DearSpellbook
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Chapter 25: Green Rotten Eggs
🕑 Added 2024-11-01 09:00:08 +0000 UTCMountains on distant planets—when viewed with the aid of magic—appear in patterned ranges that extend across the planet’s surface. The mountains of Kaltis differ from all that we have observed. They are the remnants of the chaotic battle between the Wardens, Torc, Waas, and Aurial. The land that would become the Basin was once a large ring of mountains.
-A Brief History of the Flood by Albert Moonsuckle
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Zale explained their side of the story to the other students, glossing over the statement about Rakin’s connection to the Font of Fire.
The other four students listened raptly, as Zale clarified what had occurred at the conclusion of the last semester. By the time she was done explaining, the other students seemed a bit withdrawn.
When Zale was done, Valspin tried to reassure them.
“Even if what she said was technically true, it wasn’t okay for Shalin to say all that. Especially after you all saved her.”
Zale just shrugged, lifting her hands in a “what can you do?” gesture.
Valspin stuck out his hand again.
“No hard feelings,” he said, and Zale took it.
“That bitch,” Rakin spat as they walked out of the classroom.
“Aye,” Zale said, mimicking her cousin.
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“Defensive magic,” Professor Underbrook said, talking to the class. “Is what separates a living wizard from a dead one. Some of you may end up siege wizards in an army, safely blowing up your enemies from a mile away, but what good is a Fireball when your enemy is about to stab you in the gut?”
Underbrook paused, as if expecting an actual answer.
“Ummm... no good?” a student said from the front.
“Exactly! Unless of course you’re fine taking yourself out with them,” Underbook said.
“Shield and Mage Armor. These are the bread and butter of wizard defenses. Shield for when you see the attacks coming, and Mage Armor for when you don’t. What are some other spells useful for defense?”
No one spoke up, and Underbrook pointed to students at random.
“Gray,” he said.
“Umm, Ice Armor?” Gray asked.
“Yes, good. What are its benefits over Mage Armor?” Underbrook asked,
“It can explode and hurt attackers who land a blow,” Gray said with more confidence.
Next he pointed to Kole.
“Kole?”
“Ummm, Mirror Image? Blur?” Kole said, with equal confidence.
“What are the pros and cons of each?” Underbrook asked.
“Mirror Image makes copies of you that can result in enemies attacking nothing and destroying the copy, while Blur makes you generally harder to hit,” Kole explained, also gaining confidence.
“Why pick Mirror Image when Blur seems much better?” Underbrook asked.
“Blur requires concentration while Mirror Image does not,” Kole said, guessing at the answer.
“Exactly!” Underbrook said. “Concentration. Who among you can cast a spell while concentrating?”
Underbrook looked over the class, three students, all second years, raised their hands.
“Cantrips?” Underbrook asked. “Who can cast a first tier?”
All the hands went down.
“I expect every one of you to be able to cast at least a cantrip while concentrating on a spell by next year if you wish to continue in this course. For now, a concentration defense is a liability. You’re giving up the ability to attack to defend. Defensive concentration spells are powerful, but high risk. If your enemy breaks through your defense, you’re likely to lose the spell. It’s better that you have passive spells that protect your offensive abilities. This is why Mage Armor and Shield are such a potent combination. Neither require concentration, and they supplement each other. Now, why might someone learn spells other than these two?”
This was once more met with silence until finally Kole answered.
“Affinities?” he said.
“Exactly,” Underbrook said. “A sorcerer, such as Gray, with an Ice affinity would benefit more from Ice Armor than he would spending the same amount of WIll of Mage Armor. Others might wish to wear armor, making Mage Armor useless.”
“I would like each of you to think this week over a passive defensive spell you could learn this semester and compare the spell to Mage Armor. Weigh your options, and next week decide which you will learn.”
“Also, be ready. Wednesday, we practice mental defenses.”
That was met with a collective groan.
---
“So, you’re going to learn Mirror Image,” a voice asked Kole from behind as he was leaving class.
“Probably,” Kole said, looking back to see Gray.
They’d not spoken since the previous Monday.
“You going to learn Ice Armor?” Kole asked.
“Probably,” Gray said, smiling.
There was an awkward silence, then Gray spoke.
“I wanted to let you know, Shalin’s been spreading rumors about you guys.”
Kole sighed.
“I heard,” Kole said. “Before you ask, it’s basically true. Except the part about Amara and us being complicit.”
“Whoa,” Gray said.
“Yeah,” Kole agreed.
“So... that Forsaken name is really on the nose then,” Gray said, hesitating before attempting a joke.
“That was the point of the name,” Kole admitted, “Though, I didn’t know about Rakin’s abilities at the time.”
Before Kole realized what was happening, he found himself talking to Gray as they left class. Both had been heading to the library, and it wasn’t until they sat down at the same table to study, that both boys realized what had just happened.
They then proceeded to spend the next three hours studying in slightly awkward silence. Both unsure how to handle the potential friendship, and perfectly content to study alone.
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The rest of the week went by in a blur, as Kole spent every free moment attempting to improve the efficiency of Thunderwave and Radiant Bolt, while also trying to wrap his head around Galok Lightsmith’s version of Mirror Image.
From the spell’s description, it functioned much the same as the Font of Illusion his uncle cast using his primal powers, only less flexible. This version would allow Kole to conjure two illusions on casting, increasing by one for each higher tier he cast it as if he learned to over-channel the spell. The versions would disappear if disrupted by an attack, but unlike his uncle’s version, they would not act independently, instead each would function as a—well—mirror image of Kole.
The spell was purely one of the Font of Light, and as such, the illusions wouldn’t have any of the mental or audio reinforcement that Kole’s Silent Image spell had. Briefly, Kole had tried to find a spell from the Font of Illusions itself, but as the Font had only recently been discovered, all the spells created to draw upon it functioned by use of offset gates, and employed many spellform techniques intrinsic to those gates. As such, Kole couldn’t simply strip the gate aspect from the spell without rendering it completely useless.
Kole still took a copy of the spells he found and tucked them into his spellbook for further study, but he wasn’t optimistic it would be worth his time.
I’m better off just creating the spells myself, he told himself as he left the library.
In Martial 102, Kole continued to muddle through the lessons. Despite knowing the value of them, he still couldn’t bring himself to enjoy the sparring. The classes did also make him realize that he’d dropped his quarter staff in the desert of the hardball arena.
Zale gave him a hard time about it, but told him he’d have to buy a new one himself after losing the one she’d given him.
After Arcane 156 that day, Kole made his way over to the faculty supply master. He’d been given a pass that gave him a blank check—within reason—to the contents within, if he could explain his need for it and he wasn’t found to abuse the access, such as selling what he got.
He was pleasantly surprised to find that if what he needed wasn’t in stock, they would get it. The older gnomish clerk behind the counter was surprised at Kole’s pass, but once proving it was valid, took little convincing that Kole needed a new quarter staff, two sets of training clothes, one of the floating runic lights from the library, and a dozen other sundry items that caught Kole’s eye.
So, Kole left the basement of the administrative building with full arms and a large smile.
This is going to be difficult not to abuse, he reflected, grateful at least that he no longer needed to purchase magical ink or paper. That would have tested the limits of the school’s generosity.
Throughout the second week of classes, Kole found himself back at the supply master, collecting other small items he might need.
“No, you cannot have a wand,” the gnome supply master, one Gindlethumb Eaveswallow, said.
He’d become progressively less enthused with each of Kole’s visits, and twice had double checked the validity of the pass.
“Worth a try, have a nice day!” Kole said, leaving with some jars he planned to fill with food from the cafeterias.
Just because he was no longer destitute, it didn’t mean he was going to start wasting money.
Wednesday at Wizardry 205, Kole and Gray grouped up together to work on mental defenses. Each pair of students was given a runic device that influenced the mind of the person across from them. The effect was minor, only making the target perceive the world around them to be a green hue and for everything to smell like rotten eggs.
“Enter your vault as fully as you are able to while maintaining awareness of your surroundings,” Underbrook had explained to the class. “When the attack comes, it will appear like colorful wisps. Your task is to push them away with your own Will. If you succeed, the mind altering effect should disperse. A partial success will allow you to see past the effect while not fully ridding yourself of it.”
Kole and Gray took turns going back and forth, finding the task to be challenging, but looking around found they were having better success than their peers—if the plugged noses and facial expressions were anything to go off.
“Those of you with experience in battle are likely better suited for this task,” Underbrook had explained. “The average wizard has little need to maintain awareness of one’s surroundings fully in the brief moment it takes to cast a spell. But, even a lapse of a moment is enough for someone to stick you in the butt with a sword.”
This split awareness was something Kole had long worked on without even thinking about it. To him, it was obvious he’d need to maintain his awareness while casting spells, but he hadn’t realized it would have other benefits. Kole found that he and Gray were matched in this ability. Both could perceive the world while in their vault, but any interference, such as a kick—or in one case a sneeze—would see them either lose their awareness of their surroundings or send them out of their vault. Thankfully, they could choose which they wished to lose.
Underbrook continued to lecture the class as they worked to alter the perceptions of their partners.
“This is just the first step in mental defenses. Like a Firebolt, mental spells can be blocked, dodged, or countered. This is learning how to dodge. We will learn to improve your defenses later. This involves focusing on where the breaches in your vault occur, and reinforcing them with Will. At first the effects will be minimal, but eventually this will reduce the avenues of attack your enemies have, and give you more time to react. For weaker foes, it will completely block out their attempts. Currently, it takes 1 Will of your own effort to block 1 Will of your enemy's effort—or at least it should if you’re not entirely hopeless. Reinforcing will tip this scale in your favor, giving you home field advantage.
Upon leaving class that day, Kole could have sworn the grass outside looked greener than it had before, and he couldn’t help but sniff at his surroundings
