A fiery heat had conquered my face. Now that the bathroom was lit up by the bright glowing chandelier, the red on my cheeks was probably more than easy to see, the elf sitting next to me, however, wasn't even mentioning it. I could consider myself lucky.

Hot water embraced her body up to her shoulders, but it was crystal clear and didn't hide a thing. Sahria's silver hair and her emerald eyes would have been enough to drive me crazy, but she had the body of a goddess, too. It was only that wicked personality of hers that made me deny any part of myself that was seeing her as a woman.

Sahria's intention was obvious. She wanted to examine my body, even more than she already had done, to find out what it was that enabled me to use magic without chanting a spell.

Obviously, I had told her that I had to use the name of the magic, like ‘Foxfire’ or ‘Fiery Ballet’ but after being urged by her to try it out, I was able to use ‘Foxfire’ even by only thinking of using it.

The more I thought about having this kind of ability, the less I liked it, as it needed little more than making me angry to possibly end up hurting innocent people.

‘Fiery Ballet’ had a safety mechanism of some sort, as I had to spin around in order to invoke fireballs, but the same couldn't be said about ‘Foxfire’. I could easily have turned the elf sitting next to me into a piece of charcoal without even wishing for it. Her magic was far better to have.

“What kind of magic will you teach me?” I asked while trying my best to keep my gaze above the water line.
「You still remember you are a girl yourself?」
“Ignore her. Ignore her! Just ignore her!”
「It is totally fine to take a good look. Girls do it all the time.」
“They don't!”
“What?” Sahria looked at me confused.
“Ehm- nothing! The magic, tell me about the magic!”
“I still don't know how much you know about magic.”
“But I already told you before which spells I can use.”
“Do you even control your mana to use them?”
“Control my mana?”
“Like concentrating your mana in your hand,” she explained, “before you change it into elemental power.”
“I just say the name?”

Sahria let out a sigh before raising her hand out of the water. She closed her emerald eyes and began concentrating. After about a second, a small, pale blue cloud gathered above her hand. It started to spin around to form a ball, much like my Foxfire did, but this ball just glowed slightly, it didn't do anything else. There was no fire, no wind, no water.

“This is mana,” Sahria explained after opening her eyes, “in its raw form. To use it for darkness magic, I would have to include the darkness attribute in a chant, it is the same for all other attributes.”
“Why would I be able to do it without chanting, then?”
“That's what I want to know.”
“So you have no idea?”
“We have to start at the most basic of the basics to find the difference. What is the weakest magic you can use? The one that uses the lowest amount of mana?”
“That- it is 『Foxy Care』. That one uses only one point of mana.”
“A single point? Is it really that weak?”
“Ehm…” I hesitated before answering her: “If it is only a single lick, yes.”
“A lick?”
“I can lick somebody to heal them,” I gave away after a moment of thinking.
“It is easy to test, then,” the elf decided.
“What do you mean?”

Without giving me a single word to prepare for it, Sahria suddenly began chanting a magic spell: “Suriki of the skys, Suriki of storm and thunder, please hear my words and become the blade that strikes down my foes!”

A boomerang shaped spell of pale white color appeared above Sahria's hand. It was far smaller than her hand, but within mere seconds it was already spinning so fast that it almost looked like it was a disc instead. When the magic was complete, Sahria reached out her finger for it. The disc cut into it deeply.

“What are you doing?!” I shouted at her, both shocked and angry.

Sahria didn't even find anything wrong in her behavior. She looked at me slightly confused, before moving her gaze towards her own, wounded finger.

“It doesn't work without a wound, right?”
“I am not going to lick your finger!”
“Don't you want to learn new magic?”
“I can learn it without licking your fingers! Do I look like a pet to you?!”
“To be honest-”
I cut her off immediately: “Don't be honest!”
“But I can't use healing magic myself,” she revealed with a sad expression on her face. “What am I going to do if it leaves a scar?”
“You can't use healing magic?! I thought you were crazy about all kinds of magic?!”
“I never learned them.”
“...”

She let her finger hover right before my mouth. Everything inside of me screamed to just bite her and run away, but that would ruin even the slightest chance of me ever getting stronger. I needed her magic, and I needed it as soon as possible!

Like through the eyes of a stranger, I saw myself reach out for the finger. I pulled it in front of my mouth and slowly began licking it.

Once again this new body of mine betrayed me. The metallic flavor was far stronger than I remembered it, it almost made me want to puke, but a tingling feeling on my tongue made me continue.

I felt the magic work, and saw it in front of my eyes. The bleeding stopped within seconds, just like the wound began to close again.

“That should be enough,” Sahria suddenly decided. “We can’t have you waste your mana again.” 

She pulled away her finger, rested her back against the bath tub’s edge and began chanting yet another magic. I could only stare at her in disbelief.

“Helia of the sun and the moon, Helia of light and darkness, please light up my soul and heal my wounds!”
“A healing spell? She tricked me!”

A bright light surrounded Sahria’s finger, making it look like a light bulb. When it faded after just a few seconds, her finger looked pristine again. There was no scar, the only trace remaining being a little bit of blood.

Sahria sighed. “Your magic works differently from mine.”
“How is it different?”
“For starters, you don’t move your mana outside of your body before you cast magic but rather shove it out in the moment you want to cause an effect.”
“I don’t understand.”

Sahria once again chanted magic. “Ignis, heed my words and light my way!”

A small flame began dancing on top of her palm. It was tiny, just enough to show me what she had done. And I had seen it clearly. Where the fire now was, for a fraction of a second there had been nothing but a tiny ball of mana. It was as if she ignited the mana.

“Fiery Shield!”

A Foxfire exploded into existence. It quickly flew over to Sahria, to hover around her and protect her from a danger that didn’t even exist. She could only stare at it in disbelief.

“Your mana is a part of you.” Sahria explained once she had enough of the Foxfire. “You imbue it with your will before it leaves your body.”
“How is it for you?”
“I force my mana out of my body and then force my will onto it. You merely ask it to do your bidding.”
“In other words…”
“I am a mere vessel for mana, while you are part mana to begin with. You are a magical being, as I told you. Which is why it is dangerous for you to run out of mana.”
“So you can’t teach me?”
“I can teach you about your origins, about your history and about Cilia. Maybe I can teach you about life and love, but magic…” she thought for a second. “That would be like a blind man trying to teach you how to paint.”
“I see…”

Sahria suddenly raised her body out of the water, forcing me to avoid my eyes. I heard her climb out of the bathtub and reach for her clothes that she had placed on a stool. A few moments later, she was already ready to go. I finally dared to look at her.

“Come to me whenever you have questions,” she offered, “I will try my best to help you.”
“Thank you…”
“You are welcome.”

After saying this much, Sahria walked out of the bathroom. I could hear her walk down the corridor to the main door. Seconds later, she was already gone. And I? I sank back into the water, disillusioned and sad.

“She can’t teach me magic…”