Chapter 19 : Christmas Tradition

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There is a law somewhere that says that when one person is thoroughly smitten with the other, the other must unavoidably be smitten as well.

Focus. The voice echoed in her mind.
"Stop reading me, you said you won't do that." She had been understandably apprehensive about letting him teach her how to read and shield her thoughts. His repeated assurances made her somewhat less apprehensive but his habit of not speaking out loud at times and her miserable shielding skills had terminated their training after three classes.

"You have been reading the same page for over an hour. I don't have to be psychic to figure out you aren't focused," Stephen spoke out loud. He always tried to keep her within his field of vision, never letting her out of his sight except when he went hunting or out of Kamar Taj.

She peeked at his pensive form through her thin screen of hair - at least some sort of barrier was there. If she could place a veil, even thin and fragile, over her thoughts, at least ones that were about him, she would have continued their lessons in the hope of stealing one glance at his thoughts.

Initially not knowing whether he'd show up at the dinner table was torture. It was the only time that she saw him out of his shell. The only time they weren't master-apprentice but something more, or something less than that. Not daring to ask whether he'd be there was the real ordeal. The thud her heart gave when she saw him unannounced both terrified and thrilled her. She was afraid when he showed up, afraid when he failed to, afraid when he looked at her, more frightened yet when he didn't. And she didn't realise when the skipped beats slipped beyond dinner time to mornings when he suddenly slipped beside her in the library, with a missing beat she blossomed like a flower.

But these were bearable tortures. What drove her crazy was - how much he had learned of her from her thoughts? Aware of her stealing glances at him when they sat for hours beside each other in the library. Was his fear of hurting her genuine, or there was something else behind leaving her alone around new moon nights? Did his heart jolt when he... She abruptly ceased when a hand slammed her book shut.

"We won't do any good here. Let's spar instead." It was her least favourite session after telepathy sessions. A reminiscence of her enthusiastic spirit on the day Stephen introduced her to all of this; made her wonder if she was ever meant for all of this.

"Mystic arts - or as you prefer, magic is the art of harnessing various forms of energy to manipulate one or more aspects of the infinite realities that are present within the multiverse. The energy harnessed can be divided into three different categories: Personal energies, Universal energies, and Dimensional energies. Personal energies are derived from the life force of the sorcerers and can only be used to power abilities developed through mental studies, thus limited to mental abilities such as astral projection, hypnotism, telekinesis, and telepathy. However, continual use of such energies will fatally deplete the individual by consuming their life force which makes it a must for us to learn to harness from an external source through meditation techniques and trained willpower. One of the easier sources that a sorcerer can draw power from is the Universal energies of our home dimension which can be used for conjuration, transmutation, and teleportation purposes and are commonly used in battle to create shields and weapons of energy. To tap into such energies usually requires specific gestures and - or words," his hands moved to create various geometrical shapes that turned into a much more elaborate holographic shield than the one she had seen before. "Lastly, Dimensional energies are those that are drawn from other planes of existence throughout the multiverse or are bestowed upon a sorcerer from one or more extra-dimensional entities. These entities must be entreated by using ritualistic spells and possibly a promise, contract, or sacrifice of some method. Here, at Kamar Taj, I'll teach you how to tap into each of the sources."

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