“Oh, it worked,” Quint said, somewhat disappointed that Pozella hadn’t shown him the possibility that Gaglio just did.
“Not good enough?”
Quint sighed. “Does that count as a different string?”
Gaglio shrugged. “I’m not sure, but does it matter if it worked?”
“Not really. How good is that edge?” Quint asked.
Gaglio picked up a fallen leave, slid it along the blade, and it parted easily. “Sharp enough?”
“That works on anything?”
“It won’t make a dull soldier sharp if that is what you mean,” Gaglio said.
Quint laughed. “I suppose not. But it will sharpen an edge?”
“I know this thread. Only if there was an edge before, it consumes a bit of magic, if you didn’t notice.”
“I wasn’t paying attention,” Quint said.
“You’d be out of magic after a lot of sharpenings.”
Quint nodded. “I do know that you have to conserve your strength. It’s a limitation.”
“Get more sunlight. It’s the fastest way to recover, but you see what I mean? We can go over your spells and see what we can do to expand their usefulness. You know how to modulate your magic?”
“Something I’m good at, I think,” Quint said.
“Then, when we must sharpen weapons, one of our company’s duties, you can determine the minimum magic to use. From a practical point of view, wizards waste a lot of their power by applying too much magic,” Gaglio said. “I’m a specialist because I was able to figure it out. Not all wizards do. Master Pozella didn’t have time for any of that during your training, I suppose.”
“We concentrated on maximizing the number of strings I could learn.”
“If you are a Level 3, then he did the right thing. I didn’t expect you to sharpen the knife on your first try. You must be excellent at visualizing.”
“Perhaps another talent that I have,” Quint said. “What other strings will work?”
“Let’s go back and list your strings, and then we can do some thinking. Most strings aren’t as easy as the sharpening one.”
They spent an hour working on Quint’s list of spells and went through half of them.
“Some of our applications may require different approaches,” Gaglio said.
“I’d like to understand better what I can do before I have to return to Bocarre.”
“A change of subject. Do you have any personal enemies at the division headquarters?” Gaglio asked. “The Marshal had specific orders for you to be assigned to a support unit. The order suggested the horse groomer company. Chiglio did some checking and put you with the logistic company.”
“Wagon drivers,” Quint said.
“And odd jobs when we aren’t driving, like sharpening weapons,” Gaglio said.
“There is a lieutenant, Amaria Baltacco. She gave me a tour of Bocarre before my final assessment.”
“Baltacco? Any relation to General Baltacco, the head of the Wizard Corps Military Arm? His responsibilities don’t include your strategic division, but he is very influential.”
“Her father is a prominent member of the wizard corps, but she gave me a false name. I found out her real one when I met with the commander of the Strategic Operations.”
“I heard she is somewhat willful,” Gaglio said with a smile.
“I know what you mean. I think she was responsible for my being assigned to division headquarters as a servant and then convinced her father to put me into the field.”
“If I were managing a very young Level 3, I’d put him with the wizard corps soldiers to learn how to fight. You may be right, but don’t tell anyone I said so,” Gaglio said. “It isn’t healthy to express yourself too freely in the corps.”
“I was a little too free with my tongue when she took me around Bocarre. Maybe if she wore her uniform, I might have been more circumspect, but,” Quint thought for a minute, “probably not.”
Chapter Nin
e
After ten days of inactivity, Gaglio had gone through Quint’s strings. Quint learned three new strings. Gaglio tried, but he couldn’t do many of the strings on Quint’s list. Gaglio added to Master Pozella’s teachings of using power and the difference between power intensity and making weaves more precise. Even after Gaglio's instruction, Quint realized how much he didn’t know about magic.
A fellow company member put his head in their tent. “Sergeant is gathering the company at the wagons.”
Quint walked with the slower Gaglio on the way to the gathering point.
