Wielding the Stars to Craft War (Warcraft/Starcraft)

Jaina felt some pity as she glanced at Kyle who stood at the edge of the crowd. He’d barely returned from Alterac a couple of days ago, and was immediately put through classes as if he hadn’t left. Rumors were that other students had seen him stuck in the library, cramming as much as he could to make up for missed lessons.

More rumors said that things in Alterac had gone bad, so Kyle would have little time to learn what he could before he was forced to ascend the throne. The details on these whispers were too sparse to be verified, not that Jaina was one to chase after vague gossip, but seeing how the enigmatic archmage Krasus hung in the shadows of the classrooms to observe Kyle, she could lend it some credence.

The red-robed archmage was standing at a distance from the gathered novices right now, keeping unobtrusively to the edge of the field as they demonstrated their summoning spells. Once more, Jaina felt bad for Kyle, as the class had two months to be introduced to the basics and then given guidance during practice. Who knows whether the boy had the time, or if Krasus even had that scheduled while they were in Alterac.

Realizing the risk of her thoughts straying too far, the blonde novice returned her gaze back to the ritual circle, where another student was putting the final touches to his preparations. While it was more common to simply bring forth a summoning through internal arcane channeling, the novice unfurled a scroll and began to chant. Though it had far more limitations (mana capacity and inflexible matrices in particular), casting through scrolls was still a potent and legitimate skill, especially casting as the student was now, simply uttering a single syllable instead of spending precious time to conjure an elemental.

With a single utterance, the scroll glowed and disintegrated, and water condensed before the novice, forming a bubbling puddle that grew into a shifting, quivering blob taller and wider than its summoner. The water elemental took amorphous shape, gaining vague hints of arms and a stubby head. It was a fair display of scroll inscribing, considering that the elemental was barely noticeably smaller than those summoned through conventional conjuration.

The arcane professor in charge of the class walked towards and circled around the water elemental, humming softly as she studied its magical makeup. The elf’s eyes narrowed behind mana-infused glasses before she finally addressed the summoner.

“Not bad. Not bad at all, Fenwick. Spent a whole night in building the scroll I take it?”

“Uh…”

Professor Firesong sighed. “It can’t be more than a night, otherwise you’d have corrected the mana leakage. Don’t think I didn’t notice that shoddy oversight. Hm. The elemental’s holding shape for now… No signs of instability… Passable enough. Stop pulling last-minute all-nighters and maybe we’ll see more than just a passing grade, hm?”

With the student suitably admonished, the elven mage then had both him and his elemental step aside and join Jaina’s group of successful casters. Jaina quashed the petty pride before it could form when she noted how no one could still beat the assessment she got. Her elemental flowed silently beside her, a hulking blob of water almost half as tall as herself and only dwarfed by the earth elemental a gnomish student had conjured. More importantly, the professor had praised the spellwork she used for its efficiency, noticing the changes to the spell matrix that Jaina had taken weeks to perfectly implement.

Besides, the information Kyle had surreptitiously passed along had been responsible for getting her such results, which was another reason not to feel too confident just yet. Since he had given her the scrolls, Jaina had no doubt that Kyle would be making use of the same information for himself, and he probably had more unrevealed cards hidden up his sleeve.

“Kyle Daelam. To the ritual circle, please.”

Of course, that hinged upon whether Kyle actually crammed enough to know how to safely cast a summoning spell in the first place.

Said novice stepped into the ritual circle, understandably looking a little nervous. There was a hint of apprehension from the other students, who were all aware of Kyle’s absence and the lack of practice he most likely suffered from. But considering how he previously blew up a wand of all things, everyone was preparing to be astounded or disappointed at what was to come.

Kyle glanced about, and then looked to the direction where Archmage Krasus silently stood. Jaina thought she saw an imperceptible nod be exchanged between the two before Kyle focused himself with an audible exhale.

His eyes glowed, just as it did whenever he cast his mysterious spells, but this time it was far less intense; Jaina could still make out the irises, and his brow and nose were not bathed in the light. She still couldn’t pick up any of the energy he was gathering around himself though. If not for the glowing eyes betraying his intent, it’d be easy to assume Kyle was frozen due to suffering from stage fright.

Jaina counted twelve whole seconds before something - or perhaps more accurately everything - happened. His spell took effect with startling suddenness; a loud crack of displaced air caused many novices to jump right as the space in front of Kyle was filled with gold.

It was just a bit larger than Kyle himself, a glinting, burnished gold construct shaped like a stylized ornamental eyeball, with the puzzling addition of fish-like fins. It had an iris of blue lightning, crackling almost lazily as blankly stared into space while it hovered a few feet above the ground. Jaina had never seen any construct like that before, and it was safe to say that the rest of the gawking crowd hadn’t either.

An eerie whistling sound emanated from the gilded eyeball, breaking everyone out of their staring trance.

Professor Firesong cleared her throat as she quickly regained her composure. “Err… Right. That’s an…interesting summon you’ve done, Kyle. Care…care to, uh, tell us what it is exactly you’ve summoned?”

Kyle smiled with worrying brightness as he replied. “A probe.”

Jaina almost cringed at the name he gave. Calling a floating eyeball a ‘probe’ was a bit…much, wasn’t it? It was like naming a hulking golem ‘Tiny’. Or a phoenix ‘Crispy’.

“That’s…interesting,” the elf mage went on to say, clearly at a loss as to how to proceed. “Very…interesting take on a summoning spell. Yes.”

“If I may?” a soft voice interjected, smooth yet filled with undeniable authority.

“Ah, Archmage Krasus! Please, please, feel free!”

The crowd parted for the enigmatic archmage, and he made his way towards his student in silence. Kyle for some reason braced himself, as if expecting to be reprimanded.

Jaina frowned. Did he just cast a spell he was not supposed to?

Archmage Krasus’ expression was unreadable under his hood as he regarded the hovering eyeball for a moment. “What are its capabilities?”

“Uh, not too much, I think?”

It was then Kyle’s turn to stare at the probe, and as if it picked up an unspoken command, the golden construct let out another string of unsettling noises before turning in place, and then hovering closer to him.

“First time I, uh, summoned it,” he admitted sheepishly. “But I think it’s safe to say it’s not exactly meant for the front lines?”

“Hm.” Jaina felt secondhand discomfort on Kyle’s behalf as the archmage’s gaze continued to be fixed on the probe. Eventually though, the elf spoke again.

“We will have to examine its capabilities later. For now, though, as a requirement to pass this lesson each summoned guardian should have a minimum durability. As your method of casting has made it…challenging to peer into your spellwork sustaining this probe, we will have to test your summon’s durability in a more traditional and blunt way. Would that be alright with you, Kyle?”

Kyle gave his mentor a look before shrugging and taking several steps away from his probe. Everyone else took the cue and did the same, adding more distance between them and the golden eyeball.

“Mage Firesong,” Archmage Krasus gently called, and the professor straightened as she drew out her wand. Both elves then took some steps back from the probe. Professor Firesong leveled her wand at the construct, letting loose a flurry of arcane bolts that sang like chimes as they flew towards their target. Each bolt detonated like miniature fireworks in the space before the probe, and as they did so Jaina was not alone in noticing the flickering lights of an otherwise invisible bubble around it.

“Curious,” the archmage simply said, and then extended a hand towards it. This time, a massive lance of ice shot towards the passively hovering probe. There was a shattering crack as the tip of the projectile impacted against the same empty space, and once more the invisible forcefield flickered into view. However, rather than completely negating the frozen missile, the shield gave way as raw kinetic force drove the remaining mass of the ice lance against it. There was a collective gasp as the bubble burst into a myriad of fading hexagonal patterns. The remaining two-thirds of the missile slammed into the probe with a solid clang, shunting it a good dozen feet or so away.

Despite the impressive sight, the summoned construct quickly righted itself and went about hovering obviously in place. There was a noticeable dent in the side that received the ice lance, but beyond that, like an elemental receiving non-critical damage, it seemed functional.

“Quite impressive, Kyle,” Archmage Krasus remarked, giving the novice a nod before turning to Professor Firesong. “I’d say his summoned guardian has passed the basic durability test?”

The other elf was still staring at the golden eyeball, and hurriedly blinked back to the present as she was addressed to give hurried nods. “Ah. Yes. Quite so, archmage. Structural integrity and stability remains. Well done, Kyle.”

And with that, Kyle joined Jaina’s group, his probe following. There was a second where the novices around it were startled back as the invisible bubble popped into and then winked out of view. Jaina didn’t hide her admiration at the novel spellwork; she knew that if the ice lance had been aimed at any typical summoned elemental, even a hardy alloyed earth elemental, such an attack would’ve been far more crippling. And to have the forcefield return after a relatively short time?

Kyle must be holding out on the precious nuggets of knowledge he’d been drip-feeding to Jaina all this while…

Somehow, the evaluations continued, though the awkward air lingered as eyes occasionally flickered towards Kyle and his probe. By the end of the day, there were no failures, though some novices had come very close as their summoned elementals teetered on the verge of dissipating due to poorly crafted spells. Somehow, despite the distraction the golden probe offered, Professor Firesong’s advice, along with highly valuable observations by Archmage Krasus, were attentively received by the students.

Class was about to end with final words from the professor, when a man in robes of deep violets and gold zoomed over on a floating disc. Jaina immediately felt some apprehension when she noticed how the official messenger of the Kirin Tor made a beeline straight for Kyle. Archmage Krasus likely felt the same way too, with how his stance became openly wary.

“Kyle Daelam?” The messenger didn’t wait for Kyle to complete a nod before he offered a scroll with the broken seal of Lordaeron on it. “You have an audience with notable guests.” It was rather impressive how the man managed to sound so composed while his words clearly gave away his anxiety. “If you would be so kind as to make yourself presentable according to your station as soon as convenient. Your guests await you in Master Antonidas’ study.”

It must be a very important guest, Jaina surmised. Surely King Terenas wouldn’t be visiting personally? A secondary, perhaps?

What did Kyle get up to in Alterac?

The boy blinked once before managing an absent “alright” and then turned to his mentor, who gestured with a hand to create a portal, probably straight to Kyle’s room.

“Dismiss your…probe, and see to your appearance. I’ll have a new portal to receive you near Antonidas’ study room.”

“Right, master.” Kyle’s head snapped towards the oblivious construct, and then he hesitated.

“Kyle?”

He gave the archmage a mildly embarrassed look. “Uh… I can’t dismiss the probe.”

There was a moment of collective dumbfoundedness as everyone stared at Kyle. Archmage Krasus eventually let out a soft sigh. “Have it wait in your room, then. We’ll deal with it after you’ve attended to your guests.”

“Right.” Kyle gave a quick glance to the messenger. “Uh, any idea who my guests are, or is it a surprise?”

The man leveled an unamused look at the boy before sighing out the answer. “Prince Arthas and Lord Uther Lightbringer await your pleasure.”

Jaina blinked almost at the same time as Kyle did, though she did have the sense to refrain from making the same comment as he did.

“Shit.”