Eventually, the two of them got up from their cloud gazing. Mostly due to Gemma getting annoyed that they were wasting time. They faced off numerous times after that. The mock battles were always close. Ril improved drastically at controlling his multiple perspectives. Regardless, Evelyn somehow managed to evade him for the duration of the day. Her attacks also seemed to be getting faster, and more accurate. By the end, Ril was nursing several bruises that the ice balls had made when they had collided directly and knocked him down.

At one point, a stray projectile had rocketed directly towards Ril’s head. What followed was lost to the histories, but the next thing Ril knew, Gemma was twiddling her fingers over him with Evelyn standing slightly to the side looking concerned. After that, Ril had a headache, but remarkably there was no bruising. Once more Ril was impressed with the breadth of power that Gemma seemed to possess. So far, he had only really seen her light things on fire and heal injuries, but Evelyn’s penchant for ice magic made him think that Gemma was no slouch with that field of magic either.

Eventually, the two stopped sparring. Exhausted they collapsed in unison on the porch steps. The clearing had nearly been completely destroyed. Everything in sight was liberally coated by a generous layer of fine white snow. Where the ground was visible it was torn up, either from overly exuberant tackles on Ril’s part or altercations with Evelyn’s power. Somehow the vegetable garden had been spared. In fact, it seemed that the area directly surrounding the cottage was completely clear of all traces of snow and combat. Ril chalked that up to Gemma’s strange mastery of various forms of magic. Although now that he thought about it, Gemma’s age implied her mastery to a certain degree.

Gemma brought out several bowls filled with a hearty stew containing some of the meat that was left over from the day before. It was both filling and warm. Satiated, Ril curled around the ceramic bowl and tried to absorb as much heat from it as possible. Who knew that fighting against someone who threw ice at you would be so cold.

By this point the sun had fallen below the treeline. While it wasn’t true dark yet, all three of the inhabitants of Gemma’s cottage agreed silently to wrap up for the day. Together they headed in. After a quick shower, Ril collapsed on the couch that had been transformed temporarily into a makeshift bed. Before his head even hit the pillow, he fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

* * *

The morning came as somewhat of a mixed bag. Ril hopped out of bed the moment the sun streamed in through the windows, excited to practice more with his newfound powers. Immediately, he fell back down onto the couch with a groan. The sparring he had done with Evelyn on the previous day had wreaked havoc on his muscles. They weren’t screaming at him just yet, but it was a near thing.

After carefully poking his sore muscles, Ril decided that the bruises were the worst. The purple splotch on his shoulder from when Evelyn had clipped him was both sore and tender. Luckily, his legs were bruise free, so after some internal grumbling, he levered himself off of the couch and joined Gemma in the kitchen.

“Mornin’, old man.” Gemma said, handing him a bowl of porridge whose slimy texture would have been unappetizing if not for the tremendous racket that Ril’s stomach was making upon seeing it.

“Morning yourself, old woman,” Ril said, shooting the old crone an affronted look. Gemma just chuckled. Ril grumbled. His snarky response had sounded so much better in his head.

“I figured we should increase your arsenal today. Seeing as you are currently just a one trick pony.”

“I do have the ‘Blood of the Chromagnum’ ability. Not that it does anything when I activate it.” Ril replied, spooning a dollop of porridge into his mouth. The hot breakfast was heavenly compared to the cold meals he was used to. Even if the porridge was a little overcooked.

“I’d be wary of activating any ability granted to you directly by the Chromagnum, young man. Usually those abilities are passive. If they do have an active component it would be likely that it would only work on the powder beasts.” Gemma scolded.

Ril shrugged. He understood the danger that the ability posed. Gemma’s lecture yesterday had made sure of that. Also, seeing as how gaining the Mirror Image ability had increased his warp, Ril thought it likely that the reason why his warp was so high in the first place was because of the ‘Blood of the Chromagnum’ ability. Not much to do about it at this point, but recognize the danger and act accordingly. He had only mentioned his first ability to remind Gemma that he had another ability, not that he should use it. Or knew how to do so effectively.

“There are a few abilities that I can teach you that would be a wonderful addition to your repertoire.” Gemma continued. Ril, for his part, was instantly excited and laser focused on her. Noticing his attention, Gemma snorted.

“It’s alright to be excited, and gaining new abilities is a great way of becoming more powerful. But you need to be careful. When you are learning how to use this new ability today, be careful. If you learn it improperly, you will gain a significant amount of warp upon learning it, and if improperly mastered you will gain warp upon use of the ability.”

Suitably chastised, Ril returned to his meal. Although this time he gobbled up the bland porridge, clearly hurried to finish and get started with today’s instruction.

“The first thing that I am going to teach you is an ability called Mana Manipulation. It may be the most useful ability that you will ever learn. There are even some purists who refuse to learn any other ability other than this one. They call themselves ‘Mages’. You might meet some of their order in the capital. Anyway, It is the ability that Evelyn has been pounding you with all of yesterday. She was using a subclass of the ability to conjure snow and a different subclass to launch it at you.” Gemma continued.

“More like ice...” Ril muttered.

“What’s that?” Gemma asked.

“Nothing,” Ril quickly replied. “What are the names of the two subclasses that Evelyn used?”

“Cryomancy and telekinesis.” Gemma said.

“Are they abilities like Mana Manipulation?”

“Yes and no. While the Chromagnum does recognize them as unique abilities, there is nothing stopping someone with the Mana Manipulation ability from learning how to control fire. The subclasses are mostly categorizations that have been developed for the different specializations of the basic Mana Manipulation ability. Most mages tend to stick to a single field as their focus, since like all skills it takes practice and talent to perfect. Enough of that. Give me your hand and I will guide you in learning this ability.”

Ril reached over, and placed his hand in Gemma’s. Her hand was cool and dry, contrasting starkly with Ril’s own hand. Ril closed his eyes preparing for the notification that he had learned and could access a new ability, but nothing came. Confused, Ril opened his eyes and stared askingly at Gemma.

“What, you thought I could just give it to you?” Gemma chuckled. “Even I am not that talented. What I can do is help you move your mana channels for the first time and trigger the ability. Remember what I told you earlier, don’t let the mana control you or you won’t be able to use it properly. Now, reach into your core and try to stabilize the mana that exists there. Visualizing your mana can be helpful. What you are trying to do is condense it down to a ball as small as possible. If you can do that while making it spin is even better.”

Ril reached into his core. Before he just thought of it as the space that he pushed in order to activate Mirror Form. After Gemma’s explanation, it made sense that Mirror Form could be activated by using mana.

As the visualization of his inner space appeared to his inner eye, Ril immediately realized a problem. When attuning to Mirror Form on the previous day he had exploded the mana ball that was there previously. Well, not literally, just expanded it so that it filled his entire body evenly. Now according to Gemma he needed to compress it, which was exactly what prevented him from using Mirror Form properly the day before.

Unwilling to undo his achievement, Ril began trying to compress the energy that diffusely filled his inner space. Instead of pulling all of the mana to a ball near his core, he tried just pulling all the mana closer together into tiny localized spheres all across his body.

“Good, but you are going to need to compress the mana much more than that if you want to acquire the ability” Gemma said. Clearly she could somehow feel what Ril was doing through their contact.

Ril already blue in the face, paused his effort. All of his mana sprung back to the transparent misty form it had taken prior to his efforts. This wouldn’t work. Ril’s mental ‘hand’ - for lack of a better word - was not strong enough to compress all of his mana. Instead, Ril reached for the diffuse cloud of mana floating where he imagined his right hand would be. He grabbed it, and began crushing it in his metaphysical hand. The mana compressed further and further changing from it’s mist-like quality to a thick opaque smoke. At the last moment Ril remembered Gemma’s words and began spinning the mana clockwise.

When the smokey mana was as condensed as it would go, Ril hesitantly let go. Surprisingly, the mana didn’t pop back to the diffuse form that it did in the rest of his body. Encouraged, Ril began repeating the process up his arm and across his chest.

Something strange happened when he started spinning and compressing the mana past the center of his chest. It was inordinately hard, almost like it was fighting him. Confused, Ril kept pushing, trying to understand what caused the sudden change. Then, as he kept pushing he felt, more than saw, the rest of the mana on the right side of his body begin to slow down.

Cursing himself, Ril stopped trying to force the issue. One by one he went back to each of the mana spheres in his right arm and spun them back up to the point they had been before. Then he returned to the area that he had left and puzzled on what he could do. Shrugging, he tried the obvious thing; spinning the mana counter-clockwise. Instantly, the mana coalesced, becoming opaque.

Sighing in relief, Ril continued and finished up the rest of his body. The process took nearly an hour, and Ril was exhausted and covered in sweat by the end of it. Although, the reward was worth it.

Congratulations you have acquired the ability Mana Manipulation (Basic) (Diffuse)!

Allows manipulation of mana external to the body, increases maximum mana storage, and increases efficiency of self cast spells.

The steady clack of knitting needles coming from the front door indicated that Gemma had gotten up while he was working. Taking a breath, Ril got up from the kitchen table, and plodded over to the shower to freshen up.

The hot, high-pressure water helped his muscles relax tremendously, and also washed the evidence of his efforts this morning down the drain. Putting on his mage vestments Ril left the bathroom, pulling his wet hair away from his eyes.

He stepped out onto the porch to find Gemma at her usual spot.

“I did it,” Ril said with a giant grin.

“Congratulations Ril, you are well on your way to becoming a formidable opponent. However Mana Manipulation is useless on its own. Time to teach you some spells.” Gemma said.

What followed was perhaps the most confusing series of instructions that Ril had ever been given. Gemma would explain what he would have to do, and expected Ril to do it, however there were a few problems with the explanation. The first problem was that all the descriptions Gemma gave were vague. She went on and on about “feeling the energy flow through you” and “seeing with your inner eye”, neither of which meant much to Ril in practical terms. The second glaring issue was that Ril didn’t have a core like Gemma was expecting him to. All of his mana was distributed throughout his body rather than collected in a single place like she had instructed him to do. When he mentioned this to Gemma, she frowned at him.

“What about compressing our mana into a ball in your chest did you not understand?” she growled.

“I couldn’t do it. It would have made it so that I couldn’t cast Mirror Form.” Ril retorted.

To that Gemma just shrugged, saying that he was a smart boy and that he could figure it out.

The teaching continued. Ril desperately tried translating Gemma’s strange descriptions into some semblance of action that worked for his strange mana distribution. Eventually, as the sun peaked and clouds blocked much of the blue sky, they finished.

Ril stretched, leaning back into the wicker chair, satisfied with his progress. All that effort amounted to three unique spells.

Congratulations you have acquired the ability Telekinesis!

Apply forces to objects. Efficiency inversely proportional to distance.

Congratulations you have acquired the ability Spark!

Create a spark.

Congratulations you have acquired the ability Fade!

Fade into the background when stationary.

While Ril had been learning with Gemma on the porch. Evelyn had been practicing her cryomancy on the surrounding forest. She was standing in the center of the clearing and launching projectile after projectile at the surrounding trees. It looked quite boring compared to the excitement of yesterday. For one the trees were stationary. Also they didn’t charge at her whenever they thought her guard was down.

“Yo! Evelyn!” Ril called out. Hopping down the steps of the porch. “Could you teach me how you cast that ice ball spell?”

Evelyn turned around, relieved that Ril had broken the tedium, if but for a moment.

“Sure.” She said, then jumped right into the explanation. “What I do is hold the image of the ice or snow in my mind and push mana into it. I saw that you learned spark. Try reversing the feeling you get with that spell and your ball should be cold.”

“That’s not at all how Gemma taught me the other spells.” Ril commented.

“There are more ways to cast spells than there are stars in the sky.” Evelyn responded with a snort.

Ril reached inside himself and pulled at his mana. During Gemma’s instruction he had learned that he could pull a strand of mana from each of the tiny spheres spaced evenly across his body and use those strands to cast spells. Coalescing the smokey substance into a rough sphere over his palm, Ril imagined a ball of ice. Then he tried shaping the mana to be cold. Slowly a ball of frozen snow appeared in his palm.

Congratulations you have acquired the ability Create Snow!

Freeze water into snow. Summoned water disappears after 24 hours.

“Well. Congrats. I guess I’ll get back to it.” Evelyn said, then with reluctance went back to bullying the poor trees.

Bemused, Ril looked at the ball. It had taken him nearly ten whole seconds to summon it. When he had fought Evelyn yesterday, she had summoned two spheres at a time which also had contained significantly more ice in them then the wet snow Ril currently held. Not to mention the fact that Evelyn had levitated the snow and thrown it as well as summoning it. His respect for her shot up as he considered the amount of time she must have spent mastering the spell.

As Ril was about to drop the snowball onto the ground and return to the cottage, he had an idea. With a mischievous grin he lobbed the snowball directly Evelyn’s retreating form. Immediately he turned around and started casually walking back to the porch.

A wet thud and a squeak came from behind him. He turned around looking innocently at Evelyn who was pulling snow out of her hair. Eyes wide, Evelyn stared at Ril as if she couldn’t believe what he had just done. Then in the blink of an eye her face turned angry.

“Why you little...” She growled, already summoning her own ball of snow from the æther.

Ril’s grin froze. Her snowball flew towards Ril’s head. He ducked. Then began summoning a snowball of his own.

* * *

Hours later, Ril and Evelyn sat inside of Gemma’s cottage on the couch. They were both liberally covered in blankets and, in Ril’s case, towels. Both of them had a cup of hot tea that steamed gently in their hands. In front of them the stove belched out heat. It’s cover stood open so that the flames inside crackled cheerfully in the evening light. Every once in a while the logs would pop, expelling a torrent of sparks into the chimney.

“When do you suppose you’ll head over to Anduin?” Ril quietly asked.

“My escort should be arriving in two days.” She responded, taking a tentative sip from her tea. From her expression it was still too hot to drink comfortably.

“An escort?” Ril asked. “From the way you hurl snow around, I’d say that the creatures of this forest should be more scared of you then you should be of them.”

“Well yes...” Evelyn hesitated clearly debating what to say. Then she sighed, and put her cup on the end table. “You are right. I could probably make my way safely to Anduin from here alone. But the nobles of the court would never allow that.”

Evelyn nervously glanced at Ril who was busy trying to sip at his own tea without burning himself.

“My full name is Evelyn Von Artorius. My father is Magnus Von Artorius Lord of the Silver Spires.” Evelyn finished with a huff.

By this point, Ril had given up on drinking his tea, resigning himself to waiting for it to cool.

“Cool, my full name is Ril Renar. Since King Magnus is your father, are you a princess?”

He considered trying to summon a snowball and putting it into the tea, but discarded the idea as being too impractical.

“Uh, yes.” Evelyn stuttered out. She looked questioningly at Ril who was frowning at his cup.

“Do you live in a castle?” Ril asked suddenly, looking away from the disagreeable liquid in his cup

“There is a castle in Anduin, but when I return I am going to live at the Academy dorms”

“Could you show me around the castle sometime?” Ril asked. “I’ve always wanted to see the inside of one.”

Evelyn didn’t respond immediately. Instead she looked at Ril like he was a puzzle that she couldn’t figure out. A moment passed.

“What’d I say?” Ril stammered, self-conscious.

“Nothing. I’d love to show you the castle someday, Ril.” Evelyn said. Then she leaned up against Ril and put her head on his shoulder. Ril froze, the tea in his hand sloshing dangerously as every muscle in his body froze at the unexpected contact.

“Uhm. Yeah. So, do you really have ...” Ril trailed off. He got the feeling that he should probably stop talking.

“Yeah, I’ll shut up now,” he murmured to himself. A small smile graced Evelyn’s lips.

Slowly, with the patience of a saint, Ril placed his cup full of tea on the end table, making absolutely sure that he did not accidentally jostle Evelyn.

The two sat like that in front of the fire. Comfortable in each other’s company.

Eventually the fire dwindled, and the stars came out. Their tea, which had grown cold, lay forgotten on the end tables on either side of the couch. Their eyes drooped, and finally closed, dropping each into their own cozy slumber.