Luke was certain his time with Laura today was coming to an end, so he was putting the finishing touches on his rabbit. It wasn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but he couldn't find any glaring issues with it, beyond lack of details. Something someone with only a few months worth of sculpting could do when given a full hour to sculpt. Something beginners would think looked perfect, but compared to what professional sculpters could do, it was still bland and flat.
It had defined eyes, though they weren't perfect. It wasn't noticeably lumpy to an outsider; though, to the artist himself, it still had its obvious flaws in consistency. Its ears were nice and similarly sized without just being straight sticks put together. He'd detailed the surface with little indents to make it look kinda furry. The nostrils, toes, and other small bits of it were defined, rather than just left as smooth limps of clay.
Overall, he was happy with it, even if he could still see where he could improve to make it look more like an actual rabbit, where his artistic skills were still less than those of a professional.
Imperfect, but still something a person who desired a clay rabbit sculpture might buy. They'd probably buy it for quite a bit more than Luke thought they would.
"Stop sculpting. Time's up. We're moving on to the second part of this lesson," Laura said.
Luke put his tools down and said, "What second part? We're usually done after an hour."
"I extended our session for today a few minutes. Today, I show you your progress. You have come quite far," she said. A closet behind her opened up to display 18 rabbit sculptures, which floated forward and to the table where his newest rabbit sculpture lie. It was moved to the side to make room for a chronological ordering of the rabbits. "Behold, your abilities."
Luke gazed upon his work. The first rabbit was rough, but not as bad as he remembered it being. Something he may have had done in a few minutes now, as a stepping stone towards a finished work. He couldn't even remember the specific issues he took with the sculpture at this moment, only seeing ways he could potentially continue the work.
The next rabbit was similar to the first, but with a few more details and a bit more smooth. He remembered feeling rushed and creating glaringly obvious marks on its surfaces where he was rushing to make the rabbit properly smooth, none of which he noticed now, 17 weeks later. He only saw a work in progress, not necessarily something to be embarrased about making as he'd originally thought of it.
On and on it went, with the rabbits slowly getting more refined and defined. The surfaces became smoother, then rough again as he began the process of learning how to put fur on the rabbit. The eyes became more and more defined, rather than just places eyes should have been. Nostrils came into existence, paws had defined toes, ears no longer just straight up and put together but lazily perked up and hanging to the sides a bit like it was coming down from high alert, fur became a feature, rather than just being a a flat rabbit.
As he took this in, he realized he forgot what he thought about his most recent rabbit, seeing it as a perfectly fine decorative piece. Heck, his last few rabbits seemed like something he could have seen on the shelf in a shop, or on the counter of a shop. Something someone would have willingly paid money to have.
"Now focus," Laura said as she recognized the emotion on Luke's face. "Capture the essence of movement, see the spellform, feel its many curves and bends." She went on to describe to Luke the spellform in great detail, exacting and evocative.
The face of his most recent creation became smushed as he listened to Laura.
"Good, you're now a spellcaster," Laura said. "Before we continue further and before you attempt magic on your own free time, I brought a few friends today. We will run magic through your body. You will feel nothing before you begin to feel a pain as if being stung by thousands of wasps. As soon as you feel that pain begin, cry out. Wew will stop."
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
A few other people walked in. Unlike Laura's yellow and black clothes that hung way too loosely on her body, they were dressed like normal people. Two women and three men.
"Uhhh, I'm not sure I want to experience that," Luke said.
"You must. If not, you would not know your magic capacity before you began casting. Attempting too large of a spell would be disastrous. 'Too large' may be as small as unlocking your house from a distance. It may be lifting this entire building. Until we perform this test, you would not know where your limit lie and would need to slowly work your way up to your limits. You will undergo this test. You will learn your limits. You will safely cast spells until your day in the arena, where you can freely go all out," Laura said before holding out her hand. "Take my hand and learn your abilities."
Luke hesitated a bit before taking her hand. For a few minutes, nothing happened before Laura rotated out and another of the mages in the room took her place. At the third person to hold his hand, he felt a sharp pain in his hand. He pulled it back and said, "Ouccccchhhh, it really is like a wasp." He shook his hand. The pain did not throb, but felt like a constant injection of wasp venom. After a few shakes, the pain began to lessen and Luke looked at his palm, where he felt the pain. There was no mark or anything, just the disappearing pain.
"Congratulations, it seems your physical training was enough to beat a few of us in magic capacity. If you had undergone this test the day you appeared here, you may not have been able to lift a cup. Now, your capacity may even rival mine," Laura said. "Though, I doubt it does so at this moment. Keep up your training and it just might.
" You should not perform any more magic today, as we've already taken you to your capacity for today. Rest is the only way to restore your spellcasting ability. Potions will not help. You need to wait at least 12 hours to cast again. 36, if you desire full safety. Even with this method, your exact capacity is unknown. A decent estimate of your abilities is that, in a single feat of spellcasting, you should be able to lift a semi truck, minus trailer, if you wish to be without hands. About 17 tons."
"Great. What's the next steps, then?" Luke asked, massaging his palm.
The other mages Laura brought in were leaving as she said, "Learning more spellforms and becoming faster at casting. These are things you can do on your own free time. I will be guiding you on how to use them practically and helping you evoke the spells directly. For today, you go home. Rest. Eat. Next week, we properly begin your lessons on magery."
"I assume you already have the Saint's works ready," Luke said.
"Oh, yes," Laura said, nodding. "Our thoughts on magic differ much, but his viewpoint is valuable. He obviously made it work for him, translating it in a way I can teach you will not be an issue. I still believe you should focus on fire power and killing as many fraxions as you can, but we are spellcasters. The mage's mindset is not conducive to much change."
"I'm going to buy everyone as much time as I can. If that's an hour, then oh well, two years wasted. If it's years, someone in the future generations will learn magic to a degree even better than you. A few hundred years ago, we didn't even have electricity to any meaningful capacity. In a single lifetime, we went from batteries to lightbulbs, all without the help of the internet to speed up our ability to take in information. We went from the phone to the internet in a little over a hundred.
"I will buy that lifetime of magical developments, and someone else will lead humanity to victory off the back of those developments. I would not be here by that point, either way. I may as well make it so every single person after me has the best chance I can."
Laura shrugged and said, "We will just have to agree to disagree. If every single person was a powerful spellcaster, we would not need the time you are suggesting. We could simply win this war the gods have set upon us."
"What about the next, or the one after that, or the one after that? Without any meaningful advancements, we would simply be repeating this tragedy over and over until the gods get bored of us or we all die. Some day, someone will have to challenge the gods themselves and win for us to be entirely free," Luke said.
"There's no evidence that they will make us fight anyone other than the fraxions, and killing an entire race of beings seems unlikely. Beyond that, you believe the gods would let someone become strong enough to rival them without smiting them long before they have a chance to actually fight back?" Asked Laura.
"You yourself said the mage must be arrogant. The gods are the strongest spellcasters we know of. You think they wouldn't believe themselves above everything, no matter what evidence exists to support otherwise, right up until they're finally overthrown?"
"You make good points. I won't be around to see the results, nor will you, for that matter, but I guess humanity will just have to see how well your strategy works," Laura said, opening the door for Luke to leave without ever moving from the table of rabbit sculptures.
"It will work," Luke said, realizing he doesn't have much time to catch the bus to his apartment. Before he began his jog to the bus stop, he finished, "It has to."