Anna was back by late afternoon the next day. She had brought back some more books with her. Anna was pleased to find that Will had gone through the three books already and was eager for more.
Anna told him with a smile “Go through the basic concepts once again and tonight we’ll try and perform your first spell”.
Will could hardly contain his excitement. He was going to perform magic. Will went back and reread all of the basic tips for gathering energy and tried to focus his mind on the task.
Will begged Anna to have dinner early and as soon as they were done, they headed to Anna’s study.
Anna had a piece of white paper on top of her tall table in the study. She stepped closer to one side of the table and motioned for Will to do the same. As they faced each other across the table, Anna pointed to the piece of paper and asked “Do you know what this is?”
“It looks like a regular piece of paper, but I’m guessing it’s not”.
Anna smiled as she said “Your guess correctly my dear apprentice. This is an aquaphilic paper. It’s highly sensitive to water. The moment even a drop of water touches the paper, it turns red”.
“That’s interesting. What are we going to do with it?”
“WE are not doing anything. YOU are going to perform shadow magic by creating water”.
Will was confused “Wait, isn’t that water manipulation magic?”
“No, A water manipulator like me never creates water, we simply control the water already present. Even if it seems like I’m conjuring water out of thin air, I’m actually just collecting moisture that is already present in the air. What you will be doing is actually creating water instead of manipulating it”.
“Why water? Why not something else?”
“Creating water is one of the simplest things you can do with shadow magic. I thought we’d start there”.
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Will nodded and then Anna proceeded to give him some basic instructions on how to perform the magic. It was pretty much the same tips that the book had given him.
First Will took in a deep breath, feeling the energy going into the body, then steadily emanating from his heart and spreading out to the ends of his limbs. Will focused on this energy, bringing it on to the tips of his fingers. Next, he had to concentrate on his mental energy, imagining himself with water droplets being produced on his fingertips and tried to push it outwards to the paper.
Will looked down on the piece of paper. It was perfectly white with no trace of red on it. Anna verified whether Will had missed any steps and told him to try again. Will tried once more putting all his focus on it and still nothing happened. Will was looking crestfallen
“Cheer up Will, nobody gets it done in the first two tries. Don’t worry, let's try again”.
So they did try again and again...and again…….and again.
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Will was feeling completely dejected and tired when he climbed back into bed three hours later. Will had tried again and again to produce water and had failed miserably. At one point, about an hour after they’d started Will thought he’d succeeded when the paper turned red. But it turned out that it was just sweat falling from his face on to the paper. They had replaced the paper, got Will a towel and tried again and again.
Anna had told him often to not worry when he didn’t succeed, but by the end even Anna was looking worried. It seemed that Will wasn’t making any mistakes in the basic steps but for some reason he just couldn’t do magic. Will wondered if Anna had made some kind of error with his first test. Maybe he wasn’t a mage after all. This thought caused Will more pain than he could’ve imagined. Now that Anna had told him that he could be a mage, he wanted it more than anything. It was more than a want, it was a need. Will felt thoroughly depressed as he lay twisting and turning in his bed.
Will woke up feeling tired and groggy the next morning. He had woken up late and was only half awake as he made his way into the kitchen. He saw Caitlin perched on top of the kitchen counter with a note attached to her collar. Caitlin purred as Will stroked her behind the ears. The note said that Anna had gone out and would be back by evening.
Will took a bath and feeling refreshed, he decided to go over the books one more time to see if there was something he’s missed or done wrong last night.He still couldn't figure out anything that he’d done wrong. After a couple hours he grabbed a bowl and decided to try producing some water into it. Two hours later, he was convinced that the only way the bowl would fill up with water was if Caitlin decided to pee in it. Feeling defeated, Will laid his head on the counter. Caitlin was brushing softly against his face as if trying to comfort him.
Will awoke a few hours later to the sound of his name being called. He sat upright in the kitchen table and noticed that he’d been drooling on the open book in the kitchen counter. He shut the book quickly and stepped out to the drawing room. Anna was back, and she wasn’t alone
“Will, this is Kate, my best friend. Kate this is Will”.
“Hi Will” said the blonde haired beauty who was waving at him.
Will stared at her. This was the first time he’d seen another human besides Anna since he’d left his home. Will couldn’t produce any words, so he just waved back.