Today Celestine was standing outside in a white sleeveless top and teal skirt that reached just short of her knees. Her skin was really pale, a consequence of her being a couch potato over the last year. A thin layer of sweat was already forming on her arms and brow. She's going to be as bright red as a tomato after this.

She was standing in the back yard. A stone wall rose up higher than she was tall encompassing the yard. Green bushes, grass, and stone decor were featured prominently around the bottom of the wall. A huge field of grass made up the rest of the yard. Along the side of the mansion were flower beds with strange plants that I think are a kind of cactus. The gardener that Mother hired really did manage to bring the greenery back to life on the property. But he wouldn't be able to do anything about the heat. The white sun is as unforgiving as ever.

Standing in front of Celestine is an old man with brown hair with stripes of gray mixed in and sharp golden eyes. He had quite a few wrinkles on his face, but he stood tall. He looked similar to a fifty year old man on Earth. Poking out of the side of his head were long pointed ears. These were not the refined pointed ears you might see in a Tolkien film. These pointed ears must have been half a foot long and they pointed up at a forty-five degree angle from his head. His facial features were sharp and his slightly pointed chin, that would look comical if it wasn't on a real person's face, was his second most defining feature aside from the ears. Thin wisps of, what I guess were supposed to be, a brown beard dangled from his chin. He was wearing a sleeveless tank top and shorts, giving him a lazy uncle's appearance. You'd expect someone dressed like this to be sitting indoors all day watching TV, not out actually enjoying the day. His yellowed skin, without an ounce of a tan, was proof he was not an outdoors man. But strangely he wasn't sweating.

He clapped his hands and spoke. "Now, let's get to starting your training." He reached into a bag he had laying on the ground behind him.

Celestine just looked at him with annoyed eyes and she uttered the single syllable, "huh?" loud enough he should be able to hear. But that's right. Huh? What happened to the dog boy from yesterday? Wasn't he supposed to be her teacher?

The elf man's ear twitched when she spoke. He stood back up without grabbing anything from the bag and looked back at her. "Oh yeah. I need to reintroduce myself, don't I? I'm Warran. The handsome young man you opened the door for yesterday. This is what I really look like!" He spread his arms wide with a smile.

It got so quiet I swear I could hear Mother upstairs giggling at the spectacle. I can't even imagine the face Celestine must be making right now. Her mouth had dropped open and her eyes were wide before she cried out, "Haaahh?"

"Sorry your first crush turned into an old man like me. Shape-shifting! It's the pinnacle of restructuring magic. Marvel at it! Now back to the matter at hand." He leaned back over and started rifling through the bag again.

"H-huuh?" Was all she responded with.

I said in her head.

She fell onto her knees and pounded at the grass with her clenched fist.

I shout to her to try to get her out of her stupor.

She was actually crying on her hands and knees.

"Girl, stand up. I have other things to do today. I need to earn my room and board while I'm here and to do that I need to tutor Daemon's sorry seed. That's you." Warran was annoyed now. Was he even going to be a proper teacher with that attitude?

Celestine slowly stood back up, pulled a handkerchief out of her skirt pocket and wiped her eyes.

"Now, your mother told me what your affinity is. We'll get there eventually, but we should start with some basics. Eyes up! Pay attention girl." Celestine's gaze had fallen to the ground when he was talking. His shout made her reluctantly look back up at Warran.

He continued, "Every being in this world has access to a conduit. You might be thinking about the awakening ceremony at the church. I don't know what you did to make them perform the awakening early, but good job. Staying restricted like that would only stifle your growth. Children elsewhere are not bound in such a way. It's a consequence of how isolated this city is from other humans I suppose.

"A magic conduit is a path by which we can pull power from the heavens and perform feats called magic. How much you can do and how powerful of a spell you perform is always going to be determined by your conduit's width. The wider a conduit you have, the more powerful the spells you perform will become. But this comes at a cost. It becomes much more difficult to control the spells. The smaller a conduit, the weaker the spells you can perform, but the more control you have. Remember, just because you have a small conduit, it doesn't mean you are useless. With your affinity, you will become a very important person one day. Especially with me as your tutor! Feel honored!"

Okay, this is a lot to take in. A lot of what he just said is contradictory of what Celestine was told by the church and even by what Mother told the acolytes a year ago from our memory. We shouldn't take anything said at face value, especially when religion is involved. I need to take in everything he says, couple it with what we experience when she actually performs magic, and come to my own conclusion. The crystals in the house are a foundation of what I could use to base this on. It's fairly obvious magic isn't powered by the sun because the crystal still gets powered at night from what Mother told us. Magic in this world has to have some kind of source. It can't just be some mystical force from the heavens. And it's not like in stories or games where there's a mana pool of power that collects in your body to draw on. It seems as long as your conduit is large enough, any phenomenon is possible for as long as you desire it, right? Is that what he means?

"Now, onto the next bit. There are several schools of magic. Three schools that anyone is capable of learning with enough practice. These are called common schools. There are also three rare affinities that can only be learned by those with the affinity for it. We call these the rare schools. When someone is identified as having an affinity to a certain school of magic, it means they are gifted in that certain school. While someone needs to have an affinity with a rare school in order to practice it, they don't need any affinity at all to perform feats with the common schools. Though if you are born with an affinity to a common school, it helps you learn and perform with it easier.

"The three common schools are: light, which is the ability to manipulate light obviously; elementalism, which can be split up into different sub schools of earth, fire, air, and water; and the spacial school, which allows you to pick up objects from a distance and manipulate them with magic. These are the three I have been told to teach you the basics in. Just so you know, human children in other parts of the world learn how to use magic in at least the light school by the time they're two years old. So you're already behind, girl.

"The three rare schools are: identification, which allows the practitioner to use magic to identify objects and details about people within his view; restructuring, which allows for phenomena like healing, repair, and shape-shifting, this is the school I have an affinity for; and finally enchanting, which is your affinity. It allows the user to imbue objects with magic of the common schools. I don't know much about the details of this school, so I can't teach you much. It's the school responsible for making the various crystal tools we use on a daily basis."

He clapped his hands loudly to get her attention. It seemed like she was more focused on waving her hand at her face to try to cool down. She didn't even think to bring one of her sun hats with her. "Now. Before we do anything dangerous like practicing elementalism, we will start with light magic. The most damage you could do with light magic is throw it into someone's face and blind them for a bit. And don't even think about it. It's not a fun prank if it hurts someone."

He walked up closer to Celestine, grabbed her hand, and placed something in it. She looked up at him, he was so tall. It only reminded her of the loss of the cute dog boy all over again. He lifted his hand away to reveal a light crystal. Celestine held it between her fingers and held it up to her eye to see through it. It was clear as glass, but had a somewhat rough texture.

"Your homework. I cannot teach you how to channel magic from your conduit, it is something everyone must learn on their own. Like taking their first drink. You have been starved by the church's silly traditions, so it shouldn't take long to figure out. Now, bring me that crystal lit up and we will continue the lessons. No cheating." He lightly tapped her head with his knuckle before he walked back to his bag, hoisted it over his shoulder, and walked back inside, leaving Celestine standing in the hot sun to contemplate everything he told her.

She lightly rubbed her head with her free hand where he knocked on her skull and held the crystal with her right hand. Her hair was hot from the sun, but she didn't mind it. She just studied the crystal. It looked like a piece of clear quartz with an opaque bottom that you would sit down on a table so the light could disperse evenly from the clear part of the crystal. What was the purpose of the opaque bit? Celestine knew from experience with the crystals in the mansion that they don't get hot, so there was no worry about the light damaging furniture. There was a metal band around the base.

I said to her, pulling her attention from the object.

She wiped the sweat off her brow, tossed the salty water off her hand into the grass, and trotted inside. She was stopped by Mother to use the device that cleaned her body of sweat and gave her a light drink of water before she was allowed to go to her room. That device, now that I am looking at it more carefully, had a crystal in it of similar design that she put her lips on. The crystal was blue and smooth, but it still had an opaque base with a metal band around it.

Now sitting on Celestine's bed, she was still staring at the crystal like just looking at it right will make it light up in her face. It wouldn't. There was something missing. She was trying to put strength into the hand holding the crystal, but other than acting silly, nothing happened. She got bored of this quickly and was about to give up and goto the library to read again.

"But nothing is working!" She growled and fell backward onto the bed.

I said.

"Muuuuuh, I wish he stayed as a cute dog boy."

I sighed in her head. I wish I could hit her for thinking about that. That's not the issue right now to be worried about. I'll just ignore it for now. If she's like this now, how will she act when her hormones are in full swing?

I gave her a few more minutes of staring blankly at the crystal before I spoke up again.

It actually did. I have much more control than I used to have. Before when I was in her body, I was more of a passive observer, only able to change anything when she was unconscious. But now if I will strong enough, I can actually take control forcibly. I won't tell her that, though. I will avoid doing that unless her life is in danger. Not being in control of her own body without permission is a perfect way to traumatize her even if she fully trusts me. In fact, it would be worse to do that when she trusts me.

But back on topic. I think back to when I was in the dream with her. In order to return to consciousness and share her senses, I feel like I have a body and there's a current of chill water flowing through my bones at first. It was a novel experience right after the ceremony because before I was just always sharing her senses without much thought, I never had to work so hard to share her senses. But it's become as easy as breathing for me now.

I ask.

I feel for her arm and I notice she's relinquished control over the limb. Over the last year we've gotten better at this and I can actually fully take over her body if she allows me. She always shares the senses, though, as long as she's awake. I latch onto the control of the limb and feel the chill water pour through my body before I can move the limb as if it was my own. Celestine had sat back up on the edge of the bed and just stares in wonder as her arm moves on its own.

She said.

Holding the crystal in the same hand I have control over, I whisper in her head, I feel carefully, I can pick up the faint readings of a sixth sense.

I sometimes use words from Earth in my speech when she doesn't know a word equivalent. Either this language has no cuss words or the adults are doing a good job of controlling their speech around a little girl.

I latch onto the sense and I feel a static numbness in the bones of the arm. Like a thousand particles of dust are constantly bombarding the bones, but there is not pain. It's not even annoying and it can be ignored as easily as wind against the skin. Is this a sensation that has always been here and she just learned to ignore it?

I can feel the particles as clear as I can see the crystal in front of me. They move of their own will and pass by as fast as they arrive. Is this the magic that Warran was saying that comes from the heavens?

She chimed in when she realized nothing was happening.

I asked.

She said.

I relinquished control.

I said. I still haven't taught her how to play chess. It's actually a rare treat that I appear in her dreams and help her lucid dream.

She said. She put the crystal onto the bed cover, sat back in the center of the bed, and just concentrated on what I told her to do. She closed her eyes, calmed her breathing, and just concentrated on every little extremity of her body. I could almost call this meditating if Warran's dog boy form wasn't also on her mind. I sigh and just tap into this new sixth sense I discovered. Like tapping into her vision or sense of touch, I am not influencing anything, just observing it with her. She just needs to become aware of this sense now.