Raveena was happily watching a spider that she’d just created scamper across the table. She had advanced from creating inanimate objects to creating life with shadow magic. Raveena still could only create small and simple life forms. But, this was a remarkable achievement considering where she was just a month ago.

Raveena was wearing a light green gown today that hugged her shapely figure closely. The neckline was low enough to expose the top of her ample bosom, but not as exposing as the ones she had seen Kate wear. She wore a thin silver belt that hugged her flat tummy and showcased her waist. Raveena had gotten used to being comfortable in women’s clothing, but she suspected that was largely because she had yet to see a man since her transformation. She wondered how she would feel if she were to walk into a crowd and strangers just started staring at her.

Raveena felt for the link between her and the spider and willed it to jump. As soon as she had given the command in her mind, she watched the spider execute a jump. Anna had told her that the link between her and the animals she’d created was similar to the link between a mage and a familiar. The only difference was the strength of the link. An animal’s link with its creator was much stronger than a familiar’s link with a mage. A mage had to develop trust with a familiar while, as a creator, the animals had implicit trust in Raveena.

After watching the spider for a while, Raveena went back to the book that she had been reading. Anna had improved her collection of books on shadow magic and there was a lot for Raveena to read up on. Raveena had to have a good understanding of animals, if she wanted to create them. And they became increasingly complex, with mammals being the toughest. One type of creation that no mage had ever accomplished so far was to create humans. Nobody had yet figured out how to create a working conscious mind. Many had tried, few had succeeded at creating the structure but all had inevitably failed to create a working human mind.

The book in Raveena’s hand right now was a guide to infusing magical energy from surroundings. A couple of weeks into her mage training, Raveena had tried adding this vast source of energy to her magic. The nature energy was supposed to be added just after forming the clear mental image and just before pushing it out into the real world. It had been a complete fiasco. Raveena had found that doing that one extra step while concentrating on your mental energy was like trying to take a piss with a raging hard on. It just wasn’t happening.

Anna had assured her that it became easier over time but not to expect too much. Only a few mages had ever truly mastered it. Instead for now, Raveena was supposed to concentrate on improving her shadow magic. But she couldn’t resist going back to read up more on gathering magical energy from nature. It was supposed to be a lot more potent than just using your physical energy. Like having thousands of familiars to draw energy from.

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Raveena thought back to the time when Anna taught her to make a contract with a familiar. There had to be an initial attraction between the mage and the familiar. Then the mage had to gather the physical energy and imagine projecting her mental energy outwards, creating a magical field. If the animal responded to this field, then the familiar contract could be formed. The level of difficulty associated with making a familiar depended on the type of animal.

If it was a domesticated animal, the familiar contract would be easier. The more ferocious and wild the animal was, the more difficult the contract will be. Raveena had successfully made Lavender her familiar. This was achieved with no great difficulty as Lavender had always been a gentle soul, which was the reason why she was chosen as Messenia’s horse. Now, she understood why mages didn’t need saddles, reins or stirrups. The animal responded to your thoughts and not your actions. The number of familiars you can have depended on the power of the mage and the difficulty of the animal you were dealing with. Anna had said that her Ape familiar was by far the toughest of her familiars. The only exception was her former human familiar Will.

Raveena had grown accustomed to thinking of Will as a separate person. He was like a little brother she once had and lost. She had accepted that he would never come back and was at peace with it.

Raveena heard the front door slam shut. Anna was back. Raveena shut the book and let her spider crawl up to her arm as she left the room to go downstairs. As Raveena was coming down the stairs, she saw that there was a surprise waiting for her.

“There’s our wonder girl” Kate yelled with a huge smile on her face

“Kate you’re back”.

“Did you think I was kidding when I said I wouldn’t let Anna hog you” Kate said as she stepped forward and hugged Raveena.

Anna rolled her eyes but smiled anyway.

Kate had become a frequent visitor, staying with them 2-3 days a week. Anna and Kate helped Raveena catch up on the current affairs of the magical world. These involved things mage children grew up learning. Anna had kept Raveena a secret from everyone except Kate since Raveena’s birth had been an unusual one. Anna couldn’t let Raveena meet anyone else from the magical community since it would become apparent to them that something was wrong after a single conversation with Raveena. She had learned a lot in the past few weeks, but there was still a ways to go.

“How’s your training going?” Kate asked

“I’ve learned to create small insects, but I still can’t do anything with nature energy”.

“Don’t worry about it too much. You’re only a couple months old as a mage and You’re making remarkable progress. As a matter of fact I’m not sure how much I believe in you being able to summon insects” Kate said with a doubtful expression.

Raveena smiled at this, the spider was slowly crawling it’s way up Kate’s hand. The spider had jumped on to Kate’s arm when she hugged Raveena.

Raveena directed the spider to jump on Kate's neck. Kate yelped and jumped back as she tried to brush the spider away from her. Raveena and Anna were roaring with laughter. Kate wasn’t very fond of spiders.

Kate swore that she was going to get Raveena back for this before they made their way to the kitchen.