Unfortunately, they hadn’t got as much training done last night as they did the one before due to the pouring rain, but Dyo was still taking every moment he could to improve. But when travelling at the pace they were at there wasn’t much time to stop and practice sword fighting. The view was nice though, with the rolling hills and scraggly little farmsteads and hamlets dotted across the landscape and surrounded by the fields their inhabitants tended. It was beautiful, but it was also a little boring too.

So, he was doing something else which exasperated Shani.

Get magical training from Ercole.

“I’m not sure what I can teach you!” He laughed, “I’ve told you many times before, human magic cannot hold a candle to what you can do.”

“You’ve had years of learning and training though!” Dyo protested, “You know a lot more about how it actually works than me! I just…” He tried to find the words but found nothing and waved his hands around, “Do it! I don’t know how the flow of magic works.”

“And you don’t need to to use your magic. As I say, human magic is a lot less powerful than yours and has more restrictions on its use, along with also needing a technical understanding of the winds of magic.”

Dyo sighed, slumping into his saddle, “I’d still like to know! Maybe it’d make my magic even more powerful at the same time?”

A slight smile went across Ercole’s face as he let out a single laugh, “I don’t think I can imagine it being more powerful! Though it would make you an even more striking individual if it did….” He sighed, turning to look at Dyo with his gem-like green eyes, “And I can never say no to anyone wanting to learn something out of curiosity.”

“So, you’ll actually teach me!?” He blurted, eyes brightening.

“Of course! Though you should move up a little closer to me, I don’t think Shani wants us talking so loudly.”

A loud huff came from her as she muttered, “Damn right I don’t wanna hear a flirty lecture…”

But Dyo noticed that she said it in Cudeshian, rather than the Neuhderhieden they’d all been using to speak recently.

“Uh- Shani, you know you said that in-“

For a moment her face froze before falling into a sigh, “I guess I can’t do that anymore…”

“Oh chin up!” Ercole chided, “You can always do it with everyone else! I think we may be the only living people in the world who have drunk that wine and not a lot of people in Enois know Cudeshian.”

“Still not as fun as it used to be.”

“Aww, you’ll get used to it.”

She sighed again, “I’ll take the lead then and you two can go start chatting, just don’t be too loud and draw every patrol from miles around.”

“Will do!”

“I hope you will…”

Ercole gave a short laugh, patting Shani on the back as she passed him before falling back to meet with Dyo, ignoring Hreysti’s stares as he did.

“So dear Demigod, where do you wish to start?”

“I Uh-“ He stuttered, “Don’t know. That’s what I was going to leave to you.”

Ercole simply smiled and laughed, “Surely you have some idea of what you want to learn about? You have a great scholar, wizard, and witch riding beside you!”

“I guess I might…” he lowered his chin, preparing to stroke his horns in thought till remembering the reins and moving back, “I guess I want to know what magic is then, just as a basic thing.”

At that Ercole completely cracked up, laughing as his chest rumbled, “Oh that’s one of the most complex subjects around! But from what research we’ve done we can be sure on one thing.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“And that is…” Dyo asked, cautiously like he was treading into a hound’s pen.

“That we don’t know what it is! It’s some sort of powerful energy and force, and it does twist and blow across the world, spouting from various ley lines but for what it actually is we don’t know! Hell- or I guess hells, I don’t think even the gods fully understand it, but if they did, I’d love to ask them about it if they’d give me the time of day, unlike Athervi.”

“That…”

“Is unsatisfying? It certainly is, but that is how magic works for the most part. If it wasn’t mysterious, it’d just be natural philosophy rather than, well, magic! The stuff of legends and the gods.”

“It’s still a little frustrating…” Dyo muttered, “How do you even use it then if you don’t know how it works? Didn’t you say that knowledge of how it works is needed for people to use it?”

“Ah-!” Ercole raised a finger, “But that knowledge you need is on how to wield it and how it reacts. You do not need to know what it is to know the techniques required to channel it, or what it will do when certain alterations are made, though it is magic, so those results are not entirely predictable.”

And as he finished, a small barely visible glow of light appeared at the tip of his finger.

“Though this little spell is pretty much just a party trick and a way to read at night without any candles or lamps which tend not to play nicely with papyrus and parchment. Though that is a lesson some people need to learn a little faster will all the library fires across history…”

The distaste in Ercole’s voice at the last part was palpable but Dyo could only focus on that tiny speck of light in on their finger.

“Do you think you could teach me that!?”

Ercole’s face flashed with surprise, “This? I guess I could and it serves as a decent lesson but it’s a rather unimpressive spell that most wizards could master somewhat quickly.”

Dyo nodded, “I do, I just want to know how to do something that isn’t just what I can do naturally, then, maybe I could try to learn some of that healing magic?”

Ercole smile returned with a chuckle, “Alright then, but we’ll have to figure out what parts you’ll need to learn, you’re not fully human after all. Naturally magic creatures like you have innate abilities and are channelling devices in of themselves for one so I’m guessing I won’t have to teach you anything about drawing magic or controlling its general flow…”

“What other parts are there then?”

“Well, once you have the magic inside of you via drawing it from the channelling device of choice, and have trained the ability to push it around, the next parts would be pushing it outwards and forming it. Usually those two last parts usually build on top of skills and knowledge learned to do those, but you’ve been using subconscious ‘guides’ of a sort for the most part so far so I’m not sure how easy it’ll be for you…”

“I’m willing to try now! Just tell me what to do and I’ll try to do it.”

Ercole’s eyes looked into Dyo’s for a moment, savouring the determination and curiosity inside them. “I like that fire… If you’re eager then, see if you can try and push a small portion of your power to your finger. Tell me if you need me to take your reins to concentrate on it, though your natural abilities might make it a bit easier.”

“Take them.”

Ercole nodded, riding a little closer and taking control of his horse as Dyo pulled his hands away. One hand he lifted up, raising his index finger like Ercole had done as his other hand absent-mindedly stroked a horn, trying to put all of his focus inside himself, letting his vision blur as he imagined it.

A tendril of flowing energy reached out from his natural well and towards his index, his thoughts pushing the magic as he had done before but this time not thinking about what it was for. Instead, it was all on just pushing it. Like thinking about every step of walking instead of just letting your body do it.

“Now, when you’re ready Dyo, try to think and form it into a small ball, perfectly still, just staying there for you to use.”

He obeyed, trying to cut that tendril and form it into that perfect ball. He tried to imagine all sorts of ways of cutting it, from mental knives to simply willing it, but none seemed to work. His hand started to stroke his horn a little harder as he thought, keeping the tendril still before he came at it again, just imagining the ether separating like water and it cooperated. The tiny sliver flowed free, trying to worm away and escape like smoke as his mind fought to keep it in place.

In the end, he was barely able to succeed in compressing and controlling it into that ball which stood at the very end of his finger in his mind’s eye.

“Now, this part is a little more complicated, but I’ll teach you the simplest form of his spell. You’re not going to try and sustain it, instead, you are going to just get that little ball to flash. So, push it out of your body and squeeze it as hard as you can while imagining it burning as bright as it can, all at once. Don’t worry if it doesn’t work, you can take another ball and try again.”

Dyo breathed in, trying to keep his heart and his mind steady as the sudden jump in mental complexity required threatened to make anxiety rise up inside him. So, he instead fully focused on the ball, feeling the pressure around it, the faint picture of a candle appearing in his head as he readied himself, the magic nearly ready to go.

He pushed it out, letting the image of that candle come to the front of his mind as he also imagined that little ball squeezing into a tiny infinitesimal speck.

For a moment, a small, dim flash appeared at the very edge of his finger as his vision suddenly focused on it. But just as he saw it it went out, the little light replaced by a sudden small spark of an indescribable colour, both like water, fire, and like air all at the same time that crackled through the air for another split second before, like the light before it, it went out.

“Wha- What was that!?”

Ercole simply smiled again, “That was magic and an excellent first attempt. Your imagination must be rather quite excellent to get that far!”