“What was your last question?” Jimoel asked, motioning towards his sister.

“What is your affinity?” Loa asked again.

“What exactly is an affinity Loa?” Brows furrowed and head tilted slightly.

Before Loa could answer, their father responded, “an affinity is just which type of magic you can learn easiest and each person only has one affinity. As for the strength of it, you’d have to get that tested at the mage guilds.”

With a finger to her chin and her head to the side, Loa asked, “What if his affinity is dark magic? I heard in town that dark magic is evil!”

“Don’t worry about that, not all dark magics are evil. Cooking magic isn’t evil, for example, and is used all the time in the army. From what I hear, normal cooks don’t come cheap,” their father said, calming his daughter down.

Sheepishly, Jimoel asked, “What about transmutation? I found a beginner book of that too.”

“And you were hiding that from me because you thought all dark magic was evil?” his father asked, shaking his head slowly with his mouth in a half frown. “Well the good news is that isn’t evil either, But if you ever learn it past the beginner rank, don’t ever tell anyone. People have been known to enslave people with transmutation intermediate rank to make them gold,” he added quite sternly.

Mildly alarmed, Jimoel nodded. Remember to never let anyone know what I’ve found he thought, further cementing the idea in his mind.

“Enough of this heavy talk, let’s have dinner. Would you guys like some grilled backstrap with some lemon grass and wild peppers?” his sister asked.

Smiling, both Jimoel and their father nodded.

---

Leaving his room well after midnight, Jimoel crept on his toes wearing his thickest jacket and holding a candle. Careful not to make a sound so as not to disturb his sleeping family, he left through the front door.

Sitting on the ground around the side of their house, he pulled out all four books and placed them on the ground around him. Picking up the neutral magic book first, he flipped it open and began reading.

Several pages and minutes of reading later, he understood that he had no way to comprehend what any of the instructions meant.

He knew what each word meant separately but when together their meaning slid past him. Sighing slightly, he set the book aside and picked up the light magic book on Truth Detection and started reading.

“Feel the mana flow through your ears and focus your thoughts on what you are about to hear. What does that even mean?” He grumbled with creases deepening on his forehead.

So again the same thing, words that alone make sense yet together mean nothing to me... He thought before closing the book and setting it to the side.

He reached over to the Transmutation spellbook, he held the book between his hands, not wanting to open it in case he is some freak with no affinities.

After taking some deep breaths and watching the mist that came from his mouth, he closed his eyes while he slowly revealed the spellbook’s contents and placed it on his lap. With another deep breath, he opened his eyes and started reading.

Jimoel suddenly broke into a smile, he threw his arms into the air and quietly cheered.

I UNDERSTAND! He screamed in his mind. After breathing deeply and closing his eyes, it took him some effort to finally calm down.

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About half a minute later, he was finally able to look back at the book and focus.

The book itself was much thinner than it seemed from the outside. As it turns out, a simple description of the ritual and where to channel one’s mana takes very little space.

Doing his best to memorize the entire book so as not to make a mistake, he read the entire book repeatedly for nearly an hour.

“I want to try it,” he mumbled as he flipped the page back to the page listing the materials.  He crept silently into the house. He grabbed a small iron knife, one of the antlers from his buck and snuck back outside.

Setting up the ritual took very little time. He grinned as he placed a small stone in the center of his new circle. Laying his hands on either side of his new circle, he ran his mana along the paths traced in the dirt.

A dim flash of light appeared from the middle of the circle as the stone vanished. “That’s not supposed to happen” Jimoel mumbled, frowning. Picking up the book once again, he reread the preparation.

Oh, that’s what I did wrong! He put the book back down and prepared once again. Fortunately his hands were numb from the cold so cutting his finger with the knife, the first step, didn’t hurt.

He placed a drop of blood in three places. One drop was placed a few feet in front of him, the other two on either side of his knees, forming an equilateral triangle from the space between the dots.

Grabbing the antler, he drew a line in the dirt from each point to where its opposite edge would be on the triangle. Lastly, he grabbed the knife and made a circle that touched each of the points.

Placing another stone in circle, Jimoel prepared to run mana through his circle once again.

As soon as his mana made one rotation through the circle, the stone exploded, deafening him and knocking him on his back.

Dazed, he laid there until father picked him up to see if he was injured. Slowly refocusing his mind, he noticed his father’s mouth moving as tho speaking to him. Ears still ringing, he was unable to hear what was being asked.

“If you are asking what happened, I tried to do transmutation and it exploded,” he said, yelling unintentionally. “I can’t hear what you’re saying, it was too loud, but otherwise, I don’t hurt anywhere so I think I’m fine”

Sighing in what seemed to be relief, his father nodded. His sister came out of her room and helped their father carry Jimoel to his bed.

Once warmed up and refocused, he realized the books were still outside. Quietly dashing outside he grabbed the books, the candle, the knife, and the antler and brought them all back inside.

---

Waking up around midday, Jimoel found himself completely recovered from the bang of that night’s failure. Putting on his lighter jacket, he glanced out the window to see his sister in front of a steaming pot.

Sitting on his bed, he grabbed the book on Transmutation. Now that I’m not so tired, maybe I can figure this out. Nodding to himself he opened the book and started reading once again.

“...use the bone to draw a line from each point to the opposite point on the circle… OH!” he exclaimed, garnering an amused look from his sister.

Grabbing the bone, the knife, and closing the book, he walked out to his sister.

“I know what I did wrong, and I can do it this time Loa!” he said confidently to his sister.

Raising her eyebrows in surprise, “did you actually get it?” she asked before lowering one of her brows and smirking, adding “Or are you just gunna blow us both up?”.

Sighing and shaking his head, yet still smiling “no I’m sure I’ve got this,” he said, putting the open book in front of him and trying to ignore his sister’s ribbing. He cut his finger and placed the three drops.

“That looks like it hurts, do you have to do that?” His sister asked with a worried expression.

“It’s what the book says to do. Besides, it doesn’t hurt that bad,” he said focusing on what he was doing.

Taking the knife, he drew a circle that touched each of the three drops of blood. “You have to draw the circle with whatever material you want to make,” he explained rather smugly while drawing. Setting down the knife, he grabbed the antler.

“This is where I messed up last night, but I’m confident now,” he nodded as he spoke.

Carefully drawing lines from each drop of blood to the opposite point on the circle, he finished the design. Looking up at Loa, he smiles and says “Now all I need to do is…” stopping as he looked around for a stone.

“I’ll be right back,” he said, standing up. Scrunching his reddening face, he ran off to the nearby stream for a stone trying to ignore his sister laughing at his unpreparedness.

Coming back with a stone the size of his fist, he placed it in the middle of the ritual. Placing his hands on either side of the circle, he grew nervous. Why did I have to act so confident?

After taking a deep breath, the smell of cooking stew and the cool air calming him slightly, he cycled his mana through the ritual circle. After the one full rotation, light flashed from the rock.