Spells.

Finally, I had some free time, and some space, to practice my magic! 

I had stowed my new wooden sword in my room, washed myself, eaten a breakfast that Lissa had prepared, and then run back up to my room to collect a book, which I put in a small bag I'd been given.

The first task, I decided, would be to cast Hollow Space on the bag, so it would be able to carry everything I wanted. For that, I needed somewhere private, and, just to be safe, outside.

With this in mind, I approached Lissa, who was busy cooking something in the kitchen, humming to herself. My mother loved to cook, and I guess now she was back in her own home, with her family, she was happy. This filled my heart with joy too. To have a loving family, to have support, was something that really lifted me up. If only I had had this in my first life, maybe I'd have not turned out to be such a scumbag. Ah well, this time I'd do better.

Lissa wasn't too sure about letting me wander far away, but eventually said I could go to just beyond the orchard, which was behind the house. I was not to go any further than that though, and under no circumstances was I to go north, towards the forest. It seemed that was a place that monsters roamed. 

I promised I would not go further than my boundaries today (I added the 'today' purposefully!) and headed out.

Wandering through the garden, I paused for a few seconds to watch Rath and Freia sparring. Their stances and styles of swordplay, such that I could follow at least, were very different to what I had seen before, and I wondered if this was the 'Sly' style that had been mentioned. In any case, it seemed that Freia was holding her own against Rath, or maybe Rath was just holding back. I simply wasn't experienced enough to tell.

Enough swords! I was going to be a magic user first and swordsman second. Hence, I set forth again with a determined gait into the orchard.

And immediately slowed as the trees surrounded me. They smelled wonderful! The grass underfoot was soft and bouncy, and the trunks from the oro trees were picturesque beyond belief. They would certainly be hits on social media in my first life! 

I carried on, running my hand over the rough bark as I went, and just savouring the atmosphere. What a beautiful place! This world was full of contradictions. Brutality and wonder, existing side by side.

Finally I emerged from the orchard, to find a stone wall blocking my way, and my view. It was tall enough for a grown adult to see over, just about, but I was a long way from that. The wall was made of rough stones though, so it was nothing for a young and energetic bodied boy to climb up and peer over the top.

Beyond the wall was rough land, heading uphill, where the trees grew ever denser. No doubt they became the forest further along. 

Satisfied there wouldn't be anyone wandering along the other side of the wall, I jumped back down and prepared my bag, remembering to take my book and a few other items out of it first. It had to be empty to cast the spell on.

Taking a deep breath, I cleared my mind and drew in mana, enjoying the feel of it flowing into my body. When I judged I had enough, I mentally 'ran' my incantation program for Hollow Space, concentrating on my fingertip, as I had before.

This time the end of my finger glowed really brightly, and I had to lower my mana sight just to be able to see. I hoped I was far enough away from Lissa that she wouldn't detect it. 

Putting those thoughts aside, I traced the top of the bag I'd laid out ready, watching the glow around edge as I went along, until I'd finally joined the finish back to the start. There was a flash, and a pulse of energy, and then I was done. 

I stood still for a moment, just in case I became dizzy or something, but no, I felt fine. Probably because I'd drawn mana in, and not used my own personal reserve. That was a relief.

Confident of my success, I checked out my new magic item, peering inside, which didn't really help much, as you couldn't tell how much space was in there by looking. It was just a kind of purple haze.

So I stuck my book and other bits in, and then some stones and branches, thinking it would fill up, but it didn't. I kept putting bits and bobs in, without any sign it was getting fuller! 

Finally, I slumped back, to sit on the grass. I'd estimated my spell would make a bag that could hold, at most, ten items. The size didn't matter when it came to Hollow Space, as long as it could fit inside the entrance. A ring, or a tree trunk, it held a certain number of items no matter the size of each. Yet, I had put at least twenty things already, and I could tell it was nowhere near full. 

How powerful was my magic?

 ~*~

I needed to test other spells out, including one that I simply itched to use – Fireball! It was a classic after all, one I had cast in role-playing-games when I was younger, back in my first life. To actually be able to cast a real one would be wonderous!

However, a fireball spell needed room, and lots of it, and somewhere there weren't other people. Most importantly, somewhere that wouldn't burn! I finally, reluctantly, decided it may have to wait, but that didn't mean I couldn't experiment with wind, water and earth spells. I had cast a wind one at the bandit on the road, but hadn't been able to evaluate the results, so that task was high on my to do list.

It was easier said than done. In the mornings, as threatened, Rath had me running laps and, as time went by, push-ups and other exercises, followed by sword sequence practice. Freia often oversaw this part, and as a result I tended to end up smarting from the smacks and prods after I hadn't done something right, which was all the time it seemed.

Somehow, I restrained myself from trying my fireball out on her, and, as the days went by, the slaps became fewer, as I started to get the hang of things. 

After practice I would clean up and eat breakfast, or perhaps brunch would have been a better description, and try and get permission to wander further away, which Lissa always refused to give.

So then I would head back to my spot at the far end of the orchard and practice spells that shouldn't get me noticed. 

These were mostly basic, or low level spells, which seemed very easy, although I constantly had to tone down how much power I put into them. It seemed my mana levels were much, much higher than the instruction books anticipated a person would have. 

I tried an illumination spell, which was essentially just a light that you could make float, or stick to something. The first one I cast was about as bright as the sun, and nearly blinded me. I had to quickly dispel the thing before anyone noticed. So I tried again, with about a hundredth of the power, which produced something more like what I had in mind. 

That first one I didn't bother dispelling, the illumination burned through the energy you gave it until it went out. However, when I woke up in the night to use the toilet, I happened to peer out of the window to see the glow coming from behind the orchard! It was really visible!

I had to hurriedly sneak out of the house and dash through the dark – and spooky – trees to dispel the thing! Yet again, it seemed, I had underestimated the among of power I was putting into these incantations. It was beginning to worry me a little, I needed to have better control.

Another issue manifested about this time too. I noticed it when I was checking the mana levels produced by the trees, out of sheer curiosity. To do this I upped my 'mana vision' focus, to be able see lower levels of mana, and realised my vision was being overloaded from the glow coming from my own body!. Looking down, I could see it was streaming off me in huge quantities. I mean, like rivers of the stuff. Far more than I had seen coming off anyone else, even Lissa. I was slightly surprised she hadn't commented already. Maybe she just hadn't looked recently.

In any case, whilst this wasn't a problem in of itself, if I went somewhere there were plenty of magic users, perhaps like the Blessed Mother church, definitely the academy, the power of my mana would be obvious, which would attract more attention to me, as if I didn't have enough already. Whilst this may not turn out to be an issue, I would rather not stand out any more than I already did. So, how could I reduce it?

An obvious way was to use my internal mana to cast spells, rather than draw it in from outside my body. That way it would use the contents of my 'cup' somewhat, and stop me emanating until it floweth over again, as you could say.

So, I tried out casting various magics of different power. I finally figured out that if I cast a summon water spell, which created a floating ball of water, and lobbed it far away, towards the forest, my mana levels would reduce to an adequate level for the rest of the afternoon. The water, when it eventually landed, shouldn't do any real harm either, should if it landed on someone. I even managed to work out how to use more mana to heat the water a little, not to boiling, but warm. This incantation I also then used to heat the cold water in my washing bowl in the rather primitive washroom we had too. A benefit I probably wouldn't have thought of before! 

Anyway, if the waterball wasn't enough, I could keep my power down a little more by casting powerful illumination spells into a hole I dug in the ground (using a minor earth moving spell of course) and then burying it so the glow wouldn't be seen.

All of these things I did in my little spot at the rear of the orchard, but I still had to restrain myself from casting anything really strong. The waterball was low intermediate. It could be used as a weapon, if I put more mana into it, and threw it at someone really hard, but I was concerned Lissa would detect anything more powerful. As it was, I had to make sure she was in the house, at least, to be really safe.

So the first month went by. My fitness level improved by really quite an astonishing degree in this time. I now could do the laps and the exercises without feeling like my legs and arms were going to fall off, although, of course, I still couldn't keep up with Freia. 

My sword work came on too, but not quite as well as I would have liked. I guess I was not such a natural, but then, I was only four still, so perhaps my own expectations were too high.

Despite the progress made, I grew more frustrated. I really wanted to do some more powerful spell casting! Even when Lissa went to the temple, and hence was out of detection range, I had to limit the incantations because of the potential damage they could do.

In the third month though, Lissa finally relented to my constant nagging to go further afield.

"Fine," she sighed, exasperated by my whining. "You can go as far as the baker's shop in the village, but you must not wander from the path between here and the village, and you are absolutely not to go towards the forest. Do you understand?"

"Yes mother!" I said, gleefully. At last, some open space!

"Very well. But I warn you Theordore, if I find you have disobeyed me, you will not be allowed out of my sight until we are back at the academy."

"Yes mother," I said again, as meekly as my excitement would allow.