Mage Saulmon stood in the open field in front of the new School of Warfare”. Far off in the distance, several large halls loomed, including Hall Bolak, the largest. But right in front of him, stood the six top students who had made the cut. They stood strong in front of him as a soft wind flapped around their clothes.
“Students, You’ve spent the past three months working on your spell-binding fundamentals.” He began. “It’s time to learn about powerful spells.”
Grins of excitement appeared on their faces, finally things were starting to get interesting. Dodi, Lord Daron Fulba’s son grinned the widest.
“We’ve categorized powerful spells as spells that cannot be cast under a spell dampener.” Mage Saulmon began. “The main reason is that these spells concentrate so much energy in a small volume to be able to execute that they are wiped out by spell dampeners. Are you following?”
They nodded.
“Powerful spells are not necessarily effective.” He continued. “A simple blade can be more dangerous than a cannon, after all. A good war mage is one that uses the best spells, not the most powerful ones.”
A hand shot up-Nyubi’s.
“Yes?” Mage Saulmon asked.
“Sir… what’s a cannon?” She asked. Mage Saulmon chuckled.
“Well, Nyubi, that’s a great question.” He answered. “About three hundred years ago, before powerful spells were commonplace, people used to build large metal pipes that would launch heavy balls into the enemy camp. It was heavy and extremely inefficient, and required many people to power it, as well as various explosive powders that had to be properly transported.”
The students were in awe, except Dodi, who had read multiple books on the history of warfare in Gan.
“It’s very fitting that you should learn about powerful spells in this context.” mage Saulmon said. “They were phased out during the formation of the Gan Empire, when War Mages first emerged as a powerful force. The first Mages were actually just another section of the army, made to assist the warriors of old, who often wore heavy armor, rode on horses and brandished spears, Over the next hundred years however, Magic developed into an immensely powerful force, This is why warfare is now almost exclusively a magical affair.”
There was a short silence as the students pondered what he’d said, but then he continued.
“The most important type of powerful spell is called a field spell, And even though you will eventually learn many different kinds of powerful spells, Field spells will be both the best and worst kinds of spells you will ever have to learn.” He continued. “A field spell is simply a spell that covers a specified area, and within that area, is able to bend the laws of nature. In fact, you currently live under a field spell, and you’ve lived under it for most of your lives. Indeed, a spell dampener is a field spell.”
The students marveled. Some of them looked up at the blue sky.
“Well, obviously you can’t see it.” Mage Saulmon laughed. “The first rule of field spells is that every field spell has a hard boundary. They do not fall off like their cousins, the bent field spells, which we’ll talk about later. Field spells have a real inside, and outside. You can think of a field spell as a soap bubble. There is a thin membrane made of magical energies, there is an inside, where the magic takes place, and an outside, where the magic does not take place.”
The students nodded. He continued.
“It is often possible to bounce membranes of two adjacent field spells, and Just few months ago, a monumental discovery was added to our annals of knowledge by Mage Roska Yegen, showing that it was possible to reshape the boundary of a field spell, even if you aren’t the spell caster, and even to attach yourself to said boundary. This has immense ramifications for the future of magical warfare, but things are still too early to decide.”
"Sir, are you going to teach us how to do it?" Nyubi asked. Mage Saulmon laughed, telling her that it was an advanced spell that they wouldn't even understand until they graduated.
"For today, we will begin with the simplest form of a powerful spell. A simple spell that concentrates energy into an infinitesimally small sphere. We call this the point energy." Lord Saulmon began. "Under a spell dampener, the maximum theoretical energy that can be stored in a point energy is about 1 [[Buddle]]. That's about as much energy as is required to vaporize one gram of water, so it's not very much. In practice, it's even smaller, at your level most of you will only be able to concentrate ten percent of a buddle. So, with all of that said, let us begin."
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While the students were learning how to concentrate their first point energy, Lakan was approaching Hark's house in a jetcoach. Hark lived on a floater in the Inoko district, which was near Yemaye. it took about three minutes from the jetcoach station for them to dock at the grounds. Lakan got off and was greeted by the grounds master for the household.
"Mage Lakan, Welcome to the Gallint household, I suppose you are here to see Sir Harken?"
"Yes that's correct." Lakan said. "Is he around?"
"Yes he is, please come inside and wait in the guest room, he will join you shortly." Lakan was directed towards the house, which was a tall, double storey building with the usual Aku'andan facade, geometric steel and brass patterns with a starburst at the center, tall columns, white walls and brass window framings, with black doors.
White stairs led to the front door which was centered on twin balconies with luxurious white and brown sofas, and numerous plants in pots.
He entered the foyer and turned left into the guest room. it had tall windows to the balcony outside, and more to the side. There were books in shelves in the guest room, a tall table adorned with fruits tea, packets, and some shelves to the side that housed various snacks and juices.
Lakan grabbed a biscuit on one of the shelves and sat down on one of the chairs. He picked up a book from one of the shelves, a book of portraits, he reclined into one of the sofas in the room and read as the grounds master went to get Hark.
After about fifteen minutes, Hark showed up in the guest room wearing his white and blue striped pajamas and a blue sleeping cap. Lakan raised an eyebrow.
"You've been sleeping since yesterday evening?" Lakan asked.
"Actually I couldn't sleep." Hark said, relaxing on a chair opposite Lakan. "How's the biscuit?"
"It's soft." Lakan replied.
"Damn it," Hark said. "My dad's guests are all diabetics at this point, none of them will eat the snacks."
Lakan laughed. "Sounds like you need to start having more guests of your own, or start a snack charity." He said. Hark sighed.
"So why couldn't you sleep?" Lakan asked.
"I talked to Roska yesterday." Hark replied. "She doesn't understand how a wave spell can be intercepted. She doesn't understand how a twelve way link can work, and she has still not found a way to counter the way Ganz bent the field spell, despite months of work. She's overwhelmed, and so am I."
Lakan stood up and went to the shelf, he grabbed two glasses, and a bottle of wine.
"Vembu wine?" He asked Hark. "or Tayinadar?"
"Lakan, it's 10 o'clock in the morning." Hark replied.
"Okay then." Lakan said, putting back one glass, going back to his seat and pouring himself a glass of wine and taking a drink.
"So my theory of Ganz is simply that he's been working on this problem for longer than we have. That and he has a team of highly skilled warfare mages." He said. "We just need to throw a large amount of brains at the problem."
"Doesn't that bother you though?" Hark asked. "How does some random dude from literally nowhere have the knowledge and skill of elite war mages?"
"It bothers me, Hark." Lakan replied. "It bothers me like crazy. I always just assumed that the sheer difficulty of attaining elite war skills would lock out criminals from having those powers. I mean in theory all of the knowledge we have is freely available, but..."
"Maybe that was a bad idea. Should we push for bans on warfare books across libraries?" Hark asked.
"that would be a massive political nightmare." Lakan replied. taking another drink from his cup. "Especially with the older generation Aku'andans that are obsessed with their freedom for all mantra."
"Tell me about it," Hark sighed. "Remember when the Lady Mages tried to institute a minimum tree policy on floaters? My dad and his friends threatened to stop paying their infrastructure tax if they went through with it."
"Don't you guys already have a ton of trees here?" Lakan asked.
"Yes we do. They really just don't like being told what to do, even if they're already doing it." Hark said.
Both men sighed.
"That brings me to why I'm actually here, Hark." Lakan said. "We need to sniff out Ganz, Hark, there's no way around it."
Hark pinched his forehead in frustration, it had to happen anyway. "What's the plan?"
"I talked to Segi to find out how exactly she got poisoned." Lakan said. "She got served a drink that was poisoned with arcanite while she was undercover, she drank it without checking it."
"yikes." Hark said.
"She didn't know the person was a Ganz insert. it was the bartender, of all people, Not even I could have seen that coming." Lakan said.
"So when she drank the arcanite, what happened?" Hark asked.
"Nothing." Lakan said.
"Nothing?" Hark asked.
"Yes, the arcanite needed to be activated with spell. " Lakan said. "What we need to do is clear, No drinks from strangers, substance analysis every-time we ingest anything, also we should do a skin tight magic armor, those guys can try injecting us if we don't accept their drinks. We watch each other's backs, and we can do this."
"Your idea is great and all, I'm just thrown off by Ganz." Hark said. "He always seems one step ahead."
"Well, General Makon showed that wasn't always the case." Lakan said.
"General Makon is dead now." Hark said. Both men looked at each other.
Lakan poured another glass and downed it in one gulp. He stood up.
"You only live once, Hark." He said. "If the last thing we do is bring down Ganz, I'd say that's a good enough life, yeah?"
"I haven't even had a romantic relationship yet." Hark whined.
Lakan laughed. "Skill issue, my friend. I've had six girlfriends already, and even more flings. I've enjoyed my fair share of life. It's time to do something meaningful."
Hark was still hesitant.
"Alright, I'll set you up with a hot girl from Catcres if we make it back." Lakan offered.
"You don't know any girls from Yemaye?" Hark asked.
"Oh you want nerdy girls? well, that can be arranged." Lakan chuckled. "come on Hark, I need you on this." he said, extending a hand to Hark.
Hark groaned, then stood up and clasped Lakan's hand.
"Alright let's do it."
Lakan grinned and nodded.