With Aurial, deep in her waters, Assuine and Illunia created the race of seafolk. The seafolk were a people content, like their god. They did not long for wealth or power like the races that were to come after but lived simple lives beneath the sea, which provided for all their needs.

-Unnamed Dwarven Text

—

WIZ 105, typically Kole's favorite class, seemed to have chosen to pile on his difficulties. The class was a general study of first-tier wizardry with a focus on combat applications. As such it covered topics from spell construction to the types of magic best used in any given situation. Kole was more than qualified for the topics on spell construction, his skill in the matter had even caught the eye of Professor Lonin. There was, however, one area of spell construction he was wholly inept at, both in knowledge and ability.

Offset bridge spell construction.

Kole listened on as Professor Underbrook spoke about the topic and the amazing advances it provided wizards, terror growing throughout. If any sort of practical test was required, he was doomed.

"The earliest spells were crude constructions, bulky spell effects guided to the Fonts of traditional wizards using winding roundabout paths. Without spellforms to study or a formal system of Will measurements from the time, it's hard for any to judge how efficient their spells were compared to modern spells, but we do know that wizardry in its infancy couldn't hold a candle to sorcery.

Kole thought it strange that no one had bothered studying traditional wizardry. He'd read through some of the old spell books Theral kept in his room, and it hadn't seemed as hard as he expected to recreate the spells from the text descriptions—though he’d only dabbled in his attempts. Was it really such a disregarded field?

"The discovery of the gates was a cornerstone of modern wizardry, but the discovery alone wasn't enough to truly revolutionize the art. Gates allowed any wizard to learn any constructed spell, regardless of their own affinities. However, the nature of the Arcane Realm made gates and paths difficult to communicate with others, making collaboration impossible.

"With the development of spellforms, the concept of which the Coterie of the Midlian Empire learned from the dwarves, wizardry exploded, and wizards supplanted sorcerers as the premier magic users."

Professor Underbrook sent his illusory explosions into the air to emphasize his words.

"The Flood halted the progress, and the Tower strangled innovation, but since the Disavowment of the Tower and the end of its influence in the Last Dragon War, that ended. Spellforms quickly became wildley known, no longer hoarded jealously, and ideas were shared openly.

"It's from this time we learned to create support structures in spell constructs to make them more efficient, pathing techniques were developed, and verbal and somatic components were made highly efficient. All of these reduced the average Will cost of a spell by a quarter! But, it was the offset gate technique that we are learning about today.

He went on to explain the technique in great detail, but to Kole, it boiled down to this:

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Wizards could open their bridge to a specific part of the Arcane Realm, i.e. a gate. Something Kole could only do with extreme Will expenditures. They learned that with a little more Will, they could open the bridge to a location near a gate, closer to the target Font from which they wished to draw power. This allowed the path component and the spell effect component to be much simpler. Since Will cost is multiplicative, the dual reduction was amplified.

Unless you were Kole—or a primal of any sort he supposed.

That "little" bit of extra Will was amplified to some amount so high, that he'd yet to successfully open an offset gate, and he'd even tried after his Will surpassed 40. It was only after Kole discovered spells predating this method that he'd gained any hope of being a wizard.

Before this newest method, spell construction theory had already been making the spells simpler and more unwieldy, relying on the developments of complicated pathing techniques to make up for the difference, resulting in higher efficiencies. and so had begun Kole's journey through wizardry's past.

“So, for your assignment,” Underbrook said at the end of his lecture, “I want each of you to create the spellform for an offset gate.”

Kole winced, but it wasn’t so bad, he could make spellforms, he just couldn’t cast them.

“I have decided that it would be in all of your best interest if I added more study into spell construction into the curriculum. So, we will be using these as the basis to create a spell for the second semester of the class.”

“Flood,” Kole cursed aloud, drawing attention from those around him, and a mocking smile from Gray.

***

The rest of the week, Kole spent all his free time trying to catch up on classes, meeting sporadically with the others on his team to discuss a plan for the upcoming sea journey.

In one of these meetings, Kole finally got around to asking Doug for help in harvesting plants.

They went to the Glade, through the great tree, and found some wild plants to practice on. Zale accompanied them, seeking to improve her abilities as well.

Kole was terrible, but Doug was a far more patient teacher than Pale Oak.

“She’s a bit of a hard head for a dryad,” Doug admitted when Kole spoke of his experience. “But, in her defense, you are quite terrible.”

“Thanks…”

“It’s fine, it’s not that complicated,” Doug assured him.

“You know that doesn’t make me feel any better, right?”

“Sorry. What I mean is, I learned as a kid.”

“Are you trying to make me feel worse?” Kole asked, genuinely confused why what Doug was getting at.

“I mean, I grew up in the forest, and learned as a kid. You grew up in Illandrios. Did you even have plants?”

Finally seeing Doug’s point—as obscured as it was—Kole nodded in understanding.

“A few, but we were taught to leave them alone.”

“That’s my point, it’s not hard, everyone else just had a head start.”

If Kole improved any that day, he couldn’t tell but was grateful for Doug’s assistance.

Once they’d packed up and prepared to leave, Doug stood by, not moving to guide them out.

“Something wrong?” Zale asked.

Kole looked around the clearing, searching for a threat.

“No, I had a question. I needed advice,” Doug said, scratching at the base of his antler.

“How would I go about courting Mouse?”

“Mouse?” Kole and Zale both said in surprise.

Zale recovered from her surprise first.

“I didn’t know you knew each other,” Zale said.

“We have a few classes together,” Doug answered. “She’s just… so wonderful.”

Zale gave a thoughtful hum.

“Hmm, that’s a difficult question. She’s… a bit different.”

“Oh, I know,” Doug said, getting over his embarrassment.

“What would you do back home?”

“Back home? I’d probably be getting married soon, arranged by my parents with another tribe of demonkin. I was thinking, maybe I would give her this.“

Doug pulled out a long-wrapped object from his bag.

“Gifts are good,” Zale said, taking the parcel.

She unwrapped it and froze, cocking her head as if it would change what she held.

“A… carrot?”

“Yeah! It’s perfect! Look, it’s a hybrid, purple and orange! And see how the colors blend?”

Doug took the carrot from Zale, and began to show her all the marvels of his “perfect carrot.”

“So, what do you guys think? Do you think she’ll like it?”

Kole and Zale looked at each other, and Kole shrugged.

Zale finally answered, “You know... She just might.”