Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Breakthrough

 

 

Days turned into a blur as Jordan got back into his normal schedule. He still hadn’t made any progress with his abilities and it was starting to worry him. How did he expect to be able to control this ancient power? Nonetheless, he pushed through—even meditating on his own time. 

What most excited him currently was the festival that approached, it was now only weeks away and he could hardly contain his excitement. A festival full of magic? He wouldn’t dare miss it. Classes were being let out early today due to the teachers' preparations for some tournament. He’d remembered when the headmaster gave him a tour, he’d mentioned it; but it didn’t interest Jordan really.

Reaching his dorm, he immediately stripped—jumping onto his comfy bed. He would never get used to this. He pulled out some of his books from his bag, and started reading his Herbology textbook, another test was coming; this time he’d be ready. Feeling thirsty he reached—without looking—to his right, only feeling air. Glancing up from his book, he noticed the water sitting on the desk. He sighed, why did he have to get up everytime he was comfortable? He jokingly threw his hands up like a magician to call the water to him. He focused on the water bottle for less than a second, before giving up. About to get up, he noticed something. Wait—did the water just move? He could’ve sworn it moved a little. 

He waved his hand towards the bottle again; this time, truly focusing. After a few seconds, the doubt crept in. Was he just imagining things? Just before another doubtful thought could appear, he recalled a training session he had with James. He’d told him to try to picture the action in his mind, just as he did with regular spells. His eye caught something as he was picturing the bottle moving. Ok, he definitely wasn’t imagining this. The red wisp partially covered his hand, almost making him freak out and cancel the action, but he calmed down after a breath. He was in control. 

He imagined again the bottle moving towards him, slowly, the energy shifted—becoming brighter. He felt something spark inside of him when the bottle began to move closer and closer towards the edge. Excitement fulfilled his entire being as the water bottle moved throughout the air towards him. It approached closer and closer until it reached his hands. He couldn’t contain the huge grin that plastered his face. He’d actually done it. This was progress. 

For the next few hours he continued to practice. He was starting to be able to feel the energy within his body after the first round of practice. Jordan had taken periodic breaks between practicing since constantly using the ability was tiring him. Though after each round, it tired him less and less. He’d remember the first time his powers manifested, when he looked into the mirror and his eyes were red. Curiosity filled him; he walked in the restroom activating a small amount of the energy. Well… his eyes were definitely red. Interestingly, he noted that his eyes act as triggers to signal when he uses his power, no matter how small the amount is. 

He had to remember however, this was a power given to him by the being of chaos. Remembering how he felt when he lost control in the field, he knew he couldn’t afford to do that again. It felt… wrong. He wasn't dumb enough to keep going without telling the headmaster, but for now, he would enjoy himself. He continued practicing his abilities on small objects in his room, occasionally trying bigger objects; but only found that led to a huge headache. He continued to practice the rest of the night before passing out from both the exhaustion of his day, and the practice of his new-found abilities. 

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“Hmm I see… “ James scratched his beard. “Can you try it again?” His eyes met Jordans. 

Jordan nodded, looking for a good enough object for his demonstration. He knew he found the perfect one when he noticed an apple sitting on the headmaster's desk. Using what he practiced yesterday, he imagined the apple coming towards him. Slowly—though faster than the previous day—the familiar red wisps appeared around his hand; soon the apple landed in his grasp. 

The headmaster’s eyes went wide, “You weren’t kidding. You said you just found out how to do it by accident?”

Jordan shrugged, “Yeah, well… At first I was just too lazy to get up, and jokingly tried it. But I swore I saw the bottle move, so I tried it again.” 

“Interesting… our next session we’ll be trying something different.” 

Jordan could only wonder what he meant by that. He himself already had so many ideas of things to try with this power, but he also knew he had to take it at a steady pace. Still, the thrill of it all was overbearing. 

“Anyway,” James gestured. “Off you go to class, I’ll see you next week… Yes, next week—I’m going to be a bit busy for the rest of the week. By the way, this time we’ll be at the field.”

As he walked out of the office his mind thought over what the headmaster said. They would be testing what in the field? It had to be something huge, if they were going to the field. Well, he’d find out tomorrow—no use giving himself a headache over it. 

The classes flew by for Jordan: he planned to go to the market with Jason afterward. For some reason he truly expected them to be taking a car, but Jason just looked at him like he was stupid when he asked. Jordan felt his eyes budge, as Jason pulled out a modern-looking board. It had intricate designs etched inside and looked slightly deadly. 

Jason waved a hand over Jordan’s face, “Hey man, you good?”

He paled, “Yeah… yeah it’s just I was expecting like a broomstick or something.”

When Jason burst into laughter, Jordan was not impressed. He had actually thought they rode broomsticks, and he was sort of looking forward to it. Jason told him to hop on—he stared at the board carefully. He trusted his friend, but this board… not so much. After some reassurances from Jason, he finally hopped on; it was usually a one-person ride so it was a-bit tight. Despite Jason's teasing comments, Jordan held onto him for dear life as they took off.

He gradually became more comfortable with flying as the minutes passed. Something dawned on him. The fact that he had never stepped foot outside the university since he began attending it was somewhat alarming. To be fair… the school could rival a small city. He cut himself some slack. The ground beneath them turned into a blur as they flew. In truth, as the nearest town came into view, his emotions were a mix of nervousness, excitement, and a hundred other sensations. 

Woah.

The town was beyond words. He’d never seen anything like this… ever. Buildings stood largely together, twisting into various shapes and sizes—thousands of people walked around inspecting items and chatting. It was like something out of a story book. They also weren’t the only ones in the sky. People rode similar boards to the one they rode—animals of races he didn’t know held their masters circling around. They continued to fly over the crowd of people until they reached—what he assumed—some type of drop off zone where people could land their gear. 

Landing, Jason deposited his board back into his spatial bag that he strapped around his back. That would’ve once amazed Jordan, but now that was nothing in comparison. Jason asked him where he wanted to go, but with all the unique places and interesting buildings; he couldn't decide. 

Jordan drooled when they entered the closest building to them. A weapons store was an obvious guess from the glowing swords and weapons. Some weapons had stones that were embedded inside them, others had markings drawn along them. So many new things brought many new questions.

“What are those?” He pointed to the particular weapon with a glowing red stone inside of it. 

Jason turned away from the dagger he salivated at, “Oh those are runes, they allow you to store magic in them to use instead of drawing magic from yourself.”

Makes sense. “Why is it red?”

“That’s because it has a fire affinity attached to it. With enough of a certain magical affinity inside, it directly affects the hue of it.” Jordan wrinkled his nose in confusion and continued to stare dumbly at Jason. With a sigh Jason said, “Most people are born with an affinity. For example, you remember at the field the lightning strike I called?” Jordan nodded, “That's because I was born with a wind affinity. It is far easier for me to learn wind based spells rather than per say earth.” 

It finally clicked, “So that means someone with a fire affinity would have a hard time learning and mastering water spells?”

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“Yeah exactly.”

He hummed in response, that was understandable. Jordan wondered what his affinity was—he’d have to ask the headmaster. 

They made their way to another store across from the one they left. Liquid in glass bottles lined shelves. On the back of the bottles were tags that explained what they were for along with instructions. He picked up a blue glass bottle that caught his attention and turned it around. 

Speed potion tier 3

A x3 speed boost to a person's average speed. Use caution, do not drink after eating a large meal. Side effects include—but are not limited to nausea, headaches, sore throat, diarrhea, and death.

Umm… no thanks. He quickly put back the death potion. He caught up with Jason who was near the front of the store. They continued window shopping at multiple different shops. While they were heading to another store Jordan took a moment to look around. Almost every-single person he felt was different in their own way. Some had tattoos or markings etched into their skin, others wore robes with colors he didn’t know the origin too. Even vendors, who sold things along the street, had their own culture on display. It was amazing. 

Where he was from, people couldn’t really be themselves. You had to be the same boring person or always be the odd one out. He loved it here. 

Reaching the store they were heading to, Jordan gasped. It was a clothing store, but the size of a small mall. His mind hurt—the building surely wasn’t this big when he saw it from the outside. He was assured by Jason when he asked. Apparently the building was spatially enhanced, he still couldn’t wrap his head around how that worked; but he dropped it, saving himself the headache.  

They walked the different sections of clothing the store held. They occanantsly stopped, looking at some unique pieces in particular. One they stopped at, was a full on feather jacket, made from one the remains of a rare beast. He took a quick peek at the price and paled. At another part of the store, they were looking at boots - Jason had mentioned at a previous store that he needed some new boots. While Jason tried on different pairs of boots, he lingered around another part of the store.

He absentmindedly glossed over what was on display until he reached something that caught his eye. It was a black spatial bag that came with a bigger space than the usual ones at that size. He couldn’t take his eyes off of it. He wanted it—he needed it. 

“Ah yes, that one is a true beauty.” 

Jordan turned, seeing a thin man to his left. He raised an eyebrow.

“Excuse my manners,” The man held out a hand—”I’m Alex Laine, I work here.” He smiled, taking out his employee badge. 

He returned the man's handshake, “Nice to meet you, I’m Jordan Grace…” He turned back towards the display, “and I can’t seem to take my eyes off this bag.” 

Alex grinned warmly, “That bag is exquisite, I have one of my own. It has all the space I need at such a measly size.” He brought his voice down to a whisper, “Look, if a certain someone—not me of course—were to give you a discount on said bag how would you feel? Hypothetically obviously.”

He instantly caught the man's hint, smiling. Then he realized a very important fact... he was broke. His smile turned into a small frown. 

He sighed, “Look thanks for the offer.” He looked at the employee sadly, “But I don’t have any—”

“We’ll take it”

Huh? He turned around seeing Jason standing behind him, a bag in his hands. 

“I can’t get it, I don’t have any money dude.” Jordan said. 

Jason looked intently at him, “Do you want the bag?”

“Dude I just told you I can’t—”

“I didn’t ask you if you could afford it, I asked you if you wanted it.” Jason cut him off. 

Jordan gave in, “Well, yeah it’s perfect and I wouldn’t have to worry about my books or anything.”  

“Ok then that settles it,” Jason nodded towards the employee—”We’ll take it.”

He stood to the side silently as he watched him make the transaction. What did he do to deserve a friend like this? He felt himself tearing up. 

“Thank you for your purchase,” Alex—the employee—winked. “Please come by again.”

Jason walked to him, holding the bag—before he could say anything he engulfed him into a hug. Muttering a series of thanks. 

“Hey man,” Jason struggled returning the hug with the bags in his hands. “It’s no problem dude that's what friends are for right?” He grinned. 

Jordan pulled away staring at the bag he now held in his hands, it took everything not to verbally squeal in excitement. His face told everything he needed to say however. He attached his new bag to his back feeling amazing. 

Today couldn’t get any better.

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