The Least Degree of

The first lab is always the hardest. Those with any sort of alchemy knowledge stored within their family’s crest struggle awkwardly in understanding the technical elements, only for their transmutations to go perfectly because such basic knowledge was practiced once before -- perhaps not even seriously -- whereas the younger blooded mages, or those without the wisdom of ages to draw upon, breeze through the technical elements only to spend their time struggling to bend a piece of metal from the inside out. It’s a nasty day, full of cursing so creative that some of the undermages may very well be inventing new hexes for all Waver knows, and the point of the lesson is always met with unhappy resistance.