"The four schools of magic, as they are currently reed, are Divine, Primal, Are, and Occult," I said. "Divine and Primal magic are both powered by the mage's retionship with a rger power, while Are and Occult magic are powered purely by the mage's own will. Meanwhile, Primal and Are magic primarily deal with the material, whereas Divine and Occult magic primarily deal with the spiritual- although that isn't to say there's no crossover or overp, as many Are spells affect spiritual subjects, and many Divine spells have material effects."

  "Good, good," Mom said. Ariel Silver was an old elf- how old, I wasn't sure, she never would tell me, but she certainly did remember the time before the War, and what High Elven culture was like before it. Her surname, Silver, ecial one among high elves- it wasn't a name people were born with, usually, but rather, ohey took on themselves, when they wished to disavow the family they'd been born to.

  What I did know about her past was this: she was a natural redhead, which was typical of the High Elven nobility, but kept her hair bleached white like a oner. sidering I'd ied that red hair from her- as well as my father, although his hair was dyed green by his stant use of Primal magic- I could only hope that she didn't see a painful memory every time she looked at me.

  "Now, this is less for the interview, and more to satisfy me," Mom tinued. "I want to make sure you've truly learned from me."

  Ariel Silver was also a genuine schor of magid not simply a mage who studied magic to advaheir own practice of it. She studied the history, how other people had felt about magic through the ages, and all manner of other things that a "pruild Mage would regard as trifling curiosities, rather than a serious area of magical study.

  "What does a society's favored forms of magic say about it?"

  (Of course, just because Mom was a schor didn't mean she wasn't a damn good wizard. She wasn't a member of the Mage's Guild, but that was more because she hated the Hikaano Pantheon and their spuilds; the Mage's Guild had very much tried to recruit her a few times. She had mixed feelings about me trying to join the Mage's Guild myself, but as near as I tell, she ultimately settled oahat, so long as I didn't delude myself into thinking the Guilds were my friends, a my eyes on the prize of making moo fund my vehen she'd support me as best she could, as a mother should support her son.)

  "Well, quite a lot, usually," I said. "For one, nearly ne society favors only a single school of magic over the others; each school is quite inplete on its own, and leaves gaps that o be covered. However... strangely, most societies seem to favor two of the four schools of magid I don't really know why. I know that the Hikaano Empire favors Are and Divine magic, which creates a strong ceptual divide between the sacred and the profane ihinking, with Are magic being seen more as an unusually useful skill rather than as something of the same kind as Divine magic. I also know that the High Elves favored Are and Primal magic, refleg our prioritization of the material world over the spiritual."

  "Anything else? Perhaps about societies you don't live in?"

  "Well, there's the Wood Elves, who supposedly favored Primal and Occult magics- Primal to help them live off the nd, and Occult to hide them from outsiders and throw off the trail. There's the Green Orcs, who favor Divine and Primal magics due to the both of them being about e to a greater power, and thus being sidered holy in parison to the more individualistic magics of the Are and Occult. And... I think the Tordan Empire favors the individualistic magics of the Are and Occult over the more union-based Primal and Divine." I tapped my . "...It feels like there should be some society that favors Divine and Occult as a representation of their focus on the spiritual rather than material, but if they exist, they have pletely slipped my mind."

  Mom nodded. "You've fotten the Alpine Goblins; they practice a religion that prioritizes the spiritual over the material, which leaks into the cultural practices that aren't already sacred. They're a bit isotionist, what with living in some of the most mountainous terrain around and not living primarily underground in well-maintaiunnels like the Mountain Dwarves do, but you might meet one of their shugenja one day, so... it's good to keep them in mind. We'll go eography a bit more ter on, but for now... good. I think you're ready. Your wizardry is good, even if sometimes I worry about your application."

  "Oh?" I asked.

  "You're a smart boy, and you've taken to wizardry naturally," Mom said. "I've taught you so much of it, it's hard for me not to notice. But... Sometimes, there are gaps in your uanding. Gaps that fill quickly, but which tell me... There's times you say you're practig your wizardry on your own, but you aren't."

  Ah, beans. Okay, so, the truth is that I've been dabbling in Occult magic, but... well, Mom doesly think highly of the Occult. Says it's for chartans and cheaters, and while I 't pletely dispute that... well, sometimes a man needs an ace up his sleeve, y'know?

  "I'm a teenage boy," I said simply. "What do you think I've been doing when I'm alone, g to be doing something that needed uninterrupted privacy so I could focus?"

  "I assure you, there are ways to multitask."

  "Okay, this versation is now ood talk, I'll see you when I get back from the interview."

  I'd dolled myself up to look like every other young Guild Mage- a long blue tunic, extremely baggy blue pants that gathered at the waist through a drawstring (cealed by the tunid just below my khrough estids, and pointy leather slippers that had been carefully dyed a light powder blue.

  And wearing that ridiculalia was a handsome young man of tall and slender build, with sharp, refined features, long fme-red hair elegantly slicked back, and all manner of shiny rings ad his graceful fingers. The spitting image of the ideal young Mage, marred only by two elongated, pointed ears.

  Still, I had my ways around that little handicap.

  It was distressingly easy to cast a spell of friendship on Magister Brown. He didn't seem a terribly impressive mage to me, and sidering how impressed he was by my abilities with the are- which, sure, were beyond the standard Novice Certification, but not by that much- I was very, very fident that this interview was going to end with me joining the Mage's Guild.

  Right up until he decided to show me his test acquisition, just to make himself feel bigger.

  "Behold!" Magister Brown said, pulling away a dropcloth to reveal a statue of a beautiful human woman, wearing a fttering dress of a style I reized from old drawings, and holding a small harp to the side of her chest, where it created a very lifelike squish and fold in the dress and her breast. "This statue is supposedly of elven make; the script, certainly, looks elven to me. A, it depicts an uionably human woman, and given its prove is likely some sort of funerary effigy. This, my boy, is going to be the terpie my museum exhibit on the history of friendship between humans and elves! So! What do you think?"

  "...Do you know my name?" I asked mildly, sing the script on the base of the statue. There was... There was no way this was what I thought it was, no fug way-

  "Hm? Oh, er... Joseph Iro, I should think, yes? Why do you ask?"

  "'In loving memory of Terpsichore Iro,'" I read aloud, pointing at the writing on the base of the statue. "'Wife of Artorias Wind-Caller and Ena Bckthorn. Blood-mother of Frederick Iro, Lysander Bckthorn, and Rebecca Iro. Hearth-mother of Napoleon Iro, Elendar Bckthorn, and Rosenthal Iro. She was always singing, and brought joy to us all. May her memory be a blessing.'"

  "Oh my," Magister Brown said. "I had no idea you could read elven, my boy! This is wonderful!"

  I pushed past his oblivious surprise that I was literate in my native nguage, which was by no means lost knowledge, to get to the point of the matter. "This statue was stolen from my father's home, three turies ago," I said dryly. "At some point, after the exhibit has been rotated out of the museum, we would like it back."

  Magister Brown reared back with a look of disgust on his face, as though I'd suggested I'd like to knock up his daughter, and possibly also his wife, you know, while I was in the neighborhood.

  "Now see here, my boy," Magister Brown began, beginning to go red in the face, his voice growing imperious. "Three turies may not be anything to an elf, but by rational sensibilities, it is a very long time indeed! It has long since ceased belonging to your family, and now, it belongs to me! I bought it, it's mine! And, aside from questions of ownership, this here is historically signifit! It belongs in a museum, not in some random person's house!"

  I'd like to say I sidered the situation carefully, but unfortunately, I've only got so much patience for self-important humans who think elves aren't real people. Besides. Mom didn't hese assholes. her did I.

  "Your exhibit on the historical friendship and cooperatioween humans and elves is going to star a stolen statue of my grandmother, whose firstborn son is still alive, because your definition of friendship doesn't include returning stolen property," I said dryly. "Tell me, does the Mage's Guild approve of this kind of rapacious intellectual dishoy? Or is your mendacious banditry a blight upon your colleagues?"

  It wasn't a surprise that the Mage's Guild sent me a reje letter, a few days after that, but it didn't make me any less angry. But hey, I was already pnning to rob the building, just to get back Terpsichore's effigy. Why stop there, when I could steal some other shit while I was at it, and fund my expedition to the frohat way?

  It was a surprise, a week after my interview, to hear that I was too te:

  Someone else had robbed Magister Brown's office, and my grandmother's effigy was gone.

  Someone was going to bleed for this.