Her killer eyes, as golden as the risen sun, went very wide open. “Do you mean that!” she squeaked, and I just raised an eyebrow. “WhatamIsaying, of course you mean that!” she cuffed herself. “Yes! Oh! I would love to be your apprentice! I have so many questions, so many things I want to ask about magic and- “
“You need to get Drained and re-Level,” I said calmly, stopping her in mid-squeal of delight. “Your Aura is all messed up and imbalanced by your Class choices. You had a wonderful chance of synergy with taking Sorcerer and Cleric together, but because you are so smart, you went with Wizardess.
“I am also extremely intelligent, and Sorcerer is still my Primary Class. Wizarding works best in support.” I inclined my head at her as she blushed furiously. “You will not be able to remain a research specialist as my apprentice. You’re going to be Doing Good Stuff. Sorcerers are far better active Casters than Wizards are. Wizards are better specialists at solving a particular problem, Sorcerers are better at being ready for any problem.”
“But they know so few spells!” Azaia wrinkled her nose cutely.
“Which is why you have Wizard Levels to back you up,” I noted dryly. “If there’s a special problem, go get the right spell. If it’s a general problem, be able to handle the volume necessary. If it requires six fireballs to kill all the attackers, being a Wizard just isn’t going to work.”
“Oh, that’s true...” Azaia admitted, thinking about it. “So few spells!” she still sniffed, and I had to smile.
I pointed a finger off to the side, and swiped it slowly across. A listing of spells by Valence dropped down from my finger, and she bent forward to stare at it intently.
She swallowed as she saw just how many spells there were. “Is, is that even possible?” she asked faintly, pointing at the display numbly. “That’s 27 Valence I’s! From three Traditions! And bonus spells from three Stats! You, you have a hundred and thirty spells memorized!”
She had her hands to her mouth, looking at the display, which admittedly was pretty impressive.
“And if you look at them more closely, you will realize that most of those spells aren’t primary-use spells. If you look at them really closely, you’ll see that most of them aren’t useful most of the time at all.”
She pursed her lips as she reviewed the names of each of them, and then admitted hesitantly, “I don’t know some of them...”
“Not surprising, as I’m probably the only one on the planet who does. Of course, that’s only half my Casting Matrix.” Her lips pursed again. “Typically, I never Cast out of my Prepared Matrix at all. Those spells just sit there and are Cast out of my Spontaneous Side if I need them. In doing so, they keep my Star Magery powered, which is very, very important to me.”
“You covered that in one of your videos! I tried it out, but there were always problems when I Cast... my... spells...” she trailed off as my eyebrow grew more and more arched.
“A pure Prepared Caster mindset. My, I haven’t seen one in such a long time,” I said, steepling my fingers. “Do go on.” I was sure my eyes were twinkling.
“Ahg!” I could see she had worked it out. “You have no problems getting your Wizard Levels up high enough to support your Star Magery, getting the Spell Power, and just leave it to keep enhancing your Sorcery, right?”
“Correct. My Wizardry is nothing but more Spells Known to my Sorcery. Ah, but I see you haven’t realized the implications of the Spontaneous side of your Matrix. Also not unusual.”
She had the face of someone who is so much smarter than the teachers, and is now getting schooled. “What did I miss?” she grumbled, thoroughly off-put.
“Spells Known from multiple Spontaneous Casting Classes Stack.”
“Well, sure, of course they... do...”
Her fingers began to work. She glanced at me from the side as she began to add things up, calculated, looked at me, calculated some more, and glanced at the list of Prepared Spells. Looking at all the things that were there, and were not there.
She swallowed visibly. “So few spells?” she repeated faintly.
“Sorcerer. Inquisitor. Minstrel. Binder,” I ticked off casually, watching her fingers. “Favored Class, Extra Spells Known for all of them. Extra Spells Known Mastery for all of them. Theurgic Spells Known for all of them.” I smiled slightly as she flushed in embarrassment. “Now, it is a great shame that there are no Stat bonuses to Spells Known, but, well, with Pages of Spell Knowledge and Rings of Spells Knowledge, it is kind of moot.”
“What are... You have... thirty-five Valence I Spells Known?” she asked faintly.
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“Thirty-nine,” I corrected her mildly, after a glance inside. “Granted, some of them are completely meh and unlikely to be used often... but no worse than most of my Prepared spells of equal Valence. It is worse among the higher Valences, of course. I have only fourteen Spells Known, versus almost two dozen Prepared, at V.”
Thirty spells available in the V Valence. While there were certainly that number of Divine spells about, and the Angelos and other Soulbound had proliferated knowledge of them among the Churches, having that number available, all at the same time...
She gaped at me dumbly. “I don’t think I qualify to be your apprentice,” she mumbled to me. “Even picturing that is, is hurting my brain...”
I flicked away the list of Prepared Spells, and replaced it with a Stat line.
She looked at it. Blinked once, and then again to make sure she was not seeing things.
“Azaia Morningwind,” I said softly, and my voice thrummed on the lines of magic, making her sit bolt upright despite herself. “I am a Traveler from a far place, where magic is known, and I know what I am doing. Perhaps you too, would like to know what to do?”
She gawked at me like she’d probably never stared at anyone in her life. It was probably worse because she was smart enough to know what she was looking at, and still couldn’t help herself.
I withdrew my Aura and Presence smoothly, and she gasped as my light touch on all the magic receded.
“Let me be blunt, Azaia. I am not a researcher. Indeed, I can say that in terms of experimentation, fundamental knowledge, esoteric specialties, and profound understanding of magic, I would be considered lacking among my peers.”
She looked at my Stat line and silently mouthed, Lacking...
“I am a Warcaster. I don’t tease new spells out of the Weave of Creation. I take the spells of others and I refine them and make them sing. I take what is known and I combine it and make it better, and then I wield it.
“I am a wielder of magic, not a weaver of it, and I am very, very good at wielding it.
“Oh, I can understand what all my peers start blathering about, and there’s a thoughtstream of mine that even gets interested in it and can recite municipal paint regulations all day looking for sublime patterns.” The face she made at that was hilarious. Clearly this girl lived with her emotions on her sleeve. “But I’m a magical brute and bully on the face it. They can go blather on about twelfth-dimensional ethero-chronal inver-planar dry fluxes, and they won’t face me in a magical duel, or outshine me on a battlefield.”
I watched her repeating twelfth-dimensional ethero-chronal inver-planar dry fluxes to herself, and realized I really had to introduce her to Weirdboy.
“So, if you choose to follow in my footsteps, you’re not going to be researching a lot of magic for someone else to use to save the world. You’re going to be the one saving it.” I held her eyes this time, all her attention, not letting her look away. “Someone is going to have to take over after I am gone. Someone is going to have to stand at the top of Silver Magic, and show the way, standing against that which would drag it down. And that person, like me, is going to have to wield power, and dominate, and everybody is going to know it... so that when she looks around and says ‘I can’t do this alone’, they will believe her.”
She swallowed, and I saw the beads of sweat gathering on her forehead. Clearly this had all gone way beyond what she expected. I wasn’t just going to answer all her questions about magic... I totally and right up front needed her to take my place!
“Because you won’t be here,” she said softly.
I nodded calmly. “And unless you find someone or someones to replace you, I’ll probably never see you again after I have to go.”
She swallowed again. “Do you know how long you have?” she asked faintly.
I didn’t look away, just pointed at the sky. “In five days, the sky is going to close, and from then, we will be back to under the Haze. You tell me how long we have.”
She looked up at the blue sky that matched her so well, tugging at her patterned vest, and thought about that.
“You gave them all the toys. You’ve showed the road to them. This... this is the reward at the end of that road. The sunrise, the blue sky, the light and life and color.” She closed her eyes, feeling the sun coming down even on the cold day. Naturally she was protected against the cold, an extremely minor thing. “The reward is going to go away, snatched back by the Haze.” Her eyes opened softly. “And only they can take it back.”
I inclined my head. “Given people’s general nature, and how much they’ve hated and feared the Shroudzones over the years?...”
“A year, two at the outside. The only variable is Russia.”
“So, in a year, I need to get you to a point everybody else on the planet wants to be at.” I tapped the corner of my mouth with my finger. “Tch. We are going to need to start rather quickly if you want to do this.”
She closed her eyes and exhaled. “What about my obligations to the Church?” she had to ask.
“I am not exaggerating when I say that right now if I told the entire Church of Sylune to go to war with someone, they would. Your obligations being cancelled will not be an issue; they will be a source of great joy that Sylune might get another great Champion.”
It was her turn to raise her eyebrows. “You have that much influence already?” She was shocked.
I turned my Aura and Presence back on, and just looked at her.
“Sorry, sorry!” she blurted out, making shading motions between us, and the spiritual pressure fell back like the waves. “You are really holding back all the time,” she sighed, glancing at where my Stat line had been.
She took another deep breath and mentally steeled herself. “What do I have to do to do this, Lady Traveler?” she asked respectfully.
“Are you certain you want to do this? And I mean this in the manner of you’re going to pull down a bolt from the blue for swearing false Oath if you are not.”
“If Sylune were here, do you believe she would want me to do this?” she asked me directly.
I had to smile. “She would be grabbing you by the ear and telling you to kowtow, homigawds, you can do research in a century when you’ve got the time!”
She smirked at the image despite herself, and tossed her hair. “I am a Priestess of Sylune, of the Order of the Silver Moon.” Which was Silver Magic and Good, an ideal configuration for my purposes. “I also believe that this is what my goddess would want me to do!”
“Very well, then.” My eyes gleamed at her. “And if you ever dare call me Sister-Master, I’m turning your hair puke yellow-green.”
She had the look in her eye of someone caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “N-never, Lady Traveler!” she managed to blurt out, and I laughed softly.