Chapter 2 - The Bastard years

Language the base of all civilized life in the known universe was a bastard. I mean I realise back in my old life I never learnt any other languages but fucking letters can't be this hard, am I dumb? Possibly, my personal theory was that the speech portion was so easy it made up for it in the written part. However with the distant and wonderful light of magic in the distance I kept my determination.

More time past and I noticed something was missing, friends or lack thereof. To be completely honest the whole childhood friend to become lover thing I had read in way to many stories that had shared the theme seemed boring. Going into those books as long as there was a childhood friend of the opposite gender, or same if it was that type of story, there was no mystery on who the MC would end up with. But the fact still remained that I was friendless. There was however good reasons for my lack of friends, there was neither opportunity nor real interest on my part. Lack of opportunity came from the fact I was either working (being exploited by) for my mother and learning the bastard of a written language. Lack of interest came from the fact that the only other children I knew where freaks of nature, They all had access to qi which annoyingly I did not which made playtime oh so much more painful, added to the fact they were real children and did not have the mental age of a teenager the were irritatingly dumb intellectually and socially I mean for fucks sake sending me through a wall, a non freak of nature, and then deeming that the appropriate next step is picking me up by the back of my neck was A humiliating and B painful.

It took a full two years until I was fluent in the written language, those years will forevermore be known as the bastard years in remembrance of the bastard fucking language.

Excitement coursed through my veins, the day had come, the time to learn magic. I tried to run to my room to start on my path but in my way stood my fiercest adversary, my mother. Standing in front of the stairwell with a sickly sweet smile, with my hair standing on end and cold sweat dripping down my back I faced the drag- I mean my mother.

“So honey this magic learning it won't be interfering with your work will it” She smiled with her teeth, how this could be interpreted as anything but a threat is a mystery to me.

“Mother it- um- well you see” taking a breath I decide to just try it “ yes it will interfere” I finish my statement and look at her face only to see the flames of hell spewing from her eye, figuratively but no less terrifying so I use my most powerful countermeasure the pouting almost crying face. She doesnt last for more than 5 seconds.

“Fine, you can skirt your duties, but you still have to help sometimes” It was said, albeit it was slightly forced.

Needing no more encouragement I darted past her and to my room, grabbed the book from my super secret hiding place (under my pillow) and went straight to work.

The basics of forming your core and summoning.

Since time immemorial taking the first step as a magus is in comparison much harder than taking the first step as a qi practitioner. This is not necessarily because the process is harder to accomplish yet the stigma attached. When one becomes a magus they forgo becoming a qi practitioner and vice versa. The stigma of course is forever being a weak body magus.

This book is about how to take your first step’s as a magus. To begin with all people are born as a novice, how you choose to proceed in this stage determines your path as a magus or practitioner.

There are 5 levels within the novice stage.

The first stage is the ability to sense mana at all times, no matter the element. It is recommended to try and sense mana where large amounts of natural mana accumulates such as fires for fire mana, large bodies of water for water mana, mountain ranges for earth mana and open plains for air mana. Now no matter what mana you begin with it does not truly matter as in time a magus can use all elements, one of the key difference between practitioners and magus’s, this is due to changes in the elementary stage however we will not go into that for now.

The second stage is to see your own soul, by entering into the state of sensing mana one can observe inside themselves to discover their own soul. The soul of human tends to reside conveniently enough throughout their entire body, one must fully sense, grasp and be able to control certain aspects of their soul to progress to the next level. These certain aspects ultimately boil down to being able to grasp and process mana.

The third stage is drawing in the natural mana from any element and running it through your own soul and developing spiritual force.

Once one has filled their soul with their spiritual force they may purify their spiritual force and make it truly their own, making into one's true spiritual force.

The final stage is being able to take your true spiritual force and compressing it into a spiritual core. This core then allows you to take your first step into the realm of magic and becoming an elementary acolyte. To cast your first spell of the elemental variety one must create an elemental mana core. This is done by the same process of drawing in raw elemental mana but not purifying it and condensing a core from that mana. It is recommended to create these cores by only absorbing one source of elemental mana. The type and power of the elemental core is dependent of one's understanding and feeling for the element, due to this fact many elemental cores of the same element can exist with differing characteristics.

Summoning and the basic spell

A magus’s first magic is either a summoning of the most basic spell, the ball spell of which it is generous to call a spell.

Summoning magic is usually the first magic as every magus summons a familiar. A familiar is the only summon that has a physical / organic body. A magus’s familiar grows in power with the magus. There are differing types of familiars but they all generally all serve the same purpose, guarding the magus from physical threats, due to the magus being admittedly a very weak physical being.

Note : if a familiar dies of physical wounds they can be recalled as they are connected with your own soul, however if they are exterminated soul and all they truly disappear, this is typically a crippling blow for a magus.

note : the summoning spells are the only variety of spell that absolutely require vocal incantations.

To use summoning spells imbue your voice with your own spiritual power.

Summoning spell

Hear my call from the realm of the real to the realm of the abstract , heed my command to traverse the veil, Unshackle your bonds and become one with me, form the physical form of life by sharing my life with yours, COME.

The ball spell

Draw in mana doesn't matter the type as it is filtered through your spiritual core becoming malleable into any element and then channel it through the elemental core, the mana will take on the properties of the elemental core. Take the energy from the core and release it from your body (can be released from any point as you channel the energy through your soul which is located in the entire body) and it will create a mass of that specific element that will immediately discharge away from your body, there is a supreme lack of control when using this spell, it is a point and shoot spell.

It was a simple read yet it widened my horizon beyond reasonable belief. Grinng a cheshire grin I decided to start immediately and spirited down the stairs, and tripping on the first step and falling down the flight of stairs which was painful yet failed to deter me. Recovering from my fall I run to the massive fireplace and sit in front of it, ignoring the looks from the guests. I decided to try and sense fire mana first due to the simple reason that fire is in my mind the staple magic of a mage. Closing my eyes I focus and begin my journey of magic.