Chapter 13

A week had passed since our Master gave us our assignment, and we were still stumped on how to create these new spells. Each of us understood the basics and could cast spells that were taught to us, but the fundamentals of how a spell comes into being were lost on us.

Or rather, they were lost on me.

“Wait a minute! Of course, now I see!” Merilyn shouted happily, eyes brimming with confidence.

“See what?” I asked

“Magic, at its fundamental level, the manipulation of nature using mana. We all have an affinity for a certain aspect of nature, and from that affinity our pathways connect and therefore-” but then she suddenly stopped herself.

“And therefore?” I asked

“…um…never mind. I think part of the lesson is figuring that part out for yourself, right?” she said timidly.

“…”

“Please don’t be mad at me…”

“…-sigh- No, you’re right, I just don’t even know where to start and it’s already been a week.” I said, frustrated at myself for still not putting the pieces together.

“Have you tried starting from the beginning?”

“Mana manipulation? Yes, but I was still missing something.”

“No, I mean the beginning. Before mana manipulation.”

“You mean pathways? What can I learn from those?”

“ I can’t tell you that but just…remember, you’re more than just a light dragon.”

“From whom did you inherit your cryptic nature?”

“Sorry, I’m only trying to help…” she said, her head drooping

“Don’t be, It's good that you realize the importance of learning something for yourself.”

She perked up at that, and said “I’m going to go ahead and figure out the rest on my own. I’ll create a spell so amazing that even you will be surprised.”

“You’d better, otherwise I’m totally going to show you up in front of our Master, prodigy.”

Merilyn huffed and sat down and, determined not to be outdone by me, set about working on her spell. I, on the other hand, was stuck trying to decipher what she was trying to tell me.

“Pathways, Mana, and my light attribute…how do these things fit together to make a spell? Master taught us that casting spells within one's attribute was easier and those spells would be more powerful. Merry doesn’t have to work on that, she’s got an affinity with every attribute thanks to her heritage. So should I start out trying to make a light spell? But what do pathways have to do with it…”

Once again I felt myself getting frustrated. All the pathways were for was to help me trace my mana back to my core. As far as I knew there was no auxiliary function beyond that…or was there?

“Perhaps it’s time to take another look.”

I closed my eyes and steadied my breathing, opening myself up to the magic inside. Unlike last time, I found the pathways immediately. The sweeping tendrils of mana were much more vibrant than before. This was likely because of how much more adept I was at using magic, it strengthened my mana network the way working out strengthened a muscle.

What's more, there was a new network of pathways mixed in. In addition to the white, the black, and the blue, there was now a set of green paths. Yet unlike the other paths, which didn’t intersect until they got closer to the core, the green paths were spread out equally among the white, blue and black. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what the green paths were.

“Natural mana, mixed in and strengthening all of my other paths…incredible.”

I didn’t have time to admire it all though, so I once again followed my pathways to the core. On the way there I noticed that, while the original three pathways still appeared to be at war with one another, the green pathways all merged seamlessly into a solid block of natural energy.

“Interesting, so while my internal pathways war with one another the external pathways inevitably come together.”

War from the inside out, peace from the outside in.

When I arrived at the core things were much the same as last time. The white and black were still in the center quarreling with one another while the blue tried to breach either from the outside. The only real difference was that my core had practically tripled in diameter.

“The natural energy must have expanded the vessel, while my inherent energy increased to fill it.”

This was all very interesting information that helped me understand more about the nature of pathways. But it didn’t put me any closer to creating new spells.

“Then why would she have asked me to think about pathways? And what does this have to do with what kind of dragon I am?”

I looked at my core again. I am a light dragon, so the white mana flowing through my core must be light aspected. The green mana was natural mana that the stone on my head was drawing in. The blue mana was my unaspected mana, which allows me to cast spells that aren’t light aspected but can also be used to power up my light magic. And the black mana…

“Demon Prince…” I remembered Reyzos voice saying.

I had never been able to use my black mana for casting spells. It wasn’t compatible with any of the things Carmen had taught us. Was it because the black mana could only be used for Demon magic?

“It would make sense, after all I’m not just a light dragon” I thought, echoing what Merilyn had said earlier.

If I started from Light mana then not only would it be easier for me to work a spell out, but I would also have a framework from which to work out spells from other types of mana as well.

It made sense why Merry could work this out so quickly, she already understood how to unmake spells from all types of mana, so all she had to do was approach the question from the opposite end. I already knew it, but she really was a genius.

I tried tapping into my Light mana, and when I did the balance of my mana core changed. The white mana overtook the black while I concentrated on it and the pathway extending from it glowed brightly.

“Now what?” I wondered, examining the change in my mana core.

Based on Carmen’s teachings, the next logical step would be mana manipulation, but without a concrete direction I wouldn’t be able to know for certain what kind of spell I was producing-or if I was even producing a spell at all. The mana would surge outward from my spirit through my pathways, and the resulting spell would be determined by which pathways the mana eventually wound up taking out of my body.

“So I have to keep repeatedly sending mana out from my core into various pathways, hoping that I’ll eventually discover some kind of spell.”

It all sounded simple enough, but there was one small problem. There were literally thousands of pathways to choose from-and that was just concerning my white paths. On top of that a spell could be produced from just two paths, or from sending mana through thousands of them. Finding anything close to a usable spell would take countless combinations of countless paths and yet…I couldn’t help but feel excited.

“You watch out Merry, I’ll catch up to you yet.” I thought happily, thankful that I had such a strong rival to keep me on my toes.

Despite unraveling the secret behind spell creation, it still took me the better part of two weeks to finally work out a halfway decent means of using light magic. My basic formula for it was to spend the whole day manipulating my mana, casting failed spell after failed spell until something happened. Occasionally I succeeded in casting a worthless spell, a momentary flash of light or a fleeting rainbow.

Rarely I managed to cast almost usable spells, like a ball of light that flickered and went out, or a spell that blocked light from hitting patches of my body, making me partially invisible. But I still hadn’t succeeded in creating a real spell yet. Merilyn on the other hand…

“I did it, I did it!” she said excitedly, bouncing alongside Carmen out of the forest “I managed to make my very own spell! Even Lady Carmen was impressed!”

Carmen looked affectionately down at Merilyn and said “Indeed I was, but don’t boast. By the look of things, Illumen won’t need much more time to figure out his own spell. I can tell how hard he’s been practicing.”

“How, can you see something in my aura?” I asked, curious if this was yet another power I could learn.

“No, I can smell it in your scales. You’ve been sleeping out here every night, haven’t you? When was the last time you had a bath?”

I didn’t answer, but I did look away in embarrassment.

“Come, perhaps taking a step away from your practice for a moment will give you some new perspective.” Carmen said, sliding into the lake alongside Merilyn.

I sighed and nodded, walking into the cool water behind them.

It was another week before I finally found a way to manipulate my magic that actually produced a usable spell. For a moment I wanted to rush over to Carmen right away but I stopped myself. Merilyn had beaten me every step of the way of our magic lessons, and just this once I wanted to outshine her.

So instead I kept working with my light magic, discovering ways to use my failed spells to create successful ones. Finally, one month after I started manipulating my light magic, I had finally worked out a spell that would wow Carmen more than anything Merilyn had created.

It was time to pass my final exam.