The sun cast its warm golden rays upon the picturesque town of Aranthia, nestled within the protective embrace of the Iochant mountain range. Narrow streets bustled with life as townsfolk went about their daily routines, their voices mingling with the gentle breeze that swept through the valley. Amidst the vibrant atmosphere, Gabriel Tonmor walked briskly toward the Adventurer's Guild. Clutching a weathered leather satchel containing what remained of his healing supplies- a roll of cloth bandages, a small bag of willow bark, and his sewing kit- he navigated the familiar path with a sense of purpose. Gabe just knew that today would be the day that he would finally be able to take the next step on the path to becoming a great wizard. Though it was true that Gabe felt this same surety every day, and it was also true that he had yet to find either a Knotted wizard to train under or any more spell patterns to study, there was something about the way the wind blew and sun shined that told him today was going to be the day.

It had been almost a year since Gabe left his home village of Forlet. He had been elated when he discovered he was one of the lucky ones able to innately feel and manipulate one of his mana nodes. In fact he didn’t mind that the node he could access was life mana and not one of the more powerful nodes such as fire or earth. No, Gabe was just happy that he could feel the node connected to his spirit and that he could pull out a thread of mana. He was a wizard, or at least he met the most basic requirement necessary to become one. There was something that separated true Knotted wizards from those who just had access to one of their mana nodes, something that Gabe was desperate to learn the secrets of.

Unfortunately for Gabe, while there were a handful of others who had access to mana and could cast simple spells, there were no Knotted wizards in Forlet that could teach him. In fact there wasn’t even anyone else who had access to life mana who could teach him basic spells. It wasn’t until two years after he first drew out a thread of life mana that a merchant caravan came through Forlet with a trader who specialized in spell patterns. Knowing how beneficial having a life mage around would be, Dale, the mayor of Forlet, purchased the scroll containing the spell form so that Gabe, and any future residents who could access life mana, could learn it.

Despite being only a simple tier 1 spell, Repair had a pattern that was immensely complex. In order to cast the spell, Gabe would need to draw out a thread of mana from his node and guide it perfectly into the pattern illustrated on the paper. The pattern for Repair contained several large loops that intertwined without ever touching before ending in a complex knot shape in the center. While the stories always mentioned that experienced wizards were able to guide their mana threads solely through the strength of their wills, Gabe didn’t have that level of skill yet. Instead he was forced to use his hand as a focus to guide the mana thread. He would visualize reaching into his soul and pulling out a thread of light green light that he would then shape in the air. It took many months before he was able to form the pattern perfectly.

The spell was well suited to healing small cuts and bruises. For any injuries that were particularly long or deep, Gabe would need to cast the spell multiple times as each casting would only repair a small portion of the wound. He could only cast the spell a handful of times at first. While the spell didn’t use a large amount of mana, the amount of mana that he could pull from his node wasn’t very much. He still remembered the first time he tried to cast Repair when he didn’t have enough mana. A group of villagers had just come back from a boar hunt and one of the hunters, Geoff, had a deep gash along his abdomen from a tusk. This was only a few months after Gabe first learned Repair and he still saw himself as some great mage capable of healing any wound. Gabe had immediately rushed to Geoff’s side and began casting repair, his right arm waving through the air in big sweeping gestures as he guided his mana into the correct pattern. He cast Repair five times in row, sweat dripping from his forehead and his arm sore as repeated the necessary motions. It was on the sixth attempt that he failed. He grabbed mana from the node and as he pulled it out to make the first loop of the pattern, he felt something snap within his soul. He felt a surge of pain and briefly saw stars as he became overwhelmed with a level of fatigue he had never felt before. It wasn’t just that his body was sore and his head ached, it was a feeling of emptiness deep within him.

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Geoff’s wounds ended up being too deep, even with Gabe’s magic. The spell was simply too weak to overcome such an injury. That was the day that Gabe understood that even though he could access his mana and cast a spell, he was no wizard. A true wizard would have been able to save Geoff. A true wizard wouldn’t have had to stop after only five tier 1 spells. A true wizard wielded the power of the gods themselves and did not submit to something as lowly as death. Gabe knew then what he had to do. He could no longer wait for someone who could teach him to come to him, he would have to go find them himself.

Following Geoff’s death, Gabe threw himself into training his magic. He had two goals he wanted to accomplish before setting off in search of someone to train him. Well he actually had three, but the likelihood of another merchant coming through the village with a life spell pattern he could afford, even with the rest of the village helping out, was slim enough that he didn’t dare hinge his hopes on it. Instead he focused on what he could achieve - increasing the amount of mana he could draw from his node so that he could cast more spells and learn what he could do to make the spell he did know more effective. From speaking with the others in the village who could cast spells, Gabe had learned that the amount of mana he could access would steadily grow as he cast spells. It had been described to him like a muscle that just needed to be exercised to grow bigger. With that understanding, began to empty his mana pool as frequently as he could. He hated the sensation that overcame him each time he ran out of mana, that feeling of emptiness deep within his soul, yet he pushed through it time and time again. His mana pool would naturally regenerate at a slow, but steady rate, and it usually took him about six hours after emptying his pool to refill completely. He discovered that when he sat still and focused his attention on his life mana node, he could feel the regeneration rate increase, refilling his pool in half the time. While he didn’t notice any appreciable difference at first, after the first week of repeatedly emptying his mana, he discovered that he was able to cast Repair a sixth time in a row.

In order to accomplish his second goal, Gabe needed to better understand what his spell did. When he first learned Repair, his amazement at being able to use magic was all that he could focus on. He never questioned how his spell worked or why it had the limitations it did. To him, magic was something that was the answer to every question and the solution to every problem. He had thought that just having access to magic would, well, magically make everything better. Geoff’s death quickly relieved him of such naive notions. He had seen firsthand just how limited magic could be, particularly in the hands of someone without proper training. He came to the conclusion that knowing how to heal through non-magical means would work in tandem with his spell. After some persuading, and a small amount of begging, Gabe was able to convince the town medic to take him on as an apprentice. From him he learned how to knit large wounds together with needle and thread, which plants could be used to lower a fever or reduce pain, and how to set broken bones. He was amazed to discover that when used on wounds that were sewn shut, Repair was able to heal much larger injuries than he had previously thought. He was also able to mend broken bones, but only when they had been properly set and they required repeated castings of Repair. He was pleased to discover that his efforts at expanding his mana pool had also been paying off, though the rate of growth had begun to taper off. After more than a year of training, Gabe was able to cast Repair a full 10 times before he ran out of mana. Since he had only the one spell and he had now cast it hundreds of times, Gabe knew the pattern so completely that he was even able to cast it without using his hand, relying instead solely on the strength of his will to guide the thread of mana.

While he was still far off from his goal of becoming a true Knotted wizard, Gabe knew that he had taken Repair as far as it could go. Using the medic techniques he learned had allowed him to use his healing magic much more efficiently than before, but for that Repair was still just a tier 1 spell. Gabe knew that if he was ever going to achieve his goals, he couldn’t just wait around Forlet for another life mana spell to come across his path. No, he would have to go search it out. And so when a trader passed through sharing news of how some discovery in the Iochant mountain range was causing people from across the kingdom and beyond to travel to the peaks in search of riches and adventure, Gabe knew that he would have to travel there himself. He hoped he would be able to find someone who could train him properly, someone who could teach him more spells and the secret to becoming a Knotted wizard. And if there wasn’t anyone who would teach them, then Gabe would discover the secrets on his own. He would hire himself out as a healer for adventuring groups until he eventually earned enough gold to buy the knowledge he needed.