Notes in Ochre

Chapter 17 - Part 3

Though still grinning like a child, Uther pulled himself up from Matthias' desk to his full height, calling to mind the posture of the sage teacher before his students. "Whatever the case, it is a good segue into your first lesson. Mind you, I will only be teaching the basics. Once you have mastered those, we will need to determine your proficiency. From there, you may learn from whomever in the castle you feel would be a best fit. That structure more of less resembles our informal training regimen for the children and I see no reason it would not work for you both just as well. For now, we will start with the first lesson any mage must start with. Conjuring fire." Uther stated. Briar and I looked at each other. It made a bit more sense now why Uther hadn't thought about the fires in our rooms until we had said something. I felt a bit guilty then, as we had badmouthed him just the night before while Briar was visiting over this very issue. Briar looked particularly guilty as her eyes moved back to focus on Uther, who was now explaining how to conjure said fire.

"We start with fire because it is the easiest way to feel aether manifest in one's body and to experiment with different levels of aether accumulation. Aether is where we draw our magic from. It exists in everything, the air, the plants, the ground, the sea, anything you can imagine. Even other animals."

"Or people," Briar whispered so low, only I could hear. She shivered, and though Uther clearly did not hear, I also felt the cool shock of that truth ripple through me. I turned my eyes back to Uther, remembering with cold clarity what our benevolent instructor was truly capable of.

"As Mages, we have the unique ability to pull that aether inside of ourselves where it can then accumulate at different levels, like filling a bucket. Once you can control it, that is. From there, it can then be directed into a spell, or manifestation, of your choosing." Uther explained. Despite Briar's comment, for someone who did not ask to be our teacher, it seemed he was trying to do a thorough job. Was this warmth and passion he clearly emanated for the subject of magic a front, or was this who he really was? Sadly, the book had described him as unstable, at best, so I had no clue. Briar raised her hand.

"Okay, but how do you pull the aether into your body?" Briar asked bodily, despite the rememberance she and I had shared only moments ago. Despite myself, I was also curious about this.

"Yes, that is the quintessence of it." Uther replied cryptically. "This is why conjuring fire, the seemingly most simple task, is probably the hardest lesson for any young Mage. There is no one formula, it is a feeling that we all experience individually. Once must feel the aether build within their body and then push it out by the strength of command in their mind."

True to form, Briar's mood changed with the blink of an eye and she now looked ready to choke Uther. She moved to speak, I knew to say something incendiary, but given the one consistent truth in the novel, Uther was described as a scholar. With that knowledge, I believed two things. One, he was likely right that there was no clear methodology, or he would be more forthcoming about it. Two, he was too advanced as a Mage to teach simple tasks like this.

I may not have been much of a scholar in my past or current life, music excluded, but my Baba had been. He had taught at the local state University as a Computer Science instructor, mostly for Graduate level courses. More than that, he was a devout Hindi until his early death and followed the yogic teachings of his guru. He had been the most patient, loving, softest spoken man I had ever known. Yet, when Baba had tried to teach me anything he himself had mastered, be it mathematics, or his personal spiritual studies, the lessons had always been a little too intellectual and would often fly right above my head. I wondered if we were running into that problem, here. The best course of action, I knew, was patience if that was the case. I put my hand on Briar and shook my head, a silent plea that she keep whatever insult she was about to hurl to herself. I looked back to Uther.

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Author Note:  I'm so sorry for the random update schedule the last few weeks!  I'm going to make about announcement on my profile.  I'll be sure to update twice a week, but I want to make you all aware of an issue that's getting in the way of posting regularly, lately.  ❤️ Otherwise, enjoy the story!!