Mother of Learning. Arc 3 Incomplete

Zorian hummed thoughtfully. While there was a risk that the other side might find out about the time loop from his thoughts, he did possess some rudimentary mental defenses and was familiar with limitations of mind reading. So long as he didn’t let the other student trawl through his long-term memories, he should be fine. And he was curious about this other student dabbling in mind magic.

«Alright, I’ll give it a try. Who am I going to be working with?»

«One of your classmates. Tinami Aope,» Ilsa said.

Zorian blinked. Tinami was… wait, of course it would be her. Aope were rumored to dabble in mind magic, among other things. Not all rumors were malicious nonsense. And it would explain why Ilsa knew about the request in the first place, come to think of it.

Besides, didn’t he promise to himself to introduce her to the aranea at some point to see what would happen? Yeah, he was totally fine with this.

«Hello, Tinami,» Zorian said, walking into the empty classroom Ilsa had reserved for their ‘lessons’. «Am I interrupting anything?»

«Umm,» she fidgeted. «I’m actually waiting to meet someone…»

«For mind magic practice, right?» he asked. Her eyes widened in response. «That would be me. I will be your partner today, if you would have me.»

«Umm, ah, I was… I don’t want to be rude but I was kind of hoping for an expert…»

Huh, so Ilsa didn’t tell her who was going to teach her? Strange.

«I’m a natural mind mage,» Zorian said. «I’m the closest thing the academy has to an expert on the topic. Why don’t we try this and you can leave in a huff if I can’t satisfy you, okay?»

She immediately flushed scarlet and looked away, her feelings cycling between embarrassment and outrage. Uh, maybe he should have worded that better…

«Bad choice of words, let’s pretend I said something else,» Zorian said quickly. «Anyway, I’m surprised you didn’t know who would be teaching you. How much did Ilsa tell you about me?»

«Just that you need someone to practice on, too,» Tinami said quietly. «I don’t really mind. I have enough mental discipline to keep sensitive things from my surface thoughts most of the time.»

«Likewise,» Zorian said. «And I won’t allow you to look into my memories.»

«R-Right,» she agreed. «I mostly just wanted to practice telepathy and mind reading. The spells are not hard to cast, but actually using them takes a lot of practice.»

«Well, feel free to go first,» offered Zorian.

Just for the occasion, Zorian had memorized portions of a biology book describing various forms of wild plants, and simply recited them in his head while Tinami tried to read his thoughts. Not only did this ensure he wouldn’t reveal any sensitive details to Tinami, it actually made her job easier. It was a lot simpler to read someone’s thoughts when they thought in concrete words and sentences, as opposed to a confusing stream of consciousness that composed the vast majority of people’s thoughts. In fact, the matriarch explained to Zorian that it was simply not possible to read people like a book, unless they were literally reciting text in their heads like he was doing at the moment — there was always a large amount of guessing and extrapolation involved, and no mind reader could completely understand another sentient being.

But they could get pretty damn close.

«Why are your thoughts full of information on plants?» Tinami asked with a frown.

Apparently, Tinami didn’t know that. Aope style of mind magic training was very crude, and boiled down to throwing a kid into the swimming pool and hoping they didn’t drown. A bit disappointing, really. He eventually shifted to reciting sequences of numbers and imagining simple geometric shapes.

«I guess I owe you an apology for doubting you,» Tinami said. «Your really do know your stuff. Do you want to try now?»

Zorian nodded and then focused on her, homing in on the glittering star he saw in front of him through his mind sense and connecting with her mind.

[Are you sure you’re ready?]

She yelped and jumped in her seat. «W-What?»

[Telepathic communication,] he explained.

«But… you didn’t cast a spell,» she frowned.

[I don’t have to. As I said, I’m a natural mind mage. I can sense all minds in my vicinity and I can connect to them if I want to. Right now I am talking to you telepathically, but if you’re ready I will expand my awareness to your surface thoughts.]

She closed her eyes for a second but then frowned and opened them again.

«Wait,» she said. «I don’t understand. If you made a telepathic link between us, why can’t I use it to talk to you telepathically?»

[I suppose that’s how it works if you use a structured spell for it?]