For the next few days, Thoric was having a wonderful time. His maternal grandparents were a true joy to be around. His maternal grandmother was insistent upon him calling her Nana, while his grandfather was partial to Pop-Pop. They both spoiled him relentlessly with candy, small presents, and toys galore. Thoric thought that grandparents loved doing this because it was to do because when the child got to wild you simply shuttled the children back onto the parents. His parents never mentioned anything about his powerful magic to his grandparents, worrying that for every additional person that knew the danger increased exponentially that someone would do something to take Thoric from them.

Vandora spent most of the afternoons teaching him how to feel and channel his mana. She taught him how all types of mana existed throughout all of existence. The density of each type of mana was determined by the environment. For example, his earth and fire pools stayed mostly full since he was constantly surrounded by the earth, and the dwarven priest had crafted mana flame torches throughout the houses of most of the citizens of the kingdom over the centuries. His life pool had quite a bit of mana as well because living things resulted in more life mana.His air pool was only partly full because air mana existed in highest density above ground in the openness of the sky. His temporal pool was easy to fill up as well because time waits for no man (or dwarf). Lastly, his dimensional or space pool just seemed to alway be absorbing and never get full because empty space makes up over 90% of every atom in existance.

It was decided since the conclave usually lasted 4 to 5 months, that the diplomats and guest of the Dwarven kingdom should be allowed to visit friends that lived around this section of the kingdom. His grandparents were going to be gone for a few weeks to visit old friends. It was decided by Vandora that, with their departure, some other instruction was going to happen. His mana channels were in a pathetically weakened and sorry state. All those years of wearing the inhibitor shackles had caused his mana channels to “stop up”, for lack of a better description. Vandora instructed him on how to push his mana down his channels in order to strengthen them, widen them, and lastly so that Thoric could get a better feel of the mana flowing through him. The very first time that he pushed fire mana through his channel, a small flame appeared above his hand the size of a small candle flame. Quickly following that, Thoric passed out from pain as the mana ripped some of the “debris” of inhibition from his flame channels.

For the first week, his grandparents were gone, she instructed him about each type of mana except for space. Thoric realized that the correlation of pain to pool depth was directly proportional. When he had tried fire he was unconscious for four hours, temporal mana also resulted in four hours. Life and air mana did not cause him to pass out, however, it gave him a raging headache for a whole day, just like he had eaten something cold way too fast. Earth mana, being one of his deepest pools, had knocked him out for a whole day. Lastly, he decided he would try space mana without being instructed. That idea turned out really badly when he passed out for the remainder of the week and it was so strong that he lost nearly half a pint of blood out of his nose, ears, and eyes.

******

A loud sigh escaped Thoric’s mouth as he groggily woke up. “What happened?”. Thoric was laying in his bed and his whole body hurt, he was parched and extremely hungry. The last thing he remembered Vandora was asking him about how earth mana felt when he decided to pull space mana through his channel and then nothing but intense pain followed by nothingness. Looking around his room he noticed that it was rather bare. Only his toys and items made out of wood were present. “Mom!”, Thoric shouted.

“Coming.” He heard his mother’s voice respond down the hall. “How are you feeling little one?” She asked as she entered.

“It feels like I got in trouble really bad and dad gave me a whipping from the inside out.”

“Well, it partly is your father’s fault. Those inhibitor bracers you had to wear for all those years atrophied your mana channels. Mistress Vandora said that you can look forward to a lot of pain as you ‘unclog your pipes’” his mother replied while making little air quotes in the air. “Do you feel up to getting out of bed to eat?”

“Oh yes!” Thoric exclaimed as he climbed out of bed quickly.

“You’re definitely your father’s son. Regardless of pain, he is always in a rush to eat.” Kat said as she turned to leave the room. “Oh yes, before I forget, remember to control your power with metal sense. Vandora felt we should remove it all from your room so that when you woke up you wouldn't be overwhelmed again.”

Thor gave himself a mental hand to the forehead. The teacher was right if he had come to surrounded by metals he would have probably passed right back out. Entering the kitchen, Thoric rushed to the table and climbed into his favorite chair. His mother came in and quickly prepared a large plate of cheese, sausage, and rough meal bread. He quickly consumed this along with a large helping of watery beer. The meal caused him to feel much better.

Leaning back in his chair, he issued a loud belch. His mother whirled on him. “Thoric! Where are your manners boy?” That statement was quickly followed by a rough slap to the back of his head. It always amazed him how his mother was a stickler for all these rules of etiquette, while, when it was just him and his father, bodily expulsions turned into a contest followed by raucous laughter.

“Sorry, mom.”

“Young man, if you keep doing that then dinner for you is going to be nothing but bread, water, and boiled unflavored mushroom for a whole week!” She threatened. This usually worked as Thoric hated boiled mushroom.

About this time there was a knock at the front of the house. “Ah. That must be mistress Vandora coming to check on you.” His mother grabbed him by the ear and proceeded to drag him from the kitchen to the greeting room. Releasing his ear, she commanded, “behave”.

“Come in wizard.”, His mother said as she opened the door.

“Thank you. And how is my little apprentice today.” Vandora said in her musical Elven voice.

“I’m doing much better, especially after eating.”

“I am so glad to hear that. Now shall we sit and discuss what happened and what we plan on doing about it in the future?”

Katerina guided Thoric and the wizardess into the makeshift classroom. Once seated, Vandora reached out and lightly held Thoric’s hands. “Now apprentice, let’s see how those channels look.” She proceeded to chant a quick spell. “Well, I can see some difference. But unfortunately, one circulation of mana does not undo years of inhibition.” Vandora said in a sad voice.

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“What? It hurt so much I figured that we were done with the pain.”

“Oh no. Your channels will open fully like normal if you work at it. The pain will be intense for probably the first little while. I don’t think you’ll pass out any more from using life and air mana, and with fire and temporal mana you should probably only pass out once more for a very short time. Earth mana will more than likely not cause unconsciousness over 5 more times. Unfortunately, your dimensional mana will probably cause unconsciousness at least 10 more times from the sheer pain of it. Regardless except for your two weakest, you’ll probably feel pain for several months when channeling mana if you practice every day.”

Thoric’s eyes got huge. He wondered if having mana was worth it. He could always slack off in his magic studies and in a few years really work hard when he could start working with the tradesmen. “Is there anything we can do about it?” He pleaded.

“Maybe,” Vandora said. “I know your Grammy is a high priestess of a healing god. I would ask your mother, when she gets a moment to discuss the pain with her. In the Elven kingdom, I have a friend who is a priestess of Pinga, another goddess of healing. I have seen her cast a spell that allowed pain to be spread amongst several people to avoid overwhelming one.”

Katerina perked up with this. “Yes, Breldra can definitely do that. I remember several years before Thoric was born Vorin got a goblin crossbow bolt hooked around his bone in his leg. She cast the spell amongst several of his retainers so it could be cut out. Each of them said it felt like a strong pinprick as it was removed. My husband said it hurt but was very bearable.”

“It is my thought, that for the next couple of weeks, if myself, you, and his father were to share his pain then he could quickly get past the worst of the channel clearing,” Vandora explained.

“I will leave you to your teaching, while I go talk to his Grammy,” Kat stated as she stood to leave.

A few minutes after his mother was gone, Vandora grinned and whispered, “Now, as a little reward would you like to learn a spell?”

“Yes!” Thoric shouted as he leaped to his feet.

“Okay. I will teach you a spell of air since that is one of the pools you can pull from without passing out. Are you sure you would like to learn still even though there will be a pain?”

Thoric didn’t hesitate. He was going to get to do real magic and even if someone would’ve chopped his arm off he would’ve still wanted to learn. “Oh yes. Please teach me teacher.”

“Okay, Thoric. Let me explain what you are going to have to do first. The first part of any spell his visualization of what is to happen. Next, you will need to imagine your mana flowing out of you through your channels. Once you successfully do this, using words, symbols, or hand gestures you will shape the mana into a structure that will allow your visualization to happen. Lastly, you’ll push the mana out of your body into the structure that you just formed. Now watch me first.” Vandora patiently explained.

She took a deep breath and slowly began to move her finger in the air in a clockwise motion in increasingly smaller circles, with her arm extended straight as an arrow. Miraculously, Thoric could see a thin stream of very faint blue energy appear in a line behind her finger while she was doing this. She spoke a single word. Suddenly, the lines merge into a tiny disk and a light wind blows through the room. “Wow! How do I do that? What was that word you said?”

“Slow down young one. That one word could be anything. You just need to make sure that it’s a word you’ll remember. Also, most wizards don’t use a very known language for this some even make it up. Should you ever get in a duel with another wizard if he was shouting what his spell was going to do where anyone could understand him it much easier to counter. The most important part of that spell is the hand motion and the mana channeling.”

Thoric immediately stands and hold his arm out straight. Closing his eyes he tries to remember a gentle breeze from his old life. Trying his best to picture the moving of the leaves in the trees and the feel of the air across the skin he reaches for his mana. As he pulls his mana from the pool it feels as if someone’s pulling a Band-Aid off of his hairy arms. He grits his teeth and continues. Opening his eyes he can see the faint blue lines emanating from his own finger. He imagines that the spiral of energy is connected to the tip of his finger and tries to feed his mana through it. Thoric feels the mana starting to leave him and says, “GUST!” in English. Some of the papers in the room flew into the air from the gust of wind. However, the filling of euphoria was quickly replaced with a raging headache.

“You did it little one. You seem to be a natural. It took me almost 2 weeks to do the same thing during my first-year apprenticeship.”

“Yeah, I am that good.” Said Thoric jokingly as he held his head from the pounding behind his eyes.

“Now the good news. You need to do that spell five times a day. This is quicker than cycling mana to clear your mana channels many times. Only when you can cast a spell without error, a headache, or most importantly, a flippant tongue will I teach you more advanced spells.” Vandora said.

“I’m sorry. But I don’t think I could do it again if I wanted to. I sense that my air pool is near empty.”

“Yes, but it will refill. The casting of the spell not only helps you open your channels so that you can cast larger spells, but it also allows you to refill your pool quicker. The channel is two way, not just one. Now I will teach you one more spell and this will pull from your pool of life.”

For the next couple of hours, she taught him a spell that would heal a minor wound such as a paper cut or pinprick. On the downside to heal a pinprick he had to have a pinprick. A headache from the spell was just as bad as the one from the air spell. On the plus side, by the time he successfully cast the spell his air pool had filled up enough for him to cast the gust spell again.

“Now Thoric, I’m going to leave it to you to practice your spells. I would recommend that you yourself at least an hour between each spell. For the rest of class, I’m going to teach you about the movement of your hands to accomplish spells. The reason that we use the finger and the circle to make the gust spell work is that we create channels to effectively transform the mana from magic to effect. The circular finger motion has been proven to be the most economical for many due to mana usage and speed of cast. "

“I can pass on much of what I know that’s been discovered much of what has been discovered from many pools of magic even if I can't cast them. On the downside, all of it may not work for you as well. You are a unique being which may result in you discovering spells work just like all other wizards, you may find a new way to do a spell making it better than other wizards, or it may just be difficult for you regardless of what you do a spell. After we get your channels opened up I would encourage you to try new ways to do the spells I teach you as well as try to come up with spells of your own. Spells of your own will be really important because I can’t teach you much about temporal or dimensional spells even though I can access some of them I have never learned anything other than basic spells that can be fed from any pool such as mending or detecting spells.”

“What mana can you teach spells from?” Thoric asked.

“I have strong air, moderate life, and a trace earth pool. As for dimensional and temporal schools it was discovered that I have extremely limited access but have been unable to find any pool specific spells. There are some universal spells that can pull from any pool we can use to clear your channels but I don't know any true spacial or temporal spells. Now, one last thing for the day.” Vandora said as she got up and walked behind Thoric. “I’m going to teach you a very simple spell that will help you control your metal sense. It will last a few hours and I want you to cast a spell for the next few days from your temporal pool.” She demonstrated the motions and words which he was able to quickly grasp and cast the first time he tried.

“Ma’am. Can we stop soon my head is really hurting?”

“That’s fine. Why don’t you go lay down and rest for an hour or so before your mother gets back? I will let myself out and I’ll see you tomorrow. Hopefully, your mother can get your Grammy to give her an item or cast a spell so that we can speed up the strengthening of your channels.”

Thoric stands and bows to his teacher. Turning on his heel he slowly makes his way to his bedroom and collapses on the bed. In mere moments he is sleeping.