Elsewhere, Eric stands at the front of his desk in his little auditorium, a screen on the wall showing him via a camera he had set up. Beside him are there ordinary looking candles. It is still his morning class. He'll eventually do a few more of these over the course of the day for those that can't make the first one.

“Now, the main thing about any and all Congruent magic is it needs a focus," he says, holding up a thin, little, cylindrical device. “This is a phasic cell. It is used in every single bit of Con magic there is. But this itself isn't doing anything unless we put something around it telling it how to use that stored up phasic energy. These need to be recharged manually. That," he says, gesturing at the box providing the Language of Intent spell, “has an additional component that is constantly converting electricity into phasic energy. Now the one big advantage of phasic cells is that they can be as big or as small as you want them to be and would not have any scannable reading at all until they're told what to do." Eric puts the cell down and then gestures to the three candles behind him. “Now, regardless of everything else, all Con magic can be categorized into one of three different things," he picks up the first one, a light blue candle, and moves it around showing it has quite a bit of weight to it.

“The first type is physical illusions. In many regards these might be considered a technological equivalent to Sym or Dis magic. They use the phasic cell and the device to produce a very real effect," he presses a small button on the side and the candle lights itself. He then puts it back onto the table. “Now let me be serious for a moment and tell you that this is a very real flame. So when you are checking it out later, don't put your finger in the flame. It is considered Con magic only because there is no physical energy source. It is taking phasic energy and consuming it to produce a fire. Physical illusions are indistinguishable from reality because they produce real things. They aren't all that efficient at it and this flame can do nothing more than any ordinary flame can," he illustrates the point by grabbing a small cloth and holding it over the lit candle. The cloth lights up and starts to burn. Eric shows this to everyone for a few seconds before dousing that part of the cloth in a bowl of water. “But they can be quite useful for anyone to know. They are usually quite easy to make even in a crunch and can do what you need them to. My clay doll would be a perfect example, however, of what a physical illusion can do," he turns off the candle and the flame goes out. He next picks up a green one.

“Next we have visual illusions," he pushes a button and this candle also lights up. “These are probably by far the most common and what most people think of when they think of Con magic. As you can see," he sticks his hand directly into the fire, “illusions of this nature are perfectly safe, for the most part. These exist only as visual information. The quality of it is quite dependent on the skill of the maker. Whereas with the physical illusions you just had to know what you were doing to get it to work, with visual illusions you need to manually handle the transfer. The candle as being held by me would look very different than one held by anyone else," with a flourish he raises his hands and the flame grows with it, leaping up to a few feet in height. “Now there are two massive advantages of visual illusions than the other two. For starters, I have a lot more control over what they do. This kind of effect cannot be replicated with a physical illusion. Also, as you can see on the screen over there, cameras will still pick it up. Hate to spoil it for anyone, but in any cinematography where you see something that looks to be dangerous, the reality is that they were just using visual illusions. Looks real, cameras pick it up just fine and if the actor acts well enough will seem perfectly real to anyone viewing. There are limitations to it, however. Visual illusions can only do so much. For example, with this candle I can change the height of the size and the color of the flame," he makes a gesture and the flame shrinks down a bit and turns into a little cat that sits on top of the candle. “I can even change the shape of the flame. However, I cannot move it from the candle. I cannot turn it into anything else. Visual illusions are programmed to be able to do one thing and are restricted to only that one thing." He puts turns the candle off and puts it down before picking up an orange one.

“The last kind is a mental illusion," he pushes the button and this candle lights up as well. However, on the screen to the side it still looks like he's holding an unlit candle. He puts it back down on the table where it's only a few inches from his shirt. “Mental illusions are by far the most regulated and if you don't have a permit for them then the Guardians may give you a fine, or worse. They are also the most difficult to accomplish. As you may guess, this candle is doing nothing but establish a connection between my mind and yours." The light from the candle jumps from the candle and starts burning his clothes, quickly growing larger and larger. “Meaning I can make it do just about anything I want it to be," the fire covers his entire body. “But if you look at the screen there is the obvious flaw. It only works if I can get access to your mind. And a camera has no mind to read. Meaning that anyone watching you through a screen won't see the illusion. Now theoretically I do have enough control that I could also make this particular screen show the illusion but that kind of defeats the point of it," he steps away from the table and begins walking further into the classroom, the camera following him as it was programmed to do. At this point he's fully engulfed in a bright white fire. “The main advantage of a mental illusion is so long as I have the skill to handle it I can have it do whatever I want. I could have it leave the candle, I can even turn it into other things," he makes a wave of his hand and the entire flame turns into a large ball of water surrounding him. “I can even make it sound like I was under water if I felt like it. With mental illusions the only restriction is the power of your mind. However as I am in your mind, you all can potentially feel me messing around in it. The most obvious example of mental illusions would be the Language of Intent spell, which is a much more simplistic illusion than the one I put on the candle," he snaps his fingers and the candle turns back into a normal looking flame. “Any questions?"

One of the people in the audience raises their hands. “What category would runic magic be?"

“Well, technically they aren't any type," Eric responds, walking back to the candle. “Or rather they can be any type. Runic magic isn't really its own form of magic, but a way to control Con magic." He reaches the candle and sticks his hand into it, the flame hopping on but not really doing much more than that. “Now runic magic is useless with mental illusions but it can be used with them. But let's say I wanted to use more than one cell. If I put a larger cell into the device that's all well and good, but the limitations of the device are still there. Putting five times the size of the cell into something like these candles wouldn't make the flame all that much larger unless I use a really big candle," he throws the flame on to the ground and it quickly assumes the appearance of a phasic cell. It then splits into five that spread themselves out over a large circle. “But with runic magic I can do something like this. Now I just need the normal candles, which aren't too large or cumbersome. The runes will connect all of these cells and now the entire space between them becomes the area of the spell. I could now do not only multiple flames, but a larger flame or even move it. This is what runic magic is. They do not create any magic on their own. What they do is allow you to massively expand the capabilities of the spells you do have, giving you so much more control over things. I've actually been on a few sets where the entire set was set up as one large runic cell. This allowed the operators to do just about anything at any time, which definitely helped with the scene. There are quite a few advantages regarding using runic magic, but there are also quite a few disadvantages, but that'll have to wait for another day."

And with the main lecture over he began to break everyone that attended into much smaller groups. He made sure that they all had ample opportunity to check out his sample candles, though he keeps a very strict eye on the orange candle, just in case. He even brought out his doll again to help spread his help. And as they go about checking out his candles and asking questions, he also goes about getting requests for what all materials and ideas they need to try and design their own projects, making sure that not only are they practical but they're also entirely legal.

After having attended the class Richard goes to the engineering area where he worked and served for the station. Most of the other pilots weren't around yet. He always found it somewhat odd but was getting used to. A lot of the other pilots were often off doing something else in preparation for their own missions. Some would do more simulation runs or spend more time in their pods or somewhere else. He hasn't been able to really follow them all that much lately. But that was fine enough, Richard was interested more in talking to Zera anyway. Richard goes over to his ship, seeing the little mechanical fox clambering all around the exterior of the vessel. It looks over to him and a little tiny appendage pops out and waves at him. He waves back.

“So question," Richard asks. “Do you know what the word Jhanfo means? I asked Mitsuo about it but it didn't ring any bells for him. I'd try to look it up but I haven't quite learned the written language yet."

“That's because it's not a normal word. Most people are spoiled by the orbs. So they never learn other languages. But as an engineer, when working on the equipment of another species' ship, sometimes it is much better to get an understanding for the exact words used than just rely on translations, especially for sensitive equipment. Jhanfo is a Habenceun word meaning nothing. Where did you learn of the word?"

“I was with someone I know and this Jereshii challenged them to this game called something like Clay Voyage or something."

“Doesn't sound too familiar, what all were they doing in this game?" Zera asks.

“It was a lot of them saying things at each other and moving little stones without actually touching them."

“Hmm, does the game title of Clairvoyance sound familiar?"

“I think so? It sounded like they were trying to tell the future or something."

“Well that's what they'd like you to think. Clairvoyance is primarily an observation game. It's about looking at your opponent and the pieces they are playing on the board while trying to read them. It's usually nothing more than a parlor trick trying to con people into giving them money. But that isn't the kind of con Jhereshii tend to do. Did you happen to get that Jhereshii's given name?"

Richard scratches the back of his head a moment, “I think it was Ret or something? I don't know. But they were talking about events that didn't seem like they had happened yet and talking about them as if they fact."

“Well it's theoretically possible for someone to tell the future, or at least approximate it. Ol Teddy is a proof enough that it can be done, sort of. But in almost every case without a doubt what you will find is that the two players are just making things up and acting as if it's the truth. Like I said it's a mental," they pause as if suddenly realizing something. The little fox stops moving and Zera pops up from around the ship a moment later. “Did you just say Ret was playing?"

“Um, I think so. They didn't really introduce themselves to me. But my friend called them Ret a few times and they didn't correct him."

“I can't believe Ret would play someone on that. Who won?"

“I don't really know, they didn't explain the rules to me."

“Who was the last person to put a piece on the board?"

“The Jhereshii did."

“So Ret actually lost! That's incredible to think someone actually beat Ret in Clairvoyance. Do you know what the prize was?"

“It was a sentence. That's where that one word came up. It was 'In a few days a shipment of Jhanfo will be arriving from Raeshael space.'"

“Hmm, that sounds rather ominous. And you just happened to hear this by happenstance?"

“No, he actually insisted I watch them play this game. Said it'd be very enlightening or something."

Zera thinks on it for a moment or two and then moves over to the communicator she had pinned to the little fox. “I should call this in. Ret never does anything without a good reason. Why he chose to play that game I don't know, but asking someone he likely knows is working for the station directly to observe and then give such a statement as a reward. Clearly he intended on you having this information and that needs to be dealt with further up the chain of command. On that note I'm going to have to ask you to be elsewhere for the time being. As much as I don't expect you to try and backstab any of us, the fact still remains you have not yet reached the necessary level of trust within the station's higher ups. You're still on probation and there are some things you are not yet privy to know. And since this whole bay is under a Language of Intent I can't just turn off my translation to keep you in the dark. Sorry. Probably you can find some benefit from working on the simulators. After all your first patrol is coming up."

With that she just shoos him away. And though he does understand what she was saying it was still somewhat off-putting to not only really be told nothing about what he was asking but also then being immediately sent away with the information he was given. And that also made him all the more curious about what all that was about.