Chapter 69.

PART 1.

“Now, we’ve previously learned about wards and enchantment; but I haven’t taught you about them in deep detail yet.” Said Zeko. They are in the garden, where Hatori is receiving his daily lectures after his morning physical workout.

“Wards essentially are magical spells, laid across a large area. They are often used for securing the perimeter using methods like directly harming or attacking the intruder, hiding the area in question from sight, or any other means of observation.” Said Zeko, while etching a rune on the ground.

“Of course, it should be obvious to you that runes play a heavy role in the wards.” With the touch of a finger, Zeko supplies power to the rune in the ground, where Hatori feels something has happened.

But what, he couldn’t say exactly. “Noticed that, haven’t you?” Said Zeko after watching Hatori’s reaction. “Wards can be sensed. Mages do train to detect them, but given the magic-sensing training you’ve gone through, it’ll be easier for you to pick up. Of course, there are ways to hide the magic of a ward, making it hard to make sense. But it is impossible to construct a ward that cannot be sensed. It is like fire. When you burn something, you produce smoke and light. There’s no way to hide it. wards are the same way.”

“Now, enchantments are similar to wards, but they are a little bit different than wards.” Said Zeko, bringing out a twig. “For example, wards always need an anchor. That is where all the spells are laid. You can even have multiple anchors, but usually, for maximum power and reliability, one single anchor is used.” Zeko shook his head. He should remain on point. no need to confuse his apprentice.

“Getting back to the enchantments, they can be put on a small object, without the use of the runes. As a result, they erode faster than wards. But there are ways to permanently enchant an object.” Zeko runs his finger on the twig in his hand, and Hatori senses his magic at work, doing something with the twig, covering it completely.

“Now, I’ve enchanted this twig to resist fire. Try burning it with your fireball.” Said Zeko.

“You should put it down.” Said Hatori, fireball ready in his hand.

Silently applauding for not reaching for his Foci, Zeko laughed. “Boy, you are very far from hitting me or harming me. Now, do as I say.”

“As you wish.” Hatori throws the fireball at the twig in Zeko’s hand.

The flames did not go anywhere near Zeko’s clothes. They touched his fingers, which were holding the piece of wood, and splashed away like water, leaving the twig unharmed. Hatori tries to overwhelm whatever protection Zeko has imparted to the wood, but he fails to burn it.

“Do you need to power it constantly?” asked after a few seconds of silence.

“No.” Zeko puts the twig on the ground. “Now, try again.”

Despite his tries, Hatori fails to light the twig on fire. “You won’t be able to burn that wood as long as my enchantment is intact.” Said Zeko, picking up the twig.

“Is it hot?” asked Hatori.

“Not at all. Remember, protection from fire. Meaning it cannot get hotter than room temperature.” Said Zeko, handing the twig to Hatori.

He lops his fireball at the twig, still in Hatori’s hands. With a startled yelp, he drops the twig on the ground, where it starts to sizzle and smoke, and catches fire. “Now, the enchantment wasn’t able to stand up to my fire element. It got overwhelmed, and the wood paid the price.”

“Now, I did say that runes are not heavily used with enchantments, but this does not mean that they are not used with enchantments at all. They are used but for some specific purposes. Take, for example, your staff. The runes carved on it are designed to channel the magic and support the enchantments which do let you use it as a foci. Trying to channel your magic through an ordinary wood will result in nothing, though sometimes it can explode.” Said Zeko.

“Explode?” asked Hatori. “How could wood explode?”

“Magic can be unpredictable. Sometimes, it displays undefined behavior.” Hatori shivers.

He is reminded of all those potholes from his programming class, where a single blunder could result in an hour-long debugging session. No wonder most eight-year-olds at his school didn’t have an interest in that class.

“Now, there are special wards, called boundary fields. But we will talk about them at some other time. for now, focus on sensing the wards and enchantments spread in this house for your practice.” Instructed Zeko.

Once Hatori is good with that, he’ll teach him how to break them. if he expresses a deeper interest in that, he can always send him to Blake’s house to get some additional training.

PART 2.

After a whole day of training, Hatori goes for a bath. This is summertime, and Zeko allows him to take a bath in the evenings after his physical workouts. Not that he ever refuses from taking a bath in the evenings; he just doesn’t like the chance of catching a cold by bathing in the evening in colder weather. He can be so fussy sometimes.

Hatori decides to go to the pool this time. The Yaksha said that he can use it whenever he wants, now that he has defeated him. So Hatori decides to take that offer. So, for the first time, he goes to the pool without an injury, just to take a normal bath. Entering the room, he finds the water spirit floating in the pool.

“Hey there, boy.” He greeted Hatori. “Here for a bath? You don’t seem injured to me.”

Removing his clothes, Hatori puts them on the side. “I’m not sure if I should do this or not. I mean, you did say this pool is for healing—”

“Just get in already.” Said Yaksha, dragging Hatori with a tendril of water and dunking him in the pool. “I never said you can’t enjoy this pool.”

Floating in the pool beside the spirit, Hatori asks him a question. “Say, is Yaksha your name?”

“What? No! That’ll be just like naming a human. I just never told you my name.” explained the spirit.

“Does Zeko know your name then?” asked Hatori.

“Yes. And he won’t tell you.” Said Yaksha.

“How did he learn your name?” asked Hatori.

The spirit goes quiet. “Well?” Hatori pokes at the watery body.

“He beat me up.” The spirit mumbles.

“What?” said Hatori, not hearing the words properly.

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“He beat the name out of me, okay?” yelled the Yaksha, not keen on sharing the experience.

He usually doesn’t mind talking about his battles, even if he loses. But the loss to Zeko was embarrassing to say the least, especially since he lost to a heavy-fire user. If this gets out, he’ll be a laughingstock among the Yaksha community worldwide.

Not realizing the state of the spirit, Hatori goes out of the pool to dry himself. “Hey, I forgot to show you this last time. but I can throw fireballs now.” Said Hatori, conjuring a fireball as an example.

“Indeed?” Said the water spirit, intrigued. Most human mages don’t master an element in their worthless lives, let alone start to use it at such a young age.

“Yeah, Zeko promised to teach me more fire spells.” Said Hatori. “I can’t wait until I can make the world burn—I mean, my enemies. I don’t want to burn the world at all.”

“Riiiiiight.” Said the water spirit. “Why don’t you try your hand at water element?”

“I mean, should I?” asked Hatori with hesitation.

“Why not? You’ve already got experience with one element. Besides, you got me, I’ll help you. You’ll master the water in no time. Then you can drown the world.” They both laugh evilly.

Assuming the lotus pose while floating on top of the water, the Yaksha begins to teach. “Now, let’s start with the difference between fire and water. Fire, at its most basic level, is just the reaction of chemicals, more specifically, the reaction of various gasses. It needs fuel to start this reaction. No fuel? No fire.”

“But I can bring up fireballs in my palm, without burning myself.” Pointed out Hatori, conjuring a fireball in his palm to punctuate his point.

“True. But you don’t realize this; this fire is using your magic as fuel.” Said the Yaksha.

“Now, moving on, unlike fire, water does not need to be conjured. It is already there, and thus, you can focus your energy on manipulating it for your purposes. However, this does not mean that you can’t create water from elemental magic. Watch this as an example.” Said Yaksha.

A stream of water comes from the side of the gate to enter this room, a completely dry place. “Also notice, water can be just as destructive as fire. It has a different style, though.”

“Tsunamis,” muttered Hatori.

“Exactly. Now, try to sense the water of this pool. It is already quite magical (heh) due to my presence, so it should be easy. Once you get this down, then we can start on moving the water, without physically splashing it.”

PART 3.

Zeko told Hatori that he must leave on a trip. “But my friends are coming here.” He reminds him.

“Not to worry kid. Shyam will be here to watch over you.” Said Zeko. “Now, don’t torment him; this trip will take a while. okay?”

“Do you think I can torment anyone?” asked Hatori with an innocent face.

“Yes.” Said Zeko, without even thinking about it.

Shyam Durve is the father of Nandan, and Hatori knows that he will be better than any babysitter Zeko could hire. The best part about him is that he leaves them alone, though Hatori does not doubt that he is keeping an eye on them.

His friends are not worried about security, since not once have they been menaced in Zeko’s house. Though, as always, it is disconcerting to see Hatori get attacked, especially since now elemental magic is involved, and wards are being used. They may not be the target, but they can’t help but think that one of them will be caught in the crossfire one day.

“And I searched everywhere, but I didn’t find anything.” Said Josh.

They are currently relaxing in Hatori’s room after dinner, while Mr. Durve has gone to sleep. Josh is telling them about how he searched for books about elemental magic books in his library but did not find any.

“I think they are protected.” Said Hatori. “Maybe hide them behind some wards, and the kids won’t find them.”

“Maybe.” Said Josh. “Though I’m sure the castle has those books, and they are not hidden either.”

“Excellent.” Said Raven. “Then we’ll start on it when we get back to the castle.”

“In the meantime, I can teach you about the fociless magic. What do you say?” asked Hatori.

“Sure.” They all nod. “But before that, I need my beauty sleep.” Said Shin, making them laugh.

The next morning, he starts to teach them the basics of fociless magic. “Now, the important thing is to remember that fociless magic requires concentration. So, you will have to meditate, a lot.” Said Hatori with an evil grin, already imagining the sour faces of his friends.

“Aside from the torment, this is necessary to make closer contact with your magic, and not let some third party, like a foci, for example, do the dealing between you and your magic.” He is proud of that example. Hatori has come up with that example on the spot.

“I think I remember reading about this once.” Said James. “Isn’t it about the practice of meditating, until you find the stream, which symbolizes the magic within you?”

“I found the ocean.” Said Hatori, shocking them badly.

“No way,” said Josh.

“I did, complete with gull sounds, and sand.” Said Hatori.

“Whatever.” Said Shin. “I’m sure I can find an entire planet.”

“Yeah, at least learn to focus first.” Said Hattori, and they all start to meditate, while Hatori does his practice of launching fireballs.

Good thing that the entire garden is enchanted with protection against fire. There would be a problem otherwise. Meditating on fire is no fun, in the personal experience of this narrator.

PART 4.

It is a normal day in the court, when suddenly, a completely unknown mage walks in, followed by the soldiers of the king. “Halt! You will be dealt with lethally if you do not stop now.”

“Porus, the king of Subcontinent, I Bhavar, archmage, challenge you for your throne.” Said the mage. His declaration stopped the soldiers in their tracks.

A challenge for the throne means that things are out of their hands now. “I accept.” Said Porus. “We will meet one week from now, in the royal arena.” Said Porus.

Porus has the option to decide the time and place since he is the one who is getting challenged. ‘It is way too convenient. My son decides to come back, and this challenge. Could they be related?’ wonders the king.

As for the challenger, he is not worried about him in the slightest. He might call himself an archmage, but there are only three of them in this country at this time. No other mage has proven himself or herself so far to receive that rank.

(End.)