Basic Thaumaturgy for the Emotionally Incompetent

Things got better and better for Fabrisse over the next three days. He’d easily gotten his rightful position as a Junior Lore Clerk after a brief interview, and passed his Basic Synaptic Control practical the day after. Hajin Min congratulated him as he entered the Wing of Stratal Studies. Even Archmagus Rolen had heard about it, and had sent him an encouraging message via private glyph upon his return. He even gained a random INT after passing the Junior Clerk interview for a second time, though he didn’t intend on actually taking the job.

All the more reasons for him to feel a bit giddy today, evident by the sky-blue glow wrapping around the Stupenstone in his hand as a blanket.

“Charge your stone with joy, Fabri,” Liene whispered.

They stood beneath a wide sky daubed with scattered clouds. The Eastern Training Field stretched out in terraces of packed soil and aetherically-dampened stone, ringed by brass poles affixed with faintly pulsing wardlines. Several training dummies stood at various distances, but Fabrisse’s assigned target—a dense, basaltic effigy shaped like a half-scale gargoyle—had been rolled out farther than usual, over ten meters downfield. Someone had chalked a white circle around its heart. Fabrisse’s replacement mentor was yet to show up. They should have been here ten minutes ago.

Fabrisse bounced the Stupenstone in his palm. It pulsed sky-blue in answer, joy coursing through the quartz like fizzing soda through a glass rod. He could feel the surge rising as the charge deepened, brightening in both hue and resonance. It was practically singing.

Liene leaned slightly closer, her voice soft but electric. “Your aim’s better when you don’t try so hard,” she said. “Let it feel fun.” That line from her was factually incorrect since every one of his better throws had been with careful planning, but he wasn’t in the mood for pedantic corrections today.

A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. Joy was easy today. Things were working. His mind wasn’t tangling itself in spirals, and nothing bad had happened in fifty hours. Even the air felt like it was on his side.

He charged the stone with joy.