Jonathan

After this was over, Elise, Jonathan and Tablos went to another room.

There Tablos turned himself to look at both and said: “Before we begin with your magic training, it might be a good idea that we test if Elise can use your mana in her spells. You will see how it is done and likely feel your mana, which will be helpful in your eventual training. What do you think?”

Jonathan thought about that for a while and answered: “While I do want to try out magic, your likely right that this is a better thing to start of with. Mainly because you have many years of experience and are hopefully using them to give me a good education in magic. So, what should I do?”

#Tablos answered his question with the following words: “First, sit on the chair over there. Try to think of nothing at all. Maybe think of how the void was? But I digress, while you are doing this, Elise will try to draw in power from you to power an easy spell, a specially designed light spell that is just beautiful to look at, if I am allowed to say so myself.”

Elise looked at a piece of paper that Tablos gave her after praising the spell and said: “Thanks for a spell created by someone as powerful and well known as yourself, Archmage Tablos.”

An exchange which Jonathan found funny followed. But after a bit more banter, finally, everything was ready.

Elise began casting the spell, but instead of using her own, internal mana reserves, she tried using Jonathans. But nothing happened.

She asked Tablos if she did something wrong, and after testing a few things, the Archmage figured out that she first was forced to send a strange spell at Jonathan.

The spell had been included in the summoning spell and after she cast it, Jonathan felt something strange.

A sort of warmth that filled his whole being. He also felt as if something was asking for his permission to do something. After thinking for a while about that, he began understanding the feeling. Giving his permission would give parts of this warmth to someone or somewhere else. He also understood, deep down in his logical mind that this was Elise trying to use his magic. He allowed it and opened his eyes.

He saw and incredible fireworks in the gloomy room.

Jonathan had not realized or dark it was in the room until now, because of how badly lighted most rooms were. There were some rooms that were better lighted than others, his own was one of the better ones at that aspect, but this here was even one of the darkest rooms he had seen until now.

But back to the fireworks he saw. There were many bright, coloured stars around here. At least it seemed like that. They moved, it seemed a bit like there were playing with each other.

Elise stood in the middle of the room and seemed happy. Tablos instead stood I one of the corners of the room and looked like he had found something really great.

While Jonathan took all that in, he felt a flow of this warmth moving, in the direction where Elise stood. And suddenly he also could see it. It was a pale blue stream that behaved similarly to a body of water.

Oh, of course only if gravity were weird. It had holes in it but it was without a doubt a three-dimensional construct. But then the lights began to fade and he lost less and less of his warmth.

And then, even if it was to be expected, suddenly, it was over.

The room was again dark, and now it looked even darker because of the light that filled it just moments before.

Tablos said, after every glimmer of the supernatural light had been extinguished: “You are a mana seer, even if one who can only see his own mana. Maybe you can train to see mana that comes from other persons or even is simply in the environment, but that is not necessary for now. This will certainly help with your training as a mage. As I thought Elise cannot use your mana whenever she wants and of course is able to do it, but instead must ask you first. It was your decision, you answered that spell, right?”

“That is absolutely correct. Is it only me or is it normal that mana gives out a feeling of warmth if it is being used?”

Elise answered this question: “For me, it feels like a muscle. It gives out a feeling of warmth if you are actively using it, but it is not a feeling of warmth from the beginning.”

Tablos added: “I would guess that you are losing some of this warmth when you are using mana. This is normal. There are a few main types of how someone can feel the mana in their body. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and they cannot be changed. Yours, for example, is excellent for measuring how much mana is left in your body but it makes really finely controlled spells difficult. Elise’s is the most common. It gives a series of indicators of how much mana you have left, but it also makes mana relatively easy to form finely. It is difficult to give off a big blast of mana with this form of feeling mana. On that note, there is also your ability to see mana. It gives many advantages for fine control, so it offsets the disadvantages of your version of working with your mana. But it still will be hard work.”

They talked for a while, discussed what they had seen and then some maids brought in lunch.