“This is a standard issue fire-blast, concussion pattern, wand with a Gardener-trigger. So if I say any of you waving them wildly around we will be having words after class. Note the use of white ash and tapered tip with a heat resistant varnish. Topaz mana reservoir in the base.” Inferno Jones told them, the crimson robed mage flourishing the wand in question. “It can charge off of ambient mana, holds a maximum of thirty charges and still operates under mild null suppression. If any of you go into guard work or one of the response teams you’ll be handling these a lot. Any questions?”

The magical combat teacher was perhaps the most peppy of the teachers Alec and Holly had met, something of a surprise given he was also, at least visually, the oldest. Still for all that time had weathered his skin to a leathery lacquer that wouldn’t have been out of place on a ghoul, and that the only reason his hair wasn’t grey was that it was missing entirely, he was certainly spry.

The old pyromancer had handed each of them a wand as they’d entered the class, the same borderline barren room Vortigen had taught in the prior day, albeit now with a table just piled high with bullseye targets at the far end, the entire advanced stream of students arriving together for the first time since breakfast.

Not everyone looked enthused at their new tool, Alicia in particular was holding it as it were diseased while Brin was just gently cradling it in his palm, the heavyset ogre’s hand dwarfing the nearly foot long shaft of wood and trying to figure out how to grip it without snapping it in half.

Hope was having the most trouble, the arachni settling on weaving a thin web around the wand that she was carefully tweaking with her pedipalps to direct the tip.

“I’ve got a question.” Alicia declared. “Just because the new students can’t cast a spell to save their lives is no reason to coddle the rest of us.”

“That wasn’t a question.” Jones noted, casually flipping the wand he was holding it before raising it almost too fast to follow to send a burst of fire past Alicia’s ear to detonate on the wall with a whipcrack. “If you think you’re being coddled after all this time my dear then you simply haven’t been paying attention.”

To be fair to Alicia she hadn’t so much as flinched, which spoke of either nerves of steel or that such demonstrations were a depressing regularity.

“Anyone want to tell me what was interesting about what I just did?” Jones asked, walking up and down the line of students as a hand and a foreleg slowly rose. “Not you Brin.” The hand went back down. “Let’s hear it Hope.”

“Casting speed and trajectory. The casting was close to instant and the spell didn’t waver as a mentally guided spell might.”

“Correct. Had I tried to guide that spell pulling off of my own casting, well I’m not saying Alicia would be injured, but a trip to the barber’s would likely be in order… just for haircutting for clarity, not for injury.” Jones agreed. “I won’t say I haven’t seen mages put together spells at that speed, or with that accuracy, but I will say that I wouldn’t want to fight them. Does that answer your ‘question’ Alicia?” The old man going so far as to use finger-quotes with the click of semi-arthritic digits.

“Yes sir.” The aspiring necromancer replied coldly.

“Good. Also Hope if you try and cast like that you’re going to set yourself on fire. Now any actual questions?”

Cautiously Holly and Alec began to raise their hands before, at a glance from Holly, Alec lowered his, letting the dryad take the question.

“Yes… Holly?” Inferno Jones asked, only pausing for half a second on the name of his new student.

“Alec and I can’t-”

“Also not a question. And yes I’m quite aware of your medical issues, the wands are precharged and take no mana to activate. If they run out just bring them to me to recharge. That goes for the rest of you as well, this isn’t some trial of endurance or magicka pool, today’s lesson is all about… your AIM!”

With that final word he smoothly took a small target from inside his robe and threw it into the air as he smoothly dived clear of any errant spells.

Three bursts of flame crackled towards the target as it rose, two of them going wide as burning splinters cascaded down to the floor.

“Anesh, please stop holding the targets still so you can better line up your shot.” Jones ordered with dry exasperation as he rose to his feet, notably not even having looked back to see what had happened. “It defeats the purpose of the exercise.”

The student gave a defeated sigh, the scars on his hands losing their glow. “You can’t blame a guy for trying.”

“Perhaps not. But Archmage Merida certainly can and will.”

“Understood sir.” The terrified student assured him.

“Good. Now...” He walked over to the target table, “do your best.”

What followed was a lot of fire-blast spells and unsurprisingly very few broken targets. Perhaps the advanced students had good aim with their own offensive spells but the wands were apparently beyond them. The problems were easy to see for Alec and Holly, the quick shots meant they were leading the targets way too much, and the lack of arc on their trajectory, or wobble for that matter, meant that a lot of the blasts were going too high, except for Alicia’s who having seen the probably was instead aiming too low.

And those were just the students that were able to use their wands. Poor Hope was still trying to figure out how to hold her wand, the arachni finally settling for just webbing it to the end of one of her forelegs, making sure the tip was well past the rather hairy end so she wouldn’t set herself on fire and awkwardly trying to direct it without the extra weight making it waver back and forth.

So far she’d not come within two feet of a target and had at least once shot the ceiling. But at least she’d figured out how to actually fire the damned thing. Neither Alec or Holly had been able to find a trigger mechanism, a nodule to move or rune to heat or apply pressure to, and if there was an activation word then the other students could give masterclasses on ventriloquism with how little their lips were moving.

“Cease fire.” Jones ordered, as the first couple of wands ran out of charge. “Everyone form a queue and hand your wand back for recharging.” The teacher addressing each of them as they waited for him to charge it.

“Kristos, it’s not a damned arbalest, just aim straight.

“Anesh, it’s a fast projectile, you don’t need to lead it so much.

“Alicia, get out of your own head.

“Brin, stop being afraid of it. If it breaks it breaks. It’s why Mortimer gets paid more than I do.

“Hope… just keep trying. It’s not fair but you’re going to have to get used to handling standard artifacts.

“Alec and Holly… is there a reason neither of you have attempted a shot yet?”

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A nudge from Holly let Alec know it was his turn to be subject of mentorly attention and disappointment. “We haven’t figured out how yet sir.”

“Ah. First time with a Gardener trigger?” Jones asked for confirmation, getting a nod in return. “It’s thought activated, technically thought and touch, as long as you’re holding it you just have to make the decision to fire it and it will. Which is why it’s vitally important you don’t ever point it at something you don’t want to blow up, you don’t want an errant thought scattering someone across the room.”

As Holly and Alec took their wands back it was a lot more gingerly than when they’d handed them over, both rookie mages eventually settling for aiming the wands at the floor as they waited for permission to try again.

“You know, if we could still share thoughts we could cheat like crazy at this.” Holly observed softly as they waited.

“You’re going to have to run this one past me cause I’m not getting it.” Her soulbonded admitted, grip whiteknuckled on the wand. He doubted he could hit it on the first try but… he wanted to. Badly. So far he’d been more or less useless, unable to even do magic, this was his chance to prove himself good at something.

“Well if you use my eyes as well as yours you can line the shot up better with the added angle, and you can offload hearing and the other extra senses to me so you can focus better. And vice-”

“Fire in your own time!” Inferno Jones yelled as he began throwing.

The first target did get destroyed but it was more by luck than judgement. It turned out when two fire-blasts hit each other midair the explosion was rather large, at least comparatively. Alec’s ears were ringing as he cautiously got back to his feet where the air had buffeted him to the floor, automatically helping Holly up as he surveyed the rest of the gym.

Brin had kept to his feet, though he was bleeding slightly where splinters had torn into him, the ogre’s incredible vitality meant it looked a lot worse than it was, the cuts already starting to heal as the ogre focused a little bit of magic into his wounds.

On the other end of the scale Hope, as the most lightweight and least flexible, had been thrown all the way to the stone wall, managing to crack one of her legs which she was wordlessly binding with her webbing as sticky blue-green haemolmyph oozed through it before she gingerly rose to her feet, injured leg staying off the floor.

Everyone else was fine beyond a couple bruises as they lined back up without having to be told, Alec and Holly following belatedly. Merida hadn’t been kidding about the Necropolis earning its attrition rate, one shard of wood through an eyeball and they’d have transitioned from student to class project.

The next target survived its way across the gym as a fresh set of scorch marks appeared on the walls behind it with Alec still holding his shot, just aiming the wand and tracking it as even Holly tried to blast it just blast it, both her shots just slightly too late.

Weirdly the dryad seemed to have an advantage over the more experienced students, not having years of casting their own spells to bias their aim and instincts.

A third target was thrown, with a fourth following it moments after. Only the former made it to the end of the gym, Alicia managing to land a glancing shot on its fellow that still shattered it to splinters. And still Alec didn’t fire.

“Nicely done Alicia.” Jones said calmly. “Now try and get both at once.”

This time, finally, Alec struck. He’d carefully been watching how fast the bolts went, how far people were leading the targets. But he’d miscalculated, thought triggers might be fast but he’d never used one before, the shot a half second too late where his hesitation had cost him. And his frustration meant that the three follow up shots, whilst commendably fast, missed by over a foot. The only consolation was that noone else landed a shot either.

Another chance at competence blown, the teenager visibly seething as he gritted his teeth to wait for the next throw. This time he didn’t bother trying to nail it in a single shot, everyone else actually stopping fire as he just emptied every charge in the wand in just a few seconds with an infuriated growl, using the shots to adjust and taking out before takings, as well as heating leaving some dents in the wall.

“Nicely done Alec of Reath.” Inferno Jones whistled. “Not what I had in mind and certainly not something I’d recommend outside of an emergency, but there really is no arguing with success. Though I will admit I wasn’t expecting you to be the first to break their wand.”

It was only then that Alec, still panting as he came down from the adrenaline high of his rage, noticed just how hot his hands were. The tip of the wand had exploded and some of the wood was visibly charred all the way to the base, Alec dropping the wand before his fingers got more than just reddened.

The concerning bit was that even Holly was looking at him askance. Damn it but he wished they could still share thoughts, things had been strangely easier when he’d had someone who could advise him in real-time unnoticed. But he’d screwed that up too. Not alone admittedly, but he’d still contributed more than his fair share to that debacle, because again he’d lost his temper. This could be a problem…

*

Izekiel ‘Inferno’ Jones was a veteran pyromancer. Not a once in a generation talent able to hold back the depredations of time by his power alone but experienced enough that when time had begun to claw at him he’d had options. A master of fire, he might not have been able to do the backstroke in the Vulcanis magma chamber like some but he could have happily stood in a bonfire without stress or fear.

Which was how he knew the sweat trickling down his brow had absolutely nothing to do with the temperature in the room.

He’d thought he’d been quite clever introducing the two new students with some wand practice, it was indeed an important skill for a mage. One that the advanced stream seldom got to practice given the general disdain for tools that was instilled in them and he’d figured the mutual unfamiliarity would level the playing field to the point where they wouldn’t feel so inadequate as to be a problem – young Holly had certainly impressed him with her performance.

Alec on the other hand… Alec had scared him. There was a long and storied discussion on whether temperament influenced magic or magic influenced temperament, and Jones didn’t have an opinion either way. What he did know was that, from the moment the teenager had blown up the wand provided, every instinct he had was screaming that Alec was no necromancer but a volatile pyromancer on the verge of detonating – possibly literally.

Necromancers by contrast were renowned for their even tempers, as well as an unhealthy appetite for apathy. It made them resilient to a fault. The Necropolis had suffered siege so often in its past that there was an official chart of in what order its residents should begin eating each other.

It also made them slow to respond and even slower to change. The Necropolis was, in Inferno Jones opinion, a poor place for someone like Alec. But that was the job.

As he got them all to queue up for a fresh recharge, Jones handed over one of the spare wands to Alec, accepting the charred ruin in return, “Now if you lose your temper and destroy this one too you’ll be watching everyone else for the rest of the lesson.” He warned sternly, relaxing slightly as the teenager gave him a slightly embarrassed “yes sir” in response.

“Then I’ll say no more on it. Just focus on accuracy from here on out, and don’t be so afraid to miss. If you never risk anything you’ll never improve.” He told the lad without any real heat. The last thing you did with volatile materials afterall was expose them to fire.

Still he felt bad, not for Alec, but for Hope. In a normal lesson he’d have assigned Brin to throw the targets while he fetched a healer for her leg, the ogre had a hell of a throwing arm and was good natured enough not to mind missing out on his own practice and diligent enough to catch up in his free time so often filled in as assistant when needed.

It wasn’t entirely fair but Jones, and a number of the other teachers, weren’t about to change things. Reliable help was hard to find with advanced students and Inferno Jones had often wondered what genius had decided that grouping together the eclectics and mavericks was a good idea. He’d never voiced that particular complaint though, on the grounds that it was probably Merida.

Still now he was aware that his newest student had a deep well of rage simmering away he was at least able to keep an eye out, and as the lesson ground on with no further incidents beyond Alicia finally managing to nail both targets relax a little further.

*

“Do you want to talk about it?” Holly broached gently as they walked back to their shared room. Neither of them had liked the side-eye they’d been getting from their classmates during dinner, and it hadn’t taken a psychic link for them decide to abscond with a bowlful of a delightfully rich stew for Alec to slowly work his way through.

That was the bit that was really concerning Holly. She’d seen the teenager through some fairly high highs and low lows, and not once had his appetite wavered. Hells above and below she’d watched him eat bread so hard that the only bits that were chewable were the parts with mould on them, so to watch him just staring into his stew as if it might speak the secrets of the universe was unsettling.

Von Mori’s oaths but she wished she hadn’t wrecked the bond between them, language was such a crude way of telling how another was feeling compared to simply darting across their shared soul to take a peak. And so much faster besides.

Instead she was forced to wait a torturous handful of seconds as it seemed that Alec hadn’t even heard her before the teenager slowly looked up in response. “No.” And just like that he was back to staring.

Once again Holly was glad she didn’t have to eat. If she did she was pretty sure she felt sick enough that she’d throw up.