From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 437 The Chosen of Mistra
“Stridhaven?” Elminster lit the pipe he had tucked into his pocket with magical flames and puffed away. “Where did you hear that name?”

Although Elminster answered a question with a question, Gale had already gotten the answer she wanted from his face: "So, there really is such a magic school that recruits students in many different worlds?"

“Yes, that’s true. The world where that magic school is located is far from Forgotten Realms, and it’s said to have been founded by five dragons. And their admissions policy is biased towards the world where the campus is located. I can’t say they haven’t recruited students from other worlds, but as far as I know, the proportion of students from other worlds is very small.” Elminster and Gale walked out of the camp together, leaving behind the other adventurers who were preparing to eat and go to bed.

After receiving a positive reply from the most famous and respected errand boy in all planes, Gale's expression relaxed considerably.

Although the goddess of magic's command still troubled him, the fact that his archmage's spellcasting abilities had recovered from being suppressed by the Destruction Orb had greatly boosted his confidence. Now, the confirmation from Elminster that Ivy was mostly telling the truth meant that their adventure team would not fall apart until the threat of the Supreme God disappeared.

“Now it’s your turn to answer my question, Gale.” Elminster stood on the edge of the cliff, his beard trembling slightly in the night wind. “Where did you hear that name?”

“Oh! Because we have a professor from Strelheim in our party,” Gale said with great emotion. “He’s an alchemist, inventor, bard, and archmage. You’d never guess, but he actually countered Vyrakis’s wish spell! Even taking the Dawn Cannon from Losanda from the Dawn Monastery was his idea!”

“Verakis? Virakis, the Queen of the Githyanki?” After receiving Gale’s confirmation, Elminster’s face showed even more confusion and doubt. “Mystra never mentioned this archmage from the astral plane to me… but that shouldn’t be the case? Oh well… I shouldn’t try to guess the thoughts of a goddess of magic anyway.”

“Well then, Gale,” Elminster exhaled another puff of white smoke, “put aside your reminiscing with Varro for now, could you introduce me to this professor from Streihaven?”

“You’ve already met.” Gale glanced toward the Ironhand dwarves’ tent. “He was the first one to leave the campfire.”

“Him?” Elminster stubbed out his pipe again. “He certainly looks like a real bard, not some half-baked Varro. Well, let’s see what happens next?”

“Before that, how about you satisfy my curiosity?” Gale asked. “What’s the deal with Varro? I heard his name back in Waterdeep, and there are several books with his name in the Black Staff Academy’s library.”

“Like me, Varo has lived for a very long time. Although he calls himself a bard, he’s actually a lousy mage.” Elminster revealed a wicked smile. “But his most famous title is the compiler of tavern guides throughout Faerûn! Even Menzoberranzan adopted his rating system, giving a similar rating to all the places in the city, big and small!”

"A lousy mage? How did he live so long?" Gale asked again.

“That’s another matter, my friend!” Elminster laughed heartily. “Why don’t we wait until we’ve met your friend, and then we can talk to Varo together? Maybe you can get the answer to that question out of him with a bottle of good wine.”

Gale yawned and stretched. "Let Elminster's good reputation work its magic again! Tomorrow we'll officially enter the Cursed Lands of Shadows. You can go see Ivy yourself. Goodnight, the most famous and respected errand boy in all planes!"

“By Mystra…where is Gael, who used to cry over accidentally burning down the neighbor’s rose bush?” Elminster’s long white beard swayed from side to side as he shook his head.

He stood in the mountain night breeze for a while longer, making sure Gale had completely retreated into his tent, before shaking his head and heading towards the area with the highest concentration of divine energy in Los Santos.

Ivy was sitting on the Hill Giant's monstrous bench, fiddling with the blood of Losanda.

Although the Ironhanded Dwarves in the camp were excited to see the Dawn Cannon of Losanda, the fatigue of the journey would not let them off the hook, and unlike Ivy, they could not use the Rest spell and potions to relieve their fatigue.

So, persuaded by Ivy, they went to sleep early to prepare for their journey the next morning.

Although the sacred mace is called the Blood of Losanda, the name actually refers to the piece of amber inlaid at the junction of the handle and the mace head.

During her battle with the fallen chosen ones of the goddess of magic, Losanda shed four drops of divine blood from a scratch. She then retaliated with a single blow, obliterating Samaster completely, leaving not a trace behind.

After completing his mission, Losanda returned to his divine kingdom. His followers collected the four drops of divine blood, sealed them in amber, and preserved them as sacred artifacts in Losanda's temple.

Later, this amber containing four drops of divine blood was stolen by followers of Shar, a sworn enemy of Losanda, and kept at a post on the Chongsa River.

The pursuing paladins of Losanda then engaged the Shah followers in a fierce battle. Seeing they were outnumbered, the Shah followers who had stolen the sacred relic decided to destroy the amber and the divine blood within.

However, the followers of Shar clearly overestimated their strength. Their last attack did not destroy the divine blood and amber, but only left a deep crack on the surface of the amber.

The divine radiance of Losanda erupted from the rift, burning all the followers of Shar in the valley to ashes.

Because the amber with the crack continued to emanate Losanda's divine power, the then-Dawn Overlord judged that transporting it back to headquarters would only attract more wicked villains. He forged the cracked amber into a single piece, and the metal of the hammerhead immediately turned gold due to Losanda's divine power.

Even so, it could not obscure Losanda's brilliance; the mace continued to radiate a light as bright as the morning sun. Therefore, these Losanda devotees decided to build a monastery high in the mountains, far from human habitation, to worship the blood of Losanda.

Unfortunately, it wasn't just the followers of Losanda who preferred to live far from human habitation; a band of bandits from the Astral Plane also sought refuge there. They attacked the Dawn Monastery, killing all the monks within, not letting a single one escape. They even tortured the last Dawn Overlord to death and built their nursery beneath the ruins of the Dawn Monastery.

Even so, the Githyanki still hadn't found the whereabouts of the Holy Mace. It wasn't until many years later, when Ivy and her party arrived at the Crimson Dawn Abbey and exterminated all the Githyanki in the nursery, that the blood of Losanda saw the light of day again.

Considering that the adventure team avenged the monks of the Rosemary Monastery, Losanda should agree to let Ivy study His divine blood, right?
Even if they disagree, there's nothing they can do. The adventure team is about to enter the Shadow Curse Land of Rasven, which is Shar's territory. Although there are no longer any Shar followers there, the Shadow Curse left behind by Shar covers the area around the clock without any blind spots.

Under the cover of the Shadow Curse, tampering with Losanda's divine blood must have been done in a way that wouldn't have been known to Him, right?
After all, Shar and Losanda are mortal enemies.

If studying the blood of Losanda is considered a blasphemous act, then Shar herself should be happy to see it succeed.

So Ivy made a plan in her mind: after the research on the blood of Losanda showed initial success, she would go to the Temple of Shar to liberate the daughter of Selenne, the lesbian angel. This way, she could receive the relay protection of the two deities in turn. "The light of the Lord of Dawn is very gentle, isn't it?"

Just as Ivy was gazing at the light emanating from the Holy Mace, an old man's voice came from behind him.

If I had to say something, Ivy wouldn't want to run into Elminster, the white-gloved magician, since he coveted the Netherstone and the Crown of Karthus.

According to Gale, the orb of destruction on his chest was also a creation of Karthus. Given Mystra's attitude, she probably wouldn't want to see a mortal unrelated to her wielding such a divine artifact that she wished to destroy.

"Great Sage of Shadow Valley, aren't you asleep yet at this hour?" Ivy didn't turn around, nor did she stop playing with the mace in her hand.

“Normally, if someone is old, they don’t need much sleep.” Elminster arrived uninvited, conjuring a comfortable chair with magic and sitting opposite Ivy. “But seeing young talents like you always makes me want to come over and chat with them, hoping to gain some motivation from the youth.”

“Losander is the god of dawn, and also the god of youth and vitality.” Ivy brandished the mace in her hand, leaving a golden streak in Elminster’s vision. “How about considering converting to His faith? I think He certainly wouldn’t be stingy with a little bit of youth and vitality for the wise man of Shadow Valley.”

“Hehehe…” Maintaining the illusion of the white-bearded old mage, Elminster was not embarrassed at all, taking it as Ivy telling a harmless joke. “I am a chosen one of Mystra, and I’m afraid I’ll never have the chance to switch sides in this lifetime. But He has always favored mages like Gale. But I must say, you are much more charming than Gale.”

Who would have thought that Mystra was a magical goddess who enjoyed dating younger men?

Ivy didn't understand this goddess, so she couldn't comment on His actions. Besides, he still needed to cast spells in Faerûn; why would he want to clash with the god who represented magic in this world?
"Thank you for your compliment, but I don't think I'll stay here for long." Ivy decided to show some weakness first; he wasn't arrogant enough to think he could compete with the true god.

"Because Sturhaven is about to start school?" Elminster asked.

“Gail told you that?” Ivy nodded. “I did have that thought, but I haven’t figured out yet whether the time flow of Akavivo and Toril is the same.”

"When did you leave Akevivo?" Ilminster asked, intrigued by the question.

“It was less than half a month ago; I had just seen off a batch of graduates.” Ivy stood up and took a bottle of wine from the mediocre treasure chest. Tonight’s chat probably wouldn’t end so quickly, but it was a necessary means to increase his credibility with the Goddess of Magic. At least until he got what he wanted, Ivy wasn’t prepared to fall out with the Goddess of Magic.

"Thank you! Oh! Actually, I'm not very familiar with the education system in Strelhaven." The old mage took the wine glass from Ivy's hand, carefully brushing aside his beard to prevent it from getting stained red by the sour country wine.

“There are two semesters a year, with two-month breaks in winter and summer,” Ivy explained. “There are field training courses during the breaks. In fact, the reason I came to Ferren this time is to find a place for Stryhaven to do field training.”

This was certainly the truth, but it was merely a pretext for Ivy to leave Strelhaven for Sword Coast. The inter-institutional meeting strongly approved of Ivy's proposal, believing that it would be beneficial for students in the ivory tower to gain more experience from other universes, and thus unanimously agreed to his proposal to increase the option of field studies.

However, regarding the funding for the activities, the deans concluded that it would be a model of self-funding plus subsidies.

In other words, if students want to travel to other planes with professors during their field study, they have to pay for it themselves. Only those who are exceptionally outstanding or receive special subsidies can receive full tuition waivers or proportional subsidies.

These matters have always been the work of the Dean of Quantitative Analysis Theory and the Dean of the Judgement Order. Ivy only knew that there was such a thing, but she was not clear about the specific qualification application and terms.

Ivy's biggest gain from this proposal was obtaining some of the multiverse travel coordinates left behind by Stryhaven.

However, many worlds are in constant motion, so those worlds that fail to establish permanent dimensional portals are actually risky destinations.

Since it was heard that Ivy intended to go to Sword Coast, several headmasters have expressed their concerns and objections, especially after Defense Against the Dark Arts had been added to the course selection forms of many students.

After all, no one wants a highly anticipated course to end just because no one teaches it on the first day.

However, Ivy ignored these warnings and, after leaving a note, secretly used the interdimensional teleportation spell in his laboratory.

"Let's talk about the magic of Akavivo? How is it different from here?" After confirming Ivy's identity, Elminster was indeed most interested in this question.

“Akavievo’s magic is more primitive and purer, and because of this, it causes greater harm. It was to guide intelligent races to use magic better and more safely that the founding dragons established Stryhaven. At the same time, they also endowed this multiverse magic university with many opposing yet unified philosophical perspectives, such as order and chaos, matter and theory, growth and death… and so on.” What Ivy was most satisfied with about Stryhaven was these philosophical views.

Leaving aside how they perform in terms of specific magical effects.

The impressive-sounding name alone is enough to fool a large number of people.

Even the wise men of Shadow Valley, who have lived for thirteen centuries, have not yet gained a deep understanding of the magic university, Strelhaven.

Hearing Ivy's words, his curiosity grew even stronger.

It's important to understand that anyone who tries to teach chaos and order as a magical theme in the world of Toril will inevitably be slapped across the face by the combined forces of both sides.

"Could you elaborate on that?" Elminster took a large gulp of red wine, not even caring that his white beard was soaked. "The one about chaos and order?"

(End of this chapter)