Chapter 7

"W-welcome!" Ferran greeted Rika and the others as they entered his atelier. He closed his current thick book and set it in the pile off to the side. "I'm sorry for the mess, even though I tried to clean up a bit first."

His entire atelier was cluttered with books, loose papers, potion bottles, and blackboards with formulas, sigils, and crests.

"I hope we're not going too in-depth to start, since I'm a novice." Rika stood in front of a blackboard with a crest. This one looks familiar. Is this the same one that brought me here?

"No, we won't be getting into anything too formulaic. I understand you're a beginner, but also on a timeline, so we'll have to get straight into using and controlling your power."

A screen popped up in front of her. 'Quest: Learn to Control Your Magic.'

'Reward: Magic Control Ability. Reputation Up. Farron's Affection Up.'

'Failure: Reputation Down. Suspicion Up. Wolfe's Affection Down.'

Wait, what?! It can go lower than it currently is? Dammit. Rika glanced back at Wolfe, standing beside the door with his arms crossed, eyes on the wide set windows to the courtyard. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

"Don't worry, little saint." Dryden rested his hand on her shoulder. "We'll all work together to make sure you're ready by the time our lesson ends. Farron is a genius that way." He leaned in close. "And quit worrying about Wolfe; he's not going to bite."

So you claim, but even his name suggests he might. Rika nodded.

"Good. Now, since we know we have to skip a lot to get you ready, but also know for certain you have incredible power, we'll get along to summoning it and controlling it." Dryden pulled a chair over from the table for her to sit on, with Ferran and his blackboards in front of her.

"Let's start with focusing on feeling your powers first," Ferran said. "Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. And feel the energy flowing through your body." He took a deep breath in through his nose and out through his mouth.

Rika closed her eyes. Will I actually feel it? Gotta focus on my energy. She took a couple of slow, deep breaths.

Warm energy flowed through her veins.

"Oh." Her eyes opened.

"You felt it?" Ferran smiled at her, and she nodded. "Now, your divine power should be able to manifest even as a small ball of light energy. Hold your hands, palms up in your lap, and concentrate your energy on your hands."

Rika nodded and closed her eyes, following his instructions. A ball of light. Her hands heated up, and she hoped a ball was forming, but she was afraid to check.

"Open your eyes," Ferran said. "See your magic for yourself."

Rika peeked through one eye and then her eyes flew open. A small yellow-white light ball sat in her hands. "Wow..." The ball grew bigger.

"Rika, don't add any more energy to it."

"I'm not trying to." Crap, what do I do with this? She moved her hands up slightly, and it moved with her.

The energy ball pulsed.

"What's going on?" Rika asked.

"It's reacting to your emotions. Please calm down, Rika. Everything will be alright with us here."

She held it further away from her, and it sparked. "Ow." She flinched back from the sharp, burning pain.

"Dryden," Ferran called out to him.

Before Rika could comprehend what was going on, Dryden tackled her to the ground, and Wolfe threw himself on them as the light ball flew into the air.

"Shield!" Ferran commanded, and a light blue energy field surrounded her energy ball.

Boom.

The energy ball exploded, shaking his atelier, making the potion bottles clatter and a few books fall over.

We're not dead, are we? Rika slowly opened one eye to see Dryden above her, and Wolfe above him, both of them using their bodies to keep her safe. "D-did you guys just..."

"Protect you from yourself? Yes." Wolfe groaned as he got up.

"Sorry for the rough treatment, but we didn't know how bad it would be." Dryden pulled away and held his hand out to her.

"Thank you." Rika took his hand and got to her feet. "That wasn't supposed to happen, was it? I thought divine powers would mean... light, healing, and whatnot, but that just exploded!"

"It's okay, Rika." Dryden picked up the chair as Wolfe went back to watching carefully.

"No, it's not! I almost blew us all up!" And without even trying. Rika threw her hands into the air. "This can't be safe."

"Yes, it is okay, Rika. There's a reason Ferran here is teaching you." Dryden motioned for her to sit down.

With a huff, she sat back down, and crossed her arms.

"Dryden is correct. I'm here to prevent anything bad from happening. While you are powerful, that only took a simple shield from me to block. Now, we should try again."

"You can't be serious..." Rika shook her head.

"You started off fine, but put too much energy into it, and then your emotional state made it unstable," Ferran explained. "We need to try again until you can control it."

"No way. Don't you have some way to restrict my powers? Make sure it doesn't do that again?"

"We can't do that to you." Ferran shook his head. "This is completely normal."

"Most people making exploding energy balls?"

"Not exactly, but most people struggle at the start. I need you to summon the energy ball again, but this time, focus on keeping it small enough to fit into the palm of your hand."

Rika shook her head. "What if it goes worse than last time?"

"I'll protect us all."

Two hands gripped the chair right behind her. "You will keep trying, because we need your powers stable," Wolfe said, his eyes narrowed as he stared down at her from behind.

Rika glanced up at him and inched away.

"Man, quit scaring her like that." Dryden pulled Wolfe's hand off the chair.

"But she's trying to run away from this."

If I could, I probably would.

"Because she's scared. She's not used to the powers, so we can't fault her for being afraid when it explodes like that." He turned back to Rika. "Don't worry; you're safe here. Ferran has everything under control."

"Can we try a different non-explodey method?" Rika asked.

"This is the best and quickest way to familiarize yourself with your powers. Watch me." Ferran held his hands out in front of him and focused on making a green ball of energy. "This is about the size. And I can expand it." He grew it to the size of a volleyball. "And shrink it when I need to." He pressed it back down to the size of a baseball. "Please, Miss Rika, try to follow along with me. We can work on this together."

Dryden knelt down in front of her, his hand on hers in her lap. "How about I stay right with you to help? I'll help you control it."

"But—"

"Because I'm good with control, right, Ferran?" Dryden interrupted him.

Ferran stared at him for a moment in wonder. "Y-yes."

Rika's face lit up. "Really? You can help me directly?" Then why doesn't Ferran? Is it because I'm the saint, and he doesn't want to touch me?

Dryden went to grab another chair and winked at Ferran before setting it down in front of Rika. "Hold your hands out as if to summon your energy."

Rika held her hands out in front of her, cupping them slightly.

"And I'll be right here to assure you." He held his hands around hers. "You'll be alright." He gave her a small smile.

Rika took a deep breath and tried again. A small ball of light formed.

"Keep it like that for a moment," Farron said, and counted time in his head. "Now, can you expand it a bit?"

"Are you ready?" Dryden asked, and she nodded.

I have to try.

Dryden moved her hands out slightly with his, and the light orb grew with it. When he stopped, so did the size of the ball.

"Hold it like that for a moment," Ferran said as he watched carefully.

Rika stared at the light ball, transfixed. Keep calm, Rika. It pulsed once. Am I losing it? No, Dryden will help keep it like this for now. Training wheels.

"Okay, good. Now shrink it back."

Dryden and Rika's hands moved together to shrink the ball of light.

"Now, dissipate it. Think of the light vanishing."

It better not explode. Rika visualized the light ball disappearing, and it did. "I did it?"

"Yes, you did it. Congratulations." Ferran clapped.

"Good job, Rika," Dryden said and gripped her hands lightly.

"Thanks, but I imagine this is only step one. Do I need to keep repeating it? Practice until it's quick and normal? And without assistance..."

Dryden chuckled. "I didn't really do anything. I was only emotional support."

"But weren't you making sure it didn't go out of control?"

"Nope." Dryden shrugged. "That was all you."

He lied about helping control it? Or rather, he did what he said; he was emotional support.

Ferran picked up an orb off his desk. "How about we test it out? Touch the orb and make sure it doesn't shatter."

"You've got this." Dryden winked at her.

Rika touched the orb, focusing on her powers. The light erupted brightly from the orb, the same as last time, but the light dimmed, contained by the orb.

"It's working?"

Crack.

"Well, it was..." Rika sighed. "I hope you have a lot of those; this might take a while."

Ferran opened the medium-sized chest sitting beside his desk. It was filled to the brim with them. "I made sure we were ready by making plenty of them. We'll get through this."

He made them? Let's hope his hard work doesn't go to waste.