The weekend after the feast, Salem and I returned to the student market, since our daggers and his shirt were finally ready. Despite the fact that the artificer had tried to swindle us slightly on the price, her work smelled potent, and a quick examination with Ethersight seemed to suggest she'd done solid work as well.

I picked up the dagger meant for me and examined it, looking at the physical craftsmanship this time. The long fang of the hydra had been sharpened and sanded into a long, slightly curved dagger blade. Its tip had a tiny hollow, one small enough that it was almost invisible to the naked eye, and a rune shaped somewhat like a spiral had been set into the flat of the blade. It glowed a toxic green color, matching the green skin that had been turned into a leather wrap connecting the bone to the plain steel that made up the handle of the dagger and serving as a wrap.

Salem's shirt, on the other hand, had been treated to cause the scales to become more distinct and scaly, with threads of grayish light weaving in and around the fishlike scales of the hydra skin. It was slightly less flexible than normal fabric, but not too bad, and its cut was slightly strange. It looked to be made to be a vest, or a sleeveless shirt of some kind, and Salem's nose wrinkled a bit looking at it.

"I cannae say I'll be wearin' it for fashion, but so long as it works…"

I flicked my wand out and shot an arcane missile at its surface. The hydra skin shimmered gray streaked with green as it bounced off, and I nodded, then extended my hand to the pink haired artificer.

"You did solid work, thank you for working with us."

Before I knew it, the winter break was over, and classes returned. The core course went on as it always did, learning various aspects of math, politics, and economics, while ethics continued focusing on learning meditation techniques, self-analysis skills, and essays written about assorted hypothetical situations.

That Wednesday, I finally got to return to Fundamental Magecraft, and accidentally went to the classroom first, before remembering that courses were now held in the large gymnasium area, to allow for easier spell practice and rushing over. As I burst in, I noted that the smells seemed more diffuse than normal, but I chalked that up to a mix of nobody having been here in a while and Seren sitting on my shoulder, radiating heat and the faint scent of flame to mask it.

"Hello and welcome back everyone," professor Silverbark said, clapping and smiling at us the last few people finished trickling in behind me. "I am glad to see that so many of you passed your first semester midterms, and have joined today, instead of heading to remedial studies."

I glanced around the room and realized the lack of smell wasn't just due to the fact that this was our first meeting since the break. There actually were less people, which meant that there was less of a human stink about the place.

It wasn't quite as dramatic as Emir had suggested when he said that nine tenths of us would fail, or whatever it was he'd spouted, but I was guessing a solid thirty percent of people weren't here anymore. I just hadn't noticed, since the only people who I paid attention to – Yushin, Kybar, and Wesley – were all here.

"There are certain spells that all wizards should know," professor Silverbark said, gesturing his wand to the large blackboard and causing the chalk to animate itself. "We began working on this last semester, and it will consume the majority of this semester. The only difference is the final two meetings, which shall recap before the finals."

On the board spells were starting to take shape. I tried to ignore them and listen to the professor, but my eyes kept drifting back to the board. I recognized the spell as arcane seal, which I'd copied into my spellbook, but had never had the time to experiment with or study in depth.

"I'll test each of your spell repertoires to ensure that you know the spells, and go through the ether manipulation exercises one more time. Now, onto the spells. Over the next month, we're going to be working on these four second circle spells. The first one is arcane seal. It's a favorite of wizards across the globe, and for good reason. Mister Kybar, would you mind coming to the front of the class?"

The bulky minotaur let out a snort and glanced around nervously, as if thinking that there might be another Kybar in the class, before walking up. Professor Silverbark flicked his wand again, and a medium sized chest appeared on the table.

"Would you mind opening this?" he asked. Kybar gave him a confused look, then pushed the lid open to reveal a pile of massive ether crystals. The smallest were the size of quail eggs, while the largest were larger than my fist.

Professor Silverbark smiled, removed a single crystal, then had him close it. The professor raised his wand and slowly went through the spell, flicking his wrist, and speaking the chant in his high-tenor voice. When he finished, a portion of the ether crystal dissolved, sinking into the chest.

"And try again, Kybar?"

Kybar stepped forward and tried to open it, but nothing happened. He frowned, and tried to pull the lid open harder, then grunted and tried harder. His muscles began to bulge as he snorted like an angry bull, his whole body straining with the force of opening the medium sized chest.

He stepped back, flicked his wand, and silver light rose from it, sinking into his thick muscles. I didn't know exactly what spell he had cast, but it must have been some sort of body empowerment, because this time, when he strained, silver light glowed along his limbs. Finally, with a bright flare of light, the lid popped open, and Kybar took a step back, panting.

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"By the endless hells," Kybar huffed, shaking his head.

"Thank you very much for your demonstration," the professor said, smiling at him before turning to the room. "As you can see, despite the fact that Kybar is quite strong, it took him casting bear's strength to even force open the singular chest. Now, imagine if you will, having this spell cast over every window and door to your home. Even with no other defenses, it would make forced entry far less possible."

"What about fire brigades?" one of the people asked. I thought he was the one who had gone on about a hypothetical pool-splitting affinity, and was surprised he was still here.

"The ordinances depend on the city, but the spell can be keyed to people or to a specific word that allows it to be turned off and on again," professor Silverbark said. "Here in the Citadel, it's legal to place arcane seal on any outward facing doors or windows, so long as the password is registered with the magistrate's office. Interior doors are forbidden, but chests, supply cabinets, and other storage containers are allowed."

He waved a hand as if to dismiss the topic.

"Fire code is something that will be covered in your core and ethics courses, not here, and those of you living on campus won't be able to use it yet anyways. It's simply something worth bearing in mind, and useful for protecting some valuables. Though it does take a small amount of ether crystal, roughly twenty five to thirty silver coins worth, depending on the market rates. Now!"

He flicked his hand and conjured up a silver coin that had been bent in half, and tossed it into the group of students. One of them, a half dwarven woman, caught it and looked it over.

"What's this?"

"The demonstration for your next spell, Find Object. Why don't you go ahead and hide that silver coin somewhere."

The professor leaned back, his long, silver hair draping over his face as he closed his eyes and started counting down from ten. The woman got a panicked look on her face, before turning, darting to one of the mats, shoving the coin underneath, and running back.

When Silverbark finished his countdown, he slowly and methodically chanted out the Find Object spell, then walked over to the mat. He bent down and pulled it out from beneath, and held it up.

"Quite a useful little spell, though it works heavily on mental visualization, which means that there is some difficulty for those who lack strong inner eyes. It can still work based on feelings and innate understanding, but it is much more prone to failure."

I paused. There were people without an inner eye and ability to visualize things? That was strange. I wondered if they were locked out of casting illusion spells, since to my knowledge, many of those also relied on a person's ability to conceptualize within their mind. I was just about to lean over to ask Yushin when the professor began talking again.

"The next spell is one that you might only have a rare occasion to cast on yourself, but the grow and shrink spell can be an excellent way to empower a familiar or summoned creature," professor Silverbark said. "It's also quite useful when paired with spells like animal shape, as a wizard transforming into a gorilla the size of a ogre is a rather effective way to counter the common weakness to martial combatants."

I blinked and wanted to slap myself. I knew this spell already, and though I'd only used its shrinking half, I hadn't even considered trying to use it on a summoned creature or on one of my familiars. I glanced at Seren, sitting on my shoulder, and imagined him transforming from an orange sized orb of flame into a full bonfire, or Orla transforming from the size of a dog, to the size of a wolf or pony.

"Ah, Emrys, you're already familiar with these spells, I see. Care to demonstrate?"

"Oh, ah… Sure," I said, giving an awkward attempt at a laugh to mask my feeling of being an idiot. I picked up Seren and placed him gently on the ground, where he spat some small sparks in annoyance at having been removed from his warm spot.

I raised my hands and began to go through the spell slowly, not using my wand to cut down on the casting time, and when I finished, I sent the power into Seren. The spell sunk in, and the small fire shrunk steadily until it was only the size of a single ember. I then let go of the stream of ether flowing into the magic, and cast the spell a second time, letting him grow. He rapidly grew in size until he was the size of an especially large housecat, where he promptly shot sparks again, demanding to be picked up.

I thought it was cute, but it seemed to have the opposite effect on several people, who scattered backwards, shouting in warning. I waved my hand and sucked up the sparks, letting their power fade to nothing, then cut off the spell and placed my familiar back on my shoulder.

Professor Silverbark thanked me, then began to extoll the virtues of this spell when dealing with a variety of creatures, from small fae, to the giants, to non-sapient animals who would see it as a threat. After he finished, he turned to the board and I leaned in.

"Our fourth and final spell for this month is a rather unique one, and a personal favorite of mine. It is a complex spell, one that takes half an hour to perform. As such, I won't be showing it off here, but I will demonstrate the results, if not the method."

He waved his hand and two sets of clothing appeared. Neither one looked to be especially fancy, not in the sense of being suited to a high society gala, but one was clearly far better made than the other. Its stitching was tight, its cloth slightly thicker and tougher, and the dye looked to be more vibrant.

"Improve Quality," the professor said. "A truly robust and versatile spell. It accepts sacrificed precious metals, and uses them to improve the non-magical qualities of an item. It can even transform the base materials, at least to a degree. Cheap lumber made of white pine can become sturdy yellow pine, but it would take a tremendous amount of sacrificed gold and silver dust to become walnut, and will never become made of metal."

I felt my eyebrows shoot up. As a part of professor Gemheart's listed reading materials, I'd been doing some research into the components of matter, and had a much better appreciation for the complexities of spells like water to wine – or this one, I was guessing. Even if it was limited to staying in the same general vein, it was still a massive restructuring of the underlying composition.

"Its utility does fall somewhat along a bell curve," professor Silverbark continued. "With materials that are incredibly cheap, rotting, or severely broken, it takes a lot of metal dust to improve them to something truly useful. With materials that are already excellent quality, it costs a great deal to further improve them. Still, it is a good way to let your coin stretch a little further, especially when combined with mending spells or other transmutation."

He clapped, and boxes appeared on the table, small wooden ones that someone might store jewelry in.

"Now, everyone, we will begin with the seal. Within each of these is an ether crystal that can power three uses of the spell. Please take one, and return to your mats while I run you through the spell one more time…"

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