Chapter 22 The Creepy Elf

Evernya awakened to the rising sun shining through the open window to her right, displaying a beautiful view of an expansive lake over the trees. Like a turtle, her head retreated into her burrito of covers.

A few minutes later, having concluded sleep would not return, she reluctantly unwrapped herself. She squinted her eyes against the bright sunlight as she stretched out on the bed. After adjusting, she sat up, resting her back against the headboard to investigate her surroundings for the first time.

The hospital room was relatively large. Her room spanned six meters from the door on her left to the window to her right. Approximately four meters separated her from the wall in front of her. The walls were painted white, with several colorful abstract paintings hung up. The floor was a high-quality dark wood laminate. To her right, past the small living room section with a tan fabric couch in front of a coffee table, was a large window overlooking what appeared to be a forested park. From her vantage point, she could see several patients and staff walking the trails or sitting on the numerous benches scattered about. She focused back on her immediate surroundings, finding several items on the light wood nightstand placed on the right side of her bed. Neatly arranged on the nightstand was a TV remote, a button to call for help, a phone with a list of numbers for room service.

After spending several seconds scanning the room, she found the TV folded up on the ceiling near the foot of her bed. With the TV located, she moved her gaze to the left to find a table connected to the frame of her bed, capable of swinging over her lap. Beyond the table, the left side of the room had limited interest besides two doors, which she presumed were the exit and a bathroom like her lab hospital room.

If it weren’t for a weak smell of disinfectant and several pieces of cleverly hidden medical equipment, the room could pass as a decent hotel room.

Alone in the room, she decided to try out the TV. She reached for the TV remote but found it just out of reach. Damn it! Why is the remote always too far away!? Thought Evernya, staring at the remote a dozen centimeters from her outstretched fingers. She flashed back to the remote at the lab that moved on her own. Was that telekinesis? Can I do it again?

Evernya tried to will the remote toward her. She felt something leave her, now known as mana, before the remote slid toward her. However, without warning, the remote shot forward her, bypassing her hand. Before she could react, the remote nailed her in the face with a wet splat, shattering her nose. Her hands flew to her face, feeling blood stream down her face. A second later, a crunch sounded as her nose realigned and healed itself. Her near-instantaneous healing, coupled with the shock, dulled the pain but not the embarrassment.

Evernya’s ears swiveled toward the bathroom door to her left, upon picking up stifled giggling. The red-faced girl, in more ways than one, turned her attention to the door. Her gaze zeroed in on the crack between the door and the frame with what appeared to be a camera lens poking through. With her keen sense of smell, she immediately knew who the culprit was.

After flashing back to the book Meira hid, Evernya leaped out of her bed, dashing toward the door at inhuman speeds. With a push, the door flew open to reveal a certain cameraless elf floating in the middle of the bathroom.

With blood dripping down her face, she confronted the guilty elf. “Give me the camera now! I know you have one!”

The elf materialized and floated the camera to Evernya without protest. She stared at the smirking elf with suspicion as she grabbed the camera. After a few seconds, she figured out how to turn on the camera by inserting her mana. Once the touch screen lit up, she navigated through the menus until she found the previously taken media section. Her suspicions proved true upon as she found the folder empty.

Evernya threw the camera back at the smirking elf as she insisted, “I know you took a picture! Where is it!?”

After casually catching the camera-shaped fastball and storing away, Meira commented with obviously fake confusion, “What picture?”

“Don’t play dumb! You know I heard your conversation with Elizabeth! I want all the pictures you took of me now!” demanded the angry and flustered girl.

“Pictures? As you saw, I haven’t taken any pictures.” Denied Meira.

Fed by her anger and embarrassment, her magic leaked out. The air surrounding Evernya rippled with force, on the verge of exploding. Unable to resist the picturesque scene, in a blink, Meira materialized a different camera, taking a picture before storing it away.

A human would have missed it, but not Evernya. “Pictures now!” Evernya rumbled, staring down the elf before her with a brightly shining sapphire eyes and a blood-covered face.

Despite enjoying the show of her kitten displaying her claws, she decided to spare the innocent bathroom from possible destruction, so she materialized the photo album from the previous day.

At the appearance of the photo, the storm surrounding Evernya relented. She caught the floating photo album. With her prize in hand, Evernya spun on her heels, flicking her tail at Meira as she trotted out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

Evernya plopped onto the couch before cracking open the photo album. She flipped through the pages displaying pictures chronicling her time with Meira, starting with an image of her suckling on the arm of the unknown woman in what appeared to be a large underground room. The next pictures were of her comatose in her bedroom, which she skipped. A few pages later, she stopped at the images of her laying asleep wearing various outfits. The outfits range from conservative gowns to scraps of cloth barely covering her private bits.

Her gaze traveled to the elf casually leaning against the wall outside of the bathroom. “What are these about?” questioned Evernya, pointing at the dozens of pictures of her being used as a dress-up doll while asleep.

“You were so cute sleeping so I couldn’t resist.” Replied Meira, without a shred of remorse.

Evernya removed the pictures, then tore them up to tiny scraps while staring up at the offending elf. “Do not play dress-up without my permission again!” Commanded Evernya before returning her attention to the photo album.

The next pages contained images of her and various situations. Most pictures were of her expressions. Curiosity, while using her personal elf search engine or serious thinking as she focused on learning mana sense, Meira missed nothing. Evernya paused at an image of her standing against the betas, liking the angle Meira used.

She moved on to the next page, finding a picture of her lying on her bed loopy, dressed in the outfit she wore to the mage’s test. She ripped the picture apart before flipping to the next page. The following series of images were of her at the mage’s test, including the picture Elizabeth pointed out.

Finally, she reached the most recent pictures. Somehow the pictures from her remote incident were already in the album. She took several pictures just before the impact at the impact and just after as blood was squirting out of Evernya’s broken nose. Evernya reached up to feel her nose, finding it perfectly intact despite only a few minutes ago being flattened. After shredding the evidence quite thoroughly with her claws, she moved on. The last picture was of her standing in the bathroom with a terrifying visage of her glowing eyes shining through her bloodied, angry face. Damn, I look terrifying! I’m definitely keeping that one. Maybe the creepy elf could give me a copy she owes me at least that much. Actually, I think I have a better idea for payment. After completing her censorship, she closed the album, setting it on the couch cushion to her right.

Evernya returned her attention to Meira before demanding, “I better not find more pictures like these. I don’t care if you take photos as long as I’m aware of them. Now, as payment, tell me what I did wrong with my telekinesis.”

Before speaking, Meira materialized a washcloth, floating it toward her kitten. Evernya wiped her face clean of drying blood before tossing the washcloth into the trash near the door almost five meters away. To her surprise, the washcloth flew true, right through the middle of the opening.

If basketball exists in this world, I’m sure I could nail threes all day long, though my height may cause some issues. Well, I could always dunk it if all else fails, but again I would probably get rejected by some tall person.

Unsurprised by her kitten’s throwing accuracy, Meira responded to her demands. “I would have told you either way. How do you normally use your magic?”

Evernya’s now clean face reddened with embarrassment as she admitted, “I don’t. It seems to have a mind of its own.”

Meira sat on the couch to her kitten’s right before continuing, “It isn’t uncommon for young mages to have sudden outbursts of magic, but that force field of yours is different. Magic has ties to the Magical’s thoughts and emotions, especially for Psions. However, to perform more complex magic, such as your force field, is impossible without a clear picture in your mind.”

“Then how do I do it?” Evernya inquired, her full attention directed at her elf shaped search engine, previous anger long forgotten.

Meira’s face flashed helplessness as she responded, “I don’t know, but I’m guessing you wanted to be protected, so your mana acted. Mana doesn’t have consciousness, but it can lend a helping hand. This helping hand can be unpredictable, such as when you tried to move the remote. I’m guessing you willed your mana to move the remote towards you without a clear picture, forcing your mana to fill in the blanks.”

“I did. How am I supposed to use telekinesis then?” Evernya inquired, continuing to lean in with keen interest.

Meira entered lecture mode as she explained, “multiple things must be present to perform precisely what you desire with magic. Without them, your mana could either fill in the blanks, which usually happens with simple magic. The other outcome is backlash caused when someone tries to perform magic too complex for the person’s mana to compensate. Backlash, depending on the severity, can be crippling hence why novice mages need supervision while training.”

“The requirements to perform magic correctly vary between magical classes such as a wizard needs to invoke the incantation and the mana pattern successfully. Sorcerers need to will the desired amount of mana into their element, then control it with their body. The more experienced the sorcerer, the less physical movements required. An example of a novice sorcerer would be the fire sorcerer who harassed you at the mage’s test. He needed to go through the physical motion of throwing the fireball while a more experienced sorcerer could launch it with a flick of the wrist.”

“From the limited information I’ve been able to gather, Psions require a clear picture in their mind. You need to picture where exactly you want the item or force to go and how fast or how powerful the force used. The needed thoughts sound simple, but you have to maintain your picture throughout the process, which can be taxing for complex processes, especially performing multiple magical feats simultaneously. I’m sure I’m missing some information, but that seems to be the agreed-upon basic method for controlling telekinesis.” Meira lectured to her captive audience of one.

Unable to resist the temptation, Evernya turned her attention toward the remote lying on the bed. She pictured the remote moving to her right hand at a slow pace. The remote inched toward her excruciatingly slow, prompting Evernya to will it to go faster. The remote shot to her outstretched hand at a dizzying pace. Less than a second later, with a loud slap, the remote impacted her hand. Despite the stinging of her palm, Evernya puffed up with pride at her accomplishment.

Meira bonked her on the head between her ears while scolding her. “Congratulations on nearly blowing yourself up! You aren’t ready to change your magic on-the-fly! What you did is one of the easiest ways for a novice mage to receive backlash! What you should have done is cancel the magic and restarted it! The conflicting commands could cancel each other out, forcefully breaking the magic, inducing backlash!”

After taking a deep breath to calm down, Meira checked the time on her watch. “I have to leave for a bit. I have an appointment I can’t cancel. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

She materialized a jug of MEL on the coffee table before rushing toward the door. With her hand on the door handle, she turned back to her kitten, who was rubbing her head with her ears folded flat, tears in her eyes. “Do not use magic without Elizabeth or me supervising. If I find you have, I will seal your magic when I leave you alone until I am sure you have at least basic control.” Meira threatened before dashing out the door.

Immediately after, Meira poked her head back through the doorway. “I almost forgot Elizabeth called me. Your private Mage’s test, and a full evaluation, is scheduled for tomorrow morning at ten. You can still back out from the deal, but I would suggest going either way.” Meira informed before retracting her head, this time leaving.