Magical Instruction (2)

"It seems that it is never the man in power that must sacrifice, only the one who carries the sword."

Goleil nodded, glancing over at the three of his companions. Rick was trying to read a book and failing as Mord kept turning the pages before he was done. Gwen spoke to one of the young blue-robed scholars, showing off her sword. He seemed to be of Qutarian descent.

For a moment, other faces overlapped with theirs. He could almost remember them.

He blinked, and they were gone.

Goleil looked back at Murdoc with a new passion in his eyes. "Tell me more about magic itself. What were those hand signs you make, and what language were you speaking?"

Murdoc grinned and beckoned over the young man Gwen had been speaking to. "Practitioner Yuudai, please tell Goleil here the origin of magic."

The young man bowed to the both of them. "Yes, Court Mage. Sir Goleil, the origins of magic are often debated thoroughly, but the most popular theory is that it was created by the God of Magic, Kosbokal. The reason for this is, when we form the hand signs and supply our mana into a spell, we speak in a language we have never been able to decipher nor record."

Goleil narrowed his eyes. "Wait... you're saying that even you have no idea what you're saying? It's involuntary?"

Yuudai smiled. "Correct! It has been theorized that we communicate with The Cosmic God of Magic Kosbokal every time we cast a spell. Now, just because Kosbokal is the patron god of Krodia, does that mean magic is evil. Its just a theory, it may not even be true."

Goleil nodded. 'I'm glad I use Elder magic, I hope I don't have to do any hand signs.'

Ty'Bral leaned over his shoulder. "The proper name for our magic is Adthun, or Old Way. And we don't use hand signs, since we don't have hands in the same way you do. It is far more complicated."

Murdoc nodded to Yuudai, who went back to talking to Gwen, but kept glancing at Goleil with curiosity.

"Now, lets get to the fun part. The Circles of Magic. Just like the mage rank circles, they go from zero to ten. Magic in the Zeroth Circle can be performed without handsigns," He said, and put his hand out as many points of light raced around his hand.

"Tier One can be cast with one hand making two handsigns, or two hands making one sign," He said, and made a single sign with both his hands.

A blinding flash of light grew from his hand, forcing Goleil to look away quickly.

When it subsided a second later, Goleil had to keep rubbing his eyes as strange black spots kept appearing in his vision.

"What was that?!"

Murdoc chuckled, completely fine. "It was a light so bright you were blinded for a few seconds. Not every spell has a name, Goleil. Anyway, that was a Tier One spell. Cool, right?"

Goleil groaned. "Oh, absolutely magnificent."

Murdoc smiled. "Truly. Anyway, the farther one goes up in the rankings, the more complicated the spells become. Magic is not an exact science, it is more of an art. You'll see what I mean."

'No, I don't think I will,' Goleil wanted to say.

"Okay," Goleil actually said, "So what can Tier Zero do? I only just regained some magical prowess."

Ty'Bral raised a tentacle brow. "I wonder how you're going to explain your magic with your destroyed mana circuits."

'One problem at a time. Patterns first. I wish I could see them again, I'm having trouble remembering.'

"What a surprise."

"Well," Murdoc said, "Tier Zero is mostly reserved for parlor tricks. So summoning an entire mana weapon and firing mana blades capable of destroying a Tier Three War spell was very impressive of you."

Murdoc stared into Goleil's eyes as if searching them.

"Perhaps my training as a Sun Guard prepared me well. You know Vrea's reputation, we were practically bred for war," Goleil said, not breaking eye contact.

Murdoc stared, tapping his finger against the table.

"So it would seem."

'For the first time, I'm glad I'm wearing a mask.'

Murdoc grabbed the blue book, and flipped a few pages in. "Let's start with something simple. There are three major schools of magic. First is elemental magic, which governs natural principles like fire, wind, lightning, and so on. Second is war magic, which includes far more than just magic for killing. Finally, the third is delusionary magic. It governs all magic relating to the mind, and the manipulation of it."

Murdoc turned the book over to Goleil, the current page full of descriptions of every kind of elemental magic and its potential uses in a variety of situations.

"I just saw you perform war magic, and I heard you used delusionary magic in the Colosseo to command. So, we are going to start with elemental magic, since I don't believe in specialization from Tier Zero."

Goleil nodded. Finally, real magic!

"Alright. Let's start with the easiest-to-understand element, fire. Hold your hand out, palm up. Call upon your mana, and concentrate it in your hand." A blue ball of mana roiled above his hand.

"Now, this is the most difficult part of elemental magic. We must make the mana take the form of that element, with no help from signs." His mana began to flicker like a flame, then slowly turned orange and red. He started to hear a faint crackling, and heat began to emanate from the flame.

Goleil's eyes were firmly upon the fire. "Amazing, that's incredible."

Now, to put it all together-" He snapped, and a brief gout of intense flame rose from his fingers. "Behold, fire."

"So, first you instilled the mana with your best facsimile of what you wanted it to do, then you snapped, then it did it?"

Murdoc smiled. "That's right! Eventually, you'll be able to skip the facsimile stage, but for now, let's continue with this."

Goleil nodded.

'True power is built upon a foundation of hard work and steady progress. Now, I can become like those great conquerors of old!'