The amazing summer of discovery, and of finding his first friend had to come to an end. Sootemer had just started. It was a curious name Reese mused to himself, it sounded so much like September just, different. Another note in a new notebook. This one was an actual book his mother had bought from the bookstore in the market just a week earlier. After he practically begged her for it.
Thinking back to it, the store was such an odd thing to find in even a large village like this. Books were not cheap, and the cheapest written ones might be a full gold, or said another way, a bit more than 2 months’ worth of labor from an unskilled worker or famer. Even his family who were well off, would find them a cost high. His notebook on the other hand, was bit more than the material costs. Two hundred pages of good paper, bound in good but not great leather, about 10 silvers. Not cheap, but affordable for them. Reese had considered it a gift for learning magic. Also, a necessary addition if he was to start schooling.
Though the schooling seemed irrelevant to someone who knew as much as he did. But both his father and mother insisted. They claimed that just getting to know the other kids was important, and you never knew who might help you in the future. Networking, even in the Middle Ages it seemed to be a thing, and was as amusing as it was depressing. Plus, he expected they just wanted to push him out of the house more. Well, on the other hand there would probably be some new things not covered in the house's books. Maybe even something on enchanting?
He had recently setup a small bench in his bedroom to try and work on enchantments and some other side projects. Much to the dismay of his father. Reese didn’t quite understand it, but it seemed like enchanting wasn’t seen seriously by most people. It was just something a blacksmith did on occasion for extra coins. For the son of a well-known knight to peruse such common labor probably had some negative connotations. But this was different, he was going to change the world! Or at least that’s what he told himself.
When picking up his notebook a few days ago, there was an interesting traveling merchant who stopped by in the open market. They were selling a range of mana infused and enchanted items, and it gave Reese pause to consider what he could do with such items, and how he could make them. The world of enchanting seemed to open whole new avenues for using mana in ways that he just couldn’t do without a gate even with effort and training. The merchant was also selling some rather interesting mana infused stone and crystals. Some of the books he had talked about these, how they could be used by advanced mages in wands and staffs. They could concentrate and amplify mana. Rare ones could even manipulate it in deeper ways, changing the type and flow of the mana around it.
The merchant was even kind enough to show Reese an example of him changing fire mana into sound mana, and water mana into wind. He was probably trying to convince him or his mother to buy one of the shiny stones as a trinket, but more than that, it showed him a whole new range of effects that his books hadn’t even touched on. Changing one type of mana to another just wasn’t covered anywhere.
Of course, he convinced his mother to buy him a small one, which now sat on his new, self-made work bench. It was the cheapest, and smallest stone the merchant had, but which was still about 6 silvers and 6 copper. It would be useless in a real enchantment, but he had ideas, and nearly two full pages in his new notebook.
“Dong”
In the not far distance, a bell rang. Unlike the warning bells, this particular one was usually considered the start of the day for the village, when the Market opened, and mayor’s manor started seeing petitioners. It was also when the school technically opened. Which meant one thing, Reese would be late for his first day of class.
Leaving his first experiment Reese burst down the door with his notebook under arm. His mother was trying to say something to him, only to smile as he ran past her.
Reese ran out his front door up and started kicking up dust along Old Keep Road. As he passed the Mayor’s manor he considered stopping at the small shrine in back, it was customary to give thanks to a god or two before starting something new like a job or school. But not everyone did that, and he was late anyway. Maybe he’d do it later. It wasn’t like he really believed in that stuff, reincarnation aside.
Quickly Old Keep Road wrapped around and merged into Mountain Pass, and he could just barely see the school yard as everyone entered the large building. He picked up his pace, but his small legs made the run challenging, made even worse by a poorly upkept gravel and dirt road.
The schoolhouse wasn’t that far down the road, the village was large for a village, but smaller then even a small town in his old world. The building was fairly non-descript, a giant rectangle, with a large slopping roof, really not any different from the rest of the buildings in town. Two large red doors were closing behind the group of entering children. The doors shut just before Reese could make it, and officially he was now late.
The doors were surprisingly heavy, or perhaps he was just surprisingly small, but once inside Reese was granted by an odd sight. Ard was present at the school, the town mayor. An older man, with salt and pepper hair and wrinkles like what you might expect of a village elder. He had a signature smile that sat somewhere between snake and con-artists. Basically, a normal Politian. Reese didn’t think he was going to be teaching them. It seemed like the mayor might have more important things to do like run the village.
As Ard spotted him, he couldn’t help but make notice of his tardiness, “Oh and if isn’t Reese Bronwyn, little late?” There was a subtle bit of venom in the statement, mostly in the way he said ‘Bronwyn’.
Ard was an interesting man. He seemed to have some kind of beef with Reese’s father Fortus. It was presumably the same reason he always made it a point to use Reese’s last name when talking to him. Though, to be fair he never treated Reese poorly.
Regardless, that statement and any implications in it just seem to disappear as Reese entered the classroom, and was stopped by a small group of children who now staring at the same large furry creature Reese was.
“Children, I have good news. For those of you returning this year we have found a replacement for Abial. Fense here will be your teacher for the next year and hopefully beyond.”
The man, if you could call him a man, was somewhat large and slightly embarrassed by all the attention. “Hello children, I will be your teacher. I’m hoping to have a good year.” His voice was deep, but not unpleasant, much like you might expect to hear from a gym teacher. His clothes were interesting, and almost looked like a suit given the dark color and how they fit, the fabric was a bit too rough to be a proper suit though. It had what appeared to be gold buttons down the front, but those were probably just foil over something cheaper.
It was such a strange looking contrast from Reese’s own clothes which were little more than brown rough spun canvas under a usually white or lightly colored shirt.
Though Reese supposed it blended well with his fur. Oh right, the fur. Their teacher was quite literally a dog, or more accurately a wolf, with black fur and gray hair? Reese’s books had mentioned Anthro races, mostly down in the southern parts of Domconti, the main continent though they existed everywhere humans and elfs did, just in smaller number. He also hadn’t seen many yet. At least, none up close that were fully anthro or ‘beastman’ like till now.
His lips moved in ways you may not quite expect from a wolf’s “I guess you’re all surprised to see an Anthro in your village? Uh… How many of you know what an Anthro is?”
Of course, Reese raised his hand, but aside from a few of the older children none of the others did.
“I see. Well, this seems like a good lead in to our first lessons on geography.”
Seeing the day was starting well, and none of the students would make trouble the mayor took his leave with his signature used car man smile. Of course, this world didn’t have cars. 'yet', Reese further mused to himself.
Fense continued his first lesson, heading to the front of the classroom to start work on what appeared to be a very traditional and simple chalkboard. It made sense, slate probably wasn’t that expensive, and chalk was little more than limestone, which was in abundance.
As Reese headed for an open desk, he couldn’t help but think how traditional and simple the classroom was. The desks were reminiscent of the ones he had in his own elementary school, just made of actual wood, and no metal. Windows along the southern walls let ample light in meaning, no torches or expensive candles were needed.
The school had a minor library in the back, which consisted of a few bookshelves along the back wall of the room. Though calling them books might have been generous and they were all of poor quality, stitched together by hand with thick thread. Most didn’t appear to have real covers and were bound with leather straps, even the book the teacher carried was like this, which made Reese suspected came from one of the shelves. They were more similar to his original notebook then he would have liked to admit.
Later, Reese would learn well that a common activity for demerits was to hand copy a page or more of a text to create a spare copy for the school, and hopefully learn something in the process.
His mind returning to the front of the classroom saw a small stove sat in the front, likely to be used in winter months when it was colder, though the 32 bodies should produce enough heat. There were 31 students in the class, most of them were new to Reese despite being a small village, at least small in his eyes. One missing face did concern him, however. Where was Emilie?
“…Can anyone tell me what our continent is called?” The sound of a question brought Reese back out of his own head. Of course, he raised his hand. It seemed sad that, so few others did.
One of the students he didn’t know was pointed at, “Domconti” She said.
“Correct. Now can anyone tell me the names of any of the other continents?” No one else raised their hand, besides Reese.
“Hmm, ok you, Reese was it?” The wolf seemed to be probing the class more than expecting answers, as if trying to find out what he had to work with. Still, Reese was not going to refuse a chance to answer.
“Absiter, Abscondita saltar trill, and Telah Nivis un Glaosnas”
For a moment Fense seemed quite impressed, perhaps he wasn’t expecting a 6 year old to know?
“All three, and those are the full names. I’m actually surprised to hear them. Most people shorten the longer two down to ‘Abscondi’ and ‘Nivis’. Reese how old were you?” The teacher opened a small notebook and began making some notes.
Some of the other students glanced his way. Reese wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing, but given prior experience, it wasn’t likely to be good. His sister in particular looked angry. Well, angrier than normal. “I was 6 last winter.”
“Hmm. So this is your first year. Ok.” He looked around the room, thinking of something else to probe with. “Can anyone tell me the names of the Great and minor seas?”
Again, Reese raised his hand. “Not you Reese, anyone else” and he put his hand down, more eyes glared at him.
“Ok, can anyone tell me how many there are, or any of their names, even one?” Now hands went up.
“7?” A younger boy behind Reese answered.
“Close but no, you might be thinking of the tear near the crack of Domconti as one or the great northern lake, there are 6. Any want to guess to their names?”
Another child raised his hand, “The still sea?”
“Very good, that’s the large open sea in the center of the Absiter. Any other guesses?”
No one was willing to raise their hand, whether they knew and were scared or just didn’t know was anyone’s guess. Fense made some more marks in his notebook.
“There are five more, the major seas or oceans are Marstrill in the South West, Pelglaosnas in the South East, Boras in the North West and Umileis in the North East. I particularly like Umileis, the name comes from Anthro and we have some really fun myths and stories about it. Which I’m hoping to have a short lesson on it in the near future. Lastly, there’s the minor seas “Sea of Passage” between Domiconti and Nivis, and we already mentioned the “Still Sea” in the Center of Ablister”
Reese took a few notes, he knew the sea names already, but knowing that Umileis came from Anthro was something new. He was not intending to be called out for the action.
“Reese seems to be the only one taking notes. I’d recommend you all do the same. I do give tests and you will have homework.”
More glares fell on Reese. He could almost feel the invisible daggers hitting him as he suddenly tried to hide his note taking.
The rest of the day was more of the same, mostly simple questions about geography, then a few about language with focus on the human language, then some very simple math. Feeling the daggers of the other students, Reese tried to minimize the questions he answered, but still found himself called on a few times.
Schooling was a bit different from modern earth, simply put, there was less to teach and learn. By noon, school was basically done. Homework assignments were given out, all students had the same assignments, but the older students were expected to give more depth to their answers. One of the questions was simply, “Who was Queen Hastia Astrix, and why was she important.”
Hastia had come up in passing during the day, but nothing significant was discussed about her. As such it was for this reason that the school was kept open past the last lesson and why the teacher would remain for a few more hours, the bookshelves. Students were expected and allowed to remain and find answers for the homework of the day. Reese had to admit, it was an enticing offer, but first he had other questions for Fense.
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The wolf was set up at the front of the classroom at the teachers desk, waiting for a students with questions and to keep watch of the space itself. He seemed quite happy to see Reese approach him with a query. “Ah, Reese. I think I’m going to enjoy having you in the classroom.”
“Thank you, I was uncertain about this, but I think I’m going to enjoy it too!”
“You have a question about the assignment?”
“Uh, no. I was wondering about a student who wasn’t here today?”
Puzzled, Fense opened his own journal, Reese could just make out a list of names with 31 entries. His own seemed to have many scribbles next to it. “Oh? I admit I’m not familiar with everyone’s name yet. But I had 31 names in my roster, and I believe there were 31 children present. Who did you think should be here?”
“Emilie. She’s a friend of mine, and the same age.”
“I see. Well school is free to the family, paid with the town’s taxes. But supplies aren’t. I try to be accommodating as much as I can.” He gestured to some very cheap paper scraps on the corner of his desk. “But still, some parents just can’t afford even that.”
“No. Her parents are merchants. I don’t think they make as much as they’d like, but they aren’t poor.”
Fense shrug. He just didn’t have a good answer “I’m sorry. I don’t know why a family wouldn’t send their child to school, but it’s their choice. If Emilie’s parents wanted her to come, I’d teach her just like anyone else.”
The conversation was concerning. Emilie liked books and learning as much as he did, school seemed like the perfect place for her. In truth, despite their mental differences, Reese enjoyed her inquisitive nature and the questions she brought up always seemed to challenge him a bit. There had to be something he could do.
Thinking more about it, every time he brought up school, she seemed to shy away from answering or talking. He had mistaken it for nervousness, but maybe it was something else.
Leaving the school he made a bee line for Emilie’s house and her parents’ shop.
In the corner of the desolate shop sat the dark purpled haired child had a darker cloud over her head. In front of her was a book that she couldn’t really focus on.
As the door opened her gaze drifted up, expect a customer or maybe her parents. Instead, it was someone more interesting.
“Reese!” She practically shouted and went to greet her friend. “School’s out already? It’s earlier than I thought it be.” Her voice seemed a mixture of disappointment and gratitude.
“Yeah. The first half is just lecture. We should be doing our homework now.”
Emilie’s eyes opened wider at the word ‘Homework’, as if it were some magical concepts. She grew envious of the children who would jealously hoard their own from her. She had no idea what the reality was.
Resse continued. “I was surprised not to see you there. I figured you’d want to go school?”
“I…” She struggled, did she want to go into it or not? Though, it just wasn’t that simple for her. The sparkle in her eyes drained. “I think I want to go, but mom and dad say I can’t.”
He scowled at that statement; no parent should keep their kid from school. “That’s not right, if you want to go you should be able to go!”
Without asking, without thinking, Reese went to confront her parents. Who were shocked. Not that their daughter wasn’t in school, they knew that. Rather that someone else cared enough to fight for her.
Stifling back a tear Venesar, her father, tried to let the boy down lightly “Reese. I appreciate all you’ve done for my daughter. She’s happier than I’ve ever seen her. But, this isn’t something you can just fix. The mayor is the one who didn’t want her in school.”
That really made no sense to him, “Ard? Why?”
“Reese…” He paused. This was still hard for him, even after several years. “Do you know what my daughter did?”
“Yes. She lit a fire without meaning too and started a small flood the same way. They’re both accidents.”
Emilie’s father couldn’t help but laugh a little, and smile, further wiping another tear away, “I’m, actually very happy you’re trying to defend her. Yes, that’s right she burned the field behind the house, and caused a flood that could have hurt her little brother. No she didn’t mean too, but that doesn’t always matter.”
For a moment Venesar considered his daughter, and then Reese. She was still in front of that same book that was hopelessly too advanced for her. It really wasn’t fair. “The mayor needs to be convinced. I don’t know how to do that.”
That settled it, Reese needed to head to the Mayors office next. This was quickly becoming a quest, and he’d complete it, no matter how many people he had to visit.
The mayor’s manor was large. Even more so then Reese’s house which was considerably larger than most houses in the village. It was two stories tall, with likely an attic. The back of the house would have a very nice yard, kept maintained by the village guard and soldiers. Also, the village shrine to the gods, which he still needed to visit, some other day.
Inside, was quite exquisite. Every room had thick luxurious carpet in the center of it. Unlike earth, carpet was very expensive here. You didn’t put it in every room, unless you had a lot of coins. The wood of the walls and the floor itself were some kinds of reddish brown hard word, with some kind of black wood trim. Paintings and artwork were along each wall, and a book shelf absolutely packed with expensive looking texts were in an adjacent study like space.
Reese couldn’t help but think that a thief would make a killing from just one room of this place.
“Can I help you?” An unfamiliar voice startled Reese back to reality. A woman, not that old, questioned Reese as he wandered about the manor.
“I was looking for the mayor.” His initial fear and uncertainty faded away and he stood up as straight as his 6 year old body would allow. “I have business with him.” He commanded.
The woman for all the seriousness, had to stifle a laugh. “Unfortunately, young man, the mayor left the village several hours ago. He’s heading to a few nearby cities to personally negotiate wheat prices for the harvest. If you’d like, I will leave a message for him when he gets back.”
Reese shook his head, of course things wouldn’t be that easy. “No. I need to speak with him in person. Do you know when he will be back?”
“He’ll be gone a week, so 8 days. He should be back ‘Ostarideg’ evening. Why don’t you stop by next ‘Momadeg’”. The days of the week still gave him some confusion. This world had an 8 day week, Ostarideg was basically the day after Sunday, an extra day, and Momadeg was effectively Monday.
Regardless, he’d have to wait a week. “I guess I’ll be back.” Walking out of the building, he could feel the disappointment seep into him. It wasn’t over, not even close. Then why did it make him feel useless.
The whole day felt like a defeat, he couldn’t help Emilie, and school seemed like it was going to be just like the first time though. Nemi made some jokes about school at his expense during dinner. All through out the evening, and into the next morning, his mind would be preoccupied with thoughts and ideas of how to help Emilie.
Yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling he was forgetting something else.
The next day, he knew exactly what he was forgetting.
At the front of the class, Ard started with, “Class, please turn in your homework.”
Everyone walked up to the desk and dropped off a sheet of paper, some which was suspiciously like the scrap Fense kept as this desk. Well, everyone but him.
“Reese. Where’s your homework?”
All the running around, trying to figure out what was keeping Emilie from school and he had neglected his own schooling. “I forgot to do it.”
With a shake of his head, Fense made some more notes in his book, and a few of the other children made some auditable chuckles. “Please see me at the end of class Reese.”
Reese wasn’t aware of it at the time, but this would be the first of many ‘demerits’ in his complex school career.
At the end of the day, he stood in the back of the classroom as Fense looked over the shelves. “Ah, which book?” Fense looked over the crudely bound documents in the back of the room, as if seeking one in particular. One which he soon found.
“A history of the Six Kingdoms under Astrix, 300 years of history”. The title was a mouthful, but descriptive. Fense handed the text to Reese, along with some moderately good paper and a fountain pen of some kind, presumably he’d want that last item back.
“We only have one copy, and seeing how your assignment yesterday was mostly on history. Well, this is just efficient. Skip the preamble and copy the first two pages of chapter 1.”
“Yes teacher Fense.” Calling his teacher by his first name still felt odd, particularly with the word for teacher before it. It felt even more strange while he was being disciplined, but it was the custom in this world. Family names were reserved for nobles and aristocrats, and even then, only for formal matters.
The pen in his hand touched the paper as he began to write, “As many readers will know, about 300 years ago the Dark Elven army invaded the then independent states of Thrus and Vortania, and soon followed by slicing Fresall in half. The great Ethal Astrix would raise an army to reclaim these lands and push the Dark Elves back into the waste lands beyond the great mountain range that divides Domconti west and east.
This colloquial understanding of the war and the origins of our great country is fun to tell, but isn’t fully accurate. Let’s start by asking why did they attack in the first place? Most would say territory, but in truth a set of trade disputes between the kingdom of Locran Lon Dras and the Kingdoms of Vortania and Fresall would eventually lead to acts of land piracy between the powers, in particular a series of lost and missed payments Fresall owed to Locran Lon Dras amounting to what would be today about 1,000,000 standard gold coins.
The acts of piracy would occur for nearly 100 years co-escalating in size and brashness. With in 2 years an important duke of Locran Lon Dras was killed by bandit pirates in the service of Fresall. The kingdom of Locran Lon Dras retaliated and attempted to secure their trade routes through the low land passage by force. At the time, this passage was under the control of the Vortanian Kingdom, the Queen of Vortanian was unprepared for the Locran Lon Dras army to cease their territory in the low land pass.
You’ll notice, that even today in the year 292 Ast-Astrix the Low Land Pass is still controlled by the remnants of the Locran Lon Dras kingdom, now call the ‘Unita Dras civitibavs’ or in human, the United Dark Elven States.” Reese’s mind and hand kept writing, almost in a trance. He knew most of this already, it was boring. Maybe it was just the way the author wrote, like he was trying to compress an entire book into a few paragraphs and just sounded like rambling.
A brief respite came when Fense asked him a question “Reese, what happened with your friend?”
“The mayor was the one who didn’t want her on the class roster. I have no idea why, not that there’s a good reason.” The venom in Reese’s voice was evident.
“I see.”
“I hate Ard.” Reese when back to writing.
“It may not be his choice.”
Reese paused writing again, “What do you mean, he’s the one that controls the roster.”
“True, but have you considered what the other villagers think? I had a chance to learn about Emilie. I have no doubt many are afraid of her and even other student learning advanced magics here. It’s one of the common complaints actually I hear actually. I’ve had a few opportunities to talk to Ard, he’s a smart man. Smart enough to know we won’t be learning anything dangerous here. Aside from acknowledging they exists; we aren’t learning any magics at all.”
“So he’s capitulating to fear and hurting Emilie, not much better.”
“You have a point, but being a politician isn’t always easy. If he did let her in, and the villagers protested, or worse went after Emilie because they were scared, would that be better?”
Reese was taken aback by that comment. He knew the people here, maybe not all of them, but enough. They weren’t mean or violent. “They wouldn’t do that.”
“Ha ha. I like your view of humans Reese, it’s optimistic. But I’ve seen how both people and Anthros behave when they’re afraid, it’s not good. Fear can take over your ability to reason and think. It can make friends and family look like enemies.”
“So what, am I just supposed to ignore her plight because it might a few people afraid of something that’s non-sense?!” He was shouting, Fense and the few other students present just stared at him.
He didn’t want to, but he knew he needed to apologize. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be that angry, at least not at you.”
“I should add a page for that outburst. But, I understand how you feel. You don’t have to like it, or even accept it. What you need to do is figure out an alternative solution. Now, get back to writing, don’t forget you’ve got homework for tomorrow to do too. Unless you want to copy that whole book?”
Hours passed, between the book and the homework Reese had to have handwritten six pages of material. As he rubbed his sore, cramping hand he thought of it as a testament to both the punishment and effort.
The argument Fense made was sound, the mayor was a politician even if he was never elected. He couldn’t just do things, the village needed to agree with it or at least be ambivalent.
With school done Reese didn’t want to just go home. Instead, he would go see his friend, of course he wasn’t sure he would tell her about what he found out but he did still want to talk to her.
Inside the storefront and house Emilie sat in the same corner, reading another book. Looking up at the visitor she dropped the book and went up to great him, “Reese! Welcome to my family’s store. Please let me know if you want to buy anything.” The last part had the subtly of a slight giggle.
She had been practicing her store greeting probably at her parent’s request.
“Unfortunately, I am poor and can’t afford your luxury goods.” Are scraps of leather and small trinkets really that luxurious, even in this era?
“Well maybe we could trade then, I could use your expertise in my research!” The tone and subtlety were not unlike two children playing pretend, and to be fair there might be some truth to that. Reese found it, enjoyable never truly experiencing it before.
The book Emilie had been studying was open to a strange page, showing symbols and glyphs he hadn’t seen before. No, that’s not quite right, he had seen them, they just weren’t explained well. Almost unconscious at this point, he had begun taking rigorous notes.
The glyph was complicated, sets of straight lines and curved arcs connecting 3 symbols, one was just water, but the other two, looked like fire but were inverted and the symbols stretched. Triplexes of lines outlined the connections between the elements. Reese had seen that before, usually in spells that physically manifested mana into something, like water or fire. This spell was a physical manifestation of something. The asymmetry was interesting too, he got a feel from the simpler spells and glyphs, asymmetry usually implied some kind of movement or force.
From the top of the page the spell was called “Ice Bolt”. Assuming the title was literal then this spell would manifest some kind of bolt of ice. The incantation just further proved it. There were some notes to side that made mention of “Dark Fire”.
“I’ve been trying to cast this since yesterday, but I just can’t ‘feel’ it.”
Reese wasn’t sure either. The glyph didn’t make a lot of sense by itself, and they both lacked the understanding of where to actually start casting it. Each glyph was read in your mind, you start at the beginning, wherever that actually was, and then moved through it piece by piece, chanting the enchantment at the right part. Assuming you did it all right, the spell would be cast. For Reese it wasn’t that much different, only instead of reading and thinking about, he’d ‘act it out’.
For the next half hour, they tried different ways of approaching the spell, before Emilie’s parents came back and put a stop to it. In retrospect, they probably shouldn’t have tried casting it inside the shop.
After dinner, Reese spent the rest of the evening studying in his room. His workbench remained mostly unused since he put it together. He just didn’t have enough equipment or knowledge to really work on anything yet.
Instead, the spell Emilie was trying to read wouldn’t leave his mind, “Dark Fire”. He said the words again. It didn’t make a lot of sense, what was the difference between Dark Fire magic and Ice magic, and where was Light Fire? Was it just ‘normal’ fire. He wrote a few more notes in his book, and puzzled over them. He had read every book in this house, several times over, but he still didn’t have a good grasp of it all. There was just too much, and so much of it was conflicting. Like no one really knew what was going on.
He looked over the glyph he copied into his notebook. The inverted fire symbols, also known as Dark Fire. From “The fundamentals of elemental magic” he knew that each element had a light and dark component, and that they could counter act each other. Dark Fire would probably cancel Fire or more accurately Light Fire spells. But could it also pull fire or heat from something? Following this logic: The water symbol at the top of the glyph would manifest first, then freeze from the Dark Fire. With the added asymmetry of the glyph that would cause the ice to travel in a specific direction. Most likely forward, but he’d have to see it cast to be sure.
From the title this was an ice spell, not unlike a water or fire bolt spell so his logic seemed to make sense. But there were still many questions. Studying the glyph, he tried a few different movements for “Dark Fire” and for a moment Reese thought his hands felt chilled. Of course, that could just be the early autumn air.
Sighing, he put his hand back down. Casting was a major challenge without a gate. So far, he had no luck casting spells and glyphs with multiple runes. It was just too hard, he needed to be quicker than he was or figure out something else. Maybe he could drop or combine a few of the movements somehow.
It was getting late. His family was all asleep, in fact aside from two or three guards in the Old Keep and at the watch towers, he was probably one of the few in the village awake.
Closing his eyes, the problems and questions continued to dance in front of him as slowly dreamed away. In his dream, a strange, man or man like create watched from the shadows. It looks familiar, but Reese couldn’t explain why, the words 'one' and 'high' echoed. It felt like he had an almost instinctual hatred of him for some reason. Like his very soul knew of him. Out of spite, he dropped 'one' to 'zero', and 'high' to 'low', it amused him. But would be forgotten in the morning light.