Elevator Pitch

In their dreams, everything was mist. As chill and as white, as dense and as light as the sheet on the funeral bed. And they were falling, falling, falling through it forever. Finally, the mist lost some of its density. They could fathom the sea behind it, grey and cold, hostile. There were spots in it, too.. if only they could-

"Khidell?" 

The muffled voice ripped them out of the dream and right back into reality. 

For a second, what they saw didn't make any sense. Why was there a book attached to their face, and why did everything smell of tea and why did their back hurt so much? 

Then, when one by one their braincells started working, it all became more reasonable. 

They must have fallen asleep over their work again and spilled their tea somehow. Yes, that happened. Now they vaguely remembered. 

With a grumble, they lifted their heavy head up from the tome they had been pondering over the previous night, uncomfortably pinching their skin when it came off the parchment. 

Another shy knock. "Uhm, Khidell? Master Grandstar is waiting for you.. I didn't wanna portal in in case you weren't dressed or didn't wanna see me or anything, but you should really get up before the Master comes over herself, you know how she can be." 

After a brief pause, the voice added "I've made you some sandwiches if you want, I'll just put them down right here." A quiet sound of metal on wood followed. 

The master wanted to see them? Why would.. OH! Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck they had completely forgotten about that. 

Their mind still a bit foggy, they scrambled to get up.. and immediately fell over a leg of their chair.

"Khidell, is everything alright? Shall I come in?" 

Please, not now. 

"Nonono! Thank you Fuegan, I'll be right there!"

As soon as I've made myself presentable. I smell like I've fallen into a barrel of Jasmin.

Their spellbook and several large scrolls in hand, Khidell hurried along the corridor. 
They had quickly braided their hair off to the side, showered and put on a simple black dress using more magic than they'd liked, but some evils couldn't be avoided.

Also, using their mage hand to braid meant they could simultaneously eat, and judging from the angry bear noises their stomach made they had probably forgotten dinner yesterday, so that was a welcome side effect.

The door to the solar was open, but Khidell knocked on the doorframe anyway.

"Come in, Khidell. You're lucky the Sambarian delegation got caught up at sea, otherwise you'd actually have had to be punctual for once.."

Their face an awkward grimace, Khidell stepped into the solar. Looking around, one could easily understand why it was the master's favorite room. It was a tall room, clad in burnished oak wood and with a large, perfectly clear panorama window towards the sea. 

Contrary to Khidell's dream, it was a beautiful summer day. The ocean greeted them with a bright azure today, imperturable and timeless as ever. 

And almost as timeless was Khidell's master, who stood in front of the window, gazing at the sea. 

Her sky blue scales, bright white robe and perfectly straight posture were already impressive enough, but it was her stern, piercing gaze that constantly reminded everyone in her presence that Gisha Grandstar was one of the most powerful individuums on this and probably all planes of existence.  

Her notable deeds were legion and her might incomprehensible to mere mortals, and right now she was waiting for Khidell to present their most recent project to her.

"I am sorry, master. I will get right to it, if you don't mind." 

Grandstar quietly chuckled. "Oh, don't bother. Seems like I have all day. That is, if you don't factor in the countless other bureaucrats whose matters of concern doubtlessly deserve my attention. Make yourself comfortable."

She smiled at Khidell. "I hope Fuegan didn't wake you up? 

"No, master. I was just finishing up my notes" Khidell lied, raising a scroll they had cleansed of tea stains less than ten minutes ago. 

"He was considerate as ever, even made me some breakfast. I think I.. nevermind." They began rolling out the scrolls.

"He's a promising young man. Probably the most raw talent of any student I've ever taught. But we both know", Grandstar shot Khidell another smile, "that he's a little overzealous sometimes. Have patience, my dear Khidell. He'll grow out of it eventually."

Khidell knew their master meant well, but they really didn't feel like discussing their personal relationship with Fuegan with her. It was complicated enough without Bex and her ambition already, and... anyway.

"I'm sure he will, master. Okay, so what I've been thinking about is this."

Glowing, purple rings appeared around Khidell's hand and with a simple gesture, they created an illusory map of the mosaic sea above the table.

"Apart from the work, all of us have their personal experiments going on, as you know. And as is the nature of most powerful magical experiments, there always is a certain danger of them, how do I phrase this.. spiralling out of control."

Gisha looked at them, her face unreadable.

"I trust every single one of our circle to contain and clean up their own messes as necessary." 

Internally, Khidell sighed. Master Grandstar most definitely was wiser and more intelligent than them, but sometimes that made her a little blind to the fact that not everyone was as competent and flawless as herself, not even the other Runites.

"Yes, master. I'm sure they're all very capable of doing that. But you, out of all people, most know that researching and experimenting in niches of the arcane arts as advanced and powerful as the ones we are attending to can be.. a little unpredictable sometimes, not to mention what could happen if seperate spells interacted. Nobody could possibly plan for all of that. So I came up with something."

Grandstar cocked her head a little, and Khidell knew they had her attention now.

"Look." they said, pointing at the glowing map. "These are all our laboratories and other places where we cast powerful, permanent spells." 

A thought made the according islands light up. "Especially these three are too close together for my liking." A group of three islands lit up, one far above the others. 

"The evocation to create the currents might be stable, but, not to disrespect anyone, I'm not sure all of Yarsoic's experiments can keep up with it." 

"Perhaps not. But please, tell me what you're getting at..?"

"Yes, master. I have been looking into a way to modify our usual reservoir orbs to, albeit only over short periods of time, make them maintain more powerful spells and I think I have succeeded.

Here, I brought these.." They reached into another scroll and retrieved a  messily folded piece of fine cloth from it, laid it out on the table and smoothened it. 

Then they stuck their hand into the now open portable hole and revealed three small diamonds. They were filled with the same purple glow that marked Khidell's signature spells. 

"May I?" 

"Of course." Grandstar extended one of their large claws and gently plucked one of the diamonds from Khidell's hand. She studied it for a while, determining the exact nature of the spell trapped inside. 

"Impressive work, my dear student. But how do you plan to focus and control a spell of this magnitude when the time comes, let alone trigger it remotely? Unless I'm mistaken and that's not what you're planning, but I presume it is?"

Khidell smiled. Their master, as usual, had no problems keeping up. Maybe one day they would be able to surprise her, but they reckoned that day was still far.

"Exactly. But that's not all there is to it." Tossing the remaining two jewels to opposing ends of the table, they unrolled the last and biggest scroll in the center of the table. 

Unlike the others, this one wasn't covered in notes and fragments of a spell but instead occupied by multiple concentric circles of celestial runes. 

"Wáise Vanta." 

On their command, the three gems pulsed and then.. they cut a clean triangle into the glowing map, the ones on the table and the one in Grandstar's hand forming the vertices as the antimagic field took hold and suppressed the elven mage's illusion.

"Outstanding! To bind a spell of this complexity in the form of circles to contain it and enable access by a simple command word.. Khidell, you have truly outdone yourself." Grandstar reached out and rubbed Khidell's shoulder as a sign of recognition. 

"Uh, yes, thank you.. master...." Two things made them react so hesitantly. First, they weren't really used to physical contact with their master, that wasn't normally something that happened. At all.

Second and much more important: The edges of the scroll carrying the spell were starting to catch fire, which they only saw in the corner of their field of view. 

Discreetly, they waved their hand to silently cast a frostbite.

"Blöthr."

The antimagic field died down, averting the danger of the entire scroll or even the table catching fire. Phew.

"Impressive piece of magic you got there! Is that why you made yourself so scarce the last few weeks? Dinner table's boring without you, and Fuegan's newfound obsession with Shogi does. Not. Help."

Casually leaning against the doorframe, Grandstar's third student chimed in. 

Her long ashen hair hanging loose, she balanced the sarcastic tone of her previous quip out with a smile of genuine admiration. Bex.

"Shut up and let me finish my pitch, you little sh.." Grandstar raised one of her scaly brows at that, and Khidell immediately closed her mouth. 

"I'm sorry, Master." From across the room, they heard Bex frantically exhale through her nose, trying to suppress her laughter. "Shoo! I'll see you at lunch. You better cook something nice!" 

Bex didn't reply, but turned around and strolled away. 

"What I meant to say", Khidell continued elaborating their idea with slightly reddened cheeks, "I am reasonably sure I'm able to engrave this spell in a more solid base, maybe titanium or dimeterium. I will have to see which harmonizes better, but that's a formality. And when that's done, I plan to put up one of these beacons on every island in the mosaic..", they gestured vaguely towards the map again, "so in case something goes sideways, we have a contingency."

Grandstar stayed silent for a while. 

"I'm sure Keraptis and Yarsoic won't be too delighted by that plan. And if this interrupts Wolfram in his work and ruins one of his creations, he will probably hold that against you for decades, pedantic as he is." She then pensively responded.

"Which is why I hoped for your approval in this, master. If you tell them it was your idea, they will never openly defy you." Khidell added with a sheepish smile.

"You should have become a politician, not an abjuration mage! But you do have a point. You can start installing the beacons as soon as you're ready, I will notify the others shortly enough. Make sure to let those you deem trustworthy know, like that young fey librarian who helped you out recently. 

If these devices work as well as you say it will surely not be a problem, but no system is perfect. It might prove handy to entrust a few confidants."

"Yes, master." 

"So, and get this, then he deadass went: 'Oh, this is just like Shogi!'"

 Khidell was spluttering and coughing on the banana juice they had just sipped from, trying to follow Bex's storytelling as closely as possible. 

The mood was great at the lunch table. The dining room of the council island was illuminated brightly, and even though the three only filled a small portion of the extensive banquet table, their comraderie made them forget the emptiness around them.

The end of Khidell's intense working phase meant they could keep their friend company again, and even the introverted Fuegan was feeling joyful, smiling along Bex' teasing.

"Hey, it was! It might not be easy to understand if you've never played the game, but.."

"Oh, cut it, you bookworm!" Bex cut him off. "Just the audacity to bring this into a conversation about, out of all things, DATING.." She was shaking in laughter now, wrapping her arms around herself while her whole body was radiating joy.

"Anyway, Khi!" Bex calmed down a bit, focussing on the elf.

"Tell us about that project you've been so caught up with the past weeks! Now that you can fiiiiinally talk about it" she said, rolling her eyes.

"Let me finish this juice first, then I will treat you heathens to the secrets of higher abjuration magic."

They downed the rest of their glass, then went on.

"Don't get me wrong, right? The dark stars you two spun up last year were also pretty impressive, but don't hold a candle to a proper abjurer."

That earned them a scoff from Bex, at which they retorted "Don't scoff at me, Miss Big Family Name! You know it's true."

Khidell knew that they would never get on the same page about this topic, but they all were very aware of that fact and didn't actually try to convince each other. They had had hundreds of conversations and arguments about this, and by now it was more friendly banter than anything else.

With their usual precision, they quickly summed up what they had presented to their master earlier, finding a kind of academic pleasure in the respectful and even admiring looks on their co-student's faces.

They sure had their differences in personality, opinion and magical discipline, but at the end of the day, when one of them completed a project that was important to them, what they could agree about was the honest respect for each other's work.

They had come a long way since starting their studies under the masters, and now, even though they were still young and considered themselves clearly inferior to their masters, they knew that being a mere student of the Runites still outclassed even the most profound masters elsewhere.

All of them had accomplished arcane feats of gigantic proportions during their studies, first only as assistants in the greater spells, later by being the head casters themselves. 

Khidell finished their lecture. 

Fuegan distorted the corners of his mouth downwards approvingly, knocking on the table to mimic applause while he used his other hand to shove the rest of his stew into his mouth.  

"Impwessive indeed!" The food was slurring his speech a little, and when he noticed, his olive face immediately turned red. "Pardon."

Bex, however, had already finished eating. She had gone from admiring to thoughtful during the elf's lecture, and despite her knocking on the table too, Khidell could tell she was far away in her mind.

"And you're sure this system could stop even an accident with The Work?"

"I'm positive, yes. I would obviously have to test that thesis, but I think so. Any explicit reason you're asking?" Talking had made Khidell hungry again. Sitting down, they restocked their plate with a fresh portion of stew. 

"No, nothing in particular." Bex had returned to reality, her light green eyes firmly placed on Khidell. 

She smiled. "Okay, so these turbines we set up, right? I've been thinking, what if we were to cast a Life Bubble spell and then launched ourselves down those kinetcally? I'm sure that's not exactly what the most venerable masters Grandstar and Silverscale designed that spell for, but..."

"No, it most certainly is not, my young student." 

The three froze. Their heads turned in unison towards master Silverscale, who had silently entered the dining room. Khidell had no idea how they managed walking this inaudibly with literal claws for feet, but it caught them off guard every time. 

"But I might decide to overhear these undeniably dangerous plans of yours if, and only if..."

The blue lizard sauntered closer to the table, keeping the suspense on the three students who didn't dare say a word, their beautiful robe dancing in some kind of ghostly wind that only affected it and nothing else.
"..you give me a big portion of that stew. It smells delicious, and I normally don't find the time to properly cook for myself. I am starving. "

Despite them emphasizing the last word like they normally intonated the key part of a lesson, the three friends relaxed. Master Silverscale wasn't going to stop them.

"Knock yourself out, master!" Bex said, getting up from the table. "No disrespect meant, obviously. I miscalculated anyway, there should be more than enough left for you."

The three of them quickly conjured up Unseen Servants to clean up for them before hurrying out of the room. 

"And don't you be late for your astronomy lesson tomorrow, children!" 

Silverscale called after them. For a being with a lifespan such as them, they would most likely never stop being children, but the trio was used to being called that. 

No hard feelings, though: They loved Silverscale. 

And considering they had the rest of the day off, they weren't going to mind anyway.