Margerie wasn't that fond of gold; she was of the opinion that something that aureate didn't suit her much. Silver, maybe... it was gold's paler, less appreciated cousin and that seemed more her speed when she felt like dressing it up-- but she never wore gold, something about it seemed too ornate. Despite her aversion to the precious metal, she watched in rapt fascination as tendrils of doodled golden flowers bloomed to life up to her forearm, whoever was drawing these certainly knew what they were doing. Her soul mate must have been an aspiring artist. She wondered if she ever met them, would they disagree with her sentiment and tell her that gold actually did look good on her.

She absently trailed her finger along the curve of one of the spiraling blossoms and her eyes flicked back up to the professor.

"-Magic in all its forms follow rules, of course--" Margerie caught up in the middle of a sentence. "-for the longest time the human race was incapable of effectively using our magic, for eons mere trickery reigned until we began experimenting with vessel creation. By today's standards, the first vessels are rudimentary and inefficient, but it's remarkable to look back at these devices now with our advanced technology and not be impressed by their ingenuity."

Professor Nogoyev waved his wand at the screen in front of the classroom to move onto a picture of one of the first vessels, it was a large vase-like object with crudely carved spells running through the handles, and half of it looked like it served no functional purpose.

"This particular vessel is of historical importance, its design was one of the first to be released under a creative commons license – thus enabling the expansion of magical technology to those not privy in the higher educational community – but she also made it multifunctional, it served as its own limiter to keep its user from overcharging it, and it created a balance of power for those with low magical aptitude, raising their performance level..."

Margerie snorted under her breath, if only that sort of ideology had gained popularity. Magic was for the wealthy; you were born with a finite amount of magic that would stay with you for your entire life, it couldn't grow or shrink, you could only learn how to access and control what aptitude you were born with. If you were fortunate enough to have a high level of power, your life was practically guaranteed to be comfortable. There was a lot of evidence supporting the theory that magical aptitude was genetic as well, so something of a hierarchy was born from that discovery... those who had strong magical ability passed it on to their children, who gave it to theirs, over time it accumulated into a group of elite families that held most of the world's magical reserves. The rest of the populace scrapped by with whatever they could.

Sometimes, despite the overall social structure, families like Margerie's happened. Households with a mixed bag of sorts, mostly talented magicians and a handful of those who could, on a good day, muster enough power to light a candle.

The professor continued. "As you all know, the creator of this vessel was Priscilla Krietz, Margerie's ancestor and the first official matriarch of the Krietz family." This statement shone an invisible spotlight on Margerie, casting more attention than she'd like, so she swallowed nervously and straightened her back, telling herself that the moment would pass.

"The downside to this particular vessel, of course, was the extensive amount of theoretical and mathematical work involved to get it to function properly, it didn't effectively channel instinctual magic which led to it becoming obsolete rather quickly. Fortunately the Krietz family were, and still are, brilliant technicians and through their innovative creations have carved out their niche in the magical community by making affordable and efficient vessels, seals and – with limited success, even enhancers. Truly the Krietz family are pioneers." she heard a couple of her classmates snort in derision. Honestly, she didn't blame them.

Professor Nogoyev went on and on about what Margerie considered the basics of magical manufacturing, about how over time vessels had become much more condensed, almost all of them took a rather stereotypical form - a wand. Vessels had one job, to channel the magic of the user; a way to focus their power to create tangible results. In her magical theory and magical engineering classes, they mostly focused on vessels, they were the most readily available and due to her family's influence also, overwhelmingly, the cheapest, there was no way the school would bother bringing in something more expensive like amulets or the new, innovative wearable designs.

Seals contained magic, limited its scope and power to safer levels when someone was too powerful, or didn't have a proper practical education to control their magic-- typically they took the form of jewelry to lock the person's potential into a manageable level. Limiters were derived from seals, though they functioned less on the magical side and more on the mechanical, keeping vessels and enhancers safe to use for general consumers.

Enhancers made magic more powerful in single bursts, or helped it reach further – the designs drawn all over on her arm were a result of one such device. Known as a soul tracker, it enabled your soul mate to draw on their own skin and for it to show up on their partners, anywhere on the globe.

Enhancers were usually expensive and complicated devices that were almost exclusively available to those with the funds, or the high magical aptitude to use. And by the color of the magic ink on her arm, she would hazard a guess that her soul mate was incredibly well off in both departments. Soul trackers didn't just use magic, for higher end models the ink they used were made out of were usually high-quality materials like precious metals and gems. Recently gold had reached a record high in prices, so it cost a pretty penny to use it, and the mystery artist drew a lot.

Soul mates weren't uncommon, everyone had at least one. Having more than one romantic soul mate wasn't uncommon either – of course, actually meeting your soul mate was rare. Most people went their whole lives without that privilege, even with technology like soul trackers available.

Margerie entertained herself with the thought that if she ever did meet her soul mate, she'd be set for life. The professor continued enthusing about her great-great grandmother's technological accomplishments, he did that a lot... she was almost positive he was the only one who enjoyed studying the history of magical technology. It was interesting, but she'd never seen someone act like a kid in a candy shop over the discovery that carbon fiber reinforced polymer wand casings made creating black light possible.

He was in the middle of a sentence when the bell rang signaling the end of class, and the entire class practically jumped out of their seats to run to the door. She was following when he called her, his words cutting but not unkind.

"Margerie, a word please."

She stood awkwardly as her classmates filed out ahead of her, pulling at her sleeve to hide the expensive ink on her arm.

She smiled anxiously at Professor Nogoyev. "Yes, sir?"

He sighed and pulled his glasses off his face to wipe the lenses, "I know you're trying to get into the practical magic field to increase your chances to get into a top 5 Academy, but... Margerie, you have so much potential in magical engineering and theory you could ace through any college. I know you've got your heart set on this but..."

She frowned, she had a feeling that she knew what was coming next.

"Based on your testing you just don't have the aptitude. You shouldn't throw away your future for a class of magic you cannot possibly excel in."

There it was. She knew it when she'd submitted the request for his referral, but it still stung

Margerie tightened her grip on her forearm and set her jaw, she took a deep breath before she spoke. "Professor, I have to get my credits in practical magic. I need to get into a Magical Academy. My brother needs me to, my family needs me to... please, I need to take these courses and at least try. Is there any way I can convince you to give me the referral?"

Professor Nogoyev looked at her silently for a long time, then replied cautiously, "I think if you take on a tutor, that may help. I've got just the student in mind, he could use your help as well as he's utterly abysmal at hypothetical work, and he needs to get his grades up in that department for his college prospects... but Margerie, you don't have the magical reserves, any magic you will be able to do will need to take that into account. You're not as gifted as the others, I hope you'll reconsider but in the meantime..." Professor Nogoyev put his glasses back on and turned to his desk writing out a name and an ID number on a piece of stationary, which he handed to Margerie. Saraf Parisi.

Margerie knew the name, well at least the Parisi bit. It was a family full of some of the most affluent and magically gifted people in the world, they ran practically everything these days – particularly magical arms manufacturing, they even had a share in Krietz Technology and were on their way to buying it up altogether.

She racked her brain about what she knew about the Parisis. If she remembered correctly, Saraf was the only child of the current head of the Parisi family-- which meant he probably had more magical power in his left hand than she had strands of hair on her head... and would be the guy that would take over the company.

She folded and put the piece of paper into her coat pocket, smiling widely at Professor Nogoyev. "Thank you, really. Thank you."

Professor Nogoyev nodded, he looked less sure of the arrangement every passing second but just replied. "Of course, anything for my best student. I'll give Saraf your information too if you don't mind. That way you can go ahead and organize a study session."