Professor Fox looked up at Nadia. "Ah. A good question,but I'm afraid it's not that simple Ms. Rey. Arithmancers simply represent magic with numbers. Thus, it may be that after discovering the properties of some ancient curse that for argument's sake adds two heads to someone. Few will know what the exact spell is, or what it's counter curse is. However, a trained Arithmancer can deduce from that and other things how to represent that spell. Then, let us say it is equal to the sum of two prime numbers that represent modern known spells, potions, runes, etc. The addition of the spells might lead to a way to by-pass the curse, not cure it.
"Hence, it depends on what you know of the original spells, what you know of modern spells, what you know of numbers, and what you know of Arithmancy. As Ms. Arbon said in an earlier lesson, there is no set way to bypass or break a curse. It is a matter of being able to figure out clever methods to do it. There is no set way to break curses. And there is no way to do it based on Arithmancy alone. Indeed, there is no Arithmancy witout your other subejcts. But without knowing Arithmancy and Arithmantic properties of numbers, one would never be able to understand ancient spells in a practical way.
"Lastly, there is no such thing as a negative spell. Numbers only represent properties, and the four basic arithmetic operations represent ways to combine said properties. Any other questions?"
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