Basic Thaumaturgy for the Emotionally Incompetent

Fabrisse now stood in the middle of what he could only describe as the Von Silberthal family’s private proving grounds, an amalgamation of a practice hall, an alchemist’s workshop, and a suspiciously well-furnished dungeon. The walls were lined with racks, jars, and carefully labeled specimen drawers, while a target circle had been painted on the far wall in the same neat hand one might use for botanical diagrams.

And around him, the entire Von Silberthal family had gathered in a semicircle.

They did not look like an audience. They looked like a committee preparing to observe the controlled detonation of a volatile experiment.

Maribel was bouncing on her toes, clutching a notebook. The broad-shouldered brother (whose name, he had learned, was Koschak) had his arms crossed, frowning like a skeptical reviewer. Anabeth was practically glowing, as though she had smuggled a star into the room just to make him shine under it.

Actually, she had.

At some point between the dining hall and here, she had procured a starstone, a fist-sized mineral whose veins of pale feldspar shimmered like captured moonlight. She’d wedged it into the crook of her elbow and was now holding it aloft like a sports fan with a glow-stick.

Fabrisse swallowed.

So this was how it would end. Not with a voidspawn. But with a roomful of rock academics treating him like the world’s most interesting beetle.

Anabeth lifted the glowing starstone higher, her braid swishing behind her like a banner. “Ahem. Attention, please,” she announced in the tone of someone about to open a symposium. “What you are about to witness is a demonstration of a rare technique, conducted by none other than Mr. Fabrisse Kestovar, student of the Wing of Substratal Studies. Kindly note his form, his control, and the sheer elegance with which he will defy the inert nature of Grade Theta silicates.”

Fabrisse stared down at the rock in his hand. This isn’t even a Grade Theta Stupenstone.

The surface was too smooth and its opacity was a touch too uniform. Grade Theta always carried an uneven, cloudy mottling.