Chapter 18: Chapter 15 – First Lessons, Part 3

After all that studying indoors, we find ourselves outside in a small, walled yard behind Karine’s magic shop. It’s a nice and tidy little outside space with what looks like neatly cut grass. For some reason I expected it to be a bit dark, but no. I guess they built these buildings in an angle that allows for the sun to reach the yards in the back even during the day.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

“I hope the gloves are comfortable?”

I had to take my cloak and coat off and roll up my sleeves to put them on, but that’s fine. Thankfully, there was a wooden table here I could put them on.

“They’re fine! A bit loose, but fine.”

As it turned out, they’re actually full arm length gloves that I, for whatever reason, assumed to be sleeves. In retrospect it makes sense since they have to cover my hands, too. They do look a bit silly, but I’m not going to complain. Pink and frilly. If they work as advertised, it’s good enough!

Well, sure, I’ve never seen gloves like these before.

“Better a bit too loose than too tight,” Karine says with a smile. “We wouldn’t want them breaking during lessons.”

At least I didn’t have to remove any more clothing. don’t really enjoy going around showing the seams on my body to people anyway. Like how I had been dreading that the clothing store’s clerk would want to take my measurements with my clothes off, but thankfully all they needed were loose measurements, so they just took measurements over my clothes.

“Alright, let’s start with the basics. I’m going to start by casting a basic fire spell.”

Karine snaps her fingers, and a small ball of flame appears above her hand out of thin air. Or that’s what it would look like to the casual observer. Sure, it’s not burning any conventional fuel, but I can tell that it’s slowly burning a small number of magic particles emanating from Karine. It’s such a small number that it barely seems to affect the amount of particles in and around her.

I have absolutely no idea how she did it.

“How’d you do that?”

“Oh, don’t worry, this is just a demonstration. Most people can’t start off at this level, but I do expect you to be able to cast at least this after today.”

She waves her hand and the ball dissipates. “Then again, most people start learning as children when they have less self-control.”

She places her left hand on her hip. “How most learn to cast magic is by using gestures. Some teachers like to teach people to ‘chant’ something when they do it, too, but there’s really no need. But it can help you concentrate and possibly ‘look cool’ if that’s your thing. We’re going to skip all that. It relies way too much on unconscious ”

She casually ignites the air above her right hand again. “The biggest issue with casting spells is learning how to do it without wasting too much of your mana. Mana conservation is important.”

Mana, huh? I guess such a name makes sense if you can’t literally see the particles floating about. Oh, and I bet that’s something an outworlder came up with. I think that’s a pretty common fantasy name for how much magic you have at your disposal. At least it’s not magic points or something gamey like that.

I nod while staring at the flames.

“How you actually do it is by conjuring up the image of what you want to accomplish in your mind with your mana, while considering how to reduce the amount of mana used to its bare minimum with your casting. Learning how to do this is what sets good casters apart from great ones.”

So you need to imagine what you want to cast, and you’re limited by your pool of mana and ability to manage your magic particle use? Sounds simple enough. Deceptively so, maybe.

And again, she snuffs the flames out, just like that. “In truth, no one truly casts the same spells as other people do. Everyone casts their own versions of them. It does help seeing the effects before you try to cast them yourself, though. Makes imagining the effect you want easier.”

She points her right hand at me. “Okay, based on what I’ve told you, give it a try. I want you to try to cast a small fire ball. It’ll give me an idea how much help you’ll need with the basics.”

I hold my right hand up at my chest level. Imagine a ball of fire above it.

Nothing.

But I won’t be discouraged. I never expected a casual thought of having a flaming ball of light above my hand to make it happen, just like that. Normally someone my age would’ve been learning magic for decades. Probably, anyway.

I clear my mind. Concentrate. I imagine a slow flow of magic particles starting from my body, leading to my fingertips and continuing to the space above my hand, leading to a ball of fire.

At first, nothing. Concentrate harder. After a few moments, I feel a vague tingly sensation in my chest. The glove’s crystals slowly start to light up, starting from the shoulder and leading to the hand. The process may be taking longer than I’d like, but, undeniably, something is happening.

I feel a bit excited. Anticipation is swelling inside me. It might work this time!

Finally, the crystals in my fingertips light up. At first, a few small flames appear, but they quickly die out. Still, I feel encouraged. I concentrate harder, and…

Oops.

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I find myself trying to limit the flow of magic particles into the ball of fire as it starts to grow at a dangerous pace. I see now why she mentioned mana management! Lot easier said than done, though!

For a couple of minutes, the size of the fire ball fluctuates as I try to get a feel of managing my magic particles. I don’t want to get rid of it, but I don’t want it to keep growing larger, either.

In the end I manage to bring its growth to a stop, but I can tell I’m still using way more magic particles to keep it going than Karine did. It’s weird, though. All this use of magic particles isn’t making me feel at all exhausted.

“Okay, that’s enough. Now try to extinguish it. Imagine withdrawing your mana from it.”

I nod. Just have to do what I did in reverse.

I concentrate on an image of reversing the flow of magic particles and bringing them back to my chest.

The ball flickers and starts to die down, as if deprived of its fuel, and the crystals on the glove start to grow dimmer.

The tingling feeling in my chest is growing stronger.

After a couple of minutes, the fire ball is gone and the crystals on the glove have lost their sheen.

“Alright, it seems you picked up on the basics pretty fast. Your control isn’t great and your mana management is terrible, but you did cast your first spell.”

Karine smiles, seeming happy with this result.

“But before you think you’re special here, this is normal for adults. It’s easier to get the hang of magic use in adulthood than as a child, but your risk of hurting yourself is greater, too.”

“Because your mana pool hasn’t grown to its full size yet, right?”

“Yes. When you’re a child, you’re working with a smaller mana pool, no exceptions. It helps a lot with getting creative and efficient with your casting since you can’t just think you have tons of mana to spare. But it also means you aren’t likely to accidentally burn yourself to death with an out-of-control spell.”

She sighs. “Of course, as an adult, you also already have your own views on the world, and can’t really be taught to respect magic quite the same way a child can. It can have rather unfortunate results.”

Having said that, she leads me back to the table and she sits down on a bench beside it, motioning for me to do the same on the opposite side. I pick up my clothes still on top of the table and sit down, placing the cloak and coat down beside me on the bench.

“So, what’s the plan, teacher?”

“For magic, teaching you control and management takes priority, obviously. Your ability to imagine magical effects seems to be good enough. Once those are at an acceptable level, I’ll show you more basic magical effects so you don’t have to put it purely on your imagination.”

A moment of thinking, from the looks of it. “In fact, I’d rather you’d refrain from making up your own spells for now. We don’t want you risking life and limb in vain.”

“Alright, I won’t cast spells outside our lessons for now, then.“

Karine nods. “Good. As for the earlier lesson, I’ll give you some books to read and some writing materials to take home with you, so if you have trouble with some words, either ask Avilia or write them down and have me tell you what they mean. I’d also like you to start writing a diary, just so you’d get more used to it.”

“What about the magical alphabet?”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get to that. I’d rather you had more control of your mana first, though.”

I nod.

The door to the yard opens. It’s Flore, looking rather apologetic.

“I’m sorry, but there’s someone who wants to see your guest.”

“Alright, perfect timing. Let her in.”

As Flore disappears inside the shop, Karine turns to me.

“Okay, I think we’ll end the lesson here for today.”

And with that, Avilia walks in through the door.