Chapter 5: College Highlights

Later we were to learn that our essays in Theoretical Thaumaturgy had been vetted by the Professor, Sir James Whiteshield, himself. He not only critiqued our ideas, but corrected our English as well. I learnt a lot from his reactions to that essay and from the other essays. I was to put that knowledge to good use in my later work.

The next few terms passed very much in same way as had the first few days. Certain highlights stood out, while the rest of the teaching sank into my subconscious almost unnoticed. The remembered highlights happened for extreme reasons: either they were difficult aspects that required a greater effort in study or were easier points that I could explore more deeply, just for the satisfaction of doing so. Spells were an example of the latter. The object of a spell is to concentrate the mind on the desired outcome of the magic. To this end, the more muddled the mind, the more specific the spell. Contrariwise, the clearer the mind is on the result, the simpler the spell can be. You could tell the clearer thinkers in the class by the direct simplicity of their spells.

The tutorials were intriguing and fun. Goodman Redding, our tutor, proved to be an expert in all our subjects. He often had an alternate way of looking at a subject that gave a new understanding for us. For example, when we were starting to have trouble in handling more than one weight at a time he suggested that we think of the weights as birds. We soon had flocks of weights careering around his study.

When I was having trouble with time manipulation, his suggestion was that I try to think of a clock and a calendar side by side. Changing those would the make the changes in time that I needed. Cecil Henry had problems with kinesis. He was too heavy handed. He nearly killed his patient when he had to reduce the blood flow to the brain. Goodman Redding had him practicing on gently tipping dice as though he was playing craps. His early efforts had us all in stitches as the dice bounced uncontrollably. He soon had them behaving naturally though. We could barely detect his influence on them.

Our practical course work included the construction of our sorcerers' tools. The principle of contagion would ensure that the tools we had made for ourselves would be more powerful for us.

Soon enough, the first five trimesters rushed past and we were considering the range of subjects that we would select for the second part of our course. My own choice would be Sorcery, Parapsychology, Calculus of Sorcery and Law. The early selection of subjects was to enable the College to sort their timetables out so that most, if not all, of us could take our choice of subjects.

Then our Part one examinations were upon us. Two weeks before they started, Goodman Redding coached us in revision techniques and how to pass exams. He explained that each question answered could only earn a fixed number of marks, and that we would be earning marks at the fastest rate when we started writing down our answers. To maximize our marks we would, therefore, have to at least start answering the required number of questions. We would need to avoid spending too long on any one question.

In spite of all his help, the exams were grueling.

The first few weeks of the summer vacation were taken up with rest and recuperation. After that, I apprenticed myself to Jim Brown, Pop's forensic specialist.

He was working on a case of suspected murder. The corpse of a man had been found in the woods to the north of town. The corpse had been stripped and mutilated to make it difficult, if not impossible, to identify it.

Once it was back in the morgue, the Coroner's Assistant Healer was able to determine that the victim had been poisoned. We then undertook the task of identifying the victim.

Too much of the face had been destroyed to draw a likeness. Jim was stumped, so I tentatively suggested a time manipulation.