NOVEL NEXT Chapter Twenty-Nine: Practical Magecraft
Thankfully, practical magecraft's classroom wasn't nearly as shrunk down as the ethics course had been. It was still smaller than it had been in the first semester of first year, when the course had been mandatory and nobody had failed out, but it was actually a bit bigger than it had been in second semester, after midterm dropouts.
I was guessing that they'd combined two classes together for the new, optional class, as of the several people there, many I didn't know but vaguely recognized the faces of from around campus, or else sort of recognized from my class the year before. I did notice Wesley standing alone in a corner glowering at everyone, as well as the pink haired elf that had been in my ethics class last year, but had failed to move on this year. After a second, I spotted Salem waving at me, and I waved back, then gestured for Kybar to follow me. Once we were next to Salem, I gestured back and forth between them.
"Kybar, this is my boyfriend, Salem. He's a psychic, and is an excellent diviner. Salem, this is Kybar. He's in my ethics class, and was in Fundamental magecraft with me last year. Solid dude."
"Thanks," Kybar said. "Nice to meet you, Salem."
"Same 'ere," Salem said. "What sort'a mage stuff do ya do?"
"Oh, are you from Hydref?" the large minotaur asked. "Wait. Is that rude? Sorry, I didn't mean to–"
"S'fine," Salem said, waving his hand. "Dinnae worry 'bout it."
Before either one could have a chance to talk more, professor Silverbark breezed in, his long hair flowing behind him. He smiled at everyone as he flicked a finger and used a cantrip to shut the door behind him.
"Hello everyone! I'm delighted to have had so much interest in taking my class this year. I can assure you that you're not going to regret this decision. Many people tend to overlook the practical parts of wizardry in favor of looking at the most powerful spells they can learn, or seeking advancement at all costs."
He held up his hand and a stilk of chalk began to write names on the board. I squinted at them, and after a moment, realized that it seemed to largely be a list of powerful or famous people. I recognized several of my professors, the Seven Sword Knight, Yushin's aunt, and more.
"All of these people took my class within the last century that I've spent teaching," professor Silverbark said. "Practical knowledge, spells, and applications may be boring. They may not be flashy. But they are the foundation on which all of your future magic is built."
He smiled and waved his hand, his long, voluminous sleeve flowing as he did. Piles of papers appeared on the desk next to him, and he gestured.
"Please, everyone come and take a syllabus!"
I shuffled forward as everyone formed into a rough line, and took one of the slips of paper for myself, glancing it over. The first semester of the class was broken up into three units, which wasn't too much of a shock. The first unit was focused on ether manipulation techniques, similar to last year, but it was the second and third units that really caught my eye.
After the shaping techniques, we'd be doing a unit called 'affinity application and imbuement'. I wasn't entirely sure if we'd just be learning about how to better use our individual affinities during the application half, but the word imbuement was what really interested me. Most of the time when I heard that word around wizardry, it was in relation to imbued items – magical items that could be crafted by any mage without need for a specific affinity. Affinity imbuement was interesting, and not something I'd considered before. Cursed items wouldn't be too helpful for me to hold onto, but if I could direct their curses to others, there would be a lot of possibilities.
That theory was further strengthened by the third unit of the semester: imbued item spellcraft. We'd be learning the spells to assorted imbued items, like perpetual flame. Given that anyone could create them, the imbued item market was much more saturated than general artificed items, but they could still make a decent amount on the open market. I wasn't exactly desperate for money, but it could be an interesting way to try and make some cash if I needed it.
The following semester would be entirely focused on spellcraft and rituals that were considered practical for any mage to know, like the true tongue ritual that allowed you to understand and speak in any language. That one should actually pair very well with my summoning magic – I had a solid grasp of most bloodline tongues, but there was a limit to how much any one person could know.
I was pulled out of examining the syllabus by professor Silverbark clearing his throat.
"As I'm sure many of you saw while looking over the syllabus, we're going to begin this year similar to how we did last year: ether shaping."
A few people muttered under their breath at that, but I leaned forward. I wasn't perfect at Xander's massage, but I was nearing the point where I'd be able to complete all nine circuits of the technique without much difficulty, while Summer's inversion was going to continue to have diminishing returns as my ether pool expanded. In fact, Willow's path was the only technique from the first year that grew more difficult and effective with ether pool size, and thus the only one that I wasn't going to eventually outgrow.
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"Last year, we began with Xander's massage, as many of your pools were so small that you struggled to get through the day, and needed a recovery technique before anything else," professor Silverbark said. "This year, however, through the use of last year's techniques, all of you have reasonably – or even exceptionally – large pools of ether, regeneration, and control."
His eyes lingered on Wesley as he said 'exceptionally', and the ghost of a smile spread across his face. He waited a second, then spoke.
"As you no longer are in such desperate need of recovery, we are going to begin with a technique to expand the size of your ether pool called Jadis' remodel. The technique actually reworked, combined, and refined together almost three dozen older techniques, refining them into the two halves that the modern technique uses: abrade edges and sediment excretion. Does anyone already know this technique, or have any guesses as to what it does?"
There was a beat of silence, before Wesley spoke up.
"I don't know this specific technique, but to abrade is to wear away, like with sandpaper on the rough edges of wood. I'd assume that we're abrading the edges of our ether pool to make it larger, and that the sediment excretion half is used to expel those… spirit shavings?"
"We'll touch on the dust bottle soon, but yes! The abrade edges portion is an advanced ether shaping that essentially twists your connection to Etherius into a vortex, and uses it to shave away at the edges of your pool, like water wearing away at stone. It's a bit less dramatic than Summers' inversion, but is far better for long term growth."
"Why?" I asked. "It seems like it should be the other way around, trapping a high pressure vortex in a small space to blow it out?"
"And isn't intentionally tearing at the edges of your ether pool dangerous?" Kybar asked. "I mean, you're basically ripping at the edges of your own soul. It'll heal and expand, especially while you're young, but…"
"Ah, excellent questions!" professor Silverbark said, a beaming smile on his face. "The answer to the first is that, unlike the inversion, this technique isn't about pressuring your spirit to expand. It's about cutting at your spiritual volume. A small increase to the radius and depth of a pool has an increased effect the larger the volume is, compared to the normalizing effect of Summers' inversion. Does that answer your question?"
I agreed that it did, and so the professor turned to answer Kybar's question.
"Indeed, it can be a touch dangerous. As you said, your soul does still heal and expand. To use the analogy of a pool of water within stone, as you form the abrasive vortex, it does indeed turn the stone to sand. Normally, that sediment would fall to the bottom of the pool, or else be kicked out by the vortex. Indeed, before Erudite Jadis' technique, most of the techniques of this sort were liable to damage the ether pool if overused."
A grin came over the professor's face and he winked at us.
"Not so with this technique. The second half of this technique, the sediment excretion, distributes the parts of your shaved off pool to the very edge of your spirit, fusing it there with an application of ether. There is some loss in the process, but it helps expand the outside of the spirit, and keep your overall spiritual volume relatively consistent. In order to damage your soul through the continual expansion, you'd have to either fail at the excretion half, or else practice it for about eighteen hours a day without stopping. Now this can happen, especially for those of you who don't need to sleep. So I'll warn you now – if your spirit begins to ache while practicing Jadis' remodel, stop immediately, and do not begin again until you've felt well for at least a day. If you press on, you risk doing permanent damage."
He waved his hand, and glass bowls appeared on one of the tables. They were oddly shaped, shallow, but with incredibly thick glass. That glass had been hollowed out, so it was almost as if someone had taken a small, shallow bowl, and placed it within a larger, deeper bowl, then fused them together with glass.
"Now, unfortunately, unlike in first year, you cannot take these ether devices and keep them," professor Silverbark said. "I'm going to need them back when we meet next week. If you want to keep them to refine your practice, or if you break or lose yours, then you can purchase them for four hundred silver."
I raised my eyebrow, considering. I'd almost forgotten the fact that in second and third year, professors were given far more limited discretionary budgets – almost. I'd been saving up at work over the summer, I'd intentionally left my prize money in a Cendel-issue bond, which would be easy to trade or liquidate, and I was getting a considerable amount of pay for working with Gerhard. Our one brief mission was almost enough to pay for this artifact. If I couldn't get the technique to a point I was confident in not damaging my own spirit by then, I'd consider purchasing it.
"Now, I'm sure you all are well used to the light displays by now," professor Silverbark continued, pulling me back to attention. "For this specific technique, you'll be able to practice the abrading half by channeling power through the inner section of the bowl, and the distribution by running ether through the outer one. To practice the full technique, touch both and pour ether into both."
To demonstrate, he lifted the bowl in one hand and placed the fingers of his other hand into the interior bowl. An instant later, the inner bowl lit up, and then the outer one did, causing both to glow a cheerful green color.
"Alright, everyone come forward and take a bowl."
Once again, the class formed into an awkward line, and I eventually took one, then sat on my mat with Salem on one side, and Kybar on the other. I closed my eyes and placed my hand on the bottom of the bowl. The sediment portion of the technique was the one that helped keep it safe, so I resolved to work on that half first.
By the end of the class, I'd only managed to get the bowl to a dark orange color, rather than pure red – these techniques were definitely harder than the ones we'd learned in first year. I slipped the bowl into my locker as Salem and I headed to dinner and to talk about our days.