The Apprentice's Apprentice

Part 17

Today Cora found herself in a different room of the house, this one on the right side of the hall. With deep green wallpaper, leather furniture, and dark wood everywhere, the room was undeniably masculine. With shelves built in around the fireplace and spreading out to each side of it, all of them stuffed with books, it was also clearly the library.

Warren sat in a puffy leather armchair, his back to the almost floor to ceiling high window. He eyed her where she sat across from him on the couch for a moment before he began. "Like you heard before, there are seven basics of spellcasting. Each of these also relate to one of the types of magic. First, feeling your power is of mind, then moving it outside your body is transference. Visualizing the effect you want is obvious, while keeping your mind focused is communication. Keeping your magic within the effect area belongs to defensive, releasing the power is offensive, and lastly pulling your magic back in after is clearly spellbreaking. Any questions so far?"

Cora shrugged. "Not as long as I'm not supposed to have that all memorized today. Should I be taking notes or something? I am supposed to be tested on this stuff, so I guess I'll have to study?"

He sighed heavily. "No, you won't have to study or take notes. Just practice them. Look, I'm going to have to start you with one of the basic spells just so you can try out the basics of spellcasting, so let's focus on that. We might as well do a witchlight since I'm good at visualization and ought to be able to explain it to you even if you run into trouble."

"What's a witchlight?"

Warren stared at her for a moment then shook his head. "Every so often I forget what you being a Wild mage means and then you go and remind me. A witchlight is basically a little floating light mages can conjure. Only people with magic can see it, but it means you won't ever need a flashlight again."

"Okay, so how do I make a witchlight?" Cora asked, ignoring the insult. Though if he kept it up she'd throw something at him, preferably at his head.

"We go through the basic steps. First, feel your power. It feels different to everyone but you ought to be able to find it. It can be a tingle or a chill; some people even have it as a sound or a smell, though that's less common. It's something that's always there, that if you reach out and touch with your mind, will come across even stronger."

Cora frowned and concentrated. All she could hear was her own breathing and the distant hum of cicadas from outside. "Close your eyes," Warren suggested when she continued to just look around. "Concentrate only on your body."

She wrinkled her nose but did as he asked. She could see the disappearing sunlight through her eyelids but that wasn't what she was looking for. She decided to start from the top and concentrated on her scalp, but felt nothing. She slowly moved down her face and neck but wasn't coming across anything she could even suspect was magic. But once she got to her chest she hesitated. There was a feeling of warmth all along her sternum and as she concentrated on it, it seemed to get even warmer. Cora opened her eyes and looked at Warren. "Would a feeling of warmth count? It's like a warm sort of area right here," she said, putting her hand on her chest. A realization of exactly where she was pointing made her flush and jerk her hand away.

He nodded. "Sounds like it's probably right. Now you need to take that feeling, that warmth, and move it outside your body. You don't have to do anything with it yet, just move it. Closing your eyes makes this easier for some people."

She shrugged and closed her eyes again, even though it made her feel kind of stupid. Then again, the whole idea of sitting in a stranger's house trying to do magic at all, let alone with her eyes closed, was kind of stupid. Cora reached out for the warmth, letting it heat up so it was nice and toasty. She wondered if this would stop her from getting chills in winter and made a mental note to ask Warren about it later.