“Although light magic is considered ‘good’, several of its applications can surely be described as anything but. The ability for a light Mage to blind every living thing with eyes around it, be it friend or foe, is astound, and its ability to project pure rays of destructive light are known to be one of the deadliest types of magic known to Humans today.”
̶ An Introduction to Magical Studies, Julian Carell, 1200 AS
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“Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
Cerolus is standing above me, his hands holding my shoulders. It’s the sixth day of my magical training, and I keep doing the same things all over again: breakfast, language lessons, light break in the gardens, magical training, dinner, bath, sleep. It has been going on for the past five days, and I’m slowly getting sick of it.
I close my eyes, trying to relax, once again an image of me naked popping into my head. Ever since the first time I experienced that small tingle, I have been focusing on those spots on my shoulders, hoping to speed up the time it takes my body to notice the mana. So far, I haven’t had much in the way of actual results, the tingle still remaining almost undetectable. I would always break into a sweat, but I have slowly reduced the amount of it. Cerolus said that’s my body slowly getting used to having mana circulate throughout it, a natural occurring thing among the Demons, apparently.
The spot on my shoulders tingles again, but this time I can see a small spark of light come out of it, as if the tingle is caused by that same spark. The light flickers briefly and disappears, lasting no more than a mere moment in my mind, as my concentration leaves me panting and gasping from air, something I still can’t figure out how I achieved, since my mind doesn’t show it. Magical training is weird.
Cerolus notices my panting and lack of focus, his hands leaving my shoulders. He has been incredibly patient these days, and his constant encouragement, although helpful, is becoming somewhat annoying. I cannot help but remember the way Mother pestered my Father about little things, his look of annoyance amusing all of my siblings and me greatly. I would hate to admit it, but I catch myself doing the same look as Cerolus speaks about the training. Does this mean we are getting along in our marriage? I can only wonder.
“Anything different today? You took a bit more time just now.”
“I saw a small light from the spots where you put your hands on.”
“Saw?” He asks me, his questioning look somewhat amusing. His black eyes are naturally creepy, but his facial expressions can remove all of that creepiness in some situations, this being one of them. It’s welcoming, to be honest.
“Yes, I imagine myself in my mind, trying to focus on the spots you touch and use mana on. My… mental image helps me concentrate better. That’s how I felt the tingling five days ago. And now I just saw light on those same spots.”
“Hmmm, visualization has been said to help during training. You’re doing good. And you have also successfully determined the type of mana I’m channeling today. If I were to be completely honest, you’re doing quite fine so far. I predict that you should be ready to cast your first magic in about two months.”
Two months? That much? Or should it be ‘that little’? I am dejected by the prospect of having to do this thing for a week more, let alone two months, it’s incredibly boring.
“Is that good?”
“Well, based on your current progress, you are as talented as our least talented children, at least by the time it took you to discern a specific type of mana. That would put my estimate to about two months from now, although I can’t really say for certain. It seems Humans are extremely limited in the way of mana manipulation. Simply put, it’s not really your personal fault. We’ve grown in a mana-abundant lands after all, and you haven’t. You have to take time to adjust.
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In the meantime, I’ll allow you to train your physical strength a bit. It will help your studies, and I can feel you want to get out and do more around the castle.” He says, wiping his hands after handing me a towel to wipe my sweat off.
“You’ll start tomorrow morning, of course that means you’ll have to stop sleeping in.” A grin shows on his face. What exactly does he mean by ‘physical training’? And will he do it personally, like he does with magical studies?
“Now, let’s get some dinner and allow you to sleep, tomorrow is going to be a long day.”
We walk to the dining room, my orientation around the castle now starting to improve. I’ve got lost only three times there past five days, always having to rely on Kozzok to tell the guards where to go. I’ve been told my language skills are starting to improve a bit, but I still can’t converse properly, making commanding my guard… difficult at best. He’s still the same one from the first time I’ve got lost, so it seems he is also getting used to it as well, and Cerolus hasn’t done anything to him, which I assume means Kozzok actually hasn’t told him anything about the incident. Or maybe he did, and Cerolus just ignored the matter completely. I’m not sure which scenario I like more.
On one hand, I may be able to start trusting Kozzok a bit more, but I still don’t like him much, especially the way he moves around unnoticed. I’ve asked him about it on one occasion; his exact words being ‘it is a special ability my race possesses, one which many Demon nobles use to their advantage’. I guess he would make an excellent spy or assassin; I’ve only heard minor things about those at the Palace, and I don’t know much about how the politics here work. I can only guess Cerolus is a noble with a small claim to the throne from what I’ve heard about him before the wedding, but I haven’t asked him about it, and he hasn’t been talkative about the matter either. Maybe I’ll find out when the time for that comes.
On the other, Cerolus not doing anything to the guard after he did disobey an order in a way, shows that he is a kind man after all, one way or the other. I’m pretty sure I covered this a dozen times already, but I still keep having doubts, even though we sleep in the same bed every night now, his arm wrapped around my body.
I believe I am starting to like him, as a man as well as a husband. I keep thinking about his figured body sometimes when I’m alone, my chest swelling and heat rising in response. I’m not sure if I am ready yet to confirm those feelings, but Cerolus hasn’t shown any kind of impatience or tried to pressure me into anything. I’m not sure what will happen in the future, but for now, I like how this is going. Our daily ritual of magic practice puts my mind at ease.
We eat our dinner slowly, Cerolus urging me to eat a bit more than I’d like. Is he trying to make me fat?
“And no, I don’t have any thoughts about your figure. You look fine. I’m telling you to eat because I need you to have energy tomorrow.” He assures me, but some lingering doubts about my figure remain. Will I look prettier if I gained more muscles or not?
We finish our meal and I go and take a bath, with Cerolus taking his after I go to our room and lie in bed. I can’t fall asleep without him putting his arm around me anymore, my mind immediately put at ease once he does.
His embrace puts me to sleep again, wondering what my next day is going to look like. I hope it will be good, I’ve had a good time here so far, I wouldn’t want the good times to end so soon.