SelkieMyth
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Chapter 643- Professor Elaine III
🕑 Added 2025-03-28 15:00:09 +0000 UTCI poured out two glasses of wine, and after an evil glare from Auri, grabbed a small wooden bowl and poured her a bit. Part of me was already regretting a drunk phoenix. I sighed in relief when she decided to ignite the alcoholic fumes coming off the wine, and simply stare at the flickering flames. My relief was short-lived as she divvied up the wine into a dozen tiny Lava bowls, and had them join her orbit, slowly circling the fireballs around her body.
There was no way we were getting through Sara’s school years without Auri burning something down.
I brought that thought back, it was uncharitable of me. Auri was the picture of restraint and control.
Marcelle swirled her wine with a smile.
“I just want to say, I’m so happy you’re alive. When I saw what had happened to Sanguino, I thought for sure you were dead.” I said.
Marcelle sipped her wine.
“I have to thank you for my survival.” She said. I lifted an eyebrow in surprise.
“Brrpt?” Auri asked. Marcelle nodded.
“Yes. The way you combine your [Persistent Casting] with your healing to devastatingly effective front line effect inspired me. I did something similar with my biomancy when Sanguino was hit, and it kept me alive.” Marcelle tipped her glass in salute. “Thank you.”
I tilted my head.
“You’re welcome. I’m more inclined to think it was your creativity, quick thinking, and practical application of abilities that let you survive. Ideas are cheap, execution is everything. Forgive me for saying this if I’m wrong, but it’s especially difficult for an untrained civilian.”
Marcelle toasted me slightly at the last comment, acknowledging the praise.
“As your once advisor, I wanted to come down and see if I could assist you. It’s always tricky finding your feet in a new setting. What do you have so far?”
I flushed as I recalled various embarrassing moments, my mind tumbling all over the place.
Huh. I was already a significantly higher level than Marcelle. That occurred faster than I thought.
“Sorry for getting you kicked out of your job last cycle.” I said. Marcelle waved off my apologies.
“Nonsense. It’s fine.”
I nodded and got back on track, pulling out the lesson plans I had so far. Marcelle took a glance at them, and started pointing out various things.
“Now, these are your classes, but in my experience, I’ve found that you’ll want to swap these two around, and…”
It wasn’t just the lesson plans Marcelle had advice about.
“We’re getting 43 new students this semester to the School. We’re finally going to have more students than professors, thank goodness. Some of the older faculty were mentioning that it’s occasionally taken decades to hit a good ratio, but we’ve managed it quickly this time around.”
“Really?” I asked, fascinated. “That few?”
I quickly flashed through the various papers I had, until I found my introduction to medicine student roster. It warmed my heart to see Sara’s name on the lists.
Xynton
Sara
Yuro of Oxenford
The ordering was suspect, but wasn’t my problem. Only three students to start with, in a class that could theoretically have hundreds once it was properly up and running. Whoof.
Marcelle nodded.
“Oh yes. Just think. How many people know about us right now? How many know we’re open? How many can afford the long term investment to send someone here? Frankly, a lot of the students here are related to the professors, and we’re all contributing in various ways to the School.”
I nodded, remembering that part of the discussion and negotiations.
“But we get a nice stake and possible return on it.” I said.
Marcelle waved that away.
“The chance to study and research is good enough for me.” She said.
We wrapped up the bulk of the planning before Marcelle moved onto the next subject.
“I’m sure you’ve gotten the speech a dozen times about long ranging goals as an Immortal, to stay busy and entertained.” She said.
I nodded.
“It’s worth remembering you are a professor here at the School. Research is a well respected hobby, and should you manage to significantly push the boundaries of knowledge, there is no better place to disseminate it. Other professors might be willing to help, and there is no end to the legion of students who’d be willing to ‘assist’ you in your pursuits.”
Marcelle dramatically rolled her eyes.
“That one’s up to you. I, personally, find that most students take too long to be trained up to proper standards, and by the time they’re useful, they’re graduating. Individual projects, such as self-biomancy attempts,” The [Biomancy] vampire winked at me over that comment. “Are fruitful sources of novel ideas, and ones that I don’t need to have a say in, simply examine the end results. More ambitious projects could use people onboard. Food for thought, as we are leaving the time of pure survival. I don’t think we can begin researching quickly enough. This is the time, this is the moment, and if we want to truly push the boundaries of knowledge, we need to accumulate it as quickly and thoroughly as possible.”
She finished her rant, and I was already off to the races, thinking.
I had my ‘could I update the Medical Manuscripts with elemental transformations’ project already in mind, and as my mind tumbled through various other problems and possibilities, looking at my existing skills and connections, I hit on a new, epic project. One that could take me a thousand years to complete. I’d need [Sage of Eternity] to advance in a particular way, but I was at the School. It was THE place to learn things and develop skills.
Jiwa was a runic language consisting of a single rune with a powerful effect. They weren’t all done by a single [Runesmith], they were more of a collection from dozens of [Runesmiths] over the years. The eponymous [Runesmith] had created most of them, but over the eons, the collection had slowly been expanded. [Greater Invisibility] was one of my favorites, but a rune was notably missing from the roster.
[Heal] didn’t exist as a rune.
I knew Kunchenjab, the best Spatial [Runesmith] in the world. I had a Spatial wizardry class, it couldn’t be too hard to evolve it into a [Runesmithing] variant. Plus, I nearly had the spell slot! As soon as [Manor] and [Portcullis] merged, I was in business. Granted, there was a damn good reason there wasn’t a [Heal] rune yet - it was horrifically complex, and would run face first smack into the vitality defense - but it was a worthy pursuit in my opinion.
It wouldn’t help for most major injuries. Anything involving the word ‘amputation’ the rune would be mostly useless, except for the most powerful of wizards healing the weakest people. There were so many good uses I could probably squeeze out of a well-crafted rune, assuming everything I wanted was possible. My runecrafting theory was poor. However, a rune that could cure cancer? That could staunch bleeding? Fend off disease? It was all possible. It’d be decades upon decades of work that would let wizards mimic the weakest of [Healers], but I dreamed that it would be a staple in every single wizard’s kit. I naturally wanted to target all elvenoids with a single rune, but if I wanted to get really spicy, I could see about including animals. Get livestock and companion bonds in.
Ugh.
Realistically, running some basic numbers, even that was tricky. Instead of ‘I cured your disease’ it would probably look more like ‘I eliminated a quarter of the bacteria ravaging your body.’ Even that was useful though. Giving the body a leg up in the battle against disease could be enough to tip the scales. It was a small effect on the first cast, but sticking around and casting the spell again would be huge. Internal bleeding could be helped along.
A big factor would be if I could get the rune to properly ‘subtarget’, so to speak. If someone had cataracts, I needed the rune to clear them out, not try to regenerate existing fingers. Bleeding had to take priority over a stage 1 cancer.
I had a moment of doubt, that I was biting off more than I could chew, but banished the thought. If I went deep in the weeds and discovered it was a terrible idea, I could call it off then.
First things first: I needed to get Runesmithing for Dummies, or some other similar book, and figure out if my idea was even viable. I shook my head.
That was a long term project, I didn’t need to rush right this second. My biggest time constraint was the risk of Kunchenjab ascending before I could get more advice from him. I better understood why he didn’t want to make a rune copying the Medical Manuscripts - the lack of updates would be harsh, especially as I was thinking of improving it myself - but a properly designed and constructed [Heal] would be a great benefit to everyone going forward. I couldn’t just ask Kunchenjab to make it for me. It was probably arrogant, but, I thought it’d be easier to teach a medical expert with existing wizardry chops the subtle art of runecrafting, versus trying to teach an old giant the entire breadth and scope of medicine. There was a lot of medicine, and a tiny mistake crafting the rune would literally get people killed.
I smacked my cheeks and refocused on the conversation with Marcelle. [Luminary Mind] for the win! There’d be time to work on runes and magic later.
I had eternity to solve the problem.
=================
I’d gotten a few frantic days of prep work before my first class. Getting on the School’s local time wasn’t too difficult, but Sara struggled a little to adapt to the School’s ‘it’s dark out, but it’s time to wake up’ aspect. I was also spending as much time as I could with her, to help ease the transition. To my great dismay, I hadn’t gotten a chance to visit the library yet. Much to Iona’s mirth.
“It’s really cozy in there.” She said over a stack of pancakes. My wife had slathered maple syrup on hers, I’d opted for more cream than pancake, and Sara was carefully slicing strawberries onto hers, layering them like Fenrir’s scales. I glared murder at Iona for the comment, who had a gleeful smile the whole way. “The place smells like books, not a hint of stressed student. The catalog system is perfectly set, every book is in the right place. And oh, the chairs! Fresh, new, and plush, no years of students crushing every last bit of stuffing out of them. The overflowing stack is more like a single page.”
A century of marriage, and Iona knew exactly how to yank my chain.
“Brrrpt.” Auri flew into the rescue, and sassed Iona right back.
“Yeah, how long do you think it’ll be before you squash all the stuffing out, Mrs. Heavyweight?” I translated for Sara’s benefit. Iona took the teasing in good spirits, always willing to take when she was dishing.
“About a week.” She cheerfully forked a bite of dripping pancakes into her mouth. “Hopefully I’ll get everything I need by then.”
“I want to swing by after my first class.” I said. The reminder got Sara to stop slicing, and the little elf started to furiously shovel her breakfast down. “I’ll see if I can find any traces of the Valkyries.”
Privately, I had my doubts. Most of the books were pre-cataclysm, and wouldn’t include too many hints on current Valkyries, nor where they had fallen. Anything well known enough to make it to the School should already be known by Iona. However, my wife felt she had to do something, anything, to get started on her quest, and I fully approved of ‘hit the library and research like hell’ as a starting point. It was possible she could find hints and clues with her background that I’d completely miss.
“Thanks.” Iona said. Auri changed the topic with a question.
“Brrpt?” She wondered.
“If you want to start a baking contest, they’ll probably let you.” I said. “Just need to do all the organization yourself.”
Auri mimed getting hit with a bucket of water, and Sara managed to snort a strawberry through her nose at her antics.
After breakfast was finished, I fussed over Sara.
“You’ve got your books?” I asked. I knew all the answers, but it was worth getting Sara into the habit of being able to self-check her own gear, and that started with me asking about each item individually. Plus, it let her know, in my own way, that I loved her.
“Yes.” She said.
“Notebooks? Quills? Ink? Organizer?” I asked.
“Yes, yes, yes!” Sara was clearly getting a little frustrated by the end. “I’m going to be the best dang student ever, I’ve got everything.”
I gently bopped her on the head.
“Pride.” I reminded her. She glared at me, and was clearly going through an internal struggle. I waited patiently.
“You’re right.” She finally muttered. “But I can’t help it, and I’ve picked my poison.”
I hugged my daughter, ignoring the sniffs.
“It’s alright. Ready to go?”
She nodded.
“You look great in those robes.” I told her. Her mood flipped like only a kid’s could, and she beamed at me. We’d all worked hard, and her black robes were done in exactly the same cut and style as my own blue ones.
“Love you Auri! Bye!” I waved to the bird on my way out of the [Manor].
“Bye Auri!” Sara waved.
“Be good Fenrir!” Iona said.
Holding hands, the three of us went to the School. Shortly after passing the gates, Iona peeled off to the library, while Sara and I went to our first class, which we had together. It was weird as heck doing it under the light of the moons instead of the sun, but hey, that was the oddness of the School. I hadn’t done a check with Sara if she was carrying extra warm clothes, but I had scarfs and sweaters in my office for the inevitable day where we walked to class in the summer, and came home in a howling blizzard.
My lips quirked down in a barely suppressed frown as [The World Around Me] got in range of my classroom. Only one student was here, and I expected far better of the people attending the School.
I let part of my mind natter away on fritting away opportunities and other old-person rambling, and focused on Sara. Part of me still felt she was too young for the class and the course… but at the same time, she was focused, driven, had the skills for it, and if it took her two tries to pass all of her initial classes, such was life. She had the time and the ability to try.
I blissfully ignored any conflict in my thoughts between Sara and sir-not-showing-up-to-my-class.
I opened the door to the classroom to find two students already sitting down, and I loudly groaned and facepalmed as I realized what was going on.
“I should’ve known.” I said, staring at the man in red robes, stitched so heavily in gold as to practically be the second color. “It was right there in front of me. Xynton.”
Night was grinning wildly at me.
No, not Night.
Night with a fake mustache and a pair of heavy glasses.
Xynton. Not Nyx, backwards.
Crow take it. I shrugged to myself. I was sure Night had a good reason to be here, taking a lesson like any other student, and one that was better than ‘troll Elaine’. He was Night, he had more friends and better things to do than to prank me for years. I hoped.
I shifted my mindset, as Sara went to take her seat. I swept to the front of the room in a flurry of blue robes and silver stitching.
“Welcome everyone. I’m glad you could make it. I’m Professor Elaine, and this is Introduction to Medicine. Here’s the syllabus. I’m not going to waste time on my credentials, you can ask the other students if you don’t know them.”
Yuro was the only one who might not be aware, and he could do his own research if he cared. Sara had just gotten her supplies out, and there was no time to waste. I had a lot to cover.
“Medicine is the art of pushing death back another day. I…”
I spent the class lecturing, occasionally fielding questions and mediating one basic discussion on ethics. At the end of the class, I caught Night’s eye and raised one eyebrow. He chuckled at me, and I waved Sara off to her next class - a more age appropriate mathematics class with a tutor.
[ding! [Everywoman] leveled up! 655 -> 656]
New experiences, more levels as a reward!
Night chuckled as he came up to me, taking off his fake mustache and glasses.
“Professor, you asked for me?” Night was as polite and deferential as I’d ever seen him.
“I am wondering what you’re doing here. I’m sure the answer’s obvious, I’m just being an idiot and don’t see it.”
He chuckled again, clearly getting a lot of amusement out of me and my reaction. Which, honestly, might be enough. Eternity could get boring, and maybe I was his latest project? Although, wait, if he was here, did that mean Tobias, his current [Apprentice], was also around? Huh, that would explain most of why he was here… letting Tobias get an education just like I was here for Sara.
“I can see by the look on your face that you’ve come up with half the solution to the little conundrum you’ve found yourself facing.” He said. I nodded. “The other half. I find myself needing to work quite hard at staying current in any number of fields, and while it may seem that science and knowledge does not advance in the never-ending cycle of wars, the opposite is true. Slowly, surely, we are pulling ahead, knowing more than we ever did, and I must work hard at keeping up in innumerable fields of study. As young Tobias needs his education, and knowing the foremost [Healer] in the world is lecturing, combined with my last brush-up on the medical arts being some 4000 years ago, it was as if the very stars were aligning to let me take this class here and now. Never stop learning, for that leads to stagnation, then death.”
He smiled at me.
“One of my oldest friends teaching the class helped significantly with the decision. I do find it unfortunate how little time I’ve had for you since the last war started, even with the summit at Kazehara. Eight birds slain with a single stone.”
I hugged my friend.
“It doesn’t get you out of homework, you know.”
He chuckled.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Comments
Sean Shivers
She can write it out in fire, but she cant cast spells i thought.
Guessed
Is Auri physically incapable of casting a speak-in-Elvish/Creation/whatever spell? It seems pretty callous of her to keep Sara from being able to understand her if she has the capability to do otherwise.
SwitchBlaze
Lovely Chappie. Thank you.
Rainer
I forget, how did Elaine cause Marcelle to lose her job?
FlareNight
I've come on as a Patron after blitzing through the Audible narrations (if the first wasn't free, I probably wouldn't be here), then reading the more recent ones in text since the narration wasn't available. (I'm on my second pass this year.) But, even with the series being so great, I find it hard to imagine any other narrator managing “Brrrpt" as well as Ms. Emmes has.
Damnsarge
Tyftc!
Trevor Mergen
Thanks!
extantCadence
What a stylish mustache, though!
MoonlitShade
This Xynton fellow seems mighty familiar. Must just have one of those faces. I’m sure we’ll enjoy having him around! Tyftc!
Joshua Little
Thanks for the chapter.
Andrew
Thank you!
Kurosov
He's lucky it wasn't 8 Phoenixes.
Kurosov
Elaine has creativity but Night has experience. He's also completely invisible to her perception skill, Is an expert in countless fields and somehow managed to keep a [Thinker] entertained in marriage for thousands of years.
tr13ze
Thanks for the chapter 😁
Stephanie Washburn
Aww.
Roombot
Can someone explain why a healing rune would run into the vitality problem while regular healing magic doesn’t?
C Gillan
Troll assignment in coming(not the race). prank war with night? Who would win?
Roombot
Will auri be teaching a Baking course? Imagine the class quality you’d get by learning baking from a living incarnation of fire.
Isaac Boyles
Oh I'm happy about this, I have missed Night
Thomas Heaton
"Eight birds slain with a single stone" Man, Night is too dang good at killing things
Mad Dessert
Thanks!
Khal Lee
Ewwwww homework!?!? Typical... ends with homework... ooohhh Auri!!!
DeadicatedReader
Ah, delightful. Anything involving the word ‘amputation’ the rune would be mostly useless, -> Anything involving the word ‘amputation’ and the rune would be mostly useless,
TheBotler
Quick someone wipe this perpetual smile off my face!
John
Latterly just before night showed up I was thinking about him. That was rather comical when I saw he was there.
Lucy Severine
"Night? Who is Night? I am Guy Incognito!"
Cormac
Night is such a shithead.
Tiffany Miller
That is so night this was great chapter
Khrysaes
I am inaginging the goofy disguise glasses with the nose and mustache attached.
TeaGeek
Probably better for her to work on sequential “heal this” runes that can be passed over when crossing a hospital’s threshold or inscribed on a wide wand that can be passed over someone on a stretcher for field use. They can be combined over time.
TriNcess
I'm not crying you're crying
Hauke Sattler
Flora is the immortal witch in white and head of the school. She is the daughter of one of Elaine friends some 20.000 years ago, but Elaine doesn't know that. Also Flora is the name of Selkie's RL daughter.
max grok
My pet theory is that he doesn't this on purpose. Not in the humoristic sense of on purpose, but in order to throw people off regarding other fake names. Such as Tobias almost definitely being Nina...
BlueFox
At this point im still unaware who Flora is... And i have no idea (except to do this) how to understand who it is :c
Kurosov
Night in a fake moustache needs artwork more than any other version of Night.
Markus
Thanks for the chapter
Hayden Pech
Hahahaha thanks for the chapter!
rizen
I commented on this story several hundred chapters ago about how I believe night and Elaine have probably one of the best relationships in fiction. I find that you selkie keep on finding ways to add arguments in favor of that.
CringeWorthyStudios
Xynton? My gods, it’s like he’s not even trying. 🤣 Well, hey, maybe Elaine with finally get in on the Flora connection. I doubt Night is unaware of it. Thanks for the chapter!
heh
That’s fucking hilarious
