Having achieved the first goal of sensing magic. The little magic training group was going to move to control exercises. They even had a surprise guest.

"Hello Gilly."

"Hellow Aleyn."

Nancy had also asked Gilly to attend.

"So why is Gilly here?" Aleyn asked.

"What? Can't I have my granddaughter join in?"

"I didn't say that.. Wait, she can use magic already?"

"But of course! Isn't that right Gilly?"

"Yea!." Gilly cheered.

Gilly made an over exaggerated spin as she raised her palm in the air which started glowing as she conjured a small orb of power just like Nancy. It held form only for a moment until a tiny explosion burst out blowing her hand back down as the ball dispersed.

"OW!" she yelped and started rubbing her hand.

"Well sort of anyway. She's a bit young so her control is not that great so I thought I'd let her join in. You need a partner for what I have in mind anyway." Nancy followed up.

With the little explanation out of the way they got right to it. Nancy instructed both of them to sit opposite of each other.

"Gilly, give Aleyn some of your power."

"Owkay~." Gilly said with her ever cheerful tone.

She put her hands in front of herself and closed her eyes. Gilly's whole figure started glowing and sparkles of energy started moving towards Aleyn. It looked as though Aleyn was assaulted by a cloud of dust but the feeling of receiving power was as if you were dipped in to a warm relaxing bath after being completely exhausted. She tried for a moment but she had no control over the process, she was stuck receiving Gillys energy.

"That's enough Gilly. Now you try it Aleyn."

Aleyn gave a confused look at Nancy. How was she suppose to do that?

"Erm okay, but how?"

How do you suddenly do something that should be basic instinct? She had every reason to be confused at the request.

"Good point. How to explain this.... It's actually quite hard to explain something which is suppose to be inherently learned. Gilly you got an idea?" Nancy asked.

"Is like sharing!" She raised her voice and cheered.

Nancy grabbed Gillys shoulder and seemed to transfer some of her own energy to her, after which she thought for a moment.

"Think shes right actually. Its not exactly the same but it does give you that sort of a feeling."

Aleyn thought for a moment and put her hands in front of herself.

"Sharing... sharing..."

She was trying to think about sharing. What did sharing mean to her? Giving someone else something, maybe it involved a feeling of being happy to provide. Maybe it held the feeling of parting with something. In the end there was a result according to Nancy.

"I don't think Gilly can feel it but there was some energy going her way. It was just such a nonexistent amount and most of it didn't even get to her."

Aleyn sighed. This was hard.

"Hmm I think we need a different approach. This seems too complicated for you." Nancy claimed.

Nancy Opened a drawer and picked up two clear glass balls which were big enough to hold in her hands..

"Now this here is a energy storage ball. It's used mostly to store excess power, but some magic users train their own power by letting external sources train it out. Magic power behaves similarly to muscles, when you constantly use your power it changes and grows."

She placed a ball in front of both Gilly and Aleyn.

"What I want you both to do is hold a ball until you feel can't anymore. Once you feel like you really should not hold on anymore then let it go, the ball shouldn't break unless you really mean it. Gilly have a go first."

Gilly grabbed the ball with both hands and the reaction was immediate. Sparkles of energy started appearing in the middle of the ball but disappeared soon after. It didn't take too long for Gillys hands to start shaking and for her to look like she was holding her breath to trying to endure and in a moment she dropped the ball.

"You okay Gilly?" Nancy asked.

"Gilly okay. Exhausted."

"Okay then, Aleyn you have a go. It might be very brief but try."

Aleyn looked at the ball on the floor and hovered her hands on its sides before picking it up. The moment she picked it up it was as if her body was assaulted by a fatigue wave, but she held on stubbornly for a few more seconds before letting go.

"Ugh."

"You okay Aleyn?"

She had to lean on her left hand to sit straight but otherwise she was fine.

"Uhh... Yes"

Nancy picked both of the orbs and started comparing. She gave a small giggle when she took a look at Aleyns ball.

"Your output is really miserable right now, even Gilly here has at least four times more in her."

"Encouraging." Aleyn sighed.

"Now now. Lets not get grumpy."

As she said that she threw the balls on the floor with force shattering them completely.

"Hey what are you?!" Aleyn yelled in confusion.

The moment she did, she felt her fatigue disappear and even the balls had mysteriously returned to their usual form in a blink of an eye.

"And thats how they work in practise. What I would like for you both to do today is repeatedly let it drain your power, once you can hold on for half a minute or more we can change it up a bit." Nancy explained.

The process was exhausting and mentally tiring even if both Aleyn and Gilly got everything back if they shattered the orb. It took considerable effort from Aleyn especially but her gain was great as well. With lunch time coming up Aleyn finally reached the half minute mark while Gilly already had done so a while a go.

They had lunch after which Nancy had a few words to say.

"So now that you can endure the transfer a bit better, its time for the real point of this exercise, which is control."

She picked up both of their orbs.

"Currently I'm not allowing the orbs to take any of my energy. It doesn't take much control to do that and I'm sure neither of you will have trouble learning it."

The orbs in her hands started to glow and absorb her energy, however they were not doing at the same rate. The orbs had different brightness to them which indicated a different amount of power being transferred.

"However what you want to learn after that is more important. What you need to do is control the transfer rate. The fine line between completely rejecting it and completely allowing it. Or even reversing the flow."

She dropped the orbs shattering them once more. They of course reanimated in to their original glass ball form shortly after.

"First I want you to resist the transfer and once you both know how to do it, you both need to train in control, only transferring what is replaced by your natural regeneration. Lets say once you can resist it the transfer for two minutes we can move on."

Nancy made the now reformed orbs roll towards the pair with her magic and they started right away. Gilly didn't need much time to learn to resist the flow, but Aleyn had some trouble.

She looked at Gilly sitting and resting and felt slightly frustrated but Gilly just smiled.

"If someone try take something away you not let them." She said with her cheery tone and hugged her own chest tightly.

Well of course if someone was trying to forcibly take something from you, you would try and not let them take it. How would you put that in to this context was the real question.

With a little bit of thinking through and applying the concept she felt she could resist, it was as though her will was a door and it was being forcefully opened but occasionally she could hold the door closed. It took her some time but eventually she could hold the orb without any energy being transferred for some time.

It took Gilly only a day to get to the two minute mark while Aleyn struggled for a few days, but once she did they were ready to move on.

"Now lets try controlling it a bit more.  Try to control the transfer, you need to have a steady flow."

Controlling the transfer in theory shouldn't be hard, open the door only as much as you need to. But having two people pull at the opposite sides of a door made adjusting how open the door was quite a struggle.

It turned out to be very hard. Even Gilly couldn't achieve it faster than Aleyn and they both struggled for a four days to get the hang of it. After the fourth day they both showed promise, the control was there but they lacked the power to keep the reins. Their control training turned in to building power at that point until they could.

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Through eager training Gilly achieved control of her energy transfer. She could control it comfortably against the storage orb without issues but after achieving that level she dozed off on the floor. Having witnessed Gillys breakthrough Nancy didn't mind her getting some rest but she didn't like her sleeping on the floor so she lifted her up on her chair and placed Gilly on her lap.

Aleyn progressed slowly but surely and by lunch time she had her own breakthrough. She could control the transfer against the orb and she wasn't completely exhausted. A small victory over Gilly.

"Good job Aleyn, you should be safe to leave soon. " Nancy congratulated while brushing Gillys hair.

"Ah, Finally."

"Oh you didn't wanna stay? Is this place that bad? Though I suppose it has been more than a week already." Nancy said with a pouting tone.

"Not at all. That's not what I meant. Just that there are things I want to do and this event was in the way. Regardless I actually had fun time staying here and learning."

"I'm glad to hear that. You're staying for lunch at least?" Nancy asked.

"Well if you insist."

They woke up Gilly who was still very tired and less cheery than usual, but during the meal she perked up progressively and by the time they were finished she was back to her usual cheery self.

Nancy and Aleyn sat in Nancys room while Gilly returned to watch the shop. Even if she achieved the goal Aleyn still had some walls to climb.

"We need to remove the enchantment on your arm and the ring on your hand. The enchantment removal will most likely hurt, but try and deal with it."

Nancy brushed her hand over the tattoo on Aleyns left arm which made the tattoo glow. She could immediately feel a slight pinch which started to intensify rapidly but once the feeling stopped the tattoo immediately stopped its movements and fell off of her arm like grains of sand which disappeared in to thin air. Aleyn felt as if all of her power was taken away, she couldn't sense or use any of it anymore.

"You probably lost all the feeling you're used to, don't be alarmed though that is intended and will be over shortly." Nancy assured.

"Because of the ring, right?"

"Exactly. Now, when that ring is taken off you will be assaulted by a similar feeling from the first time I awakened your power, but this time you know how to actually control it. It will more than likely be more than you're used to and you will have to take some time to get it under control."

She paused and looked Aleyn in the eyes.

"Are you ready?"

Aleyn took a few steady breaths to ready herself.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

At her mark Nancys hand glowed as she reached to pull the ring off of Aleyns finger and the moment it was off she pulled away while observing her.

The reaction wasn't immediate but in a few seconds she could feel an increasing power emerge as if a dam broke. It was as Nancy had said, way more than she was ready for but now she had a way to control it. As the waves hit her surroundings started to fluctuate with power, but it didn't go out of control like last time. The power assaulted her and occasionally escaped her body, but she kept it under control to the extend where it couldn't do much more than touch the floor. Over time the fluctuations started to calm down and disappear bit by bit.

At first it took all of her concentration to keep her power in check but gradually she became aware of the room she was inside and could even once again spare enough of herself to see Nancy observing her while looking slightly worried.  Aleyn tried to say she was alright but the moment she tried she knew she couldn't talk without losing control, instead she gave a slight smile while still concentrating. Nancy noticed the gesture and relaxed a bit.

It took Aleyn a few hours before she had gotten to the point where she could talk.

"This is absurd. Do people really know how to control themselves without training? I can't believe that."

"Most people can control it without effort yes. In fact every time I meet a person with this problem I feel as though fate just doesn't wish for them to learn the ways of magic. Though that theory has been broken so many times."

"I envy people for having the privilege of not going through this." Aleyn sighed in frustration.

"Now now. As much as it's a struggle it's also very good for you. Compared to a normal magic user you have a much better grasp of what is going on."

They chatted for some time until Aleyn was comfortable enough to move on her own without losing concentration, her outward appearance was now normal but she still wasn't comfortable with her control.

After being stuck in Nancys room for multiple hours she decided to stretch her legs a bit and went downstairs to the shop while Nancy followed to keep an eye on her.

"Are there any books which would suit my understanding in here or are they all too advanced?" She casually asked.

"Hmm well everything is just theory, technically you could understand any book in this shop if you understood the meaning of the words. However there are a few books for beginner use."

She went through the bookshelves, looking through the titles and books, picking one occasionally and putting some way. In the end she had a small pile of books, some older than others.

"These seem fine."

Aleyn took a look at the books. Only two of the books seemed to hold any interest to her.

"Understanding Elements: Earth."

" Applications of Magic."

"You don't have any other elements of the same series?"

"Probably do, but you asked me to pick books that suit your understanding."Nancy gave a smirk.

"So at what point would I be good enough for a better element?"

"A better element? Aleyn, that's very ignorant of you. Amongst the elements Earth might be the easiest to grasp understanding of, but it also has far more to it than the other elements." Nancy frowned in a very serious manner.

Aleyn looked at Nancys and her disapproving face.

"How much for the books then?"

"Hmmpf. I don't know if I want to sell them now." Nancy said as she held the books close to herself.

"Come on Nancy, don't be like that. Remember that I know nothing next to you about magic so it's not odd if I say something stupid in your eyes."

Nancy sighed.

"Well that's true I suppose. 50 gold for one book."

Not thinking much about the actual price she wanted to give a slight scare to Aleyn, but was instead confronted with something other than fear of high prices.

"Deal."

"Wha? Wait wait wait. You can't seriously want to buy these for that much?"

"Why not? Surely they're worth it?" Aleyn asked seriously.

"Both of these are probably worth 50 gold together. Do you just have so much money you can throw it around?" Nancy asked.

"Well I wouldn't know how much they're worth would I? To me the potential knowledge would very well be worth a 100 gold."

Nancy shook her head while Aleyn was digging through her money pouch.

"50 gold. No more no less."

"Fine fine fine." Aleyn handed the coins to Nancy.

Having chatted and walked around the shop for a while Aleyn noticed she was barely concentrating on holding her power in. She was now doing it just as a reflex.

"Think I'm ready."

Nancy gave a glance at Aleyn. Her eyes seemed to be looking straight through her, but Aleyn still felt her sight was on her.

"Ah yes, you do seem ready." Nancy agreed.

Since she had not brought anything with her, Aleyn was getting ready to leave.

"Thanks for all the help Nancy."

Aleyn gave Nancy a hug

.

"Its been my pleasure Aleyn."

At that moment Gilly came hopping in to their conversation.

"You going away Aleyn?" She asked.

"Yes. I'm ready to leave."

Gilly hopped towards Aleyn and hugged her lower body.

"Come visit sometime yes?" Gilly looked up to her as she asked.

Aleyn patted Gilly on the head and straightened her hair.

"Probably sooner rather than later."

On that note she gave her last good byes to both of them and walked out of the store.