The next day came in a snap, not a wink of sleep was had and the only indicator that the day had passed came from a voice speaking in his mind.

“Hi Kir, sorry to do this so last minute, but something has come up and I won’t be able to meet you today, maybe we can meet up another time. But…”

Kir shifted his attention to the sound of the message spell realizing it had reached its word limit. Kir shrugged his shoulders realizing he had been cancelled on. While not a common occurrence as he never made plans and this was a woman he had met once, it still kind of stung.

Now moving it away from his train of thought the orbs of light floating around him once again burned bright and illuminated the important work being done. A common occurrence when Kir wished to forget about his social reality.

When learning a new spell, one must return to the building blocks you learn at the very beginning.

There are three core pillars of spellcasting: incantatory, gestural and material. While not all spells require all three pillars they will never not have one. That said, spell casting differs for everyone based on preference. It is much like writing code or solving a maths question. There are multiple ways to do one thing, though with varying efficiency and often alterations to the intended outcome. It is at its core, turning natural and internal energy, mana, into something else. These equations are how wizards in particular are able to harness the planet's energies and alter them as they see fit.

Through this understanding is where the differences in combat magic rear their ugly head. Though simple spells such as a mage hand or a firebolt can be done essentially on instinct after some practice, combat spells require fast situational calculation and formation. Even if one understands the theory behind a given spell it would take months of practice in order to use it practically.

All that said, this book held none of that information. The book itself was actually rather simple, compared to the weathered tomes making up the bookshelf this one seemed barely twenty years old.Though there was no listed author one could easily glean their eccentricity through the text. The first line simply stated.

‘So, you want to survive a mage duel? Well, here's a tip, don’t get in one in the first place! In fact why even bother leaving the safety of your own lair!’

Kir nodded sagely at this wisdom

“Finally, someones speaking reason”.

The author went off on tangents nearly every second sentence, some commented on the state of wizard society while others descended into incomprehensible madness. Yet hidden within the nonsense and screaming were a lot of actually valid pointers. The first half of the book held advice on battle positioning and quick casting, but there was part that took him by surprise.

‘No battle-mage really needs to learn more than one spell perfectly. While your opponent is running through the available spells at their disposal, and trying not to confuse the power regulation between an Acid Spray and a Poison Arrow, you’ve already won by using your spell in a flash!’

This statement fought against almost all rhetoric thrown out by the most famous battle-mages. Wizards were often considered to be the most practical form of spell-caster. Almost any kind of spell was at their disposal with the capacity to create new ones dancingat their finger tips. The main criteria for the quality of a wizard was the number of spells they knew and the complexity of their casting system. When watching a duel you were supposed to be impressed by the speed and variety of each wizard's combat magic, with the most renowned thought to know upwards of thirty seperate spells.

Yet the more he thought about it, the more practical it seemed. And after flipping through the listed spells in the book there was one thing in common with all of them, their versatility. Despite being largely simple seeming spells they were in fact incredibly complex when factoring in their variations and potential alterations. Among the diagrams and explanations were scattered tips and notes left by the author, though some proved more useful than others.

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‘Tip 34 - When in battle never prioritize the formation of your own spell over awareness of your opponent’

‘Tip 62 - Always bring a healer with you to an Orcish brothel’

Disregarding the more… personal notes it fell on Kir himself to pick one of the spells offered by the author. Of the factors he had to consider, personality and creative use seemed to be the most vital. For example one would only choose the control water spell for its creativity if they were willing to live on the run from the Order for the rest of their life. But after some careful consideration he finally found one he felt would suit both his personality and casting habits.

Compared to his contemparies, Kir had honestly no idea where he stood. He had never been to the academy nor researched the standards they expected of the archetypical wizard. He had gained a slight understanding of the Council's Genus system as it was rather useful for documenting any marked growth. But beyond this he would be truly just guessing.

Days passed with nothing but focus on the arcane arts. Soon the flow of time became a non-essential thought process and was expunged to make place for abyssal rune structures. Books were thrown everywhere in an academic fervor, as if one note wasn’t to be made then the integrity of the spell would be compromised. The incessant muttering began to return as up on the wall began scrawling of what amounted to a to do list. It read.

* Alter spell for focus localization and duration extension

* Infernal royalty script = extenuating effect on necessary progression

* Drow magic is spatially adjacent?

* Sowed glyphs

Beyond that the handwriting was incomprehensible. Burns and cuts began to appear on the edges of the mages fingers, blood beginning to stain the table. Failed spells and blood catalysts being a natural eventuality for spell innovation, though it was paid no mind as the red in Kir’s eyes began to spread and the bags beneath them dropped further.

“I’m barely half way through at his point” he muttered, lamenting the bottle neck he had reached in achieving the 6th genus and understanding the spell he had chosen.

He mumbled chewing on his finger nail, staring at the wall a second to ponder on the current conundrum he was solving. Deep in thought, he was startled by a knocking on his window.

“Hm?” he wandered, pulling the blinds up, the artificial glow of the street lights flooding his apartment.

A little wind spirit hovered outside his room, a tiny tornado spinning earnestly waiting to be let in.

“Is it Sunday?” he muttered while prying open his window, it seems the week flew by.

The spirit flew in sending some papers flying, Kir noticed but gave it no thought. It landed on the floor by the couch to take a breather. The gust steadily began to lessen as the form of the wind spirit shifted into its natural state. A pure white kitten with eyes reminiscent of its owners.

“Hey buddy” Kir greeted him scratching under his chin, to the right of the kitten sat a wooden crate with a note taped to the top. But proper formalities were best to be prioritized, even when dealing with contracted fae.

“Do you want some food?”. The creature meowed in affirmation, Kir made his way to the kitchen, his bare feet slapping the tiling and sending chills up his back as the cold winter air streamed into the room. He flicked his hand and the window slammed shut.

“I don’t have any whole milk, is 2% fine?” Luther’s familiar once again meowed in affirmation.

“Good-berries or Dragon-snaps?” The room remained silent for a moment until two kitten yelps came from the main room.

Kir grabbed a small leather pouch and took out some small red balls before putting them in a bowl, in an adjacent bowl he poured some milk and moved back into the main room, placing them before the wind spirit. The familiar gratefully began to eat as Kir slumped down cross legged and took the note off of the crate.

This will be the last order you will be able to place

I have a feeling I’ll be going out of business soon

Luther

After prying open the crate it was revealed to indeed be the order he had placed around a week ago. After re-reading the note Kir’s brows furrowed and he began to think.

“Is the Order on him? No he’s too careful... what is it” he mumbled to himself. He looked over the wind spirit now licking the bowl clean.

“I don’t mean to impose Oca, but is your master in trouble?”. The kitten waited for a moment before nodding its head. Kir’s brow furrowed once again as he became lost in thought. Though it was soon interrupted as the wind spirit floated up to the window asking to be let out.

“Hm? Right sorry” he apologized, standing up and opening the window for him.

“Safe trip” Kir offered, giving him a scratch on the head, the kitten flew into the night, a green streak of magic being left in its wake.

Kir stood, watching the mana dissipate in the air.

“Shit”