Fiona looks up at me expectantly, and Talia watches me almost apathetically but but her twitching tails and her sideways glances betray her own excitement.

“This feels strange,” I sigh and pick up a different book in the hopes that it will make sense. I glance over the first few paragraphs and it is just all about the dangers of Magik. The girls continue to stare at me in silence so I turn the page, and nod my head like I understand something, “How am I supposed to start?”

“Well...” Shiva pauses, and I flip the page again without looking at the words, “The first book was about Mana circulation, and you gather energy before creating a sigil. So that's probably as good as a place to start as any.”

“Right, we can go with that,” I nod again and snap the book closed, “What's the first stage to casting Magik?”

“Making a circle,” Fiona declares, nodding her little head, and Talia also slightly nods her head.

“Nope,” I shake my head and they both pause and look at me, “There's at least one step before that.”

They tilt their heads in opposite directions and Shiva squeals, “CUTE!”

I do my best to ignore her shouts, and after a moment Maya wryly smiles and leans in, “What do you use to make a circle?”

“Magik?” Talia asks after pondering seriously.

“Well that's not technically wrong,” I shrug, “The first step to casting a spell is to gather your energy if you are going to draw a sigil.”

Maya throws me a sideways glance for a moment and I can't help but wonder what I said wrong. “First we are going to learn how to feel and move your Mana,” she explains to the girls with a gentle smile, “I will show you how, and Saecir Lily will check your poses.”

They both nod and look at Maya as she steps away from the table and sits down on the rug. She crosses her legs, putting her feet on the opposite thighs, and places her hands on her knees while holding her back straight. She glances my way again and gives me a tiny nod so I take a breath and look back at the girls.

“This is called the lotus position?” I throw a questioning glance over their shoulders at Leyla and Melodiana and they both nod, “It will help you feel your energy.” Leyla gets a strange look on her face as well but she doesn't say anything as the girls slip out of their chairs.

They both sit down in front of Maya and start to copy her pose before looking at me for confirmation. “Does this need to be exact?” I question and look at their legs. Neither of them have it down exactly but it looks close enough so I shrug at Shiva's silence.

"Like this?" Fiona asks before looking at her own lap, then to Maya, and then back up at me, so I nod at her.

I pick the first book back up and open it again, “Next you have to control your breathing. It should be steady and rhythmic...like waves on the shore?” I look around for confirmation and I receive another nod. “What does steady breathing have to do with it?” I shake my head, “I know that it is important for far shots, but I can't think of why it helps here.”

“It probably has something to do with how Magik has changed,” Shiva takes a guess.

Fiona and Talia both look up at me at the same time, like they are waiting for me to continue. “Y-you should,” I stammer and look back at the book, “Pretend that you are a rock.”

“A rock?” Talia murmurs and gets a dubious look on her face.

“That's right a rock,” I silently swear at the author of the book, “A rock being washed by the waves, and you should time your breathing with them.”

“That's right,” Maya nods her head, “You have to relax and not think about anything else. Just close your eyes and focus on your breathing. In...” she takes a deep breath, and exhales slowly, “And out.”

They nod and I look back down at the book and skip down a few paragraphs.

The first place a beginner will likely sense their Mana is above their naval. This area has the highest amount of Mana when resting, and is where Mana flows from and returns to. Non-attuned Mana has a gentle warmth that should feel comforting.

“Is that what it feels like?” I try and recall what energy was like before I had formed our contract but I can't put my finger on it.

Once calm the beginner should turn their attention inwards and probe with the edge of their consciousness. An experienced Magus can assist a beginner by joining hands and sending a gentle pulse of mana through their fingertips. This will help the beginner recognize the feeling of non-attuned Mana and will aid them in their search.

"Once you find it," I try to explain something that I've never felt, "It will feel like a warm ball above your bellybutton." I glance over the top of my book and neither of the girls look calm. Fiona fidgets back and forth, and Talia has scrunched up her nose and her left ear flicks back and forth.

“I feel this might be difficult for a normal child,” I tilt my head after several minutes of Maya coaxing them through breathing.

“Especially for the ones that are excited,” Shiva giggles.

“All right let's take a break from this for now,” Maya claps and the two of them both jump slightly, “We will try this again later. For now Saecir Lily will move onto the next lesson.”

“But we didn't do anything,” Fiona mumbles meekly.

“It's okay in the beginning,” Melodiana taps on the table, “Nobody finds it on their first try.”

“And it's important to rest as well,” Maya stands up and stretches, “and there are other things to learn and practice like runes, formations, and how to draw glyphs with them. We will try to feel your Mana again after lunch.”

“Runes...Right I can do runes,” I feel relieved that it is something less abstract now.

They both nod and look back up to me and I cough and dig through the stack of books. There are three slate boards and several pieces of chalk at the bottom of the pile. I pull them out and set two of them up on either side of me.

It only takes an instant and Fiona is sitting down on my left and Talia quickly takes the seat on my right. “The first runes are the elements,” I explain and pick up a piece of chalk, write out Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Non.

“What about ice?” Talia tilts her head at the board and then looks up at me in confusion.

“Ice is a combination of water, air, and non,” I tap underneath all three of them, “For now we will just learn and memorize the basic runes used by these.”

“How many runes are there?” Fiona slides her board closer to herself.

“How many words are there?” I refrain from laughing.

“...Lots,” Talia looks distressed after a moment.

“That's right,” I sigh, “There are a lot of them. Right now I'm just going to teach you the first twenty.”

I quickly fill in four runes under each column and once I am done I set it down in between the two of them. They are the most basic ones that I can think of and I tap next to the first row with my piece of chalk. “This first row is the beginning,” I draw a thick line between each rune to separate them, “Most of the early runes build off of them.”

I look back and forth and both girls nod in silence as they stare at the board. Maya steps behind me and leans over my shoulder while pressing her breasts into my back. “Do you see how the second row of runes only slightly changes,” She traces her finger underneath the next row, and both of the girls lean in closer before nodding, “but they are still close to the first runes. So even as runes get longer and bigger they always start from here.”

“First you should both copy this row,” I tap again, “They don't have to be this small but they should be as neat as possible. You can worry about the size of them once you have memorized them and can draw them without looking back. Once you are both able to draw them well enough I will explain what they mean.”

They both nod and start to copy the work onto their own board.

“Your body is wibbly,” I point to the wiggle in Fiona's rune. She nods and rubs it away with her finger before trying again, “Try to keep your hand relaxed.” I look over at Talia's board and blink at it for a second, “These two lines are backwards.”

I point at the lines that she has coming together when they should be spreading apart. She pauses and lifts her head and studies the runes on my board for a moment before completely erasing her work on it and starting again. I watch and she doesn't lift her head to look at the board once she starts.

“Fiona makes less mistakes about the shapes by looking at the right ones almost constantly, but her lines are messy” Shiva observes from the side, “And Talia's lines are smooth but since she is doing her best to outright memorize the runes she switches lines around.”

“I'm not sure which is a better method,” I shrug and watch as everyone tries to offer them advice on how to remember and draw the runes. I continue reading through the book of basic sigils to show them how the runes should be put together but the way that they have combined the runes doesn't make any sense to me.

I can separate them into their basic parts but I don't understand why they have been arranged in the way that they have. I lean away from the others and hold the book up with one hand and use my free hand to create the sigil.

It is a simple spell that is supposed to create a container to hold liquid and should be about the size of a teacup once it is finished. I finish it quickly and start to inject my energy into it and get ready to catch the cup. The sigil seems to reject my energy for some reason and I examine the glowing lines in front of me.

They match the book perfectly but nothing seems to be happening. I cluck my tongue at it and push more energy at the sigil.

“That's no-”

Before Shiva can finish her warning there is the cracking sound of a breaking formation and I tut and surround it with a shell of ice. It somewhat muffles the blast but it still sounds like someone dropped something very heavy in the room and the girls jump and let out tiny screams.

The air surrounding me gets colder so I grab the shell out of the air as it starts to drop and I toss it over into the fireplace to try and get rid of the chill. It doesn't do anything to heat the area back up but it makes me feel slightly better.

“W-what was that?” Melodiana is the quickest to recover. The thud of the shell hitting the stone followed by the hissing of ice and fire fighting is easy to ignore.

“I was running an experiment,” I shrug and look back at the book, “Just what went wrong?”

I know perfectly well that I can easily make a container so I quickly set up a formation and make my own, and sure enough moments later I have to catch a cup as it tumbles through the air. It is made of packed dirt the spell collected and withstands my grip so nothing went wrong.

“What part looked like it broke?” I trace my fingers across the page.

“All of it,” Shiva murmurs like she is contemplating something on her own.

“Ahem,” Maya clears her throat and pinches my cheek. I turn and look at her and she glances at the girls staring at me before looking at me again.

“Hmm?” I question her and she smiles sweetly while pulling my cheek harder and flicking her eyes and Fiona and Talia again. Leyla offers me another hissing sigh and I can see Melodiana shake her head at me.

“I don't understand,” I try to relay that to her and after a moment she just sighs.

“When the two of you are practicing,” She turns to the side but doesn't let me go, “You shouldn't try to draw any glyphs that you don't understand. That was just a small accident but it can be much bigger and worse.”

“It-” she pulls on my cheek harder so I stop talking and she releases a bit of the pressure. The door opens up behind me but I can't turn my head.

“I'm back,” Iris announces and shuts the door, “... What happened?”