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[h3]Duchy of Pelgaid, secluded pond[/h3]
Inferno Mountain might be active, but supposedly it had not erupted even once since the Fire Clan first settled there centuries ago, with the magi of the clan reputedly having achieved such mastery over the flame that they could even tame and control that behemoth of a volcano. Under the prerequisite that they really could reliably prevent it from destroying their little community, given what a defensible location it was and the advantages it would lend them if they were attacked – giving them a bountiful store of incredible heat to draw on and use for their magic – Gerald would have to disagree with Jillian on the insanity of the Fire Clan. He would concur that their fascination with fire was unhealthy and dangerous, just as any kind of fanaticism was, but their choice of using Inferno Mountain seemed sensible.
Before he could explain his view on the subject to Jillian she brought up another topic, however, that was interesting enough for him to put aside his thoughts on the sanity of the flame-crazed clansmen for the time being. Orphid’s flame? A magical construct so hot as to be able to melt iron? The prospect of being able to study a spell like that was even sufficiently alluring to him that he decided against pointing out that it would not be “even” steel, since it would actually melt before pure iron would. She was certainly correct that he had not heard of the spell before, nor had he found any other references to anything related to “Orphid”.
Nor would he have been able to record the spell she was casting even if he had tried, he realized once she started invoking it, instinctively bracing himself and preparing to leap to the nearest cover he could get to, preferably as close to the pond as possible. Reckless! If any of the instructors at the academy back in Zerul City had witnessed her casting a spell like that – himself included – they would doubtlessly have taken her aside and thoroughly scolded her for endangering herself like that, not to mention everyone else. It was not what he was casting that made the breath catch in his throat, though it did surprise him to realize that the patterns she was tracing were clearly arcane, but how little effort she seemed to put into it and how halfheartedly she supplied the spell with its verbal component. No one but an absolute [I]master[/I] of arcane magic should ever be [i]that[/I] confident in one’s ability to not fail the spell and potentially have it blow up in one’s face... Especially one that required as much magical energy as he sensed was flowing into it. That much unbound energy being unleashed by an unraveling spell could probably have killed someone.

Having summoned “Orphid’s flame”, Jillian then went on to tell him more about it, among other things that this was actually the first part of the composite spell he had witnessed back in the Anaxim Forest and that the name “Orphid” apparently referred to the discoverer of the spell. Most unusual of all and what made the warlock frown in confusion, however, was the fact that it was apparently forbidden. Gerald had [I]never[/I] heard of an arcane spell being branded as forbidden unless it overlapped with necromancy or summoning magic, even though there were others even more destructive than Orphid’s flame and others capable of bending or controlling the minds of others. One would be responsible for what one did with the spells, yes, but the spells themselves were not forbidden; only magic marked for extermination was considered forbidden. He would love to know why...
She then proceeded to try to use Orphid’s flame to do [I]something[/I] to a small piece of stone, and Gerald had to bite his tongue to stop himself from chastising her for her foolishness. Not only was the entire endeavor a massive waste of her strength – strength he had stolen from Anaxim to give her and which she would need tomorrow – but it was obvious from the start that there was no way she would be able to do much to the stone, no matter how long she continued doing it; the flame simply needed to be magnitudes hotter to compensate for the rapid dissipation of heat to their environment.

Unsurprisingly Jillian’s efforts did little besides blackening the stone and scorching the surrounding area, and returned to him happy, proud, exhausted and seemingly expecting his approval of this colossal waste of their most important resources of energy and health.
[I]Don’t say what you’re thinking,[/I] he cautioned himself unnecessarily, amber eyes shifting from the still-smoking scorch on the ground to Jillian’s face. [I]Don’t get angry, don’t belittle her, don’t tell her what an idiot she is... Say something positive. No? Come on, anything will do! You’ve been silent for too long, Gerald! It doesn’t have to be positive, it just has to [/I]sound[I] positive! Say something![/I]
A good ten seconds of silence passed before Gerald cleared his throat to speak. “I’d like to record that sometime,” he told her nervously. “For my spell book, that is. It seems potentially useful.”