Élie is drawing circles on the floor.

He doesn't particularly expect anything to happen about it – he's a first circle teenager, working in ash so as not to waste his precious supply of silver. But since he is a first circle teenager, and his only useful defensive spell is Protection From Evil, he might as well spend the afternoon noodling. Maybe he can figure out the modifications to derive the spell Protection from Law (known, but not to him). Maybe there's a version that only works against creatures which both Lawful and Evil, but works better. He won't get anywhere working in ash, and anyway he can't test it, but he can try to fix in his mind the form of the spell he wants to cast, and how it might build itself out of those twisting lines. 

Galt needs wizards, and he might not be much of one, but there has to be some way he can make himself useful. 

Élie is drawing circles on the floor.

He doesn't particularly expect anything to happen about it – he's a first circle teenager, working in ash so as not to waste his precious supply of silver. But since he is a first circle teenager, and his only useful defensive spell is Protection From Evil, he might as well spend the afternoon noodling. Maybe he can figure out the modifications to derive the spell Protection from Law (known, but not to him). Maybe there's a version that works better against creatures which are both Lawful and Evil. He won't get anywhere working in ash, and anyway he can't test it, but he can try to fix in his mind the form of the spell he wants to cast, and how it might build itself out of those twisting lines. 

Galt needs wizards, and he might not be much of one, but there has to be some way he can make himself useful.