“So, what do I do? How do I actually cast something?”

“Slow down, like I said, figuring out your affinities comes first.” Cecilia had made herself at home in Idelle’s room, plopping herself onto the side of the bed across from her.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure it’s blood magic. At least, my magic-sight is the strongest when looking at other people.”

Cecilia made a face at her. “Magic-sight? It’s not… Well, never mind, if it works for you. That does sound like blood magic, or at least something related.”

“Something related?”

“Yeah. The categories aren’t really something fundamental to magic, but more about how people internalize them. Kind of like the difference between a knife and a sword, there’s no hard line you can draw that won’t seem wrong to some people.”

“Huh. I guess that makes sense. Could you have stuff like heat affinity instead of fire, then?”

The other girl gave her a thumbs up. “That’s right! But don’t worry about it, there isn’t really a practical difference when starting out, its more of a subject for advanced magic when you learn to customize your spells. In any case, blood magic isn’t very easy to learn with, where else do you perceive a lot of magic? Spread through the air? Or more in the walls and ground?”

Idelle hesitated. “Honestly, it’s pretty faint everywhere else. But there’s definitely some in the air around me.”

Cecilia nodded. “Lets just try some simple charms with common affinities then. A good light affinity is normal for humans, how does that sound to try?”

“All right! What do I do? You said something about ‘willing it’ yesterday?”

“That’s right. Just let yourself perceive the magic again, and then mentally reach out to what feels like the right kind of magic as you build yourself an image of what you want to happen. It should be as detailed and complete as possible, so using a super simple concept is best. A featureless sphere of white light, for example.” She held out her hand. “Here, I’ll show you.”

Idelle watched carefully. Cecilia stared at her for a moment, lips slightly pursed as she took a slow breath, and just like that a small ball of light, around the size of a marble, faded into existence just above her hand. Fascinated, Idelle leaned in closer, brushing aside the hair that fell into her face. “That’s all there is to it?”

“That’s right. Give it a try.” Cecilia closed her hand, and the light was gone.

She sat up straight in her chair, trying to focus on the magic again. It was a little counterproductive, as she found herself just staring at Cecilia with her physical eyes. Relax first, she reminded herself. Slowly, she let her attention drift until it was caught again by the strange flickering shimmers of motion. That was it.

Now, an image. She tried to visualize the orb Cecilia had just displayed. A perfect circle, no matter what angle it was viewed from. The light from it shining. She felt for a moment as if her mind was brushing up against something soft.

Detailed and complete... Her imagined light needed something to illuminate. She tried to picture how it might cast shadows and light up the area around her hand, continuing to fill in the details as best as she could. Not just the shadows, but also the reflections it might leave in Cecilia’s eyes and hair. Good. She felt the touch again, only this time it persisted.

She looked down. A tiny spot of dim light had appeared above her hand. She grinned in triumph. “There! I did it!”

The light went out. She stared in utter disappointment, hearing a suppressed snort, then looked up to meet the other girl’s eyes. Cecilia’s face was expertly schooled into a completely blank expression. “Did what? I didn’t see?”

Idelle glared at her. “Yes, you did! I heard you! I cast the charm! Only it went out.”

Cecilia’s composure broke and she let out a rather unladylike giggle, one that Idelle found herself completely unable to not smile back at. “Yeah, well done. As you’ve found, the hardest part of magic is maintaining the attention needed to keep the spell active until it’s no longer needed. Without that, magical fire will go out before it can alight anything and magical light will disappear before you have a chance to see anything. Keeping that focus while doing other things is a skill that takes a great deal of practice, and skilled magicians like myself can even cast multiple spells at once.”

Idelle mentally compared her tiny, momentary light to the bright and stable shine that the princess had summoned. And she could do multiple at once? As much as she hated to admit it, that was insanely impressive. “Is that why you said that blood magic couldn’t make someone stronger permanently?”

“That’s right. Many powerful warriors and hunters learn to augment their own bodies while they fight, but it requires enormous skill to maintain such spells while focusing on combat, doubly so when receiving blows or in pain.”

Idelle thought for a moment, then pressed on with another question. “Then, what was the long answer you mentioned? Is there a way around the limitation of needing to focus?”

Cecilia didn’t respond immediately, her expression pensive. “Not so much around it as beyond. But yes. Some rare magicians have touched on what we call enchanting, the art of permanently reshaping reality with their will. But that’s a topic far beyond me — much less you.”

She gave Idelle a long stare as she said the words, and Idelle found her face reddening as she looked away. “I was just curious. Is it some big secret? You don’t have to tell me if it is.”

“No, not a secret I guess. Just too complicated and poorly understood for me to give much insight. The scholars at the magic academy in Hudbria love to come up with theories on enchantment and how it relates to magic, there may be some works regarding it in the library if you’re interested.”

She grimaced. “I don’t think I’m good enough at reading for something that technical. But—” She looked back up and met the other girl’s eyes— “Thank you for teaching me. It’s really helpful! I know you feel bad, but you still didn’t have to do this.” She felt awkward the moment she said it, and looked down again. Dragons, she sounded like such a dork.

With her eyes fixed on her hands, she missed the shadow of something passing across Cecilia’s face, and it disappeared as the princess grinned at her. “It’s all right, you helped me break into the city, didn’t you? I owed you one.”

“You say that, but I don’t think I really did anything. I don’t think I would have even done it if not for you…”

“Details, details. Just don’t get too used to it, I’m very busy you know.”

Idelle nodded obediently. “Oh, but do you have time to explain how the tracking spell worked? That way I’ll be able to find you, too!”

Cecilia opened her mouth, then closed it. “Uh, sure, but it might not be too useful. The principle is simple, you just take use a tiny piece of the person’s magic to create a mental image of something that you associate with tracking or direction. I use a compass, but a dowsing rod or even a map — if you know the area well — will work. The tricky part is getting someone’s specific magic; the other day I just cast the spell as you ran, but otherwise I would need something like a piece of hair, or better yet some of your blood.”

“Ah.” Idelle was a little disappointed. “So to track you down, I’d either need to cast the spell constantly from the moment you leave or steal some of your blood?”

“Good luck, but yes. Anything beyond that falls more under the purview of scrying spells, and those are advanced spells that use multiple types of magic to combine effects.”

“That makes sense. Is that how communication spells work as well?”

Cecilia had a slightly amused look on her face. “That’s right, you’re actually pretty smart, aren’t you? A practiced magician can use someone’s blood to send messages silently and near-instantly even in the chaos of a battlefield. Of course, it’s a sign of trust to give your blood to someone in the first place given some of the other uses, and it’s also possible to learn spells to erase your own magic signature from anything other than your immediate self.”

Idelle sighed. “Magic really has a lot of limitations, huh?”

The other girl shrugged. “I guess it depends on your point of view. In my mind, the real source of the limitations is just the people doing the casting. We stick to simple, common, vivid images and effects like balls of light or fire because that’s the only way we can focus our will well enough to cast strong magic. But in theory, anything you can imagine should be possible if you can truly understand and believe in what you’re doing. The enormous time and effort needed for practice to mastery are the only true barrier.”

Her pathetic little smudge of light flashed through her head again, and Idelle nodded. No wonder that most people would rather find a crossbow than learn to attack someone with magic.

Cecilia glanced at her with a slightly stern look, betrayed only by the hint of a smirk tugging at the corners of her lips. “Speaking of practice, enough questions. Try it again, and I’ll explain a few other common practice images you can try. I won’t have a lazy student~”.

Idelle rolled her eyes and did her best to recreate her earlier feat, with mixed success.