BECMI Chapter 70 – Getting into Positions
EBOOK SEVEN IS OUT! WOO HOO, Finally!
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While my elven colleagues were getting their training from the Princess and her courtiers, I finally enrolled at the Great School of Magic in Zanzyr City.
Now, technically I was at correct age, at under fifty years of physical age, basically an elven teenager. I did make that very hard to tell, given how ageless elves could appear and the whole dhampyr dad thing really playing that up and making me look older then I was.
The key thing is that I was more than qualified to serve as a visiting professor, not a student, but I wanted to learn the unique things they had to teach, make connections, observe the various not-so Secret Societies at work and play, and make my own plans on what to accomplish there, recruiting followers, and so forth.
In short, I was going to have to do that most dreaded of Wizardly accomplishments… socialize!
It’s like I put those Ranks into Diplomacy, Intimidation, and Sense Motive for a reason.
The first thing I did was use my Curse Mastery to good effect, and reduce my level to one-third actual while on the grounds and areas about the Great School of Magic. At the same time, it tripled the amount of experience gained, as the suppressed energy was harnessed into a new direction.
This reduced me down to a Four, a Fourth Initiate. Basically, someone who could only Cast Valence I’s and II’s was an Initiate. Adepts could Cast III’s and then IV’s. The hallmark of a true Wizard and graduate of the School was the ability to cast V’s, especially the most desired spell of Teleportation.
Now, I had intimate knowledge of more sophisticated Casting techniques than anyone at the Great School did. As a Four Ur-Priest, I still had access to IV’s, albeit on the Divine side of things, which were a no-no to Cast in Zanzyr. The Wizards here wanted no competition on the Divine side of things. I could easily introduce things which would revolutionize magic here… but this Neutral to Chaotic school was definitely not the place I was going to do that in.
The main problem was graduation requirements.
The School discounted Karma gained from ‘adventuring’, unless those were for the strict purposes of gaining spell components. Making gold via spellcasting was heavily discounted.
No, to earn credits towards graduation you actually had to learn magic and use magic towards the mastery of magic. You couldn’t just blast things down, you couldn’t just take money for Casting spells. Paying the bills and earning mastery of magic were two very different things.
The best way to earn credits was to make up new, custom spells. The second best way was to research known spells.
What it meant was that graduates of this school almost always had custom versions of their own spells, and a rather wide variety of other spells. The opportunistic and wise traded spells with their peers frequently to expand their own spellbooks, everyone Cast spells for fees (with the appropriate licenses), and everyone competed for attention, more knowledge, building personal libraries, acquiring components, helping make basic magical items (mostly Potions and one-off geegaws of minor power), and did a lot of copying.
All that… was incredibly easy for me, of course. I was fully aware of avenues of research that these people didn’t even know existed, and even if I had to engage in some radical alterations for the admittedly more Chaotic aspects of the local manafield (doubtless encouraged by Immortals of the Spheres of Energy), all that meant was that making individualized spells was actually easier and the norm. Standardized spells, the ones that became the ‘core spells’ of Wizardry, were actually the more difficult ones to make.
Which I thought was pretty funny, too. Given my completely straight-faced and cold-blooded goth approach to everything, naturally I leaned into this heavily.
First, however, I had to get through the Grandmaster of the School of Wizardry, the most powerful Wizard in all of Zanzyr, Prince Nathanael Jean-Arc, head of the most powerful wizarding family in the nation.
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“Greetings, young lady,” the old man, looking like every long-bearded picture of an old human wizard ever, except his hair was still black as jet, said gravely, gesturing me to a chair with a gnarled finger.
The appearance of the pale-faced young Iendyl nobleman who’d left urgently before me had been rather effective in pushing home the lesson that the genial elder statesman and master of the Grand School of Wizardry was not to be underestimated, affable reputation or no.
I’d seen that he recognized me, which was not unexpected. Like many of the Princes, he strolled the Plaza of Machedon along the river between sessions of Parliament, as did many of the more powerful nobles. I had also walked through the plaza, putting faces to names and Assays to nobles, when I could discreetly make it past their Divination Wards, which every single one of them had possessed.
But amusingly, they did not all have Charm Wards. I discreetly removed nine Charms, three Suggestions, two Hypnotic compulsions, four minor Curses, two Glibness effects at inopportune times, and I made it both obvious to the targets that a spell had been lifted and who the one who’d Cast that spell on them was.
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The Parliament discourses were particularly energetic for those two days!
Only one person had noticed me dispensing the spells, someone with two effects centered around him.
His anti-divination defenses were perfect, of course. But he couldn’t hide his effect on mana around him, he just didn’t expect anyone to be looking at that.
That and the gammathauma, which were both bending around and centered around him.
It meant he’d seen my spellcasting, and done nothing. He’d also seen the targets of my spells, and done nothing, as if it was irrelevant and all to be expected.
The mana did not respond to him like anything mortal. The Faith energy was coming to him… and going right back out.
And only one Immortal was actively venerated by the Wizards in Zanzyr.
“Grandmaster,” I responded, bowing gracefully to him, then moving smoothly over to the indicated chair, sitting there with perfect form.
He held up an introduction that was quite familiar to me. “A formidable recommendation you come with, young lady. Princess ‘Belle does not write these lightly, unlike some of the other Princes.” He had a soft and suave, authority-filled Verdain accent, which sounded quite French to me.
“That is probably because I am the most gifted young spellcaster that she has ever met, and proved it to her, Grandmaster,” I responded forthrightly, drawing another scroll out of my sleeve and holding it out in my hand. “Some additional matters that may be of import that I recently shared with Her Highness.”
A crooked finger, and the scroll wafted across the air to his grasp. He inspected the Seal, raised an eye at me at seeing the Princess’ Seal again, and opened it directly.
His “Hmmph!” of surprise was well-feigned. “You actually revealed this to the Princess?” he asked me, surprised at my daring.
“I am here of my own volition, and my father is a citizen in good standing of Zanzyr. As I am not here as an agent of a foreign power, the Princess had no reason to refuse me, and cause to admit me.
“Also, my mother attended here, although I am uncertain if she graduated.”
“She did not. It was plain after a year of classes that she was attending as an agent of her king and was summarily expelled.” His voice was level and unperturbed by the fact. “You have already been recruited into the Cryptomancers.” It wasn’t in the scroll, but obviously he could sense it.
“I have mastered multiple Runes already, Grandmaster,” I bowed slightly. Which was very, very true.
“The spell you used on the representatives on the plaza. Is that of your own creation?” he asked absently, still reading the scroll he had probably processed at a glance.
“It is a modified and specialized variation of a standard Protection from Evil, concentrating entirely on the suppression of mind-control effects. Once they realized they were under mental domination effects, the recipients naturally threw off the magic themselves. Identifying who was under the effects was more challenging, but not much, as anyone foolish enough to get themselves Charmed are not good at hiding evidence of the effects from those used to looking for them, Grandmaster.”
“Intelligent and observant. And your skill of Casting without word or gesture?”
“To be utterly frank, repetitive Casting of the appropriate spells many, many times over a great deal of time and so building my familiarity with the magic. Many thousands of times, Grandmaster,” I replied firmly.
“Indeed?” he arched an eyebrow, but that was utter truth, too. “Would that other students of magic were so disciplined. I begin to understand what Belle sees in you.”
“It is a minor personal foible.”
His dark old eyes glittered with amusement. “Who are you claiming as your father?”
“My sire is Boraz Bludevich-Jubvanyl, the son of Prince Mordai Bludevich-Jubvanyl. I have never met the man, of course. My mother remarked that I was named after his battleaxe of an aunt.”
He grunted and actually half-smiled at that description, clearly knowing who I spoke of. “You affect a rather refined Transyvian accent for someone not raised there.”
“This is how I learned the common tongue of surface worlders. Is it improper?” I asked with my own arched eyebrow. “I understand the accent of my people is somewhat discomfiting to humans. My mother spoke of having to change how she spoke on the surface.”
“No. It is quite elegant, actually. Please retain it.” He raised his eyes to mine as the scroll in his hand burned away, leaving nothing for any other to read as blackmail or something similar. “I trust you know the true nature of your relatives?” he asked perfunctorily.
“My sire is a dhampir. Vampires are not known for preferring living subordinates, and what I know of my sire indicates that he is basically ignored by his father, possibly because he cannot be turned.” I inclined my head. “Clearly you know of their true nature, and the Princes must, as well. Is there a reason you have not taken collective action against them? I do not believe that there is any way his thralls can stand against the joint efforts of the Princes, regardless of their numbers.”
He considered me for a long and somber moment, then sighed slightly. “Politics,” he finally replied. “There is no law in Zanzyr that the undead cannot be Princes, only that they must be Wizards. However, neither is there a law that the destruction of undead is illegal. Thus, it is expedient to let the weight of their existence fall upon one’s rivals, instead of taking up a costly and risky extermination on one’s own.”
Fight and even if you won, you were weakened, and your political opponents would immediately capitalize on that weakness, leaving you unable to profit from your success and likely getting hammered for your valor.
Princess Brittabelle had alluded to the matter when I had revealed my parentage.
I, of course, was neither a Zanzyran nor a noble, so not obligated to any of those silent tolerances while a house of necromancers and undead built their power across the years, decades, and centuries.
If they were kin, well, maybe I’d shed a crimson tear for their stupidity.
“You are not enrolling under the auspices of the House of Bulgarov. That does not mean you’ll not attract attention and be accosted by your relatives at some point. However, they will do nothing to you before you graduate from this School, or they will attract MY ire.” There was just a pulse of tremendous magical power filling the air, which I tolerated without batting an eye, rather impressing him with my willpower. “Impress me, young lady. Magic always needs a few surprises, and I think you’re going to give us some.”
“As the Grandmaster wishes,” I replied, rising and bowing again. “I will ask a final question: how well is it known among the faculty that shadenelves have attended the School?”