Role

Chapter 7

Phindarn spent the next year scouring his former mentor's collection of
books for anything which could give him a place to start.

Unfortunately, the old gnome had been much more interested in the
construction of wands than anything else; while that was great and all,
Phindarn didn't think he'd find what he was looking for there. Like quite
often in Phindarn's life, he was in fact wrong.

It was an offhand comment in one of the tomes concerning the output of a
wand. Phindarn couldn't follow the ins and outs so well just yet, something
about the material composition. He'd almost moved on to a different text
entirely when a line gave him pause.

"Student's of the barbaric disciplines practiced by the guild of
Anti-Paladins are however said to have developed a secret technique for
enhancing certain wands output independent of the above variables. A claim
this author has been unable to verify, given the violent and undisciplined
nature of most members of the guild of false magi..."

The author clearly felt strongly on the subject, for the paragraph went on
in far more excitable detail about how awful this guild of glorified thugs
was, but Phindarn was already moving on. He'd heard about this guild very
tangentially, but only in the sense that it was a discipline not practiced
in the city for reasons he'd never really had the inclination to endure a
lecture from his mother on the reasons for. If they could enhance wands
though, perhaps that could be useful? He went and looked for a book about
the guild.

"Secrets to Everlasting Life... nope, can't animate... Transcending the
Elements: how to start... I already stopped... Cleaving the Soul: a history
of Zurcon's knights... aha!"

Some hours later, Phindarn set the book down. This was incredible! If
they'd learned how to cleave the soul, could there be a secret there to
cleaving something else immaterial? Scale was still a problem of course,
but you needed somewhere to begin.

Besides...

He'd long since given up on being able to actualy use magic. That dream had
withered and died many years ago.

But this?

This might change that. This was not finesce work, but more like invocation
and necromancy had had some deformed offspring together. It was perfect for
him!

But to learn it, he'd have to leave. He could never learn it here.

So he did.