What It Does
A handful of the ground, raised and held. It is the cantrip of the school — the earth does not move, so the mage does it, and the handful is the first word of the argument. It trips a foot, fills a boot, or simply happens to the wrong hand at the wrong moment.
The Cost
Circle 1 · Earth · Exchange: gesture — casting time one beat. On the ladder in The Veil, the gesture rung is the price, and the meter pays the budget while the exchange pays the spell.
The Failure
The handful comes up wrong — the earth holds the shape, and the shape is the foot that was not meant to be lifted.
In Stories
The camp's first earth spell; the one a new arrival casts when the ground is the only ground there is.
The door's scale anchor is Stonewrought — the dragon casts it without thinking, which is how a reader learns the shape of the thing.