Wolf’s guess was spot on. He had to wait until the next evening to get what he had wanted. As soon as he was done setting up camp, Archibald demonstrated the gestures and incantation for the First Order spell called Light. The man began by explaining the flow of Soul Force through the Mind Hall and how to slowly let it out into the surroundings and condense it into the spell.

This went as well as one could expect considering Archibald couldn’t demonstrate. The long-winded explanation was as useful as someone verbally explaining to you how to walk on a tightrope.

Archibald was eventually forced to give up on this approach. Much to Wolf’s horror, this attempt at teaching almost led to another discussion on the theory of magic. The topic being the flow of Soul Force and why perfect control was important.

“Yes, yes,” Wolf said hurriedly. “Control is important, just like threading a needle.”

Wolf had no idea how difficult it was to thread a needle, but he’d heard the village women say it required a steady hand and a lot of control.

Archibald considered the words then nodded, finding the comparison adequate. And so, thanks to some quick thinking and even quicker talking, Wolf just barely managed to avoid a surprise lecture on how important it was to control Soul Force properly.

With the disaster averted and dinner finished, everything was finally ready. Archibald demonstrated the relatively simple movement of hands. Then he slowly spoke the gibberish syllables of the chant that accompanied the hand motions. Once Wolf had memorized the exact sequence of sounds, Archibald performed the hand gestures at the same time as the chant.

Wolf tried to mimic him right away, but nothing happened. Even though he didn’t succeed on his first try, the boy wasn’t discouraged. He was thrilled. Finally, he had something to work with. From that evening on, Wolf kept muttering the odd words and waving his hand whenever he had some spare time.

After half a month of constantly muttering like a deranged person, trying to make Soul Force flow correctly and waving his hands as if he was shooing away invisible flies, Wolf saw some results. A weak, flickering light appeared atop his hand. A moment later the light winked out of existence.

Since Wolf walked behind Archibald, his father missed the first act of magic Wolf had ever managed to perform somewhat successfully. It was something a parent like Archibald would be more proud of than seeing his child take its first steps, or saying Dada for the first time.

As for Wolf, the reward for his effort was a dizzy spell. The boy used all of his willpower just to remain conscious.

After stumbling a couple of steps, he barely managed to keep walking. Ignoring the backlash he had just suffered, Wolf “intelligently" tried to cast the spell one more time. When he did, the result wasn’t a dizzy spell, but splitting pain in his head. Wolf felt as if someone had stabbed an awl through his eyeballs, straight into the brain.

The boy grunted, his eyes watering like he’d just been hit on the nose. Then he crumpled down to the ground unconscious. Hearing the grunt and the rustling when his son fell down, Archibald reacted as fast as he could. He took a moment to figure out what had happened before beaming a proud grin.

“Soul Force overdraft! Two weeks! A genius! Even I pale in comparison,” the big man humbly muttered while considering whether he should let little Wolf sleep, or if he should wake him up.

“So cute,” he said as his eyes glittered lovingly. “Well, he should be fine… He’ll wake up in an hour or two. Besides, he really does need the rest.”

Archibald knew that the hour lost won’t hurt them in the least and that the little guy needed to recover now. If he didn’t let Wolf rest immediately, the boy would end up groggy for the rest of the day, until he managed to get some proper sleep. For a caring parent, this wasn’t even a choice.

While Archibald was moving Wolf’s body into a more comfortable position, Wolf’s Mental Aspect found himself back in the Mind Hall. This was the first time Wolf had ever been pulled there involuntarily. The boy felt like he’d been sucked in through a small opening, and it felt as bad as it sounded. Maybe even worse.

Wolf looked around, hoping a new column had appeared. Sadly, he was still stuck with four. The boy had no idea how greedy he was, expecting to find a new one just because he managed to cast his first cantrip. If manifesting columns was that easy, everyone would be a True-Namer by the time they hit their teens…

Even though there were no new columns, there really was a new addition to Wolf’s Mind Hall. On the wall behind his throne, five small tapestries had appeared. Wolf approached them full of curiosity and started examining them closely.

The tapestries were fluffy and seemed like they were made from some kind of wool or fur. Their color was a white so pristine that it almost glowed. When he ran his fingers through it Wolf thought it felt like petting a very fluffy dog.

Unfortunately, he didn’t get to enjoy the feeling for long. As soon as his finger made contact with the tapestry it sapped his strength. Wolf’s hand shot back out of reflex and he looked at the white patch with a frown.

The fur began to glow, appearing brighter and more vibrant than before. Taking note of the difference, Wolf acted in a manner characteristic to intelligent lifeforms prone to experimentation, and touched the glowing tapestry again. Nothing happened. There was no feeling of being drained. Wolf touched it a dozen times, but aside from the wonderful fluffiness, he felt nothing out of the ordinary.

Then the boy moved on to the next tapestry. Just like with the previous one, upon first contact Wolf felt a bit of his strength get sucked into the white patch and it began glowing. Upon further contact the tapestry became inert and remained soft to the touch.

Wolf repeated the process with four tapestries and by the time he was done with the fourth one he felt completely drained. He went back up the dais and sat on the throne. Then he tried to do something he had never tried before. Wolf closed his eyes, wanting to rest. For the first time since he was born, the little boy truly slept.

Three hours passed just like that. Archibald was pacing back and forth. He was long past getting nervous. The only reassurance he felt was that Wolf’s breathing was steady and his heart was beating normally. There was no rapid eye movement and the boy didn’t have a seizure of any kind.

He’s doing fine, right? the big man assured himself.

Archibald checked his son’s status every five minutes or so, and finally decided to give the boy until nightfall. If Wolf didn’t wake up on his own by then, Archibald would have to use magic regardless of the price he would pay. Fortunately for him, a quarter of an hour after he made this decision, Wolf woke up.

“Son, are you feeling well? How many fingers do you see?” Archibald asked while shoving two sausage-thick fingers into the little boy’s face.

“I’m fine, my head hurts. I see five fingers,” Wolf slurred sleepily.

“What do you mean, five?” Archibald turned his hand so he could see it the same way Wolf did. He really could see five calloused fingers.

“Smartass brat,” the big man muttered. “Are you trying to make me worry over nothing? If you need to sleep more, just sleep more. I’ll stand guard over you.”

We are just in enemy territory, he inwardly grumbled. And I had a bounty on my head here some years ago… for about a century. At least there shouldn’t be anyone remotely powerful hanging around in this border region. Unless there’s an imminent battle, but there’s no way we’re that unlucky…

While Archibald silently cursed, Wolf mumbled a yes and went back to sleep. When he woke up next time, it was shortly before dawn the next day. His headache was completely gone and for some reason he felt more clear-headed than ever. In fact, he had the impression that his senses had become keener.

“Are you feeling better, son?” Archibald asked. Despite the dim predawn light, all it took was a glance for Wolf to see that his father had had a sleepless night.

Wolf took a moment to take in that exhausted face and commit it to memory. From those dark bags under his father’s eyes, it was very obvious that this was not the first sleepless night the big man had since they’d left home. It was strange that Wolf failed to notice it until now.

“Better than ever!” Wolf nodded with a cheerful expression, allowing Archibald to sigh in relief.

“Have there been any changes to your Mind Hall?” Archibald asked expectantly. Once he’d confirmed that his son was alive and well, other things immediately took priority.

“Yes, there are now some squares of soft fluffy white fur hanging on the wall behind the big chair,” Wolf replied dutifully, doing his best to describe the tapestries which had appeared in his Mind Hall.

Squares of fur? Archibald frowned. Does he mean the scrolls hanging from the wall? Could it be that he sees it differently because he’s got elven blood in him?

“Can you interact with those squares of fur in any way?” Archibald asked with the forced patience of a parent prying words out of their child’s mouth.

The boy stared blankly. He was about to ask what interact was, but his father spoke again.

“Can you do something with them?” As soon as he’d seen Wolf’s struggling expression, Archibald immediately rephrased the question.

“I don’t know how to check that, but they seem to be hungry for something,” Wolf dragged out his answer, speaking with uncertainty. “When I feed them I feel weak?”

“I’m fairly certain I have already explained what meditation is,” Archibald continued patiently. “Can you try meditating? When you enter your Mind Hall try infus… um, feeding one of them? While you are feeding it, concentrate on the chant and gestures for the Light spell I taught you.”

“I can try,” Wolf offered without much confidence.

Then the boy seated himself comfortably with his back against a tree. He closed his eyes and immediately entered the trancelike state. The next moment he was sitting on his throne, back inside the Mind Hall. Wolf ran over to the dimmest tapestry and laid his hand on the fluffy thing while chanting the incantation for the Light spell.

The chant drastically slowed down the rate at which the tapestry absorbed Wolf’s energy. As time passed, a simple runic pattern appeared on the white patch. Unfortunately, Wolf was still illiterate, so he had no idea what that pattern meant. He only noted that, unlike his previous attempts when the whole tapestry turned shiny, now only a thin rune radiated gentle yellowish-white light.

Having completed his task, Wolf willed himself awake. His eyes slowly opened and he heard his father mumble.

“Quarter of an hour. That’s slightly above average…”

Archibald cleared his throat and then continued more clearly.

“Ahem. If you have succeeded, you should be able to cast your first spell. Just chant the incantation while making the gestures the way I showed you and you should be fine.” Archibald tried to hide his excitement, but failed miserably. He seemed to be more thrilled than Wolf was.

Wolf nodded and got up. He spoke the words as quietly as possible and waved his hands around. Once he was done, his palm started glowing.

“Excellent! Now touch this gold piece,” Archibald said as he produced a golden coin out of thin air like a stage magician.

Wolf did as he was told. As soon as he touched the coin, the light flowed from his hand and into the coin. A split second later the coin started glowing as brightly as a lantern.

“Wonderful! Congratulations, son! You’re now a First Order Mage! Even though you only know how to cast the Light spell, that’s enough to meet the criteria. Keep that gold piece. It’s a reward for you. You can live off of that for a month in a fancy inn. Now, I’m going to teach you another First Order spell. This one is called Acid Blob, it…”

“Dad, can I cast spells without saying the incantation and waving my hands?” Wolf interrupted his father for the first time.

Archibald wasn’t angered by the interruption in the slightest, in fact he was thrilled his son was finally showing initiative. He got into the lecturer mode and started explaining everything in fine detail.

“You can. But to cast a First Order spell in complete silence, or even while talking about something else, you have to cast it as if it were Second Order. The same applies for casting a spell while standing still or making gestures that are not related to it. If you want to modify a spell in such ways, you have to cast it as if it was Third Order. You can also…”

It was only at this point that Wolf realized the error he’d made. Instead of learning a new spell, he spent the day listening to a hushed lecture on various ways to modify spells. Wolf also learned that some spells could use various material components to act as a conduit. This kind of material sacrifice was usually only required when a person freshly makes a breakthrough and gains the ability to cast a new Order of spells.

Luckily, Archibald was merciful and explained the incantation and gesture for Acid Blob when they made camp that evening. This was a spell which allowed the caster to hurl a small blob of acid towards a person or object within range, albeit with questionable precision.

After dinner Wolf went to meditate. When he appeared in his Mind Hall, he noticed that the tapestry which he used for the Light spell was now significantly dimmer than the other four. The runic symbol was completely gone, while the other four were also dimmer than they were in the morning.

So there is some sort of cost when casting a spell. When I placed Light inside that fur in the morning, it was slightly brighter than the other ones, but now it looks much darker.

As he pondered, Wolf repeated the familiar steps. He laid his hand on the already used tapestry and chanted the words for the Acid Blob spell. To his surprise, nothing happened. He tried the same action, but changed the tapestry. Very soon a pattern appeared on the tapestry. This pattern was also a rune. Unlike the Light rune which was yellowish-white, the Acid Blob rune had a venomous green color.

Wolf got up and Archibald confirmed that it took a bit under a quarter of an hour for his son to prepare a spell in his Mind Hall. Wolf looked around and picked a stone the size of a grown person’s head some five meters away from him. He started chanting the words and waving his hands. A glob of acid the size of a pigeon egg flew out of his finger towards the stone and missed by almost a full meter.

Archibald laughed. Wolf was embarrassed. The stone was still in one piece.

“You will get better at it with practice. It has to do with the fact that your gestures don’t quite match up to those that this spell requires. Watch closely. I’ll demonstrate them to you again. This time I’ll go slower than I did previously…”

Archibald's lessons:

Mages, Monster Beasts and Sword-Sages are divided based on their power into Orders. The criteria for Mages is the highest Order of spells they can cast. For Sword-Sages it's the highest Order of maneuvers they can use. As for Monster Beasts, their Order is determined based on how much power they have. We usually deduce that post mortem by examining their Monster Core.

As for Body Refiners, they don't have a strictly tiered system. You're either strong or you aren’t.