The same day (Friday, May 19, 2022) Charlie’s apartment, TriBeCa, Manhattan, New York, United States

Jade waited and then eventually gave up. Ella was still out and who knew when or if she was coming back. She was idling about in the kitchen when the door opened and she heard Charlie talking in the phone.

“What’s up?” Jade asked once Charlie had finished. She looked frazzled.

“Oh… Ella went and talked to Xu. Apparently he is now her Minister of Finance or something. So I have lots to do at work.”

“Os she on her way? I need to talk to her.”

“Oh yeah? About what?”

“Well… you said she was getting more cold and calculating. I think she may lose herself in this. We need to keep her grounded in reality.”

Charlie looked at her, “Is it intervention time again? I haven’t had a drink in weeks. Do you know the Aqrabuamelu don’t drink? It is horrible.”

“I’m serious Charlie.”

“I am too. Jade, if Ella loses her way and goes all evil goddess on us, it won’t be because we didn’t give her moral sermons. It’ll be because she has isolated herself from everyone and doesn’t feel a connection. Why do you think all billionaires including my dad are such assholes? They surround themselves with sycophants whether they want to or not. They have bodyguards and servants and that is the sun of their relationships. Ella needs to relax and mix with the people. Go all Henry V the night before the battle once in a while.”

Jade thought about it for a moment and then reluctantly agreed. “So how do we make sure that happens.”

Charlie clapped Jade on the back, “That part I am going to leave to you. Just remember, make sure there is booze for me if not Ella.”

Charlie raced off to her room to pack for overnighting at work. Jade sat back to think about it.

Ixus Capital, Midtown, Manhattan, New York, United States

Ella hadn’t even bothered to go home. They had rented a hotel room nearby and she had raced off to shower and clean up. Charlie was going to bring some clothes for her and an inflatable mattress if she needed to sleep.

Xu sat across from her as she went through a crash course on investment theory and reviewed financials statements.

It was fast going given her relative inexperience, she was a fast learner and focused only on outcomes rather than the details.

At 4 a.m. she was out the door and jogging in Central Park sprinting up and down the hill with heavy objects, and by 6 a.m. she was showered and back sitting in front of him expectantly, waiting for magic instruction.

Xu realized why she trusted him. It was obvious she was going to make sure he never had time to plan betrayal. And it was working. He was having a wonderful time working through the ancient Aqrabuamelu financials and tracing their holdings. They had done an adequate job given their expertise and their quartermasters who were either in the room next door or on video conferencing were all no-nonsense military types.

When Xu had asked why arrow prices had gone up for the Aqrabuamelu in 262 BC, one of the quartermasters hadn’t even taken a second to answer that the Battle of Kalinga had disrupted supply chains and caused a temporary spike in pricing.

Xu adored competence. Especially when he could leverage it to his betterment. And Ella was very ambitious on his behalf. She had designs on magical-technological marvels and IP rights, additional leverage plays for wealth and control further than Xu had dared to dream possible, and even how to cycle her military power into political power into economic power.

It was exhilarating. It was exhausting. He needed to curl up and nap.

But instead he found himself giving magic lessons to Ella, Charlie having arrived to take on some of the analytical work while they focused on this.

“Magic is shaped by your perceptions. But it is also limited by them. Too broad of a view becomes inefficient.”

Ella thought in that. Xu liked to provide brief statements and let her work them out. Ella liked it too.

“So… I have to trade flexibility for focus? Can I move between the two extremes?”

“Hmmm. Can you change your frame of reference? Mages of my time, the dragons and the elves mostly, we worked through an apprenticeship system. We would find a teacher who was compatible with us philosophically and come to view our magic in the framework provided. A fire mage has one tool and views the world through how well it would burn. That world view is narrow conceptually and thus fire magic is often strong. But…?”

Ella thought about it, “It is a vicious cycle. The more focused you are the more powerful your magic, the narrower your viewpoint, the better your magic. So you end up incentivized to see everything as fire.”

“Yes. exactly. A fire mage tends to become a nihilistic pyromaniac. Not very good for one’s mental health.”

Xu paused for a moment and took a sip of tea. Ella had downed a cup of coffee and was debating about another but Xu continued, “So what is your problem then?”

“My magic is ineffective because I have too broad of a view. I think about it as physics, but also think about it as magic that can do anything.”

“Yes. You need to pick a paradigm that works for you and constrain yourself to only that.”

Ella thought for a moment. She had an idea but she needed to test it out a bit in her head.

“You also have an additional problem. You are flooded with magic. Insane amounts actually. It is quite terrifying. So… when you cast you face two issues: the first is that there is too much pressure. Imagine you took a small container and filled it well beyond what is reasonable. Them you wrapped it tightly with your hands to keep the pressure contained so it didn’t explode. You are holding yourself together at every moment to yourself so you don’t explode.”

Ella absorbed that but had trouble maintaining her composure heating she was a ticking magic bomb.

“The second issue is imagine that the fluid filling you is turbulent and violently reacts with itself when too concentrated. So to cast, you need to also coax it into a state of calmness to use. The magic from the crown is stable, tame and easy to calm. This other magic is raw and wild. It reminds me of Ascended magic, something that might one of those fairy creatures might use.”

Ella had a quick memory of a golden skinned fairy with blue butterfly wings but she pushed it aside.

“So what do I do to not… explode?”

“That is a good questions. What do you think you should do?”

“I don’t think that is Socratic method teaching. I think you just don’t know.”

“Yes. That is the correct answer. I can tell you that you are emitting a ton of leaked magic which seems to be accumulating in the atmosphere. It will eventually come down and that will lead to unpredictable effects.”

“Unpredictable? How do?”

“It might be nothing. It might waken magic in many creatures, it also might be an apocalypse like what happened to the dinosaurs but far worse.”

Ella didn’t have much to say about that.

“Today maybe try calming the magic inside you. Find a metaphor that works for you and then try and apply it to your magic. I hear human children like to count sheep hopping over a fence or something like that to go to sleep. Perhaps something like that.”

Gee thanks dragon, was all Ella could think.

“One more thing, whatever you did out there was….”

“No bueno?” essayed Ella.

“Yes. exactly. Don’t do it again.”

And so the first day and night and next day concluded. Ella left Charlie to ride herd on Xu and keep him focused on financials. Charlie agreed but only for the price of one accompaniment to dinner since Charlie’s father was coming back to town soon and Charlie needed cover.