Mother of Learning. Arc 3 Incomplete

«Akoja is going to be devastated,» Zorian mumbled. He felt kind of bad at stealing her position, especially since he didn’t actually want it in the first place, but there was no way he was missing this chance.

Ilsa laughed. «Zorian, the reason I’m giving you the position is that Akoja doesn’t want it anymore. She says she hates the position — that everyone shuns her because of it and that I should give it to someone else. Unfortunately, I haven’t received any offers to switch with her. Not from anyone I trust, anyway.» She gave Zorian a knowing look. «You were one of the people she recommended for the position, but I didn’t even bother asking you about it. Everything I heard about you suggested you wouldn’t accept the position.»

«And you were absolutely right,» Zorian agreed, still in a little shock. Akoja didn’t want to be the class representative? But the girl lived for that stuff! And anyway, if she didn’t want to do it then why did she perform it with such dedication? If Zorian was stuck in a job he hated, he would do as little as possible, or even mess up deliberately so Ilsa would feel pressured to replace him as soon as possible. Why couldn’t Akoja do the same? «The only reason I’m accepting this now is because your offer is so good.»

«So we have a deal, then?» Ilsa asked for confirmation.

«Yes, but I have a question and a demand,» said Zorian. «First, why do you want to teach me those particular subjects? And second, I want to learn the teleport spell before the summer festival.»

«I somehow doubt you’ll manage to master the prerequisites for the teleportation spell in little less than a month,» Ilsa said. «But in the highly theoretical case you actually do so, I have no problem fulfilling your demand. Why are you so dead-set about that spell?»

«It’s a bit of a dream of mine to be able to do that,» Zorian shrugged. «In my mind, teleportation has always been one of the ur-examples of what a proper mage can do, should be capable of.»

«Interesting. Out of curiosity, what are the rest of the things a proper mage can do?» asked Ilsa.

«Make a force field, create a magic item, produce a fireball, repair broken objects and turn invisible,» Zorian said. «I can already do the first four, and the fifth one is illegal without special permits.»

He was already working on acquiring an invisibility spell anyway, but she didn’t have to know that.

Ilsa gave him a knowing look and Zorian would have been afraid she was reading his thoughts if he weren’t sure he could detect any casual intrusion into his own mind.

«To answer your first question, I chose those disciplines because they’re my own specialty,» Ilsa said. «It’s is only proper for an apprentice to learn his master’s specialty, is it not?»

«Sure,» Zorian agreed. «I’m not sure what all of those things have in common though. Aren’t specialties supposed to be more focused?»

«Well, when I was a young mage, I too had a bit of a dream,» Ilsa said. «Specifically, I wanted to master true conjuration.»

Zorian blinked. «As in, creation of real matter out of thin air? Isn’t that a myth?»

«That’s the current Academy stance, yes,» Ilsa agreed. «Pre-Cataclysm sources claimed that powerful mages could manage the feat, but all the spells to do so have been lost and no one has been able to recreate them in modern times. Many mages think they never existed and the old records are making things up or describing something other than actual matter creation. Anyway, as a young mage, it had been my dream to recreate those spells, so I studied anything I thought could be a path towards that goal. Modern conjuration basically involves making solid illusions, so it was somewhat natural to start with illusionism and then progress to conjuration. And then, since true conjuration involves working with real matter, I moved onto alteration spells dealing with fabrication of items.»

«And… did you have any success?» asked Zorian curiously.

«Depends on your definition of success,» Ilsa shrugged. «My ultimate goal was to design a spell that would summon material from somewhere else, without the caster having to know exactly where the materials are coming from. That was how I imagined ancient Ikosians could ‘fake’ matter creation. I sort of succeeded, but the spell I made only works in a specially prepared room and the mana cost of the spell varies wildly from casting to casting, depending on what I’m trying to conjure. And there was that embarrassing incident with the gold creation part of the experiment swiping these ancient coins from a nearby museum…»

She shook her head. «A story for another time. I have to get to class soon, anyway. I’ll prepare an apprentice contract for you to sign tomorrow so be sure to drop by when you get the time.»