Evren heard a name call out to him, “Evren!” He turned and saw someone approaching and got caught looking directly at her chest. The woman got a little self-conscious of this and blushed a little but didn’t cover herself up.

Under his breath he said, “I think that’s a woman.” He realized what he did and promptly apologized. “Sorry about that. I was uhm…”

“Checking to see if I’m a woman?” she said.

He nodded, took a breath and said, “What can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to say thank you for saving my life.” She replied.

“Oh! Yeah, no problem.” And then he thought about it more, “When was that?”

She raised her shirt up and showed the scars along her back, and suddenly Evren realized who it was, “Oh yeah, I’m glad to see you’re up and about. How does it feel? Are you still getting the regeneration treatment?”

“It’s better,” she said, “No, Doctor Cunningham said I’m fine to do what I want now.”

“Doctor Cunningham? Is that the nurse?” he asked.

She nodded and said, “She doesn’t like being called Doctor, but everyone calls her that now.”

Evren said, “That’s funny. When I was posing as a local, I used the name Chesterfield Cunningham.”

The two of them laughed at the comment. Evren then asked, “Have you found something to do yet? What do you like to do?”

The woman had a surprised look on her face as she was asked the question, then looked around “Uh, I haven’t thought about it yet. What do you recommend?”

Evren looked around and said, “Well, I’ll be teaching some people magic in a little bit. Are you interested in that?”

“Are you going to teach me magic?” she asked.

Evren nodded and said, “If you want to learn.”

“Yeah. Sure.” She replied with a smile.

Evren said, “I don’t think I caught your name.”

“Oh, it’s Keira. Keira Andrews.” She said as she offered her hand.

He took her hand and said, “Nice to meet you, Keira Keira Andrews.”

She said, “Oh! It’s just one Keira,” Evren smiled, “but you probably knew that and were just being funny.” She laughed once, looked down, put her hair behind her ear and then looked back up at Evren.

Evren said, “Follow me, we don’t do training outside.” He grabbed a couple of books from his backpack and said, “These books are the basics in magic. Give them a once over and it’ll make the learning a lot easier.”

They exited the cathedral and headed to the courtyard in the back where the army previously had done their training. There were already people there standing around talking to each other. Evren turned to her and said, “I’ve got to set up somethings, so this would be a good time to read through it.” He smiled, nodded and turned around.

The targets were logs that were lying on the ground at the side of the training grounds. Evren would pick up a log, cast ‘excavate’ and set the log in place so approximately two meters stood above ground. The logs were heavy, but he had no troubles managing them. On the last two, he hammered a metal rod into the log that was connected to a chain he had staked into the ground.

On a table that was near where the people were talking, he put a few light wooden bows, arrows, and some throwing knives. By the time he finished, he noticed that Keira was not reading, so he went to talk to her.

“Did you finish reading?” He asked.

She nodded and said, “Yep, learned ‘light.’” As she said that, she held up her hand and casted ‘light’ onto the end of her finger.

Evren nodded an approval and said, “Nice, it seems you might have a talent for this.”

“Well, the book was well written.” She commented.

“Oh, that’s the only compliment I’ve gotten for the book. Can I quote you on that and put it on the cover?” Evren said with a smile.

She laughed and said, “Yep! Five stars.”

Evren took the book back with a smile and walked to the table. He put the book away in his backpack and cleared his throat. “Welcome everyone. Today we’ve got a new student with us, so we’re going to backtrack a little bit and try something new. Does anyone here know how to use a bow?” A sizable portion of the people raised their hands and he continued, “What about throwing knives?” only a few people raised their hands this time. Evren nodded, “That’s understandable.”

Evren picked up one of the bows and said, “Everyone should be able to draw these bows, I made them weak while I was learning how to make bows. The arrows are simple pointed ones, and combined with the bow, they should stick into the target.” Evren turned around to look at the logs. “Hopefully.”

“If you don’t know how to use a bow, I can quickly show you, but using the bow is not that important. What we’re going to do today is learn about casting on objects or points in a space. That last bit might be confusing, just forget about it for now.” Evren said as he waved his hand as if to bat away a fly.

He took the bow in his left hand and held an arrow in his right hand. “I’m going to cast ‘light’ on the arrow and then fire the arrow. Where do you think the best spot would be to cast the spell?”

A few people said the tip, one said the opposite end, a few more said the middle. Evren held up the arrow and said, “Ok, we’ll start with the tip then.” And he cast ‘light’ on the pointed end of the arrow. He nocked the arrow and pulled the string back. The arrow’s bright light blinded him a bit, but because it was daylight out, it wasn’t as bad. He fired the arrow and it hit the target, but the light went out.

He then turned around and said, “Can anyone tell me what was wrong with the tip?”

A man in the front said, “The light went out when it hit the target.”

“Very good, what else?” he said.

“The light was in your eyes while you were trying to aim.” A woman next to the man said.

Evren nodded, “If it was night, I probably would have missed the target.”

“I doubt that.” Someone said from the side.

Evren looked over and saw Walter standing nearby. Evren chuckled and said, “Probably not. But that’s not the point. Moving on, we’ll do it with the middle of the arrow.”

Evren cast ‘light’ on the middle of the arrow and fired the arrow at the same target. The target was illuminated by the spell. He turned around and asked, “Did anyone see any problems with that one?”

A different woman said, “The light was still in your eyes.”

Evren nodded, and without saying anything more, cast light on the nock of the arrow, drew it back and fired. The light spell was on the new arrow and illuminated the target. He turned around and said, “Did you see the problem with that one that you saw with the other two?”

A chorus of ‘no’s’ were heard, and he continued, “Using magic isn’t just about casting a spell. It’s about using a spell wisely. Figuring out different ways to use it more effectively. Out of all of the different ways to cast the spell on the arrow, what was the worst part?”

“Not being able to see.”

“The light missing the target.”

“Getting shot in the head.”

Evren looked at Walter, who said the last comment and laughed. “Getting shot in the head is the correct answer. If you’re using the light spell, it’s probably dark. If you cast it on the arrow and then hold it next to your head, you’re just saying ‘Here I am!’”

“What’s the correct way to do it?” A man in the back said.

Evren through his thumb over his shoulder. I’ve dismissed the ‘light’ spell. None of those are lit up, right?” Several people nodded. Evren turned to the target and cast ‘light’ on it.

“The range on your spells is limited. The further away from you, the more magic it consumes. A spell as low powered as ‘light’ can be cast at something quite a distance away, even if it is just for a second.” Evren dismissed the light spell, picked up another arrow and took aim at the target. He cast ‘light’ aimed and fired the arrow. While the arrow was still in flight, he dismissed the ‘light’ spell.

“What if you don’t know where the target is?” someone asked.

“That’s a good question. One I can’t really answer during the day, but that’s where the casting at a point in space comes in.” he dismissed the light and said, “If I can’t see the target, but I know something is there, I can cast the light spell in the area.” He turned to the target and cast the ‘light’ spell in front of it and walked towards the target. He stood in front of the light and turned around.

“If the light is behind the target, you can still see a silhouette of the target and aim there.” He took a few steps back and the light was in front of him now. He held his hands out and moved around, still within range of the light spell and said, “At night it’s easier to see, but as long as I get the spell in the general area, the target will be lit up and you can aim and shoot.”

“If you want, you can practice at night. Just find an area, cast light and dismiss.” He said.

“What’s the target with the chain for?” a woman on the far right asked.

“Some spells require you to be touching something to use it. An example would be the ‘discharge’ spell. For that you would need to use an arrow or a throwing knife in order to get the spell where you want it to be.” He picked up an arrow and as he was nocking it, he cast ‘discharge’ on it. In one fluid motion, he raised the bow and fired it at one of the targets with a chain attached to it.

He set the bow down on the table and ran down range, “Forgot my arrows.” He grabbed the four arrows and ran back to the table. “Say you’re fighting a big monster and you wanted to help out someone who’s up in the front attacking the target.” He pulls out a wooden sword and runs up to the target he had shot. “You can create an opening to give your friend a chance to attack.” He released the spell and swung his wooden sword at the target.

He then reached forward and cast ‘discharge’ on the arrow again. “Or let’s say your friend is a little clumsy, and they trip in front of the monster.” He lays down in front of the target and released the spell. “You can use the spell to save your friend’s hide.” He rolled to is feet away from the target.

“The two I fight with who use these spells a lot have come up with much more creative ways to use them.” Evren said with a smile and a nod.

“Like what?”

“Yeah, give us an example!”

A lot of people wanted to hear some examples of different ways to use the spells. Evren looked to Walter who shook his head and shrugged. Evren thought for a moment before saying, “Ok, there’s this monster called a lamia. It’s the body of a cat, like a lion, and then where the head would be is the upper body of a person. They have a habit of attacking and jumping back, and they were quick, so they would sometimes jump out of the way of arrows or knives. So, a dagger was stabbed into the ground behind the lamia and when it jumped back to avoid a slash, she ‘detonated’ the dagger. It caused a lot of damage, but it also stunned it so we could get in an attack.”

“Now I want everyone to get a chance casting light on arrows daggers and other things in the area. Get used to casting something at a distance.” He said as everyone started to move around, picking up bows or daggers and casting light in various places.

One man asked, “Evren, can you use other things?”

Evren said, “You can use your imagination and try it.”

Evren pulled out his backpack and reached inside for the scroll case. He popped off the cap to show the man there was nothing in it. He pointed it away and cast the ‘light’ spell in the tube and shined it around.

“Did you make a flashlight?” he asked.

Evren nodded and said, “I used my imagination.”