Deja Vu

Chapter 2: Restless Calling

All those comments at orientation certainly weren't jokes, the students of this school want to eat you.

You're about to say something to a group that seems to be particularly eyeing you when a man with white hair comes outta nowhere giving you your D.D.D. Well, you can't very well do much without that. He has your full attention, and it seems the demons whose mouths were just watering at the sight of a human are peeling away. A short conversation with him, and you learn that he's an incredibly powerful sorcerer. And the only other human exchange student.

Great, so the only humans most of these demons have ever met are a superhuman and you.

Solomon, who apparently has.. 72 demon pacts??? Holy shit. And you, who has... A grudge against a bird man. Solomon, who can do powerful magics that are apparently legendary, and you, who has so little magic potential that you had to share your student enrollment with a pyromaniac cat just to survive the magic portions of your studies.

You mention Night Raven College and he lights up, explaining the difference in curriculum. He explains that while Night Raven College focused more on honing magical discipline, this school would focus more on honing magical exploration. While the classes would connect to the fundamentals, it'd be the expectation that you'd be able to learn the nuances and be capable of exploring the different styles of magic. When you explain to him that you don't have magic, he laughs.

Right in your face.

You give him a scowl and he pats your shoulder. "Worry not; You don't need magic flowing through your veins to use it. There's many a practitioner whose strengths lay in potion work, or artificing. Crafting tools and vessels for magic to flow through, mixing ingredients, these are things anyone can do simply."

"I remember potionwork from Night Raven College, but this is the first time anyone's really talked about Artificer work.. I know some of the chandeliers were made by a great artificer." Your mind wanders back to the chandelier that Ace and Deuce and Grim damaged. The main reason you even remember that tidbit was because it was so fuckin' expensive because the person who made it was world-renown supposedly.

"Ooh, then you're in for a treat! Artificer work is when you create a structure for a specific purpose and power it with external forces."

"Like a magestone!"

"Exactly."

"Amazing. I suppose I'll have to look into that. I wonder if artificers would be any good with portals."

Solomon grins. "Looking to get yourself outta here already?"

You laugh. "Nah, but I've been working with a problem for a while now that it'd be helpful to know more about portals and traveling between realms."

"Ooh, well, you'll have to tell me more. I definitely recommend looking in the school library, but you live at the House of Lamentation, right? I'll bet they've got all kinds of amazing literature there that touch on that topic. Class is gonna start soon, so I gotta jet. Take care!" And with that, the sorcerer man is gone. You follow his example and head to class, only to run into Lucifer. You have a short conversation about Mammon, dancing around looking for his weaknesses, and you head off to class.

You write down what Lucifer said to the letter, and go on about your day.

The classes here are much harder than the ones in Night Raven College. There, they were able to slow down and teach you the fundamentals, And if necessary, you were able to take supplementary classes to fill in the gaps. Here, you've been thrust directly head-first into some heavy curriculum; Devildom law, curses and hexes..

Some classes are familiar- Potions, Art, Home economics, mathematics.. But even those are a little strange considering the context. Potions has ingredients and entirely new ways of divvying them out than you've ever learned before, so you're having to learn an entirely new measurement and ingredient system just to keep up. Art has tools you've never heard of that're possible because of magic. Home ec has the same problem - Strange tools - But also strange supplies and ingredients.

Mathematics is the only subject that's pretty much the same as it's always been. In some ways, you feel like it's your only constant in a sea of ever-changing rules and cosmic laws. Still, the foundations of their mathematics are different from the ones you're used to, so even that's taking some adjustment.