From publisher blurb: Eldregan grew up in the heart of the Great Western Empire, a sickly boy born into an ancient noble family. From an early age, he showed a talent for book learning, and little else, so his family pushed him to enter the Imperial College of Wizardry as early as possible. He was thrust into a world of petty rivalries and bureaucratic conspiracies while still an impressionable youth, and tasked with mastering a host of dangerous spells. Seeing his peers burn out dramatically — and sometimes literally — made him cautious and hardworking, and yet he did not escape those early days at college unscathed. When he spent too much time “helping” his fellow students with their lab work, in order to be accepted, the close contact with alchemicals accentuated the deformities he was born with to comical proportions. Instead of gratitude, his peers only increased their bullying, leaving Eldregan with deep psychological scars.