I raised my hand, drawing a circle in the air. As my finger moved, a sparkling red line followed its path. I began to draw an overlapping pentagram within the circle circle intertwined with the tips of the star, imagining a small imp with generic features appearing in front of me. I felt the Soul inside me get sucked out and absorbed into the circle. A small cross appeared into the centre, a red skull burned into existence , hovering in the middle of my circle before the circle fizzled out of existence. I looked over to the table a little over seven feet away from me. Focusing my mind, an exact replica of the circle I had drawn appeared and shone brightly. As the light died down, an imp stepped out of the circle. It looked exactly as I had imagined it.

I rejoiced. This was only the third time I’d successfully summoned an imp! I stammered around in my excitement, trying to quickly think of what to tell him to do. Come here. I thought. The imp, who was already looking in my direction, snapped to attention and quickly ran over to my crib, before stopping where I had been looking when I had thought of the command. Thoughts were rushing through my head, so I took a deep breath to calm down. From the two other times I’d summoned an imp, I knew it wouldn’t leave until I commanded it to.

I turned my attention to the bookshelf, contemplating what I wanted to learn more about tonight. I already knew the basics of magic because that’s what I had read about in the past. I didn’t know anything advanced, just the basics of mana and the types of magic.

Mana is the magical force that you use when performing the normal types of magic. It’s stored in your body, and passively regenerated, just like my Soul. It actually had a lot of similarities to my Soul. For example, when you use it all up, the total amount you can hold is increased. I had worked out that Mana and Soul are like muscles; you have to use it to increase my power over time. Aside from Soul being only used by me, they were practically the same. The only difference was that your Mana storage stopped expanding at age fifteen to eighteen. There was no way to know when my Soul capped out, so I planned on using it as much as possible in case that it capped out around the time my Mana did.

I also knew the basics of magic. There were four base types: Air, Water, Fire, and Earth. There were also other types of magic, but I hadn't learned of them yet other than healing which my mother is proficient in. From my understanding, magic worked by using the elements around you. To use water magic, you must have water to harness. That wasn't hard, as there was always moisture in the air. The same was for the other elements, air around you and earth beneath your feet. Fire was the exception—you could make it anywhere, as long as you were not drenched in water but it drains your mana fast. From there, your abilities and power relied on mana and skill.

My thoughts turned back to the imp who stood unmoving in front of me.

What book should I read? I wondered. I think something about performing magic.

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I looked up to the bookshelf, and tried to scan the book titles. I could make out a few words, such as ‘Faer’, ‘History’, and ‘Magic’.

Aha! I thought as my eyes landed on a book with the word ‘spell’ on it. I willed the imp to move over to the bookshelf and grab the spellbook(hopefully that was what it was. It could be a spell theory book, or a spell cooking book for all I knew!). I watched as the imp climbed up the bookshelf, shuffling against the wall so it didn’t fall down. It stopped where I had told it to, pulling out the big, thick textbook.

How should I get it down? I thought. He can’t carry it down, it's too heavy to hold with one hand. I racked my brain for ideas, eventually deciding that I would just need to drop it. I hoped with all my might that the sound wouldn’t wake anyone up. I focused on sending the thoughts to the imp, succeeding after a short while. It quickly pushed the book off of the shelf, which fell on its corner with a loud THUMP!

The imp climbed back down, and I told it several different ways to bring it to me before one work. In the end, just sliding it on the wooden part of the floor was the best method. I had the imp set the book down on the floor and then ordered it to fetch a candle so that I could read. I scanned the room for a candle, and saw one on the end table next to Mother’s reading chair. It walked over to the end table, climbed up on the chair, and grabbed the candle with one hand. It couldn’t drop this, however, as it would damage the outer glass container.

The imp carried the small candle over to my crib and sat it down next to the book. Satisfied, I had the imp open the book, before realising that the candle wasn’t lit.

Dammit! How am I going to light this? I asked myself, cursing my ideocracy. I quickly glanced around the room, looking for another lit candle, but there were none. Mother had extinguished all of them so a fire wouldn’t start.

Suddenly, a thought hit me. I had a slight memory of Mother keeping a lit candle in the bathroom next to my room to get rid of the smells. Even though the bathroom used a semi advanced water magic plumbing system, it still smelled horrible after someone used it.

So, I imbued the imp with the most precise instruction I could, and told it to leave and enact them. It walked over to the door, jumping up to the door handle and pulling down as it fell. The door opened a crack, just enough for the tiny imp to pull it open from the bottom. The bathroom door would already be open to help it air out, and I had told the imp to keep my door open so it didn’t have to reopen it with the lit candle.

I heard shuffling in through the walls, and a few moments later the imp appeared in my doorway. It walked in, leaving the door open still, and lighting the original candle with the lit candle. Once both were lit, the imp returned the bathroom candle to the bathroom and returned to my room, closing the door.

I sighed, relieved that lighting was finally taken care of. The imp propped the book up and I flipped the cover open. The index included chapters on basic magic theory, the different attributed basic magic, a quick overview on special magic, and studies on magic itself. I skimmed the introduction and the imp soon flipped the page to the chapter on spells—water magic.