Today, my mother Clara and I stood in a clearing beside our home. I would be finally learning magic hands-on. She carried in her hands that same staff I saw her wield. A large, emerald-green stone was adorned on the crown of the staff.

“Ready, Luqa? Let’s start with the basic elemental spells.” I listened excitedly, anxious to get started.

“A simple spell like [Fireball] would probably be a good starting point. We’ll start with casting via incantation — though incantations can be shortened or omitted entirely if you become a skilled mage like me,” she said with a wink. “Point your hands with your palm outwards and repeat this incantation after me. As you say these words, imagine your own magical energy flowing out of your fingertips and gathering in front of you – becoming a sphere of flame.”

I followed her directions and awaited the incantation.

“Gather to my hands, o spirits of the crimson flame…”

Repeating her words, I visualized my mana becoming flame itself.

“… herald of destruction and chaos, I call upon your strength…”

The air around me grew hotter and hotter.

“[Fireball]”

A swirling ball of flame, the size of my head, had formed in front of me. Yes!

“You got it on your first try? Wooow~”

My mother crouched down beside me and looked closely at the fireball.

“Now, Luqa, try to see if you can imagine putting more of your mana into it, to make it hotter or to increase its size…”

Deciding to try the former of her suggestions, I visualized more mana flowing out from my body, gathering into the fireball in front of me, compacting more and more energy. As the fireball’s hue grew brighter and brighter, I felt the anchor of control between me and the spell grow weaker and weaker.

“Wait, that’s enough!”

I stopped before the spell went out of control. A white-hot ball of flame remained billowing in my hands.

“That’s a crazy amount of mana. Now what? Hmmm… you can try just shooting up the sky, though, with a fireball like that, it might be a bit dangerous for the forest around us.”

“Instead of firing it, can I just cancel it? Or take the mana back inside?” I asked.

“Hmmm… yes,” she carefully said. “For canceling a spell, there is a designated spell for it that I’ve learned. I’ve forgotten the incantation, but the spell amounts to using more mana to disperse and cancel out the spell.”

She demonstrated, conjuring a large fireball with her hands and then making it disappear the next second.

“It gets harder to cancel a spell though the further it is from you. If I fire a [Fireball] from my hands, it takes quite a bit of effort to cancel it once it’s been launched.”

She conjured this time a smaller fireball and propelled it forward, before closing her eyes and focusing. The fireball dispersed away and disappeared midway.

“As for taking the mana back inside… this is where my expertise ends. I know it’s possible, but I couldn’t begin to tell you how to do it,” Clara said, her face scrunched, contemplating my question. “Think about it like this. It takes energy to counteract energy. If you roll a ball, you need to push back to stop the rolling, you can’t just suddenly reverse your action of rolling the ball.”

She paused and glanced at my puzzled expression.

“Oh sorry, does that make sense?”

I nodded slowly. Her words did make sense. But I had a nagging feeling anyway, poking at me as if suggesting there was something missing in her explanation.

“No, I think I understand,” I replied. “But the fireball is formed from your mana, right? If there’s a process that outputs your mana and turns that mana into flame, then why isn’t there a process that turns that flame back into mana and reabsorbs it back into you?”

I quickly recited the [Fireball] spell once more, maintaining a small sphere of fire in my hands. Then, I imagined taking it back. I closed my eyes.

An image appeared in my head. An image of swirling tendrils of mana extending from my reservoir and wrapping themselves around the fireball. Slowly, slowly breaking it down to pure magical energy. It worked.

The fireball disappeared. No. It didn’t just disappear. It’s as if it receded back into me. I didn't recover all of the mana, but I felt most of it return to me. Opening my eyes once more, I saw my mother in front of me, crouching down, an impressed grin on her face.

“You genius boy, you! How did you do that?”

I shrugged and chuckled as I tried to formulate in my head how I would explain what I just did.

“Well, you are part demon, so your ability might just mean a difference between humans and demons. It’s a shame. There aren’t any demon mages in this village with a firm grasp on magical theory. Their expertise would really help in teaching you.”

We kept going with training. As I had easily called upon the [Fireball] spell, my mother suspected I might have an affinity for fire. She instructed me to master the spell, conjuring an earth wall in front of us as the target. My goals were to see the extent of my control of the spell. How powerful could I make it? How fast could it fire off? How large of a fireball could I form?

As I cast the [Fireball] spell countless times, an unconscious thought surfaced in my head. There’s a better way to do this, it seemed to suggest to me. Yes. I had somewhat realized that when I absorbed the [Fireball] spell back into me. Those “tendrils”, the extensions of my magic reservoir, felt the ambient mana in the air. Could I use that in addition to my own mana? Only one way to find out.

“… herald of destruction and chaos, I call upon your strength – [Fireball] –”

Flame once again gathered in my hands. Now I imagined those tendrils extending once more, ripping the mana out of the air. From the trees. From the ground.

My hand felt the surging of abundant magical energy, and I pushed it outwards to feed the fireball. Sweat beads formed on my forehead as I concentrated all my willpower.

As the fireball grew extraordinarily large, even larger than me, I felt magical energy leak out from my hands. A black fog started to diffuse from my fingertips, a sight that made me nauseous.

“Stop! Release the spell off at once,” my mother said, uncharacteristically stern.

I did as she said, firing off the massive ball of white-hot flame at the wall, which my mother reinforced and strengthened to withstand my spell. When the smoke cleared, the wall was blown away, the ground around charred black.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“What did you just do?” asked my mother. Not with wonder or amusement this time, but with firm disapproval and a serious frown.

“I—I took mana from around me to help with the spell.”

“I see. Never do that again, in any circumstance. Okay?”

“Yes, I understand.”

My mother sighed, the tension in her expression slowly fading. The black fog that had started to form disappeared — but remembering its appearance made me feel revolted yet fascinated at once. Magic could be dangerous, even to its caster. I needed to understand that.

She looked at me again, with a hint of a smile returning to her face.

“I’m sorry, I don’t like scolding you, Luqa. But what you just did was demonic magic. For now, stick to what you learn from me.”

***

Three years have passed since I started learning magic. I was six years old now.

In those first days of learning, my mother was pleasantly surprised to find that I had an affinity for all of the four common elements, though my strongest proficiency was a toss-up between water and fire. I learned all the basic spells quickly, soaking in my mother’s instructions with ease.

Her knowledge and ability impressed me – she wasn’t lying when she joked that she was a skilled and experienced mage.

The art of magic became a near obsession for me. Handed with all the time in the world, I practiced it every day, in every moment I could, whether alone, with instruction from my mother, or hanging out with the two friends I grew to make: Helena and Ersham’s daughter, Lucia, and their nephew, Tavarius.

When I wandered the village sometimes, I manipulated the air to hasten my steps or to play with pebbles on the side of the road. One time, I used the power of the winds to beat the ever-prideful Tavarius in a race around the village.

When we played in the river, I used my water manipulation to hit them with controlled jets of water, to their dismay. I went a bit too far one time, making Lucia cry. Apologies got me nowhere — and the only way she would forgive me was for me to stand still while she and Tavarius threw water at my face full force. What a twisted girl.

When we wandered through the forest just by the village, I conjured platforms from the earth in order to climb trees, eager to view birds’ nests. Out of curiosity, one time, I entrapped Tavarius’s lower body in an earthen binding, as a fun little prank. He punched me pretty hard that day when I finally let him go.

When we sat by campfires at night, sometimes I used flame magic to create impressive spectacles of bright flames to entertain the two. One night, when Aunt Helena and mother saw my dance of fire, the former was shocked while my mother simply clapped and cheered.

I continued to learn spells from my mother, who had learned most of the magic detailed in the spell tomes we had. She had an affinity for three elements, fire, earth and water — apparently rare — so she made for a knowledgeable teacher.

During the past few months, Lucia also joined me in learning magic from my mother. She became interested after I started playing around with magic. We found her affinity was with air.

During sleepless nights, I always returned back to magic, secretly practicing outside of the house, especially my ability of internal mana manipulation to strengthen my body. One day I asked her about it and my mother confirmed my suspicions — the ability to direct one’s mana inside one’s body was inherently easier for demons, though still uncommon.

Over time, I found magic easier and easier to use. My reservoir of magical energy expanded, my understanding of spells deepened. At this point, I could use all the basic elementary spells without incantations.

In short, I was on my way to becoming a mage.

During the past year, I also decided to learn swordsmanship from Uncle Ersham. Ever since I saw his display in the fight with serpent those three years ago, I was enamored by his sword skills. After focusing two years on the foundations of magic, I decided it was time to learn swordsmanship as well. He taught us in the style he fought, the Avestic style of swordsmanship. An offensive fighting style characteristic of demons, emphasizing powerful strikes and overwhelming speed to quickly end your battles.

Today, Tavarius and I faced off against Ersham with wooden swords, who had insisted on a two-on-one sparring match. I wonder how weird this looked, a thirteen-year-old and a six-year-old ganging up on an adult.

“Alright, have at you! I’m waiting for your guys’ move,” Ersham said with a cocky grin.

The two of us looked at each other and nodded. We lunged at him, Tavarius from the left, and I from the right. He went after me first, with an overhead slash. I moved to deflect it, strengthening my legs and arms with mana to withstand the strength of his blow, but it sent me stumbling backward.

Tavarius engaged him in a swift exchange of sword blows. He was understandably more proficient than me, but he still couldn’t quite match his uncle in strength or finesse. I jumped back into the fray, aiming to attack Ersham from his side. Seeing me approach out of the corner of his eye, he spun around and kicked Tavarius across the chest, sending him flying back.

Yeouch. That’s gotta hurt.

He turned to face me with a cocky expression.

Let’s see what you’ll do about this.

As I swung down my sword, I charged it with the energy of my magical reservoir. As Ersham positioned his wooden sword to deflect my attack, his eyes widened as he saw my sword slice through his, breaking in two. Whistling, a smirk appeared on his face.

“Two can play at that game.”

He suddenly chopped my sword in half with his own hands before it could strike him.

Ah. I forgot he could use body strengthening as well.

He then threw a punch directly at me. Scrambling to block his attack, I moved my arms to block his body blow, channeling as much mana as I could to defend against the blow. The punch knocked me down to the ground, leaving me gasping for air and staring at the wide blue sky.

This damned asshole.

“Ready to give up, boys?” He taunted us while making play-fighting stances with his fists.

“It’s not over yet!”

In charged Tavarius with a bold thrust. In response, Ersham jumped up high. The former’s sword pierced empty air, and the latter landed, stepping down on the wooden sword. With a quick motion of his hands, Ersham seized the sword from his nephew and pointed it at his neck.

“Gyahahaha! I win! You guys will never beat an expert swordsman such as myself.” Ersham huffed with pride.

“What are you doing, dear?”

Here came Helena, with Lucia and Clara. They were carrying trays of drinks and snacks, refreshments for a tiring day of training. Helena had a chilling smile on her face as she interrogated her husband.

“Well, uh, training them,” responded Ersham, the pride in his voice deflated.

“Kicking your nephew across the chest? Slamming Luqa down to the ground? Leaving them struggling to breathe? That’s necessary for training?” Helena asked frigidly.

“Well, no, but…”

Ersham struggled to justify himself.

Thanks, Aunt Helena, you’re the best!

Lucia toddled up to her flustered dad and looked up at him.

“Yea, Daddy, why were you being a meanie to them?” she innocently asked.

“Well, they need to learn how to fight, so I was pretending to fight against them. I can’t teach them if I don’t put some force in, right?”

Helena, unimpressed, continued to reprimand her husband.

“The point is to teach them how to use the sword, isn’t it? Not beating them down to a pulp.”

“Uh… yes ma’am.” Ersham looked like an ashamed puppy in reaction to Helena’s words.

My mother calmly went over to me, healing me with magic. The aching pain in my body quickly disappeared. “You did your best, Luqa, you’ll beat him in no time.”

***

Clara watched as Ersham continued to train Luqa and Tavarius. Lucia and Helena cheered the two on as they fought against a still-energetic Ersham.

“Go, go, win against Daddy!”

“Go boys, give him a good beating as he did to you!”

“Why are you guys cheering against me?!”

Clara giggled at the banter. Her son, a mere six-year-old boy, was keeping up with Tavarius and Ersham in a sword battle.

Luqa has been working hard lately. What a motivated boy.

The rate at which he learned, especially magic, never failed to impress her. And now he was also picking up swordsmanship and grasping it quickly as well.

He’ll grow up to do great things, I know it.

At this rate, he might just wander away from this village to continue learning magic elsewhere. He might even go to one of the nations south, like the Republic of Zauberburg. Luqa, the legendary mage!

She smiled as she imagined his possible bright future. Her anxiety at the thought of her only son leaving the nest alone didn’t overwhelm her desire to see him thrive.

Like father, like son.

Lingering in her mind were her worries about the Holy Knights in the Black Forest. In time, they might cause other monsters like the serpent to migrate toward the village. Or worse yet, they could outright stumble upon the village and invade it in the name of their church.

The latter seemed unlikely to her as of yet. In the past three years, they hadn’t made any major moves as they focused on securing the perimeter of their outpost and constructing buildings. During the recent times she snuck out to observe them, she had only spotted four Holy Knights – the rest of the humans there being workers for maintenance and keeping guard.

The heavy miasma of the Black Forest should kill them over time… But those two knights I saw from before are still there. Have they found a way to circumvent it? What are they doing here in the first place?

Maybe I should sneak my way into the Millieun Empire. I might find out their intentions with some digging there. No… Helena would be much better for subterfuge like that. I’ll ask her later. She and Ersham already know about the situation, so they should understand.

No matter what ends up happening, I will protect what we have here.