Unlikely, yes. But not impossible.
An exceptionally talented Diviner or Enchanter, who had honed their skills throughout the entire semester and already hit Carnelian, might have had a chance.
We didn’t have anyone like that in this particular class.
But I did have an idea. A terribly dangerous idea.
I pressed two fingers of my right hand against the mark on my forehead, and I activated my Arbiter attunement.
I’d been converting the mana in my right hand into mental mana, just like I’d done dozens of times before while enchanting — and now, I was using my Arbiter attunement to transfer that mana straight into my mind.
Researcher had warned me that it was risky to try to recharge or empower my own attunement. It wasn’t built for that, and the idea of damaging my mind was horrifying.
Just not as horrifying as being controlled by someone else.
I felt mana surge from my hand into my mind, and for a moment, the whole world went white.
I felt a pressure build inside my ears, like I was swimming deep underwater, and pain building in my temples—
And then I blinked, and the pressure was gone. The pain subsided a moment later.
And the world was different.
My Enchanter attunement was on, without my willing it to do so. The room was swimming with colors, but they seemed brighter, crisper than usual.
I felt like I could pick out more detail in each and every hue. Professor Conway and Professor Yang both had Citrine auras. I’d known that before, but when I looked at Professor Yang, I could see so much more detail now.
His shroud wasn’t just a nebulous aura now; I could see it flowing out of his skin, and that it was thicker around both his hand and his chest.
Meaning he had a second attunement; probably a lung-mark, since he was spreading mana by speaking. I could have guessed that from his casting method, but I couldn’t have clearly identified it from this distance before.
And if I squinted, I thought I could even see a hint of the mana inside his body. I’d never seen anything like that before.
But more importantly, when I pulled my hand away from my forehead, I could see the thickness in the aura around my own body. The crimson was sharper, deeper, than when I’d looked at my own shroud in the past.
And in that moment, I’d understood.
I’d pushed my Enchanter attunement to Carnelian.
I stood up without prompting and bowed at the waist. “Thank you for the lesson.”
Professor Yang turned to me again. “You’re welcome, but we’re not quite done yet. Sit back down.”
I felt just the tiniest tug to obey.
I ignored it. “I’d rather not.”
The whole class turned their eyes toward me. Someone actually cheered.
Normally, I’d have been embarrassed by that, but you know what?
Not that time.
Professor Yang clapped softly. “Very impressive. I rarely see first-year students that can break that spell, even Controller students. Would you like to try resisting something more directed, rather than the class-wide spell?”
I shook my head. “Thank you for the offer, but not right now. That took a lot out of me, and if I’m being honest, I really don’t want to deal with that feeling again.”
“Well,” the professor nodded in sympathy, “Let’s hope you never have to.”
Given my luck, I knew exactly how likely that was.
I was tempted to walk right out of the classroom after that, but I didn’t want to be rude, and I knew there could be more useful information later on. Fortunately, Professor Yang didn’t make any effort to include me in his control spells again.
In fact, now that my Enchanter Attunement had gotten stronger, I could see the perception mana escaping as he spoke — and while it spread with his voice, it went around me. He was deliberately excluding me from the spell.
I both appreciated that and respected that he was capable of doing it. Shaping a spell to avoid one person implied a tremendous degree of mana control.
The rest of the lesson was focused on common signs that your allies were under compulsion spells, and how they could be definitively identified. My own experiences with Derek and my books had given me some insight into that already, but he did clarify a few important things.
Most Controller magic was linked to the sound of the Controller’s voice. If you could change the sound of the Controller’s voice significantly enough that they couldn’t be understood, that would prevent the victim from having to obey commands.
Covering the victim’s ears was effective for that to a point, but as we’d seen with that one clever student, just hearing the person partially was sometimes enough to trigger the command. You’d have to deafen someone entirely, or cover the Controller’s mouth completely, to be certain with that approach.
But that did give me an idea I hadn’t considered before. “Can you fake the Controller’s voice to give someone a command?”
“Huh. I suppose if they didn’t know it was coming from you, absolutely. They’d just have to think they were following the Controller’s orders.”
I grinned.
One new idea to work with, if I could find a way to change my voice.
I left the class feeling a strange combination of disgusted and giddy. I hated that someone had messed with my head, even briefly.
But the feeling of hitting Carnelian as an Enchanter, and seeing mana in a way I’d never seen it before?
That felt pretty darn good.
While I was walking back toward Derek’s manor, I checked the mana in my Enchanter Attunement — it read 70/60. That meant I still had a little bit of extra mana from when I’d overcharged it, and that I’d still drop back down to Quartz after I’d used it.
More importantly, it meant that my safe level had stabilized at 60 — the minimum threshold for Carnelian.
I didn’t usually celebrate. I was too focused on my studies, and it just didn’t feel important.
But for something like this?
I veered off from my path and stopped at a store.
I bought an entire chocolate cake.
And when I got back to Derek’s place, I shared it with everyone.
It was a personal accomplishment, sure — but cake was always better with friends.
The rest of the day was pretty easy. I burned off the little bit of extra mana I had left over my normal limit by just watching people with my Enchanter attunement active, taking in the sight of mana flowing out of people’s bodies, and getting a better idea of the details I could perceive with a stronger attunement.
Marissa’s shroud hadn’t looked any different from a normal Carnelian one before, but now, I could tell that it looked more solid than mine. It was still permeable to my sight, but it gave the impression that I was looking through something more like ice, whereas my own aura looked more like a misty haze.
Keras’ shroud looked even stranger now. It was still almost colorless, although I could see the hints of silver in it more easily now, even when he wasn’t doing anything with it. And it was subtle, but whenever his aura came in contact with another shroud, I could see tiny crackles of energy — and that the other shroud would begin to fray at the edges.