The Archmage: Chapter Eleven

As much as I’d enjoyed my summer with Aldvarri and Osheen, it was also quite nice to get back to living within the confines of Yesgol. It was beginning to feel almost like a second home, though I was now facing a new challenge the likes of which I’d never had to before: new-teacher onboarding. 

That onboarding was why I now found myself sitting next to Osheen along a long table, filled with people. 

There were the teachers I knew, of course, like Tara, Travis, Seth, and Wisteria, as well as the ones I sort of knew, but not really, like the mute metal mage, Armond, or the rather rude head healer, Jeremy. 

Then there were the ones I’d seen around – the black haired necromancy professor, an older man wrapped in tattoos that I suspected were demonic bonds of some sort, and a short witch with red hair tied up in a messy bun. 

But to my surprise, there were at least a half-dozen professors who I didn’t remember seeing once in my entire career. Then again, I hadn’t known we’d had a pool before the year before anyways, so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. 

Oracle, who was sitting on my shoulder, shot a quick glance around the room that revealed most of the teachers I’d never seen were sorcerers of a specific element – one had force and fire, another had water and ice, another with plant and air, so on and so forth. 

That did make a certain amount of sense. With how specialized some sorcerers could get, there had to be a limit of what level of spells could be passed on by someone of a different rune bond. 

“Thank you everyone for coming!” Elaine, the headmaster of Yesgol said, sounding quite cheerful. “There are a few changes in this upcoming school year. First, I’d like to point out our two newest teachers, whom I’m sure some of you recognize already. Please give a warm welcome to Evander and Osheen Tailor!” 

There was a muted bit of applause, then Elaine had each teacher go around the table counter-clockwise and introduce themselves. I did my best to remember each of their names. By the fifth name I didn’t already remember, I was pretty sure I’d already messed up the first, and just gave up entirely. 

Ah, well. Hopefully they’d be kind to me if I just said it had been a lot to remember at once, and I wasn’t entirely sure of their name. 

“Now, with that out of the way, it’s time to move on to the point of our meeting,” Elaine said. “First, the tree’s operational security. With the attacks that have been going on against multiple people of note, we have to expect that there’s a chance Zheren or whoever the terrorists are working for.” 

“It’s the ruin’s people,” the necromancer said, leaning forwards. “I’m telling you, I’d bet on it.” 

“The ruin’s people?” I asked before I could help myself. 

The woman with red hair ran a hand through it and shook her head. 

“Don’t get him started on those conspiracies again,” she said. 

“They’re not conspiracies,” sniffed the necromancer teacher. “I’m telling you – they’re hold up in the ruins, waiting to take their revenge while Paerús is weak.” 

“For the record, I think there probably are people in the ruins,” Travis said, being unable to stop himself from injecting his opinion into the conversation. “They’re just too weak to be carrying out these attacks. They’re either internal fighting within… our political system… or from Zheren. I don’t think it’s Zheren, though, they have no reason to attack us right now.” 

I wondered if Travis had almost said the archmage council, but my thoughts were pulled away when the necromancer started arguing about them getting support from Tracktath. 

“Enough!” Elaine said, waving her hand and sending a flash of light over the room. I blinked rapidly to clear my vision. 

“Regardless of who it is,” Elaine said. “Our number one priority is the safety of our students. Professor Amine has been working throughout the summer to update our ward scheme, and Professor Travis has generously provided us with a half dozen aura sparks to ensure that Yesgol’s life is able to be sustained.” 

I snapped my head over to look at her.

“Yesgol needs aura sparks?” I asked in a slightly hoarse whisper.

“Yes,” Seth said, keeping his face carefully neutral. “It’s a necessary part of keeping an Aura Tree alive in such a cold environment, and is critical to the stability of the ley lines and portals that make Yesgol such a fine place for a school.” 

I stared at the old man, studying his face. I liked to think that there was a spark of anger in his eyes, but that may have just been me projecting. 

“Actually, Evan,” Travis said. “While you denied my course for imbued item creation, I’d still appreciate you looking over the enchantments at the heart of the tree. They work quite a bit with planar enchantments, and even I’m forced to admit that you’re better with those than I am.” 

“Of course,” I said, keeping my face as neutral as I possibly could. 

Elaine coughed, and we looked back at her. 

“As I was saying, Professor Amine has been upgrading our wards, and Professor Travis has provided the needed aura sparks to keep the tree growing, but we don’t have enough to manage running our wards on anything other than our standard level. As such, in order to save on aura, we’ve had to make some adjustments to our aura usage. The heating spells in all bathrooms will take a bit longer to warm up now, and the heating and cooling enchantments will…” 

She continued describing all of the ways that they’d decreased the aura load in order to increase the overall defenses.

“Now, onto the next order of business,” she said. “We have a delegation of ten new students arriving from Zheren this year, as a part of the Talik-Dormer outreach program.” 

Before she’d even finished the sentence, there was an eruption of reactions around the table. Travis started shouted something, one of the sorcery teaches cried out something about not giving away more secrets, and Wisteria was loudly proclaiming that she’d be happy to teach anyone who was willing to learn. 

I was getting very tempted to add a sound dampening enchantment into my cloak, since shouting seemed to be a part of these meetings all the time. 

Alas, it would have messed with my delicate seven sets of seven arrangement. 

I could always make a new enchantment for it. Were there any constellations related to sound?

The constellation of the satyr was sometimes considered to be a piper, so maybe if I inverted the faerie spell to call upon him, then combined it with a normal sound spell, I’d probably be able to create a sphere of silence. 

But I didn’t necessarily want silence. Maybe there would be some way to reduce incoming sound to a static level? 

Now that would be a useful enchantment. If all the whispers I heard were normal volume, it could let me hear those better, and reducing shouts to normal volume wouldn’t be strictly needed, but it would be really nice. 

Oh, and if I built enough power in, I could even use it to defend my ears against sonic attacks! That would cover another one of my weaknesses, niche though it may be. 

I pulled out my journal and started doodling out a spell diagram for the enchantments. What sort of object would be good for this? I wanted something small. Not a ring, I wasn’t a fan of rings. Maybe a coin? That could be simple enough, and not draw too much attention. 

But I didn’t have a good way to do that. 

A wooden token, then. 

Osheen leaned over and bumped my shoulder. 

“Babe, pay attention, we’re getting back to useful stuff.” 

I jolted and blinked rapidly, then guiltily slid my journal back into my notebook. Maybe treating professional meetings like a boring class wasn’t the best idea… 

“With that sorted out,” Elaine said mildly, “let’s move onto the next order of business. There’s going to be a temporary decrease in the matching of the retirement fund investments, since Dormer is having trouble getting funding from the remains of the Roark house. Mister Osheen, is there anything you can do in regards to that situation?” 

I felt a surge of guilt strike me, and my stomach churned unhappily. I’d needed to kill Archmage Roark, I stood by that. But it’s ripple effect had been hurting a lot of people – teachers who didn’t have houses to fall back on, army soldiers who’d been pressed into it because they weren’t able to meet the extraordinary bar for success mandated, and probably other fields that I wasn’t even aware of. 

It was impossible to make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, but when those eggs were the welfare of ordinary people, was the omelet worth it? Was pain in the short term justified in order to save more people in the long term? 

I didn’t know. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I wasn’t entirely sure, either. If I went on to expose noble secrets, then even more people would wind up in a state of unrest. How many would die, because I had decided that they’d be the sacrifice to drive the engine of revolution? 

If I had to become one of those sacrifices, would I? 

Yes, I would. 

But did that make what I was doing any better? Just because I was willing to jump into a meat grinder didn’t mean that I was free of the responsibilities or pain that was caused by everyone else who wound up in the meat grinder. 

My thoughts snapped back to the present by Osheen speaking.

“I’m not a member of the house anymore,” Osheen said. “Short of ascending to archmage and re-inserting myself into the house, fending off all challengers, and then managing to somehow become head of the house, there’s nothing I can do.” 

I had to stop myself from reacting again, and I was glad I’d had so much practice with the Fae before, because there was a very good chance that Osheen would be able to, in fact, do exactly that, if it was something he wanted. 

“Unfortunate, but expected,” Elaine said, nodding. “Well, it should sort itself out within a year or two.” 

It wouldn’t if I had anything to say about it, but she didn’t need to know that. That only served to make me feel even worse, but there wasn’t anything I could do.

“And one final thing, Professor Evan,” she said. “I noticed that you didn’t have a book listed under the requirements for your courses?” 

“I don’t plan to teach from a book,” I said. “I’ve found my own resources, and I want to share them with the class as is appropriate.” 

“I’m afraid we have to list a book,” Elaine said, and I stared at her. How incredibly stupid was that? If I didn’t want to force poor kids to buy a textbook, why should I be forced to put one?

Besides, hadn’t I had a professor without a book in my first year?

“I can list it in our report, but not print it on the lists that go out to the students?” offered Elaine. 

“Let’s do that,” I said. “In fact, for both of my classes, please include a note: No expenses required.”

“Preposterous,” Travis said. “Witchcraft is an expensive career.” 

“It is in its highest echelons,” I agreed. “But for the simple spells we’re doing in first year courses, it isn’t.” 

“You’ll have to pay for the resources you use,” Elaine warned. 

“That’s fine,” I said, crossing my arms defiantly. “I’ll pay to ensure my students get a good education.” 

Elaine nodded, then moved on with the rest of the meeting.