“Have you had a chance to watch how Beau cleans your house yet?” Adelia asked Sharna.
“No, I only arrived recently, I haven't had time to do much yet at all.”
Adelia gestured towards Beau. “You should definitely watch him when you get the chance. It will give you more of an idea of the way our magic repels the dirt and dust from any space that we focus on.”
Adelia explained that although the wards that most catkin were able to create were based on their affinity to cleansing magic, they had a few different methods of working. The two that were most used for their barriers either repelled or scanned. Sharna was fascinated, none of her prior tutors had an affinity for, or interest in, cleansing magic, so Adelia's explanation was all entirely new information.
“The barrier that Beau set up at your house, at Myra's request, is foundationally based on scanning, letting the user know if particular prompts have entered the field. Scanning is a technique that traditionally we have used to work out what is within an area, so that we can determine what needs to be cleared from a space.” Adelia turned and smiled at her daughter, “We will get Amarli to practise setting up a repelling barrier today though, because it will be easier to understand looking from the outside.”
Sharna watched intensely as Adelia guided her daughter through the process. Amarli beamed as Beau bounced off an invisible wall that surrounded them.
“Does it prevent him from entering from above or below?” Sharna asked.
“Yes, it’s like a bubble that surrounds where she chooses, the size of the bubble will grow as her skill progresses. Well done honey, that is a wonderful first attempt.” Adelia smiled proudly at her daughter, then turned to Sharna. “Now it’s your turn.”
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Sharna swallowed and stood, feeling self conscious she closed her eyes and focused within. She thought that immediately jumping to her goal of shielding or concealing mana waves would be premature and decided to focus on something more tangible to begin with. Adelia had explained earlier that although she didn’t have personal experience with image-manifestation, based on her experience of wards and what she knew of image- manifestation, she felt that Sharna’s shields may work if they were based on what they blocked, so Sharna had decided to focus there first.
Sharna started to hum and to move her hands in a new pattern, she smiled as she felt the light gathering beneath them. She let her perception stretch around her but held it tightly within an arm's length as she focused on her goal, picturing the bubble and what it would block. She let her hands drop as she felt the barrier click in around her and opened her eyes.
Three sets of shocked faces looked back at her, looking even more alike than before. Beau recovered first, admiration in his voice, “well, I already knew that you were a bit different.”
At the sound of Beau’s voice, Adelia physically shook herself and schooled her face into a neutral position, while Amarli continued looking at Sharna with wonder.
Sharna was surrounded by a translucent, iridescent ball. In truth, it looked like nothing more than a large, beautiful soap bubble. Beau reached his hand out to touch it, but his hand passed straight through the wall of the bubble, stopping briefly at his sleeve and then pushing his sleeve up his arm as his arm continued in. He pulled his arm back out and looked at Sharna, perplexed.
Adelia rose and easily put her hand through the bubble’s wall towards Sharna, her rings passing through as easily as her skin, then retracted her hand, looked down at Beau’s sleeve, picked up a cloth napkin and they all watched in silence as the napkin was crushed against the external side of the bubble, completely blocked by Sharna’s barrier.
Confused and confronted by their silence, Sharna’s words tripped over themselves as she rushed to explain, “I’ve worked with fabric so much that I thought it would be easier to understand the fundamentals of its structure and materials, I know that it would be better to have it keep out everything..” Adelia raised her hand, and Sharna stopped babbling.
Adelia and Beau exchanged a significant look and this time it was Adelia that spoke.
“So your ward will block only fabric, nothing else?” She asked in a measured tone.
“Yes..?” Sharna was confused by this question and looked from one to the other, “didn’t you say that I needed to choose what to block like when you repel dust and dirt?”
Amarli started bouncing the napkin around the wall of the bubble, “and we can see exactly where it is, and it’s so pretty! It is so cool! Can I make one like this now too, Mum?”
“I’m sorry honey, you can’t.” Adelia replied absent mindedly, obviously still deep in her own thoughts as she walked around Sharna, intently scrutinising Sharna's creation.