Chapter 4: A Magical Lesson

“Listen well Rodderick, I’m sure you are aware of this, but magic is the power to exert your will on the world and change it as you see fit.”, Edeus, now standing behind Rodderick started giving him his very first lesson.

Rodderick’s heart was going crazy, he was nervous about failing Edeus’ expectations, but the excitement of learning about magic was much stronger.
“We mages do this by controlling different aspects of the world. For example, controlling wind to lift yourself off the ground or the earth to build a house.”
Rodderick nodded, with a smile on his face, but then stopped and looked at Edeus confused.
“How did you make fire then? Are there tiny fire balls everywhere you make bigger with magic?”

Edeus chuckled, “No, but not a bad guess given the information you had. You are missing a fundamental part of magic, which is how mages transform the elements of the world into another that fits their purpose, but that’s more advanced magic, don’t bother with it for now. There’s a reason we are starting with wind, the air is all around us”.

Edeus gestured, extending his arms. “Air is normally the most accessible elements for mages, and later on, the most common base of every spell, it’s an important element to master”, Edeus retracted his arms and pointed to Athena with his staff.
“But that doesn’t mean it will be easy to control, different mages have different relationships with certain elements. Some have an easier time moving water, others the earth, but given the nature of our world, it’s fundamental that you are good at using wind, Athena here is a wind mage herself”

“Demons can use magic?”, Rodderick was surprised, demons came in many forms, but most of them were physically bigger and stronger than humans, if they could use magic too, wasn’t that unfair?
“Yes they can, some are even born natural masters too, you won’t find a single harpy who isn’t a wind mage”, Edeus tone grew serious. “Humans are at a natural and biological disadvantage. This is why it’s important to master the elements ourselves.”

Rodderick gulped and looked at Athena, she was looking down on him, smiling, it was hard for him to see if she was doing it because of the praise Edeus gave her species or because she enjoyed the reality in which she was naturally stronger. If he had to guess, it was definitely the second.
His sense of security weakened, for a familiar, she didn’t look very obedient.

“Okay, I’m ready” Rodderick affirmed, trying to convince himself.
“No need, I can already tell, you are nothing special”, Athena interrupted the young boy.
“What? But I didn’t do anything!”, Rodderick refuted, how could she tell if he had no talent before trying to even cast a spell?.
“There’s no need, the wind doesn’t avoid you, but it’s not interested in you either, you are just another dull person it will blow past”
Rodderick was confused at the cryptic words the harpy used, but when he looked at Edeus taking her words seriously, he grew worried.

The old wizard brushed his long white beard. “Well, you can’t expect to find talent so easily”, he wasn’t disappointed, it was very much the answer he expected from the beginning.
“You can go now. Keep scouting for enemies, we can’t let them find Adrian before us”.
The harpy waved her powerful wings and jumped into the air, leaving a cloud of dust behind.
“Who’s Adrian?”, Rodderick asked waving the cloud of dust away.
“The reason we are here”, Edeus hesitated for a second before answering, then the wizard once again started walking. “Let’s go, we should use all the sunlight we have, we will check Dorhem town next”.
They were currently leaving Eldham, the town where Roderick lived his whole life.

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Dorhem was the neighbor town, it was one or two days away, but Rodderick had never stepped in it.
He didn’t know much about it, however he sometimes overheard the merchants who came to peddle their goods and would often bring news and rumors.

“Edeus, can I become a mage if I work hard enough?”, Rodderick asked while following behind the wizard.
He felt disappointed about the earlier test, he wanted to impress Edeus and thank him for taking him by working hard to become a wizard like him, but his hopes were immediately crushed. Still, he wouldn’t let it stop him, if he had no talent for using wind, he would just have to work twice as hard.
“Don’t worry, just because the wind doesn’t like you it doesn’t mean the other elements won’t.”

“It doesn’t like me? Is the air alive?”, Edeus and even Athena kept talking about the air as if it had a will on its own, but the air didn’t speak. It confused Rodderick to no end.
“You could say that”, Edeus stopped and turned to Rodderick.

“Listen well boy, the world is full of life, not only humans or demons, not even only animals, there’s many forces that create the foundation of the planet we live in, air is just one of those”, he buried his staff on the ground and vines and flowers spurted from the earth, kindly enveloping the staff.
“If the earth likes you, it will move at your tune without you needing to drag it around, if it trusts you, it will lose its form and take a new one when you ask it without resisting. Does that make sense to you?”
Rodderick pondered hard, he pictured an invisible person made of wind and another one made of mud, one hugging the other, forming a ball that made the planet.
“I think? How can I make the wind like me? Do I give him a gift?”

Edeus chuckled, gently removing his staff from the vines that enveloped it.
“That’s right kid, you got the right idea, however, the elements care not for material things, but how you live your life. The wind takes a liking to playful beings, people who are free of shackles and live their life based on whims, you will see that those kind of people are often good at mastering the wind element.”
“In the demon side you can find species and cultures accepted by an element, take harpies for example, nomads who live in the sky and hunt when they get hungry, do you see why the wind is fond of them?”
Rodderick nodded with a smile on his face, he could hardly believe it, but he was really learning about magic, it was a dream come to life.

“Also, hardheaded idiots who are temperamental and disregard their own safety are usually talented with fire magic”, Edeus said nodding on the direction of Ember who was walking in circles with her hands on the back of her head.

“Are you one of those? You made those incredibly hot fireballs”
Ember fell to the ground laughing while lifting her legs on the ground.
“No! I’m just an incredibly talented wizard! Listen, these are just guidelines, they aren’t always true!”, Edeus lost his cool before checking himself and going back to his reserved attitude.
“Ehem. Anyways, let’s go, we need to reach Dorhem before night falls. We can camp in a few hours to eat something and we can dine in the town after we arrive.”, Edeus turned around and walked off, leading the group.
Rodderick followed, with a big smile on his face. He wasn’t able to achieve anything today, but for some reason, he was truly happy.

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