Veros examines the corpses, and notices that they're dressed in everyday cotton clothing, without any sort of equipment for travel attached to them.

“It's highly doubtful such poorly-equipped individuals would make it this far. I think these might not be Mistwalkers, but people who lived around here before the mist appeared.” He hypothesizes. The corpses certainly seem decomposed enough to imply that they've been dead for quite some time.

Kellar offers his knowledge on the matter; “Well, last time I checked the map, there's more villages scattered around as we get closer to Armasstadt.”

“A major contributor to the fact that undead activity rises past the Rosemont line, I'm sure. But at the same time, it might help us in our efforts to seek shelter through the night when we go beyond Terrance. Let's continue on, then.”

Veros, leaving the two bodies untouched, proceeds north to continue the day's journey, and the others follow suit.

Another few miles down the road, Zyra finds herself riding side by side with Royd, creating a rather odd pair among them. Though she actually doesn't think much of it, the brawny man can't help but throw occasional glances down the the mage's arcane bracelet on her right wrist. He furrows his brow with deep curiosity. As a modest woodcutter, it was already quite rare for him to run into mages in his everyday life, but this is the first time he's been up close to one for an extended period, and her recent display of relative competency has piqued his interest more than ever.

“Say, Zyra.” He strikes up a conversation, which makes the mage jump slightly.

“Yes?” She replies, surprised to hear Royd's booming voice all of a sudden.

He continues, slightly straining his face with inquisitive wonder. “I was thinking about the spells you performed earlier. You seem to have gotten better at them. The first time you casted a ball of fire, it look liked you were really forcing yourself, but now they came out quite fast. Now, I don't know anything about magic other than the most obvious things that could be guessed by common sense, but what exactly changed between then and now?”

“Are you asking how I improved?” Zyra asks for clarification, uncertain of what to make of her comrade's sudden interest in the arcane.

“Essentially.” He replies with a nod. “Like I said, I don't really know much. I've always just assumed the bracelet does the bulk of the work.”

She tilts her head and puts on an expression of clear reluctance, “It's a bit of a long-winded explanation.”

“That's fine.” The woodcutter immediately offers reassurance. “I'm very curious about this magic business.”

Zyra heaves a small sigh, having not expected to give anyone a lesson on the arcane – especially not Royd. However, she can't help but be curious at his curiosity, so she ultimately decides to humor him.

“Well, it's true that the arcane stones in the bracelet are the source of the power, but actually being able to cast is something else entirely. The most important part of casting is mental clarity, and the hand gesture and incantation come second.”

“So you need the right amount of focus to be able to conjure fire from your hand?”

“Right. The strength of a spell depends on the emotions and intent of the caster, but you need to have enough concentration to control those emotions and channel them into arcane energy by focusing them to your hand, through the bracelet.”

Royd swings his head back in total bewilderment. “Gods, I don't even know where one could begin learning how to do that.”

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“It requires many days of practice.” Zyra says with a bitter smile, silently recalling her own stressful days of attempting to reach the level of concentration needed to finally cast her first spell. “It's the first aspect that prevents any random person from putting on a bracelet and throwing out spells. If you don't have enough focus, you won't be able to cast, no matter how much you want to. After that, you have the hand gesture and the incantation, both of which work together to perform the correct spell.”

“How exactly do hand gestures come into play here?”

She lifts her own right hand to use it as an example. “Because you're focusing your emotions and intent to your hand, the bracelet acts as a sort of gateway that turns them into arcane energy that changes form depending on the position of the muscles in your hand. Then when you say the incantation, the energy is released in that form. Incantations also take some practice, because you have to stress the right syllables.”

“Is it possible for a spell to come out without the right gesture or right pronunciation of the incantation?” Royd, slowly starting to understand the basics of how arcane casting works, begins to ask more complex questions.

“If neither of those things are one hundred percent right, then something might still come out, but...” She shakes her head in discouragement. “It might come out much weaker – or worse, much stronger than intended. But usually weaker.”

“So you have to focus, make the correct gesture, and then recite the incantation correctly before anything comes out.” The brawny warrior reiterates the lesson to himself. “And there's no way to skip any of those steps?”

She shakes her head again. “Not really.” She pauses to conceive a way of better explaining for the benefit of a layman, and is struck with an epiphany. “Someone I know compared the whole process to using a bow and arrow. He said making the hand gesture is like nocking the arrow into the bowstring, then focusing your energy is pulling the string back, and reciting the incantation is finally loosing the arrow. The closest thing to skipping any of it would be doing a silent incantation, where you don't say the incantation out loud, but rather in your head. But it takes months of practice to master that for just one spell.”

“Fascinating.” Royd strokes his chin, hidden under his bushy beard. “And I've noticed that you have two stones in your bracelet. Does that mean anything?”

“Oh, yes, it does.” She lifts her hand once again to give him a better view of her bracelet and its two embedded red stones. “The more stones a mage has in their bracelet, the more experienced they are and the more advanced spells they're able to use. At the university, we're given one at the start of each year, so we graduate with four. After that, if we continue to hone our craft, we can register to take a test for a fifth, which can be as immediate as the day after we graduate. It's possible to receive a sixth, but you have to be a staff member of the university for a minimum of twenty years to be eligible. Oh, and only people with six stones can be candidates for the position of Grandmaster of the university.”

“The entire culture of magic is a complex one, indeed.” Royd stares forward, dumbfounded at the flood of information he just received over the last few minutes. The arcane world is something quite alien to him despite it being a big part of the land he resides in. His occupation rarely has him interact with mages, and because he lives outside of the busiest areas of Evatica, he almost never see them in passing.

A smile crosses Zyra's face. “It goes quite a ways deeper, but into places that even I don't know the details about just yet. But why the sudden interest?”

“Oh, I was just impressed at the power you displayed earlier.” Royd answers, snapping out of his bewildered stupor. “If that's the strength of a two-stone spell, I can't say I'm not curious as to how mighty a six-stone spell would be.”

Zyra leans closer to him with a mischievous look on her face. “Let's just say that forbidden spells do exist.”

“Good Gods...” The awe-struck woodcutter becomes wide-eyed as his imagination begins to run wild with images of the fearsome power of these forbidden spells.

“You know, you can attend university if you'd like.” The pyromancer decides to encourage him after witnessing his interest first-hand. “There's no age limit. I know of a current student that's over sixty years old. He might not live long enough to ever get a sixth stone even if he wanted one, but he's still there, learning.”

“I can't say I'm not tempted.” Royd replies to her suggestion with a freshly enthusiastic attitude, rubbing his chin again with serious consideration. “I'm a man who does enjoy experiencing new things, and I was given quite a wage while working on the construction of the barrier. I might be able to save up for it reasonably soon.”

“Well, after we complete this journey, you can visit the university and I'll give you a tour.” The mage offers a promise with a welcoming smile.

“I just might take you up on that, young lady.” He eagerly accepts.