Illusory Empire: A Magic School Progression Fantasy, page 8
—Wicket, Temin. Wicket’s Guide to the Pantheon, 1st ed.
Zale explained their side of the battle with Shalin’s team to Tolbolt’s Rangers, glossing over Rakin’s connection to the Font of Fire.
The other students listened raptly. By the time she’d finished, they seemed a bit withdrawn. The rumors they’d heard from Shalin weren’t wrong.
Valspin tried to reassure Kole’s team.
“Even if it 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.
***
“Defensive magic,” Professor Underbrook said 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.
“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, so Underbrook pointed to students at random.
“Gray,” he said.
“Umm, Ice Armor?”
“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?”
“Umm, Mirror Image? Blur?” he said.
“What are the pros and cons of each?” Underbrook rattled off.
“Mirror Image makes copies of the caster that can trick enemies into 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?”
“Blur requires concentration while Mirror Image does not,” Kole said, guessing at the answer.
“Exactly!” Underbrook said. “Concentration. Who among you can cast another spell while concentrating?”
He looked across 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 and be vulnerable to a follow-up. 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 requires 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?”
“Exactly,” Underbrook said. “A sorcerer with an Ice affinity, such as Gray, would benefit more from Ice Armor than he would spending the same amount of Will on 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.
Kole winced internally at the admission. He’d tried to keep the Font of his primal abilities a secret, but admittedly he’d done a poor job. Anyone in class who thought about it for more than a moment would likely be able to guess from his planned spells. Thankfully, few people had believed Gray when he’d claimed Kole to be a primal the first semester. Kole could cast Magic Missile and Shield, after all, which was impossible for a primal. Yet they had no issue believing Gray’s claim that Kole had some sort of magical defect limiting his ability to cast spells.
“You going to learn Ice Armor?” Kole asked, pushing aside his irritation.
“Probably,” Gray said, smiling.
There was an awkward silence.
Then Gray said, “I wanted to let you know, Shalin’s been spreading rumors about you guys.”
Kole sighed.
“I heard,” he said. “Before you ask, it’s basically true. Except the part about Amara and us being complicit.”
“Whoa.”
“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 he realized what was happening, he found himself talking to Gray in the hall. Both were heading to the library. 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.
***
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.
According to the spell’s description, it functioned much the same as what his uncle cast using his primal powers and the Font of Illusion, only less flexible. This version would allow Kole to conjure two illusions on casting, plus one more per tier if he could raise It above the first, learning to overchannel the spell. The illusions would disappear if disrupted by an attack, but unlike with his uncle’s version, they wouldn’t act independently. Instead each would function as a—well—mirror image of Kole.
The spell was purely 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, so 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.
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 lessons. Despite knowing the value of them, he still couldn’t bring himself to enjoy the sparring. The class reminded him that he’d dropped his quarterstaff in the desert of the hardball arena, and it hadn’t been returned after the battle.
Zale gave him a hard time about it, telling 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. One of his passes was a blank check—within reason—for the contents within, if he could explain his academic need for it and he wasn’t found to abuse the access, such as by 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 he’d proven it was valid, it took little to convince him that Kole needed a new quarterstaff, two sets of training clothes, one of the floating runic lights from the library, and a dozen other sundry items that caught his 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 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 again and again, collecting other small items he might need.
“No, you cannot have a wand,” the exasperated gnome supply master, one Gindlethumb Eaveswallow, said.
He’d become progressively less enthused with each of Kole’s visits and had double- and triple-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 didn’t mean he was going to start wasting money.
Wednesday at Wizardry 205, Kole and Gray partnered up 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 as green and smelling 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 to find they were having slightly more success than their peers. Whenever they failed to block a spell, the overwhelming stink overcame Kole, causing him to dry heave for a few moments before they could resume. When he succeeded, he lost a bit of Will, wasting resources for working on wizardry and pushing him closer to a headache.
“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. He and Gray were matched in this ability. Both could perceive the world while in their vaults, but any interference, such as a kick—or in one case a sneeze—would see them either lose their awareness of their surroundings or sent out of their vault. Thankfully, they could choose which result.
Underbrook continued to lecture the class as they worked to alter the perception 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.
Chapter 13
First Duel
It is worth noting that his birth name was Winton Clark, but he changed it to add to his legend.
—Wicket, Temin. Wicket’s Guide to the Pantheon, 1st ed.
“Are you nervous?” Zale asked Kole as he moved his food around his plate at lunch while Amara did the same with food on the table using her prototype auto broom.
Her blasts of air had become more controlled, and she no longer sent plates or silverware flying off, though napkins were another story entirely.
“I guess?” Kole said. “If I could turn invisible, it would be easier.”
In the past week, he’d made definite progress on his spells. Radiant Bolt had been reduced from 8 Will to 7, while Thunderwave had gone from 10 to 8.
“I know I have the offensive power to overcome my opponents, but if I cast Shield once, that’s nearly half my Will. The Barrier cantrip Buckler will only cost 10, but that effect is hardly worth the cost.”
“Don’t all your opponents have, like, 30 Will max?” Zale asked.
“Yeah, but their spells are also way cheaper,” Kole said, bordering on whining. “The standard cost of a first-tier spell with modern wizardry is 3 to 4 Will. My cheapest spell is 8.”
“Can’t you just use your blasting rod?” Zale suggested.
“No… Maybe? I wish I had one of those shield artifacts Amara made.”
“Oh, you want a new device?” Amara said, joining the conversation as soon as runes came up.
Kole, who hadn’t considered it an option until voicing the desire, thought it through. From his research, he knew Radiant Bolt and Thunderwave could each cost less than 4 Will. At that point, a Shield would serve him much better than a weaker Force blast from a runic device.
“You’d do that?” Kole asked.
Amara looked from him to her broom project, an internal battle going on behind her eyes.
“Ow!” Amara looked down at Gus, who’d nibbled lightly on her wrist.
The rat was looking up at the girl with what could only be described as a glare of disappointment.
“Of course!” she said, with less enthusiasm than Kole would have expected for a new project. “I have spares, but… I should really rethink the design for you. I’ll have it tomorrow. I’ll bring the gem to the study group so you can learn it.”
Feeling better about his prospects, Kole ran to class early to see if his rod would be allowed.
***
“Sure,” Underbrook said, after considering for a moment. “You don’t have a gem in it, so I don’t see the problem. It’s actually harder to use that than to just cast a spell.”
Relieved—slightly—Kole sat and waited for his turn.
“Kole Teak and Peer Forester.” Underbrook called them to the front shortly after class began.
Kole and Peer, a taller human boy who was at least a year older than him, both headed to the front.
“As a reminder,” Underbrook explained as they walked up, “this room is part of the Dahn. Don’t worry about hurting each other, there are magical precautions in place that easily put the hardball circuit’s safety record to shame.”
“The hardball circuit has a poor safety rating?!” Kole cried, turning to Underbrook in horror. “I could have killed someone?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, it hardly ever happens,” Underbrook said dismissively. “But I like that your head went to hurting others, and not you yourself getting hurt.
“So, the duel goes until both of you are out of Will or one of you is deemed incapacitated by the Dahn. If you run out of Will but still have an active offensive spell effect, you are not out until that fails. I have no interest in seeing two lanky teenagers slapping each other. That’s Tigereye’s thing.”
Underbrook paused for a reaction, but when none laughed about his much more imposing colleague, he gave his “you all are zero fun” sigh and carried on.
“You will feel the pain of the hits you take, but that will be all in your mind. But… since your mind is where the concept of pain originates, I guess it is real. Have fun!”
Kole stood thirty feet across from Peer, waiting for the match to be called. He drew his blasting rod out of his sheath, and the other boy’s eyes grew wide.
“That’s cheating!” he shouted, pointing.
“It’s not!” Underbrook said, but seeing that his answer wasn’t sufficient, he sighed.
“It’s a blasting rod, not a wand, and it doesn’t even have a reservoir gem. Kole here has the rune intent in his mind and is using it—essentially—as a crutch. It’s basically a single Magic Missile bolt that can miss, you can knock out of his hand, and you can see exactly where It’s going to go because he has to point the damned thing.”
After that description, Kole suddenly felt a lot worse about the blasting rod that had once been such a lifesaver. He was very glad he’d already decided to replace it.
Across from Kole, Peer’s expression grew more confident. He’d likely heard stories about Kole and his team, but like many students had sought reasons to discredit them. As Kole had long since known, teenagers don’t like it when others are better than them and are always looking for confirmation that they really aren’t. Shalin was likely busy giving reasons to everyone far and wide, and Underbrook’s statement had only reinforced the beliefs Peer wanted proven true.
“Go!” Underbrook shouted, and they both broke into motion.
Both students thrust one arm forward at the call, Kole with his blasting rod in hand. Peer’s palm was facing up, fingers forked, with his ring and pinkie finger together and angled away while his index and middle finger pointed at Kole.
Peer spat out the verbal component of his spell in a quick staccato. “Roh-Ta-Kee.”
The translucent force darts shot forward a moment after Kole’s single dart shot out of his rod.
Peer’s eyes grew wide at the incoming projectile, and instinctively he cast Shield, while in Kole’s opinion he could have just stepped to the side.
