Of Wizards and Ravens [Magical Academy, Progression Fantasy, Slice of Life]

The second half of the summer semester flew by at what felt like a record pace. Most of the assignments I had for my theatre class were laughably easy, and I passed them without a need for studying. It wasn't that theatre itself was easy – memorizing my part of the evil dragon in the play, maintaining my expression, and reacting to the strange little quirks that happened in each performance was definitely a skill. It was simply that since we no longer had a play, most of the theatre class was focused on reading plays, discussing playwrights, and looking at famous actors, and memorizing history was easy for me.

Domestic Magic didn't exactly get difficult, since it was still mostly focused on learning second and third circle spells, but it was more of a challenge, especially with the cure hangover spell. That was the second healing spell I'd learned, and unlike the holy healing spell, it didn't rely on a bloodline to do the heavy lifting. Its effects were practical, helping to rehydrate the body, target and reduce the inflammation that alcohol caused, suppress aches in the stomach or head, stimulate the flow of life force throughout the entire body, and get the blood sugar back to normal levels.

Some of the effects were done purely practically, like most transmutation spells were, while others – such as the summoning of sugars – seemed closer to conjuration magic. That helped me with learning the spell, but they still only made up part of the spell form. Restoration magic had its own unique components that helped smooth and distribute all of the practical and summoned effects, and they were completely unlike anything I'd seen before. Those component's complexity exceeded summoning magic, and were on par with many of the most complex transmutation spells I'd ever learned, like lifeberry.

Studying cure hangover actually made my respect for Henry jump up quite a few levels. He was capable of throwing around life-saving healing spells with the flick of his fingers, and had been able to outperform a dedicated fifth circle restoration mage while he was at the same circle. Given that higher circle spells became more difficult, rather than less, I could only boggle at the level of skill he had in order to fling that type of magic out so freely.

Chill chest, on the other hand, was laughably basic.

It was a transmutation spell, that was true, but all it did was move heat around. That might be complex if the amount of heat needed was extreme enough to do something like freeze an entire room, but to just let a chest get cold enough to store food? It was laughably easy.

The fact that it was an imbuement ritual meant that making a permanent chill chest did take a bit of time, and my throat was sore after the hours of chanting, but it wasn't exactly hard either.

I was clearly in the minority of the class when it came to that opinion, though. Even Salem struggled quite a bit with the spell, which confused me at first.

"Aren't enchantment and divination spells more complex than this? I've seen you do way more impressive stuff than this."

"Differen' kind'a complex," Salem responded as I helped him take apart the spell array to look at its components. "This is a' lotta physical laws an' ether shapin' involved. You gotta make all the complex gestures ta' invoke Etherius inta' changin' the world. Divination an' enchantment are complicated, but not that way. They're abou' subtly plucking the strings'a the unseen world, an' the underlyin' principles a' sympathetic connection an' the world."

"That… Well, I believe you. But I've never done any magic like that, and I'm pretty sure I'd find it just as difficult as you find this spell. It's interesting to hear about, though!"

We chatted for a bit about the different layers of complexity in different schools of magic before turning our attention back to the chill chest. Salem eventually got it down by breaking the spell into three parts and learning to shape the ether for each part, before working on combining all three of the parts into one cohesive etheric shape.

The final spell of the course, ward from disease, was another that I found easy. It shared many of the area definition components with the dimension ward or circle of alarm spells, and the bulk of the spell's construction was off the rack abjuration magic. There were some minor similarities to transmutation and restoration spells when it came to the targeting of diseases specifically, but after getting both clean and cure hangover down, neither of them were particularly intimidating to me anymore.

Of course, there was more to the summer. Gerhard arrived during the month. It was somewhat surreal to be sitting on the couch in the common area, reading through a guide on one of my spells, only to have him knocking on my door.

"Emrys," Gerhard said, nodding respectfully. I nodded back, and we had a few moments of small talk before he got down to business.

"No combat today. A small faction of our cousins got their hands on some of Mother's letters of debt from the Six Lords, and are attempting to use them to barter for positioning and the expansion of the military."

I frowned, trying to remember who the Six Lords were. They were powerful, but isolationist, so the core class hadn't focused on them, and I hadn't even been aware that the dead Matriarch had a relationship with them. I thought they were out somewhere in the ocean to the southeast of Hua Long, in an archipelago of six islands, but I wasn't entirely confident on that.

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"I'm surprised that you're against that," I said. "I mean, for all that the previous military power was backed by the family, they're not in the position to do it now. I'd expect you to be all for naval or military expansion."

"Oh, I am. The problem is that they're leaning on the favors as a method to control my plan, and to outsource the ship building. The effect of creating a military exemption for our current importation laws…"

We continued to speak for a bit, before I agreed to act as a source of political backing for him. I gathered the team, and Gerhard pulled a loop of vellum from a storage ring. He spun it around his finger, and an instant later, we emerged in the Isle of Dreki.

It was… strange… to be back. The air smelled different from Ocean Spires, the ice flows that surrounded the island even in the summer creating a different scent from the much warmer salt air of Ocean Spires. The volcanoes that made up the bulk of the island continued to send smoke into the air, creating a nearly permanent minor scent of sulphur in the back of the nose.

To my surprise, I wasn't sure where we'd emerged. It looked to be in the wealthy half of the island, judging by the fact that the people walking by on the paved streets were well dressed and well fed, but it seemed to be far from the central palace where my family had once lived. I thought I could see a handful of the chapels that some of the island's human population had constructed, but the building in front of us was only half-built.

We'd emerged into a grassy knoll, and in front of us was a building that was still being framed, and I could see artificers scurrying around, looking to slap things together.

"Welcome to the First Dreki Mage Institute," Gerhard said, a note of pride entering his voice. "It's clear that we need to expand our sources of power, so I began construction on new schools for tonality, wizardry, and druidry. Within eighty years, I expect our family members will have a secondary power system to supplement their bloodline, as you do."

I actually considered my bloodline to be more of a supplement to my magic than I did the way he'd described, but I didn't argue, just letting him lead us through the city, talking about his plans to use druids as a method to supplement farmers, tonal songcallers in the mortal military, and wizards in bureaucracy. I wasn't entirely convinced that his described plan was perfect, but giving the opportunity for farmers to learn the life enforcement art of druidry was still better than preventing them from ever learning anything.

Fortunately, while I was uncertain if I should point it out, not when Gerhard seemed to be so content with his ideas, and when they were notably much more progressive than the laws that had once been in place, Jackson had no such compunctions.

"Why would I allow the destitute to apply for anything other than songcalling? We can use swordsingers and vocal tonists in our military, which is where they'd be best served. A farmer's children should gain powers for the farm, the wealthy's children gain powers useful for bureaucracy, and the destitute gain the opportunity to make themselves more useful for the nation and elevate themselves."

I expected Jackson to rebut with an argument of ideals, and was ready to tune it out, but to my surprise, Jackson seemed to understand who he was dealing with when it came to Gerhard.

"And how many children of the destitute have an unknown talent for farm arrangement that could be improved via life enforcement, that would instead be an unused resource if they were forced into tonal magic? How many of them might find themselves with affinities for powerful destruction magic, like me, that would be better suited to wizardry? How many wealthy might find themselves better suited to using life enforcement to heal the sick, or tonal magic to do feats of architecture? It is best to let individuals draw themselves to magic they find appealing, and let Magyk do the rest."

"Hmm," Gerhard said. "It's not a terrible idea, though it has its own flaws. After all…"

They continued to bicker back and forth as we walked, and only stopped when I gasped.

Where the mansion that the Matriarch had once occupied had once stood, there was now a ruin. It was in the middle of being reconstructed, and I saw artificers, earth mages, those with earthen bloodlines, and songcalling architects all scurrying around, working to repair it, but even across an entire summer, a five-story mansion with at least four basement levels wasn't exactly quick to repair.

Gerhard led us through the construction to a large meeting room filled with a collection of some of my siblings and cousins who had flocked under his banner, including Greta. She waved to me, and I nodded back, still unsure how to feel about her. Before we had much of a chance to talk, however, the other faction arrived, holding a large, thick black box that I assumed had to hold the promissory notes from the Six Lords.

"Cousins," their leader, a tall, slender, androgynous figure said, smirking at us. "I see you brought backup."

"Ellifies," Gerhard said, smiling. "I didn't bring backup. I brought political advantage. If you look at our agreed importation rates with Cendel, and compare them to the exemptions for the military against your proposal to not only wastefully use valuable favors but to also…"

What followed was a long winded meeting that I largely tuned out, working on Willow's path as a way to pass the time, though one thing did catch my mind.

"And what of the vanished faction?" Ellifies demanded, their voice raising. "When they attack, there's–"

"Nothing to worry about," Gerhard cut off. "I am far and away the most powerful Dreki alive, with the possible exemption of my younger brother, who is allied with me. Even if they've found a few artifacts, they're still children. Fifty years of training off the island won't let them match us."

I frowned, tapping my fingers on the chair.

"Did they take the bloodflame brazier?"

Gerhard turned to me, shock on his face for a second before he composed himself, while Ellifies just looked confused.

"The what?" they asked.

"Either took it or destroyed it, as shattered pieces of copper were found in the vault," Gerhard said. "But we'll need to discuss how you even know that exists."

"I'm afraid that's rather valuable information, my dear brother," I said, my voice saccharin sweet. "It's not the kind of thing that can be bought for silver and gold."

He grunted his acknowledgement, and turned to continue his argument with Ellifies, while I sat in my chair, stewing over the knowledge.