Supreme Magus novel Chapter 28

"The magic community is like a separate society, and just like any society it has a clear hierarchy. First there is normal people.

Anyone is capable of using chore magic, but their range barely reaches two metres (2.2 yards) and are incapable of executing any complex task. They are not even considered people. Most mages refer to them as cattle.

Then comes those like you, that can use all the six elements, can perform complex tasks with magic, but lack a proper magical education.

They are referred to as magico (males) or magica (female) and are the real grassroots of the magical community, from which mages can expect a magically talented offspring.

Even if it’s considered uncommon, a magica can sometimes be accepted by a magic academy and become a full-fledged magician, like it happened to me.

A magico usually becomes a medicine man in a village or city, depending on his talent. A magico becoming a magician is even more uncommon, but far from rare.

Terms like mage, witch, sorceress, warlock are all just different words that identify someone that managed to enrol in a magic academy and complete the five years course necessary to be recognized as a true member of the magic community.

At that point, one has just to follow his ambitions. You can become the personal mage of a noble, I you enjoy life at Court. Others choose to devote their whole life to study magic or create specific artifacts.

As long as you don’t do anything to contribute actively to the development of the Kingdom or the Mage Association, you’ll only remain just a mage, no matter how powerful you are or what you accomplish with your experiments.

Remember, no mage can be forced to share his/her spells or discoveries in the magic field. Not even the King himself can openly violate this rule.

But what you keep for yourself has no worth for society, hence it gives you no merits.

Only by sharing your knowledge or by using it to perform tasks from which the Kingdom or the Magic Association take great benefit, you can be elevated to the status of archmage.

They are for the mages what dukes and marquises are for the nobles.

And finally, there is the Magus. A Magus is someone whose power is equal only to his outstanding merits toward the community and the knowledge he shared with the Magical Association.

A Magus usually ensures to those who come after him a deeper understanding of magic, and the means to achieve better foundations than their predecessors.

A Magus is a King to mages, and a god to men. Very rarely there has been more than one. Whenever any country has two or more Magi, it’s considered to be in its golden age, everything becomes possible."

Lith was far from impressed.

"Basically, is just a fancy title that some old fogey forces on you after milking you dry. I don’t know if by becoming a Magus I would feel just sad or simply lose all my self-respect."

"You insolent whelp!" Nana was outraged by such disrespect. "Without Magi like Lochra and their legacies, people like me would never get the chance to pass the entrance exam of any academy, no matter how small or insignificant.

It would remain a privilege for those with an outstanding talent, or that come from noble or magic families.

Simply by writing that book, she willingly sacrificed a great advantage she had over all the rest of her peers!"

Lith shook his head.

"I see it differently, Master. In my opinion, you do have an outstanding talent. If in the past even those gifted like you wouldn’t be accepted, in the long term this would have led the magical community to dwindle, if not to completely disappear.

Being born in a wealthy or talented family only gives you more resources and schooling, but the talent is decided at birth.

Hence Lochra must have written that book not out the goodness of her heart, but to correct a dangerous flaw in the magical community. It’s true that magic allows to beat quantity with quality, but there is still strength in numbers.

Without people like you, maybe even like me, there wouldn’t be enough new blood, and magic would sooner or later disappear. This is the reason why I can’t see her book as a gift. She needed us, and badly."

Nana opened her mouth to rebuke Lith, but stopped halfway. She pondered a while before speaking again.

"Dammit, Lith, whatever your mother fed you with as a baby, I wish I had it too when I had your age. I never looked at it from this perspective, yet I can already sense enough truth behind your words to not dismiss them as child babble."

She sighed deeply with regret.

"I wish I was so profound back in my days. I would have avoided so many stupid mistakes."

"Yeah, sure." Lith thought. "A over thirty years old man that comes from Earth and is not able to see that much would be a complete idiot. Scholarship here or on Earth are the same.

Either a way for the rich to get rid of some of their sense of guilt for being filthy rich, or the manifestation of their fears.

The fear of not having a doctor, a lawyer or any professional help when they need it. If just having an offspring would suffice for their needs, they would have closed the schools centuries ago."

The door of Nana’s waiting room opened, the first client of the day had arrived.

"Time to make some money. Do you have any other questions from the foreword?" She tried being sarcastic, but was still dwelling on Lith’s words, so she lacked the proper tone.

"Only one. I may need to take notes. Is there anything I could use to write?"

"But off course." After confirming that the woman and child that just entered the waiting room simply needed a medical check, Nana asked them politely to wait for a minute or two.

Nana and Lith got back to her study room, where she gave him a big, thick book with a red hard cover. Its pages were completely blank.

"This will be your first grimoire. Treasure it dearly. Paper is rare and expensive by nature. It’s sold by weight, and it’s more precious than silver."

Lith was stunned by such news. The book was twenty-seven centimetres (10.7 inches) long, seventeen centimetres (6.7 inches) large and three centimetres (1.2 inches) thick. It was huge.

"I-I..." Lith stuttered for the second time in his new life. "I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe you would do such a thing for me, it must have costed you a fortune. I’m deeply moved." A tear appeared on the back of his eyes.

Nana laughed heartily.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! So wise yet so naïve. You bet I wouldn’t! Money doesn’t grow on trees. If it were for me, a few pages would have sufficed, little imp."

The warmth in his heart died as quickly as it had appeared.

"Then who do I have to thank for it?"