Arrival - Chapter 10

Kasmine’s raven flew through the window and landed gently onto her fingertips.

“Welcome home.”

Her raven cawed and opened its mouth, presenting a clean and sealed small scroll to her. Kasmine smiled and took it out of the bird’s beak. The bird leapt off her hand and climbed back into its cage.

“More bad news?” The woman in Kasmine’s office asked.

“Not sure yet.” Kasmine locked the raven’s cage’s door and pocketed the scroll.

Sitting on the other side of Kasmine’s desk was one of the Magic instructors at Ferris: Sahiba ‘Sapphire’ Oormi.

She had short ebony hair and was dressed in a black shirt, a black leather jacket over it, and jeans, and a silver pentagram with an onyx stone in the centre of it necklace. On her left arm she had a silver bracelet in the shape of a skeleton hand, and a red tattoo of the Necronomicon’s crest on the back of her right hand.

Sapphire, like Spike, was a member of the Necronomicon, an organisation comprised of the 10 strongest Necromancers in the world who were loyal to Lich and Lich alone.

Despite being a member of the Guardians and a teacher at Ferris, Sapphire was Lich’s right-hand woman before that.

“If it’s from him, then it’s never good news,” Sapphire said, removing her legs from the desk. “No new information on Phantom?”

“Nothing. All we’ve heard lately from our contacts are things we already knew.” Kasmine let out a heavy sigh. “The Merchant keeps hearing whispers of Phantom’s actions here and there, but still nothing concrete.”

“That’s an impressive feat for them.”

The Merchant was an information broker, and an old friend of Kasmine’s, who controlled the largest information and spy network on the planet, with access to information from anywhere and from anyone in the world.

However, when it came to Phantom, the Merchant’s leads went nowhere.

“The Russia investigation?”

“The Kremlin won’t give our agents full access to the case files until they’ve finished their own investigation,” Kasmine said. “They don’t want to look bad after such a massive terror attack on their own soil, so they want to get intel on Phantom by themselves and present that to the UN.”

“I see. So, if you didn’t call me for that, then why did you call me?”

“To seek your assistance with something very important.” Sapphire raised an eyebrow. “From today onwards, you will be giving special lessons on magic, both practical and theoretical, to Eric Agrim.”

“Why?”

“Because your boss told you to?”

“Which one?”

Kasmine smiled. “Both.”

Sapphire frowned and turned her eye to the tattoo on her hand, the red pentagram with a black skull on it, and sighed.

“Seriously?” Sapphire moaned. “Why’s this kid so important to you two?”

“Did Lich not tell you?”

“He did, but I object to giving Agrim this much ‘special’ attention. As a teacher, I object to a student receiving this much special attention like this, especially when we don’t offer, nor have ever offered, it to any other student.”

Kasmine giggled softly. “I never imagined that you would become such a serious teacher in your later years.”

“And.” Sapphire glared at Kasmine. “If we continue to give Agrim this much attention, he’ll start to wonder why and, in turn, he’ll try to find out why and might learn things about himself that you don’t want him to know just yet.” Kasmine glared at Sapphire, a purple aura beginning to crackle over her body. “I didn’t say I’d tell him.”

Kasmine smiled again and her aura vanished. “Good. So, you’ll do it?”

“Before I do, let me see proof from Master that he’s given his blessing for this?”

Kasmine opened a drawer on her desk and handed Sapphire an open letter, written with Lich’s hand and bearing the mark of the Necronomicon. Sapphire read through it quickly, then handed it back to Kasmine.

“Fine, I’ll do it. When do you want me to start?”

Someone knocked at the door.

“Right now,” Kasmine whispered with a devilish smile. “Come in!”

Eric shyly poked his head through the door and stepped in slowly. “You wanted to see me, Kasmine.”

“Eric, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.” Kasmine stood up and gestured towards Sapphire. “This is Sahiba Oormi, but feel free to call her Sapphire. She’s one of our best magical instructors.”

“Oh, hi, nice to meet you,” Eric said, offering her his hand.

Sapphire didn’t stand up and turned away from him. Eric took his hand back as Kasmine laughed a little.

“Don’t worry, she’s really nice once you get to know her,” Kasmine reassured him. “Please, have a seat, Eric.” Eric quickly sat in the other seat and Kasmine sat back down. “I’ve called you and her both here today because I have arranged for Sapphire to give you special lessons on magic, both practical and theoretical.”

“Huh? But I didn’t ask for any-”

“I know you didn’t ask for any but, as a God Armour user, it is paramount that you learn this stuff as soon as possible and that will help you learn to master your powers by the end of the school year.”

“Do I have a say in this?”

“If I don’t, then neither do you,” Sapphire muttered, grabbing him roughly by the back of his shirt. “Right, let’s get this over with.”

Sapphire began to drag out of the room and Kasmine giggled, saying “Have fun!” as they left.

***

Sapphire took Eric to one of the empty training fields.

“Just so I know, how much do you actually know about the basics of magic?”

“Um, not much, I’m afraid,” Eric said.

“Question. Do you know the difference between Mana and Magical Energy?” Eric shook his head weakly. “I’ve got to start with something that basic?”

Eric laughed nervously and Sapphire glared at him, resigning herself to a long extra lesson.

“I’ll try to put everything in layman's terms for you but don’t interrupt me until I’m done speaking,” Sapphire told him. “Magical Energy is the natural existence of raw magical power in the atmosphere that can only be interacted with by a Mage or someone with an affinity for one of the six schools of Magic. While it is abundant across the world in its raw state, it is useless to Magicians because we cannot use it unless it is stored in our Magical Circuits.

“People who are born with an affinity for one or more of the schools of Magic are naturally born with a number of circuits in their body which they can train and improve like any other muscle in the human body. The more you train and use them, the more Magical Energy you can naturally absorb from the air and thus in turn grants you a greater amount of Mana to use.

“Mana is the useful form of Magical Energy and it is the basis of all magical abilities, from auras to large area attacks. The better you can control it and the more of it you have, the more powerful of an individual you are. When we use the Mana in our bodies, it reverts back into Magical Energy upon release and performs the effect that its user intended, assuming that they are in control of their powers that is.

“Does that all make sense so far?” Eric nodded. “Good. Before we continue though, come over here for a second.”

Eric walked up to her and she placed her hands on his chest.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing, just-” Sapphire felt a piece of rough skin above Eric’s heart. “Bear with it for a moment.”

Eric closed his eyes as Sapphire did.

She let out a small amount of magical energy and it quickly swept over Eric’s body. Sapphire focused her being on the energy that swept over Eric, scanning his body for any traces of Magical Circuits or energy in his body.

Once she had scanned his body, Sapphire let out a small exhale and stepped back.

“What was that?” Eric asked, his body covered in goosebumps.

“I was checking your body for Magical Circuits or Mana, whilst also testing to see if you had any natural affinity for one of the schools of magic.”

“And?”

“Your body has a faint amount of Light Magical Mana in it, gathered right here.” She touched the rough skin above his heart. “Nothing significant, but you also don’t have any natural Magical Circuits or any affinity for magic.”

“Is that a good or bad thing?”

“A bad thing, but it makes it easier for you to train with your Armour.”

Eric shot her a confused look. “What do you mean?”

“In the material composition of God Armours, there are Magical Circuits and, in rare cases of Mages using God Armours, the circuits can sometimes negatively react to one another depending on their alignments,” Sapphire explained. “For example, if you had the God Armour of Hades whose Armour has Necromancy aligned magic but you had a natural affinity for Light Magic, then the two would clash and they could cancel each other out if you tried to use it.”

“So, is the Light Magic that you detected going to affect me in any way when I use the Armour?”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Sapphire said dismissively. “It’s probably residue left behind from the healing you received after that idiot’s attack.”

“The residue can last that long?”

“It could be trying to heal an old wound or scar tissue.” Eric’s expression twisted and he clutched his heart. “It won’t be able to though and will disperse soon enough.”

Eric let out a sigh of relief and Sapphire examined him more closely.

It’s strange for someone who doesn’t have any Magical Circuits or natural affinity to have any Magical Energy stored in their body, Sapphire thought. Well, it makes sense given who he is. Still. Sapphire frowned. I guess he really doesn’t know who he is.

“Sapphire?”

“I was just thinking about how I would make Spike’s life more miserable later. Don’t mind me.”

“Are you and Spike friends?”

Sapphire snorted. “Former teammates and fellow disciples, nothing more.”

“Disciples?”

“Never mind. Anyway, you still have a lot to learn, so let’s keep going.”

“Yes.”

“Right then. Eric, transform into your Armour,” Sapphire ordered.

“Okay.”

Eric gathered his composure and imagined himself transforming into his Armour and, an instant later, he was wearing it.

“Hmm, not a bad design,” Sapphire mused. “It’s strange that it’s black with a red trim and not the other way around. Maybe that’s what it’ll look like when you’ve mastered it.”

“So, what do I do now?”

“Now, close your eyes and block out everything else around you apart from my voice. Can you do that?”

“I can try.”

Eric shut his eyes once again.

He cut out the smell of the grass beneath his feet, the sensation of his breathing and his chest moving up and down, the feint sounds of the rest of the school around him, and the soft footsteps of Sapphire as she circled him.

Eric focused himself on the darkness in front of his eyes and blocked out everything.

“Now, I want you to imagine something for me,” Sapphire said, her voice seeping into his darkness. “Imagine Magical Energy flowing over your body like a river, spreading across your entire body and wrapping itself around you.”

Eric returned to his darkness and tried to envision it. The energy flowing over every part of his body starting from his head, trickling down his chest, then his arms, and then his legs.

“Not bad for a first-time generation of your aura. Now, keep imagining that energy’s presence over yourself. Don’t lose that image as I tell you what to do next, okay?”

Eric didn’t reply and focused on the image of his aura over himself.

“Slowly, I want you to open your eyes and awaken yourself to the world around you, taking back in everything that you once blocked out but, this time, you’ll be bringing that image of your aura with you. Start.”

Eric took a few deep breaths, reminding his body of the sensation of breathing and slowly he began to open his eyes. The light and sounds of the world returned to him but his vision of the aura over his body remained. He opened his eyes fully and was hit by all of his senses at once and now, unlike before, he had an aura covering his Armour.

“Very good. If you keep practicing generating your aura like that, you’ll eventually reach the stage where that will naturally generate over your body every time you transform into your Armour. It won’t be something that you have to consciously turn on and off every time. Practice this method every morning after waking up and every night before you go to sleep.”

“Okay.” Eric relaxed his body a little. “What’s next?”

“You’re an eager one, aren’t you? Even after everything-” Sapphire cut herself off and sighed. “For now, that’s the basics of controlling your summoning your aura. Now, we’re going to have you tap into the Mana that your Armour has acquired and stored in its circuits.”

“How do I do that?”

“First, go back to that blank state of mind that you were just in except, this time, dismiss the image of your aura. It’s not necessary for this.”

Eric removed the image from his mind and brought his body back into the state of nothingness like he had before.

“This time, you need to focus on your body once more like you did your aura. Imagine the river once again but, this time, only imagine the flow of a river of Magical Energy. Don’t reach out and touch it. Don’t interfere with it. Don’t direct it anywhere. Let it flow naturally through your body as it sees fit.”

He nodded slightly and did as she said.

Eric formed the image of the river and didn’t do anything more than that. He let it flow through his body as it wanted, as it twisted and turned through many tributaries and meanders. As the energy flowed through his body, Eric could see the image that it was creating and it looked like a mess of lines and dots, all randomly connected to one another across his body.

“As expected of one of the strongest God Armours,” Sapphire whispered, dragging her fingertips softly over his Armour. “The number of Magical Circuits it contains is amazing. However, from the looks of things, you can’t access them all yet.” She stepped back and let out a low hum. “Well, as you grow stronger with the Armour, that will change so don’t worry about that.

“Okay, you can open your eyes.”

Eric opened them and felt his head throb a little. “I can’t get the image of the Magical Circuits out of my head.”

“That’s because you’ve awakened to it now,” Sapphire explained. “The best way to think of Magical Circuits is to think of them as a magical form of the central nervous system. It’s a processing centre in our body that we know of and use and, once we understand that it is there, our body is able to move as we want it to.”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“You know how to walk without consciously thinking about how you get your body to move, right? Magical Circuits aren’t all that different. Once we know that they are there, we can use them to manipulate Mana and release it as Magical Energy. By making you recognise the Magical Circuits in your body and how they are all linked, you will be able to draw power from them just by thinking something like ‘I need to exert this amount of energy to do this’. Do you understand a bit better now?”

“I think so.”

“Further, like our own bodies, we know just by thinking about it how much force or pressure we want to exert on something without thinking twice about it, right?” Eric nodded. “Once you’ve trained with your Mana a bit, you’ll be able to use it in the same sort of way. Now, with that out of the way, let’s get onto practical uses of Magical Energy now.”

Sapphire and Eric walked to the far end of the field where several dummy targets had been set up, by whom Eric didn’t know.

“Now, I’ll teach you the basic usage of a person’s Mana,” Sapphire said. “The concept is pretty simple to understand and use once you know it, so, like before, go to that nothingness, Eric.”

Eric nodded and did as he was told, even though he was a little fed up with having to keep doing this over and over again.

“Eric, imagine for me please a castle.”

“What?” Eric asked.

“Do it.”

Eric shook his head a little, confused by what Sapphire asked but did as he was told.

“I’m going to ask you some questions now about the castle and I want you to answer them as quickly as you can for me, please.”

“Um, why-?”

“Tell me what material the castle made of.”

“Stone, why-?”

“How many guard towers are there?”

“Um, four.”

“How many floors does the castle have?”

“Twelve. I-”

“Which floor is the Lord’s bedroom on?”

“The eleventh.”

“What’s in the room?”

“Um, his bed, his-”

“What’s the bed look like? What’s it made of?”

“Um, wood. It has a white mattress and a red duvet.”

“Is there a dungeon in the castle?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“Beneath the ground floor.”

“Which floor is the Lord’s throne room?”

“The ground floor.”

“That’s enough. You can open your eyes now.” Sapphire said with a smile. “Good job.”

“Um, what was the point in that?” Eric asked.

“Eric, what was the first thing I asked you to do? I asked you to imagine a castle, just any old castle, didn’t I? Yet, did you realise that, in that single moment, you had created a complex piece of architecture and could tell me all of the details about it when I asked for them?”

Eric was about to refute what she said, but stopped as he realised what she had gotten him to do.

“Image Training, right?” Eric asked.

“Correct. Using Magic is as simple as just imagining what you want it to look like when you release your Mana as energy. Without even giving it much thought about the theories, the why’s and the how’s, our bodies respond to our wishes based on the image we give them.

“For example.” Sapphire raised her hand into the shape of a handgun and pointed at one of the targets. A blot of thin black lighting zoomed out of her finger and lightly burnt the front of the target. “I imagined a lightning bolt striking onto that dummy’s chest with enough for to have sent it flying had it not been bolted to the ground. My body naturally made the energy appear and travel as a lightning bolt, and I didn’t have to do anything more than envision what it would look like.”

“It’s really that simple?”

“Yeah. If you don’t believe me, watch this.”

Sapphire pointed her palm at Eric and a large floating black magic circle appeared an inch above her palm. It was a beautifully woven pattern with many intricate and ancient languages and runes written all over it.

“All I imagined in my mind was a large magic circle which could fire a powerful blast of energy if I wanted it to,” Sapphire continued. “You see the characters written on the circle? I don’t know what a single one of them means, or even what language they’re from, yet I spawned a creation with them written all over it in an instant. As a Mage, our job is to form the basic idea of what we want our magic to look like when it is released and then it’s our body’s job to make that vision a reality.”

“Wow,” Eric whispered, both stunned and amazed at how easy it all sounded.

“However, bear this in mind.” Sapphire dismissed the rune. “It’s only that easy to perform while you have a clear and calm mind. If you let your emotions take over you, your body will respond in kind and will use more of your Mana when you don’t want it to.

“Say I had just witnessed some creep kill someone I loved. In that moment, I would be overcome by rage and rather than thinking ‘A bolt which would knock them out’, my rage would take over and the bolt would become much deadlier. There’s a reason why the Guardians put so much emphasis on training your mind and body. An unstable mind with limited Mana to draw from their circuits can lead to tragedies, like what happened to Cu Sith.”

“I see.” Eric stared intently at his left arm as he was once again reminded of the extreme risks that came with his powers.

“Well, if you train hard enough to control both your abilities and emotions, you’ll be fine,” Sapphire assured him. “Now, it’s your turn. Raise your hand, aim at one of the targets and fire a blast of energy at the doll with the intent to knock it out if it was a real person.”

“Okay.”

Eric stepped in front of one of the targets, about thirty metres between them, and aimed his palm at the far-right target.

“Don’t overthink it. Just think something along the lines of ‘Fire a blast that will knock someone out’ and it’ll happen.”

Eric nodded and repeated those words in his head and, sure enough, a beam of black energy appeared from his palm and burnt the dummy a little on the front.

“I did it,” Eric whispered, looking down at his hands in disbelief.

“No confidence in yourself?”

“It’s not that. It’s…I thought that this would be something too complex for me to ever understand it, so I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to do it. But.” He clenched his right hand into a fist and smiled. “I think that if I keep it up like this every day, I might be able to become a Guardian.”

“That’s a good mindset to have,” Sapphire took a quick glance at her watch. “Well, we don’t have much time left, so I’ll only ask that you do something simple before we call it a day.”

“What’s that?”

Sapphire started to walk towards him. “I noticed this when you transformed earlier.” She touched the back of his Armour where his shoulder blades were. “There are jagged pieces here which looked like they might be able to sprout wings.”

“Really?”

“It’s not uncommon among God Armours for them to be able to fly, even without wings, but I guess it makes sense for a fallen angel to retain its wings.” Sapphire stepped back a few paces. “Try imagining wings sprouting from your back.”

“That’s a bit much to ask for, isn’t it?”

“It’s no different from everything else that we’ve done today. Just imagine them sprouting for now.”

Eric nodded with a bit of confidence and pictured it. How they would crack through his Armour, slowing pushing themselves free of their imprisonment and then expanding magnificently for dozens of feet.

As Eric finished his visualisation in his mind, the wings began to push through the back of his Armour. Slowly, they forced themselves through the thick rock-like material and then, once they were fully out, they expanded into leathery demonic wings with a wingspan of seven metres.

“Okay, that felt weird,” Eric said as his body registered the nerves in his wings as a part of his own body.

“You just gained some new limbs, so of course it would, idiot. However, they don’t seem to be ready for flight yet.”

“Even if I imagined myself flying through the sky?”

“I’m afraid not. As they are right now, they’re unusable but, as you grow stronger, you should have no problem controlling them. Once they feel like a natural limb to your body and not like an add-on, then we’ll revisit this again. Try making them appear every night as well.”

“Will do.”

“Any questions?”

“No, I think I understand everything so far. Thank you for teaching me all of this.”

Sapphire exhaled a little a rubbed the back of her head. “If both of my bosses hadn’t asked, I probably wouldn’t have but, given how you picked it all up pretty quickly, I’ve decided that this isn’t so bad after all.”

“Thank you?”

Sapphire smiled and turned to take her leave. “I’ll contact you again when it’s time for your next lesson. For now, just practice doing what I showed you today.”

“I will. Thanks again, Sapphire.”

***

As Sapphire exited the training field, she ran into Connor who smiled a little before trying to walk past her.

However, as they passed one another, Sapphire stopped and sniffed the air, before grabbing Connor and throwing him against a nearby wall, catching the boy off guard.

“W-What the hell?”

Sapphire scanned over his body, sniffed him once more and smiled, looking right into his eyes.

“Liar.”

Connor’s body became completely stiff as Sapphire let go off him. She strolled off and smiled when she felt the boy staring daggers into her back.

Another Immortal Blood, huh? Sapphire mused.

“Hey Connor.”

“Yo,” Connor called back, leaning back against the wall.

“Is everything okay? You look a little scared.”

“Do I?” Connor noticed his hand shaking a little. “I’m fine. I just saw your teacher is all and she gave me a scary look.”

Eric let out a small laugh. “Don’t worry, she’s really nice once you get to know her.”

Connor joined him in laughing and the two of them went back to their house.

***

“Welcome back,” Kasmine said as Sapphire walked in and jumped onto one of the chairs. “How’d it go?”

“Better than I had expected. He picked up on the techniques pretty fast and seems to be on his way to mastering the basics. No sign of his God Weapon yet, but I can confirm that he does have wings.”

“Hmm, well, I’m sure that the Weapon will materialise itself in due time.”

Sapphire nodded in agreement, before grunting. “Kas, you didn’t tell me that we had so many interesting, high-profile students this year,” she said, smiling.

Kasmine smiled back, knowing who exactly she was referring to. “Yes, yes we do.”