“That will be all, Nora. Just drop the ice in this beaker and you’re free to go.”

I nodded with a yawn. I did as Dr. Blake asked before following Anna out of the laboratory. He had been eager to see my water magic ever since we came back from our ‘training’. So much that he wouldn’t let me go out without a proper demonstration. Since I wanted to be in the forest when the elves arrived, that meant my only choice was to wake up early and hope it didn’t take too long. Early for the new me, at least.

While none of the experiments were too time consuming, it was already noon when I was done with my breakfast, and that meant the Deinast couple would already be waiting for us at the lake. Everyone else was relaxing at the terrace by the time we came out.

---<>----------<>----------<>---

“Can you give us a hint at least?” Rex asked us as we walked to our destination.

“Nope. We’re almost there, so be patient,” Anna replied and smirked at his grumbling.

Lily and Rex weren’t human, so they had the right to know about the elven couple. The reason we hadn’t told them already was because we needed to make sure no one eavesdropped on us. With that in mind, the best choice was to keep everything as a surprise for them. Lily was still somewhat hesitant to stay out for long, but the idea of a special surprise was enough to get her interest. I couldn’t wait to see their faces when they saw what it was.

Same as the day before, there was no one in sight when we finally reached our destination. That didn’t mean the place was empty, though.

“So?” Rex finally asked, looking around as we took a seat. “Where’s the big surprise?”

“I believe that is us?” Viken’s voice came from within the forest. Soon enough, both elders showed themselves and removed their leaf cloaks. Belaury’s grimace was not something I could miss. I hoped it wasn’t because of the new faces.

Rex went stiff at the sight of our visitors.

“Welcome back.” Anna stood up to receive and lead them to the table. “We brought some friends with us. They’re not human, so no promise broken. They’re Reginn Williams and Lily Rossendale. Rex, Lily, these are Viken and Belaury Deinast. They are elves from the Old Era.”

“So dwarfs are back also,” Viken commented as he shook Rex’s hand, which the dwarf managed to offer despite the shock. “Does that mean dræll and gnomes are?”

Seeing Rex’s blank expression, Alex pulled him to the side and explained things to him.

“Only the draell, as far as I know,” Anna replied.

“May the gods keep it that way,” Belaury scoffed. “Gnomes. Those little bastards-”

Viken smiled wryly and placed a hand on her shoulder, effectively silencing her. Both of them took a seat in front of us before Viken spoke again. “Please, mind her not. She is angry because of the punishment. Moving that to the side, I am surprised to see such a small person.”

“A fairy,” Anna clarified. “Would it be rude to ask what the punishment was?”

“Very,” The elder replied curtly before bending over to take a closer look at Lily. “Well, I guess she does resemble the real thing.”

Her comment made me frown. “Fairies were real? I thought there were only seven races.”

“It is correct, Miss Hayes,” Viken answered. “Fairies did exist. Although they were considered not a race in the past. They were only insects without thinking.”

“The largest firefly species of that time, although barely half this girl’s size,” added Belaury. “The position they adopted when flying resembled a person. I’m guessing that the image stayed after they were gone.”

“What happened to them?” Allison asked.

Viken shrugged. “We know not. They became... scarce at one point and disappeared after. Humans led many species to sultalden, uh, extinction. Even if they only thought they were magical. That was possibly the fate of fairies, too.”

There it was again. It was as if, no matter which topic, humans and their wrongdoings kept coming up. No wonder they seemed like monsters from their point of view.

We couldn’t really say anything about it either. To begin with, history was always vague when it came to the Old Era, and even in the present, people had proven to be quite destructive. Be it converting Varazt, once a lushful island, into the world’s second largest desert, or the numerous religious conflicts that worsened as fewer people believed in the Erelian Faith. Still, it felt too repetitive.

In an attempt to change the subject, I asked. “Excuse me. Could you tell us what you know about magic?” All eyes were on me now. Alex stopped what he was doing and dragged the dwarf back to the table.

Belaury grabbed at her chin and stared at me briefly. “Are you interested in learning?”

I nodded. “I saw what you did yesterday. I’d like to learn that, if it’s okay.”

“I did consider taking on an apprentice. But don’t get your hopes up, child, I value quality over quantity, which means I will only select one of you to be my student.” Her eyes went from person to person. “Let’s start with the basics. How much do you all know about it? Can anyone here use it at all?”

“May I?” Anna asked.

The elder nodded and moved her hand as a sign for her to continue.

“Well, what we know is that magic is the result from manipulating mana, and that we all produce this substance within our bodies in an organ we call a mana core.” She looked at Belaury, as if to check how accurate her response was.

“Keep going,” the elf lady said. “It’s a good start.”

“Right. We have currently discovered five types of magic, which are: Healing, Psychic, Enchanting, Freezing, and Water magics. The first one stimulates cells for faster healing. The second affects the mind, although it’s easily dispelled. Enchanting lets us place spells in gemstones, and freezing magic cools down anything. Water magic was just recently discovered by Nora, so we can’t tell much about it yet other than the user being able to move it.”

Belaury’s eyes fixed on me once more.

“We also know that there’s a limit to how much mana we can use each time, and that we get nauseous if we go past a certain limit. We aren’t sure of how far we can go after that since we are afraid of it being lethal. That’s pretty much all.”

The couple looked at each other before Viken smiled at his wife and motioned for her to speak. She then cleared her throat.

“Your concept of mana and its implications is good. I would simply add that you won’t die if you deplete your core, although it’s not healthy to do it often either. It can also cause pain when going overboard. How long has it been since you started learning?

“Almost two months for me,” Anna answered. “A bit less for the others.”

Belaury hummed. “Not bad, considering you didn’t have any guidance. Fortunately, you have us now, and we’ll make sure that you learn all you need, starting by correcting some of the mistakes you just made. Let’s start with some theory, shall we?”

We all nodded silently.

“The first thing you need to know is that there are eight different realms or classifications for magic, and they’re much broader than what you listed. Let’s start with Essential Magic, also known as the primordial class. It involves the raw use of mana, and it’s believed to be the precursor to all other realms. Because of its wild nature, any spell without a proper classification falls into this category.

“Next is Psychic Magic. Your knowledge about this class is halved. You are aware of its most common branch, the Mind; however, there is another subclass known as the branch of Might. This allows the user to interact with the world directly by using their thoughts. Think of it as an invisible set of hands.

“While psychic magic is the domain of the mind, Life Magic is the domain of the body. It has three different branches: Enhancement, Fortification and Alteration. The former is what you call ‘healing magic’. It’s mostly used to heal wounds by accelerating regeneration, but you have to be careful as this magic is impartial to any cell. Trying to heal a sick person may result in worsening the condition of the patient. Fortification focuses on structural tissue and grants a boost in physical performance. It was frequently used for hard manual labour. Finally, Alteration allows the user to modify parts of the body. It’s very dangerous and demanding, although some elven nobles used it aesthetically.”

“So magical plastic surgery.” Alex commented.

Belaury frowned in response. “Excuse me?”

He dismissed it with his hand. “Don’t mind me.”

She huffed and continued. “Next is Soul Magic. As the name implies, spells of this nature target the soul of an individual. The branches belonging to this class were very controversial in the past, and because of it, this was known by some as Dark Magic.

“Its first branch is called Blood magic. This, itself, is divided into two additional tiers. The lowest is Binding, which, as the name implies, binds a soul to an object. The highest, Contract, binds two souls instead. This subclass was commonly used to handle criminals by turning them into slaves until such practice was banned.

“The other branch is called Necromancy, and it consists of inserting an artificial soul into a corpse. Doing this will reanimate the body, but the already decaying entity is unable to handle an unstable fake soul. Any being created with this magic is destined to disintegrate over time.”

“Was it taboo to use it?” Alex asked with interest.

Belaury shook her head. “Each magic class is the domain of a god, and because of that, we’re free to use them. Using blood magic on a person, however, was highly frowned upon after the ban I mentioned. Instead, most used it to tame familiars or as self-defence. Does that make sense?”

“It does,” the vampire responded. “Thank you.”

She continued. “Now, Purification and Dimensional Magics are two very simple, yet complex, classes. The former has one use only, which is to remove the effects of other magics. The catch, though, is that you need to understand what you’re trying to dispel. The latter is the domain of time and space, and that’s all we know about it.”

Anna raised an eyebrow. “Why is that one even considered then? Was it so the classes matched the number of gods?”

Both elves stood and scowled at her. “Watch your mouth, child!” Viken shouted. After a short silence, he cleared his throat and sat back down. “I apologise.” He then took a deep breath. “We may be ignorant regarding dimensional magic, but that makes it not... irrelevant. To deny it would be an offence to the god in charge of it.”

Anna sighed. “No, I should be the one to apologise, I shouldn’t have insulted your beliefs. Still, why is it such a mystery?”

Seemingly satisfied with the apology, Belaury sat down and replied, “Unfortunately, it was so rare and difficult that there have only been two users recorded in all of history. That’s why we know it exists, but the realm remains a mystery. May I continue with my explanation now?”

Anna nodded silently.

“Good. Crafting Magic involves creation. Because of its low cost, it was very popular among dwarves and giants.” She paused to look at Rex and Allison. Sure enough, the dwarf seemed focused on what she was saying. Allison, not that much. “Its principle is the infusion of magic in matter. It has four different branches: Refining involves giving or altering magical properties to an object, like mana conductivity. Enchanting, as you said, consists of engraving a spell into any translucent gemstone and even some resins. The jewel will then present a distinctive pattern, called rune, in its core. Different spells create different runes, which makes them easy to identify. Alchemy uses magic to trigger special properties of a mixture. And finally, Transmutation is capable of turning one substance into another, although it has some limitations.”

Rex’s eyes twinkled as he asked. “Can you teach me crafting?”

“No.” Her answer made him deflate on his chair. “My husband can probably give you some pointers, though. He knows some alchemy, but you’ll have to learn any other branch on your own,” she clarified.

“What else can you two teach us?” I asked.

“Vik was a healer, back in the day. He can teach you anything you want regarding life magic, won’t you, dear?”

The man took his time studying our faces and crossed his arms. “I am strict. If you are fine with it, I mind not.”

“There you have it. I, on the other hand, am an elementalist. Elemental Magic only has two subclasses, but they’re the most diverse of all. First is Matter. It includes every physical element, like earth, air, and water. Then, we have Energy, which includes intangible elements like heat or light. Simple, right? However, elemental magic has tiers of difficulty which are based on combinations of different basic elements. For example, the mix of air and heat can create fire, a hybrid element of the second tier.

“Elemental magic is one of the hardest to learn, and it’s even harder to master. It takes years just to gain full control of a single element. Though, there is an exception to this rule…” Once more, she looked into my eyes as she continued. “That takes me to one question I’ve been holding for a while. Can this child really use water magic?”

“Yup,” Anna answered before I got the chance. “She just learned it yesterday. In fact, she’s able to gather moisture from her surroundings and even freeze it to create ice.”

Belaury’s mouth gaped at Anna’s words. “We need to pause this lesson,” The old woman suddenly declared as she stood up and walked around the table. She grabbed my arm and pulled at me, trying to get me to stand. I resisted, even though I knew that, should she actually try, there was nothing I could do because of my size. Oddly enough, she didn’t force me up. She merely insisted on pulling.

Sylvia didn’t seem to notice this and growled at Belaury. Once again, it wasn’t a real growl, but it was enough to startle the elf. She let go of my arm because of it. Allison placed a hand on Sylvia’s shoulder to prevent her from getting up. “Get a hold of yourself,” she whispered, effectively calming her down.

“Get up, demon!” Belaury scolded despite the scare. This time, from a safe distance.

The word made me wince. I had called myself a demon many times, yet it felt odd when someone else did, especially in this manner. I turned to her husband, somehow expecting him to do something about his rude wife. What I got instead was a pleading look from him. He joined his hands and bowed silently as if to say, ‘please listen to her’. I sighed and complied. She pulled at me once more, hurriedly leading me to the shore of the lake. The rest followed closely behind us.

She’s not going to throw me, is she?

She didn’t. We stopped right next to the water, and she got down to her knees to be at my eye level. “Go ahead, show me your magic.”

I nodded and squatted while facing the lake. My arms extended above the surface and the mana flowed into them. I pictured a thin stream of water rising from the lake and concentrated on making it real. It took me some time to get the right feeling, but the result was there. The water slowly rose, and I started accumulating it over my palms. Belaury’s gaze was fixed on it. After gathering enough liquid to form a sphere the size of an egg, I froze it, and it immediately fell on my hands. It was taxing, but I could repeat it a few more times if needed.

“You’re holding it. Doesn’t it burn?” Belaury asked as the ball lifted from my hand and floated over to hers. I shook my head, somewhat speechless by the lack of effort she showed when doing it.

“I can’t believe it,” she muttered. She grasped both of my shoulders, dropping the ball in the process. Her eyes bored straight into mine, and a wide genuine smile adorned her face as she shouted, “You were blessed!”

“Bl-blessed?” I asked, looking away.

She snorted. “I guess I’ll need to explain that now.” She stood up to face everyone once more. “All right, the break over! Back to the lesson!”

Belaury stood up and grabbed my hand, guiding me back to the table. After we took our seats, she explained, “As I said earlier, each magic class is the domain of one of the eight gods. First is Axurna, the goddess of nature. She is in charge of life magic. Kærite, the goddess of love and fertility, is responsible for purification. Vikast, the god of wisdom, governs over essential magic. Bysöng, the god of change, grants us control of the elements. Mielen, the goddess of trade, is the master of the Mind. Almikem is the god of arts and crafting. His domain is quite clear, I believe. Oring, whom we mentioned yesterday, protects time and space. Last, but not least, Liiv, the goddess of fate, manages soul magic.”

“Hold on!” Alex interrupted, visibly ruining Belaury’s sudden good mood. “Their names are quite similar to the months in our calendar.”

“You are right!” shouted Rex. “Excluding the seasonal months, they are even in the same order she listed them!”

Viken crossed his arms and nodded at this. “I suppose it was complicated for them to change those. It is not a... coincidence. Those were named after the gods. I once read that the human calendar of old was not the most, uh, accurate. They adopted ours for convenience when our kingdoms were still young. The days of the week may be unchanged also.”

“We can check all that later,” Belaury interrupted. “Would you please let me finish?” She looked at each of us, and once she confirmed no one had anything to say, she continued.

“As I was saying, magic is directly related to the gods. A blessing is a gift bestowed to any person who earns the favour of a divine being. For a magical race, this gift comes in two different presentations. The first one is a God’s Blessing. As the name suggests, this blessing is given to a person who catches the interest of any god, and it grants them an extraordinary talent for the magic of that deity’s domain. In fact, it’s believed the dimensional mages from the past were both blessed by Oring himself, hence their ability to use such complex magic.

“The second one is called a Spirit’s Blessing. Spirits are ascended souls that inhabit the realms of the gods, and each spirit follows only one deity. Unlike their superiors, they are not as powerful and are normally limited to one branch of their magic domain. Because of this, their blessings are not as powerful, but they often come with perks to compensate.”

“Does that mean Anna and I have a life magic blessing?” Lily inquired.

“Blessings are rare, Miss Fairy,” Viken replied. “To have so many gifted individuals in such a small group is... not probable. I am not sure if that is the case for your race, but elves have a natural affinity with this magic class, and it can be mistaken for a blessing. We will see with time.”

Lily hummed. “Then how do you know Nora has a blessing and not an affinity?”

“Simple. There is no such thing as an elemental affinity,” Belaury countered.

The fairy’s head tilted. “Why?”

“Mind, soul and body.” One by one, Belaury raised three fingers. “Those are the three components of all life on the planet. As such. the only possible affinities we can get are those related directly to us as living beings. Contrary to blessings, an affinity is something all members of a race get. It isn’t as impressive as a blessing of the same nature, but it does facilitate the learning of such magic as well as the efficiency of its use. For example, an elf will rarely run out of mana from healing simple wounds.

“Similar to us, giants possess an affinity for life magic. Vampires are better suited to psychic magic, and dræll are the best at using soul magic. Dwarfs, on the other hand, have no affinity whatsoever. We don’t have any knowledge regarding fairies or demons since they didn’t exist in the past, but it won’t be long before we do, I suppose.”

Her eyes focused on me once more, and she smiled gently at me. “All that is left is identifying which kind of blessing you have.”

“How can you tell?” I asked, somewhat weirded out by her change of behaviour towards me. Considering her previous attitude, this new treatment felt creepy.

“I already have a good idea based on what I saw. We just need to confirm it. Like I said before, a god’s blessing grants you a great talent for any magic within their domain. In short, if you were blessed by Bysöng himself, you won’t be limited in your use of elemental magics. Tell me, Nora. Can you heat things up in the same way you freeze them?”

“I’ve tried, but nothing happens.”

She snapped her fingers. “And that’s how we know it’s an ice elemental’s blessing. Do you know what makes something warm or cold?”

This again!?

I suppressed my laughter and answered her question. “An object’s temperature depends on the energy it contains. The more energy, the hotter it is. Cold is the absence of that energy.”

“I didn’t expect that response from a child, but it’s correct. In other words, there’s no such thing as cold magic. It’s simply another form of heat magic. The fact that you understand this, and that you are able to freeze something when you can’t heat it up, means you have an ice blessing. You should feel proud. Ice elementals are ranked above common spirits. As you may have noticed, it also gives you an abnormal resistance to cold.”

“Does that mean I can’t learn life magic like Anna?”

Belaury’s ears dropped, and her smile quivered. “Are you saying you’re not interested in elemental magic?”

I was taken aback by her reaction. I shook my head and cleared the misunderstanding. “I am interested, but you said the blessing won't let me heat things up.”

“Ah, I see. I guess I wasn’t clear.” She placed a hand on her chest and let out a heavy sigh. “Then how about this? Imagine you enter a candy shop. Inside, you see many treats that cost ten coppers each. As you are trying to choose the one you want, a friend of yours enters the store and says the apple treat is their favourite. They suggest you buy it because they think you’ll love it as well. In fact, they’re willing to give you six coppers if you do, just so you give it a try. You can still buy anything you want, but the apple treat will cost you less because of the offer. Think of the spirit as your friend, and the blessing would be the money they offer. Is that clear enough?”

“Oh.” It was a bit embarrassing that she chose such a childish topic, but it really was easy to understand that way. “Yeah, that makes sense. Blessings are great then!”

Belaury’s confident smile came back. “In that case, I only have one more question for you, Nora. Would you grant me the honour of becoming your teacher?”