Chapter 78: Looking Up (Patreon)

Prior to the first dragon war, extra dimensional spaces were objects of theory. Even the Spacial master of the Hollow Peak, formerly know as Altian, could only compress space, never create it. Their crowning achievement, the hollowed out mountain cave in which they’d crammed a city, had only expanded the region within.

-Pocket Realms, From Theory to Fact

—

Kole spent a productive night alone alternating between work on Thunderwave and Shield. He’d been tempted to keep working on the offset gate spell when he got back to his room, but he judged he had done more than enough to satisfy the poorly defined requirements of Professor Underbrook’s assignment.

He couldn’t say exactly how he could tell, but he was certain he was getting close to completing his path for Thunderwave. The spell’s cost was getting higher, trending up towards 10 Will, and while that was expensive for the first-tier spell it was, he’d take anything at this point.

As always working on Shield was a slow and unrewarding affair, but he thought he had a good estimate of what the cost of the spell would be, and he estimated 16 Will, another improvement from his current 20. He’d tested himself, and his Will capacity had increased to 46, up 3 since he left home only two months back. The rate of improvement was extremely impressive—even taking into account the extra 10 months Kole had lived in the dungeon.

So, it was with great self-discipline that Kole went to sleep at the almost reasonable time of half past midnight and woke up just in time to be only a tiny bit late for the breakfast engagement he himself had scheduled.

Before diving into studying, Kole had reviewed Amara’s code list and sent out a message on the little runed device for everyone to meet in the morning at the martial college dining hall. He couldn’t signal what for but figured they’d pick that up from context.

Amara and Zale were waiting for him outside when he arrived. Kole had to do a double take, and Zale was standing around in all her voidy glory.

“Good morning!” she said cheerfully.

“What’s with the new look—er—old look?” Kole asked.

Zale bit her lip and winced slightly before answering.

“I’m not going to say Rakin’s right—because he’s not—but he might have brushed upon a good point in his irrational hatred for Harold.”

Kole didn’t think Rakin’s hatred for Harold was at all irrational, but he did admit to himself that Harold’s affiliation with Gray might be coloring his opinion. He couldn’t think why else he felt such a strong dislike for a guy he’d never even really spoken to.

“And what point was that?”

“I shouldn’t let the opinions of some racist drunks dictate how I live my life. I can look however I want, and most of my new clothes go with my natural skin tone.”

Kole noticed then for the first time that Zale was wearing a burgundy jerkin over a white shirt. Kole knew very little about fashion and didn’t see how the outfit wouldn’t fit with the olive skin ton—except he thought he knew that a jerkin was men’s apparel.

“Okay,” Kole said with a shrug.

He knew if he said anything more than that, he’d say something stupid or embarrassing, so he ended it at that/

“Great, let’s eat,” Zale said.

“Where’s Doug and Rakin?” Kole asked.

“Lost and not coming I’d assume—or Doug could have misunderstood my code,” Amara said, causing Zale and Kole to both laugh.

“What’s funny?” Amara asked looking at the pair. “Doug often gets lost on campus and doesn’t seem very good at ciphers, and Rakin doesn’t like spending time with people.”

***

Amara spent most of the meal explaining the wonders of Mage Tallen’s proposed projects, taking small breath breaks, and occasionally feeding Gus morsels. She’d arranged a meeting between Professor Donglefore and Tallen and was extremely nervous.

“Professor Donglefore can probably keep a secret,” Zale told Amara. “But, try not to spill the beans as to Uncle’s identity.”

“Spill the beans?” Amara asked.

Zale sighed and looked to Kole for help.

“I’m with her, that’s a weird one.

Hoping to change the topic—ever so slightly—Kole asked Amara if she’d seen the silencing runes in the library.

“No! But they are on my list!” She said excitedly, rummaging through her bag and pulling out a literal list. “I reviewed the schematics of runes across campus—the public ones at least—and created a schedule to review them all.”

Kole quickly lost track of Amara’s explanation of the ones she wanted to see most and noticed that Zale was just nodding her head politely as she stared across the room.

“So, what’s your plan for today?” Zale asked Kole, jumping in at a lull in Amara’s lecture.

“I was planning on working on finding a spell—“

“Great, no plans,” Zale said, interrupting what she saw as no plans at all. “You need more clothes. Honestly, it’s a little embarrassing. Your clothes so far have been just past acceptable, but now they are worn and don’t even fit.”

“They aren’t that bad,” Kole defended but then looked at his wrist to find his sleeve ended four inches before it.

Zale raised a dubious eyebrow.

“Well, what about Amara?” Kole asked, pointing to the crafter with heavily stained clothes.

“She’s a lost cause,” Zale said. “Anything I bought for her would be destroyed in a week.”

Both turn to Amara, who just nodded in acknowledgment, unoffended.

“Alright…” Kole conceded, “But I’m giving you a budget.”

Zale’s eyes sparkled at that.

“I do love a challenge.”

***

Kole quickly began to regret his decision sometime after the third store Zale took him to. 

He’d given her a budget of five silver and told her he needed three outfits. In the end, they went back and forth between five different tailors as Zale haggled and dug for cheap fabric in their offcut and scrap piles until she was happy she’d created a few “passable” outfits. After all five silver had been spent, Kole walked away with a new shirt that fit, and the receipt for the rest which would be ready within the week.

In Kole’s opinion, the best purchase of the day had been five glass jars with clamping glass lids and enough nuts and dried cranberries to fill two of them. With the two gold he’d gotten back for the spilled ink, he was still just above four gold, and at the rate he was spending, he thought he’d have enough to make it through the rest of the school year.

***

On his way back to campus Kole reflected that the last four hours had felt longer than his previous stint in the dungeon and resolved that next time he needed to go shopping, he could probably turn invisible and duck away and Zale wouldn’t even notice. As he thought this, he saw a herd of six-legged horses with scales running across the campus being chased by a mix of faculty and students.

***

With the chaos on campus, the library was nearly deserted, and Kole probably could have snuck his jars to his room without magic if they hadn’t kept clanging against each other and drawing attention. With each sound, someone would turn to look towards him before looking away and he felt the slight drain of Will as his magic diverted their attention.

Back in his room, he fought the urge to work on the assignment from Professor Underbrook, surprising himself once more at how fond he’d become of the practice. Instead, he began another long night of spellwork, full of new insights into pathing from his newfound area of magical interest.

As he sat eating a palatable meal of honeyed oatmeal with nuts and fruit, he reflected on his first four weeks of school which he’d just finished. Even with the fact that it had been far longer than four weeks, they had been more productive than he’d ever hoped for when planning out his journey here.

While he ate, he heard the squeak of his smaller roommate coming from below his bed. He turned to see a frustrated rat circling the sealed jars, trying to get at the food Kole had brought.

He smiled to himself. Things were starting to finally look up.

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Chapter 79