Chapter 126: How Hard to Cast a Spell

When Jess opened his eyes the next morning, his head was still spinning a little.

He had no idea how strong that sweet liquor had been. People said it was potent, but when he'd drunk it, he hadn't really noticed anything.

He and Gred had talked and drunk together, and Jess hadn't thought he'd had very much. The drink certainly hadn't tasted strong. But on the walk home he'd barely been able to go in a straight line. Several times he'd nearly fallen into a canal and ended his adventures in Azeroth ahead of schedule.

Without even putting his clothes on, he ran downstairs, stripped, and plunged into the river. He dove under, came up, and splashed water over his face. That cleared his head quite a bit.

He needed to be alert today. He had an extremely important task: memorize the Mage Armor incantation.

Last time, Arcane Intellect had been helping him. But when he'd later cast Arcane Intellect again and tried to write down what he remembered, he still couldn't tell which of two phrases came first, and he was uncertain how several syllables were pronounced.

The incantation was simply too long. Worse, it was in a dragon language Jess didn't understand. Even with Arcane Intellect, he hadn't been able to memorize it perfectly.

Now Marin had specifically told him not to memorize it, and made it clear that he could only practice Mage Armor with Marin present.

But how could Jess possibly do everything they told him to?

During this journey through Lordaeron, he wanted to learn Mage Armor. Even if he couldn't master it, he hoped to make some real progress practicing on his own.

Especially since the continent of Lordaeron was far richer in magical energy than the Kingdom of Stormwind. Apart from Karazhan, most of the ley lines and nodes lay scattered north of the Thandol Span. Jess had to take advantage of this trip to practice one of the greatest spells of the school of Abjuration.

After last time's disaster, he'd be much more careful. He planned to have Gred keep an eye on him and help with any problems that might arise, such as elemental energy going out of control.

They were leaving tomorrow. When he practiced with Marin today, he needed to seize his last chance to memorize as much of the incantation as possible. He intended to try something bold.

"Saeno, come out."

"Yes!" The imp appeared in a flash of light. "What are your orders, Master?"

"How confident are you that you can hide from a mage?"

"One hundred percent!" Saeno gave a sly smile. "Demons devote all their efforts to hunting users of arcane magic, Master. We were born to evade those mages' detection. And my spells and knowledge are far beyond those of ordinary, inferior imps! Even an eredar... well, that depends on which eredar. If Archimonde came looking for me, I'd be finished."

"I wasn't expecting you to hide from Archimonde," Jess said without thinking. "Just a human mage."

"You know who Archimonde is?" Saeno suddenly asked.

Jess looked up at the imp. He realized he'd said a bit too much.

He coughed awkwardly. "So what if I do? It's not as if Archimonde has never invaded Azeroth."

Archimonde was one of the Burning Legion's two eredar leaders.

Long ago, he, Kil'jaeden, and Velen had been the three leaders of the mighty eredar civilization. Archimonde was the youngest of them.

When the dark titan Sargeras corrupted the eredar and made them a central force of the Burning Legion, Velen escaped from their homeworld of Argus. Archimonde and Kil'jaeden became Sargeras's two most powerful lieutenants.

Kil'jaeden liked to stay behind the scenes and manipulate different races into fighting one another. Archimonde took a much more direct approach: land on a world, use his overwhelming magic to wipe away everything in his path, then drain whatever energy he could from the planet for himself.

Archimonde had invaded the Kaldorei Empire, but that had been ten thousand years ago. The seemingly unstoppable demon had faced the Dragon Soul, an artifact made by the Dragon Aspects to repel the Burning Legion, before it was corrupted into the Demon Soul. He'd suffered a serious defeat.

Wounded, he'd been forced to withdraw and recover, but he'd never forgotten his desire to return and take revenge. Ten thousand years later, the suffering and destruction the Kaldorei Empire had endured had become myths and legends buried in Quel'Thalas's libraries.

It was normal for a well-read human archmage who often spoke with elves to know Archimonde's name. For a young apprentice like Jess to be so familiar with him, though, was rather strange.

The imp hopped excitedly from foot to foot. "Your knowledge of the Burning Legion is far beyond what I imagined, Master!"

Jess cut him off before he could start speculating. "Enough nonsense. Listen to your job."

"Yes!"

"Stay inside my bag and listen carefully when that old mage recites his spell. Memorize the incantation. You'd better remember every last bit of it. When we're back, we'll compare it with what I remember. Understood? If you forget it or come back saying you didn't hear properly, I'll lock you up for two months. And if you expose yourself and somebody sees you..."

"Then the strangulation spell!" the imp shouted, finishing his sentence.

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"Don't worry, little creature," Jess said. "If they discover you, I won't need to cast any spell to destroy my summoned creature. Your fate will be much worse. Think you'll just go back to the Twisting Nether if you die? Think again. The mages here will shut you up in a special anti-magic prison. They'll study you every day and torture you every day to see what kinds of magic you can withstand. Then they'll work out spells designed to hurt demons. You'll be abused for thousands of years, crying and begging every day to be sent back to the Twisting Nether!"

The imp swallowed. "I promise... I won't let those mages notice the slightest trace of me!"

"And if you are discovered, don't count on my help," Jess continued. "I'll do everything I can to prove I had nothing to do with you. They'll think you're some evil thing that came with the warlock bag, while I'm just a poor, greedy scavenger—a foolish, innocent apprentice who happened to find the bag in the wilderness and brought it back to Stormwind. Maybe I'll be punished, maybe locked up for months or years, but for you it'll be goodbye. And as long as I stay alive, our contract won't end. You won't even be able to turn me in. Understand your situation now, little creature? Once I'm out of trouble, I'll visit you in prison."

The imp sounded close to tears. "Master, have you considered throwing your soul into the Twisting Nether after death and being reborn in a demon's body? The Burning Legion could use talent like yours!"

"We can talk about that in my next life." Jess pointed at the bag. "Get inside."

"Yes!"

In a flash, the imp jumped into the warlock bag. Jess pulled the opening tightly shut.

He'd taken the imp into the Mage Quarter before, but he'd never brought it into Marin's house.

Outside the Mage Quarter, Jess cast Arcane Intellect on himself. He waited until the traces of arcane energy faded a little before going in. As he walked through the garden, looking toward the door of Marin's study, he felt as if several security cameras had suddenly been installed around him.

But he knew the stranger he acted, the more suspicious he would look. It wasn't his first time doing something he shouldn't. He might as well relax and leave it to chance.

Jess pushed open the door, only to discover that Marin was already inside.

The mage was straightening the bookcase. Hearing someone enter, he said, "My dear Miss Marin, remember to make me a pot of tea before you go to class. That Jess Seso boy probably isn't coming today."

"Uh... Master?"

Marin turned, picked up his glasses, and asked, "You haven't left yet?"

"The ship leaves tomorrow morning." Jess scratched his head. "I can still work one more day."

"Wonderful." Marin immediately rolled his sleeves back down, settled behind his desk, and sighed. "Any day I can take a rest is a good day. Getting old isn't easy."

Jess set his bag beside the foot of a bookcase and immediately began cleaning, moving through his routine with practiced skill. Marin even put down his book to watch him clean every spot.

"You came today because you want another attempt at that spell, didn't you, Mr. Seso?"

"Yes." Jess smiled sheepishly. "It's my last day in Stormwind, Master. I really want to try once more. The next chance won't come until next year. If I don't get some decent result now, I'm afraid I'll spend the next few months thinking about nothing else."

"There's no reason to rush. Do you really expect to master such a complicated incantation in a single week? Why not spend these two months considering why you failed last time? Work out what you did wrong, and when you return, things will go more smoothly. If you're willing to stay here this morning, I can teach you some of the basic principles of casting spells from the school of Abjuration. Think them over slowly while you're in Lordaeron. They'll help you improve."

"But..." Jess said, "I was so close last time, Teacher."

Marin lowered his eyebrows helplessly. "If you truly want to attempt it again, then let me explain what went wrong in detail. I've thought about how you cast the spell afterward, Mr. Seso."

He closed his book, set it aside, and leaned across his desk.

"You imitated the incantation extremely accurately. That's one of your strengths. In fact, the arcane energy you summoned at the beginning responded a little too eagerly. But as a result, your mind was tied up drawing in far too much of it. The arcane energy rushed to hunt down elemental forces for you, building the first form of your elemental armor as though it were constructing a palace. That burdened your casting. The Mage Armor you guided was far too powerful—and far too heavy.

"Mind you, 'powerful' is not a compliment in this case.

"Compared with barrier magic, like Frost Armor or a shell of elemental energy such as Molten Armor, Mage Armor is closer to an Enhancement spell. In other words, it gives something an enchanted power. Only instead of enchanting an object, you enchant the caster. In that respect it's a little like Arcane Intellect. Strong enhancement spells also require the person receiving them to be able to bear their strength. That alone consumes mental stamina, Mr. Seso.

"Arcane magic isn't like the gentle power of the Holy Light priests call on through prayer. A child or a sick person who's never touched magic can receive the Light. So now you know where the trouble lies. You're very different from most apprentices. You didn't fail because you cast the spell inaccurately. You failed because you summoned a vast amount of arcane energy your body wasn't ready to bear and overloaded yourself too soon. Even when I demonstrated the spell for you, I didn't call on that much arcane power.

"And because you hesitated several times during the casting, you wasted twice as much stamina. Watching you cast the light spell earlier had given me a misleading impression of your mental endurance. You're still not quite there. But that is a problem you can overcome easily enough."

Jess thought about the explanation in silence, then ventured a question.

"The spell was too strong for me to bear. So if I want to succeed, do I have to cast it less accurately to make the effect weaker?"

The old mage smiled. "Wouldn't an inaccurate casting waste even more energy while producing a worse result?"

"Right," Jess said. "Then..."

"That's why you need to take an Abjuration course first," Marin said firmly. "You must learn how to deliberately reduce the strength of a spell and lower its cost at the same time. Cast a weaker version on purpose, achieving what you need with the smallest possible expenditure. Every experienced caster of Abjuration needs that skill."

Jess was reminded of mages in the game using rank-one Frostbolt to slow an enemy, or starting a mass slow with rank-one Blizzard. When resources were limited, they used a weaker version of the same spell, one that cost much less, to achieve their goal.

So there were similar techniques in the real world.

Marin continued, "Why do we say Abjuration provides the foundation for so many schools? If you've read Master Ansirem Runeweaver's *The Schools of Arcane Magic: Abjuration*, you'll know that magical research often involves enormous risks. Small losses of control over magical energy happen all the time in experiments. One purpose of short-lived barrier spells is to protect the caster quickly and effectively from a particular type of elemental damage in such situations. They aren't meant only for combat.

"But you don't need a complete, powerful barrier before every experiment. Sometimes the risk is minor: a flash, a little explosion, or a flame when two alchemical reagents combine. All you need is a light barrier against fire, not a great wall strong enough to withstand a red dragon's flames. Yet that wall and a thin film of protection against a small flame can be created with the very same incantation. Think of it as spell intensity—or how much force you put into casting."

"Like when I first learned Arcane Intellect?" Jess asked. "The effect only lasted a few minutes. Was that a weak version of the spell?"

"Well..." Marin considered it. "I suspect that was simply inaccurate casting. It didn't cost you any less mental stamina. If anything, it cost more, and all you got was a poor result. I'm not even sure it deserved to be called Arcane Intellect. After all, I'm not the sheep you used for your practice."