Lorvan walked beside him back to his dorm, determined not to give Fabrisse the satisfaction of blaming time for his stress. They passed the Hall of Copper Stars, two empty fountains, and the statue of Pelrian the Arbitrary, who had once banned footwear inside lecture halls for reasons still unknown. Fabrisse remained quiet throughout.
After a while, Lorvan said, “You’re unusually sile...
2025-07-18 18:36:27 +0000 UTC View Post“I’m going to show you this spell. Let’s see how good your intuitive understanding of Thaumaturgy Spellcasting is,” Rolen said as he extended one hand, palm open, the other resting lightly behind his back.
Fabrisse stared, trying to track every detail. The angle of the arm, the steadiness of breath, the fractional delay before ignition. It’s a bit similar to Severa’s...
2025-07-18 08:26:42 +0000 UTC View PostShe stood just inside the gate, silent enough that her presence hadn’t even registered on the perimeter alarm thread.
He flinched slightly. “How long have you been standing there?”
She tilted her head a fraction. “Mentor Lorvan requires your assistance.” She hadn’t answered his question, which just made him more aware of how sweaty his palms were and how ridiculous he mu...
2025-07-17 08:57:29 +0000 UTC View Post“You will not get to know who’s been protecting you,” Inside his room again, Rolen said as he walked past a perfectly good set of chairs and instead perched sideways on the edge of a bookshelf like a contemplative cat.
“B-but why?” Fabrisse asked. He sat on the same seat he did last time he was in Rolen’s room, only that this time there was no need to touch his nose. Lor...
2025-07-17 07:49:24 +0000 UTC View Post“What you saw was Subduction Glyph,” Lorvan said. “Advanced Darkness Thaumaturgy. It displaces the space beneath a target’s feet and pulls them through a shadow fold. Shields don’t always stop it unless they’re specifically tuned to collapse barriers.”
They were in Lorvan’s quarters, a room so precise it felt more like a meditation chamber than a living space. The...
2025-07-16 07:19:25 +0000 UTC View PostThe Moonbear Room wasn’t marked by a placard, nor did it bear any wards at the entrance that a normal student could see. It simply existed, tucked behind the western observatory dome where dusklight pooled like slow-spilling ink across the marble.
Fabrisse followed the Kairon up a curving corridor until they reached a door that looked like frosted glass, though it neither shone nor refl...
2025-07-15 20:13:25 +0000 UTC View PostThe date had been set for his Synaptic Resonance practical retake: two weeks from now, on Tuesday. And Fabrisse had become increasingly confident he’d be able to fully recognize the basic synaptic thread in time.
[Basic Synaptic Thread Recognition: 40% Progress]
The fact that he could track his improvements tangibly did wonders for his confidence. If he could keep...
2025-07-15 16:25:50 +0000 UTC View Post“This,” Lorvan said as he adjusted his stance. His coat fluttered in the breeze, lined with glowing wards that darkened at the seams.
“is Synaptic Threading, Rank I. Mastering this is the first step towards casting under pressure.”
He raised his right arm in a wide arc that narrowed as it looped until his fingers hovered just above his shoulder line. No spell ...
2025-07-14 16:29:11 +0000 UTC View PostHe still needed to practice his Stupenstone Fling, but with Liene gone, there were no more moving targets. He wasn’t about to start flinging rocks at the frogs loitering near the North Pond either. That would just be rude and karma-inducing. He didn’t believe in karma, but he believed in not harming amphibians.
Let’s return to the dorm room first and see if I can manufacture a m...
2025-07-14 01:06:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe swirling gale around Cuman deepened to a furious howl. The magic condensed into a tight spiral behind him, sharp and glowing with a coral-tinted red. He was pissed off.
He chanted, a long and impractical mnemonic,
“By fracture of breath and spiral of storm, I carve the lawless path through calm. Rend, lash, unform!”
That didn’t even rhyme . . .
It prob...
2025-07-13 10:55:13 +0000 UTC View Post“And then she said, ‘have him be under my tutelage’,” Fabrisse spread his palms, trying to physically recreate the scene and failing to do so.
Liene, dressed like a normal student, sprawled sideways on the bench across from him with one leg dangling off the armrest, raised an eyebrow. “Look at you. Hottest prospect in the Synod overnight. You realize you’ve become a full-blown...
2025-07-11 22:12:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe entrance to Headmaster Draeth’s office wasn’t a door so much as a threshold in space that refused to be observed directly. One moment, Fabrisse was walking down a plain stone hallway lined with student achievement plaques and buzzing sconce-crystals, and the next, the temperature rose by five degrees and the air forgot how to carry sound.
The archway ahead shone with an angry crim...
2025-07-11 14:45:53 +0000 UTC View PostFabrisse had clicked on ‘Request More Information’ on his way home, and he had spent his entire journey thinking about what he’d read.
[Comparative Tuning Methodologies – Summary Overview]
Note: Some branches conflict with others. Accepting a Questline may foreclose alternatives.
• Leyline Tuning (Environm...
2025-07-11 08:53:51 +0000 UTC View PostFabrisse had once wished his fellow students would no longer call him The Chosen One or Wet Goblin behind his back. Today, his wish had been granted.
Unfortunately, they had simply come up with something worse.
“Oh look. It’s the petal hugger!” Someone stage-whispered from under the shade of the east archway as he walked past the campus courtyard.
“I heard he has probl...
2025-07-10 20:10:20 +0000 UTC View PostFabrisse’s heartbeat surged. He didn’t know if they were ahead. He didn’t care.
He just wanted to reach it.
Liene gasped. Fabrisse immediately felt a hitch in the current. A stumble in the spell’s momentum. The petal wobbled on its final arc, as though the slipstream had faltered beneath it.
She was reaching her limit.
This kind of harmonic casting drained ...
2025-07-10 18:16:04 +0000 UTC View PostAs the second vessel was sealed and cleared away, the final bowl was brought forward on a raised stone pedestal etched in newer, less-worn runes. The third vessel had no visible latch or lining. Its crystal was pale, almost translucent, with an odd sheen that refracted like a bubble’s skin. It looked unused. Or maybe untouched.
Severa stepped into the ring again. Her tone dropp...
2025-07-10 18:12:56 +0000 UTC View PostSevera’s staff struck once more, signaling the closing of the first round and the beginning of the next.
“All recipients clear the sanctum,” she called, her voice echoing with trained ritual precision. “Second verse initiates in ten counts. Participants—ready your petals.”
Around the circle, students bent over the silver basin once more, collecting a new round of starpet...
2025-07-10 15:56:38 +0000 UTC View PostThe first verse ended. The petal throwers bowed in solemn unison like synchronized swans. Fabrisse, off-beat by half a second, nearly tripped on his own robe.
Severa raised her staff. “As is tradition,” she intoned, “we begin the rite of Benedictional Grace.”
Before anyone could move, a voice boomed from the edge of the dais like thunder wrapped in ceremonial parchment.
<... 2025-07-10 13:50:56 +0000 UTC View PostFabrisse spotted the scullery maid just as she emerged from the east gatehouse kitchen, balancing a cloth-covered tray in one hand and muttering under her breath about ‘those noodle-limbed faculty boys and their fire rites.’ The smell hit him before the sight did—fresh-baked bread, still warm enough to leave heat ghosts in the air. His feet moved without permission.
“Afternoon, Ma...
2025-07-10 06:04:32 +0000 UTC View PostThe curtains of Fabrisse’s dorm room was drawn tight. The desk had been cleared, and the scrolls had been stacked into a neat tower beside a jar of glyph quills. In the center lay three smooth pebbles, washed, dried, roughly uniform. He’d spent fifteen minutes choosing them from the Southern Edge path this morning, all the while muttering to himself. He’d even sent a message to Rolen rega...
2025-07-09 21:09:31 +0000 UTC View PostLangley guided him off the field, to a slope beneath the old silverthorn tree at the eastern edge. The grass was cooler here, away from the scorch, and the breeze still held some evening light.
Fabrisse had braced himself for a lecture. Something about responsibility, safety protocols, what to report and what to omit. But Langley said none of that.
“I spoke to Lorvan earlier this ...
2025-07-09 17:37:08 +0000 UTC View PostFabrisse was relieved the first person of authority to reach the scene was Professor Langley.
Of all the professors at the Synod, Langley was the one most students actually liked. Calm, clever, dry-witted when he wanted to be. More importantly, he was close to Lorvan, and knew how to handle weird things without calling half the academy down on you.
Langley approached at a brisk pace...
2025-07-09 14:34:10 +0000 UTC View PostFabrisse dove.
He hurled himself sideways into the thick of the whispergrass, hit the earth with a jolt of impact, and rolled beneath the moss curtain in one scrambling breath.
[Skill Activated: Liminal Presence Drift (Rank III)]
[Auditory Dissipation Field — Passive Stealth Engaged]
The air around him dulled. His breathing seemed to vanish from his own e...
2025-07-09 03:49:18 +0000 UTC View PostThe first skill Fabrisse activated was Spectral Appraisal.
[Spectral Appraisal — Active]
Target: Voidtouched Skitterwhit
— Status: Completely Healthy, Reasonably Angered
‣ STR (Strength): 38
‣ DEX (Dexterity): 27
‣ FOR (Fortitude): 12
‣ INT (Intuition): 9
‣ ARC (Aetheric Reson...
The puffball didn’t even squeak as the Stupenstone hit it. It simply sparked, stiffened, and dropped like a feather.
[Skitterwhit Slain — Clean Kill]
[Sidequest Progress: “Whittle the Whits!”]
✦ Skitterwhits Slain: 10 / 10
✦ Bonus Objective (Single Spell): 10 / 10
[Sidequest Com...
2025-07-08 15:50:35 +0000 UTC View Post[Skitterwhit Slain — Clean Kill]
[Sidequest Progress: “Whittle the Whits!”]
✦ Skitterwhits Slain: 4 / 10
✦ Bonus Objective (Single Spell): 4 / 10
Fabrisse crept along a patch of whispergrass still warm from the sun. He kept his breathing shallow and steady. Four down. Six to go.
His wrist ached a little fro...
2025-07-07 21:48:22 +0000 UTC View PostThe Eastern Target Fields were technically outside the bounds of campus, which meant no faculty supervision, no spell range limiters, and plenty of dried leaves that looked extremely flammable. Tommaso had assured Liene and Fabrisse that this was ‘absolutely fine’ and ‘sanctioned in spirit if not in detail.’
Skitterwhits were winged, jittery creatures, no bigger than a butterfly. ...
2025-07-07 20:25:15 +0000 UTC View Post“This is nowhere near one meter,” Fabrisse muttered to himself as he closed his palm, extinguishing the fire inside. He’d been able to sustain the spell for more than three seconds now after some practice, and he was no longer burned by his own spells anymore. Apparently, after a while, you got used to your own fire. Professor Markenth once said, ‘A caster’s flame recognizes the inten...
2025-07-07 15:50:37 +0000 UTC View Post“We’re learning emotional sustainment today,” Ganvar Ciemnosc folded her sleeves like she was about to perform a dissection. “Today, you’ll ignite and sustain your spark for more than a minute.”
Fabrisse sat on the grass and held the quartz Ganvar had given him between his palms like a consecrated scroll. “For more than how much time?”
Ganvar gave him a look that cou...
2025-07-07 10:47:27 +0000 UTC View Post