The sight of Tiela greeted him, she looked just as he remembered her two days ago. She was wreathed in golden light and looked just like the princess he had seen last night, only a bit more mature as she was in her twenties.

Unlike the smooth face of the younger princess, Tiela had a scar on her right cheek and one on her left eyebrow that gave the impression that she had almost lost an eye, they showed just how fierce the battles she fought were. Though the scars did nothing to detract from her beauty, even going so far as to enhance it.

Her hair was also different from the younger princess’s, while Tiela’s hair was just as long as her younger self’s, it was tied into a side braid hanging over her shoulder. Rather than the long free-flowing hair of the younger princess. If Tiela had told him she was the princess’s older sister, he would have believed it.

“How long are you planning on staring for?” she asked him smugly.

Realizing he’d been caught admiring her and not wanting to let her know how pretty he found her, Kaelum quickly changed the subject.

“You said you’d teach me magic?!” he asks, regaining all his previous excitement.

“Yes,” she replies “Because you are not actually a knight and don’t have access to mana, I’ll provide the mana while you’ll be in charge of guiding and controlling it.”

She stopped for a moment, thinking of her next words. She gives a brief explanation of how spells work “Every different spell follows a different circuit around your mana veins. Although the intent is the most important aspect and it is the driving force behind a spell. Deviating from the pace or direction of a spell can change certain aspects and throw the entire spell into disarray.”

“Each and every variable changes all of the others, so you have to replicate the mana path of the spell exactly or it won’t work as intended. When you’re using a spell, it must always work as intended. It could cost a life if not” She explained with a look of utmost seriousness.

Tiela takes a breath and then says “The spell I’m going to teach you is a simplified version of the cloaking spell I used last night. It’s a basic utility spell” She then explains “To cast this spell, you need to complete a mana path with four distinct points to the path. The easiest mana veins to use are the ones going from your right chest to your right wrist.”

Tiela then said “For a knight, this would be no problem, but you haven’t had any training and even if you use my mana, your veins and arteries aren’t opened up yet. So we’ll have to clear them first. We’ll have to open the mana veins and arteries that go along the path from your right chest to your right wrist. These also happen to be the easiest to open.”

Kaelum asked “So after they’re cleared I’ll become a knight?” his eyes shining in excitement.

Tiela chuckled “No, for a person to call themself a first tier-knight, they would have to unblock all of their mana veins to let the mana flow in any path they want. What you and I will be doing is making you into a pseudo knight. Your body will be weaker than any knight’s, as most knights temper their body for years and you’ll only be able to use spells through your right shoulder and elbow mana arteries. At least until you unblock the rest of your mana veins.”

“So, what’s the process to open them?” Kaelum wondered with a strong hint of curiosity.

“There are many ways to open a person’s mana veins, if you had a strong affinity to a certain element, say lightning. You could stand in a thunderstorm and redirect the energy of the lightning strikes to clear them for you.” Tiela said.

Seeing the wonder in Kaelum’s eyes at hearing of magic techniques, Tiela continued with a smile “The most common method for knights is to force mana from their mana heart through their veins, forcefully opening them up. We’ll be using a method similar to this that is only possible because of our… unique circumstances.”

Kaelum questioned “Which circumstances?”

“Because of our merged souls, you can naturally use my mana in your body, we’ll be using my mana to force open your veins and arteries. The strategy is essentially to punch a hole in any blockages and then use that hole to force more mana in and expand it into a usable pathway.”

Kaelum asked with a cautious look “That doesn’t sound safe… Are you sure about this?”

“What, don’t tell me you’re chickening out now?” Taunted Tiela “Aside from a bit of pain, it’s perfectly safe. This is the way I opened my own mana veins.” She said.

Hearing that Tiela had used this same method, Kaelum agreed. If this crazy future princess could do it, surely he could too. Or, those were his thoughts until they actually started.

Tiela had him sit cross-legged and then put her hands onto the right side of his back. He could feel the mana come through their connection and enter his right chest. This made him curious.

“I thought you said this ‘body’ was my soul? Is this mana actually going into my physical body?” He asked.

“Yes, that ‘body’ is your soul projection in your soul space, but it also doubles as a representation of your physical body. It’s directly linked with your real body so any injuries you sustained in the real world would show up on it in here.” Tiela responded, “Many mages use it to inspect their bodies deeper for any hidden injuries or to inspect their mana veins. But you can also use this body to affect your real body.” She finished.

As she was pushing more mana in through his back, Tiela said “Turns out, it's much easier to use this body to open your veins, rather than relying on intuition in the real world. But almost all mages would have to open their veins before they can even enter this space, so it's kind of a moot point.”

“Clench your teeth,” She said as she pushed her mana particularly hard into one of his veins, “This is going to hurt.”

That was an understatement, the vein she was forcing mana into was far too small but she kept pushing. It felt like she was tearing the veins apart. Even after opening the vein by a large amount, it was still too narrow to accommodate the massive amount of mana flowing in from Tiela, stretching it even further.

Kaelum felt the familiar icy feeling of her mana, before his veins flared with pain, becoming a mixture of hot and cold. It felt like his shoulder was on fire and freezing simultaneously. As she pushed the mana, she also talked about various other ways one could clear their mana veins, it seemed she was trying to take his mind off the pain.

He had thought it was the most painful thing he had ever felt until Tiela’s mana came across the first mana artery. She shaped her mana like a drill and sped toward the artery. Kaelum felt a flash of white across his vision and almost blacked out from the pain. Her mana felt like a white-hot knife digging around in his shoulder as it tried to dig into the artery’s entrance.

After a bit of the digging, Kaelum heard a pop and the mana rushed into his previously closed artery. He could feel all the torn-up areas begin to heal with the influx of Tiela’s mana. It was widened enough to let mana flow, while the walls had torn and healed to an even stronger point than before. It seemed this didn’t work to just open the veins, but also to reinforce them.

By this point, her mana had cleared from his chest, through his shoulder and down to his bicep. Kaelum was afforded a moment to take a deep breath before Tiela began her assault again.

She had said it would hurt, but this was like no pain Kaelum had ever felt before. The only thing keeping him from screaming was his clenched teeth and the reminder that Tiela herself had gone through this before. Her talking also seemed to have an effect on keeping him calm, but he wasn’t going to let her know that.

As she pushed the mana even further, Kaelum would have sworn that his arm was melting off the bone. It seemed every nerve in his arm was screaming bloody murder. It was almost enough to make him blackout. But he closed his eyes and clenched his jaw even harder. Fighting through the pain.

The only relief was that after a vein or artery was opened, the mana would heal it. Making it tingle and giving Kaelum a euphoric feeling.

Tiela finally finished opening the required pathways under Kaelum’s laboured breaths. Kaelum had been so focused on not screaming in pain that he hadn’t realized they had finished for a few breaths.

After a few moments, Kaelum opened his eyes to see a beautiful woman clad in golden light. He thought she might have been an angel until she opened her mouth and his mind cleared.

“Alright, it’s time to show you how to execute the spell. Sit cross-legged and we’ll begin”

It took a few moments for his mind to clear enough to register what she had just said. His eyes widening in excitement, he hurriedly got back into a cross-legged position. Completely forgetting about his previous pain, the excitement of learning a real spell was too much for him.

“How do I make the spell work?” He asked excitedly, he was going to cast a real-life spell!

Tiela put her hands on his back again and said “Pay close attention to the way I manipulate the mana.” She then pushed mana through her hands and into his chest manipulating it into a circuit with four distinct points. It looked vaguely star-shaped.

As he followed the mana path with his senses, his focus kept leaving the path. Almost as if he couldn’t focus on it for too long. But he didn’t realize this.

Tiela smiled, noticing his attention shifting away from the path. She said “Focus on the way the mana moves. If you don’t pay attention, it will throw your focus off.”

She was right, the path felt like it was subtly redirecting his focus from the mana. As soon as he was aware of it, he was able to keep his attention on it, though. Kaelum was astonished, how could mana moving in a certain way make him subconsciously ignore it? Spells were so cool!

“Alright.” Said Tiela “Now take control of the mana and keep up the circuit.”

Suddenly in control, Kaelum tried to manipulate the mana. Unfortunately, he wasn’t very good on his first try. He tried to replicate the path Tiela was using, but the mana split off and went down a different vein, messing up the circuit. He lost control of the mana and it dispersed.

Tiela pushed more mana into his body and completed another circuit to show him how to do it, before handing control back to him without saying a word.

Having just seen how Tiela had done it, Kaelum was confident he could replicate it this time. He was able to follow the path Tiela had done for longer than before, keeping control of the mana as it tried to branch off again. But once the mana made it to the first artery, the pathway opened up wider and the mana sped up while it spread out. Kaelum lost control of the mana at the sudden change of tempo and the mana dispersed yet again.

Kaelum and Tiela kept up this back and forth, she would start the path for a circuit and then hand off control. They did this about half a dozen times until Kaelum was able to complete a revolution of the mana for the first time. It took him another three failures until he was able to reliably complete a revolution twice. At this point, he could consistently complete a revolution without failing.

After only a few hours of effort, Kaelum had achieved proficiency in his first spell! Bragging with a cocky smile “That was so easy! It didn’t even take half a day to learn a spell, I could totally become a real knight in no time!”

Tiela decided to humble him, saying “That was just a simple utility spell and you haven’t mastered it yet. Don’t get cocky.” Noticing that his ego hadn’t deflated, she continued “You did learn that spell in a very short amount of time, but most mages have to learn a spell's path from a book, experimenting with different tempos and angles on their own. This is hard work and can take months, or even years if it's a particularly difficult spell.”

She continued “If a mage was lucky enough to have a master, the master might be able to show them the correct path of a spell. But observing a mana path in another’s body is completely different than being able to feel it in your own body.”

Noticing Kaelum’s expression deflate, Tiela thought she had succeeded in preventing the boy from getting a big head so she added “Even considering all of that, you did learn quickly. Good job.”

Before he could reply, Tiela said “It’s about time we got going.” Looking into his enthusiastic eyes she continued “The sun has already set a few hours ago, let’s get a move on.”