“I won’t ask you to respect me like your parents the way they do in some places, but I expect you to at least listen to me quietly and not to talk amongst yourselves in my classes. Is that clear!?” - Temis Suri Andalou, Scholar and Teacher from Elmaiya, circa 193 VA.

“Child, can you first show us how you work your magic?” asked the Bone Lord in a kindly, grandfatherly tone.

At the moment, several of them were gathered in an empty courtyard within the Palace of Bones. Present were the Bone Lord, Aideen, Celia – who was mostly there out of curiosity, Mimia and Èirynn – both of whom wanted a closer look at their children’s potential classmate, and two void mages the Bone Lord had gathered in short order. All of them were watching Kino with rapt attention.

Kino obliged, and almost casually stretched out her right hand, at which point an apple-sized orb of void suddenly came into being above her palm. She kept it hovering there for a moment even as she stretched out its form into various shapes, until she finally allowed it to vanish with an audible pop as the air around the area filled the vacuum the orb had left behind.

“Fascinating,” stated the Bone Lord – in his mortal guise – as he scratched his chin contemplatively with one claw. “You have a very instinctive grasp on your magic, not unlike one of my students from the past. While everyone describes their magic as something instinctive, for most it remains something that requires conscious thought and effort to perform. Neadric, you demonstrate.”

On the Bone Lord’s command, the tall, gaunt elven void mage voiced his acquiescence and stepped forward. The man’s brows furrowed in concentration as he called upon his void affinity, and after several seconds, a small orb – no larger across than a fingernail – came into existence between his outstretched palms. Even that clearly required rather strenuous efforts from the man.

“That,” said the Bone Lord, “Is what most Death-Major Void mages can achieve. Those with greater talent or skill generally perish in their awakening, which I guess is a fate you didn’t exactly avoid, so to speak. It’s just that with how rare unliving are, we have yet to see a void mage become one… until now, much less one with your talent. You, girl, are pretty unique in this world.”

“With that said though, since the magic comes to you too easily in some ways, you will need to learn to control it more so as not to accidentally hurt others just because you were surprised or scared,” added the Bone Lord. “I heard from Aideen that you accidentally used your magic against a couple bandits on the way here? How large was the void sphere you created at that time?”

“I… don’t really, remember, sir, sorry,” replied Kino with a shake of her head. The situation was rather chaotic at the time and she was panicking, so she had no time to pay attention to her accidental handiwork, other than to see their gruesome results.

“Aideen, Celia?”

“I didn’t see it happen myself, but judging from the aftermath, I’d guess that the sphere is around a couple meters in diameter, at the least,” reported Aideen. “She directly annihilated one bandit from the waist up in entirety, while the other one who was further to the side had most of their right side removed. Judging from the distance and area it affected, that would be my best guess.”

“I’m not as skilled as Miss Aideen, Bone Lord Sir, but that sounds about right,” added Celia in support.

“Right, my point is that Kino here is capable of bringing utter devastation almost on reflex. This is something we will have to work around, as others wouldn’t be safe around her otherwise,” explained the Bone Lord, at which point Kino nodded in understanding. “As such, I propose that we first train her how to be completely in control of her magic first, such that even a reflexive reaction wouldn’t trigger it unless she decided to let it happen.”

“I’m willing to learn, sir,” said Kino with a slight bow. The Bone Lord had not disguised his prodigious mana that day, and Kino felt as if she was standing in front of an ancient monster from times long gone by. One that spoke like a kind grandfather to her, sure, but still an ancient monstrosity. “How could I better control this… magic of mine?”

“I have something in mind for that. Laine, you show her what you can do,” said the Bone Lord as he addressed the second void mage he had called for, this one an old human woman.

The old woman stepped forward and displayed her hand to Kino to see, before a thin sheet of black nothingness coated her fingers one after another. Despite the coating of void, the woman was still capable of moving her fingers at will, and even showed Kino how she could deactivate parts of the void “covering” so she could touch and hold things without damaging them.

Then the old woman took out a wooden stick, and after she dispelled the working that covered her hand, shifted it to the wooden stick, similarly coating it in a paper-thin layer of void that stuck so closely to the material as if it was its own skin. The void coating moved along with the wooden stick even as the woman moved it every which way at high speed, and after she was done, she dispelled it to show the undamaged wooden stick once more.

“Laine here is what we call a Void Dancer, a Wind-Major Void affinity mage, also by far the more common type of void mage that reached adulthood,” explained the Bone Lord calmly. “As you can see, the feats she is capable of performing require great precision. For her that precision comes naturally, but for one like you, you’d need to train to achieve such a level of precision and control. As such, this will be a very fitting way for you to train your control over your gift of magic.”