“There you go, Khalik, that’s the way,” Alex said, watching the prince closely. ‘Remember, you don't need your tongue to convey meaning: even with spellcraft. As long as you can replace syllables with body language, or hand movements, you're still casting the spell.”

Khalik’s eyebrow twitched as though shocked with a lightning spell. “That is easy for you to say,” he said between clenched teeth. “You’ve said that many times, but casting a spell with a finger twitch or raised brow is like trying to have a garden snake swallow an elephant!”

“You're getting it, though!” Alex complimented his effort. He examined Khalik’s facial expression, using the Mark of the General. “Okay…your eyebrow movement’s are almost replacing the syllable. You need to adjust the angle by about…three degrees up.”

“Alex, what in all the hells does that mean?” Khalik demanded.

“It means the outer part of your eyebrow should be tilted up slightly more than the inner part of your eyebrow,” Alex said. “You're almost there.”

“It does not feel like I am almost there,” Khalik complained. “It feels like I have made no progress for the past three evenings.”

“Better than how we're doing!” Thundar shouted.

“Indeed,” Isolde said, her tone icy.

“Aye,” Cedric added.

“Help me,” Drestra groaned.

“I am helping you,” Alex promised, turning to the others. “I'm helping all of us.”

“I think this whole General thing’s gone to your head,” Thundar informed him.

“You're gonna complain a lot less when we all live through the war.” The General of Thameland said. “And all you need to do is tilt your head slightly to the left, Thundar.”

The minotaur groaned.

Since Alex had returned to Generasi, he’d been busy. He’d met up with family, friends, checked in with folk at the university, visited his businesses, and started what he not too creatively had dubbed: Operation: Everyone Lives.

The intent of his plan was to be prepared; to train his cabalmates and the Heroes, preparing them as well as he possibly could for whatever the Ravener threw at them. The first part of the operation was to teach them how to spell cast faster.

No easy task, so far.

The six of them were practising a short distance from the Heroes’ encampment, well out of earshot of the soldiers. Alex was focused on teaching his five students to replace certain syllables in an incantation with slight twitches of their bodies.

They’d been at it for a few evenings at this point, and progress had been…slow, yet promising.

“You'll get it,” Alex said.

“Yeah, maybe in another twenty years,” Thundar said. “Ram does this kinda shit, right? How long did it take him to learn it?”

The young wizard paused, leaning against a tree in the small clearing. “I don't know, I haven't really talked to him yet. Maybe I should…”

“Could we take a break?” Isolde asked, eyebrows writhing like caterpillars on her forehead. “I feel a headache beginning.”

“Okay sure, let’s break. Take a breather everyone, I don’t want to fry your brains.” Alex announced. “Everyone’s been trying really hard. I think Khalik’s close to a breakthrough which makes sense since he knows so many languages. Knowing various tongues and pronunciations helps because that makes you learn how to convey meaning in different ways.”

Alexander Roth—the General of Thameland’s—five students let out a collective sigh of relief as their teacher showed them mercy. Cedric threw himself on the ground, panting as though he’d just run halfway across Thameland.

“By the Traveller!” he swore, “Feels like all this mind stuff’s just as hard as pushin’ yer body. Ach, maybe even harder. Dunno how yous do it, bein’ in school an’ studyin’ all day.”

“With great practice,” Isolde said. “But even I must admit that I find this exercise rather difficult.”

“Difficult, but necessary,” Alex said. “We're going to need to be at our full strength and power, with everything we heard Uldar talk about. Remember, at one time, the Ravener was powerful enough to wipe out everybody, including the Heroes, even though it sounded like they were a lot stronger than they’ve been in maybe hundreds of cycles. Doing whatever we can to avoid their fate means we have to step out of our comfort zones.”

“Aye, nobody wants t’end up like them poor bastards,” Cedric shook his head. “I don’ wan’ nothin’ t’do wit’ that.”

“If this keeps up, then I'll happily take death!” Thundar grumbled. “Alex, I thought you said this would be easy? It’s the exact opposite of easy!”

The young wizard flipped open one of the spell books he’d taken from the library, studying a spell array closely, tracing it with his finger. “I didn't say it’d be easy, I said it’d keep you alive.”

“He did say that,” Khalik confirmed.

“I don’t wanna hear anything from you, you teacher’s pet!” the minotaur growled at the prince then looked at Drestra. “Hey, Dres, are you getting the hang of this?”

Drestra looked at Thundar, then took off her veil and gave him a shy smile. “A little. When I learned to take human form, I had to relearn everything about moving my body.” She wiggled her fingers. “The muscles of a humanoid are so different from draconic ones. It was like learning how to live all over again: I find that makes this way of spell casting a little easier to grasp.”

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

“Oh…well I’m glad you’re getting it,” Thundar said, his tone softer.

“If you don’t get it, I could…tutor you, if you’d like. After we finish our lesson with everyone else.” Her eyelids lowered on her golden reptilian eyes.

The minotaur squirmed a little. “Uh, yeah. That’d be great. I’d love to learn more about how your body changes too. Can't imagine something like that. Maybe I should try shapeshifting magic: I heard it's really, really hard. Maybe if I learn from you, then I could get good at it.”

“I'd like that,” Drestra said. “You could take the form of a bird and we could fly together. Flying through a flight spell feels good, you feel so free, but you don't know what you’re missing until you feel the wind beneath your wings.”

Najyah squawked from a nearby tree.

“That's right,” the dragon said to the eagle.

“Well…shapeshifting magic calls for a lot of imagination, just like illusion magic. I'd love to get into it, after the war, that is,” Thundar said. “Flying with wings instead of spells and stuff…that really does sound like something.”

They looked at each other for a long time.

Khalik leaned toward Isolde. “I think we just met the ‘quiet kid’ that our friend told us about.”

“Quiet teacher’s pet!” Thundar yelled.

“And how am I the teacher’s pet, when Drestra is good at this, too?” Khalik asked him.

“You know why!” Thundar said. “You're not pretty like she is! So I’m not complaining about her.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Isolde asked.

Drestra flinched.

Thundar froze.

Silence fell.

Cedric leaned toward Khalik. “Don’t listen t’him, yer bloody beautiful, mate.”

“Thank you, I know. And so you are you, my friend.” Khalik grinned.

“Aye, I know.” Cedric grinned back.

The two muscular men bumped fists.

Isolde opened her mouth, looking like she wanted to say something, but, in the end, she kept her thoughts to herself.

“What’s that you’re studying over there?” Thundar asked Alex, quickly changing the subject.

“Cone of Ice,” the young wizard said. “It’s a fifth-tier spell. I figure some ice spells might be useful.”

“Oh, really?” Thundar asked. “How long have you been learning it?”

“I just started.” Alex snapped the book shut with one hand, then turned to the forest, raising his other hand. His lips formed the new incantation.

Mana flowed.

Heat fled from his hand, steam formed, a cone of blue-white magic roared from his palm with a howling, devastating wind. Icy energy struck a clump of trees, halting the spring thaw, caking their trunks in ice. Branches snapped, plummeting to the ground as frost flashed over it, freezing the earth solid.

When the spell was done, the wizard had frozen a section of the woods in front of them.

“Not bad.” He flexed his fingers. “White End should be a lot more powerful. Now, I think—”

“What in every hell was that?” Thundar demanded.

Alex turned back to his friends.

His cabal, Drestra and Cedric were staring at him, slack-jawed, if it had been summertime, flies would be diving into their mouths.

“What’s what now?” Alex asked.

“You lied,” Khalik said. “There is no way you just started learning that spell today!”

“No word of a lie,” Alex said, scratching the back of his head. “It’s the first time I tried it, I swear.”

“How?” Isolde looked shocked. “I can certainly learn spells quite quickly, but that was…it was impossible!”

“Aye.” Cedric ran his fingers through his long hair. “No bloody way I could learn a spell that fast!”

“Me neither,” Drestra’s voice crackled, her fanged jaws hanging open.

“How’d you do that?” Thundar asked.

Alex looked at his friends gravely, clasping his hands behind him. Hobb’s words returned to him, and the young archwizard instantly knew the exact roles he wanted to play here: teacher and General.”

“You're all going to learn exactly how I did it,” Alex said. “The thing is, when I had the Mark of the Fool, I had to learn every trick I could to manage even the simplest of spells. I had to analyse magic circuits down to their smallest detail. I memorised different patterns in magic circuits, looking for similar parts in other spells. A lot of Cone of Ice’s spell array is similar to other spells I know, so learning it was really easy.”

Alex pointed at his friends. “And it'll be easy for you too.”

“Huh?” Thundar grunted.

The young archwizard began pacing back-and-forth. “Operation: Everyone Lives means just that. We’re going into what’ll be the toughest fight we’ve had so far, and I want everyone coming out of it alive. No one's dying. Not if I have anything to say about it. So, in order to see that happen, I've come up with a training plan and exercises that’ll give us the highest chance of victory and survival.”

“Right…” Khalik said. “I assume it involves much more than how to cast spells without speaking?”

“A lot more,” Alex said. “Casting spells without speaking is the first step. The thing is, casting magic faster is only going to be part of the battle. It won't help if you run out of mana, or if you don't have the spells you need to beat Ravener-spawn of any level, or if you can't get away if something's about to kill you.”

The young General looked at the Heroes. “I’ve got something a little different in mind for each of you, though.”

Drestra cocked her head to one side. “What would that be?”

“You all have your individual strengths,” Alex said. “In this fight, you Heroes are going to be our main powerhouses…unless Baelin’s there. Or—”

Suddenly, they heard a distant crack of stone shattering, followed by an explosion of wood.

“—or Asmaldestra, I was about to say,” Alex continued.

An instant later, there came a deafening boom as more explosions ripped through the forest to the south.

Unsurprisingly, no one moved.

The young archwizard reached out to Claygon. “Are you all, okay?” he asked, concerned about the golem, Bjorgrund, Merzhin and Hart. He was sure Asmaldestra was just fine.

‘Yes…father…the petrifiers are dead…the dungeon will fall soon,’ the golem thought.

‘Do you need me over there?’ Alex asked mentally.

‘No…we have everything under control...’

‘Right, and how many petrifiers were there?’

‘...eight, father.’

Alex frowned.

“What's wrong?” Khalik asked. “Are the others alright?”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “But there were eight petrifiers this time.”

“Eight?” Drestra’s forehead creased. “Eight? They’re increasing. There’s definitely more of them every day.”

“Even more reason for us to focus on my plan,” the young wizard said. “The Ravener’s escalating, and I don't doubt it's gonna come at us with everything it’s got soon.”

He looked at Cedric and Isolde. “Listen, I want all of you to…well, if you've got unfinished business. Take care of it. We could find the Ravener next week, an hour from now, or next year. It's best not to leave anything undone.”

Isolde and the Chosen looked at each other solemnly, neither looking away.

“Where was I?” Alex paused. “Oh, right. The Heroes are our powerhouses. Cedric, Drestra, Merzhin and Hart are going to be the ones doing the most devastating damage against whatever the Ravener sends at us. They're going to be like beacons, attracting the most attention, and taking hits. Cedric and Hart are staggeringly tough, Hart’s almost superhuman. Drestra…with your massive mana pool and dragon powers, the Ravener-spawn will have their claws full. Merzhin has his fearsome miracles to wield, and he can heal himself and others.”

He looked at the cabal. “You three are powerful, but you don't have the edge of god granted gifts, like the Heroes do. So, while I’ll be focusing on getting the Heroes as powerful as possible, I have a bit of a different plan for you. It involves five steps.”

The wizard leaned forward. “Listen carefully.”