Arcane Dropout 5

by Edmund Hughes

  “If it’s related to the extra work you’ve helped me with in the past, I’m afraid I’ve put that on hold for now.”

  “Not exactly,” said Lee. He grabbed a chair and pulled it up to the opposite side of Escher’s desk to take a seat. “I have a few ideas I wanted to get your opinion on, about experimenting with summoning spells.”

  Escher’s brow furrowed. She leaned back in her chair and steepled her fingers.

  “I’m listening.”

  “The standard variation of the spell, the one enchanted into the summoning scrolls you used to give me, lasts for an entire day.”

  “Yes. There’s a balance curve to the efficiency of a summon that caps out at around twenty-four hours.”

  “It’s variable, then?” asked Lee. “What if I was only interested in maintaining a summon for a few minutes, or a few seconds, even? A quick burst, like letting a monster tag in for a single attack.”

  “That’s known as channeling,” said Escher. “It’s an antiquated technique. Few mages bother to practice it anymore.”

  “Why not?”

  “For one, the Order of Chaldea frowns upon developing the sort of close-knit relationships with supernatural entities needed to make use of it in the first place. The research I partake in here at Primhaven, the research you’ve helped me with, has always been something of a background project of mine.”

  “If anything, that only makes it a little more appealing to someone like me,” said Lee. “I seem to be liked well enough by Brie and Thumper and the other monster girls.”

  “True enough. Though you should be warned it’s still, in my experience, quite inefficient at higher levels. A mage skilled with channeling can take advantage of the powers of a summon to get the effects of a more powerful spell at a lower cost of arcane essence, but the benefits have an obvious ceiling.

  “You’ll never be able to cast beyond the limits of the supernatural entities you have access to. You also might occasionally channel one, only to find it’s too tired to use its powers, or uncooperative for various other reasons. In short, it’s also a bit of a gamble.”

  “For someone like me, I think it might still be worth trying.” Lee folded his arms, already feeling a smile creeping onto his face at the possibilities. “Can you teach me the basics?”

  “I don’t know much more than what I’ve already told you,” said Escher. “You might be able to find a book or two on it in the library, however.”

  “I’ll take a look.”

  “Be extremely careful,” said Escher. “I’ve no wish to be implicated if you make a mess.”

  “You won’t be,” said Lee. “Thanks, Instructor.”

  ***

  The library was quiet and mostly empty. Lee spent a few minutes looking up book titles on the extremely slow index computer but was able to find a relevant volume without too much trouble.

  An idea came to him as he was about to finish up. He searched for “Savoire Solaire”, then “sun-blessed enchantment.” The second search yielded a hit. He scribbled down the titles of both books and went looking for what he needed.

  He’d always found it calming to be walking through the aisles of a library. He let himself take in the dusty scents, the sequestered ambiance, all of it with silence as its default state. It wasn’t hard to find the book on channeling which had been helpfully named The Art of Channeling.

  The other volume took more work to find. It was tucked away in the library’s deepest aisle, right next to the archives. The book itself was Brigmund’s Enchantment Analysis, a massive tome that took a surprising amount of tugging to even pull from the shelf. It both looked and felt as though it hadn’t been opened in years, perhaps decades.

  He found a table and began perusing his haul. As much as he wanted to immediately delve into channeling and how it might help him, both in exploring Kuh-Matton and developing a spell thesis, he felt an obligation to follow up on his sister’s concern.

  Brigmund’s Enchantment Analysis had a lengthy section on sun-blessed enchantments. More than a hundred pages, as far as Lee could tell, of extremely dry, academic musings. Fortunately, it was all topical, much of it related to the nature of a sun blessing.

  There were more than a dozen different theoretical treatments for the damage the enchantment could inflict. It was exactly what Zoe had been asking for. He pulled out his phone and sent her a quick text.

  LEE: I found the book you need. Brigmund’s Enchantment Analysis.

  He slid the volume aside and flipped open the one on channeling. He’d only started reading through the chapter list when Zoe texted him back.

  ZOE: Can you summarize it for me?

  LEE: Too long and complicated for that.

  ZOE: I’ll come pick it up, then.

  He stared at her message, feeling as though there must have been a typo. She couldn’t actually be referring to coming to Primhaven to pick it up, could she? A few minutes passed with no hasty correction or clarification.

  LEE: You don’t actually mean you’ll come here to get it, right?

  He waited for another minute before cursing under his breath. It was just the sort of thing Zoe loved to do. She’d developed a mysterious streak he really wasn’t a fan of in her time as a supernatural rebel.

  Lee spent the next hour reading through The Art of Channeling with a level of enthusiasm he wasn’t sure he’d ever previously had for his education. It felt as though it had been written for him, or rather, someone with very similar constraints to his own had written it.

  The process of channeling wasn’t complicated, and the hard part seemed to have far less to do with the actual spellcasting than it did with making summoned entities obedient and agreeable. He felt his impatience getting the better of him midway through the book and decided to move his research to the Spell Range where he could experiment with casting freely.

  He stopped by his dorm to drop off the book on enchanting. The kitten was on the floor in his room, its rapturous attention focused on a small beetle crawling across the floor. Tess was sitting cross-legged behind it, watching it in much the same way it watched the beetle.

  “I never knew you were such a cat person,” he said.

  “I like animals in general, but kittens are just so cute.” She flashed a dimpled grin at him. “He’s fine on his own for now, though. Is something up?”

  “Want to watch me play around with a new spell that might go horribly wrong?”

  “I would love to!”

  CHAPTER 21

  Lee took his time rereading the relevant sections of The Art of Channeling before making his first attempt. He felt a certain amount of pressure as he stood in the casting lane, slowing his breathing and falling into the conjuration stance.

  “I only have enough arcane essence for you to cast four spells,” said Tess. “You used one while you were on your adventure, didn’t you?”

  “Correct,” said Lee. “Four spells. I’ll need to use at least one of them just to cast a summon for long enough to explain how this is going to work and hopefully get their cooperation. I’ll be lucky if I can manage to even get that far.”

  He did have a general plan in mind. Thumper, the ice elemental snow bunny hybrid, would be the most useful in the near term, given how suited her abilities would be to Kuh-Matton. Lee focused his thoughts and will into the shape he needed for the channeling spell.

  It was different from a true summoning, which was good. It was a simpler process, much smaller in scale, more like calling out to someone from across the street or giving a quick wave for help across a metaphysical gap. It was specific, limited, and perfectly suited to Lee’s casting restrictions.

  He cast the spell, channeling Thumper. The indigo summoning portal opened in much the same fashion Lee remembered from using the scrolls. Thumper leaped through with an elegant bounce, landing in the casting lane in front of him with wide, eager eyes.

  She had a strong body, feminine in form, with thick thighs, plump breasts, and pale white-blue fur. Her e
ars were long and pliable, hanging back across her head in very much the same fashion a normal woman’s hair might fall. She was attractive, in her own bizarre, inhuman way. She smiled and hopped toward Lee with excited movements as soon as she caught sight of him.

  “Lee!” she said, in a voice pitched so high that it was almost a chirp. “Lee Amaranth! So warm!”

  “Hold on!” he said, quickly. “Thumper, I need to—”

  She tackled him, though her aggression was playful, intimate, even. She kissed him as they hit the ground and began grinding her body against his. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it also wasn’t something Lee had time for. A fact which was more than a little disappointing to a certain part of his body.

  “Thumper!” He kept his voice stern as he managed to pull his lips back from her mouth and tongue. “I need you to listen, okay? You’re only going to be here for a few more seconds.”

  “I warm up quick,” said Thumper. “This is waaaaarm.”

  She took his hand and pulled it onto her breast. It was so unbelievably soft and plump. Lee cleared his throat and forced himself to push through the distraction.

  “I want your help, Thumper,” said Lee. “This is called channeling.”

  “Channeling,” she repeated.

  “When I summon you next time, I want you to come through the portal quickly and use your power to attack. Your ice magic. Do you understand? Come through the portal and attack in the direction it’s facing. Super quick. You come through and—”

  Her body flashed with purple conjuration energy, and she was gone as quickly as she’d arrived. Lee cursed under his breath. He heard Tess giggling behind him.

  “What’s so funny?” he snapped.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. It’s fun to watch you struggle, sometimes. Thumper is so cute, but so…”

  “Simple-minded? Childish?”

  “I was going to say instinctual,” said Tess. “You should be patient with her.”

  “I don’t know I have time to be patient using this method of casting.” He sighed. “Maybe I’m asking for too much.”

  “At least give it a try. Some of your explanation might have gotten through to her.”

  “I guess we’ll see.”

  He rubbed his hands together and reassumed the conjuration casting stance. Facing the copper mannequin at the end of the casting lane, Lee focused his will on his channeling spell, calling out to Thumper by her true name as he cast it.

  She tumbled through the portal with a flashy somersault, landing upright and sliding a few feet before coming to a stop. She was already using her ice magic even as she did. She thrust both arms forward, releasing a rolling blast of frost and cold that sent tufts of flash-frozen condensation hissing upward through the air.

  It was like nothing Lee had seen before. The closest comparison he could make was his own force spell, except with all the kinetic energy replaced by a slightly slower-moving wave of frigid ice magic. The mannequin at the end of the casting lane frosted over and then broke into pieces as icicles formed at the joints and stabbed through wherever they could.

  Thumper let out a small giggle and waved to him as her body flashed with purple energy and disappeared. Lee gaped at the casting lane, then at his hands, and then open air where the portal had briefly existed.

  “Fascinating.”

  It wasn’t Tess’s voice, but Harper’s. Lee spun around to find her watching him from the back of the casting lane with a proud smile on her face. He grinned and rolled one of his wrists out.

  “It’s called channeling,” he said. “A way for me to take advantage of some of the friendships I’ve formed with supernatural entities.”

  “It’s certainly a creative way for you to cast beyond your normal limits,” said Harper. “A spell like that might be enough to shatter the ice wall, preventing us from making our way deeper into Kuh-Matton.”

  “I’m also exploring the idea of using it as a base for my spell thesis,” said Lee. “What would happen if I channeled multiple entities at once? Some of their powers might synergize together.”

  “Very clever, Eldon. I suppose I should have expected nothing less from you. You are my apprentice, after all.”

  She walked by him, folding her arms behind her back. She wore a striped long-sleeve shirt with a women’s brown leather jacket over it, along with tight jeans and her usual boots.

  “Were you on your way somewhere?” he asked.

  “I’m taking the rest of today off,” she said. “The next few days are going to be rather busy for me.”

  Lee nodded. “Gen mentioned the exhibition duel she asked you to appear in.”

  “Did she?”

  “She wanted me to help you prepare for it.”

  Harper chuckled. “Yes, I suppose she would ask that of you. Well, how about you meet me at the gate in ten minutes? I believe I do have some preparations you can help with. Bring your jacket.”

  He wasn’t what he’d been expecting. Harper led him out of the college, into Gillum, straight to the Frostfire Tavern. Lee was frowning as they both took seats at the bar. It was late enough in the evening for the venue to be somewhat crowded, and he got the distinct sense she hadn’t brought him there to discuss dueling tactics.

  “How much did Gen tell you about the exhibition duel?” she asked.

  “Other than the fact she’d asked you to take part in it? Basically nothing.”

  The bartender set two beers down. Harper slid one over to Lee and took a long sip of her own.

  “My opponent was in contention to become Gen’s apprentice around the same time I was. He was a former rival of mine, you could say.”

  Lee raised an eyebrow as he started nursing the beer. “Is that it? Are you just worried he might bear a grudge against you, or do you think he actually poses a threat?”

  “There’s more,” said Harper. “He was also Zoe’s former boyfriend. The guy she was dating when the two of us first discovered our… attraction to each other.”

  “Ah.” Lee tapped his finger against the rim of his mug. “That certainly makes the situation a bit complicated.”

  “A bit,” said Harper. She sighed and shook her head. “Gen enjoys this. It’s how she’s always operated, engineering tests, pushing me into situations that test my emotions.”

  “Is she actually getting under your skin with this?” asked Lee. “It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. Does this guy even still hold a grudge against you?”

  Harper had finished her beer and waved the bartender over to refill it. One of the serving girls dropped a glass, and behind them, Lee could hear her frantically apologizing to the people at a nearby table.

  “I doubt it.” She gave a small shrug. “Not over Zoe, at least. If you recall, the Order used dream weaving en masse on Primhaven after Zoe’s disappearance, so he doesn’t even remember her. But… it’s less about the events and more about the emotions.”

  “Well, if you want to talk about it, I’m more than willing to…” Lee trailed off as he watched Harper finishing her second beer in under ten minutes. She waved the bartender over again, and soon enough, a round of shots was on the counter in front of them.

  CHAPTER 22

  “Harper… the room is spinning.”

  Lee hadn’t been keeping track of how many rounds she’d bought them, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Harper had outpaced him, and it hadn’t been remotely close. She still maintained an air of authority about her, though her posture was slumped forward and far less deliberate than normal.

  “One more round,” muttered Harper.

  “I’m done.”

  “One more round.” Harper started to gesture to the bartender and then hesitated. “Right after I use the restroom.”

  She stood up from the bar counter and made her way toward the corner of the tavern with a remarkable amount of composure. It was late, and the only people left on the premises were in the process of pairing off into couples or paying their tabs.

  A loud scream came fro
m the hallway leading to the bathrooms, along with a burst of blindingly bright orange light. Lee stumbled to his feet and managed to collect enough of his balance to make his way toward the scene.

  He found Harper standing over a cowering man with blond hair and a half-melted pair of sunglasses. Her arms were up in a casting stance and she had a furious, borderline-terrifying glare on her face.

  “Please…” begged the man. “I was just being friendly.”

  “Never, ever think to try that on a woman without her permission again,” said Harper. “Consider yourself lucky.”

  Lee grabbed Harper by the wrist and pulled her out of the tavern as quickly as he could. He could hear the confusion of the staff and patrons echoing in their wake. He scowled at Harper as they stepped out into the cold night.

  “Did you really need to use your magic to handle that?” he asked.

  “Need is… subjective.”

  “What’s gotten into you?” asked Lee.

  She stepped toward him in the dark, grabbing him by the scruff of his jacket and pulling him in for a rough kiss.

  “Come on,” she muttered. “You said you wanted to help me prepare for my duel. Let’s do some sparring.”

  “Harper, you’re too drunk for that. I’m way too drunk for that.”

  “Are you scared of me, Eldon?”

  Her tone of voice had an edge of a taunt to it, and Lee felt his emotions flaring, fueled and lubricated by the half-dozen drinks she’d already plied him with. He followed her as they arrived back onto campus, but not into the dueling chambers as he’d first been expecting.

  She led him into the steam baths. They went past the ones open for the students, toward the private section reserved for instructors only.

  “I can’t go in there,” said Lee.

  “It’s always empty.” Harper shrugged out of her coat. “It’ll only be us.”

  “It’s not exactly an ideal space for us to… uh… spar.”

  Harper was already stripping off the rest of her clothing as she entered the steamy bath chamber. Lee watched in a state of mildly aroused awe as she pulled off her bra and began wiggling out of her tight jeans.