Learning Magic

“Yuki?”

Safrim snaps me out of it when I realise I’ve been staring angrily at the air for a while. I laugh shakily.

“Sure. Yes. Let’s try.”

“Let’s keep moving while we’re at it,” Karina says. “I want to be able to choose a good spot for the night and not stop at the last minute because we covered barely any ground.”

Poru waves me closer and holds out his hands as we continue.

“Do you know any magic spells?” he asks.

“There is no magic in my world. I’m afraid I wouldn’t know where to start.”

“You can appraise things, can’t you? Take a look at my gloves.”

I concentrate on the fabric and immediately, the text pops up, orange and prominent as always.

[Felt Gloves]

Type: Clothing

Attributes: None

Durability: 8/15

Age: 3 years

Oh! I forgot I had the type skill unlocked. Though it doesn’t do much beyond telling me what I already know. At least I know now that there may be more skills to unlock in future. There’s still that feature where a note sometimes pops up and sometimes not. I still don’t know how that works…

“They’re felt gloves. About three years old. I think you may need to repair them soon.

“Yes, very good. Appraisal is actually a magic skill, but it isn’t bound to a certain affinity, so it can theoretically be used by everyone, but it is a skill you have to be born with. There are skills you can learn and things you can’t.”

“And Starlight is one you can learn?”

“Right,” Poru says. “Do you know how magic power is used by mages?”

“I know, I know!” Karina chimes in. “There is potential magic all around us. Mages channel that magic into spells. If you have an affinity and are close to that element, your magic gets stronger.”

She smiles like a schoolchild, having answered a question correctly in front of the class. When did Poru become the teacher? Safrim’s choice seems to be the right one.

“That’s right. What do you do to cast appraisal, Yuki?”

“I concentrate?”

“You imagine the outcome, right?”

“Right.”

Poru holds his hands together. “Learning a spell is much like imitating art. Following the steps of a dance in your mind. Watch how it looks and feels and recreate the steps in your imagination.”

A soft, blue light starts glowing around Poru’s hands, in stark contrast to his dark skin. Soft sparks float upwards like small specks of dust, growing into cold, blue fireflies. He parts his hands and a blue sphere forms between them, not very visible in the stark sunlight.

“Beautiful,” Nono says and I look up to see her staring curiously.

“Thank you. It was one of the first spells I could perform. Us dark elves can see in the dark, so we don’t need light. My explorations were a nuisance to the group. I was born knowing most of these spells I can perform by heart. I knew what to do instinctively. I am Erya’s champion, after all.”

He never sounds proud when he talks about his powers. With a flourish he claps his hands together again and the light vanishes.

“Now, try it.”

“Just like that?”

“All you need is aptitude and imagination.”

“That sounds too easy.”

Safrim shakes his head. “Only for people with the right alignment. I could try to learn light spells all my life and never make it. Also not everything can be learned.”

“So it’s more complicated than it seems. I see.”

Poru watches like a hawk when I put my hands together as if I was praying. Blue light. Blue light. I imagine my hands glowing, but nothing happens. I imagine the air around my hands glowing, but still, nothing happens. Fireflies, sparks. Nothing. I separate my hands. Disappointment.

“I would be surprised if it worked on the first try,” Poru says. “Usually you have to train for a few days.”

“Or maybe we didn’t see anything because the sun is so bright today,” Safrim says with his boundless optimism.

“Or that. Try it while we walk, but don’t strain yourself. If you feel lightheaded, it’s better to stop for a while.”

“Alright.”

——

For the next three hours, I repeatedly attempt to visualise the light I’m supposed to manifest. Maybe I can’t actually learn any other spells except Appraisal, but if I’m actually going to be in battle, which is more than likely, I would be less anxious if I could at least defend myself. Well, this light won’t help much, but maybe I could blind someone with it in an emergency. Luckily I’ve played a lot of pen and paper roleplaying games in my time and am quite adept at turning anything and everything into a weapon. My favourite was always a handful of sand thrown into the enemy’s face. Demons have eyes, don’t they? And undead?

“Any progress?” Nono asks.

She hands me a flask and I take a sip of water before even thinking about the fact that she is a sleeper agent.

“None yet. I do feel like I’m getting a headache, though. I might stop for today.”

“Maybe you’re Erya’s champion, but your alignment isn’t light at all. Do you want to try a fire spell?”

“Is that possible? A hero with an alignment that doesn’t match their god?”

Nono shrugs. “Weirder things have happened. It wouldn’t hurt to try, right?”

Poru glances at Nono with a look I can’t place. He taps Safrim’s shoulder and whispers into his ear. Strange. Safrim takes a look back as well.

“Do you want to teach Yuki a fire spell?” Karina asks. “I can do that too! Let me do it?”

Karina smiles, as always bright and eager. Nono immediately gives up her position next to me and Karina steps forward.

“The only fire spell I know is actually Fireball. Most people, who have an aptitude for fire are born with it. I was born with it, of course. My parents first realised it when I set my dolls on fire. Let me show you.”

“You set your dolls on fire?” I ask.

“How was I supposed to know that would happen? I was four.”

“It’s not so rare,” Safrim comes to Karina’s defense. “If you’re born with certain skills, they can activate without you even realising. They’re not cast by words, but by imagination, after all, and children have a vivid imagination.”

“That sounds dangerous.”

“It’s just life. Usually parents celebrate such days, since only few people have the ability to cast spells at all,” Safrim explains.

“Don’t get distracted. Look here.”

Karina holds out her hand with the palm upwards. Then she curves her fingers as if she is already holding a ball in her hand. In the air, a spark forms, then starts rotating around itself as it grows and grows to a shining orb. She opens her hand and it flares up into a roaring fire, flames growing higher than her head. Karina grins and throws the fire up into the air, where it explodes into a pretty fireworks display.

“Impressive,” Nono says. “I can do fire magic, but nowhere as elegantly as you.”

“Of course. Everything I try works out amazingly,” Karina responds. “Now you try it, Yuki.”

“Alright.”

As with Poru, I hold my hand out and curve it like Karina had. I try to imagine the spark and immediately faint.