Six weeks had passed since Mary had joined her family, and Diana had to admit she liked the girl, while she had hoped to have a more calm child for once, it proved to be a futile her husband having a talent to always pick the more adventures types, though it definitely was more fun this way. Last sunday, when the girl came to her and asked her how to proceed, as she had no ideas left how to determine her affinity, her heart had warmed just a bit. She had then volunteered to teach her the basics of magic, seeing she had no magical education at all and the basics were the most important thing about your magic development.

Mary was a constant source of amazement to her, the girl seeming to have an endless supply of energy to draw from, sleeping less than anyone else while training tirelessly six days a week, they even had to force her to slow down on sundays.

Shortly afterwards she heart a knock at her door. “Come in.”

“Hi Diane.”

“Hey there, how has your day been so far?”

“Great, Nolan told me I could make the rangertest about a week after the festival. And now it gets even better because you will teach me about magic, something Nandelia didn't know.”

After mentioning her old caretaker, her voice lost some of the previous excitement.

“How about you write them a letter, I can have it delivered by a servant if you want?”

“That would be great. But can we start now, I want to do more magic again!”

“You will have to tell me what you have been taught, so I can fill in any gaps you have.”

Mary then enthusiastically reported her her knowledge, which wasn't much, just the very basics, that being the different types of magicians. When she asked if she should report her own experiments, Diane denied her.

“That's not necessary dear, you already told us of your experiments, didn't you. I know I’ll have to start with the basics. You already know the different types of magicians, so I will ignore these for now, and start with actual magic.

As you know, what we call magic is actually mana influencing the world around us by forming runes.”

“That's wrong! Mana doesn't form runes!” That gave her a pause.

“What do you mean, of course it does, when a normal mage casts a spell, he incants the necessary runes, which then form out of their mana.”

“No I already saw some runes, and they are all two dimensional, but the shapes mana forms are all three dimensional!”

That robbed her breath, she was an enthusiastic mage, using much of her time to try creating new spells by combining different runes. She had always wondered why runes only occupied two dimensions, as they were influencing three. She had tried like many before her to make the runes visible for her, but the spells used were not all that precise. She stood up and got her spellbook, where every rune she knew was noted down. She opened the first page, where all runes used for a simple light spell were written.

“You have just been made my assistent, if what you tell is true.”

“Of course it's true, I can show you if you want.”

“By all means!”

Shortly after, a simple light came into being, but unlike normal lights, this formed two different shapes.

“The spell is formed out of three shapes, one that makes the light, which I made as dim as possible so you can look at it, one that saves the shape I want the light to have, which I gave the form of the two shapes that form a normal light spell and lastly the one that defines the expansion the spell has in a room.”

Intrigued, Diane tried forming her mana in the shown shapes, it was definitely harder than expected, as even she needed five tries to do so. She instantly felt the difference though, as she needed about twenty five percent less mana than when she would cast the spell like normal. The concentration needed was astonishing though, she even had to revert back to incantations, something she hadn't done for years. That did increase her respect for Mary by a large margin, as the girl seemed to have no problems whatsoever to silently cast spells.

“We will explore this more later on, but now I have a promise to fulfill, feel free to speak up if you have more ideas like this. I will still call those shapes runes, and you should start to do too, because knowledge is powerful, and an increase in the efficiency of spells is really powerful. Anyways, there are two types of runes, the common kind that every human sorcerer can use and a special kind, the only runes that are actually seem to consist of two or more parts. These runes are not within any recorded human affinity, though we lost many of these records in the last war. The few we know were found in ancient ruins, they are unique in more ways than that though, as unlike normal runes, their effects differ if you cast them from different directions.”

“I know one of these!”

“And where did you get to know it?” Diane asked doubtful.

“The spell on my ears uses ut to draw my mana to supply itself. Of course that only works because I let it. I don't know what the other part does though, because I can't cast it yet.”

The spell her husband told her about, hiding her supposedly inhuman ears. “You know you shouldn't tell anyone that you are no human?”

“Of course, I only tell it to people who don't care, though there are very few that don't.”

Mary deflated, obviously depressed most people had problems with nonhumans. These feelings were probably increased because there were no children her age around. So Diane did the only sensible thing and embraced the child, letting her vent her feelings. Surprisingly she even started to cry a little. She would have to make sure to comfort her more often, Mary always seemed so mature it was easy to forget she was still a child at heart, having lost everything she knew not two months ago. It took only a minute until she caught herself again. “Thanks mom, I needed that. You won't tell anyone will you?” “Of course not, it will be our secret!”

“Let’s continue then!”

“Are you sure you will be ok?” An affirmative nod.

“The rune you know is the most common of these runes, a relatively simple one that will allow you to add or draw mana from a spell depending on the way you cast it. While most mages will be able to cast the first half of it after a few years of practice, the second one requires mastery over one's mana only achieved after years of practice, some mages even needing up to a decade. That you were even able to cast it is nothing short of astounding. There isn't much to tell about runes, as casting them comes with experience. A normal mage has to spent about half of his time learning runes, noting them down in his spell book. The rest of the time is used for different things, these being mana control, spellcraft theory and practice. Of course all these are of different importance in the different stages of learning magic.

The first stage is called control, and about a third of the students time is occupied by learning to control mana, the rest is used up by learning basic runes and basic spellcraft.

The second stage is called specialization, where the time spent learning your control gets significantly reduced, you have to decide how you want to specialize yourself and learn the according runes and rules of spellcraft. About a quarter of this stage is used for practice in your chosen field.

The last stage is called mastery where you already know most runes required for your chosen profession and work on perfecting everything.

The stages get increasingly more complex, the controlstage being completed after roughly two years time. Most magic schools only take in students who have achieved basic control over their mana. The second stage needs, depending on your profession, anything from three to ten years of time. The art of mastering ones magic takes the rest of the mages life though, as there are always ways to increase your skills.

It is always discouraged to cast spells without supervision if you are a mage, as casting them wrong can easily rupture your mana channels and permanently stop your advancement as a mage. Sorcerers like you have it easier, as your affinity will never allow you to cast a spell that's harmful to you, at least if that spell is within your affinity. It's astonished that you didn't destroy your mana channels with your experiments.”

“How do I increase my mana capacity?” Mary interrupted her again.

“Well there are three known ways to do so, the first is simply growing up, as your body will develop more mana channels by itself. The second and third ones aren't really helpful as well, as your mana increases just by getting older. While the third is the best way to increase your mana it is the most unlikely as well, as your mana increases significantly if you evolve.

As you are no pure human, I will explain you the difference between the races if you consider their magical capabilities. Humans are the most proficient mages, a human mage is always more powerful than any others as our mana channels are able to have the fastest output of mana without destroying them.

Elven sorcerers are the most powerful ones we know of, an elven sorcerer always surpassing all others, theoretically an elven mage would be more powerful than a human one as well, but there are no elven mages, as their manachannels output is too strong, and will rupture their manachannels instantly.

Dwarfs are a strange folk, they are the smallest of the civilized races amd have incredible mana reserves, though they lack the mana channels in their skin to cast serious magic. They have other advantages though, as a dwarf has a small amount of control over the few mana channels they have so they can perfectly regulate the mana exiting their bodies when doing magic. That, obviously makes them the best enchanters as control is everything for enchanting.

Beastmen are the best wizards you can find, their innate connection with the lands they travel improving their understanding of nature magic, though a beastmen mage is only marginally weaker than a human one.

The lizardfolk are the most unique race in regards to magic, they are born with basic control over their mana, they somehow are not capable of casting magic at all, instead they can strengthen their bodies with mana, improving raw strength, durability and agility by leaps and bounds.

Normally I would teach you something about basic spellcraft, but that's obviously not needed as you are still capable of casting magic, so you instinctively understood them. I could of course start with the advanced theory, but I am no teacher and would probably cause misconceptions in you, so I will leave that to the teachers of the school you want to attend. Any questions?”

“Tell me something about enchanting, I didn't manage to enchant anything when I tried!”

“I can tell you only the basics as enchanting is an incredibly difficult profession, something a noble normally doesn't use his time on, as enchanting is more a way of life than work.

Basically, in order to enchant, you first need a material to enchant, everything permeated with mana is possibly enchantable, though organic materials are the only ones you can enchant permanently. While possible to enchant stone or normal metals, these enchantments wear off only weeks after being applied. Of course the most valuable metals like mythril are different, as they are like organic materials.

An enchantment is effectively a ward carved into a material. The enchanter effectively engraves a magic channel into the material. This magic channel is like the runes a spell forms, though less effective. To activate an enchantment you either have to supply it with your own mana or supply it with a manacrystal. Elves and beastmen are only capable of using enchantments with manacrystals. Alternatively, a really skilled enchanter can engrave the rune to draw mana, something only the best can, which then is capable of drawing on the holders mana with consent.

An enchanter obviously doesn't actually engrave the object, rather he forced new magic channels into the material. Something easy to do for bigger materials, but also the reason why enchanting clothes is incredibly expensive, as engraving anything in a single thread is incredibly difficult.”

“Thanks mom, that was really interesting, even though it didn't actually help me with my problem.”

“You are welcome dear, be here at the same time tomorrow, we are going to try and find out more about these runes of yours! And perhaps we can find out your affinity together! And now, hush hush, it's late you have go to bed now.”

She smiled as the girl left her laboratory. That conversation gave her a lot to wonder about, she had to admit to herself, why hadn't anyone ever found out about the true nature of runes for example, it wasn't like noone ever tried. She was looking forwards to spend more time with her daughter. She stopped at that thought, normally she needed several months to think of the children as hers, but obviously her wish for an actual daughter and the trust the girl put in her had sped up the process.