they were in was filled with metallic objects, his showcase could've easily become a deadly dodgeball game with rapidly moving metallic objects. Of course, that would only happen if the magnetic pool were way too powerful in its pull.
Yviev patted Kanrel on the back, congratulating his success. Then... it was her turn, she stepped to the front, introduced herself, and began her presentation with a wide grin and a question: "What if the chair could bounce?"
So she had created a code that would change the properties of the chair into something more suitable for bouncing, like rubber; then she hit the floor with a lot of force with another part of the code, which then prompted the chair to shoot up toward the ceiling in an accelerated manner; soon enough, they all could observe how the chair was rather quickly bouncing back and forth from the floor to the ceiling.
This lasted for a while until she made it stop.
"Loud."
Yviev then returned to her seat with a well-practiced smile that told the world that she was satisfied with her magic. It was Kanrel's turn to pat her on the back; he supposed that this was something that friends were supposed to do.
Then came a few more basic liftings of the chair; the second-to-last even vomited a little, causing Oidus to blurt out things that really shouldn't be said about anyone's mother. She then burned the vomit away and shouted another profanity at her dear pupil.
The last novice got up from his seat, an impressive-looking individual; he didn't really look like his age would suggest, and many would say that his talents were wasted in their line of work. Kanrel remembered him for obvious reasons; who could so easily forget someone as handsome as him?
His name, though, was a mystery, at least to Kanrel.
But soon he would be able to rectify this, as he had since the beginning of the showcase begun taking notes of the other novices, mostly about the code that they showcased in front of them all, but also their names, as they would announce themselves first.
"Yirn," he announced himself with a simple name, and there was no last name given. That was one of the things Kanrel remembered about him—he was another Nameless, but someone far less frowned upon for some very visual and physical reasons.
He was built like a soldier, designed to take battle on the frontlines of war; no one would dare test how far he could wedge his fist into someone's skull.
Something about Yirn unsettled him. Not fear, not exactly. Something else, painting a shade of color to his grayed-out emotional landscape.
Yirn began as all eyes were on him; nothing happened for a while, but soon they all first heard, then noticed how multiple chairs started to walk toward the chair he was supposed to lift; the chairs would group around it, and then they would lift it above themselves. They had formed a pyramid of chairs, and then, just to make a point, Yirn made the pyramid of chairs float and slowly rotate.
Each chair had moved independently; Yirn must have coded individual instructions into multiple objects simultaneously, maintaining all those threads of magic at once.
The novice waited for Oidus to dish out her carefully selected word of criticism. And after a while, she delivered, "Creative."
Yirn casually smiled; for some reason, it looked far more genuine than any other smile from a priest. As if he had smiled like that all his life. He then returned to his seat, but only after giving Kanrel a quick look.
There really was a feeling about him that Kanrel could not put into words; maybe there was innate talent in this young man, and he could just tell. He would need to talk to him later and find out the code that he had used; he would be a great addition to the people he considered friends, or at least mutually beneficial individuals.
Oidus got up from the floor and said, "Now that took far longer than I had thought... And I still have to give a lecture. No wonder the life of a priest is so sad and so depressing."
"Today, we will delve into how to improve the way we code. Some of you, I won't name any names, not because I don't want to humiliate those who are dumber than the average donkey, but because I can't for the life of me remember most of your names."
"So, let us start from the beginning again."
And so their lecture went by. Oidus gave detailed explanations on things that were actually quite useful to Kanrel, as she would often demonstrate and then elaborate on the things she was teaching. Oidus was an awfully talented priest, and how quickly she was able to first produce a piece of code and then find its faults, just to improve them in mere moments, was impressive.
She would use the codes that the students had used to lift the chair, and then she would explain how they could be improved, all this following the initial logic that the creator of the code had. In a way, it was like she was giving them answers to future homework, but she explained them in such a way that it would be impossible for the novices not to grasp them and improve considerably—unless there was someone who was actually dumber than the average donkey, according to her.
She then gave them some reading recommendations, which were more like a list of books they would have to read or be out of the loop for the next lecture; she also commanded everyone to practice coding and weaving magic every day, staying away from things that would 'cause a minor disaster, like an explosion, for example.'
They were then dismissed while she was already walking out the door.
Kanrel instantly collected his things and left the lecture hall behind. He had a lot on his mind, and there were many things that he would have to review in his notes. The day had been highly educational, even if their professor seemed unmotivated and didn't want to be there.
"Kanrel!" a deep voice shouted after him. He stopped and turned around to see who had called for him. Soon, his eyes met a handsome man who was gracefully approaching him; Yirn even moved like a soldier. No, he moved with the grace of an aristocrat.
Soon, the much taller man stopped before him and asked, "I am really sorry to bother you, but could we go and have a talk somewhere?" The way he spoke was so natural; it wasn't the words he chose, but the way he said them out loud.
Kanrel cleared his throat and said, "Of course, follow me." Without daring to keep his eyes on the man for a moment longer, he returned to his course and expected him to follow.
This feeling inside of him was so strong that it made him wonder if someone was trying to hex him, but he soon accepted the discomforting feeling, and after walking for a while in the middle of the campus, in the middle of students who were enjoying the sun and the company of each other, he finally understood what that feeling was.
He was jealous. The man at whom he dared not lay his eyes was everything that he had hoped to be. Even as someone who was nameless, he was respected, and he went unbothered by eyes that would do harm to him. And he so naturally held himself; even as a priest, his smile was inviting and his speech captivating.
Yirn was everything that Kanrel was not. Tall, handsome, social, and liked by others. He oozed confidence, which Kanrel lacked.
Only when they arrived at the laboratory and the hall that Kanrel had booked for him and Yviev, did he finally look to see if the man had, in fact, followed him. And to his surprise, he had. He was already casually exploring the things in the hall, but he did not touch or attempt to read the notes that Yviev had scattered around.
"What is it that you wanted to talk about?" Kanrel asked, observing the man. Yirn's dark eyes soon found Kanrel, and their eyes met; he smiled so naturally that it made Kanrel wonder if the man had practiced every night in front of the mirror to smile like that.
Before, he would've found that smile so beautiful, and now he felt regretful that he hadn't paid any attention before; he might've now had the memory of that smile, and he would truly be able to know if it really was so beautiful.
"I would like to join you and Yviev in your study group; the way you two code makes me wonder about all the things that we could achieve together. I think we might have a very beneficial relationship in the future," he said, his voice soft, almost shy.
"I've actually always wanted to talk with you, you know... Another nameless like me, but to be honest, you're a bit intimidating to approach; at least you were before, and honestly, you probably still are, but for some reason, I find it much easier to approach you now."
"And I really don't mean to offend; I know you technically have a name, as your mother is the Herald of the Gods; I just meant that you were born nameless, like me." Yirn suddenly started babbling, and Kanrel found that maybe the man before him wasn't as perfect as he was in his head.
This didn't make the discomfort go away, as he realized that many would most likely find the man's awkward nature to be very endearing.
He almost couldn't help but sigh, but he managed to control himself and instead extended his hand to the man. He then said, "I am looking forward to working with you." He then tried to smile as naturally as he could.
Yirn looked at him strangely for a moment and then took the offered hand. "Likewise. Also, not to offend or anything, but your smile does need a bit of practice." Yirn's hand was warm in his, and the warmth lingered for a while after their hands separated.
"How bad is it?" Kanrel asked and conjured another fake smile.
Yirn grimaced. "You look really scary, like you're ready to rip my arm off or something."
"I see, I guess I have to buy a mirror."
Yirn smiled and bid him farewell for now, but as he was leaving, Yviev walked through the door. Both of them came to a halt, and they stared at each other. Then, Yviev glanced at Kanrel and asked, "What's this rendezvous I've walked into?"
Kanrel cleared his throat, "Nothing like that... He just asked if he would be allowed to join our study group."
Yviev stared at Yirn and scoffed. "Why be so formal? He could just join without asking," she said and stepped past him.
Yirn seemed a little embarrassed. "I just didn't want to impose," he muttered.
"Don't worry about such things... Kanrel here likes to be imposed upon; he doesn't seem to mind me, and I don't much mind him, so I doubt he'd mind you, nor would I much mind you either. We're close like that," Yviev waved her hand dismissively.
Kanrel blinked. "No, we are not."
Yviev furrowed her brows. "But you even patted me on the back! Aren't we now basically best friends?"
Kanrel coughed. "Is that how it works?"
A hearty laugh came from the doorway, one that sounded far too natural for a priest to produce. Kanrel and Yviev turned toward Yirn in surprise.
"You two are quite something, aren't you?" he pointed out, and with a grin, walked out the door. "I'll be glad to get to know you two better!" he even shouted from the corridor.
Kanrel and Yviev stared at the door for a few moments longer.
"He's weird," Yviev whispered. And Kanrel found himself nodding.
"But nice," she added. And the nodding continued.
"Is my smile weird?" Kanrel suddenly asked.
"Very much so... You should get that checked; every time I see it, I worry that you're having a stroke." She sounded genuinely worried; she even patted him on the back.
Kanrel scoffed. "Then I really need to get a mirror…"