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Wizard Policant's statue stands in the main courtyard of the Wizards University, dressed in academic robes and pointy shoes.  He stands on a large square plinth, and it becomes the meeting and lounging place for the group of first-year students, including Griffin Elda, Ruskin the dwarf, Claudia, Olga, Felim ben Felim, and Prince Lukin.

He was obviously someone important in his time at the University, but it isn't until Wizard Derk comes to visit his daughter Elda that they begin to realize some of what made him important.  Derk recommends they go to the library and read works on magic theory by some of the older magic authors, including Policant's Philosophy of Magic.

When they do so, and begin reading him, they find it opening their eyes to all sorts of possibilities of magic and the magical arts, and it lights a fire in them.  This and other books of the time are responsible for this group of first-year students being some of the most innovative and skilled young wizards of their generation.

Just a Slight Accident[]

This novel includes a number of invasions by various individuals, magical or otherwise, who have a beef with one of the students or teachers or just a random family visitor.  During one such invasion, the statue of Policant is knocked over, broken off just above the feet.  The body of the statue is knocked down to lie on the ground.

After things quiet down, one of the first-years hears a voice from the ground that turns out to be from the statue, asking to be restored to his plinth, because it's not comfortable being separated from his feet.  Elda and Ruskin mainly, with the help of the others, do so, and after it is lowered into place, the sections knit together perfectly.  No one can quite understand why the statue was able to talk.

Eventually[]

By the end of the book, the wizard's statue has become a key piece in the complicated puzzle of how things are resolved in a very satisfactory way.  And by that time, no one doubts how special Wizard Policant actually was.

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