Chapter 11: Chapter 10: Lessons

Chapter 10: Lessons

A whistling breeze and glistening sunlight bask the hills of Redville’s outskirts. Maru, Tianyu, and Francis sat in the soft grass together, watching birds fly overhead.

It’s been a few days since their battle against Manho & Gon in the mountains. Since then, Maru has kept her Magic a secret, unsure of how the others would react. Part of her was afraid to tell them while they were in the village, fearing that someone would overhear their conversation.

Today, however, the group found themselves in a lonesome place, with perfect scenery for storytelling.

“...Then, I reached out to grab it and it shocked me. I snatched my hand back, a little afraid of it then, but something compelled me to reach out and grasp it again, like the intrusive voice in the back of your head. It pulled me in like a magnet, my palm became latched. I tried to pry my hand away, but I ended up pulling the entire staff out of the altar with an exaggerated tug.”

“And that's when you felt your... ‘awakening?’” Tianyu inquired with a gentle whisper. He and Francis were both entranced in the story. Maru always had a unique way of describing her short adventures, but she often kept these tales to herself out of embarrassment. They could tell she felt relieved just telling her story.

“There was an explosion,” Maru muttered, looking towards Tianyu. “I was knocked back and tumbled across the stone floor. The staff was still in my hands though. Despite my injuries -- I felt rejuvenated. There was an intense energy surging through my whole body, flowing like a rushing river.”

Before she could continue, Francis lightly pinches her cheek.

“I thought I'd never see the day,” he exclaimed, “Ms. Adventurer here has Magic! And I thought that side of you would be stuck in my dreams.”

“Oww,” she mutters, chuckling a little. “It feels weird... my body feels stronger but weaker at the same time. That fight against Manho was the best I've ever been. Normally, I would've been out after a couple of punches. Even with Magic, it still feels like something is holding me back.”

“Magic isn't as much of a direct improvement as many people are led to believe.” Tianyu stands up, brushing off his robe. He takes a few steps and stands in front of Maru and Francis, clasping his hands together with fingers intertwined as a Magic Circle appears on his chest.

Tianyu steps to the side. A completely identical clone of himself, made entirely from water, would step in the direction opposite of him. The two then stood side by side, and the replica would copy any of his movements.

“Magic is like an entity that shares your body, even if it does not speak or move in the conventional ways we’re used to. It’s capable of learning and adapting, just as we do, and it has its own methods of communication. Your body, mind, and magic are all connected.”

Maru raises her hand, akin to a student in a lecture. “So, if my body is exhausted, then is my Magic ‘exhausted’ too?”

Tianyu nods in confirmation.

“Yes. Your body is the vessel for your Magic. If your body is weakened then your Magic won't be able to use it as efficiently. If your thoughts are convoluted or overwhelmed with emotion, then you won't be able to command your Magic efficiently. Maintaining the health of your body, mind, and the integrity of your magic is the key to becoming an efficient mage. Notice the keyword here.”

“Efficiency!” Francis blurts out the answer before Maru could.

“Precisely. There are many ways to be efficient, and understanding them is the first step to becoming a renowned Mage.”

Tianyu looks over at Maru, beckoning her to the grassy plains with a wave of his hand.

“Can you show us, dear Maru, how you use your Magic? Cast a spell, any spell you desire.”

“Me?” She replied, immediately becoming flustered. Her heart skips a beat as Tianyu looks at her. She didn’t expect to be put on the spot so quickly, but part of her was filled with excitement at the opportunity to use her newly awakened abilities.

She gets up, walking past Tianyu and his clone and stopping in the middle of the grassy field.

Maru holds her hand out, taking a deep breath as she visualizes a spell. Arcs of lightning form from her fingertips, jumping between her fingers before shooting out in front of her. The bolts stop mid-air, creating a small explosion with a bright flash and a thunderous boom that follows.

Tianyu and Francis smile and clap their hands as the lightning dissipates into the air.

“That was terrible!” They exclaimed sarcastically, laughing it off immediately afterwards.

“Eh-?” Maru looks back at them, clearly confused, “but I casted the spell?”

“Sort of.” Tianyu and his duplicate walk over to Maru’s side. “While you managed to cast the spell, you lack something essential to using Magic at the highest levels. I’ll cast my own spell as a demonstration. In this example, my doppelganger will act as a representation of my Magic and Magic Energy.”

He gracefully outstretches his arm, his clone mimicking the motion perfectly. There’s a brief moment of silence before a gargantuan beam of water is shot out from their palms, drenching the grassy field.

Though Tianyu’s copy perfectly mirrored all of his physical actions – the same couldn’t be said for spells. Its stream of water was curved and warped in some places. The pressure was also lower, resulting in a less potent cascade.

“Woah!” Maru exclaimed, a beaming smile on her face. “It’s like you’re Poseidon!”

As simple as it may have been, any demonstration of Magic was mesmerizing her. Comparatively, Maru was very critical of her own capabilities. Her lightning bolt spell was just as simple, but she didn’t feel like there was any nuance or substance behind it.

Tianyu looks at her with a warm smile.

“I suppose you could say that.”

There was something special about Tianyu’s spells, at least to Maru. They were always graceful and elegant – this one was no different.

The stream of water stops abruptly as Tianyu and his doppelganger lower their arms.

“Though my spell worked, you might have noticed that my clone – or in this case my Magic – wasn’t able to mimic it perfectly.”

Maru nods. “It wasn’t straight like yours. It curved a little and didn’t look as powerful.”

“Precisely. While casting spells from your imagination is possible, it’s sometimes difficult to understand and visualize the spell you want in your head, especially in the midst of battle. If you can’t articulate what you want your spell to be, then how do you expect your Magic to do it?”

“You give it preset instructions..?” She replied, a little unsure about her answer.

“Exactly,” Francis exclaimed, jumping up and walking over to the two of them. “You hit the nail on its head girl.”

He holds his hand out with his palm facing upwards. Glowing white rings made from Magic Energy appear above his palm, levitating with a subtle hum.

“That’s exactly what a Magic Circle is: preset instructions. The appearance of Magic Circles aren’t too important – the runes are what really matter. The runes basically tell your Magic what to do when Magic Energy passes through it. This way, no matter what is going on in your head, you will always get the same spell as long as you channel your Magic Energy through a circle.”

Francis uses the tip of his finger like a pen, his Magic Energy acting as the ink as he engraves the Magic Circle with a handful of exotic runes.

“Are those Arcanian letters?” Maru inquired while blatantly staring.

“Yeah, you don’t have to use these though. Anything will work, so long as your Magic is capable of understanding it. You can use pictures or paragraphs – your Magic will come to comprehend it eventually.”

After about a minute, the space between the rings of the Magic Circle are filled with letters of the Arcanian language. Francis fills the empty space in the middle of the Magic Circle with a hand-drawn picture of a spiral – like a tornado seen from the top-down.

“What’s that?” Maru asked, pointing to the spiral.

“Oh that’s just a little something I added to personalize it. Can’t have my Magic Circles looking bland while I’m fightin’.”

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He closes his palm, causing the Magic Circle to turn to dust and disappear.

“Once you have the runes, you’re done! Most Mages just put some runes on their Magic Circle to tell their Magic to make another set of runes for whatever spell they wanna use. That’s what I do. Some more experienced mages, like Tianyu, prefer to write entire descriptions in their circle.”

Francis then turns to face Tianyu, “can you give her another demonstration?”

Tianyu nods. He and his doppelganger look straight again, outstretching their arms with palms facing forward. This time, however, a navy blue Magic Circle appeared in front of their palms.

The spell was the same as before: a pressurized stream of water that soars through the air.

Unlike before, the doppelganger’s spell maintained its structure and integrity. There were no curves or warping of any kind.

“As you can see,” Tianyu began, “even when my mind is on other things, the spell will always remain the same as long as the Magic Energy travels through the Magic Circle. This method also tends to use less Magic Energy overall, since the output is consistent.”

The spell abruptly ends again, Tianyu and his double putting their hands down gently.

Maru interjects, “I didn’t see you draw yours, Tianyu.”

“Very observant,” Tianyu muttered. “Drawing your Magic Circle is typically something you only have to do a few times. Just as you imagine your spells, all you have to do is imagine the base of your Magic Circle and let your Magic create it and any additional runes for you.”

“Wait a minute,” Maru mutters to herself, crossing her arms as she takes a moment to ponder. “Doesn’t this still have the same problem as using spells without a Magic Circle? I still have to imagine the Magic Circle itself.”

Tianyu nods affirmatively.

“No matter what you do, your physical and mental health will always be impactful when it comes to Magic. All of your actions must have purpose and form. The more you use your Magic, the more it will evolve and adapt to the unique way that you use it. Eventually it will get to a point in which your Magic will start to remember your Magic Circles for you. At that point, creating and changing them will be second nature.”

“Practice,” Francis added, “practice is everything. Give it a try, Maru.”

Tianyu and Francis step back, giving Maru the space she needed to think and experiment.

Maru understood the concept of a Magic Circle very well, but she still felt a little anxious when they suddenly put her on the spot. Applying what she’s learned is a challenge on its own, especially since she was a little afraid something might go wrong.

She starts to pace around the field while thinking about her Magic Circle.

“What did Francis do…” she mutters, stopping in her tracks.

Maru opens her hand with her palm facing upward. Four light blue rings would levitate above her hand, the empty spaces between them staring back at her like a blank canvas.

“Pictures or paragraphs…” She remembered what Francis said while he was making his Magic circle. Anything goes, as long as her Magic understands it.

“It can understand anything with time, right?”

Blue Magic Energy starts to drip from her fingertip like a quill freshly dipped in ink.

She vividly recalls a Magic Circle when she first awakened her Magic.

“What did it look like..?” She muttered frantically. Despite the scene itself being vivid in her mind, any recollection of the details of her Magic Circle were merely a blur. She’d be starting from scratch.

“Ugh, whatever whatever. I should start with some descriptions…”

She begins to write in the outermost ring, describing aspects of her Magic. She would write down things such as explosive, energetic, lightning, thunder, and many other things using Arcanian letters.

“This is too vague,” she thought, agitatedly erasing them with her thumb.

Minutes passed, and Maru was never content with the words she wrote. Everything she picked seemed too far-fetched for how simplistic her Magic was. If she barely understood her Magic, how was she supposed to make a Magic Circle that fits it perfectly?

She bites her lip, frustrated groans escaping her as she desperately writes, then erases, then writes, then erases.

“Your Magic is capable of learning and adapting, just as we do.”

Maru is suddenly reminded of Tianyu’s words from the beginning of the lecture. She may not understand her Magic, but surely her Magic understands itself.

“Maybe I can… ask my Magic.”

As crazy as it would’ve sounded a few days ago, Maru was beginning to accept her new reality. Magic changes the lives of all who wield it. If it’s true that her Magic is a living, sentient being, then she might as well become acquainted.

“But how do I do that?”

A question Maru will ask herself one too many times. “I could do it in the same way I cast a spell,” she thought to herself.

Her index finger hovers over the Magic Circle as she closes her eyes, emptying out her mind in the hopes that she somehow finds a way to ‘speak’ to her Magic.

“Hello?” Her own voice echoed throughout her mind. “I was wondering if you could,” she hesitates for a moment, “help me with this Magic Circle? I don’t really know if I’m doing it right and I’m too embarrassed to ask Tia-”

She feels another hand gently grasp her index finger. The feeling was exotic, but also quite intimate; something she could only assume was her Magic itself. Maru says nothing, instead waiting patiently as the mysterious hand guides her fingertip across the Magic Circle, carving runes between the rings. In this moment, she felt like a brush intertwined in the soft hands of a timeless artist, or perhaps the instrument of a renowned maestro; leaving the Magic Circle as a conduit for the magnum opus.

Soon, the guiding hand would let her go, letting her paint freely with the momentum it gave her.

The tip of her finger would glide gracefully across the Magic Circle with gentle strokes. Her mind nor her body were focused on what she was writing, instead enjoying the moment. She would be content, regardless of the outcome; for she had a gut-feeling about the purity of her work.

Her finger eases away from the Magic Circle as she opens her eyes, left in awe at the sight of – what she considered to be – a masterpiece.

Arcanian letters were engraved neatly between the rings of the Magic Circle, colored a familiar cerulean blue with the symbol of a lightning bolt etched in the middle. At the very top of the Magic Circle was her name written in Arcanian; her signature.

Though her mouth was left agape, it quickly turns into a gleeful smile as her eyes light up with joy. She jumps up and down, barely able to contain her excitement.

Looking over her shoulder, she notices that Tianyu and Francis were conversing with each other and they hadn’t noticed that she finished.

“I need to use a cool spell,” Maru thought to herself, “something flashy but not destructive…”

She stares at the Magic Circle for a moment, engraving it into her memory while hoping that her Magic could remember it as well. Then, she brings it close to her chest.

A bolt of lightning would strike the spot where she was standing, creating a blinding flare and a powerful thunder bass that caused Tianyu and Francis to turn their heads. Maru was shrouded in a thick mist of dirt and debris, arcs of electricity scattered through the brown fog.

“Maru?!” They called out in unison, rushing towards her.

They stop just a few feet away from her, staring with reassuring smiles on their faces as the dust fades away. Maru stood in the middle of the billowing smoke, lightning and Magic Energy rippling throughout her body. It was a similar feeling to when she first awakened her Magic – the surging energy that the staff gave her could now be replicated at a moment’s notice.

“How do you feel?” Tianyu asked, nodding gently in approval of her snappy learning.

“Like I’m in heaven!” Maru rejoiced, though her excitement quickly faded as the energy in her body would fade just as quickly as it came.

She pouts, putting her head down in disappointment.

“We can work on it,” Tianyu said, walking over to Maru and putting his hand on her shoulder.

“Hey!” A male voice suddenly calls out to them from far away. The trio turn their heads to the source of the voice in unison.

From the hillside, they see a young man running at them. He wore grey robes to compliment his long, black ponytail. He held a sheathed katana close to his waist as he ran towards them.

“The hell is going on over here?” He comes to a halt as soon as he’s close enough to see their faces.

“Oh, it’s just you guys.” As soon as he recognizes them, his voice becomes quiet and soft.

“Hey Sora,” Francis cheered, smiling and waving.

“Hey, sorry if I startled you. Yuri said she heard some thunder coming from over here so she wanted me to come over and check it out.”

Tianyu and Francis look over at Maru. She looks away, flustered.

“Uhm, sorry that was me. I, uh, just awakened my Magic so they were showing me how to use it.”

Sora raises his eyebrows and his eyes widen. “That’s a welcome surprise! What’s your Magic?”

“Lightning,” she replied, “it’s pretty destructive, so I try not to use it too often. I’m sure the explosions you heard were from my lightning bolt spells…”

“It’s alright,” Sora reaches out to get her gentle pats on her hat, “Yuri also uses Lightning Magic, so I’m sure she’ll be able to teach you a thing or two about using it. This means Redville has four mages now, correct?”

“Yep. Do you think you’ll be number five, Sora?” Francis teased him with a gentle pat on his back.

“I doubt it,” he uttered softly, “but if Maru can master her Magic like you guys, then we wouldn’t need a fifth.”

Tianyu chuckles at the thought. “With swordsmanship as proficient as yours, Sora, you wouldn’t need Magic.”

“I hope my blade will someday carry me to the top of the world. Anyway, since the three of you are here, I should tell you that Yuri wants to have a meeting with you all regarding what you found in the mountain. She also wanted to take a look at your staff, Maru. ”

Everyone looks at Maru, raising an eyebrow as they notice that her staff is gone.

“You didn’t bring it with you?” Francis asked.

“No,” she answered bluntly, “I gave it to my dad this morning since he’s a blacksmith. I thought he would be able to take a look at it and maybe figure out what it’s made of, where it’s from, and what it can do.”

“You should stop by your father’s shop to retrieve the staff before you head to Yuri’s quarters,” Sora added, “I’d go pick it up for you, but I need to continue my patrols around the island.”

“That’s alright Sora, I’ve been meaning to go check on my dad’s progress with it anyway.”

“Alright then. Safe travels you three.”