Chapter 20.

PART 1.

This is the 12th magical month of the year 4018. The winter has arrived. Hatori is given a sweater by Zeko, a sweater which is trying to strangle him to unconsciousness by its every woolen being. Through brute force, and some liberal application of the Knockback spell, Hatori manages to extract himself from the woolen monster, just in time for Zeko to arrive at the door of his room.

Turning towards his master, Hatori remains quiet, and after a while, speaks. “I’m not wearing a sweater.”

“You will have to. You’ll freeze otherwise.” Said Zeko. Though he had to convince Hatori hard to wear the piece of clothing which just failed to strangle him, Zeko is delighted that Hatori is pushing against his authority.

Most of the time, he is very relaxed, obeys his instructions without arguments. Which makes him bored. Zeko like the students with some spirit in them.

Sullenly wearing the sweater at breakfast, Hatori manipulates light while eating breakfast. At first, he really had trouble with this magic, but now, he has gotten used to it. Though aside from reflecting the light, he hasn’t managed to do anything special with it. His focus is interrupted as his food plops in his plate from his spoon.

Hatori focuses hard on his food, giving Zeko some rest from the lightshow. He has been forcing him to eat with a spoon, since it is an excellent way of instilling control over his hands, something which can be very useful in life. Once he learns to do that with his right hand, Zeko will start him on his left hand. He suspects there will be lots of explosions of rage when that time comes.

PART 2.

After receiving a softer sweater from Zeko, since the old one is getting repaired by the house, Hatori decides it is time to explore the house. While he trains and works on his homework in the day time, Hatori has some time to wander around the property, since Zeko wants his sense of exploration to be encouraged.

During one such exploration, Hatori found the basement a month ago. However, he had to leave because Zeko was calling him. After that, he got busy with the increasingly hard homework and his recent breakthrough in light manipulation, so he didn’t have any time. But now, it is different. He has a whole two hours before Zeko starts his training at 9 in the morning.

So he decides to go to the basement, and see what’s inside.

He tip-toes inside silently. He has gotten used to moving silently since a lot of the things do react like living creatures. He could trick them and move pass them if he is careful. He has started to avoid attacks this way recently.

However, nothing attacked him when he got inside. The only thing which the basement has is some giant humming thing, according to the Radar spell.

“Ah, the student finally visits me.” speaks the giant… thing. “Let me introduce myself. I’m the central yantra, responsible for running this house. I was programmed by a rune master, and was modified later by the current owner of the house due to his paranoid tendencies.”

“I’m Hatori Eagle.” Said Hatori. He realizes what a gold mine this is. He’ll think about a talking machine later. “You are the cause of the attacks on me.”

“Hmm. advance vocabulary for a child of your age.” Noted the yantra. “It is the part of the training module, young master. If anyone is responsible, it is your teacher. I’m just following my owner’s orders.”

“Just for once, I would like to see him getting attacked.” Said Hatori while pouting.

“he has completed the module. He won’t be affected at all.” Replied Yantra.

“What about in his sleep?” persisted Hatori.

“I suspect you won’t leave this alone. Very well. I shall send the house after him tonight. Let’s see whether he has gotten rusty or not.” Hatori smiled.

Stolen story; please report.

“Boy, time for the training!” comes the voice of Zeko.

“Run along, young master.” Said the yantra. Hatori shook his head. How could two hours go so fast?

Maybe it happens when you’re planning to torment someone.

PART 3.

In the night, Hatori waits for Zeko to fall asleep. Though Zeko always knows what is going on at the edge of his awareness, for example, outside of his room, he has gotten used to Hatori. Besides, if he has the chance of getting the boy out of trouble, and then admonish him about wandering in the night, he’ll be actually happy. Not to mention, his ongoing efforts to make him push against his authority. If he remains passive like this, he won’t succeed in life. He should learn to push back, or the world would squash him.

Zeko falls asleep. Hatori’s wait is complete. The central yantra opens the door, as the walls, furniture, and even shadows come alive, and attack Zeko in his sleep. Hatori balks as he senses Zeko punching his furniture so hard that it goes flying, shredding the sheets and blankets with a burst of magic, and taking out the shadows with some fast spells. They came so fast that Hatori failed to recognize any of them, not that he knew many spells. Zeko does not approve of learning advance magic without firm foundations.

The entire event was over in under a minute. The bed got back to its old position, the furniture resets, and Zeko never woke up. He went to sleep without even realizing what had happened in his room.

Impressed with his master, Hatori walks away. He knocked a window curtain aside on his way to the room with the Knockback spell. He decides he’ll surpass Zeko one day and falls asleep. After all, he can’t surpass him with a tired body, now, can he?

PART 4: ZEKO’S LECTURE ON MAGIC, CLASSIFICATION OF MAGIC.

Next morning, Zeko just feels he has a strange dream. The boy seems unusually attentive this morning, but he supposed it happens some times. Not that Hatori is prone to ignoring him. ‘Just give few more years, and I’m sure he’ll get sick of my lectures.’ He chuckled at his thoughts.

“Today, we will talk about the classification of magic, and how it is divided into various categories and branches.” Said Zeko.

Hatori listened carefully. Realizing that Zeko might be looking for a gesture of acknowledgement, he gave a nod. Ignoring the clumsy nod, Zeko continues.

“The magic has several branches. Here are a few of them. Potions and alchemy, it deals with creations of elixirs, and interaction of chemicals and other material with magic. Next is runes. These are symbols which can have magical effects. Direct magical effects are exactly as they sound. Affecting a person or an object directly with magic. Spells, curses, and enchantments belong to this branch.”

Hatori opened his mouth. “Yes, I’m getting into what exactly spells and curses are.” Hatori closed his mouth. “Spells are something which do need a direct supply of magical energy. This is why you need to constantly cast the Radar spell, even though it affects only you. Curses are malicious in nature. For example, you can be cursed to trip at the third stair from the top. Each time you reach that stair, you will trip. The curse does not specify that you will tumble down. Though the possibility does exist. Curses have a condition to end them. For example, your curse to trip on the third stair from the top can be broken if, say, you don’t eat fried potatoes for an entire week.” Zeko chuckled at the expression of anguish on Hatori’s face.

“Enchantments don’t need a direct magical supply, though they do need to be casted at first. The stronger the mage, stronger the enchantment is. Though much like anything, they do get warn out, and often need to be recharged, or renewed again.” Said Zeko. “All the yantras you see in this house are built with some enchantments, or are enchanted by me.”

“Do keep in mind that this is not a complete explanation. But at your level, this is enough for now. Later, you’ll learn about other types of magic.” Zeko finished the explanation.

(End.)