"Now that you have finished perusing through the back pages of this book - we all know you looked ahead - we can get started on the good stuff. Elements! And no, not the physical kind.

To set the records straight, as Mages we are concerned with magical Elements, not physical elements. They are two very different things, unlike what the old Mages believed. It is also one of the biggest misnomers in all of Mage society but convention has set the word in stone, rather than a more intuitive word like Concept. Although, to be fair to the old Mages, if you too thought the world was made of mana would you not call the elementary makings of it Elements? Who knows, perhaps we’ll soon discover that the physical world is not made of particles and elements but something greater! Who would be the fools now?

Despite the tangent, it is important to stress that they are indeed two separate things and cannot be treated as such. Mana Elements as I have implied are better called Concepts, the metaphorical imprints of the world that the mana takes and interprets for us Mages to translate into wonders. That is a garble of wonderful words that are hard to comprehend on first read so this chapter's intro will help break that down for you."

Amy continued where she had left off from the prompt on the affinity test, trying not to roll her eyes at the author's excitable words. The books at School definitely weren't like this. I guess that's the difference between a big government-funded public School and a private one like this. I already know about Elements but I'll still read it just in case. Might be some useful insights.

"Mana is the interpreter of imagination. However, in order to first imagine something, you must know its context. That is the 'purpose', so to speak, of Elements. They exist as a base for all Spells to work off of, and act, in a way, as their fuel. When a Mage attunes Pure mana to an Element - another misnomer that becomes clear why later - they provide the mana a lens through which it understands what the Mage is trying to convey in its 'words' of magic. To use more metaphors, mana can be seen as an incredibly smart person who doesn't have a proper memory. It can do whatever you will it to do, following your commands precisely, yet you have to guide it every step of the way. There is no intuition to its actions, it does as it feels in the moment, whether you want it to or not.

Elements are the foundations of your guide to the mana, the one thing it can remember for more than an instant. A Mage utilises these Elements so that the mana can understand properly what it’s trying to do. For example, if you want to cast a Fire Bolt, then you use Elemental Fire as a base. However, if you provide the wrong Elemental base to the mana, incorrectly describing it to the mana, you end up with something completely different such as a Burning Bolt. When attuning mana to an Element, always ensure you are clear in your intent, otherwise you'll end up with the wrong thing. Fire is a lot of things, after all, and you don't want the mana to focus on the wrong property.

Now that the Mage has properly converted mana to the Element of their choice, imbuing their will into Pure and attuning it to that Element, you have to actually construct your Spell. A Mage's Spellform is the set of instructions for the mana to follow, to allow it to properly align itself with their wishes, their imagination. Once it is 'attuned' to the Mage, acting through the interface of the Spellform, the mana aligns itself to the Mage's wishes and a Spell is casted, its Magick on display for all to see.

Note: something I believe important to outline now is the difference between a Spell and a Magick. Although in everyday life they are often used interchangeably, in literature they are quite different. The Spell is the process, from attunement to casting, whereas the Magick is the effect, what the mana actually does."

Nothing new to me, but the metaphor's a bit weird, Amy thought, Not to say it's bad, just... different.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"You might be asking me what was the point of that whole summary? The vast majority of Magelings know and understand it somewhat to get this far from Aspirant, so what use does this serve? Not only does it help catch up the less-educated on the matter of Elements - you are Fledgling Mages after all - but it also ensures complete understanding of future topics that are vitally important to a Wizard's development. Or, to be more specific, the Wizardly Elements."

Finally, Amy sighed, It took you long enough to get there. I can figure out what Fae and Unknowable are at last; and why they think Illusion is Esoteric rather than Advanced.

"Illusion. Fae. Unknowable.

The Trickster's Elemental Trio."

"Now that's an odd way to call them," Amy muttered under her breath, trying to understand how they related to trickery. Hard to do when you only know what one of them does. I can get Illusion but how does something called Fae or Unknowable relate to that? Maybe Unknowable's about obfuscation? An Element extracted from an advanced Obscure Spell, perhaps? And Fae sounds close to 'feeling' so it could have something to do with the senses. Combine it all together, you can certainly get a trickster Mage from that. That certainly doesn't fit the image Wizards painted for themselves earlier in the text though.

"For now, we shall cover the simplest. Illusion is the art of fooling others through deception and sleight, misleading them from the truth of the world that they believe in. An ordinary, mundane magician would employ illusion in their shows, to wow and awe their crowd. Elemental Illusion on the other hand is ever so slightly different. Elemental Illusion is the art of fooling others through transformation and conjuration, misleading them towards the truth of the world that they do believe in. There is no trickery in Elemental Illusion, despite its part in 'The Trickster's Trio'. Whatever you will into existence is real, whether you yourself believe it or not. It is upon this principle that the most basic of Illusory Spells are made upon, using what might be the most well-known template in all of Mage society.

The Bolt."

"You can't be serious," Amy whispered, re-reading the words to make sure.

"As an Aspirant, you channel magic without a Spellform, casting Cantrips to invoke the purest form of an Element possible given the meagre mana used to power it. With a Bolt, you provide that invocation a direction and purpose. To strike, and to harm."

"There's no way," Amy grunted, exasperated with not only the grandeur but the stupidity of what the book was going to say next.

"It is with pleasure then that I,‎‎‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ , introduce your first Tier 1 Spell to you, and hand you over to my friend ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ for the next chapter on how to learn to cast it."

"Wait, are those missing names?"

"The Illusory Bolt"

"And of course, they're idiots," Amy said, a bit weirded out by the blanked out names, literally missing from the paper as if never written onto it, but still in disbelief at what the so-called 'Wizards' were trying to make their Magelings do, "They're trying to make a 1st Tier Bolt out of an Advanced Element!

"It has literally been scientifically proven that it can't be done," Amy said, glaring at the words on the page, trying to ignore the missing names, "Advanced Elemental Bolt Spells can only exist at Tier 2, minimum. There's simply too many nuances to be channelled properly with a regular Bolt's Spellform template.

"I know that they think Illusion is an Esoteric Element, not Advanced, but this is taking it too far. How could they write an entire book and not rule out incorrect information like this?" Amy asked out loud, not liking the conclusion she was coming to.

"Unless the way they use Illusion isn't the same as us. As if it's not Advanced. As if it's Basic. As if it's Esoteric."

Taking a few more seconds to inspect the words on the page - I'll come back to you missing names - Amy looked over at the blank page indicating a break in between chapters. With trepidation, she flipped the pages over, and began to read once more.

"Chapter 2 - The Illusory Bolt"