After finally sleeping with Naiad and Elise, Leon spent quite a bit of time working on his defensive enchantments, but after a couple of hours, he had to call it quits. He packed up his things, left Elise’s wing of the estate, and went straight to one of the estate’s private meditation chambers.

These rooms were small, dark, and warm. They weren’t nearly big enough to properly practice magic in, but they were cozy and quiet. The walls were draped with thick black curtains that both blocked light and were magically soundproofed, so no one could hear what was said within, and those within could hear nothing that was happening outside.

For obvious safety reasons, there were a few lights that weren’t blocked by the curtains that would flash if any of the estate’s alarms went off, but under normal conditions could be turned off, leaving the room in whatever state of brightness the occupant desired. It was a fantastic place for peace and quiet, and Leon wished that he had learned of the existence of these chambers before—Emilie had, in a flagrant display of her usual flippant attitude, only informed him about these rooms the night before he and Elise moved out.

The villa’s defensive wards were the first thing on his mind when it came to its rebuilding, but a meditation chamber similar to this was also on his list of additions to eventually make to the villa.

Leon walked into one of the estate’s half-dozen chambers and turned the lights completely off, leaving him in total darkness and total silence. He wanted peace and the feelings of isolation that came with the chamber, and that’s exactly what he got.

The floor was thickly carpeted, and there were a number of large pillows and ottomans in the corner, ready for whatever the occupant of the room wanted to meditate upon. Leon took one of the ottomans, placed it in the center of the room, and began to meditate upon it.

For about five minutes, Leon enjoyed the quiet and the dark, and he took the opportunity to relax in anticipation of the work ahead of him.

He cast himself into his soul realm, opening his eyes in his magic body upon the throne of black granite in his throne room.

The place had changed in the weeks since he had first begun to work on it. His soul realm was as large as the invisible boundary of the Mists of Chaos, forming a sphere of open space around the island. His work after building a vault to store what he had absorbed into his soul realm had focused mostly on using these primordial mists to expand and build upon his island to fill in this open space. He had been thinking long and hard about what he wanted his Mind Palace to be, and his foundations were just about laid.

The island had become a mountain, a thousand feet tall floating in the void of his soul realm. The island itself was half a mile in diameter, a little more than half of what his soul realm’s diameter as a whole was. The mountain was bare, grey rock; an ugly sight, but it was just the beginning. At the top was a flat space for Leon’s marble platform and throne.

The dirt, grass, and red and white tiles that had once edged his island were still there, but now they had mostly been lost amongst the crags and boulders of the mountain. Still, Leon knew where the tiles, at least, were. He had a feeling that since they had been there when he had first entered his soul realm years ago when he awakened his blood, that there must be some significance to them, so he kept them around.

But he didn’t enter his soul realm to ponder the origins of the tiles, he wanted to finish up work on the mountain.

However, as soon as he rose from his throne, he felt a pair of eyes upon him. About fifty feet down the mountain—there were comfortably large steps cut into the mountain allowing for easy, logical access from the top to the bottom—was another platform where Xaphan had taken residence. The demon’s burning yellow eyes stared at Leon, making the young mage feel like Xaphan was smiling at him.

Leon jumped straight up, but he didn’t return to the ground. He could fly in his soul realm as easily as he could walk, and it hadn’t even taken much time to figure out. All he had to do was will himself to fly, and it didn’t take that much willpower. In his soul realm, he was the Lord and Master of all he surveyed, and flight was hardly a taxing power within. However, it felt unsatisfying, more like the entire soul realm was moving around him than he was flying through it. His hair barely blew in the wind, his organs didn’t shift with his acceleration, and his clothes didn’t wave; Leon could fly around in his soul realm, but he barely even considered it flying.

Now, if only he could replicate it outside of his soul realm, in a place where he could truly feel the wind in his hair and smell the outside, then he would be happy. But to do that, he’d need a greater mastery of wind magic than his pathetic skills could muster. Needless to say, Leon was intending to put in some time studying wind magic in the near future.

Flying down to the demon’s platform where Xaphan had been staring at him, Leon asked in an annoyed tone, “What seems to be so funny, demon?”

“I see you’ve begun to build your harem,” Xaphan said, his voice filled with pride and taking Leon by surprise at how mirthless it was; Xaphan was being serious.

“Huh?” Leon asked in confusion.

“Adding such a powerful woman to your harem was a wise choice, I’m glad you got over your hang-up and lay with her,” the demon replied. “It’s a fine first step on your road to becoming a great mage!”

“That’s just the ‘first step’ to you?” Leon asked incredulously. “It wasn’t any other achievement, it was sleeping with a woman who forced her way into my life and manipulated me into bed, that was my ‘first step’?”

“Yes,” Xaphan answered without a trace of irony. However, before he could respond, a thunderous voice boomed from the throne further up the mountain.

“Great deeds can rarely be accomplished alone, boy,” the voice said, and when Leon turned to see the source, he was unsurprised to see the Thunderbird staring back at him while she was perched atop his throne in her bird form. What was surprising was hearing her voice out loud rather than in his head; her beak wasn’t moving, but her words were still audible and thunderously loud. “However, finding people worthy of unconditional trust can be a great challenge. In that respect, family is irreplaceable. Adding a powerful being to your family regardless of how it is done will always be the best way to strengthen you and your people—aside from gaining magical power, of course. And don’t think too hard upon that ‘manipulation’, we all manipulate each other in one way or another. This woman was suffering, so hers was more blatant than most, but she’s hardly the only person who’s manipulated you into their bed.”

“Is that why neither of you were particularly helpful when it came to dealing with her?” Leon sullenly asked. As pleasurable as it was to have sex with Naiad, Leon didn’t love her, and he didn’t think he was going to be asking Naiad for sex anytime soon. If she wanted to press the issue, then he’d comply, but he wasn’t going out of his way for her.

“Such notions of love are admirable,” the Thunderbird said, knowing exactly what was going through Leon’s head. “But practicality shouldn’t be discarded. This ‘Naiad’ woman is quite powerful, and if all it takes to keep her on your side is to mate with her, then it’s hardly a taxing thing… And you need her strength if you want to survive long enough to rebuild the clan, and she can even help on that front.”

Leon rolled his eyes, but he didn’t respond. He hardly thought he was about to win an argument against a pair of beings as ancient as the Thunderbird and Xaphan, let alone beings as strong as an Ascended Beast from the Primal Age and a Lord of Flame, so he changed the subject.

“I was attacked by vampires again. I’d be willing to bet my shiny new left arm that it was Amon again,” Leon confidently wagered to Xaphan. His statement, though, caused the Thunderbird to cock her head in confusion and curiosity; she meant it when she told him that she didn’t monitor every waking second of his, and she had no idea that he had lost an arm.

“Were you…” Xaphan whispered. He had long since stopped watching Leon’s daily life, as he had much more important things to focus on, like his own healing. Even the tempest that was kicked up in Leon’s soul realm as he drew upon his stored magic power wasn’t enough to pull the demon out of his healing daze.

Leon sleeping with Naiad, though, that Xaphan noticed.

‘Figures…’ Leon cynically thought to himself.

“Amon never waited around when it came to his enemies; when he saw an opportunity, he would strike,” Xaphan said. “I believe it likely that he’ll try again. He’s had eighty thousand years to infiltrate this plane and search for me, now that he’s found me, he won’t stop until I am finally killed.”

“Even more reason why you should do what you can to accept that woman,” the Thunderbird added. “She’ll be a great boon if you ever need to defend yourself against beings as… distasteful as demons and vampires again…”

Xaphan momentarily glared at the Thunderbird, but he didn’t say anything. He hadn’t the ability to argue with the Thunderbird, so he refrained.

“But there is a greater boon that you need to seek, that of power,” the Thunderbird continued. “You use lightning and fire, but there are other magical elements that you must learn of, namely water and wind.”

“I suppose those elements would be useful if I ever want to match your feats and control the weather,” Leon said with a smile of great anticipation. He was greatly looking forward to learning as much about his clan’s magic as he could.

“You are aware of how lightning and fire mana is formed, but what about water and wind?” the Thunderbird inquired.

“Not a clue,” Leon responded.

He needed to compress his magic power to form both lightning and fire, but lightning had to compressed far more than fire and then allowed to arc throughout his body. Fire, on the other hand, only required moderately compressed magic power, but then Leon had to hold it in his chest and let the power slowly leak out like it was an inner fire that was spreading its heat to every corner of his body.

“To create water mana is very different from the two elements you’re familiar with,” the Thunderbird explained. “You must let it flow throughout you like a river. At first, it must be gentle and slow, like a small creek, but as you get stronger, your water mana will flow through you like the wildest of rivers. It will go through each individual part of your body, then flow out and move on to the next part, all in sequence.

“Wind mana is similar in that it flows through your entire body without compression, but instead of a gentle river carving a path through your body, it must be a tempestuous gale within you, flowing from your head to your toes and back again.

“As with both lightning and fire, as you get better at forcing your magic power to move in this way, it will impart the qualities of the magical element you wish to create onto your power, thus allowing you to create that element. Make sense?”

“I think I got it,” Leon said. The concept was easy enough to understand but understanding and applying were two very different things. “Which should I start with first?”

“I’d recommend water,” the Thunderbird said. “Given that your most prominent recent enemies used fire, I’d say water will come in handy.”

“Damn,” Leon whispered. He’d hoped for wind magic.

As if reading his mind, the Thunderbird said, “Wind magic is relatively weak, offensively speaking, but water magic will be a great help to your combat potential.”

“I suppose…” Leon said. “And water magic would be pretty useful when it comes to combatting fire magic, too…”

“Not as much as you might think,” the Thunderbird said with a cautious tone. “Many believe that water is like an elemental counter-balance to fire, but such things do not exist. There are no ‘opposites’ when it comes to the magical elements. Water can put out fire, to be sure, but just as easily can fire vaporize water. Magical flame burns hot, and when supplied with as much magic power as magical water, then neither can be definitively stated as ‘stronger’.”

“Huh…” Leon grunted. “I’ve read a lot of texts and stories that claim the opposite…”

“Your texts are wrong and stories are just that: stories,” the Thunderbird said. “When it comes to magic, all that counts are skill and power. There are no shortcuts worth taking and no easy advantages. Take, for instance, light and dark. They seem like opposites, do they not?”

Leon nodded in agreement. Dark couldn’t exist without light, and light would be meaningless without dark, after all.

“They are not, at least when it comes to magic,” the Thunderbird stated. “Both can be used for offensive, defensive, and movement purposes, but light’s greatest strength is in the arts of healing. Darkness magic, on the other hand, is best at creating illusions and manipulating the mind. Healing and illusions are hardly opposites.”

“So there would be no benefit to using light magic specifically to counter darkness or the other way around?” Leon asked.

The Thunderbird took a minute to think, then said, “No. As I said before, it all comes down to skill and power. There are no specific qualities about light that would make it more effective at dealing with darkness, and the opposite is also true. Similarly, water and fire are hardly opposites, even though fire produces heat and water magic can produce ice.”

Leon nodded again, deciding to agree with the Thunderbird. It seemed a bit off to him, but he was but a nineteen-year-old boy, essentially nothing compared to the Thunderbird, who had lived for so long that Leon was honestly scared to ask after her age.

“Hmmm…” the Thunderbird murmured, staring down at Leon. “Perhaps you need some brushing up on the fundamentals, then?”

“I think I’ve got them down pat, but if I make a mistake then feel free to correct me,” Leon said.

The Thunderbird rolled her eyes, then countered with, “Let’s go over some things first, just to be safe. What is ice magic?”

“A derivation of water magic,” Leon immediately answered with absolute confidence.

“Very good, you at least know about derivations,” the Thunderbird said.

Ice magic wasn’t an element on its own, it was derived from water magic and proved so useful that it was given its own term. Thus, it was called a ‘derivation’. It wasn’t a new element, it was just a highly specialized application of that element that happened to have its own term.

Similar to ice magic was shadow magic, which was a branch of darkness magic that was so popular and widespread that people would focus on it specifically, ignoring, for the most part, much of the rest of the applications of darkness magic in the process.

Leon wasn’t aware of it, but Justin Isynos and his subordinates had studied shadow magic, allowing them to move in their own shadows. They wouldn’t claim to be darkness mages, though, because they couldn’t manipulate the mind or conjure illusions. They simply hadn’t focused on those aspects of darkness magic.

Those were the two most popular derivations of elemental magic. There were other forms, of course, but few were so widespread or well-known as to be given their own terms. For instance, there was a derivation of earth magic that allowed blacksmiths to manipulate metal without heating it, and derivations of fire magic to produce heat, or to produce light without heat.

“I do have a question, though,” Leon said.

“What is it?” the Thunderbird asked, her tone softening a quieting down quite a bit. It was almost grandmotherly, though Leon would hesitate to say that out loud.

“Why are the seven magical elements broken up into two categories?”

“I assume you’re talking about the Primal elements and the Heavenly Elements?” the Thunderbird asked, seeking confirmation. Leon nodded, and she explained, “No real reason, I suppose. Light, darkness, and lightning can be combined to create spatial magic, so there’s that, but ultimately I think it was just a lot of very important people with fragile egos who wanted to extoll the virtues of their own chosen element to make them feel better about choosing that element to specialize in when they began their studies into the magical arts.”

Leon scowled a bit. He’d been hoping for something more esoteric or cool, but he supposed it wasn’t the most unheard of thing.

“How about combined applications of magic?” the Thunderbird asked.

“Enchantment based, can’t be done in the body…” Leon muttered, still disappointed by the Thunderbird’s answer to his question about classifications.

A living being could only utilize a single element of magic at any one time. Someone like Leon who focuses on more than one could learn to alternate quite quickly, but he was still limited to lightning or fire, not both.

The same, however, couldn’t be said for enchantments. An enchantment, if properly made, could feature all seven of the magical elements, or any combination thereof. Something like nature magic, which was a combination of water, earth, and light magic, fell into this category. It wasn’t a kind of magic directly ‘cast’ by a mage, it required a firm grasp on that school of enchanting to utilize. The spatial magic that the Thunderbird mentioned earlier, which combined darkness, light, and lightning would also be a combined application, requiring knowledge of enchantment to perform.

Alchemy could also be categorized as a combined application of magic, but Leon knew virtually nothing about the art, so he couldn’t speak authoritatively on it.

The Thunderbird clicked her beak in mild approval. Leon knew the basics well enough even if he was misguided on some things. Those could be corrected in time, but not if he was dead, so she figured it was best to get started.

“Very well, you’re not in school so we can end the quiz here.”

“Thank the Ancestors,” Leon said, eager as he was to get to something new.

“Now then, water magic…” the Thunderbird said, her lesson on water magic finally beginning.