But, even the Tower lost its way. The politics of that are outside the subject of this paper, but the source of it all was sorcerers. Some foul necromancer working in hiding in the Tower discovered that sorcerer's bones animated far easier than any other intelligent creature. When this got out—after the necromancer was discovered, executed and his notes surveyed—the study of sorcerer's bodies became the focus of all departments.
-Tallen Elmheart, On Mages
—
In the end, Kole found a simple solution to his sweaty problem. The martial college had a shower facility that students enrolled in any of its classes could use for free. training clothes were available to rent for a small fee each semester. You could pick up a clean set in the morning, go to class, bathe, trade them in, and run off to your next class tidy as a freshly Cleaned wizard.
They offered this to remove any barrier that might come between a student and their learning. No one wanted to sit next to a stinky student in a lecture hall, and fewer still wanted to be the stinky one. This resolved one of the problems remaining from Kole's library squatting.
After sorting the bathing situation out, a reluctant but clean Kole handed over the entry fee to the dining hall in the martial college. He'd yet to restock after his rat problem and the morning's training had left him ravenous. He ate his fill and then stuck some extra rolls and fruit into his bag for good measure before running off to the next class.
He didn't want to be late to "WIZ 105 Advanced First Tier Combat Wizardry."
The name was a mouthful but Kole was both excited and nervous. Excited for the potential opportunities he'd have to learn, but nervous his deficiency would be found out and he'd fall behind yet again. The curriculum would be demanding but he had high hopes he could keep pace with the new spells he'd found.
With conflicted emotions, Kole sat waiting early as students filled in one of the smaller rooms of the lecture floor of the Dahn filled in.
"Hey, you're the guy Professor Lonin pulled aside during admissions!"
Kole turned to the voice. While most of his classmates were a year or two older than Kole, the speaker looked to be around Kole's own age and size, but where Kole was a bit scrawny, this student had a bit of muscle on his frame. He reminded Kole of the students who took up fencing back home. It was only after that thought that Kole noticed the rapier hilt at the boy’s hip, proving his initial hunch. The boy had sandy blond hair, cut short, and he looked at Kole with eager interest.
Embarrassed yet again, Kole simply answered, "Yeah..."
"You're going for adventuring track. Right? That's why he passed on you."
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Kole asked, the embarrassment at being called out subsiding.
"I saw you in Intro to Alch, P.F. Basin history, and Martial 101. Now you're here. That's the curriculum of someone who wants to be an adventurer. I'm Gray.”
The eager young man had moved to a closer desk and extended his hand out for a shake, which Kole reciprocated.
“I’m Kole, and yeah, you’re right.”
“Well, I’m glad to meet you. There aren’t a whole lot of us—wizards seeking to be adventurers that is. There are a lot less risky ways to become rich and powerful.”
Kole just nodded. Kole felt this was an invitation to volunteer his own motivations, but he wasn’t feeling up to opening up to yet another stranger about his parents.
Thankfully, he was saved by the arrival of the professor.
In one moment the front of the room was empty, and in the next a middle-aged halfling stood addressing the class, causing everyone to jump.
“Welcome to Advanced First Tier Combat Wizardry. I’m Master Underbrook, but I won’t take offense if addressed as ’professor.’ I will be teaching this class, so let's get right to it.”
"This is advanced first-tier wizardry, so look around at your peers."
He waited in silence until the students looked at each other awkwardly.
"Each of you are exceptional. To be in this class, you must be under seventeen and able to cast two first-tier wizardry spells. The average wizard doesn't learn their first spell until sixteen, but you all know that. Each of you has some advantage. Sorcerers, Blessed, alchemical enhancements, or pure and simple genius. But, that will not be enough. At the upper ranks of mages, everyone is exceptional. If you wish to excel, you can't let your advantages make you complacent.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“The syllabus had all the requirements for the class, so I won’t waste our valuable time going over that now. You are all here because you wish to learn the basic tools for magical combat. Some of you may be aspiring siege wizards or adventurers, while others may simply wish to learn self-defense. No matter the motivation, you are about to embark on a tradition as old as magic itself. Sorcerers were the first of the Illusian races to wield the power of the Fonts, and as is the nature of their powers, those abilities manifested in times of life-threatening need. Now, thousands of years later, we will continue that tradition—with a lot more refinement.”
The professor continued the lecture, speaking the whole time and not wasting a moment as promised. He went over the pros and cons of each Font and their uses both offensively and defensively. The first week, each student was to select the spells they wished to learn this semester and write an essay explaining the justification. They needed to know three combat spells by the end of the semester, and with Magic Missile and Shield, Kole was already two-thirds of the way there—if you ignore the small detail that he couldn’t practically cast those in combat without exhausting all his Will.
Kole was hopeful he’d be able to resolve that issue, so he listened attentively as the professor spoke, making a list of pros and cons for each Font. He wanted something that could disable or move his enemies, or something that would improve his mobility, but he couldn’t settle on which would be better.
When the class ended, Professor Underbrook simply vanished as suddenly as he’d appeared.
“I’m going to the spell range, would you care to join me?”
Kole turned to see Gray behind him. He ran through the interaction through his head, skeptical of outward signs of friendship from a life as a pariah. But, in the end, he realized he was being too suspicious. No one knew of him here, and unless this student had very strong opinions about punctuality, it was unlikely he was harboring some secret grudge.
“Sure,” Kole said, gesturing for Gray to lead the way.
Together they walked through the hall that ringed the teaching floor of the Dahn, discussing the day's lesson and potential spells they wanted to learn. Gray was fairly set on his selection for the class and acted as a sounding board for Kole. Kole had always been so desperate to find any spell that he could cast, that he’d long ago put aside thoughts of effective combinations, so the exercise was new for him.
The door to the practice range at first appeared to be just like any other door to a lecture hall, but it opened instead to another hallway which seemed to go on forever. It was lined on both sides with doors and large floor-to-ceiling windows into the rooms. Some of the windows were opaque, fogged to obscure the view inside, but through others, Kole saw students of all ages casting magic out down long halls.
“Some of the rooms at the far end are larger,” Gray explained. “For practicing larger spells. There's even one that can open into the void but they don’t let just anyone use it. Activating it can cause the occasional outsider attack from aberrations… and sometimes it drives people insane.”
Kole shuddered at the mention. While voidlings were technically outsiders, Kole held no particular fear or animosity towards the humanoid breed of beings from beyond the known realms. The aberrations, however, had left a deep scar on the collective consciousness of the people of Illandrios.
Gray noticed the subtle motion and stopped his explanation, then his eyes lit up.
“You’re from Illandrios, aren’t you?” Gray said, connecting the dots.
Kole nodded, and Gray continued.
“Don’t worry. That hardly ever happens and the Dahn is able to repel them even without the intervention of the Masters... usually.”
The last line gave lie to the confidence in his voice.
“Here we are,” Gray said, changing the topic as he opened a vacant door.
The room was simple, basically a long narrow hall with a stone dummy at the end.
"So far I've learned Mage Armor," Gray began. "I'm a sorcerer as well, and I can cast Ice Bolt."
"Is that common?" Kole asked, jumping on the change in topic.
"Being a sorcerer? Not so much in general, but like the professor said, as you get the higher levels we become more common."
At that moment, Kole realized he'd made a huge mistake. Thus far—aside from Jurin and Amara... and Lonin—he'd kept his abilities private.
Flood, did I tell Zale? No.
Alright, he'd tried to keep his abilities private. But, once more he'd put himself in a position where he had to reveal some part of himself. He weighed his options. The ridicule he’d suffered back home hadn’t specifically been about his primal nature. His original fear about his secret coming out here was that he wouldn’t be admitted, but Lonin hadn’t stopped him.
As if tracking Kole’s train of thought—or at least part of it, he’d fallen down a bit of a rabbit hole in that moment—Gray asked, “What about you?”
“A Sorcerer? Yes, I am.”
“I thought so!": Gray said, proud of his deduction, “What spells do you know?”
“I know Magic Missile and Shield, and a lot of cantrips,” Kole said, hoping to at least deflect.
“Wow, those are useful. Ice Bolt is useful, but not so great when fighting armored foes. I hope one day I will manifest Cone of Cold. Which one is from your sorcery?”
Flood.
“Neither... I have another spell, but... I’d rather not share it if it's alright with you.”
Gray looked a little disappointed, but this wasn’t the most uncommon request. Many adventurers kept some aspect of their abilities secret, it was only strange for someone as young as Kole to have something worthy of secrecy.
Gray decided it was time to do what they came for, and began to send Ice Bolts down range, where they stuck the golem and exploded into shards of ice which vanished into a fog.
Gray continued firing down the range until he’d cast the spell five times. Kole was impressed by other young wizard’s Will reserves. He had to have around 25, which was just over half Kole’s, but easily double any other no-sorcerous wizard of his age.
“I’m tapped out,” Gray said, breathing a little heavily. “Your turn.”
Letting out a sigh, Kole walked to the front of the room.
Kole turned back to Gray, looking slightly abashed before starting to cast the spell. Just then, a scream broke out from the hall. They both turned to look out the window to see students running for the exit. Without a second thought, or glance to Kole, Gray bolted for the door and Kole followed.