Fabrisse Book 2 (Chapter 8)

Fabrisse had never had the misfortune of waiting over an hour for a girl before, and he hadn’t imagined his first would be Celine Moose.

To say that she’d been taking her sweet time had been an understatement. By the half-hour mark, he’d memorized the pattern of cracks in the flagstones; by the forty-five, he’d counted and recounted every twist in the carved stone balustrade across the street. Now, at sixty-two minutes and counting, he was starting to suspect this was less about tardiness and more about some elaborate, Moose-branded form of psychological warfare.

Not that he complained. Anywhere without strong wind would be a good enough place for him to practice his skills. Severa hadn’t yet communicated with him to schedule another session, and Kaldrin’s synaptic session wouldn’t come until the fifth bell in the afternoon, so for now he’d be training his new Air Thaumaturgy spell.

[Mastery Training: Whirlweave (Rank I)—Progress to Rank II: 24%]

At the sixty-third minute, Celine showed up, munching on a sticky bun the size of a cobblestone, hair slightly flattened on one side, eyes still carrying the faint puffiness of sleep, and her satchel bulging with the some luridly bound paperback whose title blared in gold foil. He didn’t need to ask why she was late.

“Morning, Fabrisse,” she said with a guilty grin. “Ready for our training?”

“I’ve been ready for an hour . . .”

She waved that off. “Well, this is the best time for your aetheric resonance,” she said, the words tumbling out with the airy confidence of someone who’d just lied through her teeth. “Anyway, I’ve posted your ad on the front page of The Synod Gossip Gazette. But why do you need naturally purple-colored bricks?” He’d asked her to post an ad for him, to find . . . a brick.

“Thanks,” he said. She stared at him, waiting for an answer, but then just sighed and let it go.

Truth be told, there was nothing he could say that would justify the sidequest given to him.

[Sidequest Ongoing: “Hearth-Laughed Brick”]

Objective: Acquire a naturally purple brick from the remains of the old Marrowgate Tavern hearth. Said to retain the warmth of the tavern’s most joyful night, its resonance is detectable only to those capable of sensing emotional heat in stone. 

Note: Side effects of prolonged contact may include mild nostalgia, inexplicable cravings for spiced cider, and humming songs you don’t remember learning.

Reward: +2 EMO

Bonus Objective: Make a new friend in the process.

He hadn’t even had time to visit the Wing of Stratal Studies yet, much less wander outside of the Synod for some bricks (even though he was allowed outside now; direct permission from Headmaster Draeth and all). Sure, the brick retains emotional imprint, but how the Eidralith justified giving him 2 EMO seemed arbitrary at best. He wouldn’t say no to such a juicy reward, however.

Even though he didn’t have time, the quest was attainable. He happened to now be friends with the owner of a gazette. A reward of 150 Kohns seemed good enough for the trouble, and Celine’d insisted she’d give out that reward.

Celine trotted over and swung an elbow to meet his shoulder before using it as support. “So what did Montreal tell you the other day?”

He took out his Stone Thaumaturgy skill notebook; one that he’d painstakingly divided into seven color-coded tabs, each for a different category of thaumaturgic utility. Offense (red), Defense (blue), Mobility (green), Sensory (yellow), Environmental Manipulation (brown), Supportive Resonance (silver), and a final tab in plain white—Miscellaneous, the place where anything too weird, too rare, or too situational to classify went to die. He flipped over to the brown section and told Celine about how Severa suggested that he learn Shearline and Binder’s Clasp.

Celine leaned in just a smidge closer every other second, and when Fabrisse finished talking, the furrow of her brow had gotten so deep that he expected her to start sprouting roots from sheer concentration. “Did she just randomly butt in and give you advice?”

“Uh, yes,” he said.

“Has she done that often?”

“She’s given me unsolicited advice no less than three times.”

Celine furrowed her brow again as she leaned back. “Are you sure she hates you?”

“She took my stone and hasn’t returned it.”

Celine pulled out a portable aetheric lexicon—a slim, lacquered case with tiny drawers that clicked open to reveal neatly stacked glyph-slips on paper as thin as onion skin. She thumbed through them as her lips moved in a low chant he couldn’t quite catch—half syllables, half the rustle of wind in dry grass. Then she closed her eyes for a slow count of ten. Finally, she opened them and said, “From my sources, the only other person she’s ever given advice to was a second-year prodigy who went on to win the Continental Thaumaturgic Trials. It was her upperclassman too. She’s now a Magus Prime in the Order’s Strategic Aether Division,” Celine finished, tapping the glyph-slip against her palm. “And she still owes Montreal two favors, probably.”

“And what does that mean for me?”

“I don’t know. Do you have something she doesn’t have?”

“I have a collection of twenty-one more stones.”

Celine sighed, the kind of long-suffering exhale that implied she was trying to teach arithmetic to a stubborn goat. “I’ll have to look into this.”

“Please don’t turn it into a gossip section,” he said.

Celine’s grin was almost predatory. “Oh, no. I’ll keep it strictly off the record . . . until it’s too interesting not to run. You know, for posterity.” She clasped her hands together. “Now, let’s learn Shearline. I think Montreal’s suggestion is good.”

***

[NEW TIER I SPELL REGISTERED: Shearline]


 Shearline (Rank I)
 Type: Active (Sustained)
 Tags: Restraint / Terrain Control
 Element: Earth (Fracture)
 Casting Time: 3.0 seconds
 Cooldown: 4 rounds

Aetheric Reaction Equation:
40% Mineral-based Terrain + 30% Completely Still Stance + 20% Compression Focus + 10% Synchronization → Shearline

Effect: Generates a thin, controlled fracture line through up to 2.5 meters of contiguous stone-based terrain. The fracture is shallow but sharply defined, creating a narrow gap or lip that can snag boots, trip enemies, or anchor other stone-shaping effects. When targeted beneath a creature’s position, it forces an immediate DEX check (DEX = 10 + Caster’s INT modifier) to avoid stumbling or partial restraint.

Fracture Depth: 0.25 meters
Fracture Width: 3–5 cm (non-damaging)
Duration: Persists for 10 minutes or until terrain is altered

Channelling Stability Check: FOR ≥ 10 & SYN ≥ 9 to maintain straight-line fracture under duress.

Limitations:

• Ineffective on liquid, enchanted terrain, or non-rigid surfaces

• Does not deal damage directly—restraint is situational and requires positioning

• Fracture cannot pass through magically reinforced stone without separate dispelling

Casting Requirement: INT ≥ 8, SYN ≥ 6

This skill is almost identical to Tremblehold, he thought as he gained the skill. The only difference being that it pushed the ground until something cracked.

It took him less than ten minutes to learn the skill from Celine. Learning similar spells for specialization was one thing, but there was also an immediately practical reason why he’d need this spell: to bypass cooldown.

“Try them on me,” Celine said, tapping the flagstones in front of her. She had pads on her knees for today; a sign she’d fully committed to be shoved to the ground for the entire morning.

Fabrisse raised an eyebrow but obliged. Tremblehold first: two and a half seconds of shaping, a subtle pulse radiating under her boots. She wobbled forward a fraction, catching herself with an awkward smile. He stepped in with Shearline before the tremors faded—fracture running out like a drawn blade from his toes. But the timing was off; the line split the stone half a pace short of where she’d have planted her foot. Her step landed clean, untroubled, and her smile widened into a grin.

“You failed—” she said, before the ground right behind her trembled minutely again. She almost fell on her butt, and had to balance herself by flailing her arms around like a startled heron taking flight. “Hey, not fair! But good timing. The point of contact is still off, though.”

Still, the principle worked. Chaining a Shearline in-between Trembleholds was a great way to bypass cooldown. He’d never been able to layer control spells that quickly before.

FP: 18/34

His Focus Point had dropped from 20 to 18 after performing the sequences of spells. This meant at full focus, he could probably spam these spells eight times before suffering from consequences, which should be more than enough. The ring Lorvan gave him had done wonders.

Celine wiped the sweat on her forehead as she said, “Keep it up and you’ll make a good Control Support in a party. You can destabilize monsters so someone else can land a hit in.”

“A party? You don’t suggest we go on hunting field trips?”

She grinned. “Why not? If you really want to progress your skills, you need to start fighting instead of keep training.”

For Magus-Students training to become battlemages, there were two main methods to gain actual combat experience: field trips and dungeon runs. They were completely opposite in nature. Whereas field trips meant traveling to monster-infested areas in the open wilds—forests, mountains, abandoned ruins—where environmental hazards and unpredictable encounters were the norm, dungeon runs were far more contained affairs. The monsters in dungeons weren’t even ones from their realm, but most often those from the aetheric realms.

Celine continued, “And we can assemble a half-decent team! I can be a finisher, you can be my support and Liene can be your support. Let’s have Johnson on the party too! What’s his speciality?”

“I have never seen Greg cast a spell.”

“That’s even better! He can be the wildcard.” Celine rubbed her hands together conspiratorily. “We can start small. There’s that containment zone near the South Ley Reservoir. Low-level aetheric beasts spawn there like rabbits.” 

“I didn’t know you’re into field trips.”

Celine placed a hand on her hip. “You don’t know much about me! The faculty’s always sending out students to cull them because they breed faster than aether-leeches in a warm pond. Easy fights, lots of practice, and no risk of something trying to chew your face off in one bite. We don’t even need a full-sized four-people party. Johnson can be our observer!”

Somehow he had a feeling this was less about honing their combat skills and more about giving Celine an excuse to watch Greg swing a sword.

“Fabrisse,” Celine leaned in again, peering at him from below with yet another one of her mischievous grin. If there was a grin diversity contest, this girl would ace it every time. “Johnson is coming to the joust tournament this weekend, right?”

“Yeahhh.” He forgot to ask.

“Goooooood. Make sure he’s there, and we’ll have you blasting Faultweave and Bedhold II by next week.” Both spells she mentioned were Tier II. There was no way he could master them by that timeline if he didn’t use mastery points.

“Okay.” Fabrisse gulped. Now he really had to trick Greg into going to the joust tournament somehow, or else he would be tricking Celine, and the idea of tricking Celine seemed more unpleasant than tricking Greg for some reason.

[Training Completed: +41 EXP]

[Progress to Level 7: 3625/4550]