Kyle was stunned. In the room currently was Elena, Dave, Kathy, Claire, Beth, and Kyle himself. With all these witnesses, Kathy just asked Kyle to teach Claire magic. 

Kyle had already agreed to help Claire learn her 3 subjects when it became unavoidable for him to have to take her home after school, so just that little bit more would not be a problem. 

The problem was with the nature of teaching magic. It as against some law in the empire to teach anyone under the age of 8 years old how to perform magic. Kyle had taught it to Beth for the sake of his archetypal character, but Kyle had no such plans for Claire. 

'How can I say no?' Kyle only had one option though, and that was to accept. 

"Um, sure I can." Kyle tried to smile when he said it and looked at Kathy. He did not want to teach magic to anyone else, and he even burned the documents he spent so long making once Beth was done with them. 

"You'll really teach me magic too?" Claire asked with sparkling eyes. She probably did not fully understand what magic was, but understood it to mean Kyle would be spending more time with her. 

"Well, learning magic was originally to help Beth learn words, so you need to learn your words first." Kyle looked over at Beth who was still holding his hand and feeling ashamed for letting out that Kyle taught her magic. Kyle had told her almost every day to not use magic around others and to not let anyone know she knew any. 

"We don't know Claire's proficient types, but most people are good in Fire magic, so it should be fine." Kathy was thinking heavily. She had not been tested for magical proficiency, but she was not very good at Fire magic. 

"Wait Kathy," Elena had been silent for a while but chose to speak up. "We don't know what kind of trouble these two might get into for learning spells on their own, and now you want to bring Claire into it?" Elena would not be able to live with the fine that came with teacher someone under 8 magic. 

"I wanna learn spells!" Claire yelled as she grabbed onto Kyle's right side. It was the same principle of not letting Kyle run away from her. With her physically holding Kyle, he would have to teach her. 

"But you can't tell anyone about learning spells Claire." Kathy was very serious about this because it would bring a lot of trouble to the Drought and Mercer households if Claire and Kyle were known to know magic. 

"I can keep a secret!" Claire looked over at Beth for a second and then looked at Kathy. Everyone looked at each other for a few seconds and Claire let go of Kyle. 

"Okay then, in addition to helping Claire with her 3 subjects you can teach her magic at my house." Kathy finally spoke and nobody stopped her. 

"I can help too!" Beth quickly added. She did not want to be excluded from the group, and if Kyle was going to be walking Claire home and staying at her house for a while, Beth would not be able to just stand around while she waited for Kyle to walk her home. 

"Right, Beth can come over too." Kathy was happy with the turn of event even if Elena was not. It was rather strange for the two good friends who had the same opinions on just about everything to be opposite when it came to learning magic. 

"Just one thing, Beth, can we see the spells that Kyle taught you?" Elena was a little cautious, but she wanted to see the spells. 

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Um, sure. [Flame]" Beth did the first tier Fire spell. "Ready Kyle?" Beth took a few steps across the room and then turned to Kyle and was ready to cast her [Fireball], but it needed Kyle to produce the counter spell. 

"Yea, [Flame]." Kyle prepared to stop the fireball in case it traveled too far. Beth did not usually make large fireballs though. 

"Okay, here I go. [Fireball]." Beth cast the spell and a flame the size of her fist shot out from her hand and dissipated in the air. 

"Come by the house to get Claire in the morning Kyle, just like we talked about." Kathy and Claire were now leaving, and the situation where Claire would normally beg to stay she was fine with. "Just remember not to talk about this with anyone."

"Kyle, Beth." Elena looked over at the two standing in the room as she sat on the couch. "You can't let anyone know that you learned magic spells. Even if Kathy and I are fine with it, others might not be." 

"I know." Kyle said to his mother. 

"Yes." Beth said after Kyle and then she went to leave. 

"Well, I should walk Beth home now." Kyle turned to go out the door too. 

"Will you be fine walking Beth to her house after you are done at Kathy's?" Elena knew it would be a lot of work for Kyle to be running all over town. She had not seen the Valheart home, but she guessed it was on the other side of town. 

"I'll be fine mom. I'll be back soon." It was not dark yet, but after this day it might be dark when he is able to take Beth home. It was going to be a lot of running around. 

----------------------------------------

Kyle and Beth set off down the street and turned onto the street to the 3rd district. There were more people than when they had last walked down it, and it would probably be bad to talk about magic now. 

"Are you really going to that girl's house every day?" Beth asked Kyle as they walked. She did not like that idea very much, even though Kyle had done the same thing for her. 

"I went to your house every day didn't I? I already have to walk her to and from school, so going in and teaching her magic won't be too much more." Kyle had a lot on his plate, and he hoped Claire would learn quickly.

"Well just so you know, I will be coming too, every day, so get used to walking me home like this." 

"You know, I can probably teach her find on my own, so you don't have to-" Kyle was cut off.

"Yes I do!" Beth raised her voice and walked forward a little faster. 

"Hehe, thanks for not telling them everything that I taught you." Kyle had the perfect setup made. 

"Oh, you're welcome." Beth's face turned a little red and she looked down, which was dangerous because she was in the lead. There were no poles on the sidewalk, but there were other people walking. 

"Even though you did tell them the secret first." Kyle added this a few seconds after Beth finished speaking. 

"You jerk!" Beth was only a few steps in front of Kyle, and she stopped to punch him and then ran off ahead. 

Kyle followed her to make sure she got home, and then walked back to his house by himself like usual. The next day though, it would be much later at night.