10 Just To Save Some Real Fake People

Proximity Alarm, despite the less than ideal first experience I’d had with the spell, was quickly showing why it was in the grimoire considered most useful to human magicians. When I faced the kitchen there were only two large shadows superimposed into the room beyond where before there had been too many to count. In other directions where starbane forms were lined up from my point of view, the floating shadow of their silhouettes blended together indistinctly.

The two beyond the door in front of me looked to be hookblows, and the frames of their shadows supported that. Going by their relative size, they were standing around the middle of the kitchen, so I’d have ample time to focus them down before they arrived. I glanced at my new mana levels before moving to open the door.

B: 0/39

U: 79

“You work quickly collecting that mana,” I commented as I turned the door handle. Just seconds ago I had nearly been under thirty.

[This encounter is proceeding better than your previous one. We see no reason to delay you benefiting from earned mana, no matter how simple or difficult it was to harvest.]

“Mm.” I stopped paying the Familiar so much attention and pushed the door open to reveal an utterly destroyed cooking area. Whatever surfaces that weren’t burned or melted had bits and pieces of kitchen utensils embedded there, and if it wasn’t that, it was a charred black corpse. I looked past all of that and fixed my beam on the hookblow leaning against the island in the middle the chaos. It died quickly, falling over mid bellow. I moved on to the next one, which died just as fast.

“Choker Crystal,” I cast, holding my spare hand somewhat forward as I looked around for the dark indigo shadows that had correctly shown me where the hookblows were. Inhaling made me want to cough, so I held off on it as I looked around through the smoke in the air. It was a small miracle that no fires had caught as far as I noticed. The roller partitions between the kitchen and main cafeteria were down, except for the one farthest from me, which had been torn apart enough for a hookblow to come through.

There wasn’t a hookblow coming through when I looked for the first time, but after I looked up and around to make sure there wasn’t a scoutscale or something sneaking in from the ceiling there were several arachno legs coming around. It was digging its pincers into the wall of roller doors and was soon aiming its web cannons at me. Anklebiter stopped it there, and kept it there until it died, where it fell off the wall. A chime sounded in my head as another starbane form entered the radius of my proximity alarm. Then another.

It made me place my little turret crystal before I had originally planned to. I was still in the process of loading it with mana when a couple of sixballs skittered into the kitchen through the hole in the roller door. My hand snapped to the right to accelerate the charging speed, and I focused on lining my arm up with one of the sixballs.

One had jumped up onto the kitchen island, where its sharpened limbs were sinking slightly into the surface there. That didn’t stop it from moving with ease, however. At least until Anklebiter caught it in the face.

Now that I thought about it, I was using Anklebiter on the faces of starbanes much more than I was using it for its namesake.

I blamed the fact that sixballs had swords instead of ankles.

I dismissed the errant thought and searched for the other skittering little thing, shortly finding it making a gasping sound that I saw more than I heard. There was a horde on the other side of the roller doors that was drowning most other sounds out, so it stood out. I saw the second murderball twitching in place as a wide and transparent beam held it there, and it was too wide and transparent to be Anklebiter.

My head followed the quickly narrowing beam to the source, and found my crystal floating there innocuously. The beam winked out, and the sixball fell over, quite dead.

Right. Choker Crystal. It choked things.

A thundering in the floor captured my attention as more things started spilling out of the hole in the wall. I pointed Anklebiter that way and squeezed as I started walking backwards towards the door Diane was hiding by. There were so many things that it was hard to keep focused on a single target because there was just so much to focus on.

Arachnos and some scoutscales spread across the ceiling. Two Hookblows led the charge on the ground, but one of them was halted next to my crystal. More sixballs and even some of those sentry forms ran at me from around their legs.

“Back! Back!” The call came from one or two fairies that I was more than willing to listen to in the face of that tide.

“Aim at the little ones!” I shouted back for Diane, my voice coming out raw because of the smoke as I focused Anklebiter on the hookblow bearing down on me. My aim wasn’t perfect, but even if I missed I’d be hitting something behind it. “Choker Crystal!”

I placed the next crystal immediately in front of the door and paused long enough to tap the top and inject some mana. That one hookblow getting close enough to try punching me and the hook briefly encircling my extended arm convinced me that wasn’t far enough almost immediately. I only got out of that one because my arm happened to not get caught as I flinched away.

Soon I was back in the doorway with Diane beside me and could retreat no further. I aimed up at two arachnos on the ceiling when they started getting into webshooting positions. Thankfully they didn’t seem like they were willing to inconvenience other starbane forms by webbing them from behind, so they didn’t end up becoming a problem.

The fact that enough corpses were now covering the floor to the point that I could no longer see the linoleum underneath, however, was starting to concern me. A scoutscale attempting to leap at me, only to get briefly held in place by my choker crystal, persuaded me to stop worrying about such petty things. I finished it off and ventured back into the room to recharge the crystal responsible, because it clearly ran out of mana just then. The thing had been topped off before I retreated further, I was fairly certain, which said a lot about how this fight was going.

“Familiar, how’s Diane’s magazine?” I asked as I retreated back to the door. I couldn’t actually hear myself talk from the ringing in my ears. Mostly, that was because the starbanes wouldn’t stop screeching as they tried to run us down.

[She has stopped being frugal when shooting, and has twenty o- pellets left.]

The way it cut itself off was odd, but I was fairly certain Diane hitting the orb face of a sentry form and fracturing the glass sphere had something to do with that.

“Take three mana to transmute more ammunition ahead of time.”

[Three mana is excessive for a single magazine. We will accessorise with the remainder.]

“Don’t bother me with the details,” I told it before realising those were the sort of words I tended to regret. An arachno crawling across the ceiling gave me a more immediate issue, however.

3 unbound mana crystallised for material transmutation. Unbound Mana reduced to 87.

A whistle left my lips unbidden when I saw how much mana I had. And that was with all the mana I had dumped into the choker crystals, which was probably more than two hundred at this point. The extra beams they had been picking starbanes off with had been a lifesaver.

And then it was over. Diane double tapped a few corpses that had ended up near to us while I looked all around for any dark shadows that might indicate the presence of another starbane. More pings had occurred during the fight, but with the tide of starbanes that had been coming our way I hadn’t really taken the time to care. I took a moment to check the corridor behind us, and nothing was there. It was like they hadn’t realised they could come that way.

Daine collapsed against the wall next to me. “I need…” she trailed off, staring against the other wall listlessly.

I crouched down and gave her a squeeze on the shoulder. She barely nodded, and I accepted that as the best I was going to get for the time being. There weren’t any shadows indicating starbanes around, so I looked back into the kitchen.

“Not going that way,” I decided. There had been another two hookblows that came in after the first, and with six corpses each larger than a gorilla in that room, there wasn’t a lot of space for all the other ones. And, with all the sixballs in there, countless sword legs were just waiting for someone to try crawling over them.

I tried to close the door, but it had opened into the kitchen and was therefore blocked. One scoutscale had gotten far enough that it died sticking to the floor and the door, and I didn’t want to reach in to deactivate its stickiness. So before I dismissed Anklebiter I went over and aimed it through the gap in the door leading to the cafeteria proper, and channelled until I saw the signs of burning web from the other side.

“Can I reclaim mana from choker crystals?” I asked when I was certain no explosion was going to come from that, an eye on my mana levels.

B: 0/39

U: 126

A small profit, all things considered. But the point was that we were alive.

[You may initiate that process by inverting the channel by which you inject mana into the crystals,] the Familiar told me. It was walking on the wall again, apparently having decided that gravity was better when sideways. [However, you will be limited by your bound capacity.]

“When is my next mana pulse?” I asked as I moved back towards the kitchen area. It was macabre, but I wanted the mana in the crystal that was practically buried by bodies. There had to be some left over.

[Three hundred and forty two seconds. We can provide a counter similar to the one you are familiar with.]

“Bottom left, under the unbound mana count please.”

The next time I glanced down it was there, reading 337s.

“Thanks.”

I found my third choker crystal and tapped its top. It was floating at eye level two steps into the kitchen, and was so high because it was using the hookblow and other corpses that had died underneath as the ground level it levitated above. Reaching up to get my mana back was therefore a little awkward. When I placed my hand on the resulting magic circle, I twisted counter-clockwise and watched as my bound mana rose to thirty eight, one point off of capacity. The little crystal had worked hard, so I gave it a pat on the side for its good work as it descended into its inert position.

A thought made me hesitate when I stood up. “Can I move this?”

[Interact with the base of the crystal,] I was told.

The choker crystal was a near symmetrical diamond shape, so it was very similar to how I touched the top tip. Only this time it was a yellow magic circle that formed underneath, and it quickly darted away a short distance to hover where my arm was pointing. I dragged it back beside Diane and snapped my fingers. It was only a short distance, but I didn’t want to move until everyone was able to keep up.

Diane was still gazing at the far wall. She wasn’t going anywhere fast.

I ended up putting eighteen mana back into the choker crystal and crouched nearby for a few moments. It was the Authority on Diane’s shoulder that gave me a nod of acknowledgement, because the girl herself didn’t apparently notice me. Not even when I cast Wisp of Adjustable Brightness and nudged the tiny glowing thing in front of her.

The light illuminated the BB gun, which had been accessorised just as my Familiar had promised. Now the whole thing was painted purple instead of black, with golden lines highlighting all the edges. On the side, just above the trigger, an arc of crystals were illustrated, reminding me of what I had seen floating above my head in Diane’s picture. Presumably, the same logo was on the other side as well.

It made me shake my head, but at the same time it wasn’t hot pink. I elected not to comment on the accessories, not even when I noticed a tiny figurine that looked like the Familiar dangling from the barrel.

“Authoritative,” I said as I straightened up again. “Come case the next room with me.”

She didn’t answer me verbally, but was fluttering by the door to the cafeteria when I arrived. She zipped through the opening when I opened it, and was first into the barely recognisable burnt room that I’d had dinner in just a few hours ago.

There was more to it than just the black on the carpet and the destroyed plastic tables that had been hurled to the side. The wall on the far side of the building had fallen in, exposing the place to the night air and blackness beyond. I thought I saw the trunk like legs of a strider moving in the distance, but it was lost in the black and far beyond what Proximity Alarm would tell me about.

Other than that, Authority’s simulacrum chandelier was still hanging, as blue and pristine as it had been on day one. It was probably more than that, actually, because a blue crystal frame had been revealed in the ceiling. Parts were covered in the black web of the arachno that must have been separate from the stuff covering the door, but I could see enough that six long lines of crystal extended out from where the chandelier connected to the roof. Two went to the nearest walls, while the other four came out as a cross before bending to angle towards the corners of the room, and all of them had a tiny pillar of that same crystal that came down against the walls and into the floor.

Between where the simulacrum crystal was and where I was standing was also something else. Oddly patterned limbs that were extending out of the floor. There were eight of them arranged in a circle or an octagon, and each was angled to rest on its neighbour. The most disturbing part of the formation in front of me were the faces at the ends of the limbs, which I realised were very long necks. Each head had three eyes arranged similarly to a sixball’s, and a gumless upper jaw marked an open mouth where the bottom jaw was split in two with a single long fang protruding from the middle of each bottom jaw.

“So those are foundation serpents?” I guessed. The shadows under my feet seemed to think so. Several meandering lines converged shortly before coming above ground where the necks did.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“That’s eight of them,” Authority said, which was obvious. “Don’t attack right away. If you only kill one the rest will commit suicide and ruin your day.”

[Foundation serpents are infamous among magicians because they ruin their innate mana when self terminating,] my Familiar added, sauntering sideways around the door, apparently flipping gravity as he entered the room.

I crossed my arms and thought. “More choker crystals?”

“That seems like the smartest approach.”

I nodded and went to the cafeteria side of the hole to the kitchen, where I found my second choker crystal floating next to the hookblow it killed, along with an arachno and a handful of sixballs. A quick touch to the bottom of the thing, and it was following me as I walked it over to where the foundation serpents were.

It was hitting me harder than ever how crazy this whole situation was. That was about ten corpses I’d just walked by and hadn’t paid much attention to.

The octagon of foundation serpents was actually quite sizeable. I could have laid down in the middle without touching any of them if I wasn’t thoroughly creeped out by the scintillating sheen of their rough skin. My choker crystal was placed between where two necks had come up and out of the ground, and I cast another one as well.

My plan was a little finicky, and would require some sleight of hand. It started with me placing the new crystal out of range of the little fort the serpents were making. I charged it with fifteen mana, then set it to follow the hand I was using to cast Anklebiter, which took another five mana for upkeep as I was busy doing that. Then I walked closer to the crystal already close to the foundation serpents and took a breath.

“Donna-” Authoritative Authority began to say, but I was already in motion.

To start with, I snapped the mana flow into the choker crystal to as high as it could go. At the same time I brought around Anklebiter and snapped the fingers on my other hand. It hadn’t been something I practised, but the circle transporting the crystal around shattered and both of them lit up with that wide and transparent beam at roughly the same time. As for me, I walked around the serpents to the left and squeezed Anklebiter.

Authoritative Authority said something behind me, louder this time. But I was too focused on what was in front of me to hear. It was odd. The foundation serpents were being killed, and there was absolutely no reaction.

I almost shut my beam off to see what Authority wanted, but then the ground suddenly began shaking as each of the eight heads began writhing in every which way. Some of them headbutted each other, while others hissed silently in random directions. I kept myself as focused as I could, but found that to be difficult when my footing shifted as the foundation underneath me broke.

It was the body of a foundation serpent, writhing just like the head was. Only it was strong enough to break concrete in a directionless tantrum. I moved so I wasn’t standing with one leg on either side of it and redirected Anklebiter against that part of the body. It was a larger target, but all the same I had difficulty keeping the beam on it. The thing just didn’t spend much time in one specific spot.

“I hate this,” I said as I kept up my channel, mostly to myself. There wasn’t much else to say.

Some of the heads eventually decided that was enough, and opened their jaws wider than they had already been. They opened their jaws so wide that it turned back around and seemed like they were closing the jaws on their own body.

Then, at a speed that defied reason, they ate themselves. Half of the foundation serpents sucked their own bodies down their throats like I might eat noodles, and it only took a few seconds. They stilled for a moment, each a weird, sense defying ball, and then exploded into viscera.

I only had time to close my eyes before the wave of it hit me. The sound of struggling serpents faded almost immediately after that. I was left with the sensation of being drenched, and the fluid wasn’t running off of me like water did.

[Four foundation serpents were harvested on your first attempt,] the Familiar said. [An impressive achievement.]

“Sorry, I forgot to mention they exploded,” the Authority with me apologised. She sounded distracted, and was lucky I had my eyes closed then because I felt liable to lash out.

But as it was, I shook my hands to remove what I could from them before opening my mouth to breath and wiping my eyes. I should have fully wiped my face first, because a drop of something fell into my mouth and I reflexively swallowed. It tasted like iron, but sweet.

My stomach began protesting immediately.

“I want to throw up,” I said quietly. I pulled my personal grimoire from where it was stored and rubbed my eyes clear with my other hand. “Cleaning spell. I need a cleaning spell.” I didn’t even want to look at myself like this.

I opened my eyes to the sound of turning pages. My personal grimoire had lifted itself out of my hands and was flipping to a spell in the section dedicated to human tricks. It fell back into my hands with a spell called Sanitise on the left. The directions said it was an instant firing spell that responded when the caster pointed at something.

Not willing to waste time, I pointed at myself. “Sanitise.”

The spell that formed was gold in colour, and I closed my eyes while it did its work.

When I opened my eyes again, I beheld my spotless gloved hands and a thoroughly ruined cafeteria floor. The foundation serpents had spread like roots, and when they uprooted themselves the concrete hadn’t been all that much of a barrier. The only silver lining I could find was how the serpent innards were black, and that blended in well with the arachno’s black web and the burned décor that had recently been installed.

“Donna!”

I fumbled with my grimoire and looked back at the hallway where the call had come from. The Authority we’d temporarily left behind zipped into the room. “Come quick! It’s Diane!”

She looked and sounded panicked, and that made me start moving before she finished talking. The fairy zipped back into the hallway with me close behind, and I saw something I hoped to not see again. Diane was wounded again.

The cause was obvious. Some of the foundation serpents had spread their body under the floor in this room, and in their death throes had sent chunks of concrete flying around. By some miracle there hadn’t been one underneath where Diane had been sitting, but that hadn’t spared her at all.

One sizable chunk of concrete had landed on Diane’s lower body, and was entirely covering one bloody leg that stuck out at an uncanny angle. The smaller pieces of concrete had done a fair amount of damage as well, though indirectly this time. Apart from some lacerations on Diane’s arms and face, part of the plaster on the ceiling had fallen and landed on her head, dusting her white.

And, because that wasn’t enough, one of the sixball legs that had fallen in the hallway had been launched by the struggle of the foundation serpent. It hadn’t impaled itself into Diane, and that was the only silver lining I could find. What it had done instead was tear open another cut in the vest I’d given to Diane and left her upper body and arm bleeding.

“Donna!” Authority shouted, shaking me from the shock I had fallen into.

“Sorry. Sorry,” I repeated as I hurried over to Diane, dismissing Anklebiter and lifting the concrete chunk to reveal an extra bend to Diane’s leg. That was my fault. “My book.” It had healing spells in it that could be used to fix this, and I’d left it behind again. I had to pull it from its dimension for the umpteenth time, and this time it didn’t respond the first time I tried to grab it.

“What did you do?” Diane asked, her voice gravelly with pain, and so, so quiet.

“I attacked the serpents under the floor,” I admitted, forcing myself to pause and pull my book out of the air. “I’m sorry, I should’ve made sure you were safe first.”

“Ow,” she said.

“Sorry,” I repeated. “Um, what do I do? Deep organ mending?”

[That spell would stabilise her vitals and reapply the anaesthesia that has partially worn off since the last casting. It would also close the lacerations, as skin is classified as an organ by that spell.]

“Having those things in working order is always a good place to start,” one of the Authorities said.

“Deep Organ Mending,” I repeated, this time with intent, and placed my hand on Diane’s stomach. The cyan circle was still in the process of forming when something chimed to my right. I looked to see a hookblow there, entirely still next to the first choker crystal I had cast. The foundation serpents had taken out one of the doors in their death throes as well.

My lips thinned as more chimes began sounding. I could see the silhouette of a strider behind the hookblow, and that choker crystal hadn’t been fully charged. I checked my mana.

B: 0/39

U: 294

“Choker Crystal.” I snapped my fingers as soon as it was finished forming. “Convex Crystal.” I snapped again. “Construction Crystal.” Another snap. The last one was the one I tapped the top of to start charging first.

“Donna…” the girl beside me groaned. “What…”

“I promised I’d get you safe,” I told her as the construction crystal started emitting a cyan light on us. Motes of that same colour began to rise from the floor as it slowly started to fix itself in the one to two metres that the light shone. It was doing more than that, because I could feel an itch in certain parts of my body that I’d been straining, and most of the motes were actually rising from Diane’s body. The cut on her arm began closing of its own accord.

I moved the hand with Deep Organ Mending on it to Diane’s upper torso, then found the Convex Crystal and began charging that one too. Nothing happened immediately, save for the crystal glowing a brighter yellow.

“I don’t make many promises, but I keep mine,” I finished, not really talking to Diane there.

“Donna,” Authoritative Authority cut in, using that stern tone I was so primed to respond to. “Will you have the mana to keep her safe?”

More chimes sounded, this time from the direction of the cafeteria. The choker crystals in there had more charge than the other one. The hookblow there was since dead, and I couldn’t see what the crystal was beaming now.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, quiet. “I have to try.” I placed the spell against Diane’s head again. She was looking at me. Staring at me. Her eyes full of fear. “I- We made it this far, why do they have to keep coming? This was supposed to be a stupid camp, and now we’re wrapped up in this. So many starbanes and then this… This is my fault. I should’ve waited and I just didn’t. I could’ve… Convex Crystal. It would have… I… I just…”

My Familiar walked to a spot beside me and Diane, and sat down. It said nothing.

“You should charge the attacking crystal,” Authority said. “The Starbane will have an easy fight if you’re still frozen in ten seconds.”

The gentler one sprung away from where it had been hovering by Diane. I didn’t see what it did, but it made the other one shut up.

“I wish,” I began, and time slammed to a halt, “for your everlasting safety, health, and fortune, Diane. That you may always find what you are looking for. And I’m sorry my effort wasn’t enough to rescue you.”

Diane looked back at me, us two the only ones moving in this singular moment. “You,” she said, already sounding healthier. I couldn’t tell if it was from my wish or my spells. “You wish?”

“I got one wish as a signing bonus,” I explained, trying to smile. “And now I’m using it for the same reason that I took the contract.” I was definitely tearing up. “You’re definitely going to be safe, after this. None of my mistakes should hurt you anymore.”

Diane looked at my Familiar, and its tail twitched.

“Donna,” she said. “This was-”

[The wish is granted,] the Familiar spoke, and more magic formed around Diane in an instant. She froze there, except for her broken leg, which straightened out as magic of all sorts of colours sprung into effect around her. The Familiar turned its head to me, the concerned set of its eyes meeting mine for what felt like the first time. [To the spirit of the letter. Even the part that was technically a separate statement.]

“Not my apology?” I asked, laughing weakly. Still crying.

[Do not patronise us. We are not dumb,] it told me.

“So what’s with this time stop thing?” I asked, gesturing around us, grateful for any distraction. The Authority fairies didn’t normally flap as much as they should, but their little feathered wings were moving a thousand times slower than they usually did.

[Effect.]

“Yeah, I understand,” I said, then rubbed my eyes. They were still watery. “So, um, what did you do? For the wish, I mean.”

[A long term responsive regeneration spell from the master level grimoire of Androkan Regeneration has been cast on Diane, so that even in the most extreme circumstances, she will be restored to perfect health. We have also cast a master level enchantment from a collection of Grimoires you do not possess focused on probability manipulation to assure Diane’s everlasting safety and fortune. The chances of the regeneration spell needing to take effect is therefore minimised.

[We have also placed Diane in a healing stasis that will last for one hour. Diane’s natural regeneration will not be altered, but by the time the stasis reaches completion she will be free of any long term detriments to her health. We are also modifying her organs to allow the enjoyment of illicit substances with vastly reduced drawbacks. Several qualities of these organs would have led to health complications after a number of years, which have been amended.]

“She doesn’t strike me as the type to start smoking,” I commented, laughing quietly at the thought. I was really a mess.

[The changes will also protect her from any poisons she encounters that manage to pass the protective probability field.]

“Wow, you’re really pulling out all the stops.”

[There has been a complication,] the Familiar finished.

I looked at it. It was still looking at me. Everything about it was entirely the same except for its tone, which was still upbeat, but somehow deadly serious.

“What happened?” I asked, dreading the answer but knowing it was inevitable all the same.

[We did attempt to remove Diane from under the veil to fulfil the safety portion of your wish. Our teleportation spell should have cast smoothly, but was blocked from reaching completion.]

I blinked slowly. “How?”

[We do not know. We do, however, possess a theory]

“And it is?”

[The Enemy knows I am here. It will do everything it can to kill you and destroy me now that I have confirmed my presence within this veil.]

I looked at where a sixball was skittering towards me past the hookblow corpse. In slow motion still. “Aren’t the starbanes always trying to do that?”

My Familiar dipped its head in my peripheral vision. [This situation is different. Only in the early days of our relationship with humanity was it standard for singular magicians to breach a veil and combat the Enemy within. This was a practice with a high casualty rate, and one we are glad to have left behind.]

“Because they didn’t have any backup,” I said. “Just like me.”

[There is another element to the equation. That of the raw power wielded by a magician.]

“Yeah, I have barely any, right?”

[Comparatively, you are correct.]

“Real supportive, Familiar.” I faltered there. I was still calling it by a title. The reason why wasn’t clear, but I felt like it deserved a little more… personality?

After granting me a wish, I felt like it deserved a bit of that.

[Our observation is that your veterans focus on ensuring the well being of less experienced magicians. Compared to them your power is miniscule, and without them you are in mortal danger.

[This is a tangent. I am in danger also.]

That made me frown. “Aren’t we both under this veil?”

[We are. However, our presence was revealed by casting the spells necessary to fulfil your wish. Until that point, we intended to remain obscured to all who are not worthy of becoming a magician contracted to us. If you perished, I would have searched for another magician, and empowered them to fight without the Starbane ever knowing my true location.]

“And now it’s just going to go straight for you?” I asked.

[Correct. It will be incapable of doing so with most forms. However, the sentry forms are capable of rendering me visible to the Enemy. Even lowly forms will be capable of damaging me in that state.]

My shoulders slumped. “Did I screw up again?”

The Familiar jumped onto the air in front of me and forced eye contact with its concerned empty pits. [We did not realise this would happen. The sentry forms have been modified since our previous encounter. Your wish still achieved its objective. This is not your fault.]

I looked away in the other direction. “It feels like it, though.”

There was silence for a few seconds in this timeless moment.

[We counsel that you could better spend the theoretical seventeen remaining minutes of this temporal manipulation by researching the Stoccoro Grimoire for Flashy Rituals,] my Familiar said as it sauntered through the air to be in front of me again.

I sniffed. “Why?”

[We would normally allow our magician to discover their magical talents on their own at a comfortable pace. In this situation, we judge that tutelage will bolster your chances of survival, and thus our own as well. We will not scribe the Stoccoro Grimoire for Flashy Bloodsport, the apprentice level successor tome to your primary offensive option, until you have displayed expertise with the majority of spells contained in its primer.]

I blinked, taking that in. “Why?” I asked again, rubbing my eyes clear finally.

[We cannot allow inexpert magicians access to overly powerful spells they might be unable to control. This is a rule we cannot compromise on.]

“Okay,” I said slowly. It was a ridiculous objective, but when I boiled it down to an objective and an achievement, it sounded doable. Better, it sounded like a distraction. “What spells do I need to focus on?”

The Familiar flicked its tail, and my personal grimoire floated up in front of me. [We will begin with Jump Rope.]