After a too late-night reading, Mr. Forest was running Shae through different elemental aspects of magic. He was trying to see which she had the strongest affinity for. Now that she was able to somewhat pull upon her aura and bend its power to her will slightly, it was the best time to figure out what her main focus should be. While Shae concentrated on gathering her aura into herself, she was then instructed how to use her gathered power to focus it into a small flame, a gust of wind, or moving earth. Her first few attempts were dismal. Though she was told to push on, after all she needed to learn the control, it wouldn’t just manifest all on its own her teacher explained.

When she brought up the incident in the village, he just said that was instinct and not control. Obviously…

Now she felt more than a bit silly. That made total sense. With a sigh Shae got back to it, until she finally manifested a small flame.

She had gathered her aura, while imagining her finger was a lighter, like you would see in movies. A flick of the thumb and presto a flame to light your cigar. Except instead of a flame to light your cigar, Shae ended up with a blowtorch that almost lit up her eyebrows. With a start she lost control of her aura and the flame went out. Mr. Forest just reiterated the need for control.

“Don’t just let your power flow into your creations. You need to push the flow out in a controlled smooth manner. But push lightly, but consistently. I don’t want to see your hand consumed in an inferno. With your aura size, you would be lucky if that was the only mishap.”

Shae worked for another hour or so, trying to recreate her flame, but with a purpose and not uncontrolled.

“Maybe try another element. Fire may not be your true affinity. While it will come to you once you have more control, we need to find your true affinity. Hmm… it’s rare but maybe…” Mr. Forest started to ponder, which gave Shae pause.

“Try force.”

“But didn’t you say I wouldn’t need to force it?”

“Not force it.” He flicked her forehead. “Force magic. There…” he pointed at a chair in the room. “Try to apply force to the chair. Move it. Or push it.”

Shae straightened up, then began to pull in her aura.

She imagined herself reaching out and giving the chair a slight push.

Suddenly the chair exploded into pieces whit a resounding crack like a tree being split in two, pieces of chair shot across the room like bullets fired from a gun.

“Control girl! Control!” Her teacher said forcefully after jumping a foot into the air at the sudden destruction.

“Sorry! I was just trying to push it.”

“But did you think about how you were pushing it? Where you wanted it to go, how far, how fast. You cannot just throw your power out there. You need to wield every aspect of it. Feel, plan, then execute. Slowly though, you do not have enough experience to be tossing out spells left and right. Don’t rush it. Especially with force magic. You have an incredibly rare gift. Force is almost all encompassing.”

“For every action there is a reaction.” Shae mumbled

“Exactly! Well said. Force is action. Breathing, moving, wind, water, almost all things have a force attribute. Gah I’m not explaining this well. I must admit I am excited to see where you can take this. No two force mages wield the magic the same. Some use it as a blunt instrument and just toss things around like a child throwing a tantrum. Others are subtle, they can move a soap bubble, endlessly keeping it together while flying it through the air. Well, not endlessly of course. Because as you know…” He looked to her to finish the statement.

“As you draw upon your aura, you deplete it. It will renew itself over time.”

Her teacher nodded. “With the amount of aura you possess, your regeneration should be of equal quality. You could likely float a soap bubble endlessly.” He shuddered thinking about her potential. “I can safely say you are the fourth force mage known to ever grace our world. We will need to come up with a structured regimen for training. We will need to get Ms. Fell to incorporate it into your combat training asap. There are so many things we need to get into place. This is monumental!”

Shae was not sure what to make of all this. He was becoming more and more enthusiastic by the second. Shae just wasn’t sharing in his excitement for some reason though. He was making it out to be this huge deal, but was it really? If so, why?

“You are excused for the rest of the day. I have much work to do. Well, off you go.” He shooed her away and then briskly walked away making plans out loud.

With a shake of her head Shae made her way to the library. Maybe she could get a few answers about what was so special about force magic. There had to be at least one book here about it.

With her own plan in mind, Shae set off.

==============================================

‘Where could that fool Ford have disappeared to! He was supposed to have at least approached the girl by now.’ Fords sponsor stewed. However, no one has seen the man for days. It just wasn’t like him. The whole reason his sponsor had chosen Ford was because the man had ambitions that required materials hard to come by, and drive. He was useful because he would do, without asking many questions. His sponsor would supply the man with his needs, and Ford would do what was needed for his sponsor. It was a perfect give and take relationship.

His sponsor needed to find the man. The faster the better, time was ticking. He couldn’t show his hand at scooping the girl up just yet. He needed her to stay low key, so when he made his move, none of the other factions would be the wiser to her potential. But if he inserted himself into the mix, others would take note and investigate. And that would just not do.

This girl was going to be his to use for his own enrichments. He would use her to garner more power and influence.

Still without Ford the plan would go to waste, and he would have to find a way to collect her undetected by the other factions of the mage’s guild. New recruits like that six-year-old prodigy were always being watched and fought over. After all, the more power your faction held, the more it was worth to the Monarchy, the more the Monarchy spent on you,

If Ford did not show up by tomorrow, the sponsor would make new plans. And of course, search for Ford. But that was secondary.