The essence of magic

Erinara

Ebiron had taken us to see some of the refugees of the duels on the next day. Fyor recognized many of them from his long time as an instructor at the barracks, although none had been training under him directly. Every last one of them had an incredibly deep sense of respect they felt toward Eaglecrest. Furthermore, they agreed that the royal lineages of Wolfcrest, Hawkcrest and Elkcrest were the true source of evil. The warriors, who now lived normally in the land of warlocks, unanimously chose to follow Fyor when the time came. The reasons were varied, from wanting to see their families again, to a desire to liberate the citizens from the council’s oppression, to flat out revenge.

The day after that, Ebiron and Fyor would set out to get their respective allies. Ebiron stated that he’d probably return in a couple of weeks, while Fyor warned us that he most likely need at least a month or two. In order to speed up that process slightly, Ebiron and I prepared a teleportation spell to get Fyor close to the kingdom of crests without having to go on a weeklong trip. 
“Are you certain you wish to go without a teleportation beacon?”, Ebiron asked.
“Most definitely. It would do us heroes good to have some time to ourselves as we travel”, Fyor said in a stoic voice. He had no doubts in his mind that Bisoncrest and Lioncrest would join this alliance. He also stated that he had a foolproof plan to get Bisoncrest broken out of the royals' grasp.
“I understand. We shall begin the teleportation”, Ebiron stated.
Fyor gave us a nod.
“I’ll see you soon, master Fyor”, Jin said.
“You’re going to enjoy meeting Lioncrest and Bisoncrest. Keep your wits about you and stay sharp, my boy.”
With those words, shadows sprung up around Fyor and collapsed in on themselves, as he vanished from sight.

Ebiron prepared for his departure right after.
“As I already said, it will take a while until Vorial and Lazzal will be free to join us. I entrust Kayon with making adequate preparations for our guests”, Ebiron said.
“I will help where I can”, I stated.
“Thank you. Jin Eaglecrest would you be so kind to let me talk with my protégé alone briefly?”
“Of course, I will wait outside”, Jin bowed and exited the room.
Now that Fyor was gone, I dropped my shadowy concealment.
Before I could ask what Ebiron wanted to talk about, he already started speaking:
“Trust yourself, my disciple. Whenever you have the most faith in yourself, your decisions become the best they can be. You are free to do as you please.”
I assumed he was referencing the first time we met, where I requested for him to become my mentor.
I looked at Ebiron with a confused expression.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand, but I will do my best”, I said.
He merely chuckled slightly in response.
“That is quite alright. Farewell for now.”
Ebiron began casting the teleportation spell, within a few seconds he too had disappeared.
Puzzled at what wisdom my mentor tried to pass on to me, I left the room.

As I entered the hallway, Jin walked by with a huge, hefty looking piece of furniture balanced on his arms.
“What are you up to?”, I laughed.
“Oh hey there Erinara!”, Jin stood still and turned so that he could look at me. It appeared he was carrying a cabinet around, “Kayon ran into me dragging around some furniture for the soon to be guests and I decided to make myself useful and help.”
“How much is left?”, I asked, “I can help as well.”
“No need miss Erinara”, Kayon called out from behind me, “I’m carrying the last piece for that room with me.”
“What about the other ones? With Jin and me helping you’ll be done in no time.”
Kayon paused for but a moment, staring at me with an amused look.
“I wouldn’t want to intrude. If it wasn’t for Jin Eaglecrest very persistently ‘asking’ to help, I wouldn’t have let him in the first place.”
“Then I guess I’ll also have to be persistent. It’ll only take a short time”, I said.
Kayon sighed. “Very well.”
They continued on walking past me. When Kayon got next to me, he leaned over and quietly whispered: “So it’s ‘Jin’ now, is it?”
A mischievous smile was plastered all over his face.
Somehow, for the first time, I was entirely unable to form a witty response.

We finished helping Kayon within the hour.

“Alright, looks like we’ve got free time now”, I said to Jin, “do you want to start working on learning magic?”
“Yes please, that would be much appreciated.”
Jin and I moved to the citadel’s study. He retrieved his mentor’s letter alongside the rune encased feather. When he uncovered the feather, a soft green light pointed into the direction of the kingdom of crests, still homing in on Fyor’s location.
“These runes, how difficult of a spell are they?”, Jin asked.
“I’d say they are rather advanced. They aren’t runic fusions, but they do require multiple runes to work in tandem as a glyph. Why do you ask?”
“I think I understand runic magic the most currently. Or rather I can envision how they are supposed to work, thanks to you”, he explained.
“Is that so? We can continue with trying to teach you, but it would probably be best to make you understand how to utilize mana in the first place”, I said.
A look of confusion crept across his face.
“Well, if you can’t utilize mana you won’t be able to create runes”, I explained, “usually warlocks try to learn with material casting first, but luckily for you I taught myself those magic types at the same time. I think I know how to help you.”
“I will be in your care, thank you Erinara.”
Who would have thought I’d ever be happy at how I had to learn magic in the past. It had been an arduous, consistent struggle.

For the next hours, I tried to make Jin understand how mana surrounded him at every moment, and that he had to reach out and grasp it in order to cast spells.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t considered how completely outlandish that concept sounded to someone who hadn’t interacted with magic in their entire life.
“I’m so sorry, I still don’t understand. Let me try again”, Jin said after another failed attempt of sensing the magic around him.
‘Come on Erinara, think. You taught yourself how to use magic, you should be able to explain this much at least’, I thought to myself.
An idea popped up in my head.
“Let’s try it like this”, I said, putting my hand on top of his. Jin seemed to freeze up for but a moment.
‘Why would he freeze?’, I thought absentmindedly as I guided his hand to follow mine while I create a rune on the table in front of us.
“Mana exists freely all around you, you just need to focus it into one point. Think of it like taking a deep breath, but focusing it through your hand instead.”
“Right, of course”, Jin said, having regained his composure, “I’m afraid all I really gathered is that you are pretty amazing.”
This time it was me who froze for a second.
“Okay, another approach then. Can you sense when I use magic?”, I asked quickly, simply focusing mana into my hand.
“I can see or hear it when you activate a spell, does that count?”, he joked.
“I’m afraid that for this case it doesn’t”, I replied.

After the first day, Jin had not gotten any closer to understanding spellcasting.

We sat down in the dining hall to eat dinner.
“Sorry Erinara, I haven’t progressed at all”, Jin said dejectedly.
“You do realize you’re trying to learn the basics of spellcasting in a literal day, correct? It normally takes a lot longer for anyone to unlock an understanding of magic. In your case that is especially difficult, since you haven’t had any experience in the matter”, I replied, hoping to console him a little.
“I just don’t want to waste your time.”
“You won’t. If anything, I’m glad to spend time with you.”
“So am I”, Jin replied, “thank you.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about this, okay? It’ll come to you soon.”

A few minutes passed as we ate in silence.
“What if you showed me magic in a sparring match?”, Jin asked suddenly.
“It’s not exactly rare to learn in combat, but calling it common would be a stretch. We can try that tomorrow if you think it’ll help you”, I replied.
“Yes please, I think the training under Fyor has made me much more adept at a hands-on approach.”