19. Agatecraft 101

Christie realized that no matter what she had been taught, the claws of anxiety were something that couldn't be unlearned. She had honestly believed that she had managed to handle her first days at the academy quite well, but only now did she understand that she had been lying to herself. How many people did she actually interact with after arriving?

Not many.

She went over her recent memories only to find the faces of Shayla and François. One of those two faces wasn't even human! She had been too nervous in the first days to interact with people, so she spent most of her time either alone in the gardens, in the stables with François, or vaguely accompanied in her room when she read, which was most of the time. She could have gone to the academy's library, but she had feared that it would be too full for her!

Her agates threatened to burst as the time to present herself slowly closed by. Sleep, Sleep, she commanded her sea of stone between inner sobs. She wasn't built to do this. She was nurtured to do this, but not built for it.

And yet…

Her roommate exploded with energy all over the classroom. Christie wasn't unaware of Agatha's radiance – she had seen it before – but now that she was close to her, it blinded her.

As the other students mused about Agatha's 'situationship', a handful of half-carved thoughts appeared in her mind. Her eyes lingered on her roommate's blue agate as she resummoned it for herself and placed it back on her pendant. The 'highest quality agate in the world', she found herself musing.

Even though the blond girl's likeness filled Christie's gaze, she realized that it was better to be blinded by light than darkness. As Agatha sat down, the redhead no longer found herself jittering – at least not as much – and she stood up.

"The name is Christina Valasela," she spoke softly, but not quietly. Miss Diorite had taught her to project her voice, and her dearest father had told her to eat the world. The first one was easy enough to do, but the latter… she was satisfied with taking small nibs for the time being. "About my a-agates…"

Christie turned her down to face Agatha. She was embarrassed by the stones that hid on her body, but if her suspicions about the blond girl were true… then perhaps she should not be.

The nouveau riche took a deep breath. She knew she couldn't shine like her roommate; she was just a sorry excuse of a human being that couldn't even keep her voice straight, but…

I do want to eat the world.

"I boast the highest quantity of agates this world has seen!" She shouted with a pitch higher than usual out of her nervousness.

As before with other students, some brief chuckles were heard from the back of the classroom. The teacher didn't order silence but instead made a single clap.

"That is quite the claim, Miss Valasela. Especially considering the Shining Knight still lives," René Dago said with an all-knowing smile instead of the fake ones he wielded before. "As your previous classmate has made a demonstration of the quality of her agate, could you demonstrate your quantity?"

"I… uhm…" Her gaze skipped from one face to another as she saw the laughing visages of her classmates. Her gaze spun. She was dizzy. They were all looking at her. They were all laughing at her.

No, not all.

Amongst the maelstrom of derision, one student looked at her with all seriousness. Her roommate. She was grasping her blue agate in her hand as she looked at her as if she were a divinity being prayed to.

Eat the world, the voice of her dearest father whispered. Eat the world, she told herself now.

She took another deep breath and looked at their teacher with a diplomatic smile, just like she had been taught.

"Unfortunately," Christie spoke with a collected tone, "I fear my agates are so plentiful that they may not safely fit in this classroom."

The teacher looked at the high ceiling of the dance hall-converted-classroom and let out an amused snicker. "I will take note of that. You may sit."

She collapsed on her bench.

If it weren't for the values that had been drilled into her, the gesture could have come out as flippant, but her body instinctively fell and rested on the seat with delicacy, even though Christie felt like an agate without an owner.

The round of presentations continued for a while until the whole class had had their turn and everyone had introduced themselves. Christie would have loved to say that she now knew the names of her classmates, but she would be lying. Too many things had been on her mind in such a small window of time to process that much information.

Teacher Dago snapped his fingers at the end once everyone had spoken.

"With this, we can mark the homeroom introductory session as over," his voice was as martial as when he had entered the classroom, but it also conserved that more laidback tone after he had written on the slate with lapiloquia. "Before starting anything else, I would like to inform you all that this first year will be rather introductory, at least academically speaking."

That got the reaction of some students, frowns and even gasps, but by now most knew better than to voice their doubt aloud.

"I understand your doubts, but this is necessary. You all come from very different backgrounds, and even if you are only three dozen, ascertaining the level of each student is still a daunting endeavor, so we will follow a pre-established itinerary that covers all the bases. But beware, these may be introductory classes, but this is still the Skyscraper Academy, and above all else, a military academy. I doubt most of you will be able to handle military drills, no matter how introductory they may be."

That statement got a bit of cold sweat on the back of many students, Christie included. Christie especially. Nobles were known to have a sedentary life –noble women even more so – unless they had physical hobbies like equitation or fencing. She may not be noble-blooded, but far more stones flowed in her blood, and Christie found herself even more sedimentary than the average noble.

"Most days you will have only two classes, which may vary between one and three hours. This depends on the exertion valued for the lesson, and depending on the class, you will find that a single hour might even be too long. Fortunately for you, students, this first year you will only see lapiloquia through a theory lens, and practice will start past the second year."

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A student groaned at that revelation. One of the most important aspects of the Skyscraper Academy was that their students learned lapiloquia, after all. A discipline only reserved for high-ranking military officials or nobles.

"You will not be groaning when the second-year starts, Master Flores, but cursing your existence," the grey-eyed teacher chortled.

The whole class looked at the Flores fella, and the boy blushed almost as hard as Christie would from the attention. She couldn't blame him, though. Lapiloquia was a highly interesting discipline, and most heroes and legends had been lapiloquists in one manner or another.

"Now we will begin with the introductory class of Agatecraft," Teacher Dago grabbed a chalk and wrote 'Agatecraft 101' on the slate, which prompted the gasps of a lot of students.

There wasn't anything with the written contents – though it was a rather informal use of terminology – but rather how they were those contents were written.

René Dago had summoned an average-looking agate in all the senses of the word. It was small and had the typical red-green coloration that could be seen both in normal agates and summoned ones. He had shaped the agate whilst in the air and subject to the Control command, which Christie didn't even know it was possible, and then the agate shaped like a ring grabbed the chalk. The surprising thing was that not only did he have good calligraphy with the agate, but that he was writing without looking!

Their teacher had written that 'Agatecraft 101' on the slate whilst looking at the whole class.

"Now," he said calmly with a touch of smugness, "can someone tell me what happened there?"

Veronica Alfargar, the noble girl Christie had changed rooms with, raised her hand. She seemed eager to respond, but her visage showed doubts. "You used the Control and Shape commands at the same time and wrote on the slate?"

"And?" He invited her to continue speaking with a gesture of his hand.

"And that would be it?" Veronica responded unsurely.

"I expected a better response, Miss Alfargar," the black-haired girl blushed at the teacher's comment. "Her response was not wrong, just incomplete. Anyone else could add to her explanation?"

No one came forward. Not out of lack of initiative, but rather that not a single student knew what he was talking about.

"Miss Alfargar was correct in stating that I used the Control and Shape commands at the same time, but I used another one to write with the chalk. Anyone?" Teacher Dago offered interaction again, but no one responded. He let out a soft sigh before continuing. "What I used was the Watch command."

It didn't even take one moment for several classmates to raise their hands. Already expecting the question, René Dago raised his palm to order her to lower their hands and answered the unspoken question.

"It is a rather uncommon command that allows the lithorist to see through their agate like a third eye. Even amongst scouts, it is rarely used thanks to the range limit of the agates, but it has its niche uses," Christie found herself surprised after the man actually lectured like a teacher. He still seemed too young to do so, even if he was a decade older than her. Or rather, precisely because he was only a decade older than her. "As you might have guessed, writing whilst facing away from the slate is earthshatteringly hard. This command has allowed me to see through the agate as if I were personally watching the slate, and with the help of the other commands, I was able to write."

Many new ones were raised instead of lowered.

"Yes, Master Librar?" Teacher Dago referred to the first student to have presented to the classroom.

Mateo Librar was a… rather round male student. Christie wouldn't call him 'fat', but his face was as round as her roommate's agate. What stood out more about him was his red hair, though instead of Christie's fire-red hair, his was far more orange, almost bordering on auburn.

"So, from what you have said, teacher, that agate was holding three commands simultaneously?" The boy said, but it was hard to tell if it was a statement or a question.

"Correct," the teacher nodded.

"How?" Mateo asked again without skipping a heartbeat.

"Does anyone know the answer to that?" The black-uniformed soldier asked, and to everyone's surprise, someone raised their hand. It was another male student, and this one had a noble aura to him with his chiseled face and blond hair, but unfortunately, Christie couldn't remember his name. "Yes, Master Echevarria?"

"Stratums," Echevarria answered as a matter of fact.

"Correct," Teacher Dago nodded again. "Now, you will all be asking yourselves what Stratums are and why you have not heard about them. The answer to the latter question is simple: they require effort. Now, for the former, it is a bit more complex."

As he spoke, René Dago's agate moved behind him. The movements of the agate holding the chalk were mechanical and stiff, but they did their job and managed to draw an agate. Though part of that success was that agates looked like potatoes. The chalk-agate drew a handful more in a succession, starting from the potato-agate and ending in something like Agatha's perfect agate, albeit way bigger.

"Stratums, in the simplest of terms, are the growth of your agate. The more you use it, the more it will grow, and once a threshold is met, it will increase its Stratum. This is normally seen as an increase in quality of the agate, which can either be its coloration, its shape, or its size."

The chalk-holding agate pointed on beat as the teacher mentioned the different types of agates drawn on the slate.

"But the increase in Stratum does not just equate to an increase in quality. There are also two very important changes. First, it increases the summoning range. Pay attention here, the summoning range, not the recalling range. This means the range you are able to summon agates from, even if the increase in quality that goes hand in hand with the increase of a Stratum will also augment your recalling range. Right now, I presume all of you can only summon agates through your skin," the class nodded in affirmation. "From the Second Stratum onwards, you are able to summon agates at a distance. With the Second Stratum, you are able to summon them maybe a couple of centimeters away – which is still an infinite increase compared to touch range, mind you – but with higher Stratums you might even reach a whole meter if not more."

To illustrate his point, Teacher Dago summoned a myriad of agates, all of them higher in quality than the average and at various distances from his body. None appeared directly in contact with his skin.

Whilst she wasn't a violent person, Christie immediately noticed the severity of that claim and demonstration. That meant that around their teacher there was a zone of absolute control where he could summon his agates where he pleased. Agates were already scary, but that was outright terrifying. Some other people seemed to realize the same as her as they paled a bit.

"You might have noticed this already, but your starting agates are on what is called the 'First Stratum', and every increase of Stratum follows the previously stated pattern of First, Second, Third, and so on," he continued as if nothing had happened. "And as for the second change I have mentioned, each new Stratum allows you to give your agate a new command."

The class devolved into chaos.

Christie couldn't blame them. She had never heard of such a thing. Yet what lingered on her mind now was: If I could give my agates both the Sleep command and another one… could I control them like normal people do? That idea wasn't just tantalizing, but downright corrupting. There was nothing she wished more to do than wield her agates like everyone else.

"Yes, Miss Belkadi?" René Dago's voice cut through the cacophony, and silence was made even if he didn't command it. The gazes of the students quickly fixated on the girl with the raised hand: Shayla.

"Teacher Dago, you have mentioned that we have not heard about Stratums because they require effort. Could we get an elaboration on that?"

"Of course," he nodded. "I like your initiative, Miss Belkadi."

Christie's former roommate nodded at the praise, but she maintained her response non-verbal as in any other way humility would have deformed into pride.

"Increasing Stratums are not common because they require discipline, and as I have said during the homeroom session…" Silence lingered, and the teacher frowned. "Come on, class, say it aloud. Discipline is…"

""Imperative,"" the whole class said in unison. Relatively speaking, of course. They weren't soldiers yet, and it showed.

"We will go over how to increase one's Stratum in later sessions of Agatecraft classes, but for now, you only must know that the most important part of increasing a Stratum is discipline, and that is why most people simply have never increased the Stratum of one of their agates. Beyond the fact that the quality of the agate also affects the chance of jumping to a new Stratum, of course. That is why we call the different fields of Agatecraft disciplines, after all," the teacher said with a soft chuckle. "Oh, and yes, before I forget. You might have guessed this already, but let me state it explicitly. You need to increase the Stratum of each agate individually."

The class spun. Her stomach flipped upside down. Her eardrums buzzed. Christie didn't just feel she was personally attacked, but outright stabbed in the gut. She would have said she heard her hopes vanishing, but she would be lying. She could only hear the buzz in her ears.