Andal plopped his head on the book he was reading. He was in the library, which would have been a nice place if not for all the confusing books. He had a notepad to his right, a book on the linguistic structure of the Paladin language on his left, and a book by a man whose name he couldn’t possibly pronounce (but it looked kind of like “Pregnancy”?) on his own studies in Paladin magic and the spells he was able to discover.

It was mentally exhausting. The only bit that he really understood so far was reading the words for the spells he already knew. They were all pretty short words, but the more complicated a spell got the more syllables it was bound to have since each syllable communicated a detail about the spell.

He heard a familiar voice, and lifted his head from the book. Jeva had just entered the library, and was saying goodbye to a couple other girls. She looked around for Andal, then spotted him hunched over his books in despair. She came over and pulled up a chair, sitting next to him and talking in a hushed tone, "How goes it?"

"It goes… difficult." He made an apologetic smile.

"Yea, there sure is a lot! What progress have you made?"

"None really." He sat upright and waved towards the linguistics book, "I've never even thought about this stuff before, and I'm pretty sure the paladin professor wants us to be working on a new spell by next class. I don't understand how we're supposed to fully understand the language enough to figure out the name of another spell!"

“You don’t have to understand the language yet. Here,” She closed his linguistic book and pulled his book by the pregnancy-name guy, “What’s a simple spell that you want to start working on?”

He leaned on his elbow and propped his head up with his hand, “I don’t know, let’s say light. I want to be able to make light.”

“Good choice! I feel like I’ve almost got that one too.”

“You can make light? But, it’s a paladin spell.”

“I guess stuff can overlap. I’m going to learn all your spells!”

“Then I’ll learn your fireball spell!”

“Not if I don’t help you you won’t!” She scooted away from the book and leaned back in her chair with a smug grin.

“Hey, come on. You can be the only one who knows how to make a fireball, okay?”

“Okay!” She whacked her finger on the page, “There’s the word! Ili, for making light. Which is kind of funny now that I read it. In the wizard language it’s Ilu.”

“I knew the word was Ili, but that doesn’t mean I can make light. I have to understand the spell and mean the word I’m saying.”

“Right, but see? He describes the details of the spells right here!”

“But how can I mean the word I’m saying if I don’t know why it’s that word?”

“Because you know what that word means! You mean the words you’re saying now, right?”

He looked a little offended, “Of course?”

“So why does ‘of course’ mean what it means? What goes into those words?” He made several attempts at saying something, but couldn’t think of anything. After letting him squirm for a bit, Jeva leaned back, “See? You don’t have to understand the language side of it for simple words like Ili. I’m pretty sure that’s just for more complicated stuff.”

Andal started reading the description of the spell. Jeva put the linguistics book away, and when she came back she told him, “I think I realized why the language thing was throwing you off, it’s because you’ve been casting magic without words this whole time. I had to learn a word to make fireballs, so it made more sense to me.”

Andal closed the book, “That makes sense. I’m ready to try the spell, want to come outside and watch?”

“Of course!”

*

Lars was asleep in catacombs under Hathor that had been changed to a residential area under the Haverdash. The whole system was filled with their custom air, and Lars had taken a swig of wine before falling asleep. Sleeping had been a struggle for multiple months. To not sleep was in one sense good, it caused intense feelings of pain and weariness, and made one more prone to hallucination. In another sense sleep was necessary, because you need to be able to think clearly to accomplish anything.

He had often woken up in the middle of the night because he was feeling too empty, and had to drink wine to sedate his desire to feel something. After drinking the wine he’d try to go back to sleep, but between the pain, fear, euphoria, and stress, he couldn’t go back to sleep. By now he had adapted to be able to sleep through any level of intense feelings, though perhaps that did make him theoretically more vulnerable to being killed in his sleep.

He was having what he would call a dream. He wouldn’t call it a hallucination, though perhaps the only difference is that they're hallucinations when you're awake. Though, visions could be either, and who was to say that wasn’t what he was having?

He was on a hill with three humans and three Haverdash. They faced each other, but nobody could approach or flee, for they were firmly rooted in place. One Haverdash was blind, as was one human, and each of the three Haverdash had drunk to hallucination. Though he remembered drinking wine before going to bed, Lars was not hallucinating within the context of the dream.

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Only several feet away from them was a tree, and the hill and surrounding hills were barren except for the tree, so it was all that they could see. One of the humans said, "It is a shame that the only thing we can see is this barren, black, sickly tree. I'd rather have nothing at all." The other human nodded in agreement.

A Haverdash laughed, "What are you talking about? Flawed, human perception! The tree is full of life, sweeping and rustling in the wind, with fruit so abundant and ripe it's dripping from the branches!" The other Haverdash nodded in agreement.

The blind human scoffed, "Your perceptions may be twisted by what you drink, and your eyes may see what they want to see, but I can tell without eyes that it is a barren, sickly tree. There is no rustling of leaves in the wind, there is a moaning whistle, as through a trunk riddled with many holes."

The blind Haverdash scoffed back, "I have no eyes, but my hearing is good, and I can tell your human perceptions have failed you. I can hear the rustling of leaves strongly, and the plop of fruit on the grass."

They all looked at Lars, who was the seventh person, and could give one side a numerical advantage. He apologetically answered, "The tree looks barren, black, and sickly." The humans jeered at the Haverdash, and the Haverdash complained. Lars went to the tree to prove it, and climbed the sickly tree, and waved his hand where branches and leaves would have to be if the tree was lively. "This proves it, doesn't it? Look, I can even stick my hand through the trunk."

A Haverdash said, "You are passing through the tree like it isn't real, but this is no surprise, for we know you are a powerful man, who has killed many Haverdash and humans alike."

The blind Haverdash spoke, "I do not see what you are doing, and nothing is proven. I still hear the rustling of leaves in the tree, and the plop of ripe fruit on the earth. Could it be that you are confused? You could be numb from lack of feeling, and so unable to perceive reality correctly. Perhaps if you were able to drink some wine?"

"Alright," Lars agreed, "I will see if that changes things." He jumped out of the trees took a bottle from his side, and drank. He felt warm fruit squishing underneath his feet, and heard the rustling of wind through the trees. The tree had a brown, healthy trunk, and a green sea of leaves above it. "I see now, the tree is large, filled with life, and fruit drips from the branches!"

The humans complained, and the Haverdash jeered at them. A human spoke, "Touch the tree! Your drink clouds your mind, but the tree has not changed in size!"

Lars reached out and touched the tree, "It has a thick trunk with strong bark, and the leaves are waxy, and the fruit is warm and soft. I feel it all."

A Haverdash told the humans, "You see? We are right! The healthy tree is what's real!"

The Humans and the Haverdash bickered, and Lars looked back and forth between them. Then he asked the blind human, "What color is the tree?"

"It has no color to my eyes." The other humans glared at him.

Then Lars asked the blind Haverdash, "What color is the tree?"

"The tree has no color to me."

A Haverdash said, "They are blind, they're perception is different, why do you ask them?"

Lars closed his eyes, "It seems they are right. The tree has no color, and now to say that it is black or brown and green does not have as much support as to say it has no color does."

A human said, "But it is black! I see that it is black!"

A Haverdash said, "The trunk is brown, and the leaves are green! I can see it!"

Lars spoke, "When we started whichever side had the most support was considered right. What we called real was simply that which most people saw. But I see validity in every perception here, regardless of what the majority sees, and so I declare that what is real is what you see. There is no reality versus hallucination, there is only what you see."

Then Lars awoke. He left the catacombs, taking his sword on the way. He grabbed a stick, and held the stick in his right hand with the sword in his left. He went to a stone and cut with both, cleaving two fissures into the stone that were equally deep. Then the sword and the stick, which he saw as two swords, grew seven fold in length. He cut again, and made two canyons where he swung. He felt a change in him, and energy was flowing far more freely. Massless particles that transferred to that distant figure transferred faster, and from that distant figure to its friend.

*

“You can make light, and heal broken bones that need resetting?” The professor asked Andal in disbelief. They had been told to have a spell only in preparation for today, but Andal had learned two fully. “Are you joking?”

He shook his head vigorously, not wanting the professor to think he was using up class time to jest. “I can!” He made light, filling the room and eliminating the shadows that the sunlight cast. “I would show you the healing spell, but thankfully there isn’t anyone in need.”

The professor shook his head, but with a smile. "You probably won't need today's lecture then, but you have to listen to it anyway."

The lecture was on understanding spells, and how the qualities that describe them should translate to how you think about the spell to properly manifest it. Andal actually found the lecture extremely helpful, despite not needing it for the two spells he had already learned. After the lecture he went up to the professor to ask a question. "Great lecture, professor. Can I ask you about something kind of unrelated to understanding spells to be able to cast them?"

"Please do. I wouldn't want to slow down any potential progress from a talented individual like yourself."

Andal blushed slightly, "Uh, I was wondering about some spells I've cast before that I didn't understand or know the words to?"

"Well of course, as followers of gods it is normal to have spells divinely put into our arsenals."

"But, this was a one time thing. I couldn't do it before, then I was filled with this intense energy and started using spells that were like better versions of the ones I know, and then I haven't been able to use them since."

His interest was piqued, "Superior versions… that actually makes a lot of sense. Believe it or not, magical languages are pretty forgiving. If you were casting one spell, but with significantly more energy than it would make sense to use for that spell, then it may automatically correct to a slightly different spell with the same root that would be expected to use that kind of energy. That's very exciting, actually! I've heard about it before, but never talked to someone that had done that. Where do you think this flood of energy came from?"

"From Nishir, I'm confident of it. It happened at the attack on the City of Grace, and it's hard to explain, but I can tell it came from there. It's proof to me that the Haverdash didn't win by taking the city, Nishir is still working against them. Actually, ever since then I've been aware of a constant stream of energy coming from that direction. It could have been going on before that, and I just wasn't aware of it, but I think the reason I've been able to learn spells faster than anyone else is because of that energy. It isn't because of any talent in me, but Nishir."

The professor was plainly impressed with Andal, happy with his twofold focus and humility. "That could very well be true. I'm sure Nishir is raising up many soldiers to strike back against those who have offended him. Do you think he's strengthening your friend Jeva as well?"

"Jeva? We haven't discussed it at all. Why do you ask that?"

He pointed back over his shoulder to gesture at something previous, "Yesterday morning in the cafeteria, I was sitting on the table adjacent to Jeva when her friend asked her how she was learning so many spells. I believe she has learned two as well, but I wasn't paying so much attention until I heard them ask that question, as it tipped me off that she was a talented person that we should take notice of.

"She gave an interesting answer though, even if I didn't understand it. She thought it was from being around you so much, that you made her stronger somehow. I had hypothesized that maybe you were a very encouraging person, and that could still be the case, but now I have a much better hypothesis. Perhaps she's being blessed by the same source you are, because she's associated with you?"

Andal was really excited by that theory, "Yea! She said on the way here that she'll consider herself a follower of Nishir! And she's fought the Haverdash! I bet Nishir is raising her up to fight them too!"

The professor was smiling, but then his smile was tainted by concern. "Andal, you seem very devoted to the idea of fighting the Haverdash. But, you do remember that you agreed to fight for Tubarai if they ever want to draft you. What will you do if those ideas conflict? What if Tubarai wants to send you away somewhere else?"

"I'm not concerned at all about that, professor. The Haverdash will attack here as well, because that's who they are. Sooner or later, they're going after everyone."