The next day, Vel woke up early to clean up and put away the toys in the playroom. The once disorganized space glittered in the dawning light, with only the rosey bookshelves and beautifully handcrafted chests left to hint of the room before. In the middle, he arranged a comfy rug made from the skin of a large winter bear that Rinyan brought back last fall, and placed a lavender crystal at its center. The crystal gave off a muted glow that was barely reflected against the shiny white fur.
Last night, after Rhiyun had stopped crying, Vel came down to learn that Rhina had made her way through a good portion of the pastries he prepared, absconding with an equal amount for Rhiyun.
Consequently, the two had been too full for dinner. After Rinyan heard about what the two rascals did, she laughed so hard that Vel was worried she’d fall off her chair. Vel was less than amused, though, his fine eyebrow twitching as he looked at the two guilty little toddlers. For children so young, they sure were brave. Rhina and Rhiyun looked at their feet, unable to meet their father’s gaze.
His upper lip twitching a little, Vel announced that from this day on, Rhina and Rhiyun would begin learning magic. Properly.
The two were then put to bed, and woke up to the playroom being neatly cleaned up and the curtains pulled wide open. Initially, Vel wanted to wait until they were at least around 7 or 8 to begin teaching them...nevertheless, ignoring early talent could lead to danger of improper control and over exertion, leaving with him no choice but to start early. If his children got hurt…Vel’s eyebrows furrowed.
After breakfast, Vel bid Rinyan good luck on her day and had Rhina and Rhiyun file up the stairs to the playroom. The two didn’t seem to react much to the changed landscape, making Vel wonder if the two really were 3 year olds or not. Back when he was still in the imperial court - he caught himself before his mouth pulled down into a huge frown.
“I’ll be teaching you two some basic rules of magic and how to properly manage your body.” Vel attempted to sound stern as he patted the two on the head. “If you two do well, I’ll make something delicious.”
This got their attention. Due to the lack of proper trade routes, sugar was hard to come by in the north. Sweet things had to be made from berries or from sap of specific trees. Vel’s handmade jams and preserved fruit were extremely popular, not just among the twins, but the whole village too. Often, during festivals when he contributed some of the jars of preserves, Vel found himself being proposed to by the men and women of the village, much to his chagrin.
Eying his children, Vel sat down, taking from under his arm a rather dusty and worn book and some parchment that he and Rinyan had made earlier during the summer months. In truth, he had a portable interface that could do the same job, but he prefered using books and paper.
Surprisingly, the two were very attentive and enthusiastic. Little hellions, they might be, but when it came to something they were genuinely curious and interested in, they transformed into peaceful little angels. If it weren’t for the fact that the twins were his children, he was sure he would have been, without a doubt, fooled. However, he was surprised at the depth of understanding the two had managed to achieve in their small lifespan...Ah, but he wasn’t a researcher anymore.
No. His job, now, was to teach his two children who sat diligently in front of him.
He gave the two a lopsided smile ruffling the top of both of their heads. Rhina looked a lot like Rinyan, while Rhiyun looked more similar to him; Rhiyun’s blackish hair was beginning to fade into a deeper red. He never thought he would be able to love deeply in any way, but now he had found something to protect. The twins looked at him oddly, curious of what their father might be up to.
“Let’s start.” Vel held gestured to the two to give him a hand. Holding the two small palms that were easily lost within his larger ones, he spoke. “Na-rhi and Yun-rhi, what do you feel?”
Rhina could clearly feel the pull of a flowing sensation that seemed to circle throughout her father’s body. At the point where their hands touched, it tugged, gently, like a lazy river. Rhiyun sensed it too, but not as strongly as what Rhina felt.
“A river.”
“A stream.”
The two small voices spoke in unison. They were rewarded with a smile from their father.
“Very good. The flow of magic the two of you felt is something that all living creatures carry. The system it occupies is the main instrument for magic casting. All energy flows and is connected to the Origin, where it flows to and from. All living beings can influence this flow and bend it to their will; a phenomenon called magic.”
Vel pulled out a small coin from his pocket. Focusing on it, Rhina and Rhiyun noticed the flow from Vel’s body encircling and raising the coin, causing it to levitate. Then, the energy suddenly surged, and the coin bent, collapsing back onto the rug, feeling a bit warm to the touch. The flow around it grew stronger, for a moment, but quickly dispersed into the surrounding energy.
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“That is area manipulation. By using your own energy, you can alter the world around you. It is a power anyone can use intuitively; even so, the amount of effects one can do is dependent on the person themselves. Think of it as a muscle; the more you use it, the stronger it gets.”
Vel levitated the coin once more, this time doing something different; instead of bending, the metal of the coin changed shape, metamorphosing into a small ball. The flow around the ball, minus the energy that kept it suspended, did not change. When their father gestured to them to touch it, it felt acutely chilly.
“What did you think happened?”
Rhiyun looked Rhina, as if asking her. The little eyebrows on Rhina’s face furrowing together. After a moment of thinking she responded, slowly.
“Did you...use the energy in the coin?”
Vel grinned.
“Bingo~ It's called origin manipulation. It’s what the two of you were playing with yesterday. While area can only affect things physically, someone skilled with origin manipulation can not only alter the physical structure internally, but do things like drawing out certain elements and even changing the property.
“But, origin manipulation is a little special. Unlike area manipulation, it requires inborn ability. If someone doesn’t have it, they don’t have it. Most of the time, people are born with partial or unique origin manipulation abilities that increase their affinity for something or give them an ability to do something others can’t. The most basic allows for efficient utilization of magic, by ‘requesting’ energy from a different source. And while you can do things that area cannot, your power is limited by the surrounding energy.”
Rhiyun chewed on his bottom lip, having a bit of difficulty understanding what his father said; however, Rhina acted like she understood everything. Vel grabbed a piece of parchment and drew out a diagram to help further elaborate. Rhina pointed at it and quietly explained the process to Rhiyun. After a moment, he nodded, finally understanding.
“A good magic user must understand that both types of manipulation are necessary. Often, people find themselves mixing the two kinds of magic together. The range that origin manipulation can channel varies upon the kind and affinity that the person has with it. The largest general range I’ve heard a person having without using their affinity or area ability was around thirty meters or so radius, but usually the average should be around 5 meters at most. Although the area can be increased with the use of ritualtechnology to up to several times the original, depending on the quality and make of the tool.
“This aspect, while it can be trained, grows a lot slower than area. Depending on ability and creativity, it can be expanded depending on your ability to cast conjunctively with area.”
To help the twins understand, Vel continued drawing on the parchment, giving a stickfigure example of what wa going on. His drawings had a technical flare to it, with exact lines and shapes. It was the first time in Rhina's previous and current life where she had seen anyone draw such them so perfectly.
“The next important thing that the two of you need to know is the art of combining the prior two kinds of magic into objects - Ritualtechnology.
“Like the word itself, the art is composed of ritual and technology. Ritual magic is the process of arranging various conductive components like an input/output system that results in a final effect. Before, it took time to arrange these, and could siphon the energy from its surroundings to form effects, making it an extremely effective way for people without much area or origin manipulation to rival powerful magic; however, if the person miscalculated the energy cost, it would often have heavy rebound consequence. As a result, being able to effectively use this kind of magic discipline required years of study.
“With innovations during the pre-First Cataclysm era, people learned how to standardize and mass produce magic tools that could utilize ritual magic without need of prior calculation, giving birth to the first major technological revolution. Now, anyone could use ritual magic without the years of study that it once required, causing an explosion of progress and increased standard of living. I’ll go more in depth with the whole topic later if the two of you are interested. For now, I’ll explain the energy source that is used to fuel ritualtech.”
Then he picked up the crystal that he had set down earlier, passing it to Rhina who then gave it to Rhiyun. The size of the crystal was roughly around ten centimeters in length and two and a half centimeters wide at the thickest part. It felt warm in her hand and gave her a sensation of a beating heart.
“That’s a piece of crystallized origin. It’s a dense lattice structure of stabilized origin energy. Normally, it’s mined from veins in the earth, but can also appear within certain beasts with high magic capacity or in plants with varying degrees of purity, graded from the lowest, F at 10%, to the highest, SSS at 99%. It’s used to fuel most types of ritual magic and ritualtech, although it can also be used raw to help power a magic user who is talented with origin manipulation. Depending on the purity and the power of the spells that are used, it can last from as little as a single use to years. F grade crystals the size of this chunk will often vaporize and leave only the impurities after a mid-level spell while an SSS grade crystal is often passed down as family heirlooms.”
Vel then took out a small object that looked like two hexagonal pyramids joined together at the base and was no longer than the first joint of Rhina’s pinky finger. It had a slightly similar appearance to the lavender crystal. When she squinted, she could see swirls of pearlescent white intruding into it. Vel held it up, letting the sunlight that streamed through the window fall upon it.
“This is an energy storage unit. Anyone can use it and store energy into it with area. Due to its construction, it can be reused over and over, and is a lot more efficient than just jamming a crystal into the socket. The commercial maximum storage is around 40% - the same amount of a C grade crystal; the military grade units from the Granv’el Empire and the Solace Republic can go up to 75% - A grade - but distribution is heavily controlled...” At this point, the information that he rattled off continued to contain less and less context, to the point that Rhina had difficulty following. Wasn’t the first time supposed to be an overview? Why was he going into so much arbitrary detail?
‘Hey, at least take your kids’ ages into account, old man.’
At this point, Rhina wondered if her father actually realized the physical age of the two kids in front of him. Was this what someone would call an idiot father? No matter, she continued listening while supporting the slowly nodding off Rhiyun.