Chapter 54: Curriculum (Patreon)

Chapter 54: Curriculum

It was tea time with the Archemage again.

This time, she’d commandeered the hall of the elements for our usage, which lead me to believe there would be some actual magic to be done in the near future. I’d caught more than a few glares from the other students as lessons where quickly reshuffled around Liliana’s whims, but then, I could feel how much they wanted to switch places with me. 

It was so odd, being an object of envy.

“Enjoying your tea?” Lilana asked. I sipped dutifully, the blend was good.

“Yes,” I said. “Though perhaps it could steep a bit longer.”

“Mmm, perhaps.”

The tea service was once again attended by one of Liliana’s undead minions, but the spellwork was different. Even if I couldn’t see the difference easily with my own senses, the fact that it had yet to consume itself and grave ash in my cup would be sign enough.

“What plane is this type of necromancy from?” I asked. “It seems sturdy, though less pleasing to look at.” There was a reason I’d only taken a few sips from my cup.

“Innistrad,” she said, setting aside her cup. “I do enjoy living there, though, I will admit to being a guest.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“There is an etiquette to these sorts of things after all. Given enough time, many of us find a way back to our home plane. Some chose to remain.”

“I see,” I said. “I’m not all that interested in that.”

She chuckled low, “Many think that there is nothing left on the world of their birth,” she said. “Some are even correct in that assumption.”

I bristled at the implication, but I managed to keep my expression neutral.

“I see you’ve been on better terms with Iliria,” Liliana continued. “In that she left your quarters with a smile on her face yet no blood on her blades.”

I shrugged with forced nonchalance. “I just gave her something to do,” I said. “I’m still deciding on if I want to be here when she comes back.”

“She is remarkably easy to lead, for the power she has,” Liliana said. She sipped her tea, as if to cover another smile. “Simply dangle something shiny in front of her face, and send her off to do this or that for you. Why, she has proven most useful to me.”

I repressed a shudder. “I dislike giving her rewards.”

“To be young again,” Liliana said. “Regardless, you are beyond her, and Iliria is ever loathe to kill a golden goose, on the off chance it might produce yet another egg.”

What a terrible way of looking at the world.

“I’ve taken to heart your lesson from two days ago,” I said at length.

“Yes, I saw the fruits of your labor myself,” Liliana said. “What an interesting little spell.”

I shrugged, self effaicingly. “It’s just something I picked up,” I said. “Before now I didn’t even know it needed refinement.”

If my sidestep annoyed Liliana, she didn’t show it. “It is always good to see the next generation improve on the foundation of the previous,” she said, before setting aside her cup. “You have a talent for spellcraft.”

I inclined my head. “I didn’t realize,” I said.

She smiled. “No, I imagine not, but it will serve us well in my next project.”

I raised an eyebrow.

Liliana laughed lightly. “Come now, don’t tell me you aren’t enthused to see what I’ve been working on.”

“I might be,” I said. “But I was also under the impression that I would be learning something, instead of just being your…assistant.”

“And of course, the resources of the college are open to you,” Liliana said. At my expression she continued. “Oh, very well, you will assist me today, and in return I shall provide you with personal instruction in one of three fields.”

“What fields?”

“Mmm, how about…spells of divination, spells of restoration—beyond what petty trifles this plane has, of course—or spells of ruin.” Liliana smiled. “Choose well.”

I frowned, biting my lip. Restoration was tempting, but…if I couldn’t find my way back home what could would it be even if Liliana wasn’t lying about reviving the dead?

“Divination,” I said.

“Excellent! Now, let us begin,” Liliana said. I blinked once, before smiling ruefully. 

“Of course.” I said, setting down my tea cup. “What is this project of yours?” If she was going to string me along with promises of knowledge, well, I’d see what I could learn from her experiments as well. I’d gained much of my knowledge from Remedi’s notes, after all.

Liliana took a moment to finish off her tea. “Though I find this plane’s idea of ‘healing’ magic quaint, to say the least, there is one area in which it might offer something useful.”

“Oh?”

“Wards,” she said. “They are an interesting little trifle, don’t you think?”

I frowned. I’d learned some basic spells from every school already, but wards were… “They’re pretty weak, aren’t they?”

“Rather. But they protect against both spells and physical attacks as well. There are few enchantments or artifacts that manage the same and they are all invariably minor for their versatility. That alone would not make them worth study, but they have one other interesting property.” Liliana flicked her wrist, and a ward bloomed in a pane of rippling light. “They are not a relic or a working, but are somehow transient despite having the properties of each.”

I crossed my arms. “So that makes them, what? More malleable? More easy to use?”

“Yes,” Liliana said. “Afterall, the strongest protection will not save you if it faces the wrong direction. Sometimes, a more varied approach is needed.”

“Okay,” I said. “So what are we protecting from?”

“Imagine if you would, a pitcher filled with water and sand,” Liliana said. “In drinking, you swallow the harsh sand mixed with the water, and do as much harm to yourself as good.” A smirk. “Or, at least that would be the case were we not powerful mages, but all analogies have there limits.”

“Then… the goal is to strain out the sand?” I said. “But… if you’re talking about some kind of magic here, is that even possible?”

“Who knows,” Liliana said. “Though, in matters of magic, the question isn’t so much, ‘is it possible,’ but rather ‘how is it possible.’” She paused, twirling a finger through her long black tresses. “I have reason to believe the curse on the artifact in question can be abated. I myself have resisted it simply through my own power, but only long enough to pass the curse on to another.”

I frowned. “You shirked a curse onto some bystander?”

Lily waved her hand. “Hardly, I placed it on the fool who sought to attack me, one of our kind who fancied himself a hunter. I’m sure you can imagine the prey he sought.”

“Oh really?” I said. “You hardly seem like a saint yourself.”

She just laughed. “Come now, summer child,” she said. “I know what I am, and I have need to make excuses for myself, much less for anyone else.” She clapped her hands. “But enough of that, I desire your assistance in adapting the ward spells to suit my needs. If you wish to quibble on matters of morality well,” she smirked, “I’m sure that orc librarian has a few books you could read instead.”

She held my gaze easily, and in the end I was the one who glanced away. “Fine. What do you need me to do?”

“The Ward, as I said, shares many similarities with a permanent working, one of this is its inflexibility. The matrix is one of the most resistant to change, though still far more malleable than a proper enchantment,” Liliana told me. “I’ve made some minor changes, strength, shape, and the like. Take a look.”

She flicked her wrist again, and a new spell bloomed out from it. I studied it, noting how the color was darker, as if it was thicker in some sense? The overall structure had changed as well, it had lost its curvature, becoming a flat disk. Two minor changes, but the differences I sensed beneath were vast.

“That’s amazing,” I breathed. It was almost like an entirely different spell, respun from the same fabric. But the differences between the two illuminated much of the process.

“My thanks,” Lily said sardonically, but I was a million miles away. “Have you grasped the pattern yet? Or shall I write you an essay on its properties first?” 

“Hold it for a second longer,” I said. I felt something stirring in my chest, an unmet desire. I could almost feel the spell thrumming against me.  For a moment I wondered why, was it simply because it was a masterwork, so much more advanced compared to what any normal mage had to offer? 

I brushed the thought aside, what mattered was that I could feel it. I could feel it like I felt that magic flowing throw my own body, the magic which I could shape and move at will.

I’d assumed that, for all my power had changed, it was similar in essence, but now I realized that it was more. Or perhaps, after drawing so much from the planes of order and chaos… I was more? My body, was beyond the simply confines I thought of as my self and…

“Sometime this millennium would be appreciated, girl,” Liliana said.

I reached out, placing my hand against the front of the ward, and pushed. 

With a whisper it unfolded, arcing up and over and around until it transitioned from a single surface to a full sphere. 

“What in the world…” Liliana began.

I felt almost lost in a world of light. The spell, now that I could really sense it, really feel it, was so beautiful. Had I closed myself off from this sense somehow? My eyes felt hot. 

I pulled.

The spell flowed back down, collapsing into a single point, a solid disk of burning gold no larger than a quarter. It hovered on the edge of her finger, sturdy enough to stop a boulder. The deeper truth flowed with it, shaping and reforming to my will. 

I reached out, and plucked the disk from the air, letting it float over my palm. The light was like a flame. It was warm.

“Fascinating,” I heard Liliana breathe. Slowly, I closed my hand around the flame, and then snuffed it out.

It took me a moment to come back to myself. I glanced up, as Liliana regarded me with an unreadable expression. I stopped myself from swallowing nervously. “Was that helpful?” I asked instead.

After a moment more, she smiled, taking my chin in her pale hand. I dared not stop her. “I said you had a talent for adaptation,” she said. “But this quite exceeds my expectations.”

“Thank you,” I managed.

“No, my dear, thank you,” she said. “You have saved me several days’ worth of concerted effort, and over a such a boring spell no less.” Her smile grew. “I knew you would be a worthwhile investment.” Then she spun away, and while I was still processing that statement began a lesson.

“Now then,” she said. “Divination is a broad subject, and predominantly the purview of blue and black mages. Blue mana gives itself to two styles, simple cantrips that give small glimpses into the future, provided you know what you are looking for, or else sweeping rituals that provide a massive influx of knowledge. The former are useful but limited, and the later are either inefficient, complex, slow, or some combination of all three.

“Black divination, on the other hand provides the knowledge you seek for a much lower cost. The spells, as well, are simple, the drawback is simply the cost. While blue divination requires massive mana investments as power, black allows you to skip such an arduous step, if you are willing to pay the burden in other ways.”

She stopped, turning back to face me as I schooled my features into something attentive. “But enough theory,” she said. “I promised you personal instruction, did I not?”

Hours later, I stumbled out of the Hall of the Elements, exhausted in both body and soul. My head throbbed with knew knowledge, not just from the lesson, but from my own attempts at divination. I had only learned the ‘simple’ cantrips, but even they made my earlier fumblings at such a style laughable by comparison.

Those spells had been vague and undefined, more feeling than knowledge, but with this I could tell—Well, I could tell that Raven was waiting for me just inside her dorm hall.

The difference was stark as night and day.

I started trudging in Raven’s direction, but she intercepted me in the courtyard. 

“Greetings, my lady,” she said. A sense of ruin came over me. “I hope your day was most productive.”

I looked up as Raven sketched a light curtsy in front of me. Her expression was as smooth as a river stone.

“Uh,” I said.

“Are you in need of anything?”

I glanced around the courtyard, but it was empty. “You don’t have to do this when Liliana’s not around?” I tried weakly. 

She hadn’t forgotten. I’d though she’d forgotten about having to pose as my servant. She hadn’t forgotten at all. She’d just been biding her time.

“I have no idea what my lady is speaking of,” Raven continued in her usual monotone. “If that is all, then it’s time for your supper. My lady must eat of course.”

“I don’t”

Wisps of darkness began curling off her form. “My lady would not want to make me upset by missing yet another meal, would she?”

I swallowed heavily. “Rav—”

She stuffed a baguette into my mouth, before forcing my jaw closed with the other hand

“Eat or I will eat for you.”