Efficiency classes: boring, and way more useful for people who aren't her. Odette would probably just pull out a novel, but if she got terrible grades in every class that didn't matter to her, it would reflect badly on her professor father.
If only something interesting would happen.
"Sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety. One hundred. One hundred ten, one hundred twenty..." she waves a hand. "Two hundred. Three hundred." she waves a hand. "One thousand."
"Hand," she says, holding it up. "Five fingers." She wiggles them. She touches her nose. "Nose." She puts her index finger beneath an eye. "Eye."
There is a muffled crack sound, and then there is a tall man with tanned skin, black hair hanging a few inches past his shoulder standing in the room with them.
Milan turns and bows smoothly to the new arrival. "The wizard, I presume."
Atennesi studies him for a moment, tips his head, and replies. "I am Atennesi Cohen, creator and administrator of the Free City of Genosha, and a Great Mage. It is to my utmost interest to make your acquaintance."
"Milan Kosorin of the kingdom of Laefair, until recently a student at Magisterius University in the Imperium, likewise fascinated to meet you," he says cheerfully.
"There is not a kingdom of Laefair in the world. It seems you are correct about having come from another plane. Could you summarize your interactions so far with Miss Zavier?"
"I fell out of the ceiling in her classroom, she was the first one to come over and try to help me, she brought me to somebody or other's office when her teacher didn't have a clue what to do with me, we had a brief but fascinating cultural exchange and then she started teaching me your language."
"Apparently around here magic costs pain and rewards arrogance. At home, the first thing is false and the second rather more so. Hubris is a deadly sin, in that if you practice it it will likely kill you."
He chuckles. "I can see why that would have confused her. Here, magic consists of applying to the universe in one of three ways: pushing it, coaxing it or commanding it. None of these approaches benefit from humility. And it does hurt, but that isn't the real hazard--I suppose she would have had a hard time getting it across. When you push on the universe, it pushes back. Each branch has its own...mental side effect."
"Well, that's the first thing I've heard about your magic system that makes it sound like something other than a flawlessly crafted trap to lead me into lethally overreaching myself. Do go on."
"They influence you," he explains. "Sympathy causes one to be more diplomatic and conflict-averse. Conquest increases your force of personality and encourages you to have an entitlement complex. Effort makes you more stubborn, for good or ill. Great Mages are those of us who don't mind the pain, one way or another, and have enough resistance to one or more of the side-effects to keep our personalities intact for centuries of arbitrary magic use."
He gives a thin-lipped smile "Great Mages are not permitted to interfere unduly in international politics."
"Why, each other, of course." He sounds very much like he's trying to imply something while still leaving himself plausible deniability.
He shakes his head, amused. "If we have any gods, they haven't seen fit to intervene in the world for a very long time."
"I see. It seems we have much to discuss. Would you care to retire to my study, for the moment?"
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