"First, I would like to ask how you all remember all the circles that you learned, because If I did the maths right you learn five basic circles, and in the six years of academy I think and hope that everyone at least learns all the second circles, and remembering all ten must be pretty difficult am I right?" asked Raia, "That is a good question, and the answer will surprise you, the spirits gifted us with a perfect memory in regards of circles, and you don't have to learn new circles, they appear in your mind once you've mastered a spell" answered Selena.
"What do you mean mastered a spell, how can you master a spell?" asked Raia, "Mastering a spell means reducing its casting time to zero through repetitive use" replied Selena.
"Wait you mean that all spells have casting times at the start?" continued Raia, "Not all Spells only elemental ones have casting times after the first use," said Selena.
"What do you mean first use?" Raia said, "I mean literally the first time you use that specific magic you have a cast time and it is the time you need to draw the magic circle, after that physical magic gets casted instantaneously, and is mastered once your body gets fully comfortable with the strain that it sustain for being overused, as for elemental magic after the first use you also don't need to draw the circle anymore you just need to think about it, and it will start to form, once it's completed it will activate the spell" explained Selena.
"So how much does it take to complete, I don't want to be a pole in possible battle," Raia asked worried, "You can cast spells while moving why did you think you had to stay still?" said Selena curious about her reasoning, "Because at the barracks when they train magic they always stay still so I just assumed it was like that," Raia explained giving her reasoning, "Ok I understand, at the barracks are probably just training accuracy because a pretty normal battle tactic is to have half of the soldier in the back, firing magic, and the other half close range and then switch them, that is probably why they were standing still, do you have other questions?"
"How do magic points work?" asked Raia, "What do you mean how do magic points work?" replied Selena with a question, "I mean how do they recharge can I obtain more of them, that is what I mean," said Raia curios about this mysterious power, "Magic points work like this: first they recharge in full at midnight, meaning that if you finish your magic at precisely midnight you can basically continue using it right after, magic points, in reality, are just the amount of magic your soul can handle, unfortunately, we still didn't find a way to strengthen the souls so no you can't obtain more of them, but this is the focus of our researchers at the moment because we are now on a stalemate but the powers of the kids that are awakening are worsening year by year so territory losses are expected in the next ten years, that is why this research is in full swing now."
Can we talk about why I can't use, magic now I am really curious?" Raia asked kind of excited, not because e she couldn't learn magic but because she wanted to start researching how to bypass her disability; "The reason you can't use magic is that you actually can't learn it; to learn it you have to watch someone draw the circle with their hands and then do it yourself, so, unless we find a way to help you see people hands we will not be able to let you learn it" Selena responded, "What! Can't you just move my fingers and I'll learn it that way," asked Raia confused, "No, I don't know why, but it is said it was a limit put in place by the spirit in accordance with the human founders, apparently to pass down magic only to who really deserved it but is suspected that all they wanted was to leave the art of magic only to their descendants, but as to about a century or so ago the previous king and the queen imposed a law that obliged the schools to accept commoner students at less than half the cost of tuition, so that everyone could afford it that is the reason, and it will also remain this way for the rest eternity."
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"What do you mean for the rest of eternity couldn't the king and the queen ask the spirits to remove the limitations?" asked Raia even more confused now, "Well that is because they died when the monster first appeared but this is not a history lesson and they will teach you this stuff in the academy so it is not my place to interfere" Selena firmly stated, and so Raia snapped her head to look at Carius who had been silent during the whole explanation, "Can you" "No, like she said, it will be at the academy that you will learn such things," Carius said not letting Raia finish, so she sadly nodded.
"First thing first, we should start looking at what the library has to offer regarding your special case," said Carius, "There are some interesting books but maybe we should first start with what she can actually use, to have a starting point, and that is her spirit form," said Carius taking out a book titled Spirit Form, in the griffin-water section and it read: To activate this specific spirit form the user has to imagine the feeling of water touching him.
And that is what Raia did, she imagined the feeling of entering the bath, the feeling of washing her hands, the feeling of drinking... all moments where she got in one way or another touched by water, at that moment a foreign feeling of warmth grew inside her and she was instantly hit by a powerful migraine that made her drop to the ground, she could barely function she was just whining in pain and convulsing; she thankfully heard Selena say to think only about the library, and she did, the pain gradually diminishing and then it stopped, she only felt two preseces, that she didn't know what they were.
When she opened her eyes she was shocked, she could see two blue figures in front of her, "What is happening?" she asked between ragged breaths, "You activated the spirit form as soon as you knew how, what part of your range is about half the human territory you didn't understand, what made you think that this was a good idea?" Selena asked while trying to help her, but she tried to struggle away from her and Carius surprising both of them, "What are these blue figures, and why are they trying to touch me?" asked Raia in a panic, that quite literally sparked a bell in Selena's mind and she asked, "Are those two blue figures trying to help you stand up?" "Yes, why?" Raia said still panicked, that two figures she could see were trying to help her, "Then we have made a big progress, the two figures are me and Carius and you can see us!"
While Raia was in the library her mother returned to her chores, she actually enjoyed her job as a maid and she liked the role of cleaning maid she had, that day she had to clean a lot of rooms and even the king and queen's room.
That room is majestic, to say the least, their bed is humongous, it has a frame made of the most beutiful piece of wood that she has ever seen, it has multiple carvings that go around the entire frame whitch extend upwards to create a canopied bed with silk tents of an elegant and beutifuls shade of red, the rest of the room is no exeption it has a private bath with a tub made in a marveluos grey marbled material, it has mulple mirrors, two sofas, two wardrobes a litte tea table and multiple other high-end furnituers, it also has a balcony that has a marvelous wiew of the capital and clining it was a tedious and meticoulus task, every nook and cranny had to be perfect there was no room for error, but tahnkfully it wasn't to big, other rooms like the dining room and the ballet room were much more empty but by no means simpler to clean actually, they might have been more difficult becouse of the sheer size difference.
Her life wasn't perfect and she knew that, all her daughter had was thans to the fact that she was good friend with the queen in school, she didn't blame herself though and she knew that neighter Raia did and that was conforting to her, she wasn't the mother that she wanted to be, she was definetly absent due to the amount of work that she had, but it was for the better, she had to pay for her daugther tuition at the academy and she was still indebited to the queen for their rooms that obviously changed in the meantime, mostly Raia's room becouse she was still growing, and she would pay her back, that was what she wanted and she would achieve it no matter what, she would work harder than everyone to be able to do it.