"Wow! That's...so good, I didn't realize there were any grownups like that."

"I told him he should come to class and do a guest lecture since our regular teacher didn't know what she was talking about and he said not without permission so I have to ask her but he would do it if she invited him."

"That's a good idea! Then maybe the other students will believe less stupid things- Uh, if the teacher agrees, do you think she will?" 

"I don't know but I think I'll ask in front of everybody so they'll all know if she says no."

Nod. 

She checks the book to see what other kinds of magic are illegal.

Index

Ch 1: Summoning of Abyssal Demons

Ch 2: Deception with Illusions (Disguising Identity or Merchant Goods) 

Ch 3: Use of Blood Power

Ch 4: Cursed Artifacts 

Ch 5: Use of Compulsions

Ch 6: Involuntary Binding of Elemental Spirits 

What is a cursed artifact...?

The chapter explains that trap-spells - a variety of set-spell, which is a kind of spell that's laid permanently or semi-permanently on a physical focus - are an accepted use of magic in war or for border defence against hostile regions. A regular trap-spell is basically a detection ward plus a triggered spell that can set a fire, or paralyze a person nearby, et cetera. 

Cursed artifacts are items - they can be sold as magical artifacts for some other purpose, or just functional like a sword or decorative like a tapestry - which also secretly include some sort of trap-spell. Often they're made to purpose for assassinations. Sometimes they can be triggered by a mage from a distance, for example that lovely tapestry on the wall above the baron's mantlepiece could be triggered to explode violently when he's known to be sitting there having his evening nightcap. Or they can be triggered by a nearby action, like someone touching or picking them up. (Weapons triggered like this are legal in war, though there are strict rules about it; the illegal thing is specifically selling or installing such an artifact with deceptive intent, hiding its true nature.) 

"Okay, that makes sense but I kind of want to come back to this at some point to see if it has historical examples but not right now..." Note note. "Compulsions and demons and fraud and being mean to elementals is obvious."

"I read about demons in a different book about a war, they sound horrible, they just eat everything including all the magic and they're not smart enough to obey orders, even, just magic bindings." Shudder.

Ma'ar looks at the index again, flips through, stares into the distance. "...It's not illegal if you have to do Mindhealing set-commands, right?"

"No - though I guess that's probably just because we're too rare for there to be a lot of laws about us. Maybe it would be if there were lots. - also mages have more self-defense options than Mindhealers do that aren't that, if I'd already been a mage at the time I probably wouldn't have needed to that once."

He nods, thoughtfully. "I - think we're probably going to learn lots of kinds of self-defence that don't kill people or hurt them really badly, like the paralysis trap thing, and I guess that'd be better. But - if the alternative was killing someone, it...just seems way better to do a set-command? Or a compulsion. And I can't do set-commands but I could do the same thing, and - and then I'd never have to kill someone because they were trying to kill me, ever ever again..." 

"- I think one of the important things about set-commands is they're fast? Are compulsions fast?"

"It doesn't say, hmm..." He reads a bit further. 

Although any and all use of compulsions is banned in Tantara, the theory behind compulsion work is taught in schools at the highest levels, since this is necessary to remove compulsions safely and they are often used by criminal mages in bandit groups, and sometimes in wartime in other kingdoms. 

"- So they're going to teach us about it at least. Eventually. But if random bandits can do it then it can't be that hard - I bet you could do a simple one like 'stop' fast if you had practice. Except it's still illegal." He makes a face. "- Why don't they use it in the army, you could just make all the enemy soldiers stop fighting instead of killing them!" 

"...well, if it were very common maybe everybody would wind up standing there including a lot of the people who could unfreeze them, and then they'd die of thirst, especially if the civilian mages who weren't there at the time were scared to come unfreeze them in case the other side had mages doing the same thing at the same time and would stop them too. Since, look, it says they're low power, I can't set-command a whole army but a mage could compel one, or a chunk of one..."

Ma'ar considers it, seriously. "...Okay, that makes sense, it's probably a rules of engagement thing like not torturing prisoners and keeping parleys, that was in the book, that's important or - each side would just do worse and worse things." Shrug. "I don't - I still sort of wish it could be allowed in self-defense? You're allowed to carry a sword and if you kill a bandit with it because you were attacking you, you'd - get questioned by the Guard about it and all but if it really was self-defense you just get let off with a warning. Same if you're a mage and you fireball someone, I think." 

"I guess if you compel somebody you - can't just go to the Guard about it because you need a mage to check what the compulsion is, but a regular guard person can see that somebody's been stabbed or fireballed... I'm not sure that's a good enough reason though."

Nod. "I guess it's complicated. If you're making laws for a whole kingdom. I...would ask the teacher about it except she'd probably give a stupid answer again... Maybe if Lionwind does do a guest lecture I could ask how he'd do it, if he were making laws." 

"That's a good idea! He's really smart and sensible. You could also talk to him even if he doesn't wind up guest lecturing, he has, like, an office." She thinks they would get along!

Somehow going to Lionwind's office seems scarier, even if it's just to ask questions, because it's...more the sort of context where he might look at Ma'ar's mind and then decide he's evil? He probably wouldn't, because he seems like a sensible person, but...

Ma'ar tries not to look scared, though, and nods. "I think it'd be good if he said it to the whole class, so they all know his smart and sensible opinions too? But we'll see." 

"Yeah, the teacher has to let him. But I'll ask her next time we have class."

"All right." He smiles at her a little. "Thank you." 

The next time they have class, the teacher carefully sticks to very uncontroversial magic theory, but when Azabel approaches her she does consent to have her Mindhealer teacher in for a guest lecture. 

Oh good! She will inform Lionwind straight away.