I wasn’t entirely sure how far we had traveled, but the peaks of Illumination still loomed large against the horizon. We’d been going for at least three or four hours—the last of which Mirina had been asleep.

It took her a while before she hit the first target, but once she got the hang of it, it wasn’t long before she hit five. After that we talked a little, mostly about light topics, but eventually dad came up. At the mention of his name Mirina clammed up. She must’ve realized he was gone, but she still wasn’t ready to talk about it. That was when she curled up and softly cried herself to sleep. I didn’t know what to say so I just sat beside her and stroked her back. Then, once she was asleep, I laid down and stared at the clouds while I tried to sort through my thoughts.

The convoy came to a stop in a sparsely wooded area, before reaching the beast plains.

General Ivor amplified his voice, so that he could be heard clearly across the convoy. “Everyone please exit the wagons and wait for further instruction.” Everyone did as the General said, following instructions like a well trained army.

I woke Mirina and we stood with the two drivers beside the cart.

Several elves, the stronger mages of the bunch, made their way towards him in a large open area while the rest began unhooking the animals from their carts. Within a few moments, the mages were at work building temporary houses.

They weren’t the typical woven branch homes that I was expecting, instead these were quickly made earthen domes. They looked as if someone had hollowed out a hill, leaving one side of it completely open. The team of mages went in rows lifting up the ground to form these hood-like dwellings. Once they’d got through three rows of ten houses, the general shouted again. “Begin.”

I wasn’t exactly sure what we were to begin, but it seemed like everyone else knew exactly what to do. I didn’t hear one single complaint as the elves broke into groups and dutifully started their tasks.

I couldn’t say exactly how many elves there were, but it was at least a thousand and even the children did their part. Those too young or too old to help were moved out of the way if they couldn’t move on their own and everyone else began unloading the carts.

Mirina tugged at my shirt. “Sam, I’m supposed to help mark houses so everyone knows where to go when the work is done.” She held up a collection of wooden stencils. “Can you help me?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

As others were pulling furs from the wagons and fixing them over the open side of each hill house, my sister held her stencil to the grassy side of a house and pushed mana into it.

At first I hadn’t noticed the small mana crystals set in the wood, but when Mirina activated the first one I realized that these weren’t stencils at all. Mana flowed through the crystal then the wood fused with the hillside. The grass inside the cut out symbol died and fell away from the hill making it easy to see.

There were two for each house so it would be easy to identify from almost any direction.

“Does it matter which house they go on?” I asked, taking a stack from beside her?

“Nope, someone else is doing the special ones,” She answered. “But, don’t put them on the outside. Those don’t get a sign.”

I nodded.

It was odd seeing her so well behaved and responsible. As I thought about her actions and behavior leaving Sunder, I wondered what things were like for her when she fled Faerelle with Silvia. It couldn’t have been easy, and I imagine she wasn’t eager to go back on the road again.

With everyone helping, the camp was set up in under an hour. After the work was done, I saw my sister back to our mother. Then, after learning that Lumia had been sent to scout, I broke away from the group to practice with Stylnyx.

There were small groupings of trees and shrubbery all around the camp. To the north, large outcroppings of rock erupted from the ground like small mountains breaking up the fields, and there was a shallow lake on the east side of the camp.

I went north and found a spot between three rocky peaks that stuck up, like a beast’s claw, from the earth. There wasn’t much in the area, just some young trees and small bushes.

I reached for the hilt, but without touching it, I pulled the sword from its sheath and held it in front of me. I couldn’t help gesturing as if I was actually holding the sword; it was a habit I needed to break. One of the main benefits of learning how to wield my sword with my mind was unpredictability. If I couldn’t stop moving my body accordingly then my motions would still give away my strikes and all this effort would be pointless. For now though I needed to work on just controlling the sword.

Pushing away from myself, I moved the blade forward until it was roughly ten feet away from me. Then I practiced bringing it down in a cutting motion. After a few repetitions I realized just cutting air was probably too easy. If I ever actually had to cut something this way, there’d be resistance—not like cutting through air.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Some shrubs and a few young trees near one of the towering rocks caught my eye. The trees were thin and stout, but I figured they’d be good enough.

Imagining them as a group of swordsmen, I charged forward. My sword flew like a missile at the one on the left, spinning through a branch and decapitating the imagined enemy. With my left hand, I launched a fireball at the tree on the right.

The tree went up in flames, but my concentration on the sword wavered and it dropped out of the air.

I called the blade back to my hand. “Any advice?” I asked, knowing that Stylnyx could hear me.

I felt the shadow reach out from the sword, trying to connect with my mind. He wasn’t forceful like before, but it still felt strange hearing his voice in my head. “You’re moving too fast. You need to get used to just using the sword before you try to add other magic. It has to be like second nature to you before you’ll be able to focus on anything else while using telekinesis. Besides, I’m sure you agree those trees are too small for this method to be useful.”

I sighed in frustration.

I wasn’t sure if Stylnyx understood my feelings. So far everything I had learned about magic came easily to me. I could relate it to things I’d read about or learned on earth and it seemed less like I was learning something new and more like remembering an old skill. Telekinesis was different. For one thing I didn’t have any experiences that directly related. It was also different from other magic.

Instead of releasing control once the mana left my body, I had to maintain control, kind of like the tether when using siphon. Even that was different though. With telekinesis it was more like having an invisible limb that could move in any way I wanted it to. It had no limits that I knew of and wasn’t affected by things like resistance, friction, pain, or anything sensory related. In a way I could feel the object I was holding, but it wasn’t the same as actually holding something. Everything felt weightless, though I had learned lifting heavy objects would drain my mana faster.

As if he knew what I was feeling, Stylnyx added, “It took Kinzla three years of dedicated practice to master the basics. Although, he didn’t have anyone giving him pointers or helping him realize his talents.”

Throwing the blade, I roared, “I don’t have three years. Sizal or Kinzla could show up any minute and it would take every trick we have just to escape. But if they come together, our only hope would be Sizal getting bored.”

The green blade clanged against the rocks.

Softly, Stylnyx spoke in my head. “I’m confident that you won’t need that long, but you do need more patience.”

Taking a deep breath, I mentally groped for the sword. Lifting it, I immediately sent it cutting in a wide arc around the trees before pulling it back toward them.

“You’re getting better, but I hope you aren’t neglecting your swordsmanship.” Silvia said as she came up behind me.

I lost focus for an instant and instead of slicing through, the sword hit a branch sideways and bounced up into the air, spinning wildly, before falling to the ground and planting its blade in the soil.

Calling the weapon back to my hand, I answered, “No, at this rate it’ll be a while before I can reliably use telekinesis in battle.” The sword flew right into my hand and I turned to face Silvia. “Even once I master this, it would be quite difficult to use in close combat.”

Melinda was with her, but Mirina wasn’t. I figure she must’ve been playing with some of the other kids somewhere.

“Silv, have patience. If you push yourself too hard you’ll only slow your progress.” Silvia said with a gentle smile.

Melinda added, “It’s already impressive how comfortably you can use different elements. I’ve only met one other mage that switches up spells as easily as you do.”

Silvia nodded in agreement. “She’s right, I’ve never known anyone that uses so many different kinds of magic.”

“Thanks, It’s just—” I locked eyes with Silvia. “—do you remember what dad asked me, the day before the fair?”

“About the kind of world you’d want to go to?”

“Yea, I wanted some place where I could live in peace. When we first came here, I was worried things would turn out badly. I thought my life had just become like one of the novels I used to read. I was mentally preparing for the worst, but just when I started to relax everything went to hell. I got so focused on winning the proving thinking it was necessary to convince Lord Andhrei…” I rolled my eyes. “…that asshole never intended to acknowledge me. Then Faerelle, dad and mom—I mean my other mom, Riona. I guess what I’m saying is, if I don’t get stronger fast, I’m afraid I’ll just keep losing things and people that are important to me.”

Silvia’s lip twitched slightly at the mention of Vorlin. There was sadness in her eyes, but somehow she seemed to be moving on without letting it affect her. Not only that, but she was managing the burdens of our people and taking care of Mirina as well.

“Then use that as motivation,” Melinda said, “but don’t delude yourself into thinking you can master new skills in a day. Definitely not something as complex as telekinesis.”

Silvia added, “She’s right, Silv. You can’t force this, and you don’t have to do everything alone either. Actually, that’s why we’re here. I’ve never taught anyone telekinesis, but there’s always some similarities in different forms of magic; I’m sure I can find some way to help you.”

“I mostly came to check on your progress, but I’m happy to help however I can,” Melinda said with a smile.

“Excellent. Then let’s try this…” at first I wasn’t sure if they could hear Stylnyx, but when Silvia jerked into a casting stance and scanned around, I knew she could. Seeing as Melinda didn’t react, I figured she must have spoken to him before. “…the elf will spar with your flying sword and Melinda will try her best to distract you. If the sword hits the ground, you have to do whatever she says for a day.”

“That’s not a bad idea.” Silvia said.

“Yes it is!” I declared. “I’m bound to fail, and in case you hadn’t noticed, Melinda is bent on getting Lumia to kill me.”

Melinda’s smile widened. “I won’t make you do anything that would rile the dragon, I promise.” She finished with a look of sheer joy. As Silvia drew her sword.

“It looks like everyone is ready, so let’s get started,” Stylnyx said. Clearly I had no say.