With the power of the professor’s abjuration affinity to supplement my own, I made record progress. Every mistake I made, I was nudged in the right direction to build my skills for the next attempt, and it was almost as easy as learning three new cantrips, instead of three first circle spells.

I suspected that dropping the challenge by roughly a circle would likely be the limit of the affinity’s help, though. Everything had its limits, and based on my sense for Caeruleum’s power, I thought doing more would strain even their angelus-bloodline empowered reserves.

I spent lunch – which was an actual sandwich and fruit – practicing with Xander’s massage, as well as copying the arcane armor, missile, and shield spells into my grimoire, since I was already quite familiar with their spell arrays and casting. I wasn’t able to get all three copied in, not with only two hours, but I got the armor spell and part of the missile spell in.

After that, it was a short hike to the pixie castle, where I took several minutes to cast my shrinking spell – pulling an all nighter to cram the spell in hadn’t given me the firmest grasp on it. Still, I got there in the end, shrinking down until the magic of the castle gripped me and relieved my ether of the ongoing spell cost.

After making my way to the ballroom, I saw three blackboards spread out, with a spell on each one. Professor Toadweather waved cheerfully to me.

“Good, good, you used your own shrinking spell this time! Or maybe you hid the device. Either is good, yes indeed!”

“Thanks professor,” I said. She beamed at me and flitted around the room, before finally landing when the last person arrived.

“Welcome class, welcome! Over the next several classes, we will be going over three incredibly important spells for conjuration as a whole, as they represent the three of the four primary types of conjuration magic – summoning stuff, summoning beings, and compacts.”

“What is the fourth?” the tall treefolk beside me asked. “Why is it not there?”

“Teleportation,” the professor said cheerily. “But that’s… complicated. Even the simplest spell to transport you across space is a second circle spell, Etherius step, and it needs some components.”

She tapped the first spell, then whipped a wand out. A blackish-green glob erupted from its tip and splashed against the wall, where it erupted and stuck.

“Summon goo!” professor Toadweather announced cheerfully. “It summons goo! You can use it as you wish. Tie up your friends and prank your enemies.”

I opened my mouth to ask if she’d gotten it the wrong way around, but then closed it.

She then slowed, moving her hands precisely and chanting, showing us the spell repeatedly, before moving on to the next spell. It was much more complex than summon goo, but I saw some parts similar, while others resembled summon gadhar.

“Summon rat swarm,” professor Toadweather said. “This is where the fun part starts. Can anyone tell me why this spell is more complex?”

“Is it because you’re summoning more things? A whole swarm, not just a ball of goo?” the treefolk next to me asked.

“No, it’s because life is more complicated,” the girl who thought she was descended from a dragon said. “Duh.”

“Hmm, perhaps, perhaps. And yet…”

She pulled out a different color chalk and circled parts of the spell.

“These parts are what do the summoning. As you can see, it is more complex than just summon goo, but not immensely. Mass and magic make summoning things harder, and a rat swarm is not much more of either. So… What do the rest do?”

“Are they what stops the summoned creatures from eating you?” I suggested, then frowned. Some of those spell parts looked awfully similar to the ones in the ritual I was working on. “Or maybe… Determine the bloodline of what you’re calling?”

“Hmm. Close, but not quite. Let me rephrase. Is conjuring a creature slavery?”

“No, they have to choose to answer the call,” I said.

Even I knew that one, the woman who’d taught me how to summon gadhar had impressed the importance of treating the gadhar well for that very reason.

“Right, right. Why would they do that?”

“The magic helps stre…”

It clicked into place.

“Those parts of the spell convert our ether in the spell into power that strengthens their bloodlines,” I said excitedly. “And like you said last time, summoned beings don’t die outside of their home plane. They might feel pain and get annoyed if they’re killed, but they reform unhurt and able to use the power to improve themselves.”

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Professor Toadweather pointed at me excitedly.

“Yes! Yes! Very good. This is the basic foundation for summoning. It’s also – thank Magyk – a safety measure. With most conjuration spells that summon a creature, they have to agree to the rules and restrictions in here. They can’t attack you, and they’ll listen to your orders as long as they’re summoned. But those are orders, which is why you should remember to treat them with care.”

She grew very serious then, giving us a worn, tired smile.

“When I was very young, I was summoned by a very bad man. Very bad indeed. He had me do things I would prefer to not speak of, then tried to summon me again. I could have refused, but we fae do so love revenge. I accepted, and waited. Many things you will summon – fae, demons, celestials, elementals – are very long lived. For four years, I served as a summoned sprite in service to this man, waiting for my chance. Then when he gave me a set of orders I could use to my advantage? I slit his throat.”

She met each of our eyes, one by one.

“This is why you should remember to treat your summoned beings with dignity and respect. The planes are endless, and if you treat them poorly and they refuse to answer, then there’s always another being willing to take a short few minutes or hours out of their immortal life. But… They may not forget. They may even ask their next summoner for your death, in exchange for extra help.”

She pointed to the third and final spell. It was massive and complicated, obviously a ritual.

“And that brings us to the next important bit of magic. Binding spells, which provide a creature the power to stay on this plane even after the initial summoning spell’s magic has faded. There are many types, but this course will cover the first circle familiar spell, and the third circle planar contract. The planar contract spell alone has allowed empires to rise and fall…”

Professor Toadweather let out a dreamy little sigh of contentment, before snapping back to normal.

“But the familiar compact is important as well!”

She patted her toad.

“It semi-permanently lops off a chunk of your ether pool, in exchange for allowing a summoned being to remain on this plane with you. They get safety, experience in another plane, and a bond that gradually but continually strengthens them. They can even discorporate and store themselves in your ether pool! Some… wizards… though I hesitate to call them that, actually devote their entire ether pool to keeping an extraordinarily powerful being as their familiar.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Bah. Only a two bit hack relies on that method. It can make someone dangerous, but it won’t match the versatility or power of a true conjurer.”

“Then why do it at all, professor?” dragon-girl asked. “I mean, it’s bad. You said so.”

“Overusing it is bad. On its own, it’s a great way to have a consistent ally or two. A familiar bond allows you to cast spells through them, as well as see through their eyes. I would advise you to keep a familiar of second circle, and maybe one of first, if you’ve got the ether pool for it. Second circle summoning spells are crucial to the development of a budding summoner, as they’re where beings with the potential to become powerful begin to appear.”

I sat up a little straighter and paid more attention.

“Young demons, angelus, elementals, and fae can be summoned with second circle spells,” professor Toadweather explained. “As such, they make for a perfect familiar and summon. They’re weak, but growing, meaning that the compact you form will empower both of you. More than one wizard has formed a familiar bond, treated them well, helped them grow until they became a vast power of their own. Even if they amicably split the bond later, the wizard had the favor of a power far beyond themselves.”

She sighed dreamily, and I could have sworn that there were sparkling images of a massive fire elemental ripping through a castle flickering in the air behind her.

“Anyhow!” she said. “Some professors prefer a practical approach, allowing each student to discover what the spells do and how they do it via casting. I espouse a deeper view. We are going to break each spell down into bits, then teach you why each part works, and what, if any, parts will show up frequently in future spells, as well as why. If you’ll look here…”

She proceeded to spend the remaining two and a half hours of class going over each spell in exacting detail.

It was… strange..

Until coming here, spells had been few and far between for me. I practiced daily, but I only learned a new one perhaps two or three times a year. It had instilled a certain innate understanding of spellcraft in me, and helped me master my ether shaping. When all you can do is practice the same ten spells all day, you can become very proficient with those ten spells.

This felt like the scientific version of those instincts. I knew a lot of things already, but I didn’t know how I knew, only that I did.

In a way, I felt like professor Caeruleum and professor Toadweather were both working to instill a deep understanding of the spells, just in radically different ways. I thought that I personally connected with the practical application born understanding that professor Caeruleum used, but I could see the value in this method as well.

As class time wound down, professor Toadweather’s wings buzzed in excitement.

“Very good, very good. I want you to study and apply this skill to summon stone, as well as at least one other conjuration spell you already know. Write up a report by next class, and if you succeed, you’ll spend the next class working on actually casting the spells!”

I made a mental note to report on summon stone and summon gadhar over the weekend. Between it, practicing Xander’s massage, spell compression, training my bloodline, the spells professor Caeruleum had taught, studying misfortune magic, visiting the Charm and Fable, and everything else on my list, I was starting to see why pursuing archmage status was generally seen as ill-advised…

I was mentally working to sort everything out, when Jackson interrupted me. He was leaving the brass tower our rooms were in, and his face lit up upon spotting me.

“Hey, Emrys! I was looking for you.”

“What is it?” I asked, a touch annoyed that my mental scheduling was being thrown off.

“Listen. I know you don’t share the same passion for the divine that I do. That’s fine. But I think you should join me on my visit to Effervesce’s church. I was thinking about what Shé Rui had to say, and… Divine boons are often static and passive, like he was saying you should get if you got a new system of power. Just try. Two hours is all I’m asking for.”

For a moment, I felt a flare of annoyance. I had lot to do, and it wasn’t like any deity had helped me. Why should I waste my time groveling?

I clamped down on that immediately. That wasn’t true or fair, but it was a surge of draconic pride. It crippled several members of my family. I wouldn’t let it do the same to me.

I nodded and put on as real of a smile as I could right then.

“Sure, why not?”