Sugar was nearly absolutely certain that Knight being the werewolf was absolutely and completely untrue. There was no way that such a sweet (even Sugar had to admit that quality of Knight) guy like him could be a vicious, beastly werewolf. But still, the feeling didn't go away.

Charlie was certainly not above lying, but the way he said it was so sure... and furthermore, there was the problem of Asteria.

She definitely had no qualms about beating down any of her companions with words, and sometimes the occasional book (there was a rumour going around that she had thrown a hardback textbook at Charlie's roommate, whom Sugar now knew was called Robi, after he called her a bitch. Probably didn't help.) So if Charlie was indeed lying about Knight's connection to the whole matter, Sugar had no doubt that Asteria would've come swooping in to call him out. But seeing her unusual compliance, the uneasy feeling in Sugar's stomach grew.

Which was why he was glad when the potions class came to an end, and the elective period rolled around.

"So," Rosa said, "You have those special coaching sessions with Mr Ignatio, don't you?"

"Don't call them that, it makes them sound weird..." Sugar sighed.

The two were walking up the stairs to the second floor of the school building. Hugo and Knight had already headed off to their Herbology elective. Sugar had no idea why people would willingly do that, but that was probably just his allergies speaking. Trying not to sneeze as the potions teacher described the various properties of certain flowers was already arduous enough.

"You know what I meant," Rosa rolled her eyes, "but you better tell me everything once you get you."

Sugar nodded without even an attempt at a retort. It was natural for her to be curious about the whole non-standard wand thing. Being as rare as they were, little information existed about what it took to use a non-standard wand. Though, Sugar did have to concede that the lack of information was probably due to how different it was for each person.

Either way, Sugar's agreement seemed to satisfy Rosa, and she parted from him with a wave.

"See ya."

Sugar sent a small wave back.

✧༺✦✮✦༻∞　　∞༺✦✮✦༻✧

Two beady black eyes stared Sugar down as he sat in the chair in Ignatio's office. Why did his familiar have to be a dog? All Sugar could do was hope that the mutt didn't jump forward and try to slobber all over him. Just the thought was enough to elicit a cringe from the boy.

The sentiment was not helped by the fact that Sugar could hear what the familiar was saying perfectly.

"Omg haiiiiii, you must be one of Iggy's students... wait, you're the one with a non-standard wand, right? That's so exciting!" Miguel said, wagging his tail.

I think I've found someone more annoyingly happy than Knight...

Sugar just tried to avoid the dog's eyes and give no indication that he understood it.

"So, how are things going with the test wand?" Ignatio said, seemingly oblivious to Sugar's discomfort.

"Um," Sugar looked down at his wrist, where a band of enchanted cloth was wrapped around. After his wand refused to channel, he was given the fabric as a temporary replacement while the long process regarding non-standard wands was organised. It wasn't the most effective, but it did the trick.

"It's fine." he finally said.

"That's good to hear." Ignatio said, "Now, it took some time to retrieve the information that we have on Innate Wands, and I apologise for the delay. But now, we should be able to get back on track."

"Innate Wands?"

"That's the sub-variety of non-standard wands that you and I belong to." Ignatio replied simply, "you see, there are two sub-groups within those who are allowed to possess non-standard wands. The Innates and the Learned. The Learned are more common. It's used to describe witches who can forgo traditional wands due to their mastery of their magic. And the Innates, well, we've very rare. There's actually not a lot of information in regards to how we can utilise non-standard wands right off the bat."

"So I'm a mystery?" Sugar asked. The thought wasn't exactly comforting.

"Not exactly. There are a few things that the Council has managed to figure out about Innates, but it's really technical and goes into the whole philosophical conundrum of what magic truly is, so let's not go there. But I can say that it has a lot to do with the shape of one's Magic Aura."

"Magic Aura... that's like how someone's magic looks like, right?" Sugar said, trying to remember the definition his mother had given when she was explaining magic history.

"Not really. Aura is actually quite separate to how one's magic 'looks' or 'feels' like. Magical aura... how do I describe it... it's more like how a witch can utilise their inner magic. A diagram would probably make it clearer."

Ignatio got up and walked to the blackboard in the classroom, and fortunately, his familiar decided to hop off the table and follow him, much to Sugar's relief.

"Witches and humans are biologically identical, the one thing that really separates us from them is how we can use magic. Aura is what allows us to do so. It's kind of like an energy we give off, that allows us to interact with the magic of the world and ourselves..."

Ignatio drew four stick figures on the board, before stepping back and observing his work with a slight grimace.

"I've never been much of the artistic type, have I? Moving on, the aura of humans is very scattered, meaning that they cannot efficiently use magic."

He added a few small chalk lines in the general area around the first stick figure.

"Some might be able to use small amounts, but only inadvertently. This usually manifests in an inexplicable feeling of dread when entering a bad situation, strange dreams that seem to predict parts of the future, deja vu, and some scholars have even suggested sleep paralysis to be a symptom of this. On the other hand, witches have a much stronger and controllable aura."

Ignatio then added a dotted outline around the second stick man.

"Of course, there are still gaps, where control is limited, which is why we must use wands and spells to help patch these gaps around us, but this more complete aura is what defines witches, as well, witches."

Then he moved on to the third stick figure. He drew a full, thin outline around it.

"But there are a certain subtype of witches who possess a completely filled aura. It is usually thinner than other witches' aura, but there are no gaps. This means that a wand of the standard type serves no use for this kind of witch. Instead, something that can amplify the strength of an aura is used. These devices are fairly easy to make, so it became a bit of a tradition for the witch themselves to decide what form their non-standard wand should take. That should explain why every non-standard is so different. Innates are those who were born with a full aura, which is why we need a non-standard wand from the very beginning of our magic training, while Learned witches were able to cultivate a full aura through their training. Are you following?"

Sugar nodded, looking at the last, bare stick figure.

"And what's that one supposed to be?" he gestured towards the final one.

"Ah, yes, I was about to touch on that. Humans and witches have fairly weak aura, something that some would consider a punishment from The First Witch after the people turned on him. However, we still retain the ability to learn and utilises all different aspects of magic. But there are beings who have a strong, but very rigid aura, meaning their magic is very strong, but they can only do so much with it."

Ignatio drew a thick box outlining the last figure.

"They won't need wands, as they pretty much are their own wand. The typical beings who possess this type of aura are magical creatures and..." Ignatio paused for a bit.

"And...?"

"Sorry, I can't for the life of me remember their official name," Ignatio sighed, "But it's witches who were originally familiars."

"Interesting," Sugar swallowed, tapping his fingers on the table. Hopefully Ignatio wouldn't notice his nervousness.

┌─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.☪ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┐

𝔸𝕦𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕣'𝕤 𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕖

└─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.☪ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┘

Secrets, secrets, everybody has secrets hheheheheeheheh. I had fun writing his chapter, even if it was just a massive word dump of worldbuilding. 

It might be because im a gen z, but i could NOT get the meme of aura out of my head while writing this chapter.... i think i'm tweaking....

~Viva.