“Welcome back, welcome back, and thank you everyone who managed to produce the imbued items for the spells I outlined earlier. For those of you who’ve not yet managed the feat, be it due to finances, time, or difficulty with the physical outlining of the spells, please stick around for a while after class

  “Finances I get, but is there really anyone who hasn’t mastered the ability to pour things in the right shape? This isn’t some sixth circle three dimensional ritual spell. It’s a bloody circle,” Kybar, the minotaur sitting next to me, snorted.

  He tried to whisper it, but he was ultimately a massive half-bull man, and his laughter drew the irritated gaze of a few people. Professor Silverbark gave him a frown and shook his head disapprovingly before turning back to the class as a whole.

  “These final four spells for the semester are all fourth circle, and as such, should be comfortably within the skill level of everyone here to cast. With that said, let’s delve into the selection. As I’m sure you no doubt recall from last year, I insist on everyone learning a combat spell. Even if half of you don’t ever end up being called to the wall in an emergency, or if you live the most peaceful life in all the planes, it’s better to know one and not need it, than to need one and be powerless. Last year I gave a short list, but this year, I’ve expanded the possible options.”

  He gestured, and in a ripple of blue, teleported sheets of paper to each of the mats where we were seated.

  “I’ll give you a few moments to go through the list here and now, for fun. But you should have selected a spell by the next time we meet, and I’ll get you the spell guide then.”

  I glanced over the sheet. Dessicate was on the spell list, which potentially meant that I could take an easy out, but… that didn’t sit right with me. This was an opportunity to expand my repertoire, so I should take it. Otherwise, what kind of wizard was I? I flicked through the list of descriptions for any that called to me, and settled on one that was called boiling sphere. It pulled seawater from a particularly horrifying elemental plane, where the seas were perpetually boiling. That water was compressed into a tiny bead and launched out from the caster’s hand, at which point they could will it to expand and lash out with tendrils of water in all directions.

  From a purely physical standpoint, I had no idea how a realm at a perpetual boil worked, or how water could be compressed, but the spell suited me well. Flame and water working together appealed to my sense of aesthetics, and on top of that, I thought I could use suffering curses to worsen the burns they’d receive. I doubted it would be as powerful as dessicate was against a singular opponent, but against a group, it should be quite effective. I was starting to compose curses when professor Silverbark cleared his throat, and I looked up to see that he’d written three more spells on the board.

  “If I can have everyone’s attention? Excellent. We’ve got three more spells, and I don’t believe that anyone here is going to want to miss them, especially the last. In my opinion, it’s one of the most important spells for any wizard to cast, and the sooner they cast it, the better.”

  I flicked my eyes over to examine the last spell on the board. It was filled with hundreds of tiny characters, and Seren came to the same conclusion that I did at the same time. A ritual spell, and one that directly empowered the caster’s life force. Before I could study it further, though, professor Silverbark tapped the first spell in the line, and I heard Salem let out a snort.

  “Arcane eye. It’s perhaps one of the most famous spells in all of wizardry, and for good reason. The spell forms a floating eye that you can move with ether manipulation, and see through as if it were one of your own. Many amateurs find this to be confusing, and so close their own eyes while using the arcane eye. That’s a useful trick, but it’s ultimately a crutch. By the end of the semester, I fully expect for all of you to be able to utilize it while keeping at least one of your normal eyes open.”

  “Is the eye invisible, and is it intangible?” the green haired artificer who I sold my curse bracelets through asked.

  “Sometimes, and no,” professor Silverbark responded. “Like with arcane armor or shield, a perfectly cast arcane eye is an invisible bundle of arcane force, but any flaws that cause ether leakage will result in the arcane force becoming visible. Being made of solidified arcane energy does mean it is unable to pass through objects, but it does have some give to it, like a rubber ball. It can squeeze and flex some.”

  I shuddered. I did not like the visual of someone’s eye squeezing and flexing to get under a door or through a vent. I wasn’t sure why I disliked it so much, but it provoked a vivid and visceral reaction in me. Professor Silverbark fielded a few more questions, before he eventually moved onto the next spell. It was clearly a conjuration spell, but it was pulling from… somewhere strange. I thought it was probably classified as an elemental plane, but I couldn’t entirely be sure.

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  “Etherius is endless,” professor Silverbark began. “And I do mean that. As far as we can tell, it is really and truly endless. Which means that there are countless planes out there. Many of them are essentially empty expanses of rock or fire or water or what have you. Others are filled with monsters or demons or gods. But others? Others are actually incredibly useful. This spell taps into my favorite plane: the endless house.”

  “The endless house?” I asked, frowning. I’d never heard of that plane, and spell really looked more like it called on the space that summon cleaning spirit did, rather than a house that went on forever.

  “Indeed, the endless house. It, as the name suggests, is a sprawling mansion that seemingly goes on forever. Before anyone asks how this is possible, allow me to remind you that endless is not a number. Etherius is not five units big, with the house also five units big. There are established fields of mathematics that discuss how certain infinities are larger than others. Infinite numbers with decimal places is larger than infinite integers.”

  He waves his hand dismissively.

  “If this interests you, I can point to a few books on the topic. Regardless, the endless house is an endless plane made up of endless houses, filled with furniture sized for every known race and several unknown ones, cleaning spirits, permanently animated force hands capable of performing tasks, and a hundred other conveniences. Numerous spells call upon this space, including the seventh circle Instant Mansion spell. This spell is nothing so grand, but it’s still worthwhile: conjure cottage. The casting of the spell will conjure a simple stone cottage, usually around four hundred square feet, with two cots, some wooden furniture, and a cooking hearth.”

  That tickled the back of my mind, though I couldn’t place what it was until Salem leaned in next to me and whispered.

  “Tha’ was what the people who scout outside the borders of the Wall used, wasn’t it? We saw it when we went huntin’ demons.”

  That was where I’d seen it before. I nodded to him, and then turned to continue paying attention to professor Silverbark as a student asked him what he meant by ‘usually’ being four hundred square feet.

  “Multiple mages working together to conjure cottages in the same space will cause them to fuse into a larger, more elaborate cottage. There is a degree of dropoff, however, after the fourth caster, where each additional one only adds half as much square footage. Thus the fifth only adds two hundred square feet, rather than four hundred. The sixth adds a hundred. Seventh, fifty. So on and so forth. For those of you familiar with the ether shaping technique of layered spells, that works in the same manner, with layers of casting equating to the number of casters.”

  “What do you mean by it becoming more elaborate?” Kybar asked, raising one of his massive hands.

  “Ah, excellent question. That works in two ways. The first is automatic, simply increasing the quality of what it summons. Rather than a cot, you may get a bed. The second is that it allows the casters to cooperate on shaping the square footage to additional purposes: bathrooms, additional bedrooms, libraries, that sort of thing. Though your options are not endless like the plane that it draws from, I suggest you experiment. Any more questions? Alright. Last thing I will say on this spell is about the duration. If the spell is not re-cast in the same space by the same people who cast it on the original day, then the spell fades away after three days. Alternatively, it can be made permanent with the use of the permanency spell.”

  He tapped the final spell on the board, the ritual spell that interfaced with life force.

  “Now, the most important spell for any mage, and one I have lobbied the Erudite endlessly to add to all our curriculums, resist aging. This is a ritual spell that requires five items, and for any of you familiar with cultivation, you may recognize a pattern. Indeed, some theorize that all cultivation is actually just advanced and freeform application of this ritual spell.”

  I frowned, shaking my head slightly at that. I’d heard the theory that all other magic was highly specialized wizardry, but the more forms of other magic I was exposed to, the more convinced I was that the theory was absolutely nonsensical.

  “You’ll create a traditional five pointed star, as is used in the construction of many wizard spellforms, but at each of the points you will instead place one of five components related to the base elements of cultivation: wood, metal, water, fire, and earth. In this instance, the cone from a hundred-plus year pine tree, the shed skin of an albino serpent, a vial of water from a mountain spring that is rich with a life force of its own, a flame from a potent magical creature such as a dragon, phoenix or greater fire elemental, and roughly a hundred silver worth of ether crystal dust. As you can see, many of these are somewhat vague, but the list is worthwhile to fulfill, even if you have a few non-starters.”

  I let out a soft whistle at the list, and began wondering if it was even worth it. I didn’t know exactly how long I would live, but I knew it would be centuries at the minimum.

  “This spell extends a lifespan by roughly half again its current length,” professor Silverbark continued, as if he could read my mind. “If you’re an elf, likely to live two centuries, then you’ll be able to live for three. A human liable to live for a century with the aid of healing spells might live to be a hundred and fifty. So on and so forth. Now, let’s start looking at what this actually does to your life force in order to provide this miracle…”

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