Jonathan sighed.

For multiple hours, at least he thought it was multiple hours, the Archmage had driven him to try and control his magic the normal way.

He just was not able to do that, he slowly began to think. It was just plain impossible to do what Tablos said.

Yes, he had certainly only the best intentions, but he did not seem to understand the problems that plagued Jonathan. He also could see that Elise was slowly but certainly getting bored with the charade.

Tablos seemed to be oblivious of this.

He tried and failed, Tablos gave both of them a short pause, no more than a minute or two, and then called them to begin again.

He tried it, he really did, but he just could not manage it.

Then, suddenly, the Archmage sighed and told them: “This is not working. Normally I would say that is completely fine and normal, because, to be honest, it is. Elise, how long did you need to manage to call your magic?”

Elise thought for a moment and answered then: “I think it was around two weeks, maybe a bit more?”

“Yes, and that is pretty much the average time needed. But the problem is that normally you could already see evidence of slight fluctuations in the magic, which are completely absent, even in the few tries that Jonathan did without you, Elise. This is worrying on multiple levels, especially because we know that Jonathan does possess magic and is able to channel it, even more so, to guide it, which is far more difficult. So what is going on?”

Jonathan, while finding the conversation interesting and happy that finally, something was happening, tuned out and looked in himself at his magic, again.

He could feel it, see it, even if in a strange way, as well as try to grab it, but something was resisting when he was doing that. Could he force through that resistance?

He tried. It was hard, but he managed to get a small sliver of magic under his control, after what seemed like an eternity.

He then lost promptly control of that sliver of magic again, but not because of the resistance, but instead because of something far simpler.

He had used so much force that was the best word for it that he could not hold that tiny sliver of magic and it catapulted itself away from him.

The result was explosive. Luckily for everyone in the room, Heinrich Tablos realized what happened in the blink of an eye and managed to contain the blast in a shield.

Then he began to shout: “What in the name of whatever gods exist did you do right now, and more importantly, how did you do it?!”

Jonathan answered meekly: “I realized that there was a resistance to my attempts at controlling the magic, so I tried to overpower it. It worked, but the force I used flung the magic out from me, and then it exploded. No idea why, but I also do not know anything about magic, so that is not a surprise.”, he looked to the side were Elise sat, or should have sat: “Hey, Tablos, what is with Elise, do you know why she lies on the ground, seemingly without movement?”

Tablos swore and went to feel Elise’s pulse.

He exhaled a breath of relief. She was only unconscious.

What had happened to her, he asked himself silently.

He was sure that he managed to contain the blast completely.