Alex brought his thoughts back to present, eager to finish up and get home to his staff.

‘What was Toraka just saying?’ He wondered. ‘Oh yeah, she was talking about students and how limited knowledge was a bad thing.’

He picked up a block of iron with a sturdy pair of tongs, and holding them securely, carefully deposited it within an enormous machine that resembled a hulking tarantula. Pressing a glyph, Alex activated it, sending mana flowing through its eight pipes, liquifying a sizable chunk of purified carbon within the device. He consulted a gauge on the side. “Looks like the carbon regulator’s good to go, no need to add any more carbon. But yeah, Professor Jules was saying how…oh how’d she put it again?”

He frowned. “How a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing when you think you know more than you really do.”

“That’s one hundred percent true,” Toraka said. The thing is, with first and second year students, they’ve just opened their minds to a billion new possibilities in magic and science. Problems start because they don’t fully understand or appreciate all the present limitations of wizardry yet. Well, that, and the fact that they haven’t learned how to research what they’re seeing in their heads before pushing every idea and supposed innovation they conceive of.”

“So, some make a lot of assumptions, like for example, assuming that they’ve solved a major problem without knowing that it was solved a century or more ago, or that there’s precedent for an idea they’re all excited about which was proven to not work.” Alex supplied.

“Exactly. It’s why you’re a breath of fresh air: so young, yet you actually have grounding and evidence for your ideas.” He could hear the smile in her voice, despite the mask obscuring everything but her eyes. She snorted. “I find first year philosophy students are even worse, by the way. They learn a few theories then become convinced that they’re masters of ethics and existence.”

“Really? I haven’t actually met many philosophy students.”

“They’re not for me, shall we say,” Toraka said. “I prefer things to be more…practical. And speaking of students, it’s about time for your new classes to start, isn’t it?”

“Tomorrow, actually.” Alex set the tongs down. “I’m not going to lie, winter break was over before I had time to enjoy it. It feels like I blinked a couple of times and classes are ready to start again.”

Toraka chuckled. “Ah, memories. It was like that for me too, it was the same for my husband, for Sim…it’s always like that,” she said. “So what courses are you taking? Anything exciting?”

“Well, I’m not really taking anything fancy and new,” he said. “Mostly building on what I’ve already been taking.”

“Of course, and that’s actually a common pattern.” Toraka nodded. “Most undergraduates spend their first year or two trying things out, learning different disciplines of wizardry before getting locked into their strengths. What did you decide to expand on?”

“Well, I’ll be taking Professor Hak’s second year blood magic course,” Alex said. “And Professor Mangal’s summoning course. There’s the compulsory general magic theory course and—though I’m technically getting an alchemy credit from the expedition—Professor Jules strongly recommended that I enrol in her advanced magic item creation course.”

“Really?” Toraka said in surprise. “Vernia is letting a second year take advanced magic item creation? She hates letting students skip grades.”

“I know, it surprised me too,” Alex agreed. “There’s almost no way she’d let me do it normally, but…well…” He gestured to their work. “She thought it might be time to learn more advanced safety regulations that’d actually apply to what I’m doing.”

Toraka’s eyes rolled behind the lenses in her safety mask. “Well, sometimes she’s too stodgy. Does she really think I teach my employees nothing while they’re working here? Our safety regulations are some of the strictest in the city.”

“Right, that reminds me, she said something about you not sharing proprietary secrets when you’re drunk? Even with friends?” Alex delivered Jules' opinion.

Toraka stiffened. “That little…okay, Vernia. If you’re going to play it that way…anyway, we’ve had enough distratio—Oh wait, what’s your last course?”

“What else?” Alex picked his tools back up. “The Art of the Wizard in Combat?”

“That mad old goat’s mad old course?” Toraka scoffed. “It only gets more dangerous after first year…you’re out of your mind, truthfully. He’s probably going to have you fighting demons, you know?”

“Yeah, well.” Alex’s thoughts went back to the waiting staff. “I have a little something that’ll help even the odds. Demons or not.”

The aeld branch had always been beautiful.

But now it had grown into a work of art.

Its leaves were interspersed between fruits of crystalline power, each shone with every colour of the rainbow, shedding a glowing, multi-hued light that combined with the aeld’s green-golden radiance. Within the staff, crystal fibres had grown through the inner wood, reaching its upper branches and manifesting as crystal ‘fruit’.

It blazed with an abundance of power that left Alex’s mouth agape; he was not only confident that it was able to conjure all the magic he’d poured into it, but it would do so with greater force and strength than he’d hoped for. When his magics grew, he could add more powers to the staff and it would fuel them with ease. The aeld branch also seemed to be enjoying its new transformation; feelings of delight, yearning and curiosity were wafting from it in waves.

‘It…is…beautiful,’ Claygon said, crouching beside Alex, determined to fit in the limited space at the side of the balcony. ‘I…feel it.’

“Yeah, it is beautiful, isn’t it?” Alex murmured, glancing at the high position of the moon. “It’s too bad it’s so late…well, so early now that it’s past midnight otherwise I’d show off our new staff to Theresa and Selina.” He considered what to do for a moment. “Maybe we should just leave them since they’re sound asleep and let them see it in the morning, and besides, who knows how many more nights they’ll have in this apartment.”

He felt a note of curiosity from the aeld staff.

“Oh, I suppose I should explain.” He gestured toward the city. “Remember the place where I first started crafting you? Well, that’s our new home and we’ll be moving there soon—you know, after some of us risk our lives in the hells—there’ll be a lot more room for all of us. The cleaners are nearly done, which means we could be moving any day now. That’s assuming I’m not moving into a morgue after the hells, that is.” He didn’t want to scare the aeld staff, so he kept the part where he was taking it to the hells with him to himself, for now. He’d tell it later.

‘I…will…protect us, father,’ Claygon said, patting Alex on the back, nearly knocking him over in the process.

“Oh, I’m only joking, Claygon…” Alex paused, wrapping his hand around the staff. “Probably.”

He took a close look at the plant pot, noting several false roots poking from the soil indicating: the process was complete. He gave the staff a nod and slowly pulled it from the rich earth.

Its glow intensified as he hoisted it in the air: green, gold and other hues danced in the moonlight. Power tickled his palm, coursing through wood, ready for use in the blink of an eye.

A grin lit his entire face.

This.

To actually hoist a mighty staff above his head, ready to unleash its power? A staff he’d made with his own two hands, his wits, his magic and his will? Well, that and more, was why he’d wanted to become a wizard in the first place.

It was a fantasy he’d dreamt of since boyhood, and here he was, staff in hand, laughing in pure joy; a dream fulfilled.

“Alright, I can’t wait ‘til morning. I’ve got to go test this out right now.” He glanced at Claygon. “What would you say to a nice moonlight walk, buddy?”

‘I…would be…happy…I want…to see…the staff…’ his golem said.

“Brilliant, then I—”

It was only when he heard the whining through the balcony door that he realised his mistake. A moment later, there came a scratching of nails on wood and the whining grew urgent.

“Ah…right,” he said. “Here’s a lesson for when you get your speakerbox, Claygon. Always be careful of saying the word ‘walk’ around a dog. Especially one with three sets of ears.”

A panting Brutus padded through the doors ahead of Alex and Claygon, stepping into the stadium. In the low light, Alex saw that the combat practice area was mostly deserted, though a few solo students were still honing their battle magic skills well into the night. Most were of races with innate night vision, like dwarves, but others simply practised by way of moonlight and various magics illuminating the field near them.

All paused, watching as a cerberus, a stone golem and a powerfully built mortal wizard strode into the stadium. Some quickly returned to what they were doing, while others let their eyes linger on Alex’s glowing staff as he took up position near a practice dummy.

Brutus watched the students curiously before sniffing the ground, circling in place, and plopping down to chew on an old beef bone he’d been carrying in his middle jaws. Alex considered what magic to call from the staff first.

‘What…are you going to do, father?’ Claygon asked and the staff bubbled with powerful waves of curiosity.

“Well, might as well start with the basics,” Alex said.

He focused his mind, channelling power into the staff. Pouring mana into the wood through his grip, a vast wave of power rose to meet him. A vast wave of power with a mind: the aeld staff’s consciousness eagerly reached out to him, ready for his mana to join its own.

“Wow, I guess that’s one good sign already,” he reached through scores of mana pathways, trying to get a feel for the staff’s inner workings. What he found was dazzling: within magical wood lay crystal pathways in an intricate network, each brimming with mana. The aeld’s natural power and the mana core commingled so seamlessly, he had trouble knowing where one’s power ended, and the other began.

A perfect fusion, allowing his mana to slide through the staff effortlessly, providing easy access to the mana-rich inner controls for the staff’s wealth of powers.

“Hmmmm, alright,” he mused. “There’s forceball. There’s greater force armour…and the other ones…all the force effects are in order. Good. Good. And summoning? Ah, yeah. It’s all there. Same with blood magic. And this one? Yep, it’s got the signature of Elder Bloddeuwedd’s potion all over it. I’ll do that bit last. So, let’s do something easy and get ourselves a baseline, Claygon.”

He let his power flow into the control of a familiar spell.

The crystalline fruit flared in the staff’s branches.

A tremendous rush of power flashed—more mana than he’d ever channelled on his own—and then…

In an instant, it was followed by the familiar crimson light of a glowing forceball dappled with tinges of gold, green and other hues. The spell floated in the air—at least twice the span of any he’d conjured by way of spellcrafting—with a light that burned almost as brightly as the sun in the Barrens, making him squint.

He smiled at it fondly, fighting back a rush of giddiness. “Well, hello old friend! It’s kinda fitting that we’re starting out with you, isn’t it?” Alex looked at Claygon, unable to suppress childlike giggles. “It works! It works, buddy, it bloody works!”

‘Congratulations…father…’ Claygon thought. ‘Why…does it look…different?’

“Well, that’s because—to put it lightly—the staff is so much stronger than I am. It uses my mana as a catalyst to channel its power.” He waved the aeld staff at the forceball, “but it’s doing most of the work. And—when I was designing the mana core—I made sure that each of the staff’s powers had a bit more…flexibility than a regular pesky spell array would have. It means that any of the spells it replicates can be weaker or a lot stronger than any I could normally create with spellcraft without using a lot of modifications to magic circuits.”

His mana rushed to another control within the staff.

There was a flash and a burst of crimson light as a Wizard’s Hand appeared in the air. It was also larger than any he’d ever conjured on his own, and it too glowed with a brighter light.

‘That…is good…father,’ Claygon said.

“Yeah, but now, let’s see if the really good part starts,” Alex said. “You see, the fun thing about subjugation type summoning spells is that—when you have enough power—you can actually summon multiple monsters with one spell. And this staff is very powerful, so, if I’m right…”

He reached into the aeld staff, finding the control to call water elementals, and at the same time, spoke a single word: ‘Bubbles’.

In an instant that strange power moved within him, touching the staff, a heartbeat later, four water elementals appeared before him, bubbling with curiosity.

“Yeeesss!” Alex said, jumping for joy.

Summoning magic with no interference from the Mark, just pure mana manipulation.

Incredible!

He called on the Mark, focusing it on manipulating mana through the staff…and much to his delight, images of guiding his mana to the controls appeared in his mind.

“Yeeeessssss!” He cried. “This changes everything! Let’s keep going, Claygon, there’s a few more powers I’d like to see.”