Chapter 17 - Magic At Last

“Magic is a miraculous thing.” Winter began, clearing out a patch of dirt on the floor. “It is by chance that we have it, and by chance that we don’t. It can create utterly unexplainable results at times, and at other times, be tamed to our will.”

‘Uh huh…’ I said, unconvinced.

“Let’s start with the basics, shall we? There are ten standard elements of magic.” She drew ten circles in a vertical line in the dirt while I nodded expectantly.

“Fire. Water. Earth. Air. Life. Death. Light. Darkness. Space, and finally, time. Each element has a corresponding Great Beast.”

‘What’s a ‘Great Beast’?’

“You don’t know what a Great Beast is?” Kearan butted in. “How do you not know anything?”

I cringed. ‘Well I may have… rejected… magic… when… I… found out I didn’t have any…’

He face palmed and shook his head disbelievingly. “So you’re telling me you spent your entire life up to this point not knowing a single thing about it?”

‘Well… yeah.” I replied meekly. I’d realised that my ideology wasn’t rational before I’d become the Baron of Agridia, but by that time, I was too busy with other… activities, that I didn’t have time to catch up with what I’d missed.

“Anyways, continue, Winter. Sorry for interrupting.”

“Ok!” She resumed drawing the diagram. “So, as I was saying before, those are the ten elements. They’re split up into two different parts, the primordial and disparate. Primordials are: fire, water, earth, and air. The rest are disparate. The order which I listed them in just now is the order of difficulty to perform and learn the elements. For example, this magic that I’m capable of using is light magic, which is disparate and comes seventh on the list.”

I glanced over at Cherry, who was now sitting beside me in the circle Winter had made everyone form. This was her lesson, and everyone else were the students.

‘Wait a minute. What about Cherry’s magic? It says here that she has a skill called ‘Plant Magic’.’

Winter nodded and drew another circle around all the other circles. “I was getting to that. Now, remember how I said at the beginning that magic could create unexplainable results?”

‘Yes?’

“Well, apart from those ten elements, there are an infinite number of what we call ‘Variants’. Variants are elements of magic that are not part of the standard. Now please note, Cherry’s ‘plant magic’ in particular is a variant, and system assisted. This means that it’s slightly different from the other forms of magic.”

‘What does ‘system assisted’ mean?’ I asked, not fully understanding.

“System assisted magic is simply magic that comes in the form of a skill. That type of magic has more limitations- especially when it comes to xera consumption. System assisted magic usually drains xera any time you’re using the skill even if you’re not performing spells. Riyan knows more about that. You should ask him next time you see him.”

So that must have been that yellow light he used the other day. ‘Ok, I get it now. I have another question, though.’

“What is it?”

‘Is it possible to learn more than one element of magic? Also, what magic does the rest of the group use?’

“Oh, it’s definitely possible to learn more than one element. I’ve learnt light and earth magic. Although, I must say, I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to learn disparate elements in a pair. Like light and dark.”

‘I see.’ That made sense.

“I’m sure everyone will be happy to tell you what magic they use.”

“I’ll go first!” Edith called out heartily. “I use fire magic.”

Mox raised his hand. “As do I. I also occasionally use air.”

Raul was next. “I know earth, and a tiny bit of life magic.”

Beside him was Jay, who was excited for his turn. “Air is my specialty!”

Verity looked disinterested, and yawned as she spoke. “I’m the only one here who can use water magic.”

Last on the list was Kearan. “Fire. Death. Space.”

‘Three?’ I burst out, unable to contain my surprise. ‘It’s possible to learn three types of magic? Not to mention two of them are disparate!’

Winter chuckled at my reaction and nodded. “Of course, though to learn three you must either have some serious talent or… be Kearan.”

I blanched. That was a great explanation. Not. Anyways, now I was fully interested. Magic was a hell of a lot more riveting when I could actually do it. Speaking of which, how was I supposed to do magic?

‘Hey uh, Winter? How do I do magic?’

She rummaged around in her rucksack for a moment before drawing out a small, transparent crystal. “This is a magical spectrum. It’s made of glarium, a mineral that responds to magic in a highly unique way. You’ve probably seen one of these before, right?”

‘Hmm.’ It did seem familiar… Where had I- Oh, I remembered now. I’d seen a much larger version of the crystal when I was younger, during my test for ‘magical potential’. I didn’t really remember what it did though, apart from determining how much magic power I had.

Thankfully, Winter explained without having me ask. “When you touch it, its colour will change to the element you have the most potential for. How bright that colour glows depends on the amount of magical power or xera you have.”

I backed away a little from it. That was the thing that had haunted my dreams for the most of my life as a child. The memories returned. I could clearly picture that day when I laid my hand on the crystal, a smile beaming across my face. I was ten years old. I remembered staring at the spectrum anticipatedly, waiting for it to light up.

But it never did.

It just stayed cold, transparent, empty.

My father left the room after that, without saying a word to me.

I remembered asking the tester why it wasn’t lighting up, and how tears began pouring out when he delivered the news no child of royal blood- no, no child, ever, should have to hear.

“I’m sorry, Winston. You have no magic.”

“Not even a little bit?” Was my response.

“No. I’m sorry.”

And that was when the world stopped for me.

“Hey. June. Are you ok? Say something.” Kearan patted me worriedly.

‘Huh? I- Yeah- Yeah… I’m fine.’ I calmed myself and faced the magic spectrum tentatively.

Winter seemed to notice me hesitating. “You don’t have to worry, June. The element you’re aligned with means that it’s easier to learn. It doesn’t restrict you to learning that one particular element. You can learn any type of magic you want.”

‘That's… not why I was worried, but thanks.’ I smiled up at her, then realised she couldn’t see it. This potato body gave me no way for me to express my feelings.

I realized at this particular moment, two important things.

I really had a lot of things to thank these people for. A lot.

And these people wouldn’t disappear from my side if the crystal remained transparent. Not like the people I called friends had, all those years ago.

So, with that thought in mind, I moved forward and gently rested my body against the crystal.

The cave fell silent.

Nothing happened for a moment.

But slowly, the crystal began to hum and light up with a dim red glow.

I relaxed. It wasn’t the brightest, but it was proof that I had magic.

Winter seemed to agree. “Alright! Red is the colour for fire magic, which is honestly a really good for a beginner like you-”

However, she didn't finish her sentence.

The red colour dissipated and a light blue took its place.

Edith oohed and Kearan raised his eyebrow. “Well, it seems like you have two affinities. Impressive.”

But it still wasn’t finished.

Everyone turned silent as the crystal turned from blue, to a dark brown, to yellow, orange, purple, white, black, grey, and finally, green. Ten colours. Ten elements.

Winter stood up slowly and took a step back, shaking her head.

‘What is it?’ I asked, looking around, only to see jaws dropped all around.

“N-n-n-no way…” Winter stuttered as her forehead creased in confusion. “Surely it’s not possible that you have an affinity for all the elements?”

The cave fell silent apart from the crackling of the dying fireplace.

“But that’s impossible.” Verity said, shaking the crystal as if to test if it was working. The colour immediately changed from green to blue. She bit her lip and placed it back in front of me slowly.

‘What’s impossible?’ I asked, only understanding a little bit.

“First off.” She put both hands on her hips aggressively. “It shouldn’t be possible to learn more than one element of a disparate pair, much less have an affinity for them.”

‘Pair? Do you mean life and death, light and dark, and space and time?’

She nodded. “Yeah. For the primordial elements, it’s different, though.”

‘So you’re telling me… I’m special?’ I almost couldn’t contain my excitement.

“Well, yes? I don’t think ‘special’ is the right term for it, though. You’re more of an anomaly.” Verity said, exasperated. “I don’t understand, though. How can you have an affinity for every element…”

But I had already stopped listening after the word ‘special’. I was special! For once. But wait. A thought struck me and I felt a little foolish. Just because I had an ‘affinity’ for it didn’t actually mean I could- or would actually be able to do that type of magic. Now I really wanted to learn.

‘So… how do I learn magic?’ I asked no one in particular.

The room fell silent once more until Winter spoke up. “Uhh. That’s a hard question to answer. Normally, you’d learn the element you have an affinity for, but in this case… that doesn’t narrow the choices down. Also, I don’t think any of us are qualified to teach you any disparate elements. They are a lot harder to learn than the primordial elements. The question is, what do you want to learn?”

So now I had a choice. Thankfully, Winter elaborated on the options before I had to ask.

“Before you decide, you should probably learn what actual ‘magic’ is. Each element; let’s just use fire as an example now, is a medium which allows you to use or transfer your magic power through. I assume you’re more familiar with the official terminology ‘xera’, which is magic power.”

I nodded.

“Our body acts like a magnet for xera, and passively intakes it if we are not at our limit. Once we hit the limit, our bodies will stop collecting, until we expend it. Magic for your body is similar to how a muscle works. The more you use it, the more the cap, regeneration rate and purity will increase. Now let’s go back to the elements. Like I said, the elements are a medium to use up your xera. Each element comes with a variety of ‘spells’ These spells can be used in a variety of ways, but are more or less set in stone. Do you get it?”

‘Not… really.’ It wasn’t like Winter was a bad teacher. I just couldn’t fully grasp the concept. ‘What do you mean ‘set in stone’?’

“Ok…” She bit her lip and seemed to think for a second. “Let’s use an analogy. Think of spells as fish in a pond. The pond is the element that you dip your rod into, which in this case is your xera. Now, each fish is different from the others. And that is how you use magic.” She finished proudly. She seemed rather happy with herself.

I didn’t blame her, though. Of course she’d be proud of herself. She managed to put the concept of magic in such a simple way to understand. Even the others seemed impressed.

‘You’re so great at explaining things! Why did you decide to become an adventurer instead of a teacher?’ I asked without thinking.

Her face fell. Verity nudged me and shook her head.

Winter sighed and shrugged. “Well, you know, things happen.”

Now that was a bad explanation.

I let it slide, though, because I felt something was amiss. I couldn’t understand why it was a bad subject to talk about. Something seriously fishy- pardon the pun- had gone on in this group’s history. Something that probably shaped them into the people they were today. And I wanted to know.

But now wasn’t the right time.

“Alright!” Winter said brightly, her voice leaving no trace of whatever emotion had shown a few moments ago. “Oh, yeah. One more thing you should know before choosing an element. Each element has a specialty. For example, fire magic is more of an attack type, where earth magic is more of a trapping type. Water is good for healing, while air is best suited for mobility. Life magic’s specialty is summoning and death magic’s is troop control. Light is best suited for utility, and darkness is good if you’re fighting against large numbers of enemies. Space and time magic don’t actually have specialties, but they’re most useful out-of-combat in my opinion.”

‘I see.’ I said thoughtfully. ‘I think I’ve made up my mind.’

The very first second I heard of the different types of elements, I’d thought up an idea. It was a stupid idea. Gloriously so. And the more I learnt about the theory of magic, the more I was convinced that this path was the path to be on.

You see, this was my thought process. If I learnt earth magic, and I was a potato, didn’t that mean I could potentially create one of those scenes where the monster rose up behind an unsuspecting adventurer, and they began quaking in fear. If I learnt earth magic, I could rise on a dirt mound menacingly over everyone’s heads, just like a monster. Or a god.

Hehe.

“Hey, June?” Winter asked, snapping me out of my daydreams.

‘Um, yes. I’ve decided. I want to learn earth magic.’

“Good choice!” She stuck out her thumb like one of those advisors who’d say that exact phrase to whatever you said. But the next question lit a fire in me that hopefully wouldn’t go out anytime soon.

“Shall we start tomorrow morning?”