Chapter 11

The past few weeks flew by as I joined Eleanor in the physical conditioning, while she has already gotten past that stage, I learned that there are two types of mages. An enhancer, and a caster. An enhancer has more latent ability in physical boosting of themselves or objects they are in contact with, as well as shrouding the aforementioned in their own element, the down side is they sacrifice range. It takes much more control and mana the farther the spell is launched. Casters juxtapose the enhancers, they have more latent ability in conjuring and casting of spells, while this is incredible for support, they usually must use rather long winded spell chants. This is what makes my mother so impressive, as a caster herself she was able to overwhelm an enhancer in close quarters while also voicelessly casting her spells. She used the ice rink to speed herself up, in a way that would make most be on all fours after a few minutes, to fight against a physically boosted opponent.

My sister is also an enhancer, much to Nathaniels liking as it reduces the difficulty of teaching her. Her talent lies in enhancing weapons with her element, while she can only enhance herself with pure mana, a type of mana that has no attribute. My theory of this is that our bodies have either developed another organ or specific section in the brain that is attuned to a specific element of mana, and we can remotely control whether to imbue our mana with that element or not. So while she loses out on the speed of lightning enhancement for her body, her weapons lethality increases tremendously. It was difficult to just watch as my sister got to practice her mana, as I was stuck to completing basic exercises, like running a certain distance, or moving a certain rock, or balancing on one leg. So after exercises finished, I would lock myself in my room and practice by myself. Obviously I'm no idiot, I can't cast a large spell, my body isn't ready for that, however I have been incorporating exercise into my training before awakening so I should at least be ready for something small. While in my room, I lift a stone that I had hidden away under my bed, that I had found outside, and place it in my open palm, then I grab another and place it the other hand. A feeling similar to a surge of water passes through my arms and goes through to the stones, one freezes becoming similar to an ice crystal with a grey epicenter, while nothing happens to the other. Well while I say nothing, it became a little denser, but that is from strengthening it, nothing visible happens. 'Same result again' I thought with an exasperated sigh escaping from my lips. I had been getting very similar results, only one would be affected by an attribute at a time, everytime I would change the attribute, the other would disappear. Even changing the attribute I'm using is difficult on it's own.

To try and explain, it is similar to the radio frequency of a car, to get a certain radio station you have to change the frequency the radio picks up. Now obviously there are already set frequencies, however there are no set frequencies for me, I have to manually construct the frequency I am going to use, and if i get it wrong the attribute or spell fails. So to use my two attributes at the same time will require me to maintain attention to one frequency, while constructing the other, and if I lose focus on the already set attribute, it will fail as I'm trying to create the other one. That is the most simple explanation I can give and even that itself is difficult.

Anyway, back to the present. The day for my sister's departure has finally arrived, I won't lie, I didn't want her to leave yet. I had grown attached to her, especially in the times we were exercising together, we often made it a competition, with her giving herself a handicap due to the obvious gap. She's currently giving a farewell hug to my mother, while my father waited patiently with their travel rations. He was going with her to the capital, as it just wasn't all that smart to let an 11 year old girl travel for three months to the capital on her own, plus she couldn't navigate her way out of the forest, well neither could I. Finally, It was my turn to give a good bye, and just as I was about speak up, she drew me into a tight hug as tears fell down her face.

"Next time we meet, you better be strong enough to give me a good challenge, also I'll definitely beat you in hide and seek", even while I was struggling to hold my tear, a wry smile broke out onto my face, as I hummed in agreement. She held me there for a moment more, before she finally let go.

With a bright smile on her face, she joined my dad and started walking away. However my dad turned around as if remembering something.

"Oh yea, Eli look after your mother while I'm gone. And also, those practice rocks you hide in your room, they're really not hidden very well. Good luck!", and with that they both broke into a jog while giggling to each other.

Shivers were sent up my spine, as the surrounding temperature dropped by several degrees, with my dad revealing a frozen rock, and another with char lines on it, while still retreating. I turned to see the gentle face that would haunt my nightmares for a while. The smiling face of my mother.

"Eli" that one word caused my entire body to tense like a wild animal ready to flee.

"What exactly were you doing with those stones?"

I muttered my response, "practicing magic", to which she responded by flashing her gritted teeth in a devilish smile.

"If you feel so ready to start practicing magic, then you'll need to train even harder"

By the next day, I couldn't move.