Lakan sat in his bedside chair, looking out the window as the sun rose. His room was perched two floors up on a mansion that was located on a floater, and watching the sunrise was one of his favorite activities, The way the light caught the thousands of roofs that went around for miles never got old for him.
It had been two weeks since they'd returned to Aku'anda and he'd been healing nicely. Today was the day they were going to bump him up to rapid healing, and within days he would be good as new. He got a wave from Binko.
"Hello, carved up chicken." She said.
"That's a terrible nickname, it's never going to stick." He said back to her. She laughed.
"Segi is getting cured today. Wanna see how it goes?" she asked.
"Nah, not interested." He said.
"Oh come on, Lakan," she said. "you're coming to the hospital anyway! I'll see you there!"
She jumped off the wave before he could protest. He groaned and shook his head.
An hour later he was at the hospital, on a wheelchair, He was surprised to see a large number of war mages present. Hark, Binko, Sir Manjun, Regar, Mullam, Deiyon, and many more,
"What are you rascals doing here?" He asked as he wheeled himself into the reception area.
"Hey, pork chop" Regar called. "How are you doing?"
"I'm too cool for these lame nicknames guys." He laughed, groaning as the pain followed. "In two weeks all of you nerds are going to look up to me again." he joked.
Altey walked in at that point and everyone stood up and clapped, hailing him. The healers on duty started shushing them.
"Guys! seriously." Altey said, embarrassed, He covered one side of his face and found his seat. Segi was in the operating room where the healers were currently extracting the arcanite from her body. Altey had spent the past week working with the Elite Healers, teaching them how to deactivate the guardrails that Ganz's men had built into those spells so they could use their expertise to get rid of it properly.
Lakan was wheeled to his own appointment with a nurse who checked his vitals using various complex magical spells specific to her field. Then she cleared him for advanced healing, and he was wheeled into another room where they worked on him, casting multiple spells to induce his body to accelerate healing. It hurt like hell and even after, he felt the constant heat inside his stomach as his body worked overtime to fix itself.
He was released just in time, everyone was heading to Segi's room to watch her cast her first spell in almost a month.
They crowded around her bed and watched her take out a spell for a palm top whirlwind. It was a simple fun spell that even kids knew. it involved putting a bit of dust on one's palm and invoking the spell while holding one's hand just in front of their mouth. The spell spun air around for a few seconds, kicking up the dust and making it look like a tiny whirlwind.
Segi went through that whole process, and everyone held their breath as she whispered the spell. for a split second nothing happened, and then the paper ignited furiously, and the dust spun up, the room erupted in an excited uproar. Segi smiled, teary eyed. Regar and Hark jumped on Altey in excitement.
As the healers on duty came in to shush them, because they were in a hospital after all, Binko hugged Segi.
"Welcome back." She said quietly. Segi nodded and sniffed, wiping her tears off with her blanket.
---
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On the other side of Aku'anda, in the Yemaye district, Lord Daron was walking to Hall Bolak for a Lord Mage meeting, he decided to take a detour and buy some oranges to snack on.
"Hello there! How much are these?" he asked, pointing to the oranges.
"300 jowon apiece Sir." The shopkeeper replied. Lord Daron did a double take.
"What? 300?" he exclaimed.
"Yes sir, things have been getting more expensive at the markets." The shopkeeper replied.
Lord Daron bought one less orange than he wanted, and pouted all the way to the meeting.
"They've taken Keltu." Lord Fugap said as the meeting started. "That makes it six Pirun towns now under Ganz."
"They've also began to block some of the trade from those places. Kanam's trade was completely blocked, they restricted some of the trade from Keltu and Okanyak." Lord Defon said.
"It's starting to reflect in the market." Lord Vikitor said. "Yesterday coconuts were 300 jowons, that's outrageous! People will soon start to complain."
Lord Daron gripped his oranges in silent agreement.
"For goodness sake, Lord Vikitor." Lord Kardo exclaimed. "Only certain fruits and tubers have become more expensive. We don't get all our goods from Pirun."
"The prices will go back down eventually, our traders will reroute through Seyrule." Lord Defon said, standing at the podium.
"Perhaps you've spent too much time buried in books, Lord Defon?" A Lord said. "Our fruit goes through Pirun right now precisely because THAT is the cheapest way to do it. You'll never be able to move goods cheaper on land than through the Pirunese Rivers."
"We are being too complacent. We need to start ousting this man's men from these places." Lord Fugap said.
"No, we need to cut it off at the root." Lord Vikitor said. "Get rid of Ganz, and his group of criminals will disperse."
"His group is made up of highly skilled war mages with no affliation to any kingdoms." Lord Kardo remarked. "Even if we eradicate Ganz, those are loose ends that are too dangerous to leave untied."
"We need action now." Lord Defon said. "Our easiest option is to liberate Kanam. There is a spell dampener in place, it should be easy. We send an overwhelming force down there and clear the place out. What do you say, My Lords?"
There was a murmur of approval and nods.
"All in favor?" Lord Defon said, most hands went up. He nodded. "Good. We also need to find Ganz, I suggest sending a group after him as well."
"The current leader of the Elite Mages, Segi Arabambi is undergoing a procedure to restore her magic as we speak." Lord Daron said. "She has a vendetta against Ganz, so if her procedure goes well, she will be first in line to go."
"Perfect." Another Lord said. "We may owe the Sungans an apology. If we'd listened to them and done this earlier..."
"Let bygones be bygones." Lord Defon interjected. "I don't think there's anything else to discuss, Therefore let the house rise..."
---
It had been months since the new class of Warfare had resumed, and most of the class could now concentrate almost eight percent of a buddle into a sphere. Mage Saulmon was exceedingly pleased. He'd lied to them about how much buddle they could actually concentrate, as he did to every set, and this particular set was the first one that got within two units of the inflated value.
He was currently in front of them, teaching them how to go above that.
"Which one of you can tell me the factors that contribute to the complexity of a spell?" He asked.
"How much energy it contains?" Dodi suggested.
"Yes, that's correct. More energetic spells require stronger structures that add more runic sequences to the spells. Anyone else?"
"The rate at which the energy is dispersed?" Zoyi suggested.
"Correct again, Zoyi. Of course, every spell in its basic form has an equilibrium decay rate. The further away from this you go, the more complexity you have to include in the runic sequences in order to prevent the spell from fizzling out. Anyone else?"
"I guess the unfolding speed contributes as well?" Nyubi offered.
"Correct again. The faster you want the spell to fully materialize, the more complex the runic sequences it tends to be. Not always, but often." He replied.
"Doesn't the amount of energy a spell contains slow down how fast it unfolds?" Zoyi asked.
"Yes Zoyi, that's... usually correct. Which is why we have to add more runic sequences to speed that up, which makes the spell as a whole more complex." Mage Saulmon.
The class was silent.
"Well? There's one more major factor, students. You're not done." He said.
They looked at each other in confusion.
"Oh, no one knows?" He asked. "Apart from energy content, energy decay rate, and unfolding rate, there's one more. No ideas?"
They murmured amongst themselves for a second, and then Dodi hazarded a guess.
"Construct complexity?" he ventured.
"Of course Dodi. That's correct." Mage Saulmon laughed. "I'm surprised that was the last one you students got. it seems to be the most obvious one, eh? You can imagine, making a spell that generates a white hot ball is going to be simpler than making a spell that generates a green, cold, leaf shaped construct."
There were Ahhs and Oohs from the students, who grinned in embarrassment.
"So now, keeping these in mind, we will now learn how to bind more energy, get you on your way to casting your first powerful spells." He said. The students nodded in excitement.