Jadwia knew that she was the last to arrive to the Tears meeting. She had received the note from Isyd by one of the runners that were employed by the Consultation Office. Today was a special day; all the classes had been cancelled to prepare to welcome the other Academy contestants of the Tourney this afternoon. Today was a day of celebration, and in the case of Jadwia, for more reasons than one.

  She crossed the door of the Library and directly headed upstairs. She knew where to find her Ringmates, usually where Isyd liked to hang out. When she arrived, they all turned towards her, Kewin and Oliwer seated, and Isyd standing against the window. When she appeared, Kewin got up and offered her his seat. She clenched her teeth, pulled out the Lightsphere from her pocket and slammed it on the table, with her palm still on it.

  The Lightsphere flickered alight.

  Both Oliwer and Kewin jumped from their seats at once.

  “You did it too!” Kewin exclaimed.

  Overwhelmed by emotion, Jadwia managed smile back at them. She turned to see Isyd’s reaction. He was watching her and didn’t look surprised at the slightest. Instead, the smile he gave her was knowing. A warmth spread through Jadwia’s body and her shoulders suddenly slumped, as if an invisible weight had disappeared.

  Isyd invited her to sit down then picked up the Lightsphere in front of Kewin.

  “I was planning to discuss the intricacies of the Lightsphere with Kewin this evening but since both of you, succeeded in lighting it up, it is best we discuss it all together now,” Isyd said with a smirk. “So, as I said when I first gave them to you, the goal of this task was for you to contemplate a different approach to using the Arts. Do you think it is the case?”

  Oliwer and Jadwia exchanged a glance. She recalled the fleeting feeling she’d felt on the riverbank, the butterflies in the stomach, the sweetness on the tongue, but also the revelation she’d stumbled upon while watching the River.

  “For me, it was… different, yes,” Oliwer said tentatively. “But I’m not sure that I can explain… It was like… like being caught in a storm!”

  Jadwia startled. That’s not how she’d have described it.

  “For me, it was more like being in swept by the current of a strong stream,” she said.

  Isyd stroked his chin, seemingly amused by their description. “I see… I’ve never realized, but I suppose it makes sense for you to have different experiences. Don’t get me wrong, both are valid. It just reflects your specific… affinities.”

  “Affinities? Like the Grace affinities you mentioned past semester?” Jadwia said.

  “Yes, but we’ll have the occasion to discuss it further at another time. Today I want to stay focused on the Lightsphere. Kewin, your turn now! Try to recall: how did it feel when you tried to activate an Arcane?”

  Kewin’s ears turned red when all the eyes turned on him.

  “Um, I… well… I didn’t really think about it, I suppose. It’s just natural, even children can do it. You just touch the Arcane with a vague idea of what you want to happen and then… voilà!”

  “Yes, but I want you to focus specifically on the feeling with regard to the Grace. How did it feel, right before the Arcane activated?”

  “It…” Kewin closed his eyes briefly, trying to recall the feeling. “It was like… a fire in me that sparks briefly before I give it away? Sorry, I don’t know if this describes it well…”

  “Don’t t worry, this is what I was trying to get to. ‘A fire that sparks’ is actually a good way of describing it. The Grace ignites in you, and you give it to the Arcane or to the Spell. Does that sound familiar to you two as well?”

  Both Jadwia and Oliwer nodded.

  “Well, this way of picturing the Arts is way, but not the only way,” Isyd continued. “It sees the Grace as a discrete quantity that sparks in you before being given to the subject of your Arts. From your perspective, there’s nothing, then a spark, then nothing again. Now, let me present you a different way of conceptualizing it. It goes back to the 1st Law of the Arts; the Grace is everywhere, and it cannot be created nor destroyed, only altered. The Grace is in you as much as it all around you. So, the insight comes from picturing yourself at that instant when you use the Arts. Even before doing anything, the Grace is already present within you at a low level. The spark then only represents that singular instant when you need more Grace to use the Arts. Since Grace cannot be created, it must come from somewhere else, and in our case it comes from your surroundings. When you want to use the Arts, the Grace inside you increases at the same rate as the Grace around you decreases. Then comes the moment to do something with all of that Grace. It flows out of you to activate your Spell or Arcane. And still, the 1st Law is respected: the Grace inside you decreases as the Grace of your Spell or Arcane – in other words, its Concentration – increases. There, it will do whatever you envisioned it to achieve and eventually decay according to the 2nd

  Law. The Grace of your Spell will decrease and the Grace of the environment will increase, bringing us back to the beginning. Does that make sense so far?”

  Oliwer nodded enthusiastically. “It’s a cycle! The total sum remains zero!”

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  Jadwia remained silent, her eyes distant. She was reminiscing her evening on the riverbank. The River, the wheels using the current to turn, the water rising then falling back… As Isyd spoke, the realization she had come to was making more and more sense, crystallizing more fully in her mind.

  “Perfect! Now, let’s push this reasoning further. As Oliwer said, all of it is a cycle where the Grace flows constantly between the environment as the Source, the Artyst and the Arts. Understanding the Grace as a continuous flow rather than a discrete quantity, this is the crux of this approach! This is what I wanted you to figure out on your own. Between the Source, and the Arts, the Artyst can picture themselves as a conduit. I suspect it is the reason why the strength of an Artyst was eventually called ‘Openings’— it describes how good of a conduit the Artyst is. Going back to this modified Lightsphere, the Blysht inside acts as a sink point. For anyone below the 12th Opening, no matter how much Grace they applied on it, it would just flow straight inside the Blysht and leave the Lightsphere inert. Following Kewin’s analogy, it’s because the spark inside of you would never be powerful enough for the Lightsphere to catch fire. You would need a much stronger flame for that. The trick is that you don’t need to kindle that fire yourself, but just to use the blazing bonfire all around you. From the Source to the Arcane, the Artyst only serves as a conduct. You let the Grace flows through you as a continuous stream slowly filling the Lightsphere until it sparks alight.”

  To illustrate his point, in Isyd’s palm, the Lightsphere began glowing a bright, steady white light, far from the flickers of Jadwia’s and Oliwer’s.

  “It’s the difference between using a bucket at a time from the river and diverting the course of the whole river…” Jadwia muttered, surprised at how intuitive it now appeared to her.

  Isyd smiled and nodded at her. “Exactly! At first, it will be a conscious effort on your part. This is the reason why I want you to practice this approach; I want you to get familiar with the Grace as it flows through you. Eventually, it should come to you as naturally as breathing. The same way you do not think about the air that fills your lung, you shouldn’t think about the Grace as it fills your body. This is why you will continue working with those Lightspheres. Practice keeping them on longer and longer, from minutes to hours. Mind you, none of what I have explained to you is a secret. In fact, it’s a well-known paradigm, and you can find plenty of books in this Library even discussing it. It is simply not the preferred way to teach the Arts here in the Commonwealth.”

  Oliwer picked up his Lightsphere and frowned. After a few heartbeats, his Lightsphere flickered alight. It wasn’t as bright as Isyd’s and appeared splotchy at some place of the surface as if it didn’t burn evenly. A few seconds later, the light fizzled out and Oliwer let out a deep sigh.

  “It’s hard! I have to stay focus on the feeling, but it is so… distant!” he said.

  Jadwia had tried again, and indeed it was more difficult than it looked. The Grace was indeed all around them, but it seemed so elusive once you focused on the Lightsphere. And if she focused on the Grace as it coursed through her body, it got easy to get absorbed on how… overwhelming it appeared.

  “With time, you will develop a certain control over the flow of the Grace,” Isyd said. “This is what affects the Concentration of your Spells for instance.”

  She looked back up to Isyd and the Lightsphere he was holding. He made it look easy. His was like the sun as a beating heart in the palm of his hand. He finally turned it off then handed it to Kewin.

  “This one is yours,” Isyd said. “I expect all of you to keep the light on for at least one hour. There’s no time limit for this task, and it’s not even compulsory really. We will continue to study past this point, but I want this to be something you do in parallel with everything else. Practice a little bit every day and try to push the duration you can keep while fully opened to the Source.”

  “You want Kewin to also do it?” Oliwer asked, surprised.

  “Yes,” Isyd said, turning to Kewin. “You understood how to do it, right?”

  Kewin nodded mutely.

  “Wait, what is there to understand?” Jadwia said. “How can you expect Kewin to activate the Lightsphere? He can’t use the Arts!”

  To her surprise, it was Kewin who spoke.

  “When I became… Disgraced, the Apteyka explained to me how it worked. They said that my soul was fractured in some places and that the Grace leaks out. This is the reason why I cannot use the Arts. In other words, the Grace flows out of me as it flows into me…”

  Isyd crossed his arms. “It is a truth that the Grace continuous flows through the Artyst from the Source to the Arts. You two had to learn it. Kewin lives it. Now, the only thing he needs to learn is to harness the particularities of his own condition.”

  Jadwia eyed Kewin’s Lightsphere, almost expecting it to burst alight. Of course, it didn’t; it remained as dull as hers and Oliwer’s. For a brief moment, she recalled the blurry images of Kewin holding a similar Lightsphere as it exploded into Resonance, and a shiver went down her spine.

  “If all is clear, we can conclude our discussion here,” Isyd said. “Next step will be to discuss your Grace affinities, so look forward to it. For now, we have an opening ceremony to attend, so let’s not waste more time!”

  He walked around the table and headed towards the exit before stopping suddenly on his track.

  “That’s a good point actually!” he said to no-one in particular before turning to them. “I mentioned that this approach of the Arts is not a secret, but I suppose I should have clarified that it wasn’t a secret . Again, you can find books and treaties discussing it so you can help yourselves to them. You could even ask Tutor Milwyk, I’m sure he’ll be happy to discuss it further with you. Most importantly, I want you to continue thinking about what this paradigm means to you while you practice. The 1st Law and 2nd Law, the Source, the Openings, the Arts… What does any of this mean now that you know what you know? What are the conclusions when this theory is pushed to its limits? The consequences?”

  “Are those questions supposed to have any answers, or are they only to philosophize over?” Jadwia asked dryly.

  Isyd’s smile turned wry. “Everything I will ever teach you will always be practical in applications, Jadwia…”

  Jadwia felt a prickle on her skin. She startled suddenly and Oliwer yelped out of his seat. The Lightspheres in their hands had burst alight, bright and white and steady.

  Isyd had activated them at distance and without a word or a movement.

  Kewin, Oliwer and Jadwia, all three looked back at him with round eyes and mouth agape.

  He shrugged and waved at them. “Let’s hurry now! We are guests of honor, so we can’t be late.”