William didn't know where to start. The topic he was about to teach had so many outliers it would be hard to cover everything. But it was always good to first cover the basics.
During a fairly warm breezy morning he took both Kena and Irene to the magic training field. Before it had been a landscape of craters but with solid direction from William's teaching Kena had slowly transformed the area into a near perfect flat plane of dirt. Unfortunately any grass that dared to grow was ripped to smithereens by the intense gravitational forces shed from Kena's constant practice. The area was perfect but William couldn't help but wonder what it would like after his newest teachings. It might turn the area into ugly brown opaque glass depending on what spells Kena created with the new knowledge. The only thing that hadn't changed was the low stools he had made. This time he added a third for Irene as even she might be able gain from his teaching experience.
As they sat down on the fairly comfortable stools he started. "Alright so far I have taught you something that is quite intuitive as you can see it happening and feel its effects. While gravity is the only force we can see in action all the time. Electromagnetism on the other hand is always there but always invisible. You might see some of its effects on a daily basis but without really understanding the how or why. So I am going to start with the fundamentals of this fundamental force. To say this doesn't get complicated would be a lie. But let me finish as the basics become better realized in the real world applications.
So first off is the fields and rules of electromagnetic forces. The electric field is ever present in everything that is charged or in a higher energy state. This state can be both positive or negatively charged. The object need not be moving for such fields to be present. On the other hand magnetic fields are only present in moving objects. There are a few other basic properties of this fundamental but they usually only surface when you get fields effecting other fields. Or when there is current being moved along a path. Also if it sounds as if these fields are the same thing it's because they are in a way you will see that in the real world applications.
As for the rules that define this force there are a number that I will explain later but we want the basics. One, like charges repel opposites attract. Two, the action between two charges is always a line. Three, the closer two charges are the more the force of attraction or repulsion is, same with great distance except neither are linear in power but squared either up or down. Four, the size of the force between two charges is proportional to their sizes. Five, all charges are conserved as in nothing is ever lost while the type of energy might change it can't be effectively lost. Six, all charges can feel one another and the potential can move the energy around if connected. Seven, magnetic fields are created when an electric field enters motion they are always perpendicular to one another, the length of electric motion can cause the magnetic field to grow weaker. These rules govern this overall force however most of these deal with charges not in motion. Charges in motion can't really be put under a law only in generals as weird things start happening if you go to the outliers.
One such outlier is the inability to measure the one way speed of light. We are only ever able to measure the two way speed. Another are the weird ways light interacts with cosmological distances and gravity. The same quasar was seen four individual times all because the gravity at the center of an entire galaxy was in the way of our recording devices. Electromagnetism can do some powerful and amazing things.
Another example for instance. Remember how I said there's a ton a force between charges. If you were to take a single electron out of every billion molecules in two average people maybe two yards apart the two people would be flung away from each other with over thirty thousand tons of force. Amazing and powerful."
As William finished his talk he hadn't been paying attention to his observers getting lost in how awesome electromagnetism was. When he finally looked at them. One was possessed with shock and horror the other had eyes the size of dinner plates awed by his words. Both were equally stunned it looked like, so William gave them a second to comprehend the near limitless things such a fundamental law could do. It was a wonder neither head exploded. Eventually William was able to snap both of them out of their stupor.
"Next are the simple everyday applications you see on a daily basis. One such is the reason you simply don't phase through things like a ghost. This is called the normal force simply put it all objects have charges. Whether that be positive negative or a net charge of zero mostly depends on what the object is made of. However because opposites repel two pieces of matter can stay separate. This is extremely simplified. For now just understand there are other things at play. Another everyday is friction. Why is it that I don't slip off this stool unless I apply a great enough force. Answer, due to the several forces my backside stays firmly planted however if a great enough force is applied friction can be overcome. A few others are tension and elasticity. You can see tension in a rope and elasticity in your clothing. An object that doesn’t deform in tension means it can hold the load placed on it during tension overworking such forces will cause permanent damage. Same with elasticity in you clothing. The clothing has a point of failure where the forces applied with eventually cause failure however something that is elastic always returns to its original form.” William then though for a few moments then nodded to himself then began again.
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“Alright, so I think that’s as much theory I am willing to divulge at the moment without some practical spell craft. So first off you are going to create a basic magnet. This will give you basic practice on both field manipulations while also helping me with one of my projects.” William had come with a sizable rod of iron in his pocket. So all you need to do is create a high energy circuit in your hands. If you are able to do this you will have created a magnetic field in your hands. With that accomplished your hands should then cause the rods net neutral charges to change. Thus turning it into a stable magnet or a lodestone as you might call it though this will be made of solid iron instead of magnetite.”
William then handed the thick yard long rod of iron to Kena. As he stood back from Kena he had Irene also observe from a distance. However it seemed as if Kena was having some trouble as instead of nothing visible happening as magnetic forces are. The rod instead began to glow a faint red after only a few seconds. Another visible effect was Kena’s hair frizzing up. After another few seconds the rod became white at which point William yelled to stop as the rod was slowly starting to sag. He then told her to take the rod and touch the ground with it. Every strand of hair on her head was standing on end. What happened next was to say the least shock as only a few inches from the ground the rod emitted a light and intense heat after said light struck it let out a thunderclap in the next moment. The sound deafened the three of them for a good minute.
“I was not expecting that!”
“What?!?”
The three of them eventually regained their hearing but to William it was perplexing as to why it happened in the first place. The heating of the rod meant a circuit had been made but it didn’t conserve if anything Kena had a runaway spell like that of her failed gravity spells before his teaching helped her. He was either missing something that would make the connection for her or mana was interfering. Then it hit him she didn’t know how precise she needed to be this was at an atomic level not large object. She had basically taken a vast supply of mana in this case and forced it through the iron rod like high voltage through a tiny wire. He then motioned to her to come back over to the stools with him and Irene. He then sighed and apologized for his idiocy then continued with another lecture on the scale at which she would have to effect things.
He asked if she could cause her mana to effect millions of individual things. She said she could but it took an immense amount of concentration. He then said they would have to go even slower as it seemed mana was a high energy substance. Thankfully it couldn’t hurt its emitter unless a hostile spell caused the system to backfire on the caster. So instead of trying for a magnet he had her manipulate the charges to cause a sustained arc of lightning to jump between her hands. Just to see if he actually needed to teach her atomic theory for her to manipulate charges in objects. She accomplished the task easily too easily. Within a minute she reported smelling a weird smell and was getting light headed. Turns out mana was a very high energy substance as she barely pumped anything into the arc of electricity and yet she was creating ozone. William was accustomed to the smell and knew it immediately after approaching Kena.
William sighed atomic theory was required possibly even basic quantum theory for subatomic particles to allow her to make headway. However then he remembered how she had separated the iron ore she had a sense for mass of a particle but didn’t know how it actually mattered now she just had to breach the atomic structure and change the charges. It was almost like light and day with the revelation. While Kena definitely still needed practice. She could at least not create an arc between her hands that would melt most metals. She now could get it down to a bit above household voltages. Still deadly but not melt flesh deadly. Until she could create an arc that was as non-harmful as a weak static shock he didn’t want her to advance anymore. She just didn’t have the control to not harm those around her if something went terribly wrong. Kena was admittedly unhappy about this development but understood the uneasiness as William drilled into her that even these tiny arcs at the moment were lethal to anything that she touched. With Kena now practicing her new exercise William turned to Irene who had watched each development with Kena.
Through each development William had seen her try to help but she had soon realized how outclassed or obsolete her understanding of nature really was. He couldn’t help but wonder why she was endlessly eyeing him up and down like a big cat looks at a slab of meat. She then started to get really creepy with questions that William could have sworn had a connotative meaning but he was too hyper focused on Kena’s training. The weirdest question came in the form of asking if she could poke him for several questions later on tonight in a private room while giving him the weirdest expression that he knew meant... something. But he hadn’t really had any close interaction with women near his age for near fifty five years so these looks could mean anything. In the back of his mind there was an attempt made at raising flags but the pole and pulleys were rusted over from little use. He agreed to this private talk later but no room was available at the moment as all the housing was still being built and the gathering hall only had the small storage area he had hid in before. She said that she would be patient. But as soon as one was available she wanted to have the conversation. He agreed and asked her what she wanted to talk about so he could be prepared. She only smiled and said she wanted to get to know his understanding of the 'universe' better. William just shrugged and just agreed turning back to watching Kena creating her first controlled sparks of electricity. Completely oblivious to the woman behind him.