Chapter Twenty Four: The Society For Finding Things In Caverns And Drinking Them

Agravail and his crew sat down, some at his table, and others at nearby tables that put them closer to the conversation than sitting further down the bench would have. Agravail, always smiling, pinched the edge of his sling in two fingers, running them down the length as though he was looking for loose threads. He looked up at Zuglah.

“This is lovely. May I try something?” Zuglah was curious, so he shrugged and nodded. He was instantly wary, however, when the Human revealed a hooked dagger. Before he could produce so much as a ‘Hey!’ Agravail slid the knife underneath the bandolier strap and gave it a sharp tug. It sliced through cleanly, and he let go of both pieces at once. Or perhaps they were pulled out of his fingertips, because the two ends immediately sprang back together seamlessly.

Those gathered around gave a soft murmur of appreciation. Zuglah thought he might have been one of them. He certainly echoed the sentiment. Agravail’s deceptively nimble fingers found the empty Heal vial on his shoulder, and a moment later it was laying gently in his palm being examined. He pursed his lips and tisked at the tooth marks he saw on the cork. “You may as well throw that away, it’ll need replacing.”

Zuglah asked him, “Do you know what Stone’s Throw is, exactly?” There were chuckles from some of the men, but Agravail closed his eyes and breathed in a deep, satisfied breath.

“So nice to meet a fellow gleaner. I was so hoping that you were more than a mere potion slinger. You see, Lieber Cant is a perverse and devious Elf. Drow, not that it matters. He likes to teach you a lesson in his dungeons, and then reward you with the means to actually survive them, but not until you have managed the feat on your own. Stone’s Throw is a projectile shield that punishes those who use arrows, crossbows or anything thrown, really. Probably would have been nice to have against the Bea Tihc, right? It is a fifth level Warlock spell, but the potion will last upwards of sixty minutes, if done carefully.”

“I see. Thank you. Would you be willing to trade for recipes and ingredients? I wouldn’t mind making a couple of those.”

“Ingredients, yes. Recipes? No. Those are yours freely if you join the Society. If you join another Society, you will have only their recipes to choose from. Although I will be the first to admit that we are all working from the same basic list. So it all comes down to who you want to spend time with.”

Zuglah nodded. “That’s very good to know. I won’t be making any decisions tonight, however. I have had a long day, as has my friend Pliesson here. I hope you will understand.”

Agravail was not in the least bit bothered by being summarily dismissed. He rose smoothly, bowed to them once, and took his gang away. Zuglah asked his friend how many of these potion societies there were, and he seemed genuinely surprised by the question. “A lot, I suppose. They tend to come and go so frequently. There’s a great deal of quick and dirty money to be made in the potion racket, Zuglah, and many unscrupulous people have vested interests in that regard. I’ll just say that I’m glad you didn’t join that particular Society. They are not above resorting to tactics to get their way.”

Zuglah didn’t like the sounds of that, but he was too tired to think straight any more. They made their way to bed.

In the morning, Chayah was not at breakfast. Zuglah was relieved and disappointed, all at once. He was afraid that now that they had gotten him his level she would want to be off right away chasing down the Constant Maiden. He wanted at least one day to get his hands on some tier two spells, maybe even get to cast a couple. Plus, they still had a big pile of loot that they hadn’t identified yet.

He left for his lessons with Slorric without even seeing her. It was very disappointing.

Slorric had arranged for other instructors to help with the class, and he brought Zuglah into an empty classroom for a private lesson. These were needed whenever a Wizard gained a new tier, because they always had many questions and needed very detailed instructions regarding their new spells.

They started with upcasting, something that interested Zuglah a great deal. Slorric explained to him that not every spell could be upcast, and the ones that could needed to be learned. Dancing Mana was different enough that it was almost a new spell. He asked if he needed to rewrite this one into his level two spellbook, but Slorric assured him that there was a trick to it. It was within the memorization process that the rewrite took place.

When he cast the new version, the Mana bullets were smaller, but brighter. In his mind they felt denser. He was told that these bullets would penetrate the target’s armor before they detonated, causing greater damage. He next learned how to do the same with Blazing Inferno.

“Why doesn’t everyone use this? It’s so good.” He had learned just how deadly even the basic version of this spell could be. The level two version was a more focused blast, and it reached much farther.

“Most people cannot overcast the way that you seem to enjoy, Zuglah Glun. You see, that level of Mana control is never learned, unless one has great need, like you did. So even though it is designed to be used exactly the way you have been using it, nobody else can, really. If they tried it, they would end up out of mana.”

Having seen how to do it twice, Zuglah understood the principal. He was able to figure out the upcast version of every other one of his spells, and which ones could naturally not be upcast, like Boon Companion or Sleep.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

His first new spell was Firebolt, which he found extremely frustrating. It was a good spell, hit hard and traveled fast, but he was constantly trying to push more Mana into it, make it hotter, make it more somehow. But it was impossible, there was nothing.

Push Zuglah found very interesting also. It was possible to push harder, or farther, whatever his intent. But it relied on willpower, not Mana. The more focused he was, the more Zuglah could make it respond how he wished. But it was not without its risks. Slorric suggested he move over to the stone wall and try -gently- to push it. He ended up flinging himself away like he had been swatted by a giant. The same thing happened when he tried to push Slorric. “When you try to push a Wizard, beware: it is your will against his, and level has nothing to do with it.” The old man had been harder than the wall.

Lightning bolt was a deadly spell, as he had already witnessed. The way Randall had made it jump from archer to archer was very similar to the way one did it with Dancing Mana, but the pushthrough happened whether the person died or not.

Seek Metal was another lightning based spell that sent the desired number of helgavolts scurrying across the ground in search of anything metal. Slorric assured him that anybody that was bound by party was immune to the creatures, even if they were touching the victim when the helgavolt struck.

Then there was a spell simply called Spiders that was anything but simple. The spiders could be summoned with a variety of different poisons; sleep, slow, paralysis and pain. The more Mana Zuglah pumped into the spell, the more pounds of spiders were summoned. What size of spider he wanted was entirely up to him. He experimented, pouring in Mana and testing how large of a spider he could summon, when suddenly an even larger spider with opposite colored markings appeared and jumped on his summons. He turned in shock to find Slorric grinning at him.

He explained to Zuglah that there was a game that Wizards played among themselves called Spider Wars, a truly nightmare-inducing game that was absolutely banned in the dormitories, for obvious reasons. Zuglah was not sure he wanted to learn, but after a couple of rounds with Slorric he started to enjoy himself more and more. There were more subtle strategies than simply overwhelming your opponent with the most spiders.

Wicked Trap was a deadly creation that would lay a small rune upon the ground that was visible only to the Wizard. The trap was indiscriminate, and anyone who stepped on it would receive a nasty surprise. Like a steel trap, sharpened metal teeth sprang up from the rune and chomped down on the person’s shin, potentially shattering it.

Splendid Wall was exactly what it sounded like, a rather pleasant wall. Zuglah was almost positive that his opinion of the wall would climb all the way to ‘splendid’ if it separated him from, say, a bunch of murderous thugs.

Just as he was turning the page to write Mirror Mage, Slorric stood up. “Enough for today, Zuglah. In fact, that’s probably enough to last you all week. You really ought to let a couple of spells settle in your head before you go tossing a whole bunch more in there. You can learn the rest next week.”

Next week was after the new school dungeon. He wasn’t sure what the other spells might be, but he thought that Mirror Mage might come in handy. He was going to have to find out what spells he was missing. Chayah or Randall could tell him.

He found neither of them at lunch. He asked Stuglas and the other Elves, but none of them seemed to know where she was, and none of the people that he usually saw Randall with could tell him where his Human friend was, either. He ate lunch with his roommates, as usual, Pliesson washing his face and whiskers constantly as though Chayah was due to pop around the corner any second. Zuglah felt much the same.

In the afternoon, Zuglah attended horseback riding lessons. It was apparently part of being a good party member, being transportable. He found that horses didn’t like him very much, and he didn’t really care for them either. They were smelly, sweaty and violent, and honestly didn’t even save that much time. He could easily outrun a horse with Leap, and a portal was even more efficient. Plus you didn’t have to spend an hour every night brushing and feeding a portal, although he did like the sounds of horses freaking out when wolves or other nocturnal predators approached his campsite.

They were just discussing the advantages of having horse sentinels versus magic wards, when a pair of Elven soldiers came through a portal and emerged right onto the practice grounds. At their side strode a figure that Zuglah immediately recognized. Krane.

Being tall and blue-skinned made it easy to spot Zuglah in a crowd. He was not surprised, therefore, when Krane directed the two warriors straight to him. They were not mounted, so he gratefully slid down from his own horse to greet them.

Zuglah turned to Krane. “So I take it you’re the reason why Chayah has been absent today? What did you do, tell your father on her? Where is she?”

Their riding instructor was a slender, middle-aged Human woman named Stelma Jas. She strode up to the officer and demanded to know what was happening. “This is Pree, not Eowynhaven. What right do you have to bring armed troops here?”

The officer stared coldly at Stelma through the bars of his helmet. Then he turned to address Zuglah. “You are the Troll Wizard who was with Chayah Runsfaster yesterday? You are the one who killed the Mountain Drake?”

Zuglah looked at Krane, but the High Elf refused to explain. He looked back at the officer. “Yes, I killed the Drake. Where is Chayah?” The class began murmuring among themselves. He wasn’t sure if it was in regards to Chayah or the Drake, but they were starting to cause a bit of a stir.

“Chayah Runsfaster is with her father, Dawstan Raincaster. The king of the Elves. They would like you to join them for dinner.”

“And if he refuses?” Stelma Jas demanded.

The officer looked at her and shrugged. “Then he doesn’t get supper.”