Chapter 8

After we both finished eating I followed Bon to his backyard.

Bon: “Since I’ve already taught you how magic works in this world we can begin teaching you how to use it. Using magic is like moving any other muscle in your body; it comes naturally to you.”

“So just try to imagine magic being something normal  to you and get the urge to use it. Simply thinking about using your magic won’t help you. If you don’t believe you can use magic you won’t be able to use it so when using magic picture a goal in your mind.”

Believing in magic is something that would have been unbelievable to me a few days ago. But after what’s happened lately, picturing myself using it isn’t hard. … Flames covering my arm.

And with just a little imagery and belief. My arm was covered in flames.

“As you just saw you are able to produce magic now but that’s just the beginning. Learning to fully control your magic won’t be as easy. In order to learn how to use your magic effectively you also need to learn the characteristics that magic has towards the owner of the magic and those in their clan.”

“Characteristics?”

“Notice how when you used your fire magic on your arm it didn’t burn you or felt and heat from it. That’s because magic doesn’t affect the owner. This also applies to anyone in your clan. Your magic won’t affect them nor will their magic affect you.”

“But there are some exceptions. Let's use ice as an example since you are able to use it. Go ahead and make some ice appear on the ground with a pointy end.”

I did as he ordered and created some ice from my feet towards him. Although it didn’t come out as I imagined, instead there were multiple pointy points.

“Do you feel cold? Is the ice heavy?”

“No, I don't feel any coldness or as much weight as I expected.”

“Ok, now detach yourself from the ice you created.”

“How do I do that?”

“Just picture yourself detaching yourself from the ice and you should detach yourself.”

Just like he said I was able to detach myself after a little imagery.

“Now try to pick up the ice you created, does it still feel like it doesn’t weigh much?”

“No, now It’s weight is completely different.”

“Now come towards me and poke your finger on any pointy part of the ice.”

I did as he said, the result of it was me ending up with a spot of blood on my index finger.

“Now do you see what I meant by there’s exceptions to your magic affecting you? When it’s a solid or liquid that you make, even if it’s your magic it’s not like you will just walk through it like it’s air.”

“Also the reason the ice weighed more after you detach yourself from the ice is because after you sever yourself from your magic when it’s a liquid or solid then it will weigh what it normally would if it was regular ice or water.”

“Now I’ll tell you the exception of light magic. Light magic is another type that has an exception in the rule of not affecting you or your clan members. If you couldn’t heal your clan members it would be a useless ability so when a light magic user uses it to heal another member of their clan it will heal them.”

“Unfortunately for the user itself they aren’t able to heal their own wounds. For dark magic that’s a mystery on if it has any exceptions since most people don’t even know what it does.”

“That’s about all I know about magic. Are there any questions that you have?”

“Ya I have one about the weight of ice when it’s attached to me. Is there no limit to how much ice I can produce without it being too much to handle?”

“Well of course there's a limit to how much ice you can withstand. The weight of ice is just less than what it normally is although I don’t know the percentage of its decrease. So for what’s too much ice that’s dependent on your own physical strength so you can find that out on your own later.”

“I see, well that’s about all I wanted answered for now.”

“Alright let’s start with your training now. To start off I want you to aim and shoot some magic to the tree in front of us aiming at the targets.”

“Does it matter which magic I use?”

“Yes, I want you to use your ice magic since it will be easier to see how good your control is.”

I lifted my left arm aiming at the target and produced my ice magic. But even though I had a picture of the course and shape of my magic it didn’t turn out how I imagined. The shape was inconsistent and the path it took wavered while missing the target completely. But I’m not that surprised, I never expected magic to be easy to use right away.

“Looks like we got a lot to work with, well considering this was time using magic this was expected. Let me show you how it’s supposed to look.”

I detached myself from the ice I made, causing it to shatter once it fell to the ground. Now with a clear path Bon shoots his ice magic. It was the complete opposite of mine, it had a consistent shape and hit the target on the bullseye. 

“This is how it should look once you learn to control your magic. Right now you can produce magic but don’t have much control over it so it won’t do exactly as you want.”

He detached himself from his magic but when it hit the ground it didn’t shatter. Even the density of the ice was different.

“That’s about  how I expected it to go but will I have enough time to control my magic in one month? I can only stay here for about a month.”

“Well for someone like you I think one month should be enough time for you to somewhat control your magic. But it shouldn’t matter much since you’ll be able to train on your own by then.”

“Ok, that sounds reassuring.”

“Let’s move onto the next exercise then. For this I want you to go to the dirt because I don’t want you to set my yard on fire.”

I went to the section with dirt and faced Bon.

“What do I do now?”

“I want you to cover your body in fire without stopping until I tell you.”