Donner and Thalia: The Anastasia Academy (Episode 5)

Chapter Five

5.

In the Academy botany lab, a pleasant scent of roses and various flower breeds from all over the Island and Mainland filled the air. Six students each stood at their stone workstations, vials of purified water, sheers, droppers, and tongs all at the ready. Lenny was leaning over his current project. A pot of tulips in rare soil said to be imported all the way from the wine fields of the Delacroix countryside. He held his tongs and sheers in his steady and calm hands. He took a deep breath, holding it as he gently tugged a petal with his tongs, and made a clean, even cut of a red and pink spotted petal with his sheers.

The Botany Professor, Wizard Ukley, strolled down his line of students, taking a careful eye to them as they worked. He stopped at Lenny and leaned in closer just as Lenny made a perfect pluck of the red and pink petal, all leaf, very little white on the edge of it.

"Excellent form Leonard," Ukley rested his hand on his student's shoulder.

"I've been pulling petals for years under my teacher," Lenny smiled as he carefully laid his petal in his small glass saucer.

"So he told me, Vibrus and I were actually dorm mates in our final season. While I was only acquainted with him in his youth, it's nice to see he fulfilled some of his potential by producing a competent apprentice," he patted Lenny's shoulder then went to the front of the class. "Now, young Wizards, who can tell us why petals are ingredients in so many spells and potions?"

Mario, one of Lenny's dorm mates, raised his hand, "Magic is a natural phenomenon and, plants and flowers have a connection to nature, which makes them perfect conduits for the effects of magic,"

"A close answer, not exact, can anyone go in a little bit more detail?" the teacher asked, leaning against his desk. Lenny's fingers curled up, and he tried to not raise his hand too high or eagerly, "Young Leonard, you have something to say?"

"Is it because of the Fae?" he asked.

Ukley's eyes lit up, "Interesting, careful students, we have a Wizard researching the Fae in our midst, you know what that can lead too right?" he laughed along with the class.

Lenny thought back to the adventure at Longtower, the work of Wizard Rubio, how he caused a strain of madness to fill the tower by unauthorized research in the Fae. "Only in study sir, I assure you, don't want to end up like Wizard Alberto," he said, quoting one of the first figures he learned about in Modern Magical History with Professor Illore. The last researcher into the Fae before the countrywide law limiting the study of that other realm strictly to the highest halls of the Anastasia Academy.

"The old legends, which you'll learn here in your studies, can have more truth then one might think, it's believed that the beauty of the now common flower was a plant the Elves themselves brought to this world from the Fae. The Fae is the source of all arcane magic, which is why our tomes and spells are written in the elven language," He reached for one of the magnolias on the wall and pulled its bud from its stem, "These flowers serve as a conduit to the Fae, and that's what helps them channel magical power. Granted, in some circumstances and with the proper training you will undoubtedly be given at the Academy, it becomes much easier to channel smaller spells without consuming an ingredient. But they will still be needed for potions and other such concoctions, which is why your skill in botany and tending to foliage must be further developed if you hope to be a first-class Wizard. Now, who can tell me the best way to purify water for the nurturing of flowers?" Ukley asked as the entire class raised their hands, all having a different answer imparted by their original teachers.

"Filtering,"

"Boiling,"

"Capturing steam,"

Everyone had an answer, and each method suggested had its own advantages and disadvantages. Wizards, after all, were men of science and would experiment with any new process just to see if it could produce a better result.