Sitting across from one another in his office, Master Harim finished casting the ‘identify’ spell on Stephen Crawford and began studying him intently. “It feels strange to cast identity on another master. Invasive. Very strange indeed.”

“You have my full consent to cast the spell, Master Harim,” said Stephen. “I’d greatly appreciate any insights you have. I can’t believe I’ve done that to him, you have to help me undo it!”

“There, there,” said Harim. “Let’s not get into all that again.” With a distracted air, Master Harim spoke out loud as he studied the Numeracy master. “So, apparently you’ve learned the ‘create light’ spell, and you’ve almost learned ‘comprehend languages’, both at the apprentice level. You’re a master of the Wizard’s Guild of Hopedale. That all seems correct. You know, you really should learn ‘create light’ as a master. Casting a neophyte version of ‘create light’ is an embarrassment for a master of any wizard’s guild.”

“Yes,” replied Stephen politely. “I understand. Right now there’s some information I hope to get from learning the ‘identify’ spell myself, so I’m focusing on learning ‘comprehend languages’ than moving on to it. I’m sure I can improve my casting of magical light at a later date. I won’t cast it in public until I do. But let’s get back to figuring out how to recover Rurth. If this permanently affects him, I’ll never forgive myself.”

“It would probably be best if you refrained from casting it in public,” said Harim. “For the time being. You have another set of magical knowledge. It’s called ‘Dimensional Traveler’ magic or some such thing. I’ve never seen it before, not that we’ve fully inventoried every magical tradition in existence.”

“Yes,” said the grad student. “That’s what I’m interested in. The other masters originally saw one or something. There’s now two, since Rurth disappeared. They had a hard time describing them to me.”

“I see them,” said Harim. “One is something like dimensional travel and the other is a wizard guild apprentice. Both seem to have a name and a categorization of some sort. The apprentice summoning spell seems to be charged or ready to cast. The dimensional travel is depleted or unprepared. It doesn’t seem like you can cast it right now. There’s some sort of energy you need to direct into it to power it.”

“Yes, the other masters described that to me,” said Master Crawford. “What are they? How do they function? How do I power dimensional travel?”

“It looks like you need every type of power to cast it. Have the other masters told you about them?” Harim asked.

“Fire, prana, air, earth, water, aether, and quintesssence,” said Stephen. “But they’re theoretical concepts, right? There’s no way to generate ‘air’ power, is there?”

“That’s right,” said Harim. “They’re a theoretical model for understanding the world around us and discussing magic and spellcraft. It’s a useful model when designing new spells, but it isn’t necessary to learn magic. We don’t teach students about it until they’re journeymen, at which point they’ll have already learned multiple spells. There’s no known way to create any of these energies that we know of. We just tap into them from the world around us. Could you just build a fire to create ‘fire’ power? Or submerge yourself in water to access it?”

“I have no idea,” said Stephen. “I‘ve been around fires and water, and haven’t gotten any power from them.”

“It’s an interesting avenue to research. You’ve been an abundant source of knowledge for us,” said Master Harim. “I congratulate myself for discovering you. What about casting the charged apprentice concept? It seems like it’s charged with earth and prana power. Could you take power from one card and direct it to another?”

“I tend to think of it as ‘unleashing’ the charged cards, rather than casting them,” said the Numeracy master. “It’s very different from what I’ve learned here. Casting light, for example, requires me to be precise at every step. My pronunciation, gestures, and the material aspects need to be exact. I can feel the energy being gathered as I cast this. With the cards, they want to be unleashed, I just have to allow it to happen. It takes more effort to hold on to the charged card than it does to unleash it. I don’t have any idea how to move energy, even between cards.”

“Interesting, interesting,” said Harim. “I’ve always said there’s value in studying other traditions, just for these sorts of insights. Why not try unleashing the charged apprentice concept?”

“Yes, that’s the next step. The dimensional travel concept hasn’t regained energy, so I’m worried that I can only unleash it once. I’d like to restore Rurth fully, back to normal,” said Master Crawford.

“Ah, yes, that’s another interesting aspect. You claim you removed a guild apprentice from reality?” asked Harim.

“Yes, Rurth. He was a neophyte with me, and we became friends,” said Stephen.

“I’ll admit, I don’t know all the neophytes or apprentices. I never met this Rurth,” said Harim.

“You did, though, he assisted me with my Numeracy class,” said Stephen.

“An apprentice wouldn’t be allowed in a Numeracy class,” objected Master Harim.

Stephen responded, “We had this exact discussion with the other masters. You and the other masters didn’t want to allow him in my class, but I convinced you by saying he’d be my assistant, not a student.”

“I don’t have any memory of this,” said Harim. “Are you certain I was part of this meeting?”

“Absolutely,” said Stephen. “And none of the other students remember him, even other students who were in class with us both, who I knew were friends with him.”

“A false memory would be more likely than reality being altered to the degree you describe. I don’t know why someone would go to such extreme lengths over an apprentice wizard. Why not just kill him if someone wanted him removed? Perhaps you’ve been lonely for your world and invented a friend?” said Master Harim.

“Perhaps,” acknowledged Stephen, without conviction.

“I’m happy to observe the unleashing whenever you’re ready to perform it,” offered the other master.

“I suppose there’s no time like the present,” said Stephen. “I’ve thought about saving it until I learn the ‘identify’ spell, but none of the masters seemed to get any useful information between the charged and uncharged concepts. No one else had any ideas for moving power between one card and the other.”

Unleashing the concept of the wizard apprentice, Rurth appeared in front of the two men. Bowing towards Stephen Crawford, the apprentice said, “What can I do for you boss?”

“Boss?” asked Stephen with a chuckle. “Since when? Master Harim, do you remember Rurth now that you see him?”

“I’m quite confident I’ve never seen this man before,” said Harim, examining Rurth closely. The apprentice continued to regard Stephen attentively.

“Rurth, what’s the last thing you remember?” asked Stephen.

“We were talking about my cousins and learning ‘comprehend languages’ and ‘identify’,” said Rurth. He glanced shyly at Master Harim before continuing, “and friendship.”

“Yes,” said Stephen. “That was three days ago.”

“Really?” asked Rurth. “It feels like it was just a moment ago.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re back. I have a feeling with you, like I can release you. Perhaps I’ll let you go and hopefully that will return everyone’s memory of you and let you return to your life,” said Stephen.

“Whatever you think is best, boss,” said the apprentice.

“What’s with this boss thing?” asked Stephen.

The apprentice looked thoughtful. “I have this overwhelming feeling that you have a good idea of what’s going on and what I should do. I’ve never had it before.”

“I don’t like that,” admitted Stephen. “I never wanted to enslave you. I think I’m going to release you and undo whatever I accidentally did to you.”

“Sounds good!” said Rurth.

Master Harim watched what was happening as Stephen concentrated briefly and the apprentice vanished again.

“Where did he go?” asked Harim.

“I have no idea,” said Stephen in a panic. “I wanted to return him to how he was before. Can you remember him now?”

“Just the apprentice you summoned, and we talked to, I remember him from your summoning, but I never saw him before that. Are you certain he was a member of our guild? Maybe he trained elsewhere,” said the other master.

“I still have the concept of a wizard’s apprentice, but it’s no longer energized,” said Stephen morosely. “I don’t think that worked.”

“It seems that releasing it just undid the summoning, it didn’t remove the concept or free the young man,” observed Master Harim.

***

His journeyman tutor looked thoughtfully at Stephen as he completed his attempt at casting the identification spell.

“Your gestures and incantation both seem correct to me. The material component of a magnifying lens is the same type of lens the rest of us use when casting, so I’m sure that’s fine. The good news is that means you’re close to casting it correctly, the downside is that I can’t tell you what to change. We could either get the other tutors in here and as a group we’ll try to figure out what we need to fix. Alternatively, you can try stressing different syllables a little more or less and adding a bit more or less force to the gestures and see if we can find the right casting by brute force. Or we could get a master, ideally one with as much expertise casting ‘identify’ as possible, and find out if he can see whatever I’m missing.”

“Let’s just brute force it,” decided Master Crawford. “I’m quite excited to learn ‘identify’, so I’d rather try to get it working now than wait for the others to assemble.”

The tutor patiently observed as Stephen Crawford went through the casting repeatedly, systematically trying different variations. On his eleventh casting, suddenly, English text appeared in the air beside his tutor.

Name: Finnian “Wart” Hearthforge
Race: Human
Profession: Journeyman wizard at Hopedale Wizard’s Guild

Spells:
create light (journeyman)
comprehend languages (apprentice)
magic missile (apprentice)
jump (apprentice)
identify (apprentice)

Wounds: 0 (capacity 2)

Stephen asked “Wart?” The journeyman flushed. “A nickname my siblings had for me, master. No one has heard it at the guild. I’d prefer to keep it that way.”

“Understood,” agreed Stephen. Looking in the mirror, he saw similar information appear next to him.

Name: Stephen Crawford
Race: Human
Profession: Master wizard at Hopedale Wizard’s Guild and Neophyte Dimensional Traveler

Spells:
create light (apprentice)
comprehend languages (apprentice)
identify (apprentice)

Wounds: 0 (capacity 7)

“What is a dimensional traveler and what does wounds and capacity mean?” Stephen asked the tutor.

Wart replied, “The information is presented in a way that’s meaningful for you. I don’t see any of the terms you mention when I’ve cast ‘identify’ on you. I’m happy to help you try to figure them out, but the masters will likely be more help to you than I would be.”

Stephen focused on the “Neophyte Dimensional Traveler” term and immediately saw the information adjust.

Name: Stephen Crawford
Race: Human
Profession: Master wizard at Hopedale Wizard’s Guild and Neophyte Dimensional Traveler

Cards:
dimensional travel
apprentice wizard

Wounds: 0 (capacity 7)

Examining dimensional travel, a rectangular shape appeared. At the top it said “Dimensional Travel” and there was a stylized image before the title of a figure stepping into a yellow ring. The figure vanished where it passed through the portal. Underneath the image, it said, “Incantation”.

At the bottom of the card was text that began with seven colored dots: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. All seven colors were dull. After the colors, there was a colon, and it read, “Move the dimensional traveler to another dimension of their choice. If cast during a challenge, escapes the challenge as a draw.

Stephen then examined the apprentice wizard. Below the “Apprentice Wizard” title was what looked like a painting of Rurth in his apprentice robes. After the image, it said, “Human Wizard Champion”.

Below that was text that had dull orange and green dots, followed by a colon, then text that read, “Summons an apprentice wizard with 1 wound capacity. Champion can cast ‘Create Light’ and ‘Comprehend Languages’.”

Looking at his tutor, Stephen said, “This raises as many questions as it answers.”