Torc was happy with his creations and allowed them to reside within the earth he’d become, but he felt that something was missing. While the dwarves embodied his enduring nature and passion for building, Torc saw that they did not share his passion for progress. The dwarves could plan and build, but they never strove to innovate beyond improving their crafts.

-Unnamed Dwarven Text

—

Kole didn’t let Tal escape with only one pointer. He showed him all his work on reconstructing Shield and Magic Missile.

“Good job, you are making remarkable progress,” Tal congratulated him.

“That’s all?” Kole asked.

“Um… you’re a smart young lad?” Tal added, uncertain of what Kole was asking for.

“I want advice!” Kole demanded.

“Oh! Advice. That makes sense. I do really think you are on the right track. Let me see the other versions you are working on.”

Kole produced the spellforms he’d removed from the old spellbooks he’d found in the library. For a while he’d kept the whole book with him, but he eventually decided no one but he would find value in these old spells and removed the pages for his own convenience. The pages were nested in the back of his spellbook now.

Tal flicked through them, comparing them with Kole’s latest fully repaired spell forms, making thoughtful noises and squinting at them.

He pulled two out and handed them to Kole.

“Toss these out, these spells won’t actually work.”

Kole took them, inspecting them for what Tal saw, but was unable to see it.

“Here,” Tal said, putting two spellforms on the table. “Try these next.”

The older wizard placed his fingers on a few of the spell forms, and his eyes grew distant. He repeated it a few times in quick succession.

“That should help,” he said once he’d finished. “I imbued the constructs I recognized off hand, but you’ll have to do the rest yourself.”

Kole stared in awe from the wizard to the spellforms and back. The man had just saved him weeks possibly more, depending on how long he would have worked futilely on those incomplete spells.

Was it this easy? Could I have just asked him before?

“Any more questions?” Tal asked with a knowing smile.

“Ummm, what do you know about ensouled artifacts?”

“That’s a bit of an open-ended question. How about you tell me what you want to know.”

Kole hesitated only a moment. If Zale was right and he’d begun to Bond to this book, he didn’t need to fear Tal taking it from him. Everyone knew only artifacts made by the evil and cruel could be stolen through betrayal and deception. He didn’t think he was some paragon of virtue, but he seriously doubted he’d be able to Bond something like that. He gestured to his spellbook.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Zale told me this is an ensouled artifact and that I’ve begun to Bond to it. I thought it was just a book made of the magic paper they use throughout the school.”

“May I?”

Kole nodded, and Tal picked up the book, flipping through its pages.

“I think she’s correct,” he said, as he looked closely at the ink. “This paper is perfect. Does it produce its own ink yet?”

“Yet?” Kole asked.

“I just meant to say, I assume that’s something it could do eventually. Ensouled artifacts gain abilities as your Bond grows. A book producing its own ink, and creating more pages seems like something it would gain the ability to do.”

“Have you encountered another magic spellbook like this before?”

“I have stumbled on magical spellbooks a time or two,” he said, trying to hide a grin. “They are rare, but as you interact with the powerful, you encounter a concentration of magical artifacts. Did it have any messages from the previous owner?”

“No…” Kole said, for the first time realizing that to be odd.

Who would create an ensouled artifact, then never use it, leaving it blank?

“… it must have been erased. Maybe with its bearer’s death?”

“That seems possible, but I think that too might be something that’s revealed over time.”

They spoke a while longer, theorizing on what he might do to learn more of its magics. Kole mentioned some things he’d seen Theral do with his, such as creating origami objects at will. He spoke as though they were ideas he’d just had.

“By now, I wouldn’t be surprised by anything an ensouled artifact did,” Tal said, the conversation reaching a lull. “I think you already know this, but I would be remiss to not say something. Don’t let it be widely known you have that. While it is common knowledge that artifacts can’t be stolen and used, that doesn’t mean they can’t be stolen and sold. It’s been known to happen, though it only works if the recipient wasn’t involved in the murder or theft. You are not yet able to defend yourself from the types of people who traffic in such work.”

“Oh…” Kole said, at a loss for words.

He was used to hiding things, he was even good at it, but he hadn’t thought this needed to be a secret, but he hadn’t considered the resale angle.

Tal excused himself, going to speak to Amara who had been eagerly waiting for her turn to press him with even more questions. Kole excused himself when Amara began to run some of her ideas for self-defense items by him.

He got to work immediately, starting over with Thunderwave from the beginning. Starting over hurt his sense of progress. The last month with no distractions had been great, and he’d planned on spending the entire weekend pushing himself to finish the spell, but now that didn’t seem likely. He almost reconsidered but… Tal hadn’t taken him on as an apprentice, but he had finally given Kole actual detailed advice. It would be foolish of him to ignore it now.

Zale noticed Kole practicing Thunderwave and came to sit near him, meditating to sense the Font.

Sometime later, Kole was pulled from his vault by a nudge.

“Let’s go,” Rakin said, already walking out of the room.

Kole noticed then that the room was empty save for them.

“Where’d everyone go?” Kole asked.

“They left. Zale went to go ‘train’ with Harold,’ Rakin said, doing air quotes with his hands when he said “train.”

“And everyone else?”

“I don’t know. I’m not your secretary. Next time I might just let you stay here all night.”

Kole smiled at the dwarf’s comments. His surly nature was starting to grow on him.

Instead of being disappointed at being left, Kole found himself excited. He had a whole weekend of uninterrupted studying ahead.

Back in his room, Kole was pleased to find it vacant of rat and human residents. He poured himself a bowl of oatmeal from the magic jug and got to work.

***

Sometime late on Sunday night, a bleary-eyed Kole stumbled into the shooting range in the Dahn. Completely devoid of Will from the weekend-long study session, he held a clarity potion in his hand, debating on whether or not to take it. He only had three, and he was saving them for important occasions, but... he really wanted to try it.

Before he could think better of it, he chugged the potion, and basked in the banishment of his headache and lessening of his fatigue.

“Alright,” he said to himself, rubbing his hands together.

He extended his hand out to the target and spoke the verbal components of the newest version of Magic Missile.

“Roh-Ta-Ko.”

He sent the spell through his bridge. The pull of the Font of Illusions was noticeably less, and before he’d even finished, he knew he’d succeeded.

Three bolts of magic shot out of his hand in quick succession, poking coin-sized holes in the practice dummy

And then, he did it again.