The best way to make sure a Novice progresses? Fill their heads with theory. Check that they understand it and can apply the best part of it. Then, place them in enough danger that they are forced to apply it smartly. If you stop at the first step, you get a scholar. At the second, you get a Friendly- Fire hazard on the battlefield. The trick to it is to find the sweet spot between an easily managed threat and a mortal one. Too easy? You’ve created an insufferably arrogant brat. Too hard? I hope you had a rescue team at hand, and then you have to deal with psychological trauma. It is the teacher’s job, as an educator, to fail as rarely as possible in this balancing act.

Extract from “On the Education of young Mages”, by Magus Jean-François de Carné

Damien was quite proud of himself. He’d managed to create a working proof of concept for an Element-specific Tier 3 signature spell. Less than two months after his Awakening to boot! This would be an achievement even for a Senior Mage like Roland, who was red-faced and possibly as happy as a mother hen whose first egg had just cracked.

Damien felt a sudden chill come over him.. He looked at the chamber's squat form and noticed an addition: a thick layer of ice had covered the machine and was melting rapidly. Then, he finally addressed the cavern bear-spirit in the room.

“Julia? Would you mind telling Polaris not to flash-freeze me? Although I’m pretty sure you can’t supply him the mana to do so anyways.” Damien said innocently.

Julia dismissed Polaris, grimacing, and turned to Roland. “Do you still need me, sir? I need to meditate.”

“Go on, lass. Congratulations on your second School, by the way. II’ve heard of your family’s Spirit, and it doesn’t disappoint. I hear it can even be used as a morphic form for Polymorph while allowing the use of a second School’s spells? If you need a focus to increase its efficiency, ask Damien. He needs to train on actually difficult projects from time to time. Although for that one, I’d wait a few months, maybe a year. He still doesn’t have the knack for creating magical foci, and a Polymorphic focus is a big investment.” Roland mused, trying to put some peer-pressure on his student.

JJulia left, thanking Roland for his suggestion. The Enchanter turned to his pupil. “What was the last thing you did in there? Did you perform a live experiment with an untested mandala inside the Chamber?”

“I knew it would work, sir. It’s a simple elemental circle, to circulate motes in the air above it. I just added a collecting trap for the most excited motes.” Damien calmly defended his discovery.

“Your trap blew up! I had to ask Julia to cast a Sleet Storm empowered by Polaris to prevent the meltdown of half a dozen core components, you dimwit!!! Next time you have that kind of 'brilliant idea' and don’t speak with me about it before applying it, I’ll rpetition the Education Comitee for authorization to dismiss you as a trainee. Experimental Spellcraft is dangerous!” Roland yelled at him.

The outburst surprised Damien, who had taken Roland’s anger for excitement at his discovery. He felt a strong urge to respond to Roland in the same tone, defending the safety of his spell. Then, he looked around. Julia’s ice, which had already saved his hands from burning to crisps on the Awakening Stone, was rapidly melting and dissipating The Sleet Storm’s manifestation was rapidly unraveling now that Polaris was dismissed and Julia had left. To force his anger away, he circulated his ember mana. He'd noticed that doing so would tire him out, and tended to attenuate extreme emotion, such as the temptation to 'field-test' his Ember Circle on Roland he was currently feeling.

After Damien and Roland had both calmed down, they decided that they should head to the Manufactorium’s Testing Chamber.

“Alright kid. I want you to promise one thing before we continue.” Roland said. “If you invent a mandala, I want you to run it at least once here, with me, before you use it on the field or at school. I’ve seen how your process works. You’re a genius at making custom mandalas, but you’re processing with pure instinct. Someday you’ll fail, and according to Oracle Murphy’s law, it’ll happen when you need to succeed. So, I want you to remake your Ember Circle with no logic leaps. See where it takes you, and consult me about the differences. Then, we will begin experimenting.”

Damien was still frustrated that Roland didn’t trust his work, but ended up agreeing with the old enchanter. After all, the point of Spellcraft was to produce Manifestations as stable and easily reproduced as possible. Instinctual methods of Spellcraft, if they produced results, did not impress in terms of reproducibility. He ended up agreeing to submit his Ember Circle and the Mandala Nfetwork he had produced in his bedroom to Roland's expertise.

"So this was why you were interested in mana loss over distance, kid? Good thing you didn't expand your network to your whole house... Warded mana lines can only take so much mana before overloading." Roland laughed. The boy might be good, but he couldn’t guess things he wasn't expressly told.

Damien reflected on the problem for a few seconds, then submitted a quick and relatively easy solution. “How about a subdivision of the network in sectors so that if a line or a device fails, the whole network keeps working? Maybe even a deliberately weaker link, so the network always fails there, and not in a random corner of my house?”

Roland smiled, proud of his student. “Good answer. That’s what we’ve done in the Manufactorium.” Seeing his student’s face falling, he continued. “Did you think you were the first to think about centralizing power supplies? We don’t advertise it, but we can produce that kind of network. We just reserve it for fixed military assets, since it requires more components than we’re willing to use. High Potency Warded lines require silver, as you know, and you need to renew them once every few years. It’s simpler and more cost-efficient to create individually powered appliances. Now, about your version of it….”

The office of Saint-Denis’ School’s honorary principal was a strange place. It was situated in a greenhouse hidden behind the main school building. As such, it was inundated with all sorts of plants, as well as a grand table which used to be part of the Saint-Louis’s deck before it was dismantled and used as Saint-Louis’s fortress's foundation. Now, the greenhouse was mainly used as a conference room for the Education Board to confer, as its owner, the honorary principal and President of the Education Board, did not usually honor their reunions with his presence. Still, his seat, carved into a living tree, presided over the assembly. It was made up of the two senior teachers of the school, the Principal, the Mayor of Saint-Denis, Colonel Raynaud, there as the Military Advisor to the Board, and Roland, who had been elected by the other tutors as their representative, despite his protests.

“Can we get going?” The latter grumbled, “The Manufactorium doesn't run itself, you know...”

The mayor, Jules Addington, stood from his seat. He was a relatively small man, with straight, long brown hair, emerald eyes, an almond-shaped face, and an air of youthfulness contradicted by a slight limp, a memento of an encounter with a merman Priest and his retinue who had ended his days as a combat Magus.

“The Council received a suggestion from the President of the Board,” he declared. “The sire in the Garden has consulted the files of the students currently in our care, and determined that they should need no escort before the Autumn holiday to go from here to Le Port, only one squad of Militia from there to Saint-Louis, and he will allow the students from Saint-Denis to pass between the Garden and the Piton des Neiges to expedite their return.”

Roland erupted. “Is he trying to kill them?! We finally have a few excellent students, and he sends them to the Undergrounds! Did nobody tell him that there are still nests of Dust scarabs and Fire Ants down there? They’re trained to kill mermen, not swarms!”

Jules Addington sat down, and replied “Are you worried about your new protege, Roland? My daughter is going there too, you know. Swarming creatures aren't a menace for thirty novices, and the wildland's beasts are easily stopped, especially with a Militia squad. I believe he decided to learn conjuration? Have him hurry and learn an Elementally modified version of Ice knife, and he’ll be able to pull his weight. I agree with the Sire, they can do it without help. Especially if we prepare them…”

Roland’s face became unreadable. “If you want me to prepare a special order, you’ll have to make it go through the Intendant. I’m not using my experimentation resource allotment like last time.”

The Principal, understanding that that particular controversy would go nowhere, cut in. “All in favor of following the Garden’s advice, please raise your hand.”

All but one teacher and Roland signified their assent.

“Well, that’s how it is,” Jules said, with a triumphant expression. “Roland, I’ll send a few requisitions for the Intendant’s approval. I trust you'll have them ready in time. Shall we adjourn the meeting? This was the only item on the agenda...”

“I’d like to petition for Damien de Carné to be nominated for the next Garden Invocation” Roland interrupted. “After all, it won’t be for half a year at the very least, and knowing him he'll already have his Conjuration at Tier 2. What do you think, Jules?”

“There are some adult mages that have been waiting for years for one!” Jules exploded. “Even in my own household! You can’t just...”

“Are they as gifted as him?” Roland asked, a touch of humor in his voice. “Will they form a long-lasting link with their Familiars? I believe you once told me that that’s the most important thing about Conjuring Familiars, right? Anyways, it’s just a proposal from the board. The sire will end up choosing from the Council’s list, hmm? Let’s put it to a vote. All in favor?” He immediately lifted his hand.

At first, no one reacted. It was the Principal's privilege to call for a vote. Said Principal simply sighed, then nodded. He considered for a moment, then raised his hand too, as well as another teacher.

“It’s decided, then. Damien de Carné will be added to the Council’s list for candidates for a Garden Invocation, even though he doesn’t even have a Conjuration Sigil yet,” Jules Addington said, tone dripping with acerbic venom. “I hope you’re proud of yourself, Roland”. He spat.

The pPincipal sighed and said in a resigned tone; “The first trimestrial ordinary reunion of the Educational Board for the year 2001 is now adjourned. I’ll see you all in four months, before the Solstice festival. The exact date will be passed down through the proper channels about two weeks beforehand.

They all stood and left. When the door closed itself, a single leaf fell from the tree falling on the table. “How interesting.” A sing-song voice said. Then nothing moved anymore.