Chapter 10: Fire, Flesh, and Friendship

—Three Years Later—

***

Over these three years, I did not become a master of all six arts, nor did I become the king of the veelas, worshipped and begged for children. I didn't lead a magical revolution, nor did we conquer France. I wish I could say otherwise, but no — reality is much more prosaic.

I'm still at the basics, just a little further along. Sure, there's progress, but it's modest. I can change my facial features and hair color, double my physical strength for a short time, briefly leave my body, and my brain works faster and better. I'm slowly approaching absolute memory, and in love magic, I can… well, seduce my mom into kissing me on the forehead. Not that I couldn't do that before.

It turns out veelas have a high resistance to mentalism and empathy, so I couldn't really test my powers on them. But squirrels, hedgehogs, and other peaceful animals are crazy about me. I sit like Snow White, and all sorts of animals come running, nuzzling me and making Apolline beg me to summon more cute creatures. It's not hard — I love animals, as long as they don't try to bite my head off.

Wand magic is where I've made the most progress. I've learned spells for the first three years of school and a couple of books' worth of household charms. Wand magic is to Sumerian magic what driving a car is to building one from scratch — and I mean from ore, not parts. Now you see why mastery takes so long.

Fire magic is better than the six basics, but still not as good as wand magic. That's only because I started training control with telekinesis, which helps develop it overall. I can now throw fire — or not throw it. Impressive, right?

Joking aside, I can change fire's shape, compress or expand it, make it hotter, and that's about it. Mana costs are down, which is nice.

But I'm not disappointed. Better slow and steady than fast and dead. If I ever get the childish urge to blow something up, I go to the lake, make the biggest fireball I can, and toss it in the center. If there were ever fish in that lake, there aren't now. Kidding — there never were. Probably.

So, I'm meditating, learning zen, when suddenly I hear a cry for help in the distance. Enhanced hearing picks up the direction — about two hundred meters from the village border. Not being an idiot, I don't go running off. Who knows, maybe it's a trap? But I warn the adults that someone's calling for help to the north.

If this were a human village, they might have told me I was imagining things. But not in Veilon — that's what our settlement is called. Two girls and Ariel went with me, and we immediately found blood traces. My mother quickly shielded me, and the girls, transforming into harpies, scanned the area from above. They soon found a barely alive boy — a werewolf, apparently.

I remembered him — I'd seen him on my birthday with his father, just before us at the fireplace. One of the girls waved her wand, closing his bleeding wounds, then levitated him toward the floo connection point.

That's the only inconvenience — you can't send the wounded instantly. Still, it's not far, and he'd survive.

As it turned out, the boy had been kidnapped by criminals planning to sell his organs on the black market. Werewolves are highly valued for ingredients. But they didn't expect a little werewolf's agility — and paid for it. He literally tore out one of their throats with his teeth and escaped, taking a couple of spells from the second. He crawled to the nearest settlement — ours.

He lost consciousness from blood loss, and if not for me, he would have died. That's how I got a new acquaintance, who, upon learning who saved him, decided to introduce himself.

"Hey, so you're the one who saved me? Thanks!" A sturdy brunette, looking about eight or nine, shook my hand so hard I had to use yoga just to keep it from hurting.

"And you're strong, though you wouldn't guess by looking."

"Know our kind! Many underestimate veelas," I replied. Should I tell him I'm a guy? Nah, I don't trust him yet.

"Now I owe you. If not for you, then…" he started, but I cut him off.

"Forget it, I just heard you by accident. And it wasn't me who saved you, but these two girls," I said, pointing to the women who'd just come over to greet him.

This happened near my house as I was about to leave for training, so I continued on my way. But they caught up with me and, with no shame, offered to be friends! The horror.

"I'm Patrick. And you?" the boy asked.

"I'm Arthur. Listen, I'm heading to training," I tried to excuse myself, but—

"Cool, I train with my clan too. Let's go together!" Probably half of Veilon heard my heavy sigh. But I quickly realized I was wrong to refuse.

***

"Let's go again!" I said, wiping blood from my mouth and getting up.

"Maybe we shouldn't? You are a girl, after all," Patrick hesitated, after just throwing me a couple meters and making me eat dirt.

"We should, Patrick, we should. You asked for it!" I ran at him, trying to use my agility and hit from his blind spot, but werewolves are strong and fast! He blocked two of my strikes and countered with a punch to my stomach, making me slide back.

You couldn't ask for a better sparring partner for yoga. An adult would hit too hard, and my peers are too weak.

Without stopping, I darted in and swept his knees. Got him — he lost balance and fell. I aimed a strike at his head, stopping an inch from his eye, then turned my fist into a palm, which he, after a moment's hesitation, accepted.

"Not bad, not bad at all. Are you sure you're not a werewolf?" Patrick laughed.

"Definitely wasn't this morning. Unless you bit me! You didn't bite me, did you?" I squinted at him, and seeing his face, burst out laughing.

"Well, if you ever need to scratch with fists, you know where to find me."

***

Patrick had always thought veelas were strong, but figured their strength was in charms and fire. Today, he changed his mind, meeting the strange girl Arthur, who referred to herself in the masculine. His nose didn't lie — even though he hadn't seen her use fire or transform, he sensed the beast in her, and his instincts screamed that he was facing a strong opponent. Maybe even stronger than him. And that stirred his blood.

***

About metamorphism, I lied a little. Yes, without spells I can do little. But in metamorphism, there are only two spells — matrix removal and transformation. Today, I removed my first human matrix. Before this, I'd only taken them from animals, but was afraid to transform into them — I might get stuck that way forever without experience.

The ritual of binding spatial storage, where my real body will be during transformation, I'd already performed. It was painful, but not as bad as creating the emblem — bearable.

The moment for real magic has come.

***

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