“What is it they say, Professor? To break the rules, you must first know them? Well I’ve gleaned an insight into the deepest layers of understanding to come to this conclusion.”

Esme dropped the stack of papers onto his desk and then gently placed a USB atop the stack.

“Printed with citations and supporting documents and graphs, as well as a digital copy with additional documentation and links.”

The Professor took the drive and placed it by his computer and then grabbed the hefty stack of papers and brought it up. As his eyes passed over the title of the thesis, she watched a frown come across his face. Esme grinned in anticipation.

“The Theory and Study of the Science Of Magic, by Esme Lucero.”

He glanced up at her.

“Is this some sort of tongue in cheek joke I’m not understanding? The title of your thesis need only be a brief insight into what you’ve been studying, not an allusion to how magical the natural world is.”

“Oh but it is an insight into what I’ve been working on. And I can assure you, this world is undoubtedly magic. Both figuratively and literally.”

Before he could respond Esme placed a finger to his lips. She grabbed a pen from his desk and began drawing a series of shapes and circles that intertwined to create an intricate pattern.

“The hard part is drawing on the other hand. I had to teach myself to be ambidextrous, but I have a shortcut to avoid the tediousness of how long it takes me.”

She pulled a sticker from her pocket. It had a similar design to what she had drawn on her hand. She peeled the backing off the sticker and placed it onto her palm.

“I found that you don’t have to use chalk, ink, or blood—thank god—to make this work. I streamlined the process by using a drawing software. Makes it much easier, though I did fry a couple tablets in the beginning.”

“What process,” the Professor said. “Blood? Did you harm yourself? Ms. Lucero this is highly irregular—“

“Oh it’s more than irregular. It’s magic.”

She clapped her hands together and began rubbing them vigorously. The Professor watched as the friction began to cause a small stream of smoke. His eyes grew wide. She brought her hands apart one more time and smiled.

“Don’t blink for this part.”

Esme brought her hands together hard and the Professor jumped back as he watched a small orb of fire emerge from Esme’s palms. It floated just above the surface of her skin and gave off a steady heat. He watched as she moved it back and forth from one hand to the other.

“How on earth,” he said.

Esme’s eyes were wide with wonder. The light from the flame lit up her face in a warm glow.

“It’s amazing isn’t it? I still can’t get over it. I had a few hiccups along the way. Set my clothes on fire a couple times. Could’ve been much worse but I was cautious. Science and safety go hand in hand, right?”

The Professor stood up and brought his hand towards the fire. He could feel the heat. He brought one finger near and felt a singe on his skin that made him recoil.

“Careful. It’s very real, I assure you.”

“Incredible. Can you…cane you make it burn brighter? Hotter?”

Esme nodded.

“I can bring it to roughly 1400 celsius before it gets too much for me to handle.”

“This is…this is amazing.”

“And it’s attainable. Repeatable. And not just with fire. I can sculpt earth, dissolve metal, freeze water, all with the appropriate formulae and materials. You’re the first witness.”

The Professor began flipping through the documents.

“You say it’s repeatable. What’s the simplest thing that I could do?”

Esme brought her hands together slowly and smothered the flame. Smoke filtered through the creases between her fingers. She shook her hands out and dug into her pocket to produce a bag of seeds.

“Take these. Pour a few into your mouth but don’t swallow them. Just allow them to sit under your tongue. I’m going to give you a phrase to say on a piece of paper. Say it three times and then spit them into the circle I’m about to draw.”

“Will this…hurt me, Esme?”

“Only if you swallow the seeds. You won’t die or be maimed but passing them won’t be pleasant.”

He did as she said and dropped the packet of seeds into his mouth, careful not to swallow any of them. The sat under his tongue and as she drew the design on a piece of paper, he read over the phrase. Though he was no etymologist or linguist, he knew these words were a romanization of words unknown to most languages he’d seen or heard of before. Nevertheless he worked diligently to ensure the pronunciation was correct, and when Esme had competed the circle he did as she instructed. As the last line of the incantation passed through his lips, he spat the seeds onto the paper, and watched as the circle began to glow.

The seeds were clumped together on the page. As the light from the circle glowed brighter, he watched the seeds begin to crack and sprout green vines and tendrils that began to wrap together. They culminated to form humanoid looking being made of plant life. It stood about 20 centimeters tall and though it had no eyes, it seemed to look up at the Professor.

“Alchemists would have called this little guy a homunculus. Ask him to do something for you. Make it simple though. When they’re this new, they can’t handle tasks that are too complex.”

“Oh. Um. Can you bring me that,” he said pointing to the USB drive.

The plant creature nodded and walked over to the drive, picking it up between its two vine like arms and brought it to him. A smile grew across his face as he took it from the creature.

“So what do we think.”

“What do I think? Esme, forget about a doctorate. Forget academia. This will change the world.”

“So what’s next then?”

“You tell me. I think you’re the teacher now.”

The Professor narrows his eyes as he sees the fireball. "That's a hologram," he says.

"Put your hand near it, Professor. You can feel the heat."

He frowns, but he brings his hand closer. "...hmph."

"It's a real fireball," I assure him.

The Professor reaches into his desk drawer and pulls out a cigarette.

I smile.

The Professor brings his cigarette closer and closer to the fireball, without taking his eyes off mine. As for myself, I am keeping my eyes on the cigarette end; at the moment when it pierces the fireball, it lights, and a wisp of smoke escapes.

The Professor looks at the burning cigarette end, then look over at me. "Congratulations," he says. "Now do you want to tell me how you faked it?"

"What makes you think it's fake?" I ask.

"Three reasons," says the Professor, taking a pull on his cigarette. "Firstly, today is April the first. Secondly, you have a well-deserved reputation for pranks; thirdly, I know for a fact that your thesis is on personal-wearable hologram generators, not fireballs."

...I sigh. "Yeah," I admit. "You got me."

"So how did you do it?" asks the Professor.

"The generator produces light," I point out. "No-one says it needs to be limited to visible range. This particular little fireball puts out infrared light as well, which makes it feel hot."

"And the cigarette lighting?"

"I have an infra-red laser remote lighter up mt sleeve. Honestly, the worst part was aiming it."

The Professor nods. "Well done," he says again. "A very convincing combo."

"Thank you, Professor."

And thank you for being willing to help put into widespread adoption the kind of technology which would mean that no-one will notice what my sister is doing if she starts throwing her own fireballs about...

The fireball shoots through the ceiling of his office and into the sky. I smile as it now seems if I have a spotlight over my head from the sun shining through. My smile disappears as a large piece of ceiling falls on my head and leaves me with a large bump.

Still it is nice to see the dumb look on my professor's face. His mouth half-open like an idiot. I think about reminding him to swallow, but I don't and a big glob of drool drops down onto his shoe. I start to wonder what I am going to do next. When I was planning this entrance, this is about as far as I got. Shooting a fireball. Hindsight being 20-20, I guess I should have thought about what my next move would be.

"Professor, would you agree that I... brought the heat?"

Goddamn, why didn't I plan ahead. I should have researched time travel magic instead so that I could wipe that dumb line from existence. I guess it doesn't matter too much. He still looks like he needs someone to press his on button, dumbfounded by my stupendous fireball.

I now realize that I have been sitting hear thinking for a few minutes now while he is dumbfounded. Should I say something else or keep waiting for him to speak? I feel like I should say something else to break the awkward silence, but I fucked up my first line so bad, that I am scared to. But I look at him and realize that he is not going to be the one to speak, so I guess I will just have to wing it.

"Professor, don't worry, I understand that you are a little dumbfounded right now. Don't worry, I know I brought the fire."

Damn, why was I even worried? I nailed it this time.

Finally, he seems to be awakened from his trance and looks at me. "This was very impressive Ronald, but I'm afraid that I am still going to have to fail you."

Outraged, I ask why.

"Because this is an art history class. Sorry, but you are going to have to retake the class next semester."

I shoot a second fireball.

”Don’t you think this subject is a bit overstudied?”

“What do you mean?” I let the flames in my hand die down.

“The field of magic is relatively well studied with that it is separated from all other fields. There is a reason we have a science apartment in this university separated from the magic apartment”

“Yes, but what if they are not separate but strongly linked. They co-exist so surely there must be a link between them.”

“There have already been several studies throughout the ages that have tried to prove this, all have failed. Magic and science follow different rules. They can interfere with each other but always follow one set of rules: the rules of science or the rules of magic”

“That is true professor, but what if I can prove instances where they the same? Because I think I have found that.”

“There are already examples of this. Magical fire and real fire will behave the same. But magical fire will not abide by the same thermo laws as real fire. This is a widely accepted fact, and proven more that a thousand times.”

“Thermo laws yes, but what about the law of reflection from the light admitted by the fire?”

“Interesting… I don’t think I have read any papers on that… Tell me what you have found!”

Magic was something Opeli believed ever since she was a small child. Many tought she was crazy, that she had a wide imagination.

Now, a fireball in her hand, a smug look on her face, and the confusion, endless and deep, in her professor's eyes worth the years of humiliation.

"Magic is nothing but converting energy as you please." She explained, just like how she explains a child that one plus one equals two. "When concentrating the right part of our own energy, we can bend the atoms around us to diferentate. Thus explains spells." With a move of her wrist, the fire flicked a last time, before transfoming into a small light orb.

"This is..." The professor looked trought the papers, everything explained shiftly, yet it was too difficult to understand even for him.

"With enough knowledge, even necromancy is possible." Opeli inched closer to her professor. "Love spells, healing, all you can ask for with the move of a hand. Isn't this a miracle?" She lained closer untill she was inches away from the older man.

"How..."

"Isn't this knowledge worth an A, rofessor?" She asked in a whisper. "I just proved the reality of a fairy tale."

Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.

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