The Archmage: Chapter Thirteen (Patreon)

I let out a long, tired sigh as I picked at the barley and mushroom soup that I’d picked up for lunch. My general witchcraft courses had gone well enough, I thought. It was still far too early to tell who would end up actually trying hard and succeeding, who would coast through, and who would flunk out, but I was determined to make sure that anyone who was willing to try would make it far. 

But I was now heading into a more delicate class – introductory enchanting. 

Willow, the small girl with brown hair and eyes, shuffled in first, and I smiled at her. 

Maybe I was projecting, but I thought I could see some of myself in the younger woman. Maybe it was the physical resemblance, but I didn’t think that was the only part. She was uncertain, shifting around, eyes darting. Threadbare clothes that were even shabbier than what I’d arrived at Yesgol with. 

“Willow,” I said, smiling at her, trying to put her at ease. “Welcome back.” 

She gave me a shy nod and took her seat near the back of the class. 

Twelve more students trickled in, and to my surprise, it was a nearly even split between more middle class students and poorer ones.

“Welcome to novice enchanting,” I said, before repeating my spiel about what the students could call me, while passing out a syllabus. 

One of the nobles, a young woman with gaudy gold and emerald earrings, immediately raised her hand. 

“Why are there only three words on the syllabus?” 

I smiled and nodded at her. 

“Thank you, miss…” 

“Isadora,” she said. 

“Miss Isadora,” I said. “Please read those words for the class.” 

“Burners. Foci. Artifacts. But those are just the types of enchantments. Plus, artifacts are way too hard for us to manage in our first year. Even foc–” 

I cut her off with a wave of my hand, and to her credit, she did actually fall silent

“What is an enchantment, at the end of the day?” I asked, glancing around the class. After a moment, Isadora spoke up. 

“A way of turning normal things into magical things?” 

“A fair assessment,” I said. “But how do we do that?” 

“Rituals?” one of the middle class students, a red haired boy, hazarded, and I smiled at him. 

“That’s the method, but it’s clear what I’m asking isn’t coming through. What I would say is that enchanting, at the end of the day, is an interdisciplinary field. One that struggles to stand on its own.” 

Isadora’s hand shot into the air. 

“Professor, you’ve placed in the top ten of all your tournaments as an enchanter and diviner. I saw you use a cloak that turned you invisible when I was a kid!”

That rattled me, but probably not for the reason that she’d expected. That had only been a few years ago, how had she been a kid then? Then again, she was on the younger side, maybe seventeen. Still… 

“True,” I said. “An excellent example.” 

I turned to the chalkboard and quickly began to sketch out a simple enchantment for invisibility. It was a simple warping of light, one that was barely an intermediate level spell. 

When I finished, I turned around to face the class and saw them furiously scribbling down the array. 

Whoops. Well, I could work with that. 

“This is one of the most basic light veils I know,” I said. “It just warps the reflections of light coming out of an area, making things in that area harder to hit. It’s a sorcerer spell, meant for those with the light rune.” 

For emphasis, I tapped my chalk around the part of the spell array that defined the area, a large circle around the outside. 

“What would happen if I was to channel my aura into this and chant?” I asked. 

“You don’t have any components,” one of the people said hesitantly. “And you’re not a light sorcerer. Chanting might let you complete the spell, but it would be weaker. And you’re not a sorcerer, so it would fade the instant after it was cast, unless you had a big enough aura to activate the spell and keep it running.” 

“We’ll worry about components later, but for our purposes, that’s true enough,” I said. “So, we can all agree… This isn’t an enchantment. It’s a slipshod ritual that wasn’t meant to be even used as a ritual. Completely useless as a spell, right?” 

They were smart enough to realize that if I was leading them on like that, so they said nothing. 

“It’s actually completely viable,” I said, and that got one of them to break out of their stupor. 

“How?!” Isadora asked, and I grinned, then tapped my chalk. I turned back to the board and started making modifications, adding in stabilization lines, runes that would hold the power of the spell, defining what it would stick to, the activation key, and the other basic magic needed for a burner. 

When I was finished, I was left with a simple enough spell on a simple enough burner. 

“This is the first word on your list,” I told the class. “It’s what we call a burner. A one use magical item. And the first type of magic you’ll learn how to make.”

I turned back to the board and started erasing, rewriting, and changing. I drew the universal anchor on one side of the board, then stepped back. 

“This is the second word on your list. Foci. If I was to activate the spell right here and now, it would do nothing, but would instead bind to this.” 

I tapped the universal anchor. 

“You should write that down. It’s the universal anchor, and while its uses aren’t actually universal – I almost never use it – it is incredibly useful for foci and even artifacts.” 

Then I turned back and erased more, changing and adding until I was left with a half decent artifact. 

“And this is an artifact. A magical item that recharges on its own, based on how the aura of the person who made it does. Incredibly useful, especially if you’re not gifted with an especially large aura. That’s the path I took to power, but it’s not the only viable one.” 

I drew a large circle around the center of the spell, then around two other parts. 

“Now!” I said. “Who can tell me what these three things have in common?”

“The first one is the light spell,” Willow, the brown haired witch said. “It’s remained mostly unchanged. You alter the way that the spell interfaces with the different types of enchantments, but the actual spell is mostly the same.” 

“Exactly,” I said. “This is what I mean by enchanting being an interdisciplinary field. I could use a water spell to make a foci that chills water. A light spell to veil. A cream tart spell to whip cream.” 

That got a couple of chuckles, and I smiled at them. 

“The point is, the spell matters, yes, but only because of this point.” 

I poked the next bit I’d circled, the hooks that interconnected the spell with the overall enchanting array. 

“This is how you interlock the spell into your enchantment. It’s part art, part science, but it’s one of the few times you’ll actually be doing anything at all with the spell inside. You’re not a sorcerer. But an enchanter can cast any spell a sorcerer can… Even if we don’t modify them on the fly.” 

I pointed at the final part. 

“This is one of the most important things you’ll learn when crafting your first burners. The trigger spell. Yet another reason I say that enchanting is an interdisciplinary field, because this is, technically speaking, a very weak divination spell that also opens a valve to let the power flow into the central spell. There are many types – I favor will-based ones, which respond to the intent of the person holding it, but there’s value in verbal triggers, Aura triggers, specific phenomena triggers… Really it comes down to knowing when you want the spell to activate, since each has advantages, and also disadvantages.” 

I clapped my hands, which startled the class. It startled me too, actually – I hadn’t meant for the sound to be so loud. 

“Well, who’s ready for their first assignment?” I asked. “It’s easy, don’t worry. It’s going to be on the creation of a burner.” 

I erased the spell I’d drawn earlier and smiled at them. 

“That spell was a bit complex for a novice. I may have done one similar, but I nearly died doing it, so I don’t recommend leaping that far ahead. Before I put anything up – how many of you want to go into battlemagic? Either as a seller of magical items for battlemages, or as a battlemage yourself?” 

More than half of them raised their hands.

“The rest of you?” I asked. “Industrial enchantments, like the kind used to run factory machinery?” 

They nodded, all save for Willow. I gave her a curious look, and a look of panic came over her face. Rather than call on her, I simply nodded and walked back to the front of the board. 

“Now, I’ll fully admit that I’m not nearly as familiar with industrial enchantments as I should be,” I said, “But I’ve got enough to start helping you.” 

I pulled up my mental to-do list, then added ‘researching industrial enchanting’ onto it, then picked up my chalk. 

It was running low already, so I put it to the side and picked up a new stick of chalk. I was really going through this stuff… I wondered if there was an alteration spell that would let me transform chalk dust back into chalk. That might let me save a bit of money.

Then again, the components for such a spell might wind up costing more than the chalk itself. Unless I was going through chalk constantly. How much chalk would I need to go through before the spell paid for itse–

My trail of thought was cut off by a student asking ‘professor?’. 

“Hmm?” I asked, turning to look. 

“You were saying you would help us?” Willow asked. I started to turn red, and turned back to face the board, drawing out the spells onto them instead. 

“Yes, sorry, I got distracted, picking out which spells to show you and… such,” I lied as I sketched. 

When I was finished, my flush had receded, and I turned back to the class.

“The force bolt is a spell known by almost all battlemages, and is standard in the military. Regardless of if you use it yourself, or sell it, you’ll need to know it. The other spell is a neat bit of magic that can either light or put out a street lamp. Now, for your first assignment, you’re going to draw out how to turn either one of these into a burner. Once everyone’s done, I’ll go through them and tell you how to improve, as well as how I would have done it.” 

I smiled and nodded at them. 

“Let’s begin.”