Time passes slowly with nothing to do. While I'm willing to frequently laze about enjoying the scenery, Ara does not do well with her forced rest. The only factors holding her in bed are the very real pain she still feels, strong enough for me to sense, and her own common sense. To my estimation, her common sense gave up several hours ago. Now, only the pain keeps her from being up and about. I have been given the grand task of keeping her occupied and prevent her from causing herself harm. Or so Ara told me before her common sense gave out.

Right now Ara is practicing her spellwork. Using the crystal and gloves makes it much easier, with a smaller chance of making mistakes. Ara tells me lazy mages never cast without. If those ever get separated from their tools, they'd be in dire straits. Ara is determined not to be dependent on things that can easily be taken away. It makes sense to me, so I pointed out another weakness. Whenever Ara casts, she is focusing almost everything on her hands. There are a few tricks that go over her whole body, some that enhance just one part like her feet, but everything else uses her hands as the origin.

There are tales of mages losing a hand and because of it losing much of their power. There are fewer tales of mages losing both hands and overcoming the challenge. From her reaction, I can tell that Ara has never considered losing a limb. It's possible for a human here to have a body part regenerated, but it's a long and painful process and the limb will not be as strong as the one that was lost. I'm not sure if that applies to my own regeneration too. I don't think so? I'm not in a hurry to try it.

"Hold still, aiming this is hard enough as it is."

Out of curiosity, I decide to obey. Ara is going to cast one of her stinging bolts using her mouth as focal point, spitting or blowing it at me. It was already interesting enough when she set her clothing on fire by casting from her elbow, so I can't wait to see what happens now. Let's try upholding my part of the bargain we struck first.

"As I'm supposed to look out for your safety, I'll let you know that I think this is a bad idea." With that out of the way, I can't stop a grin from forming on my face.

"I know," comes the reply, "but I'm confident I can get it right."

The only clue I have that Ara starts casting is the look of concentration on her face. Since the beginning is all inside her, there is little to no other clue. This is a strong contrast with Mari, where I can sense her manipulating the energies around her. With no further warning, the spell launches and impacts the wall somewhere above and to the right of me, where it leaves a mark. I don't know who is going to be repairing that for her, but I have a feeling it will be me.

Unperturbed by the miss, Ara nods in satisfaction. "I ahl ah ah eash a ashia ussess." After applying some healing magic she repeats her words. "I call that at least a partial success. All it did was paralyze my tongue and lips for a short while."

I nod. After her first attempts, Ara explained a bit about the functions of the gloves. One of the more important ones is to set the magic at a safe distance from the skin. If you're trying to heat something, it won't do it you burn your own hand in the process. Or, like now, paralyze yourself instead of your target. Now I think the fear of the dangers of failure keeps people from training extensively in this, rather than just laziness.

"It's commonly accepted that your magic travels around your body in your blood," Ara lectures. "Incidentally, that's why it's often used in important ceremonies like in adoptions. People believe it has an extra significance that way, bonds of blood and all that. Since it's in your blood, it can't travel to dead tissue. In my case, that would mostly be my hair, for you it's your claws and the end of your tail."

She pauses a moment to make eye-contact. "Skin is also dead. No, don't argue about it, the outer part really is. Your blood comes close to it but isn't in your skin. That is why it's so important to focus on starting the magic at the proper distance." Not breaking eye contact, Ara holds up a hand. "The thing you want to learn is a kind of barrier. If you do it wrong, it will create the barrier between the living part of your skin and the dead part." With her other hand, she makes a motion as if she grabs something before suddenly ripping it away. "It hurts. A lot."

I nod and shift my balance around a bit. It's good to know, a valuable warning. "Thank you for the warning," I tell her grudgingly.

"A skintight barrier is something even peasants learn. It helps them grab nettles or something, I guess. My point is that almost every person learns it. It comes very naturally for one to protect oneself. It's also one of the most versatile magics ranging from full-body protection to small areas." With little frowns of concentration a shimmering barrier first envelopes her whole arm, then just the hand. "Even experienced mages and fighters use it since it can be used to block magic as well as physical assault."

Unspoken but understood are the words that if I master this it wouldn't just help me move quietly and without tracks, it would massively enhance my combat potential. Especially against anyone using magic, which seems to be almost everyone I know who is worth my recognition.

"Is there anything else you want to know?" Ara asks.

"Something different. You told me about the gloves, what does the crystal do?" If taking the gloves away would cripple a mage, what would the loss of the crystal do?

"We never did talk about that, did we? It's called a focus. It allows me to store part of my magic and send it back where I want it. Gathering the required energy for a strong spell in one hand would take too long and causes damage after a while. Storing part of it somewhere else until I need it is safer. Remember, magic travels in the blood. There is only so much blood that goes through one arm, so gathering it from the other hand with the crystal almost doubles the speed." Ara pauses. "Almost. There is a bit of loss as I send it to join together."

"I can also use it to store prepared spells for a short time. It's ideal if I want to cast a series of spells in quick succession. Paralyze, bind, shock." Three taps of her hand on the bed accentuate the three spells. "A shock is hard to aim well, so ideally your target is slow or stationary. Otherwise, you waste a lot of energy trying to cover a larger area. Paralysis actually mitigates some of its effects as the muscles don't respond well. Ideally, you want someone bound, but who is going to stand still for that?" She raises an eyebrow in question. "So you quickly fire a paralysis. It only needs to shortly stun, enough for your bindings to impair their mobility. Then you fire the shock. If you have the spells ready, it's easier to do combos like that. Starting a fire with sawdust and pushing it out with a gust of wind, for example."

"The crystal glows when it's storing anything. Having a glowing crystal in your hand in some places, like a throne room, is counted as an act of hostility."Ara shoots a glance at Ine and lowers her voice, though not enough that Ine can't hear. "There is a rumor that the Executioners in service to the crown have crystals that won't glow, but no-one has been able to confirm it."

All the magic practice has tired Ara enough that she falls asleep easily that night. Ine isn't sleeping in the room tonight, so I assume Ara is recovering well. I glance over at the wall where some burn marks and damages were too much for even magic to clear away. Ara wasn't bothered in the slightest, but I think I saw some consternation from Ine. It's a boring night. To pass the time I repeat the instructions in my head. Focus on me, all of me. Feel the air flowing into my lungs, feel the magic riding on it. Feel how it mixes with my blood, feel how my blood moves through my body.

Once I manage that, Ara told me to imagine making dams in places. I shouldn't do anything with it yet, just make little pools of power. Her stories about the things that can go wrong make me decide to hold myself to her instructions, at least initially. Magic sounds like it is mostly the mind, though the ability to manipulate it must be inborn. There is a rare condition in this world where people are completely unable to use magic and it has a lesser effect when used on them. If that is the case for me, well, I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

The next morning begins the same as the day before. Breakfast and then talking with Ara. Her mood is noticeably worse. Being mostly confined to her bed is taking its toll. That she needs help getting off of the little pot she does her business in is not helping.

Halfway through the morning some of the girls from the academy visit. Ara tells them she fell down the stairs and injured her ribs. I don't know why she tells a lie, I'm sure there are reasons. To me, the most interesting part of it is that Ara actually feels better after. Since I've already begun talking to Ara, I decide to ask rather than try to puzzle it out myself. She needs to think longer on the answer than I expected.

"I think it's because they were genuinely worried about me," She finally says while staring at the ceiling. "Their ambitions are so limited, hoping only to find a well-positioned husband. I can see the value in listening to their constant gossiping, but I don't enjoy it the same way they do. But they didn't have to come to entertain me. There was no social obligation to do so. That they chose to come anyway, yes, it makes me feel better." She turns her gaze at me. "Does that make me weak?"

The situation reminds me a bit of the small imp coming to groom me. "No weakness in allowing others to make you feel good," I say. "Would you risk yourself for them?"

This makes her frown. "I guess I would. If it was an acceptable risk."

"Why?" I prod her when she falls silent.

"Because they're my friends. I'd be at least a little sad if they were gone," Ara admits.

It makes me shake my head. I don't understand this notion, it makes no sense to me. Teaching the young I understand. Taking care of the injured, if it doesn't take too long for them to recover, I can understand too. Keeping the old alive for their knowledge makes sense. Throwing yourself into danger because one or two easily replaceable individuals are threatened, not as much.

With one of the limbs on my back, I idly scratch an itchy patch near my neck while thinking about it. Those limbs are less sharp than my claws, so I've gotten into the habit lately of using them for my grooming. My fine control over them has gotten a lot better since then. Nothing like an itchy back to encourage me to try harder.

"That looks so weird. Even though we've trained to fight with them, seeing you move them around as if they were another pair of arms is still strange."

The comment from Ara draws me back to the here and now. I'm glad the topic changed from personal bonds to my appearance. If there is one thing I can't get enough of, it's compliments. Ara could be worth protecting just for how she praises my strength and intelligence. I'm sure part of it isn't sincere, our bond lets me get a decent enough read on her for that, but it makes me feel good. There is no harm in allowing others to make me feel good. The notion that it would be enough to make me want to keep her around tickles my mind.

"Are we friends?" I ask Ara.

"I wouldn't call it friends. Comrades would be a better word. We trained together and we will fight together. It creates a bond too," is her reply, yet I can tell she's happy that I asked.

We pass the remainder of my time here with Ara trying to teach me a variety of games. My claws are unsuitable for cards and the rules of chess are too complicated. Checkers is more to my liking but still gives me a headache. I stop playing after a few matches and not because they were crushing defeats. Ine comes by a few times to attend to whatever needs Ara has. One time she brings a stack of papers.

"It's about my business ventures," Ara tells me. "If I'm stuck here, I might as well put my time to good use."

Watching her work, I wonder if any other people will visit after my summon ends, or if today saw everyone. Deciding it's none of my concern, I stretch and find a comfortable place to doze. If I'm not allowed to rampage around, I'm going to laze around. The only sound in the room until the world turns white is the scratching of a pen on paper and the occasionally troubled breathing of Ara.

As I regain my senses in the cell, facing Harijia, my impatience threatens to overwhelm me. Has Harijia always opened the door this slow? All I want to do is find a quiet place to try the exercises Ara told me about!

Harijia smiles as she opens the door completely. "If you want to talk about it later, impatient one, you know where to find me."

While it annoys me I'm still as easy to read by her as always, my priorities have shifted. Let's find out what I can learn about myself and magic.