“Hmm…”

“What’s gotten your attention this time?”

Kyle continued sifting through the smoking dirt mound left by his spell. He’d been testing out his upper limits, and at the moment managed to launch a massive ball of psionic light as big as himself that turned a small outcrop into a dust-shrouded crater. It marked an achievement for Kyle’s growth as a psionic caster. If compared with conventional arcane energies, the level of control and raw power to form and maintain such an impractical ball of magic would mark any mortal as more than a mere novice, at the very least.

And considering that he had fired off three of such oversized bolts before he felt spent, Kyle could very well be on his way to being worthy of apprenticeship…not that it would be occurring anytime soon, if at all.

From what Pelton understood, the lad would be taking just enough lessons in Dalaran to certify himself as a trained spellcaster, and then take over Alterac proper as its new king.

The first human mage-king.

It’d ruffle a lot of feathers, for sure, especially the human realms. Even more especially after the little maneuvers Kyle had pulled off with Pelton’s help. It was a bit of a guilty pleasure for the gnome to bask in the despair of the human regents as he and Halion dismantled their petty machinations and traded the parts in for profits for Gnomeregan, Khaz Modan and Quel’Thalas.

Their mistake had been to assume their certainty on their grasp of power. That, and the constant bickering that distracted them from actually reading the fine print and looking into loopholes. As a result, Alterac would soon be visited by actual dignitaries of the three kingdoms, proper envoys with proper authority to ratify the proposals Kyle, Pelton and the others had hammered out.

And there’d be almost nothing of value for the human regents.

Pelton had nothing against Lordaeron, Stromgarde, Kul Tiras, and even Gilneas, but he was of the mind that felt like the Alliance needed to remember that it was more than just a collection of human states most of the time. The gnomes, dwarves and elves were treated as stalwart allies during times of war and crisis, but in the peacetime it was as if the three kingdoms were outsiders, kept out of the more ‘minor’ but no less important politicking and decision-making within the Alliance.

Having the humans largely fighting over the affairs of the Alliance meant that it would gravitate towards human-centric matters.

Oh sure, it was mostly for the best, in most of the three races’ opinion. The gnomish, dwarven and elven kings and their courts might think it beneath them to involve themselves in human affairs, that human affairs were generally moving in a favorable direction already. But Pelton disagreed. Human squabbling was an annoyance that’s better to be avoided, but the price of that convenience had meant that the bickering human kings held the reins of power as they fought among themselves. Which led to a sense of entitlement that fuelled a dangerous arrogance.

Things had to change, in Pelton’s opinion. It was true that Stromgarde had been devastated and warranted aid in rebuilding, and the Kul Tiras navy required replenishing of its great fleet, but the dwarven kingdom of Khaz Modan had been all but desolated by the Horde in comparison. Yet King Magni was still so dwarvenly stubborn to seek Alliance funding to quickly redevelop his war-ravaged kingdom. And Quel’Thalas was too busy playing the distant, aloof member and was too proud to request anything beyond the bare minimum of aid.

The culturally entrenched sense of separation from the human kingdoms had put up a distance between them and the non-human realms. They should be more integrated, the resource allocation and policymaking should be more fairly divided. Rather than pay for the dangerously foolish internment camps, the funds should be diverted to fully rebuild all the affected kingdoms of the Alliance.

Pelton shook away the ranting thoughts that bubbled in his mind and returned to the present, walking over to Kyle. With his former mentor Krasus and his equally mysterious hermit friend Valoghan gone to handle some secret affair, the gnome was in charge of overseeing Kyle’s curious (and highly secretive) magic practice, while Halion took over keeping the regents in line.

It was a mark of honor to be assigned such a task. Pelton had to agree with Krasus that Kyle’s unique magic had to be kept under wraps for the time being. The implications of this new magic was staggering, especially considering that it was limited to only the boy who would be king. If mishandled, poor Kyle might end up being decried as a monster by the zealots of the Light, or be a target of the ever power-hungry occultists who’d seek to wield the powers for themselves.

As Pelton reached Kyle, he noticed the boy brushing away the dirt with his hands to reveal shattered crystals. Upon realizing his proximity, the boy turned to him.

“Uh, are these crystals glowing to you?”

Pelton hummed and frowned at the broken shards in Kyle’s hands. The pretty things were glinting with a blue hue under the sunlight, but there was most definitely no glow. An easy mistake to be made by the uninitiated. Hence the annoying clique of kooks who believe that certain mundane, untreated crystals can carry special properties like healing or emotional control.

“I’m afraid it’s a trick of the light,” he gently explained, reaching over to pluck one shard between his index finger and thumb. “See? The way the sunlight refracts through the crystal? Granted, it is an uncommon effect, especially from a formation like this.”

Kyle’s face was stuck in a frown for a moment before it was replaced with a student’s curiosity. “What sort of crystal is this?”

To answer, Pelton did a quick chant and snapped off a simple identification spell. “Huh. Blue quartz. A common enough mineral, though the Engineers’ Guild in Gnomeregan are still looking into any potentially unique uses. Makes for rather pretty looking lenses though.”

“So…not much value?”

Pelton shook his head, though he couldn’t fault the boy’s entrepreneurial spirit. “Not yet, I’m afraid. Even if a vital use of it is found, it’s plentiful enough that the price of the stuff would be cheap.”

“Ah. Ok.” Strange. He’d thought Kyle would be more disappointed by that fact. The boy looked back down to the crystals in his hand, then turned back to the pile of dirt behind him in silence. Then Pelton felt his hair stand on their ends as Kyle began to cast…something.

The pile of dirt heaved, and then was shredded as scraps of blue quartz shot out and up into the air, spinning about as if caught in a tornado. The faster they spun, the tighter the stream of shards became, until it became a roiling crystalline ball of scintillating blue. This time, seconds into the mesmerizing dance, they began to really glow as they further compacted.

Pelton barely began to gape at the scene before it was over, and he watched a single, monolithic chunk of blue quartz the size of himself drop back to the ground with a heavy thud, followed by a drizzle of tinkling as the unconsolidated shards of crystal bounced off its surface.

“Huh,” the gnome managed to say as he stared blankly at the dimming crystal. He walked over to inspect it, and true to his first impression, the huge blue quartz formation was now a single, unified piece, perfectly smooth in all of its planes with no trace of fractures or interior refraction to suggest that it was once a collection of shattered shards.

“That’s a neat trick,” he commented honestly, and immediately noticed how keenly Kyle was staring at the block of crystal. Pelton had seen such looks before back in his Kirin Tor days. It was the look of a mage trying to figure out the possibilities of their new discovery. Sure, crystal amalgamation might not be the most promising of things from an outside perspective, but to Kyle’s young mind, no doubt he would be figuring out what else he could do with this spell, and how else to apply it.

It was probably his first unique spell after all. Even accomplished mages treated the most trivial of arcane discoveries as a paradigm-shaking thing - and Pelton was guilty of at least two of such incidents - so it wouldn’t be polite to snuff out the bubbling excitement of creating one’s own spell.

“I’m sure there’d be jewelers eager to have such a spell, so they could salvage the leftovers from their cuttings,” Pelton encouragingly offered.

Kyle didn’t seem to notice. The boy probably was thinking on a far grander scale. Maybe synthesizing focus crystals or something. Unsurprising, but best to ease him back down to harsh reality.

“Kyle?”

“So…eight minerals?” the boy mumbled.

A little confused, Pelton nonetheless nudged the young mage gently out of his daydreaming. “Now what would you need eight of such huge blocks for?”

Kyle snapped back to the present and immediately gave him a sheepish look.

“Oh. Uh, just…wondering about…stuff.”

“Uh huh.” Pelton politely ignored the boy’s embarrassment. Again, he himself went through a similar phase before. “Well, it is an interesting spell, but word of advice: whatever plans you might concoct in your head, I suggest you push them aside and extensively test out the limits and intricacies of your spell. That way you can form a more…realistic idea and present your case in full to prospective investors or patrons to realize said idea.”

“Huh? Oh. Thanks, Pelton. I appreciate it.” The boy’s probably still holding onto his notions of grandeur… “But I don’t think this spell is going to be too useful, save for decoration and maybe helping jewelers like you said.”

Or maybe not.

Ah.

Young Kyle was far more grounded than expected. He’d focused on the more disappointing facts of his achievement first, probably saw it as a failure of sorts as the spell didn’t achieve what he had in mind. Perhaps he was trying to create a less blocky structure, or transmute the blue quartz into something else. Something more fitting and useful for his responsibilities, no doubt.

The poor boy might be letting his kingship get to him to treat a new spell with such reserved disappointment.

“Don’t worry, Kyle. You’ve taken just the first step. With some work, I’m sure you’ll be able to adjust this spell to achieve greater things.”

The smirk Pelton received told him that the boy knew he was being patronized. The gnome cleared his throat and tried again.

“Well…it is still no small thing to create a new spell matrix, especially since you’re dealing with your novel psionic magic. Consider it a stepping stone to plot out your full capabilities.”

This time Kyle nodded with far less bemusement, and then glanced back at the block of blue quartz. “I guess I should experiment further while I have the time…”

“That’s the spirit.” Pelton smiled, happy that the novice hadn’t lost his sense of curiosity completely.

They spent the rest of the day searching the area for more potential mineral sites with the aid of Pelton’s dowsing spells. The gnome noted down with great curiosity the fact that Kyle’s crystal amalgamation magic had severe limitations. It only worked on quartz crystals, and it only worked on crystalline shards that had been bathed in psionic magic, basically being blasted by a bolt of it.

It’s as if quartz had some sort of unique property that could be attuned to Kyle’s psionics. It was a rather irritating limitation on Kyle’s behalf, but since he’d already set his expectations low to start with, Pelton didn’t have to worry too much about the boy’s spirits being too down.

He did perk up though when they found a rare patch of citrine. After blasting his way more than a dozen feet underground to reach it, Kyle seemed rather pleased at amalgamating a two whole block of the crystal. Well, considering that citrine was a rare enough mineral, and it did look rather pretty with its golden hue, it was probably the most worthwhile block Kyle had made so far.

They returned back to the initial training grounds as evening began to loom, with Kyle hauling back the fifteen blocks he’d made with the aid of a conjured hovering platform. Neither Krasus nor his friend were there, so Pelton’s assumption that they might be caught up in something serious seemed right on the money. Well, at least Kyle had his schedule laid out for the next week and beyond if their absence dragged on.

As they prepared to return to the palace, something caught Pelton’s eye, and he found himself drawn to the scattering of leftover crystal from Kyle’s first amalgamation. It might have been a trick of the fading light, but…

“Kyle?”

The boy had finished placing his first block of blue quartz on the platform as he turned to him. “Yes, Pelton?”

The gnome pointed to the crystalline fragments littered on the ground. “Do you recall the fragments of quartz that didn’t combine being this big? Or have they grown a bit?”

Kyle came over to help confirm, and yes, the little scraps had grown a bit. Despite it only being quartz, he still seemed quite pleased about that fact. Pelton shrugged off the excitement.

Maybe the boy’s actually going through that giddy phase of discovery this time.