First week comes to a close

August 24

    We had the monthly meeting of the grandmasters this week.  I can't share any details, concerns of information leaks and what not, but I can assure that nothing exciting was discussed.  There was also a luncheon held in the teachers' lounge on Thursday.  I do enjoy the occasional mingling with my peers, but the real reason I'm here has little to do with such matters, and more to do with my research.  But that's boring, no one wants to hear about the tedium of the scientific method.
    The class is off to a great start.  I neglected to mention the part about how the necklaces will record any spell casting done by the wearer.  It's not a perfect record by any means (don't want to violate anyone's privacy), but it paints a well enough picture of any of the actual fights.
    Firstly, after I dismissed everyone, I warped them all across the campus.  Wouldn't do to have them duke it all out right in front of the door, after all.  The first fight broke out when Matilda attacked Patty.  From what I gathered, the two had a pretty epic brawl in one of the dormitories.  Patty wound up drawing first blood, turning Matilda into a little plush doll.  The second person to drop was Rika, who got sneak attacked by Nanako in her room.  She wound up frozen in a big block of ice.
    Tuesday saw even more action for Nanako.  At first she was attacked by Sophia, but she bested her and froze her solid, too.  Then a little later, she got attacked by Crios, who froze her before she even knew he was there (sure are a lot of freezers this year).  The day wrapped up with Liliath catching Linkette off guard and morphing her into a black and silver dress.
    On Wednesday, Crios and Link duked it out in a pretty heated battle; Link lost and got turned into solid gold for her trouble.  Thursday saw Patty and Liliath getting into another decent combat, with Patty finally turning Liliath into a mannequin.  A hilariously fitting attack, considering Liliath was still wearing Linkette.
    By the time Friday rolled around, Crios and Patty were both still up.  So I warped everyone back to the classroom and had them duel each other to figure out who won this week.  Both of them are pretty good in a fight, but Patty eventually lost, getting turned into an ice sculpture, and leaving the class's lone male as this week's victor.
    Papers were written, and grades were given.  I also introduced the class to a new student, since, and this is at least partially my own fault, she got overlooked for the first week.  Her name is Scarlet, she's got red hair and eyes, and a no nonsense attitude.  After class, I got asked a question by Rika.  She didn't understand how people freezing each other counted as transmutation magic.
    To any reading this who might not be aware, there are nine varieties of magic; abjuration, the art of adding magical properties to items; alchemy, the art of shuffling mundane properties between two or more objects; conjuration, the art of transferring matter and energy from one place to another; divination, the art of gleaning information through magic; enchantment, the art of ensorcelling the minds of others; evocation, the art of creating energy spontaneously; illusion, the art of creating false sounds and images; necromancy, the art of manipulating life energies; and finally, transmutation.  At first glance, using evocation spells to create cold energy and using that against a person might seem the way to freeze a person.  And indeed, this method would work, though the subject wouldn't have much of a chance of surviving such an encounter.
    Transmutation, however, is the art of directly modifying an object's mundane properties.  In this way, one can simply add "frozen" to a person using transformative magic.  And there's your lesson for the day.