Normal POV
My feet ached from how much running around I had to do just to find the classroom I was looking for.
This of course led me to being exactly ten minutes late and boy oh boy was the professor of the Kabbalah class not happy when I walked into her room mid-lecture.
Said professor had dark brown hair, black colored eyes, pale white skin, and was dressed in a professional secretary suit.
Which consisted of simple white shirt, an open jacket, a gray colored skirt, black colored pantyhose, and to complete her attire she wore a pair of black colored heels.
The other students along with her gave me a hard piercing stare for interrupting the lecture.
I nervously let out a chuckle "haha..sorry I got lost trying to find the class. I've recently just transferred in," I said with a small head bow.
"I see you must be the young scholar that Lord El-Melloi II recently took under his wing," the professor glared lightly her tone both silk-smooth and venomous.
"Fascinating," she continued dryly, heels clicking softly as she stepped away from the lectern and began circling the room "Lord El-Melloi II truly never ceases to surprise me. First, he fills his classrooms with hopelessly loud imbeciles, and now he brings me a latecomer who cannot even navigate a hallway."
A few students snickered quietly.
I swallowed and kept my head bowed arguing back felt like a very bad idea.
She stopped directly in front of me.
"Name," she demanded.
"Rigel Jones," I replied quickly.
"Age."
"Seventeen."
"Background."
"...Mundane," I said after a beat "just recently found out I had circuits."
Her eyebrow arched just slightly.
"Oh?" she murmured, voice dripping with skepticism "a late-blooming magus who cannot find a classroom and arrives ten minutes late to a lecture while wasting time for everyone else."
She turned sharply on her heel "I trust you won't get lost trying to find a seat, will you?" I gave a nod and went up the stairs before sitting in one of the empty rows farther away from everyone else.
Professor Charolotte Ivy as I would later come to learn...was quite the massive bitch in fact.
She grabbed her chalk and wrote out 'what is Kabbalah?'
"Now then since someone ended up late, I shall restart the lecture by explaining the art and foundation of Kabbalah. Kabbalah is to essentially understand the true nature of God. More accurately the Jewish mystics aimed to comprehend Ein Sof the infinite and endless state of the universe. Prior to the materialization of God or in other's words the form of God before conventionally becoming what we as humans understood him to be," Professor Ivy then drew a diagram in the shape of tree with various branches.
"In order to understand the Ein Sof mystics studied and worshipped the ten sephirot. Which are the creative forces God uses to create and preside over the universe. The foundation over all represents the symbiotic nature between the creator and his creations. Meaning that God's children seek intimacy with him. They do so through three distinct dimensions. First by investing and searching through sacred texts such as the Bible and Zohar, but on a practical level worshipers sought power over the world by tapping into the powers of angels, demons, and other supernatural energies," on the board she proceeded to write and circle out the three words.
"This is of course where Magecraft enters the picture. If we look at these texts as fragments of the Root then we as magi are able to use it to then base our spells and rituals off of them. This diagram right here represents the tree of life and on each branch the ten sephirot. On it each one has a vast amount of abundance and meaning for various elements notating all sorts of relationships. The right side of the tree represents the masculine side which is associated with harmony and benevolence. On the left side of the tree represents the feminine side often associated with power and justice as. The center of the tree balances both sides and represents mediation by using mercy and justice. Furthermore, each sephirot is paired with an Archangel."
The Professor paused to then write down the following words and started to explain each one of them.
Ker - Metatron associated with God's living energy throughout the universe and understanding this searat leads to spiritual enlightenment.
Tith - Miel and Raphael which represents Harmony and Compassion.
Yad - Gabriel which represents the base of the tree where moral men can connect with their Divine Creator.
Malou - Sandalphon representing the manifestation of God's will traveling through the other sephirot to his children below.
Chakma - Raziel associated with the wisdom gifted to humans and can be used in practical situations to reach their full potential.
Hassed - Zadel represents the entire right side of the tree and God's compassion.
Neto - Hankel represents God being an absolute and eternal figure for people to worship.
Beina-Zel represents how God provides insight to his children and guidance in their daily life.
Gevura - Hamel which represents the needed strength to set boundaries so one may better focus on God
Hod - both Miel and Raphael which represents the need to express God's glory in the face of corruption and sin.
.
.
.
Admittedly I wasn't much of religious person in both of my lives. I did however believe that there was a God though along with Heaven or Hell.
While the teacher herself was a bitch she did give a pretty good and interesting in-depth lecture that made me write out a couple of things to develop my own unique style of spell execution/performance.
A brief bit of astrology was also mentioned in the lecture which grabbed my interest for a bit. Since it could apparently be incorporated as a supplementary belief system/foundation.
As the class reached it's conclusion the professor sharply announced, "for your assignment I want all of you to write a three-page essay explaining the five uses of zodiacs and astrology in the use of Kabbalah magecraft that is all."
I quietly packed up my things ready to go find Waver's office when Professor Ivy called "oh and Mister Jones...do make sure to not end up late again. You'll find that I have zero tolerance for such things."
I swallowed thickly and nodded "yes of course Professor," I said.
"Good your dismissed then," she said waving me off.
Well, I can for sure understand why they call her Professor Ivy I thought with a shudder.
Just remembering her tone of speaking sent shivers down my spine.
I pulled out my phone and called Waver to ask for directions to his office.
Hopefully I don't get lost again.
-end of chapter eight-
So that's the end of that along with my last infodump chapter for a while.
Next chapter were going to do some work with Waver and Gray, after that leave the tower to go back home and pick up Nate from Miss's Harper's place, Slice of Life Moment, Review Notes-Form theories/ideas for his own magecraft style, Before contacting Flat of when they can meet, and then...lots of horror to follow.
By that I mean bro's going to experience some more death and emotional trauma...like a lot.
Also credits to OtakDaiKun over on Youtube for the Professor's Lecture.