“Let some of the water go if it is getting too difficult right now. You’ll need to practice it to get better, but for now, the size of the water droplets is more important than the amount, really.”

About half the water rained to the table, released from Allanar’s control, and he seemed to sigh in some relief. He then began splitting the water ever more finely until they were almost too small to see. Joe pushed him to go further and soon a small mist floated above his hand while sweat rolled down his face. Despite his obvious exhaustion, a massive grin split his face.

“Mist!” Allanar exclaimed with excitement.

Joe smiled, “Why do you care about mist so much? It is nice for some situations, but it isn’t exactly powerful.”

“Water is not very useful,” Joe cocked his head and raised an eyebrow and Allanar reconsidered, “Well… there is some defensive capabilities I had not thought of before, but other than…”

Joe interrupted, “Let me introduce you to the water jet.”

“Water jet?”

“Can you make a stream of water?”

Allanar nodded, “I can.”

Joe brought out a small wooden plate and set it on the edge of the table, “Please… please be careful of my hand. I do not wish to lose my fingers but shoot a stream of water at the plate.”

A dribble of water formed from nothing above the plate and simply dropped onto it.

Joe nodded, “Good, now make the water come faster.”

Allanar cocked his head, then nodded carefully. The water stream increased and began coming out as a spray.

“Make sure it doesn’t spray. Keep it in a nice straight line if you can. Maintain laminar flow.” Magic condensed around Joe with that, and then radiated outward in a shockwave encompassing everyone. Right… probably laminar… gotta get that translated right.

Allanar seemed to understand and the stream smoothed out but did not really increase that much, now nothing more than a good garden hose, if that. Joe frowned a bit then brightened, an idea coming to him.

“Pretend your water for this stream is in a pool… maybe in a perfect stone column pool. Then, think of a weight, a column, that fits perfectly into the stone column of water so that no water of any kind can escape except through this small hole you have here shooting water at the plate. Now, that weight is the weight of the mountain… no… the weight of this entire plane… the entire cradle!”

Allanar’s eyes lost focus, ideas obviously taking root within his thoughts and then it all seemed to click together. His eyes sharpened and flicked back to the water stream. Suddenly, the stream blasted, its pressure magnified massively. The stream immediately punched a hole through the bowl and it began blasting into the stone floor. Joe smiled. He then began withdrawing the wooden plate, the stream of water cutting through the plate with ease.

“Is there a metal object you are willing to allow be destroyed?”

The Matriarch had been avidly watching the water jet, a bit stunned, but then turned to look back at Joe. She took a moment to process his request but quickly nodded.

“Yes, there should… Go to the kitchen and return a metal plate immediately!” she quickly exclaimed after turning towards the various servants.

The primary maid immediately whirled and left for the kitchen, even as she offered a polite, “Yes, Matriarch.”

She was not gone long, returning with a metal plate rather quickly. She handed it forward, but the Matriarch impatiently waved a hand towards Joe, “Give it to the eccentric, now!”

Joe nodded and accepted the plate, “Thank you.”

He then turned towards Allanar, “If you can, make the weight even heavier, but watch this closely.”

Joe then took the metal plate and slowly slid it through the blasting stream. He had to work hard to keep it stable, the force coming from the stream quite extreme. He only slid it along the edge of the table such that the majority of the plate was on the table so it could bear the brunt of the force. He slid it into the stream by about an inch or two before nodding.

“Go ahead and stop the stream.”

Allanar released it with a gasp, panting with exhaustion as he turned to look at the plate. Joe smiled, then held it up and turned it so that the Matriarch and Allanar could both see the clean cut through the iron or steel plate, an almost perfect line clean cut. He then pointed to the neat hole that was now cut into the stone where the stream punched through the wood and while they had to wait for the metal plate to come.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Water is not a weak magic. And besides, I told you that you are a liquid mage, so if you could ever find some liquid poison… then what do you think would happen with a poison mist? Or maybe a sleeping potion mist? Is there a sleeping potion? Well… any liquid you can think of. Or even an oil mist that you then light on fire! That would be… deadly! Incredibly deadly.”

Allanar stared at Joe with shock, taking in the line cut through the metal plate then the ideas Joe threw out to the man, each statement an obvious memetic explosion in his mind. He sat back, collapsing into the seat and stared off into the distance. Joe smiled and glanced at the Matriarch but grew concerned when her face was more of a wary look than excitement.

“Is all well, Matriarch?”

She blinked and looked at Joe, “You seem well… trained in the ways of magic. Your claim of not knowing magic seems… suspect.”

Joe laughed, shaking his head, “What I describe is not magic. It is simply physics… uh… natural happenings in the world. If you know how the world works, anyone can do the things I described using machines or labor. Magicians… they are lucky, they can do these things without much effort.”

“You understand magic so well?!”

Joe shrugged, “If what I described to Allanar is magic, then all my people know these things… or… most know these things and can easily learn them if they wish. These are not magic, but simply the natural reality of how the world works. There is no magery to it.”

“You know water well?”

Joe shrugged, “My people use water in many ways.”

Gwenvair looked at him, an avid lust, “And wind?”

“Air?” Joe shrugged, “What do you wish to know?”

“What can you teach me of it?”

Joe shrugged, “Well, you do use it in odd ways. What is … how are ways that you use it? If I can understand some of it, then I may be able to offer insights.”

She shrugged, “It can be very powerful, as it is easy to use in any and many ways possible, but the cost of air magic is significantly higher than other magics.”

Allanar seemed to catch on to the end of it and shook his head, “You know of the reason why, Gwenvair. Wind mages are blessed with their element everywhere, but their curse is to have greater costs.”

Joe shook his head, “Are earth mages cursed similarly?”

Allanar shook his head, “No… why should they be”

“Their element is everywhere as well? Yes?” Joe asked.

Allanar seemed a bit surprise but then shook his head, “But not in the void!”

“The void between planes?” Joe clarified.

“Of course,” Allanar stated.

Joe smiled, “Neither is there any ‘wind’ in the void between planes, either.”

Allanar paused at that, thoughtful. Joe turned back to Gwenvair, “You used that wind tornado to shoot out wind blades at the goblins last time, yes?”

Gwenvair nodded, “Yes.”

“But it is expensive… mana wise? Is that what you are saying?”

“Very much so!”

Joe huffed, “Well, if magic is forcing reality to be bent a bit, I can see how that would be the case. What you are doing with wind in that spell is very… unusual. Wind does not cut like that… not easily.”

Gwenvair seemed confused, “Yes, but I… all wind mages can do this.”

Joe nodded, “But I’m sure you can force your element to do many strange things… I wouldn’t be surprised, if I were to guess, that the further from natural ability an element is pushed, the more costly the mana for forcing that element to function that way.”

Gwenvair and Allanar seemed to pause at that, thoughtful. Joe allowed them their moment then continued.

“Gwenvair, can you make a tornado… a small one… on this table here?”

Gwenvair nodded, then concentrated, the wind beginning to pick up until a small tornado danced in the center of the table. Joe nodded and picked up some small detritus and tossed it in, watching in spin up and be tossed out of the tornado.

“Does that cost much mana?”

Gwenvair quickly shook her head, “No, this seems… quite easy.”

“Yeah… I’m not surprised. Then… hm… can you trap the air around my head so that nothing can escape or come into it? Like a bubble around my head… a bit like the water mages in the beginner dungeon on the second… or is it third… the ones that put a bubble of water around your head. Imagine the same, but it is simply a bubble that does not allow any air to enter or leave!”

Gwenvair seemed a bit concerned, “May I … use another… possibly? I do not wish to harm you.”

Joe shrugged, “It shouldn’t cause any harm if you immediately release it after they black out.”

Gwenvair’s eyes boggled, “Black out?!”

Joe nodded, “Yes.”

Gwenvair quickly cast her mana out, but Joe frowned a bit when he saw the mana head to one of the servants, swirling around his head. Nothing happened for a bit, almost a minute or two, and Gwenvair began to grow concerned after only thirty seconds.

“Nothing is happening?”

Joe shook his head, “You are keeping oxygen from them. They are basically holding their breaths… similar to if one would put your head underwater. How long you can stay below water would depend on your own physical strength and ability, but most people can easily last a minute or two.”

Gwenvair didn’t seem very happy to hear that, but then suddenly the man she’d chosen began to react, gasping deeply but silently before beginning to claw at his face, throat and the air around him. Gwenvair cut off her spell with that then looked at Joe.

“What is happening?”

“You are removing his air.”

“But there is still air there. I can feel it.”

Joe nodded, “True, but the air we need is only a small portion of the air around us. So what you were doing was keeping any new air getting to his lungs. He was breathing his old air again and again, emptying it of the portion of the air he needed to survive.”

Gwenvair seemed surprised, “There is… different kinds of air?”

Joe nodded, “Yes… that… hmm. Right… maybe it’s time for a bit of atomic theory. OK. So, all matter … uh… everything that you can feel, touch, or breathe is made of small particles. There are about a hundred different kinds of these particles… although there … More may be possible but anything larger than a hundred is… very unlikely to be stable… to last very long. So these hundred particles make up all that you see and touch. With these…”

Allanar cut in at that point, “That is a poor theory! There are many times more than a hundred different kind of things.”

Joe nodded, “As I was going to say, all the things of this world are made of these particles and combine in ways to make different things. For example, iron is one of these basic particles. Also, the particle that Gwenvair blocked from the man was oxygen. This is the particle that allows our body to live and is the one that we must have or we die. It is also the particle you must have to create fire. Without this particle, you cannot have a flame. But these particles can combine to make many different things. For example, the particle we need to breathe, the same one needed for fire, combine it with the two of the smallest particles and it becomes water. These combinations can become quite large and can combine in special and unique ways. If they combine differently, they can appear to become something completely different, even if it is the same particle or particles. As an example of that, coal and diamond are made of the same particle.”