“That’s a tough situation, Casimir.” Master said as she searched among the bookshelves that pretended to be a staircase. “I mean, those sounded like high quality suicide enchantements, if it burned so thoroughly, but that’s not narrowing the possibilities that much.” Not in Anima, at least. Having a society where learning to use magic at least a little bit is nigh mandatory sounds nice, but it did have its disadvantages.

“Yeah, they weren’t even strong thugs.” Casimir groused as he helped his teacher look for the book on the slanted bookshelf that acted as the banister. “Don’t get me wrong, the kids aren’t as weak as I’m leading them on to believe, but they were outnumbered and still nearly won. Those thugs were bottom of the barrel, and I think they were foreign, too.” It was difficult to determine who was and wasn’t a foreigner in Anima, given how each of the founders brought along a few hundred settlers from the various nations that they were from, but it seemed like the only magic user there was the healer, and it looked like spirit magic rather than anything learned. “I’ve been trying to place the accent, but then I realized they had a seaman’s accent and gave up.”

Wait, there was a thought… as if reading Casimir’s mind, Master Southwind hummed at that tidbit. “Do you think they were pirates?” She gave up on the staircase and moved her attention to the bookcases on the wall of the staircase.

“Probably.” Casimir agreed. “They just needed to find some swabbies that ran out of money before shore leave was over and make them an offer.” Where was that book? This whole section was spellweaving, it had to be around here somewhere. “Thinking about it, they might not even know they were hired by a monster. Any that are cunning enough to do a kidnapping plot for political gain probably can get themselves middlemen.” Ones skilled enough to be willing to create those enchantments, as the list of monsters that learn enchanting is very small. Even then, it tends to be crude, and the triggered effect was anything but. “So that narrows things down… but not enough to be useful.” If only he still had his mind curses… retrocognition spells were iffy at the best of times, but memory enhancement as it happened was one of his old standards. It was dismantled for a good reason, but it was still very inconvenient to go without now.

“Ah!” Master declared, extracting a book from a shelf. “Found it. ‘The skilled hunter’s treatise on live capture magic, by Rekira Flamegust’. I told you I had a copy.” The book was bound in leather, with etched enchantments preserving the tome from insects and general rot, like all of the books in the arrangement of bookshelves Master called a house. This was in addition to enchantments meant to keep conditions nice carved into the house itself, of course.

“I didn’t doubt it, Master.” Casimir said deferentially as he took the offered book and leafed through it. “Yeah, this is just what Hanna needs.” She could already use Growth to try and bind things, but these more specialized matrices will vastly increase her ability to limit movement in a way that would complement curses from Peter.

“Excellent. I’m glad to see you’re taking your personal student’s needs seriously.” Master said, a teasing grin on her face.

Casimir groaned. “Don’t rub it in.” He said instead of disputing it. As it turned out, part of a student’s tuition was reserved as extra pay for whatever teacher took them on, so when Master had pointed out that he spent more time tutoring them in the club than most professors spent with their personal students, he bit the potion cork and formalized it. “Did you know the Archmagus added nine times the personal student allotment for Illivere’s tuition to her teacher? Who does that?” More importantly, why didn’t anyone else snap her up just for the money? Casimir resolved to ask her later.

“Extra bribes to the staff to incentivize such a thing is pretty common.” Master said airily. “Your own family offered your teacher a free spot in the Archmage’s mausoleum, statue and all. I turned them down, but it was a nice gesture.” They did? She wasn’t even an Archmage then… “I didn’t tell you because you should accept a student on their own merits, not because you wanted some extra money. It’s not something they’re supposed to do, anyway.” Yeah, the extra pay from the tuition was nice, but it’s not really worth the extra time unless you’re doing it for other reasons. Like being paid ten times that amount.

“Well, I figure I should spend the extra money to get the kids some armor and other equipment.” Casimir said, to his Master’s approval. “As much as I’d like to limit them to what they have earned or created through their own efforts… it’s not practical.”

“To be fair, “ Master chided. “...you didn’t exactly go without a helping hand yourself.” It took a moment for Casimir to figure out what she was talking about, but then he remembered the enchantments Master had placed on his gear back when he had first become her student. It wasn’t quite the same, given that he was already standard-rank at that point, but close enough.

“Yeah, yeah.” Casimir said, waving off the point. “If they’re going to be exposed to the risk Illivere’s relationship to the head of state provokes, it’s only fair they get the benefits, that’s all.”

Master Southwind gave Casimir an indulgent hug, her massive size making her grip inescapable without violence. “Aw, are you sad that you can’t make your students think you hate them anymore?”

Casimir scowled at the address, but relaxed as his Master wasn’t letting go until she fulfilled her hug quota. “Learning is faster if you think you’re in danger.” Casimir insisted, his voice muffled by her embrace. “I learned so much more about inflicting curses by using them on monsters than I ever did in training.” Really, the only one that didn’t benefit immensely from live combat was Illivere, but even she was learning how to blend her magical and physical skills into one cohesive whole.

Releasing him, Master picked up the other book they had searched her house for, a book on incorporating enchantments into shaped equipment that she had personally annotated. “Well, here you go. You should bring your students back here some time, I’d love to meet them in person.”

Casimir took the books from his teacher, snorting at the idea of bringing them over. They’d lose all respect for him when they saw his Master mothering him, Casimir was sure. Not going to happen.

-----------------

Final Exam season is always rough on the students. It was the first time Casimir’s seen half of the people in front of his office for his office hours, and the sheer number was the main reason he just commandeered a regular classroom to let everyone fit.

“Okay, the twenty curses we set you on is intended to do three things: Provide an understanding for all of the primary mana types you’re expected to learn during any of your classes, give you grounding in all of the simple categories of curse, and finally give you a decent repertoire of them even if you take no further education on the subject.” Casimir began as he addressed his students in the ‘bonus lecture’. There were students from both of the classes he taught or helped teach on the subject, so there were a few sorcerers in the crowd.

“As such...” Casimir drew a large grid on his chalkboard. “First column: Force magic. Strengthen, “ and its counterpart, Weaken, “-is a full body curse, Weight is a non-physical curse, Muffle is a mana-interaction curse, and Bounce is an auto-function curse.” In each row, he sketched out the spell matrix representation of the mana type on the first row, and the structures in the columns, then the names of the curses in the intersections. “In fire magic, we have Warmth in the full body column, and Resist Fire in the mana interaction column. Water magic: Sink is an auto-function curse, and Water Breathing is a mana-interaction curse. Life magic: Invigorate is full body, Purge Toxin is auto-function, Seal Wounds is in the fifth column, variable focus curses, and Burst of Strength is a non-physical curse.” That last one could actually be really dangerous if you altered it just right, although it wasn’t efficient or reliable enough to make it into Casimir’s usual arsenal.

Casimir moved on to the rest. “Mind magic: the Calming Curse is non-physical, Sharpen Sense is variable focus, and Mind Shield is mana interaction. The only stone magic curse we require of you is Stoneskin, which is variable focus. Wind magic has the mana-interaction Steadiness curse as well as Fresh Breathing as an auto-function, and finally, light magic has the full body Glow curse and the non-physical Blur curse.” He pointed to the sorcerers. “Naturally, the lot of you are required to cast a curse of each methodology with your chosen mana type.” He got to work circling the ones he listed for the wizards, before filling in the rest of the chart with the spell names for the sorcerers, including adding a row about Lightning mana for Kate and Kyle.

Turning back to the collected students, he clapped to get the attention of the ones who had zoned out while he was writing. “First, if you’re here to get tips on mana conversion and manipulation, raise your hand.” Last semester that was the big obstacle for a good chunk of students that Professor Watcher was teaching, so Casimir was not surprised to see two thirds of the wizard contingent raise their hands. “Okay, group up and try to help each other, I’ll go over there after I get these others started.”

Gathering the eleven students that didn’t join that group around him, Casimir went through the various methodologies used in each curse category. The thing about using magic, is that after a few weeks of casting spells, it’s not really a matter of being clumsy with the mana. That’s the easy part. The tricky bit was remembering what the mana needed to do in order to achieve the desired effect.

He’s heard so many different ways to describe it. Like learning the steps of a dance, or notes to a song, that was a pretty common metaphor. Magnus liked to equate curses to cooking, of course, with each type of magic being a different technique. He liked describing the full-body Petrification curse as frying something in oil, while using the auto-function Rock Climb was more like delicately mixing food to create a specific experience instead of a homogenous mass. Each wizard or sorcerer tended to have their own ways to remember what to do, using their previous understandings to make learning something new easier.

Casimir preferred thinking of string and mechanics, equating knots, snares, and locks to the magical techniques when he was learning, although by now he had moved beyond metaphor when it came to curse magic, he was more likely to describe something else as being similar to curse magic rather than the reverse, nowadays. He liked to think of it as a mark of mastery.

After helping the students who wanted more review for the final, Casimimr moved on to the last students, the ones who wanted help with their project grade, earned by learning a curse whose scope was outside of the basic lessons. Either a new mana type, new methodology, or one that incorporated an advanced technique of some kind even if it was theoretically within the chart. They had a whole extra week to take that, so it was a lower priority.

Noticing that three of his personal students were in that category, he brought them aside after helping the other two students who wanted assistance with that. “Okay, first off, do any of you know where Illivere is?” Casimir asked once they were away from others.

Hanna nodded. “She’s more worried about her shaping grade, so she’s over there.” Makes sense.

“So, what’s the trouble?” Casimir asked. “You’re working on Regeneration, I know that Hanna, Peter’s got Attune Senses mostly working, and Faron, you’ve been trying to do that conditional activation thing, right?” At each address, his students confirmed his recollections.

“Actually…” Faron said, coughing. “While I would appreciate some extra instruction on the quiescence structures, the real reason we’re here is because we think we’ve found a lead on who was targeting Illivere.” Really?

“I’m surprised.” Casimir said, concealing the tension that suddenly gripped him. “I tried to track them down too, but the trail went cold.” He did manage to find the pirate ship that the thugs entered the country on, but that was a dead end. As was the search for potential dungeons in the vicinity of the port, to find a boss monster who may have posted the job. Even the search for the middleman didn’t end well, as no one had ever heard about them before the job was offered or since the failure, and that lack of reputation was why no one that was actually dangerous took them up on the offer.

Peter frantically nodded. “Yeah! I was working on my sense enhancement with Illivere, and I saw someone spying on us! I played it cool, of course, and afterwards we followed him to his base in the woods!”

“Which was when Illivere sensibly called off the pursuit and we agreed to get you before continuing.” Faron cut in. Yeah, that sounded like Illivere.

Casimir smiled at the news. “That’s great news! Tell me where this place is, and I’ll check it out.”

Peter was not willing to be so reasonable. “No way! We’re coming too.” Ah, Casimir was afraid they’d say that.

“Listen, Peter, I know you want to be involved, but…” Casimir was likely going to murder them all after extracting every scrap of knowledge of the conspiracy out of them. “...you’re just going to slow me down.”

“We’re ready.” Peter insisted.

Hanna spoke up as well. “We’re already involved.”

Faron nodded resolutely. “We’re stronger than before.”

Casimir took a calming breath. Of all the times to get stubborn, they pick the time when they actually had some leverage. “...Is Illivere behind you guys in this?”

At the three synchronized nods, Casimir groaned. “Okay, fine. We’ll make this a bet. One more fight. I win? You give me the info and let me go without interference. If I use a real spell, you’re strong enough to come with.” Ever since they had learned of his title, the regular testing battles went away with the quests, so in the months since then, they haven’t had a proper battle, just drills and sparring.

His students all tensed in excitement for the action, so Casimir made sure to grin as he raised his finger. “But first, I have to finish out my office hours. Now, do you two actually have something you wanted help with, or just Faron?”

Final Exam season waits for no one, after all.