“Well, your handwriting is still terrible, but at least I can read it now.” The old mage said as she put down a paper onto the table in the library. She then looked up directly at Kael who was sitting across. “Handwriting will still be your priority until it’s neat, afterall, I can’t have my logbooks looking like they were written by a child-”

“But I am a child.” Kael interrupted.

“You know what I meant.” she replied. “If you were half as smart as your mouth, I might actually look forward to teaching you magic. Speaking of, like I said, you will need to focus mostly on your handwriting, but I’ll start teaching you some of the basics of magic now.”

Finally. Kael had been with the old woman for a week now. So far he had just learned how to properly do the chores, and had been cleaning and working on his handwriting. Although she had given him some pointers for mana sense. She expected him to be able to sense exactly when and how many people were approaching the clinic so he could do his chores and still be able to handle patients that come in. Honestly, the chores weren’t as time consuming as he thought they would be. Once he got his hand-writing to an approvable level, he was sure he’d even have plenty of time for his physical training.

“So now that we’re on the subject of magic. Tell me why in the hell are you pushing mana away from yourself?” She asked while looking genuinely confused.

Kael had a bad feeling about that question. Despite that, he told her his theory about mage versus mage combat and preventing a mage from being able to just explode him. After his explanation, she started laughing. And she kept laughing. She even grabbed her belly as she laughed. After a while, Kael started to think that there was no way whatever she was laughing at was actually that funny, and she was just prolonging the laugh to make fun of him. Eventually the laughter died down, and she wiped away a tear that had started to form during her little fit.

“Oh that was a good one.” she simply said when she was done. After a moment of silence, her face suddenly grew serious. “You weren’t joking? Listen, have you ever tried to control mana that was far away from you?” She asked him.

Kael didn’t have to think too hard to come up with an answer. The amount of times he had tried to control mana could be counted on his finger. He shook his head.

“You idiot. You’re telling me that you never even tried to learn the basic things about mana and magic? You simply learned how to control a bit of mana, then decided ‘Oh, I’m going to blow stuff up now!’ You do realize how stupid that is right? Are you sure you aren’t actually a 5 year old boy? Because that sounds exactly like something a 5 year old boy would do.”

Kael felt like he should be angry at her unnecessarily cruel admonishment. But instead he just felt embarrassed. He couldn’t really argue with her. She was right, it was really stupid of him. He couldn’t think of everything, but testing the limits of his control of mana before trying to do anything with it should have been common sense. Unable to meet her gaze, he shifted his focus to the wood of the table between them.

“Well. This is a lesson best started with a demonstration. Follow me, I’ll show you why your little mana pushing exercise is a waste of time and effort.” She said, pushing her chair back as she stood. He followed her to the space behind the clinic.

The space wasn’t as large as his family’s farm, but it was still quite large. The area was fenced off, and to the left stood the building that sick patients stayed in, and to the right a garden growing a large variety of plants, many that Kael had never seen before. Thankfully the garden wasn’t one of Kael’s responsibilities. It likely had some strict care requirements that she didn’t trust him with. Apart from the garden and patient building, this space was mostly filled with hard, compact dirt that didn’t let grass or any flowers grow. Despite this, there were still weeds here and there that manage to grow and survive anyways. After his work on the farm for the last month or so, Kael had an urge to pull those weeds, which he found quite amusing. Throughout the yard area, there were a few trees that stood alone here and there.

“Do you see that tree over there?” She said more than asked, pointing at a tree roughly ten meters away. “Make a flame just to the left of that tree.” she demanded.

Kael nodded, despite her not looking at him, and started. First, he took control of the mana in the area left of the tree. Then, he started the process of making a fire. But, nothing seemed to happen. He keeps attempting while keeping his focus. Then after a few seconds, a flame appears next to the tree.

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“So, what did you notice?” She asked, finally looking at Kael.

“It was harder to make a flame that far.” Kael replied, shifting his feet nervously.

“No duh it was harder. What else?” She asked with exasperation.

Kael wasn’t sure what else to say. It seemed to take him a while to start the flame because he had trouble controlling the mana that far. But he felt like that might be a stupid answer. He decided it was better than saying nothing. “... It took longer?”

“Exactly. It took longer to manipulate the mana because it was further from you. Tell me, which is faster. Grabbing an object that’s right next to you, or grabbing that same object that’s far away from you?”

Kael couldn’t help but feel that that was a quick question, but decided to go with his gut anyway. “The one that’s further away.”

“Exactly.” she said with a sharp nod of her head. She instructed him to stay where he was, and went to stand on the right side of the tree she had pointed out earlier. Then she shouted over to him. “Try to make a flame in the same place again.”

Kael immediately did as he was told. He took control of the mana, and started the process. However, before he could make a flame, he suddenly lost control of the mana. He increased his focus and tried again, however he once again lost control of the mana before he could make the flame. Rather than losing control, it felt like something took the control away from him. He couldn’t help but frown in confusion. He then saw her begin to walk back towards him.

“It’s faster to grab something that’s right next to you than it is something that’s far away. The same goes for magic. It takes time for your instructions to reach mana. So, once I feel you messing with the mana near me, I can simply take control of it before your instructions reach it. If the mana is no longer under your control by the time your instructions reach it, then simply nothing happens. So, hopefully now you see why there’s no reason to worry about there being mana around you. Now, knowing this, what do you think you should do?” She said in a very business-like manner.

Kael took a moment to think about it. “I should practice controlling mana at different ranges, and become accustomed to how long it takes to be able to use magic at different ranges.” He answered.

“Well would you look at that!” she said, in a mockingly excited tone. “You can be taught how to think after-all!”

Once again he thought he should be upset at her mocking him so much, but he was just happy that he got the answer right. Then he realized something. At some point since his return, he has started to look down on others without even realizing it. Maybe it was because of the reasons of why he did what he did. Other than revenge of course. He told himself he needed to grow stronger to protect the foolish, weak people that didn’t know their fate. He had started to think of himself as more than them. However, this old yet bright mage made him realize that he’s nothing more than a human with flaws, despite his special circumstances. He couldn’t help but don a bittersweet smile at the thought.

“You know that wasn’t a compliment, right?” She said with a bit of concern when she saw him smiling. “Well, no matter. You’ll still be mostly working on your awful penmanship. But for now we need some more food. Here’s a list.” She pulled a small slip of paper out from a pouch she carried on her waist. “It’s about time you learned your way around the village. Feel free to say hi and meet people along the way. You’ll be here a while so you might as well blend into the village. Ah, and don’t bother acting like a child. I’ve seen your acting, and it’s almost as bad as your handwriting. People will think you’re pretty strange for a child, but I’d rather deal with that than your acting skills. A good bit of the suspicion will disappear due to you being my apprentice as well, since I’m not exactly normal here either. I’m sure you’ll appreciate being able to be a bit more yourself as well.”

She was right. The presence of such a skilled mage here was more than just odd. He couldn’t keep his curiosity to himself anymore. “By the way… why are you… actually, I just realized I don’t even know your name yet. What should I call you?”

“I go by Beth.” She stated.

“That’s a surprisingly common name…” He said with a bit of suspicion. “Well, Beth, I was wondering what you were doing here? You’re skilled enough to do whatever you want anywhere on the continent. Why are you in a small village healing farmers?”

“Didn’t you listen when I told your father about the terms of our agreement? You help with the chores, and I teach you magic and give you a room and food. Nowhere in there did I agree to give you my life’s story. Now if you’re done wasting time asking stupid questions, go get the shopping done before it gets dark.” She seemed particularly agitated by this subject, and as soon as she stopped speaking she quickly turned away and headed back inside.

He could empathize with her. The older you get, the more regrets you have. Despite his regression, she had still lived more years than he had. He was sure there were plenty of things she didn’t want to remember, and he felt bad about bringing it up. Everyone has their circumstances after all. He decided to stop thinking about the subject, and get the shopping done.