Deathcheat

Of all the spells known in the Twenty Lands, Deathcheat is the only one not fully understood.

The Highones mastered Airmove centuries ago. Lightmake capsule exports support the Deepclan Empire. But Deathcheat, no one has quite got the hang of it.

It's a Level Blue spell, first decade students can cast it, just a simple arrhythmic hand gesture and twelve spoken words. Which must be spoken so as to finish right at the millisecond of death.

And that's apparently hard to nail down. Apparently.

The alternative is that it doesn't work, and that can't be it. We're all so smart.