That Tuesday went by fairly normally, with me working a shift at the Charm and Fable, serving an entire batch of people with oddly colored hair, though it seemed to be entirely natural, rather than the result of simple dye or a bloodline. When Wednesday rolled around, and I attended Applied Mage Combat, I was surprised to see everyone gathered together. With the more individualized approach that Henry had been taking, it had been a while since I’d seen Wesley anywhere but entering and leaving his bedroom, and I hadn’t seen the third years at all. Once everyone had gathered together, professor Alydia stepped forward and clapped to gather everyone’s attention.

  “Alright everyone, listen up. The Erudite is going to be directly teaching everyone here some fundamental spells, something he usually only reserves for those few that make it to the third year, or who show great potential. Some of these were already on the curriculum for the year, but he’s decided to shuffle and add some. Please, pay attention. A lesson directly from him is something most would kill for.”

  I raised my eyebrows at that. Henry had been teaching us personally the entire year. Was that a mark of how much potential he thought we had? How much trouble we caused? Or something else?

  “Ah, to be fair Alydia, that also applies to you,” Henry said as he folded into existence in a ripple of blue. “You’re on a very short list of eighth circle spellcasters, after all.”

  Professor Alydia nodded and demurely muttered something, before stepping to the side. Henry lifted one finger and drew out some loops in the air, muttering, and conjured a blackboard and some chalk. He turned and smiled at us.

  “Right. I’m going to be honest now. Most of the mages that go to this school are…”

  He trailed off for a moment, yawned, and then shrugged.

  “I don’t want to say they’re incompetent, but most of our graduates aren’t combat mages. I can’t blame a healer for not being a deadly force, or a transmuter for going around building things. But most of the ones that are combat mages don’t take this class, and wait to gain experience on the wall. I think that they’re stupid. Unfortunately, even among those who do take this class, it’s rare to find someone who meets my standards. That one is on me, I know that. My standards for magecraft are impossibly high. But there are six of you in this class – I won’t say which six – who actually do clear that bar. That’s why I’m teaching you all some of the most valuable spells for a combat mage to know.”

  “You’re going to teach us combat spells?!” one of the third years asked breathlessly, and Henry looked at her oddly.

  “No? Kind of, I suppose. If you want to learn to cast fireball or shield, take a class on combat magic, abjuration, obliteration, or something like that. No, it would be a waste to teach you all anything that a class could, and only one of you has both the skill and power needed to attempt sixth circle spells.”

  I shot a glance to Wesley when he said that, but the man’s lips were pressed together in a thin line, which caused my eyebrows to creep up. I’d been sure it was him, but if not… maybe it was the one who could summon black holes?

  “These are spells that classes generally won’t show you, or that are needed for combat mages without being combat spells,” Henry continued, tapping his staff to the board and layering a spell on. “We’re going to begin with one of my fields of expertise: necromancy. Necromancy and enchantment are probably the most maligned of all the schools of magic, and it’s understandable. But there are some gems in the necromancy school that everyone should know. Can anyone guess what this spell is?”

  He gestured to the spell on the board, which clearly bore a resemblance to certain spells around life force, including something with the draining sigils, but beyond that I wasn’t entirely sure what. I leaned in closer and tried to determine what, before raining a hand.

  “Steal life?” I guessed.

  “Not a half bad guess,” Henry said, nodding before he stifled another yawn. “The spell’s official name is siphon vitality, and it does exactly what it sounds like. If you cast it on a target that’s unable to resist, you’ll rend a chunk of their life force out, which will be converted to healing energy to spike your body’s natural regeneration and recovery. It’s not a pleasant or nice spell, and there are countless ways to use it in an unethical manner. But it’s saved my life countless times.”

  I bit my lip as I started adding the spell into my grimoire. I absolutely needed to learn the spell, regardless of the ethical quandaries it could create. If someone – say, a superpowered cultivator – was trying to kill me, I had no problems ripping out a chunk of their life force to keep myself alive.

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  “Our next spell is one I promised to teach you. Now I will. Process body strips down a body for useful components based on the caster’s knowledge of what to take and how it should be harvested. It’s also useful for being able to harvest summoned creatures, like demons, before they’re banished back to their realm. Indeed, for those of you with access to planar contracts, it can be a reasonable way to gather certain materials. Summon the creature with the part you need, strike a bargain to allow you to cast the spell on them before banishment, then kill them. Simple, clean, and effective. No hard feelings.”

  I raised an eyebrow at that. I didn’t think I could do it to Amos or any of the creatures I had established some sort of relationship with, even though I knew that they’d be fine in an objective sense, but if I was just summoning a random wadjettktt…

  “Our final fourth circle spell is one that I have a sincere hope you’ll never need to use. But on the off chance it is used, it should be inordinately useful for you,” Henry said, before tapping the board. “It’s called dead man’s casting. How many of you are familiar with the limitations common to spells like contingency or spellglyph?”

  I raised my hand, as did about half the class, and Henry sighed before taking a moment to run through the issues with the spell in regards to targeting specific opponents and the like. Once he finished, he turned back and gestured to the spell on the board.

  “This spell has none of those issues. Indeed, it can be molded to hold and utilize magic in any way that you as a person can manage, and it can store a single spell of any strength, no care at all for circles. Mine holds a ninth circle spell that I’ve heavily modified.”

  “How does spell modification work?” I asked, my hand shooting into the air.

  “You’ll learn next year, but that’s not the point. The point is that the fourth circle spell is containing a ninth circle one without issue. So, who can tell me why and how it’s able to buck these shackles?”

  “It is a dead man’s contingency plan,” Yushin said flatly. “The ability is in the name. The spell only has one condition to activate: your death.”

  “Exactly,” Henry said, pointing at her. “That doesn’t diminish the utility of the spell.”

  “How?” one of the third years asked skeptically. “You’ll be dead. Getting revenge on your killer won’t bring anyone back.”

  Henry gave the older student a sad smile and launched into a story.

  “When I was a young soldier of… oh, fourteen or so? Thirteen? No, fourteen, I’m all but sure of it. Regardless, when I was young, I did a stint on the wall. I was in the squadron of one of the most powerful affinity-based spellcasters I’ve ever personally witnessed, Ria Strauss. She had a pinkish-silver lightning that allowed her to rip through three humanoid demons with the same effort it takes an average mage to cast a weirlight. But that didn’t make us invincible. Our squad got cocky, and followed an aberrant who had been assaulting the wall with some regularity, but it was a trap. Despite that, only one person died. As soon as the aberrant’s teeth-claw-tentacles took off Ria’s head, her dead man’s casting activated. The lightning storm that tore through the landscape killed the aberrant and every single one of its summoned demons. It’s the only reason I lived long enough to become an archmage, let alone an Erudite. It’s not about getting revenge on your killer. It’s about giving the people you’re fighting with the chance to live.”

  There was a long moment of silence after that, before the Erudite clapped his hands and gestured to the board. The three spells vanished, and two new ones took their place, causing my jaw to drop open. Both of the spells had five circles in them. I had known that I’d need to be able to – barely – cast a few fifth circle spells by the time I graduated, but I hadn’t actually expected to see any this year, and if I had, certainly not two in one class.

  “Believe it or not, despite my expectations, I do know that not all of you are already capable of casting fifth circle spells,” Henry said. “But I recommend you learn both of these spells before the end of the year. Neither are strictly offensive or defensive spells, but I have used both of them more times than I can count.”

  He tapped the first spell on the board, which looked to be an enchantment spell, given how it interacted with the mind, but also had some effect on the body given the number of runes that were commonly used in body-based transmutation.

  “Greater paralyze,” he said fondly. “This spell can in theory paralyze anyone or anything. It doesn’t matter if it’s a demon lord, a ferocious beast, or a dragon. Of course, it is a mental-physical gestalt of a spell, targeting both mind and muscle, which does mean that powerful wills can resist. Still, the spell has saved my life countless times. Catch someone off guard, or while they’re worn down, or something with weaker wills, and they’re effectively already dead.”

  I noted the spell down before looking to the next one. It was clearly an abjuration spell, and it shared a lot of spell portions in common with the planar protection spell, but was clearly different. Apart from the obvious three extra circles of complexity, there were a few marks I associated with conjuration and divination magic woven in, as well as elements that reminded me more of animal morph.

  “The final spell you’re going to learn this year is planar adaptation. If you ever plan to visit another plane – or don’t plan, but find yourself there anyways, you’ve got a coin toss of being instantly killed. Many planes don’t have air that humanoids can breathe. Some don’t have air at all, or are so filled with toxins that they’re likely to kill even core cultivators. This spell will defend you from the environmental hazards of nearly any plane that you’re not native to via the minimum needed adaptations to survive. It can be resource intensive to cast the spell each morning, but if you find yourself ever visiting another plane, you’ll be glad to have it.”

  He stretched his back, then began to draw in the air, lights trailing his fingers as he did.

  “I’m going to start by breaking down our first spell, siphon vitality. Pay attention.”

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