I only had two exams left: Conjuration Two and Second Year Applied Mage combat. I wasn’t worried at all for conjuration, despite the fact I knew several of my classmates were muttering about having to call up an otherworldly sage. I was, however, slightly worried about having to complete Applied Mage Combat. We’d had a fairly light semester, after all, and I wouldn’t put it past Henry to throw us into the lion’s den just to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything. More than that, we’d gotten an ominous time block for it, two and a half hours long.

  Whatever that class had in store, I had to finish up with professor Toadweather first. I met with her in the solarium, and expected her to go through the similar series of probing questions to suss out how deep into the Creep I was. Instead, she took a refreshingly new approach.

  “Are you turning evil?”

  “I don’t think so? Evil is a subjective framework, as you’d say.”

  “How about the Creep? Feeling creepy?”

  “I’m really doing a lot better there, thank you.”

  “Good! Then we don’t need to waste time on this, do we? Go ahead and start showing me how to summon, oh wise sage master of summoning? What are your names?”

  I snorted at the title, before running through my names. Professor Toadweather nodded her approval.

  “You tried the coffee trick, didn’t you?”

  “I did. It wasn’t perfect, but it helped.”

  “Your names also aren’t perfect, but they’re much better than they were when we last checked on them. They almost feel like complete masks! Now, summon for me!”

  I nodded and raised my hand, summoning a spray of webs, then a hellhound, before teleporting a bottle of water from one table to another. I summoned up a large flowering frog, a sparking lightning ermine, a misty arctic fox, and a sturdy steel crocodile. After that I opened a portal to conjure eldritch tentacles, closed it, and called up a swarm of giant formica ants.

  “Good, good, but basic. Now I want to see you summon a sage. And here’s the twist that annoys a lot of you: it can’t be the sage I showed you. And since you like to be stupid when it comes to your life, it can’t be a sage you can’t banish.”

  “Oh? Is that what everyone was complaining about? That’s easy,” I said as I flicked my fingers to cast animate writing implement, sending the chalk out to start working on my circle. “I’m going to summon a saint, then. He’s a bit grumpy, but –”

  “A saint?!” professor Toadweather said, whirling on me. “You will not be summoning a saint! They’re the third most powerful of divine channels! You are nowhere near able to contain one that wants free.”

  “He was fairly nice when I summoned him–”

  “Just because someone is nice doesn’t mean that they can’t squash you like a bug! I do NOT fancy risking getting into a fight with him. That would mean I’d have to kill him, and then I’d have a vengeful god after me! That was fine when I was only a few decades old, but not now. I’m quite comfortable, thank you very much.”

  I made note of the fact that, despite her protestations that saints were the third most powerful of divine channels, she stated that she would have to kill him if they fought. Faeries couldn’t lie. They could be wrong, if they were misinformed. They could twist the truth. But they couldn’t outright lie. Which meant at the very least that professor Toadweather genuinely believed she could kill a saint.

  “Alright, alright. Not the saint. I’ll summon one of Amos’ relatives then.”

  “Good,” professor Toadweather said, visibly relaxing. “Go on then.”

  I began casting the spell, and after several long moments, the massive serpentine form of Aqil filled the circle.

  “Greetings, Aqil. I am honored to speak to you again, and would like to apologize for the sudden summons.”

  “It is fine, little spark,” the giant serpent rumbled. “In truth, I expected this far sooner. I did say I would have a name within three weeks. But tell me, who is this… fae creature… that stands next to you? Her scent is…”

  His tongue flicked out of his mouth several times.

  “Interesting,” Aqil finally settled on. The statement caused professor Toadweather to laugh, and I explained that she was my teacher, and was grading me.

  “I see. This is perhaps one of the better faerie courts, but I would prefer not to share my information with her. I chose a name for you, little spark, not an old monster like the Castlebreaker.”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  I squinted at Aqil. The old serpent knew more than he was letting on. Castlebreaker was the name that professor Toadweather had earned in Hydref, and not one that I’d mentioned to him.

  “I swear that I will leave the room and not eavesdrop on the name you share with him through any means at my disposal. Further, I shall guard the room from the eavesdropping of the Queen or any other faeries within the castle. This, at least, is covered by my contract of being a good teacher.”

  “So be it,” intoned Aqil, and as soon as he agreed, professor Toadweather and her toad were both gone. The serpent turned his gaze on me and shook his large head.

  “She is dangerous, little spark. Perhaps less so now than two centuries ago, but still dangerous. I would tread carefully around her, especially once you are no longer under the aegis of the school.”

  “I don’t know what I will do once I’m no longer at school, but I think I’m leaning toward becoming a planeswalker. Or perhaps a realmwalker.”

  The serpent stilled, looking at me seriously, then let out a rattling sigh that was half a hiss.

  “You do not even know what this word means, yet you use it so casually. Very well. The name I have chosen for you is Roshan Willowmoon. He is a young dryad man, a rising star not too unlike yourself, with greater knowledge than one so young should have.”

  An instant later, professor Toadweather reappeared, grinning from ear to ear.

  “I felt the deal end. So you got your name? Good! Well… Aqil… I hope you treat my student well.”

  “I hope you do not blow out a hopeful young spark,” the serpent retorted. Toadweather waved her wand, and Aqil vanished.

  “You keep odd company for a summoner,” professor Toadweather commented. “Not bad company, inherently. Just not the usual crowd that ambitious and powerful young summoners fall into.”

  “Traffiking with demons?” I asked, which caused professor Toadweather to nod seriously.

  “It’s easy to do. Too easy. It often yields good results, too. Not all demons are inherently opposed to humanity, after all. The problem is that few people are actually as clever as they think they are, and you’ll only really find a deal if you’re dancing in their hand like a puppet.”

  “People say the same of the fae.”

  A savage grin spread across her face and she thrust her hands out. Thin white strings erupted from her hands as her bloodline surged and boiled with power. The strings erupted across the room, passed through the walls, rushed into the earth, and trailed up into the sky. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them, all tied around her hands like she was the puppeteer of countless puppets.

  But there were other strings too. Thin black strings ran in from outside, flowing toward her. There were far fewer of them than there were the white strings, only eight of them. They spun around her limbs, tying her arms tight enough that the flesh bulged out uncomfortably, like a tourniquet. The largest of the black strings was wrapped around her neck, but tied looser than the rest, like a noose that hadn’t been pulled taught, or perhaps like a collar. Then the power faded away to nothing. The sense of her bloodline retreated, but her savage smile didn’t.

  “And why would they ever say that?” she asked. In direct opposition to her smile, her voice was perfectly sweet and innocent. I had pulled out my staff and was shaping ether into defensive spells, almost subconsciously, while I stoked my embers to life with tiny amounts of fire. I knew they wouldn’t be enough, but it was a long ingrained habit.

  “You are just a pixie, after all,” I agreed, shifting from foot to foot despite myself. “Most people would call you harmless.”

  She threw back her head and laughed. Her laughter filled the room, and for an instant I was all but sure that I could see those white strings again. It lasted for an eerily long time, before finally fading away.

  “You get it. You really do. It’s good you understand. Alright, you pass.”

  “I haven’t demonstrated worldmerchant yet,” I said. “Are you sure?”

  “Bah, you’re holding the proof that you used it in your hand,” she said, nodding to your staff. “I don’t need proof to see that you can do it.”

  “What about teleportation circle? I could demonstrate it for you, if you’d like?”

  “Oh, that’s bonus points. Good job! If you can actually cast it. I won’t provide the alloy, but go ahead and show me. It will fail, but I’ll be able to tell if you did it right.”

  I nodded and animated the chalk again, glad to put the unnerving topic of demons and faerie deals behind me. It took me several minutes to work through the multi-paragraph chant, work all the gestures, and focus on the shaping of ether. But as soon as I was done, I felt the surge of ether as it rushed out of me, filled the circle, and… did nothing at all. The reaction from professor Toadweather was something else entirely, though – she looked genuinely impressed.

  “Well, by the hells, you actually did it. I heard Gemmykins telling me about you being ready to graduate, but I thought he might just be exaggerating. But if you’ve actually learned the fifth circle spells from your three spell school courses, and the two from Applied Mage Combat…”

  A spell guide thumped to the ground next to me, but professor Toadweather continued speaking as if nothing had happened.

  “As a faerie, I cannot give gifts. But as a teacher, I can encourage my students to learn, and advise them on spells they would be wise to learn. This is, in my opinion, the best spell for you to learn: Celestial Chains of Binding. A powerful sixth circle spell that utilizes a mixture of summoning magic, abjuration magic, and the telekinetic control common to transmutation. Now, you shouldn’t copy that. You’re not developed enough to have it. As your teacher, I must forbid you from touching it, as I’m only showing you the name that’s on the cover of the spell guide for reference, and if I catch you doing anything else, I’ll have to write you up. I really want to get some coffee, so I’m going to get some from the cafeteria.”

  At that, she blasted off, her wings glowing golden with faerie dust, her toad lapping behind her. I looked over it for a long moment, and as soon as I was sure she was gone, immediately cast scribe’s friend to create a copy of the book. With that, I tucked my grimoire away and left the castle, before immediately walking into the library – I needed some plausible deniability, after all. I headed right to the reading room, since there were no books on the table, then stretched, mentally thanking professor Toadweather. I was fairly confident that there was one major difference between the deals demons and faeries made: the faeries were way better at it.

  I shook off the thoughts and focused back on things I needed to do. I only had one final left, and it was the only one I was actually feeling nervous about. Applied Mage Combat.

  Patreon Here!

  Discord Here!