I was thinking about bardic lore, and I had a crazy thought. What if bards could cast spells similar to how thieves "cast" khri. As bardic lore increases, you get a flat reduction cast times when using the prepare verb (not target, for balance).

-1s every 75 ranks of bardic lore, so at 1750 bardic lore your prep times are practically instant for everything but rituals and targeted spells.