The new curriculum was time-consuming, but not especially difficult to put together. Finding instructors would prove more difficult.
Adrissu went to the College of the Arcane in Gennemont again, alone for the first time in many years. He met with the instructors that he already knew, showing them his improved curriculum and offering them a place at his own academy. So far, he had seemed to be little enough of a threat to the college of Gennemont that he was free to peruse their libraries and consult with their teachers; if all went as he hoped, he might not have such freedom with their resources in the future. But only one of the current Gennemont instructors seemed interested enough in relocating to Polimnos; his three most promising leads were students on the cusp of graduating.
Normally, he would do some research at their expansive library while in Gennemont; but this time he was too busy consulting with students and professors to spare more than an hour or so in the evening, before the library closed for the day. Besides, it felt too soon to restart his research on making mortal souls immortal.
But when he returned from his trip, a letter was waiting for him from an elf, Caemar Illuren, to whom he had written several decades ago. Of course, he thought bitterly as he opened the letter,nowwas the time that the elf would finally respond. The letter was long and meandering, explaining the research the elf had done in the years between receiving Adrissu’s letter and his leisurely response: how he had largely moved on from his theories regarding soul containment, but that he would be happy to discuss the topic with Adrissu should he ever find himself in Aefraya.
If Adrissu remembered correctly—and he was quite sure he was—Caemar Illuren was certainly more than two hundred years old now, approaching advanced age even amongst elves. It would behoove him to take advantage of the elf’s standing invitation, sooner rather than later, in the unfortunate event that he would not live long enough to receive Adrissu. So he wrote back that he would love to discuss the topic with Caemar as such an authority on the subject, and would plan to come to Aefraya the next summer, when he was not so busy with the academy. The timing would not be ideal, but it would have to do.
The following year, Adrissu was preoccupied with attracting more students to Polimnos. The city’s population had continued to swell with the expansion of the harbor and the continued success of the mines. The mercenary’s guild did not flourish the way it once had, but remained a stalwart, if niche, presence in the city’s economy. Poaching students from the mercenary guild’s roster seemed pointless when their own attendance was smaller than ever; and besides, he did not want to do anything to threaten the rapport he had with Ederick, who somehow was still alive and still the guildmaster, though it seemed to be largely a courtesy title with little actual duty anymore.
He would have to explore other avenues. He and the instructors provided incentives for current students to recruit new ones, posted listings on each message board in every inn and tavern in Polimnos, and even set up a booth each weekend on the docks, which they hoped would spread the word of the academy to the many sailors and laborers that traveled from port to port.
Though it did not work as well as Adrissu would have liked, it did work. By the time the school term ended, they were on track to have sixty-two students after the summer recess with room for up to twenty more, if there happened to be any last-minute enrollments. It was more than they had ever had before, so Adrissu counted himself lucky and solidified his plans to continue scaling up.
As soon as he was free for the summer, though, he flew to Aefraya. Traveling alone did not feel quite so wretched now: being alone in the air, away from the constant noise and movement of the city, was its own reward.
Caemar Illuren resided in Castle Aefraya itself, as an arcanist in service of the royal library. Neither the library nor the castle would be accessible to Adrissu. The current rulers, Queen Taviriel and her King-Consort Aeroven, had recently announced that they were expecting their first child, so security around the castle was excessive. Even with Caemar’s invitation, Adrissu was not an Aefrayan citizen and would thereby not be allowed into the castle. Instead, they met at the most luxurious inn within the walls of the capitol city: the Magenta Marigold, which was quite refined, despite its silly name.
“Headmaster Adrissu, I presume?”
The elf was visibly old and wizened, meaning he was almost certainly within the final decade or two of his life. His hair looked like it may have once been dark, but was now mostly gray, pulled back in a low ponytail that fell past his shoulders. Adrissu managed a smile as the man approached him where he sat in one of the tavern’s private meeting rooms.
“Is it that obvious I’m not from around here?” he replied, standing to greet the elf. Though Caemar was old, he moved easily, bowing his head in greeting smoothly, and smiled politely when he rose.
“It is obvious you are not from Aefraya,” he replied, and gestured to Adrissu’s clothes. “Those tight sleeves and the belt are all human fashion. Here in the capitol especially, you’d be hard-pressed to find any robes without the ruffled sleeves or billowing length that Queen Taviriel prefers. All the fashions are modeled after hers.”
“I see,” Adrissu said, maintaining the smile that was plastered on his face. He had not been aware of the current elf fashions, but he did not particularly care. Still, he wanted to stay in the elf’s good graces, so he would suffer through the small talk. “I am afraid I’ve been living amongst humans so long, it did not occur to me how drastically my dress might differ now.”
Caemar waved his hand, laughing. “No, no, it is more practical if nothing else. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve accidentally dipped these damned ruffle sleeves into my tea. I’ve had to stop wearing white shirts for all the stains.”
Despite himself, Adrissu chuckled. “Thank you for taking the time to come see me.”
Caemar sat down across from him and poured himself a glass of wine from the bottle on the table. “It’s no trouble at all. I’m glad to meet you. The research I did was very interesting, but never really went anywhere, so I’m glad for the opportunity to discuss it with you. I’m only sorry it took so long for me to get back to you. I meant to do it sooner, but your letter got lost with some of my other belongings, so...” He shrugged, taking a sip of his wine before continuing. “You must be dedicated to still come all this way after so long, though, so I won’t bore you with any more small talk.”
This time, Adrissu’s smile felt a little more genuine. “I only found one paper about it. Is that all you wrote?”
“It is, though I did a bit of research after, which was never published.”
“Please, tell me. I’ve been curious about your work all these years.”
“Yes, well, as I’m sure you know, I was involved in some theoretical work of housing souls separately from their bodies as a means of stasis. When I wrote that dissertation, it was purely theoretical.” He leaned closer to Adrissu, lowering his voice in a conspiratorial tone. “However, we were able to get in a few decent experiments before moving on.”
Adrissu’s heart leapt. This could very well be exactly what he was looking for. He reached for his bag, fishing out parchment and a quill to take notes. “What sorts of experiments?”
“Now, of course, we did not use any elves for this purpose,” Caemar said quickly, raising a placating hand—not that Adrissu cared. “What we were studying already bordered on what the priests would declare immoral, and none of us wanted to have to deal with that. So we did experiments on animals. We purchased some livestock from local farmers, pigs and goats mostly. We first experimented to see if our soul retrieval process was even possible, and it did work. The creatures’ souls were stored in gems that were suitable for use as magical conduits, and the bodies did not die, though they no longer had consciousness. We waited a week, put them back, and it was as if they woke up from a deep sleep. They were a little confused and tired at first, but in less than an hour they were all going about their business, the same as they always had. Their personalities and memories seemed to remain intact.”
“I’m curious how you retrieved their souls in the first place,” Adrissu said, filing away as much of the information as he could in his mind, even as he noted down the major points.
“I thought you might,” Caemar said, pulling a scroll from an inner pocket of his robe. He set it on the table in front of them without unrolling it, then pushed it toward Adrissu. “I still have the notation we used. It’s runes, mostly; a circle around the subject, the gem over their heart, a bit of force and some herbal components. Frankly, as long as the gem is suitable, it’s not an exceedingly difficult task, especially for those with particular aptitude for the arcane such as you and I.”
Adrissu’s hands itched to look at the scroll, but acting over-eager now could raise Caemar’s suspicions. “But what makes the gem suitable, then?”
“The size, and the clarity,” Caemar explained. “Since our test subjects were limited, this strays back into the theoretical, but the larger and clearer the gem, the more complex of a consciousness it can house. I think this because the pigs required larger, clearer gems than the goats, and pigs are regarded as more intelligent creatures. We also had a horse, just one. We used a diamond for it, smaller than some of the other gems, but much finer quality.”
“Size and clarity,” Adrissu murmured, frowning slightly as he wrote it down. If something as simple as a horse needed a diamond, the soul of a human or elf might need something unfathomably pristine. “And how did you put them back in?”
“Once the gem made physical contact with the empty body, it went right back,” Caemar said, shrugging. “It didn’t even require any magic on our part. I think the soul is naturally drawn to its own body, so physical contact is enough.”
