The white butterfly tango

Chapter XVI

Both Esma and Sora got comfortable around each other pretty quickly and soon were hiding in the fortresses of books they wanted to study. The pink-haired girl was mostly focusing on books on anatomy and biology. She was well prepared and had a big notebook with notes on the subject. Esma wasn't sure of why the little girl focused on them so much but she always showed a lot of interest in helping people and was the most active one on Mister Willburn's lessons about the environment and biology. Sora dedicated much of her free time to studying in the library so it wasn't something unusual for her.

Esma, however, never fully studied once in her whole life. She picked up a few books but wasn't sure if she'd finish one... Her last attempts were faulty because the girl couldn't concentrate in her own room. The library worked better for this purpose and the girl found herself curiously looking through pages, quite quickly. The book was called "The Path of Magic" and it immediately caught the girl's attention.

"...the world stands on the 3 elephants and a huge turtle. The three elephants being appropriately: The people, the physics, and the magic. The turtle representing her excellence, the Matter. It's an exhaustive source of energy that both separates and combines the abilities of all three elements. The matter is a curse and a gift to those who deal with it..."

It was all new to Esma and she'd never met such an interpretation of the myth. She thought people explained the theory of the flat Earth with that precise example of the elephants but this book was clearly focusing on completely different matters.

"Because nothing in this world can exist without opposing power, the perfect harmony between the elements could not exist for long. The big separation came with the appearance of maledictions for the magic users, however, not all of them were able to deal with it. Sorcerers of rank A have the abilities to overcome the malediction caused by the dark. That's why they swore to protect the earth from it..."

The book was dividing the sorcerers into the ranks but Esma had no idea about what the ranks meant, so she started looking at another book, under the name: "Magical division". The girl was furiously looking through its pages, trying to find the answers to a million questions in her head.

"The matter is the resource used but the sorcerers in order to achieve their duties, in pursuing their gifts. There are 4 types of magic users that are to be separated among themselves with slight differences from individual to individual:

Rank D sorcerers - are the ones with natural abilities, using the matter in order to pursue the magic of elements (e.g. fire, earth, water, etc.);

Rank C sorcerers - are the ones relying on the abilities of their own bodies (e.g. transformation, shifting, strength, etc.)

Rank B sorcerers - are the ones bringing their powers onto different creatures and objects of the Earth (e.g. summoning, manipulation, kinesis, etc.)

Rank A sorcerers - are the ones, not belonging to any other group. The outcasts of the world of Magic, known for their unique abilities.

This division is not entirely complete as with every new generation, more and more sorcerers show great results of their skills and abilities. That's how, for example, rank D sorcerer would be able to fight maledictions. Ranks are not there to downgrade, it is the separation that helps to calculate the abilities of the opponents..."

According to the ranking, Esma would be in a rank A. That also explained her abilities to see maledictions. The girl started thinking of other students and soon had a prepared list of them divided by the ranking. In that list, she put Kermit, Hannes, and Ruth into a rank C. Then Ramona, Anna, Heth, Sora, Kotaro, and Yuuwa into a rank B. Mike's abilities were not described anywhere, so she assumed that the boy belonged to the rank A as well. Maybe that was why Mister Hubert chose them as his students? But he had the power of Electrification, meaning he was in the rank D....