Manipulating the room with nothing more than her fingers, Andreaki created a chair and floor, the floorboards creaking and groaning as magic manipulated them to her will. She gestured for me to take a seat, and I complied, wondering why I needed to sit.

“Judging by those flakes, you’ve already figured out how to use some magic at some degree of simplicity. Describe to me how it felt,” she instructed.

“It started as a swirling sensation of a liquid, with my body feeling like a funnel. When it empties out the bottom, I create the ice,” I answered, focusing my Aura to my fingers to make more ice.

“Okay, but what does the water feel like? Does it feel cold, or is it cold when it drains?” Andreaki suggested.

Creating ice flakes that extended down to my palm, I shivered as her words came true and my insides felt chilled.

“The latter, it’s cold when leaving,” I said, rubbing my hands together to try and bring warmth to my bones.

“Okay, okay. Now try making it warm.”

“How?” I asked.

“However you can.”

Concentrating on the water, or rather, my Aura, I compelled the liquid to warm as it flowed down the drain. Such compulsion failed, and icicles dripped from my fingers.

After two more failed attempts at the same strategy, I tried pretending that the drain itself was warm and would therefore warm my Aura on the way out. In turn, cold water started dripping from my palms.

An improvement, but not quite, I thought.

Seeing as manipulation of the drain or my Aura itself yielded no results, I focused on the movement of my Aura instead. How it would succeed was a mystery, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do.

“It hurts,” I muttered in my concentration, feeling my Aura push on the edges of the drain as if trying to tear its way through my chest.

Andreaki’s eyes widened, and her hands shot up with light glowing from her palms. At the same time, the pain reached its peak, and all my Aura drained at once, causing a flash of white light and blinding me.

When my vision returned, two blocks of ice froze my arms. Either because the ice numbed my nerves or due to the magical nature of it, it was not cold against my skin. Snow and icicles pointed up like spears surrounded me on both the ground and in the air, threatening anyone who would try to approach me.

The winter explosion didn’t spare my tutor either, as a light layer of frost covered her scales.

“That is not quite what I meant hun,” she said, the frost steaming away with a hiss.

“I gathered that,” I replied, more focused on the blocks than whatever it was she was saying.

Rolling her eyes, the dragonoid snapped her fingers, and a great deal of warmth invaded my body from head to toe, causing the aftermath of my spell to melt into steam.

“Was that supposed to happen?” I asked.

“Somewhat. That type of backfire will happen whenever magic isn’t channeled properly, like you just did. All things considered, you got off lightly. I have seen…worse outcomes,” Andreaki answered.

“Then how am I supposed to make my Aura warm? It’s always cold when it leaves,” I retorted.

“Guinevere, this may be difficult to understand, but the water you feel is your Aura-”

“I know that!” I interrupted, but found myself interrupted when she swiped her fingers to the side, causing my voice to cut itself short.

“As I was saying, based on what you’ve told me, that water is your Aura, and the drain is your process of turning it into mana. What drains is the mana you cast magic with. What I want you to make warm is the mana. Trying to make your Aura warm, while it could work with enough stubbornness, will never achieve the same level of control I am trying to teach you—the level of control you need to meet your parent’s expectations,” Andreaki explained, her tone slow and deliberate with each word. “Now, try again. This time with fewer explosions.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Swiping her fingers in the opposite direction as before, I found the tightness around my lips dissipate, and I could speak again.

“Why didn’t you tell me that before?” I asked, resisting the urge to stare daggers at her.

“Usually what people feel is their mana, not their Aura itself. Past students have been able to work it out from there, but you have an extra step. Not uncommon, but not what I believed it to be. Now concentrate,” she ordered.

Following her instructions, I turned my attention back to my Aura, feeling it once again move around within me. The process was slower, as if scared of causing further harm, but no longer under my influence, it could flow through the drain without trouble.

Blistering heat sprung from my fingertips as I imagined the mana flowing out like lava which burned my flesh. My yelp put an end to my concentration, killing the magic along with it. Despite the pain, I could not suppress a smile at the success.

“Not bad, but do keep in mind that just because it is your magic does not mean you will be immune to it,” Andreaki recommended, either oblivious or uncaring towards the smoke rolling up from my fingers.

Once it was obvious she wouldn’t help me tend to my wounds, I created ice around them to soothe the burns.

A normal child would have been hesitant to try something again after being burned by said action, but I was not like most children.When there was magic to learn, it was a small price to pay and a little seared flesh wouldn’t stop me.

—

“I think that’s enough for today,” Andreaki decided.

“But I can still go on!” I protested, “I just started getting better at it!”

To prove my point, I focused on the task at hand. The now all-too-familiar sensation of my Aura draining out as fire instead of water, or lava, left my fingers. Unlike my first few attempts, I imagined the funnel further away from my body.

At first, nothing came of the exercise other than a few sparks, but it did not take long for the sparks to evolve into a full-fledged flame. It was a small one by any definition, but one I created and something I beamed down at. The fire did not last long as a wave of nausea knocked me off my feet, and the flame died out in an instant.

“You were saying?” Andreaki asked, already knowing the answer.

As much as I wanted to argue with her by proving her wrong, my body resisted such attempts, and I couldn’t even make ice.

“Why am I—why am I so woozy?” I asked.

“I suppose this would be a new experience for you, considering how past times went. While you may have passed out in the past from magic, your body will put you through a variety of unpleasant things to keep you from reaching that point in the first place. Nausea is the most common, but vomiting, cramps, fever, spasms, and anything else unpleasant can be possible.

As a dragonoid, it’s never been a problem for me, but I have tutored a number of students through it. I suppose we’ll have to work through it later,” Andreaki answered.

“So is that it for today?”

“In terms of practice, yes. In terms of our time together…” Following her gaze out the window, I saw it was noon at the latest. “No, we can discuss what kinds of magic there are.”

“Didn’t you say we could do anything with magic?” I inquired.

“Yes, I did, but that doesn’t mean we can’t categorize the method in which they are casted. There is also a bit more nuance in casting, but that’s a little too complicated for you right now. What kinds of magic do you think there are?” Andreaki elaborated.

This was the first time I ever considered there being different types of magic. Until then, magic was just magic. There was no such thing as nuance in it. The ice I created was no different from what brought our house to life.

Using my silence as an answer, my tutor smiled for reasons I could only imagine.

“The most simple and common type of magic is what we call elemental. There are the four basics: fire, water, wind or air, and earth. Your aptitude, ice, is, despite what many people think, different from water and is classified as a secondary element. Other secondary elements include lightning, lava or magma, light, and darkness. Of course, there are tertiary elements, but those are more combinations of other elements than anything unique.

Besides elemental magic, there is enchantment magic, the purpose of which is to enhance things. It's easier to do so on inanimate objects for any improvement you can think of, but enchantment can also be used on living things to make them stronger, faster, and even smarter for short periods of time.

Psychic magic is also rather simple, at least when compared to the others, and one of the more common. It includes basic telepathy, mind reading, levitation, and psychokinesis. Think weird things revolving around the mind or the things so many of you humans think you can do.

Necromancy is magic revolving around anything involving the dead.

Divination is the ability to see into the future and is considered one of the most difficult to master.

Divine or holy magic involves tampering with the soul, despite what the gods may say.

Alchemy allows manipulation of materials into other materials.

And space-time-reality magic is self explanatory and is not only the most dangerous, but the most costly to use,” Andreaki ranted, listing off each form of magic with her fingers.

Once again, I answered her with silence as my mind tried to keep up with everything she laid on me. Instead of a smile like before, she frowned as the realization dawned on her how little a ten-year-old would truly understand, let alone remember.