Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Arcane Ascension, #1)

by Andrew Rowe

Spike traps are not my friends. Spike traps are the enemy. I will avoid them at all costs.

And I’d ask the goddess to give my brother back. It was the only way to bring my family back together.

That is so sad. But at 17 shouldn't he know people don't work that way? Then again he could be clinging to a determination created when bro didn't make it back.

Sane people kept their groups to a half dozen or so, though. The tower punished anything it saw as a threat, and everyone knew the stories about what had happened when it did. The Kingdom of Feria had once tried to invade the fifth tower. It was nothing but dust and ruins, now.

Father probably expected me to fight back, to compete, to try to prove myself... and for Sera to have to try harder to measure up to that. He’d never understood. His approval had stopped being important to me the moment he’d written his elder son off as dead.

Honestly I'd just want to exchange that waste of space for the brother. Or maybe that is who he considered family .... Mom and Tristan?

I’d always thought “die” would have more symmetry in the last line, but when I’d brought it up to my parents, they’d accused me of being needlessly fatalistic.

Tashday, the first day of classes. I hadn’t been murdered in the middle of the night. Success! I didn’t feel that successful, though. I felt exhausted, cranky, and a little bit numb.

I didn’t even have a chance to groan before she’d put down her plate and sat down. It was too early for me to interact with the living, and in spite of my general fondness for Sera, she still was another entity and thus a toll on my exhausted mind.

Undoubtedly from training with the dueling cane. Thanks, Dad. Really great parenting there.

Of my students, more than half fail to take this basic precaution, because people are terrible, stupid, and also lazy.” She folded her arms, leaning against the table. “I mention this lesson every year, and every year, I am disappointed. Nevertheless, in my weakness, I retain some hope that this class will be the one class to finally demonstrate a degree of basic competence. I look forward to being disappointed once again.”

oi pessimist or realist?

“No,” he countered, “you owe me two.” He pointed upward. “One is for the repair of my floor.”

Of course, I hadn’t anticipated a firearm being discharged — how novel! — and the guards already did investigate the scene.” She gave me a pointed look.

Oh, talking to people. That’s a thing I should do again sometime.

I relate far to much to this and for even less reasons.

Mages, unsurprisingly, loved researching new and exciting ways to explode things just as much as anyone else. I

“I heard about that. I don’t approve of Orden’s antics, but she is funny, at least. That’s better than I can say for most of our staff.”

I liked her hair, fine and bright yellow, like corn. But I’d never been interested in people like that. I’d expected that to change as I’d gotten older, but those much-vaunted pubescent urges just never struck me the same way they seemed to hit other people.

He accepted it, walked over to the monster, and stabbed it a dozen times. “Dead,” he pronounced, and walked back over.

It's good to be thorough .

I felt my hands quiver at the unexpected contact. I... wasn’t used to being touched in a way that didn’t involve violence, at least not in the last few years. It helped that it was Sera. I pictured when we’d held hands as children. It had been perfectly normal, even comforting, when we were little. I hadn’t associated touching with pain back then.

His Father is an asshole. Should be gelded so as to prevent him having others to torture. ><

That was my father’s philosophy, and we’d both been trained to believe it completely. I didn’t start to have my doubts until after Tristan was gone. I was grateful that Sera had never been raised with those values.

Wonder why his Mom couldn't take him too. Laws? Contract obligation?

Oh, she meant my team members. I hadn’t really processed most of them as friends yet, other than Patrick. I still wasn’t sure I could call Marissa a friend; I barely knew her. Jin was closer, but he was more of a business associate. Probably.

Sera put the back of her hand against her forehead. “I screamed in vengeful woe for my fallen comrade, summoning a storm of ice to tear into the dragon’s scales. It

My face went through several contortions before finally settling on unhappiness. I didn’t like my hand exploding. “What? Why?”

“Right, right. You know, you really look quite unwell. You probably should see a healer or something. You humans are so fond of those.” The karvensi took to the air, flying high above the writhing wyvern. “You really are quite a disappointment, wyvern. I expected better from one of the serpent’s children. But alas, few can match my own splendor.”

I do like him.

Headaches from using my attunement? I could deal with them. Existential terror at the possibility of destroying my own mind? Pretty much routine at this point. Doing paperwork for the government? Now that was brutal.

“Paralyzing fear. Nothing for you to worry about.”

It’s somewhat disconcerting to know that my lifespan is limited by your whim — and your available mana —and not feel any fear about it.

God point

Vanniv put a hand over his chest. “I don’t know what you’re implying, madam professor, but I have a strict ‘no attacking cities’ policy.”

Somehow I’d forgotten about the six-foot tall stone man with wings and impressively chiseled — possibly literally chiseled — abs. Vanniv put a hand over his chest. “Ooh, yes. I love secrets! Tell me all your secrets.”

This was both unsettling, since I’d been duped, and a little comforting in that it took away some of my feeling of guilt for my actions. Ah, the sweet power of deflecting responsibility.

After I’d picked up the bell and rod, he’d “sold” me three more items that he considered essential —

Aww

And so, with all the athleticism of a student who spends most of his time reading and enchanting, I tried to jump

uh oh

It felt something like a legendary dragon’s hoard, only the dragon was either very misguided or extremely eccentric.

Derek frowned, looking down. “That’s fine... I’ll just, uh, stand here. And protect you. Yes. That is definitely what I will be doing.”

And by “I came to the realization”, I mean Derek eventually told me, “We’re flirting, can we please have some space?” Fair enough, Derek. Fair enough. So, I, Corin Cadence, master of understanding human mating rituals, left that room to the two of them and tried not to think about that too much.

Sincerely, Mysterious Book Entity Aww, it still liked that name.

Vanniv laughed. “Goddess, you love to hear yourself talk, don’t you? I mean, I respect that — my voice is amazing — but you’re coming on a little strong with the megalomania.”