“Isabel, I was just coming to find you,” Lita said. “Mistress Magda would like to speak with you.”
The guard rolled his eyes when Isabel smiled with satisfaction and walked past him.
Magda’s outer chamber was more an office than a sitting room or entry hall. The walls were richly polished walnut panels and the floor was covered with a large finely crafted carpet. Free-standing brass lamps were positioned at even intervals around the edge of the room. Two medium-sized oak desks faced the door with a woman seated at each. Both were reviewing documents when Isabel entered with Lita. One looked up with mild surprise before motioning them through the large door behind the desks.
Lita smiled her thanks and opened the door without hesitation. Isabel trailed behind her into a slightly larger square room. There was a large desk that looked like it had been carved from a giant piece of driftwood and then stained and polished to a shine. It was positioned to face away from the far left corner of the room. Opposite the door was a set of windows that opened out onto a small balcony. A small round table and two cushioned chairs occupied the far right corner, and a large stone hearth filled the wall to the right. Four comfortable-looking chairs faced the fireplace in a semicircle. On the left was a low table with couches on two sides and plush chairs on either end. Magda sat in one of the chairs, holding a cup of tea. She smiled at Isabel and motioned for her to sit.
“Thank you, Lita,” Magda said. “Would you excuse us, please? I have some things to discuss with Isabel.”
“Of course, Mistress,” Lita said with an understanding smile as she left the room and closed the door behind her.
Isabel took a seat on the couch to Magda’s left. Magda poured her a cup of tea as she sat down.
“Cream or honey?” she asked.
“Both, please,” Isabel said. She took the tea with a smile.
“Lita tells me that you have recovered fully from the poison, although she is uncertain as to how,” Magda said. “In any case, I’m glad to hear that the magic provided by Mage Gamaliel has served its purpose.”
Isabel nodded her agreement. “Me, too,” she said. “I knew the Guild Mage would do all he could to help me, but I wasn’t sure it would be enough. I’m relieved that it was.”
“I’ve given some thought to your training for the mana fast and decided that I will instruct you personally,” Magda said. “If you are to survive, you will require very rigorous preparation. I must warn you, Isabel, this will not be easy. Most who attempt the trials have spent many years in preparation. I must help you accomplish a great deal before you will be capable of success and even then the outcome is not guaranteed.”
“I understand,” Isabel said. “I remember when Alexander took the mana fast. He had so little training. Wizard Kallentera recommended that he train more thoroughly. I also tried to convince him to wait, but he went ahead with it over my objections. That was one of the most frightening and difficult weeks of my life. All I could do was wait for him. I think I understand now what he knew then. Opportunities often come along only once. If you don’t seize them, you may not get another chance.”
“That is very true,” Magda said. “If you’re certain, then we shall begin.”
“I’m certain,” Isabel said. “I miss my husband. He needs me and I need him. Our people need both of us. The sooner I meet your conditions, the sooner I can stand with Alexander against the enemy.”
“Very well,” Magda said. “We will spend this morning talking about magic. A basic understanding of the nature of the firmament and how we interact with it will provide you with a solid foundation for your studies and help you fully comprehend the reasons for the exercises I will assign.
“Magic is the ability to impose your will on the firmament and thereby produce effects in the world of time and substance. The firmament is the source of reality. It underlies the world we see around us and creates the present moment. It is the source of creation. And it is a creation, because every moment is created by the firmament. We experience only the one moment of the present. The past is only memory and the future only possibility. The firmament is like a wave. We exist only on the crest of the wave as it flows through time.
“Left to its own devices, the firmament will create the next moment very much like the previous moment according to its own rules. Objects move or not according to the state they were in and the energy they possessed in the previous moment. People act with volition, but they too are governed by the rules of time and substance.
“Magic allows those rules to be broken. What is impossible according to nature is well within reach for one who can bend and shape the firmament. The process for manipulating the firmament is essentially a simple one. First, you must see the outcome you desire with perfect clarity in your mind’s eye. Second, you must establish a connection to the firmament. Third, you must send your vision of the coming moments into the firmament with an uncompromising desire to see it become reality.
“In truth, everyone has a limited capacity for magic. Many people who have never taken the mana fast perform magic every day, although with far less dramatic effect. The child who wishes for a toy or a pet with such intensity that it becomes real to her within her own mind and then she acquires, through chance or accident, the toy or pet she desires is just one example. There are countless others. All life is connected to the firmament because all life is infused with Wizard’s Dust to some degree.
“It is literally the stuff of life. Without it we would not exist. Consciousness and thought are made possible by the presence of Wizard’s Dust within our bodies. It is the thing that links us to the firmament. In nature, it’s very difficult for a person to accumulate a sufficient concentration of Wizard’s Dust to make a deliberate connection to the firmament with his or her conscious mind. That is where the mana fast comes in.
“By consuming refined Wizard’s Dust, we develop the ability to create a deliberate and conscious connection to the firmament. The small magic I spoke of a moment ago is accomplished through an unconscious connection to the firmament. Real magic depends on a conscious, deliberate connection.
“That is where the firmament becomes dangerous. It is a limitless, unimaginably vast ocean of potential. Within the firmament, anything is possible. When we make a connection to the firmament, we risk losing ourselves in the ocean of infinite possibility. It’s almost as if the firmament craves our input, as if it wants us to use it to create. In exchange for our input, the firmament offers a feeling of joyous rapture unlike anything you will ever experience. Limitless creative power at your disposal is enough to overwhelm the senses of most people. Training is necessary to develop the ability to overcome the urge to blindly throw yourself into it.
“Wizards accomplish this through a rigorous mental training program that results in the ability to concentrate and focus their minds with great intensity and with great emotional detachment. This concentration is their defense against the firmament. Once a wizard has made contact with the firmament, he shuts out all distractions and focuses his entire mind and will on the vision of his desired outcome. As a wizard grows with experience, he’s able to focus even more intensely until he reaches the rank of mage. Mages can open themselves to the firmament fully without fear of losing themselves in the ocean of creative potential. Less experienced wizards must carefully control the degree of their connection to the firmament in order to protect themselves from the full seductive power of the rapture.
“The rapture plays on emotion. Wizards learn to shut out emotion and rely on reason almost exclusively when they’re casting a spell. This approach doesn’t work nearly as well for women. The first attempts at creating female wizards ended badly. For many years it was forbidden for women to undergo the mana fast because those who survived eventually succumbed to the rapture and lost their minds in the firmament.
“Balthazar Reishi’s youngest daughter secretly defied him and underwent the trials. She was a wise and passionate woman who devised a solution to the problem
. Rather than viewing a woman’s emotional nature as a weakness, she saw it as a strength. Kendra Reishi was the first true witch.
“She found that she could establish a connection to the firmament and withstand the rapture if she evoked a powerful emotion within herself before she established the connection. The more powerful the emotion, the more fully she was able to connect with the firmament. Through the use of deliberate emotion, she created a distraction that was sufficient to offset the pull of the rapture. To this day, witches use the discoveries she made to wield magic.
“The way a witch interacts with the firmament creates some advantages and some disadvantages. Since our connection to the firmament is based on emotion rather than concentration, we can establish a greater connection to the firmament much faster than a wizard. As a result, witches can wield great power relatively quickly. However, since emotion is not sustainable in the same way as mental discipline, witches cannot rise past the level of high witch, the equivalent of a mage.
“An arch mage is connected to the firmament at all times. Only their long years of training allows them to maintain the state of mental discipline necessary to defend against the rapture. Strong emotion cannot be sustained in the same way, so a witch who undergoes the mage’s fast will eventually succumb to the rapture and lose her mind to the firmament.
“One mental skill that is common to both wizards and witches is visualization. The ability to see the outcome you desire is essential to success with magic. Your first exercises are designed to teach you this skill. It is essential that you practice diligently and intensely to train your mind to create visual images on command. You will start with the mundane and progress to the extraordinary.
“Use any ordinary item as the object of your practice. Look intently at the item and make note of every detail. Focus on it until you are confident that you have a clear picture of it in your memory. Close your eyes and create an image of the item within your mind’s eye. Work with one item until you can call a perfect, clear vision of it at will.
“Once you’ve mastered visualizing the item, begin to work on seeing it quickly yet in clear detail. When you can call a perfect vision of the item instantly, then work on holding the vision in your mind without distraction. Meditate on it for as long as you can. When you can see it clearly for several minutes, then you can select another item to practice with.
“This exercise may sound simple, but it will develop a necessary set of skills. After sufficient practice, you’ll be able to call forth intense, vivid, and clear images within your mind’s eye. When you begin casting spells, you will use this skill to create visions of the effects you desire. Those visions will form the basis of your spells.
“The second exercise is one of emotional control. I want you to think back to a time when you felt intense anger. Take your time and find an event in your past that enraged you. Relive the event in minute detail. Evoke the anger you felt. Let it fill you. Feel it with every bit of the intensity that you felt when it happened. When you are in the height of this intense anger, pinch your right earlobe until you feel pain. Take a few minutes to clear your head and do the exercise again. Clear your mind and distract yourself with some other activity, then pinch your right earlobe until you feel pain. The intense anger should return quite suddenly.
“Once you can evoke the feeling of anger on command, practice nursing it and keeping it alive within you for several minutes. If it starts to wane, pinch your earlobe again to bring back the intensity.
“Now do the entire exercise again, except this time recall a feeling of deep love and pinch your left earlobe. Follow the same procedure to learn how to evoke the feeling and then focus on it and maintain it with intensity for several minutes.
“Once you can call forth a quick and intense feeling of both love and anger, then practice alternating between the two feelings. Emotional control is essential to a witch. This exercise can be unpleasant but it will teach you to master your emotions and harness them to your purposes.
“Finally, once you can call forth a powerful emotion at will and sustain it, then you will practice sustaining the emotion while seeing the items you worked with during your visualization exercise. You must be able to sustain an intense emotion at the same time that you are clearly and vividly visualizing an object, and you must be able to do both for several minutes at a time.
“Once you can do this, you’ll be ready for the trials. I know you’re anxious to begin, but don’t underestimate the importance of these skills. They will serve you every single time you cast a spell, so be diligent and be thorough. It’s better to err on the side of preparation than to undergo the trials with a poorly trained mind. Do you have any questions?”
Isabel stared blankly for several moments. Magda had covered so much that Isabel’s mind felt full. She’d learned about magic mainly from listening to conversations between Alexander and other wizards. This was the first time anyone had explained it to her so directly and completely.
“That’s a lot to process,” Isabel said. “I’ll probably have questions later but right now I need to think about everything you’ve taught me, and I’d like to get started on the exercises you gave me.”
Magda smiled. “The information I’ve just given you is usually spaced out over a year for acolytes of the coven. We find that slow exposure to these ideas leading to greater and greater understanding is a more effective method of teaching. In your case, I believe you are sufficiently motivated that the slow approach is not necessary. Think about the things I’ve told you. Practice your exercises, starting with visualization. Come back tomorrow and we’ll talk further. If you like, you’re welcome to sit in with the other acolytes in the training hall. Head Mistress Theresa is very knowledgeable, and she has a number of suitable items to use for visualization practice. It’s also sometimes helpful to discuss your practice with others who are going through the training because they see the process from a far different perspective than those who have already been through the trials.”
“Thank you, Magda,” Isabel said. “I look forward to talking with you tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll have some questions by then.”
Isabel returned to her quarters and sat down to think about everything Magda had told her about magic. She knew that the nature of a person’s connection to the firmament was unique. Alexander was proof of that. She wondered how her magic would manifest. Then she thought about the trials. She remembered the screams she heard from Alexander when he was locked in the tower for his mana fast. Now that she was training for the trials, she faced the very real possibility that she wouldn’t survive—she pushed the thought from her mind just as quickly. Alexander had given Magda the Wizard’s Dust for her mana fast. If she died, he would blame himself. She vowed to herself then and there that she would survive the mana fast no matter what.
With a growing sense of purpose, she focused on a tea cup. She observed every detail of it, made note of the fine porcelain, the worn gold rim, the chip in the base, and the pattern of the design on the side. Other thoughts tried to intrude into her mind but she dismissed them and returned to her observation of the tea cup. When she had looked at it from every angle and considered every detail, she closed her eyes and sat back in her chair.
She quickly discovered how difficult it was to create clear, vivid images in her mind’s eye. She practiced for a couple of hours until Abigail and Wren returned together. Wren was carrying a serving tray with their lunch in covered containers. Abigail was dressed in her riding armor, its buckles and straps rustling with each step.
“I see the witches didn’t turn you into a frog,” Abigail said with a teasing smile.
Isabel chuckled. “No, in fact, I had a long talk with Magda. She explained the difference between wizards and witches. I’d never given it much thought before but a lot of what she told me filled in a few gaps in my very limited understanding of magic.”
“Did she say how long until you’re ready for the trials?” Abigail asked.
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�Just that it was up to me,” Isabel replied. “She gave me a couple of exercises for training my mind. I’m supposed to practice them every day until they’re second nature.”
“Have you tried them yet?” Abigail asked.
Isabel nodded. “I was just working on one a few minutes ago. It’s a lot harder than it sounds. All I’m supposed to do is visualize an object in clear detail. Magda said the ability to see an image in my mind is important for casting spells.”
“Just make sure you’re ready,” Abigail said. “I want to get back to Alexander as much as you do but the mana fast is dangerous. Don’t rush it.”
“I won’t,” Isabel said. “Besides, you need some time to train with Kallistos before we can leave.”
Abigail smiled at the mention of her wyvern.
“You should see him,” she said. “He’s growing so fast. He’s already big enough to fly for extended periods of time. Knight Raja said I can start aerial combat training tomorrow.”
“Wow, that was quick,” Isabel said. “Are you sure Kallistos is ready? He isn’t very old.”
Abigail nodded as she smiled her thanks at Wren who was dishing lunch for the three of them. “Knight Raja says that wyverns grow very rapidly during the first month of life and usually reach full size within six months. It takes them a few years to fully mature but they can join the Sky Knights after only a month or two.”
“Are you ready?” Isabel asked.
“I think so,” Abigail said. “I’ve pretty much gotten over my fear of heights. The first few times were tough but now I can’t wait for the next flight.”
After they ate lunch, Abigail went back to the aerie and her wyvern while Isabel spent the rest of the day working on her visualization exercise until her mind was exhausted.
***
The next several days passed quickly. Isabel focused intensely on her mental exercises. Occasionally thoughts of Alexander would intrude into her mind and distract her from her practice. She learned quickly how to refocus her mind and quiet all of the little thoughts that so routinely occupied her mind. When she became tired or frustrated with her progress, she thought of Alexander and reminded herself that she would only be able to return to him once she had survived the mana fast.
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