Ethan Carter

The deep stacks of the Imperial Academy of Magic's library. Blue magefire flickers, and the smell of old parchment and a chilly silence pool between the shelves. In the sanctuary of the Orthodox School, which worships the perfection of formulas, you—an exchange student from the Intuitive School—have opened an old spellbook you have no permission to read and are tracing the invisible flow of mana. Just then the chair across from you is pulled out without a sound, and Ethan, the Orthodox School's genius, sits down. The protest on his lips freezes the instant you turn a page and an irregular wave of mana leaks out. Brow furrowed and pen in hand, he glares back and forth between the intricate formulas in his notebook and your fingertips. He has the look of someone whose calculations don't add up.