“Music is an expression of emotion. It can be pretty much whatever you want it to be,” Noah said, placing the bow of his violin against its strings. “And making Formations with it is the exact same principle. We make a pattern – a song – with music, and that holds the magic within it.”

“How?” Alexandra asked. “Music isn’t a tangible thing. How can you contain music with nothing more than sound?”

“Not sound. Pattern. As we discussed, Runes are literally just patterns that hold energy. Sure, they’re more visual than music, but a pattern is a pattern. It doesn’t matter what kind of pattern it is. That’s my theory, at least.”

“Wait,” Isabel said. She shifted her position, having gone from mildly interested to completely transfixed. “Are you saying that we could make Formations with methods that aren’t music? If Formations are just patterns, couldn’t we do the same thing with a stick in the sand or body motions?”

Noah’s grin expanded and he nodded. “I’ll admit that I haven’t tested it yet, but if music works, I don’t see why dancing wouldn’t. What matters is the pattern. Rune circles are functionally the same thing, but they’re locked in stone. Frankly, I think they’re a crutch.”

“They’re the main way Formations are done, though,” James said. “Are you saying that everyone is fundamentally wrong about the way Formations and Runes work?”

“Yes,” Noah said. “Just because everyone does something in a certain way doesn’t make it the right one. I have reason to believe that there’s some very serious misinformation about how Runes function. I’m not sure if it’s because the noble houses have spread it on purpose or some other reason, but just take my word for it.”

“You can’t say that and not tell us what it is,” Emily exclaimed. “Why does it sound like you’re implying–”

“Yes, I can.” Noah cut Emily off and chuckled at the annoyance on her face. “We don’t want to get too distracted from the original lesson, and trust me. This one is more important right now.”

“Is this even something we can use, though?” Todd asked reluctantly, clearly hoping Noah would calm his worries. “Pattern or not, Formations take years to master. You’d have to teach us all music and then start showing us how to use it for Formations after we learned. It would take forever.”

“Good question, Todd. If we were trying to learn Rune circles, then yes. It would take forever. And, if I was trying to teach all of you music from scratch, it would take me years to accomplish it. That’s why I won’t just be teaching music. We’re going to be focusing on finding the way that you see patterns.”

“Doesn’t everything need to be perfect to use Formations?” Isabel asked. “If we make a mistake, it could blow up in our face. I don’t mind some danger, but is there a way we can avoid that? I don’t want to shatter my Runes or kill myself.”

Noah could tell Isabel was thinking back to their early training in the Scorched Acres, and he couldn’t blame her. It was probably the farthest thing from safe that he could have done. While it had been effective, the training had also been pretty big risk.

“You won’t be starting by trying to push magic into the patterns. You don’t try to sprint before you know how to walk. We’ll start by learning the patterns themselves and how we can use them, and then only put magic in once we’re comfortable.” Noah pulled the bow of his violin across the strings, drawing forth a long, beautiful note. Everyone tensed, waiting for something to happen, but it didn’t come. Noah played a few more notes, not ashamed to say he was more than slightly amused by the concern on the kids’ expressions.

“Where’s the Formation?” Todd asked.

“It’s just music,” Noah replied. “There is no Formation. That’s what I’m saying. I mean, think about it. You’ve definitely done some form of pattern in your life before, but you didn’t randomly blow up by triggering a Formation on accident. Just like everything else in magic, it takes intent.”

He paused, waiting for them all to fully process his words. Even Moxie and Lee were paying close attention to his words. It filled Noah with a sense of satisfaction and pride that he hadn’t felt in a long time. It felt good to be properly teaching a class again.

“How do we start?” Todd asked.

“By looking inward. Think on what in life speaks to you that you can find pattern within. Something that you’d be comfortable really investing time into. It could be art, motion, nature, anything. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves if you’re struggling.”

Noah was rewarded by a burst of conversation as everyone started talking at once. Not a trace of the initial apprehension at the start of the lesson remained. Moxie caught the smug grin on Noah’s lips and poked him in the side.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Ouch,” Noah yelped. “What?”

“Nothing. I just thought that was a little cool,” Moxie replied. She lowered her voice so the others wouldn’t be able to hear it over their conversation. “Do you really think they can start doing Formations in a short period of time? I mean you… well, died a lot.”

“And in doing so, I figured out the problems. It’s just a mixture of pattern and intent. I definitely won’t have them trying to make Formations immediately, but I’m confident that they’ll be able to handle it as long as we take things one step at a time. Nothing in this world is safe. Giving the kids tools to punch above their weight is worth the risk.”

“In that case, what do you think my pattern would be?”

Noah tilted his head to the side in thought. “Your room has a lot of work put into it with all the vines you’ve used to decorate it. Do you like art in nature?”

“I guess I’ve never really thought about it,” Moxie admitted with a small frown. “I think I do, though? I didn’t have much opportunity to really put much thought into it while I worked for the Torrins, but I do rather like my room.”

“It’s a good start, then.”

“What about me?” Lee asked. “What is my–”

“Food, probably,” Noah said, only half joking. “Maybe flavor? I’m not actually sure if you prefer the taste of food or the act of eating, but I suspect your path lies along those lines.”

“Huh,” Lee said. “That might be true. How’d you figure that out?”

“Call it intuition,” Noah said, suppressing a laugh and ruffling Lee’s hair. He raised his voice so everyone could overhear him again. “And guys – please make sure you don’t go about doing anything without my permission. Moxie just reminded me that this is far from safe – don’t let my confidence delude you into thinking Formations are easy. You could easily kill yourself on accident, so stay with the pace of the class.”

He got a round of nods from the students, who promptly returned to their conversation. Evidently, his warning wasn’t that much of a problem for them. The temptation of power and knowledge was too great – but Noah wasn’t concerned.

All of them had shown enough maturity that he was confident they’d listen to his instructions. He waited, content to just listen in, for the next few minutes until the chatter started to die down.

“Figure it out?” Noah asked once it seemed like everyone had finished. “Todd, care to share what you decided on?”

“Fire,” Todd replied confidently. “It was my dad’s favorite Imbuement, and it’s the element I understand the most. There are patterns to how it works. I think.”

“Definitely true, but you’re gonna have to work on the confidence,” Noah said with a chuckle. “Isabel?”

“Swordwork,” Isabel replied without a second of hesitation. “The movements in a fight have a pattern to them, and figuring them out is the way you win a fight.”

“Brilliant. I take it that’s yours as well, Alexandra?”

Alexandra blinked, then nodded. “Yeah. It only made sense.”

“What about you, Emily?”

“Ice and frost. There are patterns in snowflakes. Really clear ones, when you look closely enough.”

Noah nodded. They were pretty solid choices that he couldn’t find any fault in. Fire seemed to be the one with the most randomness in it, but nature in general tended to follow patterns of some sort.

“What about you, James?”

“I might go with music,” James said. “I rather like humming.”

“That’s kind of lame,” Emily said.

James shrugged. “It’s easy.”

Somehow, that fits him perfectly. Never thought about trying to hum a Formation, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work.

“Okay. Great. For the second half of this class, we’re going to be doing one thing. You’ll spend it in your mindspace, trying to envision and get closer to the pattern you want to follow. Really think about how it works and just get to know it. Don’t worry about actually doing anything, and don’t put any magic into it beyond maybe forming something like a small snowstorm or a ball of fire to study.”

He didn’t need to tell them twice. Everyone sat more comfortably, closing their eyes to slip into their mindspaces. Isabel and Todd leaned against each other, and a small smile drifted across Noah’s lips at the sight.

Cute.

He also couldn’t help but notice that Emily and James were sitting pretty close together, and their hands weren’t too far from touching. It wasn’t hard to read their body language – the two had clearly gotten a lot closer over the summer.

Noah called on Natural Disaster and sent a miniscule tremor through the ground, bumping up the dirt beneath Emily’s hand to push it closer to James. Both of them stiffened for an instant, but neither moved their hands back.

Moxie caught what he’d done and arched an eyebrow, but he just shrugged in response.

“Keep watch over us?” Moxie asked. “I’m giving this a shot.”

“I’m gonna try it too,” Lee said, sitting down beside Noah. “Can I have some jerky to test with?”

She didn’t wait for a response before reaching up and snagging Noah’s rations from his bag.

“I’ll keep an eye out,” Noah promised. “Good luck, everyone. And remember, you aren’t trying to force anything. There’s nothing but you and your pattern. It’s kind of like meditation, but not boring.”

Nobody replied. They were all already sinking into their mindspace. Noah raised his gaze, looking out over the plateau to make sure no monsters would be able to take advantage of their distraction.

This is more than just Formations. It’s about improving their fundamental understanding of magic as well. Hell, I barely even know what I’m talking about, but the more I try to learn so I can teach, the more I discover myself. I can’t wait to see what we can all do in a few weeks.