I keep thinking and I see how enthusiastic is my second mom with magic, as much as my third mom is with music, but it seems weird to me that she asked such a question if I could explain?, Imagination is a big component of spells but is it really that much difference, also this juice is sort of relieving fatigue I think I cannot pinpoint it’s effect but it’s doing something, oh well let me ask.
-Mom what is this juice?
- Well darling this is made from rainbow berries, they help replenish your own internal mana, depending on how concentrated it is and with what they prepare it, it can be anything from a juice to a potion. – My mom answers the question while she is sitting on the couch of the studio.
- Oh I see – I answer
At this point I see my second mother get up from the chair she was resting on and look at me.
- Most mages imitate their masters and we know we are moving mana and I could explain to you and show you pictures of how the spell looks but that’s the limit of how much we understand the spell, yes I would love to know how your spell work and if I can replicate it. – My second mom answers me.
- Ok then I will explain, I used some very basic knowledge from earth for my spell, most basic fires require 4 things to work, a fuel source, it can be a log or a piece of coal, or some oil, it requires oxygen that is a component of the air and you can see this with the bellows of the blacksmith when they need more temperature on the forge the used bellows to pump more air and make the fire hotter, heat is needed you have to keep the fire hot or the fire will die so heat is needed, sometimes you can make a fire die if you take the heat away fast enough, most fires produce enough heat on their own so this is not something to worry, then the final component is a burning reaction of the fuel and the air to make the fire, the fire will become hot and produce heat, so I used the natural fireflies for fuel, the wind fireflies for oxygen or air, and then the red fireflies for a bit of heat and to do the principal job of burning the other 2, that way I created my fire. – I finish my explanation.
My second mother, concentrates and I see what she is trying to do and surprise she succeeds, also producing a very strong fire, I see her all excited.
- Oh yes this is great! – my second mom exclaims.
- Selene how is it? - ask my mother
- Oh Kat, it is different and in some way is better, you still need the image of the flame, Carter left that out of his explanation but that explanation about the component and how each works, if you can imagine the process on your head it reduces the cost of the magic by a hefty amount, Carter should be panting in the floor in exhaustion after his first proper spell was cast, he is still very young, but he is fine, and after using the spell with his explanation I was able to see why, if he cast like this he may be able to cast 2 or 3 times before he has to stop – answers my second mom.
- Oh that is interesting, any way we can teach it to the others? – ask my mom.
- We may need to draw some pictures on how to imagine the process but it should be doable - answer my second mom.
- I do not understand why you are making such a fuss for the explanation – I say with a lot of curiosity about why they are focusing so much on it.
- Son, like Selene said earlier, we normally have a teacher cast the spell and then the student imitate the teacher until the spell is replicated successfully, there are some helpful materials – my mom is answering me and then grabs the parchments that were in the hands of my second mom before and open them for me to see some images – like the pictures on this scrolls to help your imagination, but what we do is have the image and then call upon the mana until it works, most kids have to pump their whole mana to continue bringing mana from the plane of fire until the spell becomes successful, some fail because they do not have enough natural mana, others because they did not bring enough mana from the plane of fire.
I check the scrolls and see images of flames of different types, a campfire, a candle, torches and other kinds of fires and I can see that if one lacks imagination this could be an amazing help for it, but what they are saying is that they just accumulate mana until the spell works, it sound like such a brute force approach and why does it work?
- But how does it work if you are just adding more and more mana with just an image? – I ask because hey I’m not going to be shy when there is learning to do.
- I don’t know – answer my second mom.
I look at them and I really do not know what to say, but an idea start forming on my head, maybe in the future I may be able to do something, but at this moment my mother’s voice interrupts me.
- Carter let’s go we will leave your lesson till this point, there is a lot more to teach but it will take time.
I nod at her words and get up and go out with her, then we have lunch and in the afternoon I continue my normal routine, I do this until the next day I find a surprise when I enter my third mom class.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
- Carter, Kat told me to expand your classes, so from today onwards we will have an extra class where you will learn how to paint. – says my third mom.
I look at her and my mouth is open, and then I react, and I end up spluttering
- But what about all my other classes?
- They are fine, you do not get distracted or stop paying attention to my classes over the last 3 months I have been able to teach you as much as your brothers and sisters learned in a whole year, we can slow down your other classes or even make them shorter, or pause them completely just so that we can fit a new class here and there – my third mom says
I understood at that point, I’m eager to learn about this new world and I have an attitude of a person that is a lot older, most 4 year old would be learning very few things, like how to read and write and maybe etiquette not more than that, but me I’m learning a lot.
- Oh I see.
- You know I was in disagreement with your dad about your lessons, most 4 year olds have a hard time having this kind of classes and well he said that you could do it, and it was better for us to help you with getting this out of the way – She says and finish saying something that also left me wondering – what is your dad thinking? and why does he thinks we need to get this lessons out of the way?
Time continue to past and I continue all my different lessons that my family are giving and learning all kinds of different spells from all the 6 standard schools of magic, at the end I had extra teachers but they were some my aunts, as my father said he prefer that my lessons stay within the family and since families here are enormous, you can pretty much find anything you need if you look at the family tree hard enough, my moms and aunts have very unique discussions whenever I find a way to use the spell while using concepts from my previous life, and while some are easy to explain and they catch on quickly others are more difficult, but this is where my lessons on painting became useful, I could do images for how the process worked, making it easier for others to understand the process.
Another thing that happen to me during this time was that I started competing with my brothers and it was hilarious, Adrian and Nestor both loved to compete and they rope me to go and compete with them, we did races and all kinds of other stuff, but one day when we were running we found something that was bad.
We were running near one of the lakes, when suddenly I heard something
- (Help)
I stop and look towards my brothers
- Did you hear that?
- Oh come on its just the forest – says Nestor
- I felt some magic – says Adrian.
- Really? – Nestor looks at us with doubt in his face.
- Go towards the field and tell that something is wrong in the lake Nestor, please – Says Adrian.
Nestor do not doubt him and starts running towards the training field in the distance.
- So are we going to go look? – I ask eager
- Yeah if you want to be killed by our mothers, go ahead – says Adrian while keeping me there - no we are staying here, and tell me what did you hear?
- I heard a voice asking for help, I think – I say with a bit of doubt.
- I ask because I did not hear anything but I felt some magic, Nestor I don’t think he felt it because he has not trained all that much but since you have all affinities maybe what you heard was magic. – says Adrian.
- But then why did you not understand what it said? – I ask him
- Because maybe I do not have the right affinity to understand that pulse of magic.
Suddenly another pulse of magic comes to us, and I see a pixie flying towards us in a hurry, the poor thing is harried and hurt, I jump and evade my brother and run towards the pixie, and grab her and then I hear again by magic
- (Run a goblin infiltrated the forest, its coming)
I look at her and she has green clothing and looks like the prettiest doll, but I see that she has dirt everywhere and I can see some scratches in her arms, but even after looking at her as soon as I understood what was happening I just put her against my chest she was around 30 cm tall, and then I start running towards the training field, my brother Adrian exasperated after chasing me towards the pixie starts chasing me again towards the training field.
- What happened Carter? – I hear Adrian asking while we run.
- A goblin – I yell – it appears it attacked the pixie.
Goblins from time to time get lost and infiltrate behind the defensive line, it does happen but normally guards and hunters take care of them, this time as luck would have it this little green guy was able to get quite close to the keep by going through the forest west of the keep.
I heard a high pitched voice screaming something incoherently, and while running I look backwards and I see my first goblin on this life, a guy with eyes that are too big for the head it has and arms a bit too long with a body a bit too short, I could not see anything else with more detail and I decided to focus on continuing to run towards the training field, but less than a couple of minutes later I see my 2 older brother Albert and Desmond with one of our uncles coming towards us, and then my uncle orders them to take care of us, while he goes and confronts the goblin.
We stopped and I took a look at how my uncle was going to fight, and I focus almost as much as I would focus during my magic classes, and I can see that my uncle is using a greatsword, the goblin tries to use short sword it has, a short sword that now that I see it, it is all rusted and in fairly bad shape, my uncle does step backwards to get away from it, and does a lateral swing of his greatsword, decapitating the goblin.
For me it was mesmerizing and repulsive, I was focusing so hard that I could see some sort of light coming from both the goblin and my uncle, it was extremely faint, but I could see how this light for one second gathered around the neck of the goblin before being cut by uncle’s sword, they had different colors, and I did not know if it was magic or what it was, also after the goblin was decapitated I turned around, it was a very gory sight the neck of the goblin did not look good after being cut by a greatsword.
- Are you all right? – Uncle ask
- Yes uncle Dylan we are fine - answers Adrian.
Our uncle looks at us and asks for an explanation of what happens, after both I and my brother tell him the story, he looks at the pixie on my arms she has fainted and well I had her in a princess carry, my uncle takes her from me, and then he speaks.
- Adrian you have to be a bit faster recognizing the situation, I know you were taking care of Carter but you were a bit slow recognizing what was happening around you – my uncle says and then turns to me – and Carter I know you have not started any kind of military lessons yet, but you should have backed up your brother and be ready to not be an extra source of worry, that you recognized a pixie that needed help, its great but you should have told your brother about it, on the other hand good choice both of you, running towards the place where there are soldiers was the right choice, there will come a time when you will be able to fight but it is not yet the time.
It was a very effective technique of both criticizing our faults and praising our merits in a very fast way.
- Sorry Adrian – I say
- Don’t worry about it – he says to me.
We came back into the house and I see that my mom came towards us and pulled my uncle aside and started talking with him, in the meanwhile my older brothers went back to do whatever they were doing before, and then my mother after taking the pixie from the arms of my Uncle calls to me.
- Carter come with me this can be your first lesson on the healing arts.