”You can measure any spell, right? It doesn’t have to be something specific?” She asked, and the Professor nodded, wondering where she was going with this line of thought.

“You can use a spell, or you can simply have your aura tested. Both are fine, depending on your skill level, but demonstrating an actual spell is the only way to get into the top class. Everyone who qualifies for Class A will have at least that much talent.” Professor Ashcroft explained.

“Wolfe, can you carve this symbol into something for me? Your writing is better.” She asked, handing Wolfe a piece of paper.

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“Can we stop for a second? I need a stick to do this.” Wolfe asked, but the Professor had come prepared and removed a thin wooden branch, bark and all, from her handbag for Wolfe to work with.

“You have thirty minutes if you are going to make a wand. Since Wolfe probably doesn’t know, a wand enhances a Witch’s innate magic, so it is only usable by the one who created it. We usually have new students make one in the second Semester once they have all learned the technique to stabilize their aura, which allows them to cast innate magic.”

“The stronger the aura, the stronger the Witch. You will learn to recognize it in your training.” The Guard told Wolfe with a smirk.

Knowing how Cassie responded to his touch and mana flow, Wolfe suspected that this so-called training might be a particularly exhilarating one for both him and the Witches.

“There is more to it, but we will save that for the academy. With your credentials, you will be busy from the moment that you arrive. Just don’t let any favourable treatment cause you to forget your predicament.” The Guard told him.

A predicament was a rather kind word for it. Though the professor and the guards seemed more than happy to bring him on as a security staff worker, Wolfe was well aware that male magic users were usually killed if they were caught in the city. Their attitude did give him some hope that things might be different out here in the wilderness, though, since they seemed to be adamant that all skilled fighters and witches were needed for whatever it was that they were doing beyond training.

Wolfe carved the nauseating runes into the stick with careful precision, then looked it over, realizing that it wasn’t right or complete. The incantation was correct, but the wand needed something else.

The runes weren’t a language he knew, but once they were carved, they made sense to him, thanks to the Inheritance. Wolfe read the text in his head [I draw the power around me] and thought about the movies. The main characters always repeated a chant for emphasis.

Carving it more than once shouldn’t hurt anything, and the teacher would probably let him get a new stick if he messed it up. She seemed to like Cassie quite a bit.

With three copies written, Wolfe was struggling not to throw the wand away just from the feeling of wrongness and revulsion, but he carefully handed it back to Cassie, who giggled happily and began filling in the runes using a gold paint marker.

It was also a bit rose-coloured, and he suspected that the little Witch had put the remainder of his blood in it that she hadn’t used in the silver pen. He would have to be careful about allowing anyone to gain possession of his blood in the future, so others didn’t find out.

When she finished, the talkative guard offered her a talisman, much like the mana storage one she was wearing.

“Since it’s carved by the Noxus Family, for the Noxus Family, I think it’s only right if our talisman completes the process.” She told him, then placed her free hand on Wolfe’s bare arm.

The man gave Wolfe a sly wink, suggesting that he knew there was something between Wolfe and Cassie, but didn’t say anything.

The wand began to glow black, with purple sparks flickering in the darkness, before the spell completed and something around Cassie changed.

The darkness lingered, not as a physical thing, but more of a sense of power, one that Wolfe had come to associate with Professor Ashcroft and Witches in general.

“Oh, not bad at all. Did your grandmother teach you that?” The Professor asked, and Cassie nodded happily.

“But since I couldn’t use magic before this week after my birthday, there was so much to do that all I had time to learn was the theories, preparing me for the academy. She said that in her day, the test was done naked to ensure there was no cheating.”

The Professor laughed out loud at Cassie’s blushing face. “We haven’t done it that way in nearly fifty years. Twenty years ago, they began allowing magical devices since everyone would be using them in class anyhow.”

“I was as disappointed as you when I found out that nudity was no longer a requirement.” The Guard whispered to Wolfe, taking a smack from the Professor for his comment.

“And that’s why we changed it. The tests are done in front of the whole school. You are free to work naked if you prefer, I doubt any of the young ladies would object, but I will warn you, the Academy is air-conditioned.” She informed Wolfe with a straight face.

That meant that shirtless was an option, even if it wasn’t the best idea since any Witch who touched his bare skin would know he had an affinity for magic. Plus, he was still hiding the extent of his abilities, even though he was captured. If whoever they sent to judge him thought he was like the other Elders and relatively harmless, they might let him go with a less severe punishment.

But who could have guessed that strategic nudity was actually an approved tactic to help keep the young Witches in line?

Once Cassie was holding the wand and her aura became noticeable, it seemed to stabilize and soon blended into her presence as if it was always part of her.

Her hand was still on Wolfe’s arm, though, and he could feel something between them, not a flow of mana, at least not directly, but it did feel like the contact was helping to balance them out.

The Professor noticed the continued contract. “You catch on quickly. Yes, she can use your power to increase her own. It’s a matter of compatibility, though. Even if you have an affinity for mana, as many of the Noxus men do, how well a Witch can manipulate it makes all the difference in how much power is shared.”

How well she can manipulate it? For a moment, Wolfe almost forgot that a man who could manipulate magic was so taboo that they hadn’t considered his abilities in the equation. But it also meant that since he could, he would be able to work with a Witch’s aura to strengthen himself and that they were going to teach him how to do it, but not intentionally.