- Allius' 'shadow robes' aren't made out of his shadow [though he can certainly use those, too, as illustrated here]. He just takes shadows around him, since using his own shadow is too risky. Usually, he'd just use shadows from 'the other side'.
- Also, the robes are part protection [akin to Gaara's passive sand shield in Naruto], part remote-controlled blob of shapeless [i.e. malleable, ductile, flexible etc] darkness, and partly like the venom symbiote from spiderman [without trying to overcome the host].
- It's alluded to before that shadow magic is weak against flame in general. This is because shadows shrink away from flames [not the heat or light, just the flames themselves]. However, it doesn't really have an effect on normal shadows, aside from making them flicker.
- The reason Allius' impromptu double assault worked [noting that he was using shadow magic whilst near a significant amount of fire] is because he got his robes far enough, and he reversed the process with his arm [i.e. he didn't bind the shadows to his arm; he bound his arm to the shadows]
- The basis of 'normal' shadow magic is in 'surfaces', since normal shadows are 2d images born from an opaque object blocking the light. Making the shadows solid [mostly 3d] is the hallmark for a good shadow mage [though to get to binder status, you'd have to get to the 'other side' first]
- 'Flora magic' [taken from 'flora and fauna', or plant and animal life] is a branch of 'nature magic' [you'd prob pass with thinking of this like druidic magic or something], focusing on, well, plant matter.
- Allius' gramps knows what his grandson is. This is lampshaded when Allius starts to voice doubts [about learning flora magic] and he says "I know". Also, he lets Allius finish off the wounded deer [offscreen, since I figured you've seen too many animals die in the story already].
- Allius' gramps [no name yet... help?] is dead, otherwise there'd be two of them on the run, and you really wouldn't want a good flora mage stalking around in a forest [basically, he's dead because the author thought to make life tougher on the main character]. Thankfully, he taught his grandson some tricks.
- There's supposed to be a small explanation at the end of 1.5 about the 'shadow flames' so to speak. I edited it out because it kind of didn't fit and sounded OOC. Basically, mages are taught the shadows shrink away from flames and don't burn. In the shadow plane, shadows don't give a crap about fire, and could combust magically, eating away at anything solid [i.e. anything that can cast a discernible shadow] that it happened to be on, and you can't put it out.
- The reason the fire mage seemed a little underpowered is because he had been radiating energy to intimidate Allius. Also, he's near a freakin' big river, so you could say he was disadvantaged somewhat by 'synergies' not agreeing with him, hehehehehe.
- The water mage's assault on the bridge is patterned after a skill in dota. Torrent, IIRC. Also, it was the water mage that allowed the trio to get across the raging river without using a bridge.
- Yes, the blood mage did the same thing Sirvu did to Keisen, except he wasn't trying to kill his companion. 'Transfusion' is exactly what you think it means.
- Also, yes, Allius is going to pay in the next few chapters for calling on the shadow plane when he was so weak. The term 'binder' does mean that if you bind something to you [or bind yourself to something] that you can't handle at the moment, you will regret it sooner or later.
- Um, if you're mind is now assaulted by images of big, black, waving tentacles... I'm sorry