Growing up

Once Koa turned five Liz upped the ante, the day started with a stack of books that could have stopped a number of bullets. Liz began grilling Koa on a number of subjects yet to his disappointment non where about how to use magic leaving him increasingly frustrated. "when will you teach me magic? I'm tired of studying these subjects and I'm not seeing the point. How does history play into magic?"

"If you can't imagine how the two subjects link then you are a fool, I wont allow a fool so I need you to grow up a little. By studying history we can understand the past and by understanding that we can learn what makes things today like such" replied Liz.

"take the example, the Rieotian revolt. can you tell me how it changed magic and in what way? you have been studying the second age text for a while now, can you describe the subjects?" "Seriously? the revolt was a people's rebellion due to the war taxes and poor living standards, it failed to seize power in the Empire but caused the collapse of the regime at the time. This led General Pilos to take power and form the Imperial Republic."

'The story was stupid, reminding him about dictators and civil war on earth, the rieotian rebellion was akin to a communist take over until they lost momentum and was swept away by the military. They killed most of the royal family before but still failed in the end forming the Aldar Imperium.' "I did read Liz I'm not daft, you know this" is what Koa decided to say instead.

"That not what the question was about Koa, you need to learn to look deeper into things then what you can observe. The rebellion was as successful as it was because they managed to develop alchemical charge weapons, this allowed those who had no skill or talent as a mage to form Militia forces."

'They made guns and armed the peasants' Koa rebuked internally, but before he could voice up Liz dropped another book onto the table. This book was unlike any of the previous history and tactic books that have been pushed onto him since his birthday only a few days ago, it was blue with a light silver trim and then he caught the title :Theory of the Magical Arts: it was just what he wanted to see.

When Koa turned to chapter one :Absorption: even though there was a side of him cursing his luck that it was more reading describing the appearance of the first Mages and the techniques discovered to train in the arts, it was outweighed by his drive to learn about Magic itself. "Treat it well Koa books about Magic are far from cheap, if you damage it you might as well go work in the mines" said Liz.

He had to pause for a second to take in what she just told him, magic was closely guarded and highly valued so he had to be careful. The theory behind Absorption was that one would enter a meditative state and make attempts to draw an outside energy into their person.

The more Koa read the more he felt that this had massive peices missing but he read the chapter again and again till he had grown weary and could no longer focus on the subject. Koa made up he mind despite the warnings from Liz he was going to make attempts to practice the technique incomplete or not.

The following day Liz had Koa drill with the local guard quickly leaving him exhausted then came sword play, Koa was too young to spar so he was tasked to practicing techniques on a dummy. When finally dismissed Koa set out for a hillside a distance from the villa walking out there took a while especially since he had to be careful not to be noticed and that he found a secluded spot.

The place he found was a well hidden clearing next to a stream, it reminded him of childhood memories in his previous life or at least of the good ones. Alex wasn't born into hardship but rather his old family fell into it, after he lost his mother his father struggled and turned to alcoholism leaving Alex no choice but to harden his heart and grow up fast.

Meditation was not a strength of his but he had tried it before, Koa cleared his mind of all thought choosing to only allow himself to have the calming sound of the nearby stream. First he exhaled deeply and slowly inhaled the cool air, picturing the flow of the air he relaxed his body and continued.

Koa followed the flowing air within himself and exhaled then repeated the process, after a time he wasn't entirely sure that that the air would leave his body but instead that something remained afterwards and it was building up. Koa followed this energy to where it settled within himself but was unable to register it. He kept repeating the cycle until the sky grew dark and he was forced to return to his mother, Sasha regardless to say was furious with Koa.

He explained that he had wandered and instead found himself lost, Sasha eventually calmed and called Koa over to spend time with her as she cooked a meal for the Duncan and them. Koa had grown fonder of his new family and began to see them as his own, having spent years now being taken care of by his Sasha, his mother he held her in high regards.

After they had finished the meal and spending time together Koa left for his room, he was not finished with trying to understand this energy he had taken in. The text started the once a mage would absorb enough of this energy it would be easier to cultivate it and then use the energy as mana and produce spells.

Koa instead was eager to learn how the process worked and where the energy was stored since it had to be held somewhere, in his room he began the meditation process again trying to follow the energy inwards but would always lose it. He was definitely onto something here and perused it with vigor.