Chapter 9
2532words
However, sometimes in life, people need to settle down for a few moments and appreciate the written knowledge specifically made for them.
I understand how boring it can be, sitting down and sinking your time into something you aren’t even sure would benefit you. But I can assure you, this book has been written with nothing but love, care, and only contains the most valuable information on beginner’s magic.
So, I’d appreciate it if you could, just for a couple of hours each day, read and learn from it.
With that being said, let me introduce you to one of the facets of life that the vast majority of beings in this world, humanoid or not, sink their teeth into and even consider it a privilege to be passed down and taught.”
What a lovely, heartfelt intro. It seems like this little girl has caused a lot of trouble when it comes to reading. Can’t say I don’t understand, but reading is something many people cannot afford, and those who can, should be grateful for it.
“Now, without any more interruptions, let’s start this book with a few short introductions with what magic is and what it fuels.
Magic is a form of energy that exists all around us, just like thermal, electric, chemical, kinetic, etc.
However, magic is a more a ‘pure’ and ‘raw’ form of energy, unlike the aforementioned, which have one fixed state and oftentimes can be converted from one form to another, raw magic on its own is, aside from some very niche but not very useful cases, completely unusable and it can’t be converted back to its original form.
For example, magic can be used to create the main elements of life like wind, water, fire, earth, and for the most part magic can create the energies mentioned before like heat and electricity.
However, the moment it’s converted away from its base form, it cannot be changed back. Once it’s shaped into water it’ll stay as water and become completely unrecognizable from normal day-to-day, drinkable water. It can also be exploited and consumed without any issues arising (the process of creating and casting elements will be shown later).
On one hand, the irreversible process is quite a hassle when dealing with magic, but on the other hand, the amount of things you could do with just magic is astonishing and more than worth continuing to use.
But how does it work?
Everything to ever exist is in constant motion, nothing ever truly stops moving.
Stars, planets, wind, water, and even entire galaxies. If any of these things were to ever stop moving, even for a few countable seconds, it’d cause a massive catastrophe, drowning everything in chaos and disorder.
Magic is the same way, always moving and never stopping. No one knows what influences its movements or why it even moves to begin with, but what we do know is that if its source were to cease from constant motion, all the magic currently being used would immediately come to a halt.
I’m sure you’ve already seen the rings inside every individual’s chest, even inside your own. The only reason you’re able to see the rings of every person is due to your eyes. Sweetheart, you possess the eyes of Sterrans. From birth we were given these incredible eyes to be able to see the amount and colour of people’s rings, which gave us an edge in plenty of life’s challenges.
Also, every time you inquired as to why you were able to see the rings and what exactly they were, your father and I would try explaining it to you, just for you to immediately get distracted by something you thought was more interesting.
Well, now you can finally find out the reason for it.
As mentioned before, magic is always moving, never stopping. It can be–in a way–compared to a being’s ‘heart’. The heart is an organ that’s always beating, always working to keep the living organism it’s responsible for alive and well. The moment it ceases its beating, the organism is as good as dead.
Our rings are exactly the same, except instead of existing for a physical body, it’s for the soul. And instead of pumping blood to every cell of the body, it spins and lets out droplets of magic particles throughout the soul, keeping it alive.
What’d happen if the rings were to stop moving? Well, we don’t truly know. There have been certain documented cases where rings cracked and became deformed, but never stopped moving and the affected individual remained alive, just… not happy.
If the heart suddenly were to stop beating, that’d mean imminent or even immediate death to the affected. But what’d happen to the soul if the rings were to stop spinning? From my knowledge, I’d say… nothing. The individual won’t die, their soul would just fizzle out slowly until they no longer have one. And their rings would just exist, without purpose.
What consequences does having no soul entail? I’ve met people before who had no rings, so I’d say the only consequence to not having a soul is being completely unable to use magic or even sense it. They can, however, see the end product after someone uses magic.
The whole process occurs due to the lack of rings from birth and not suddenly losing or having them stop spinning like how we’d wish to know.
So, revising what we’ve learnt so far, magic is a raw form of energy that is pumped to the soul through the rings revolving around a being’s heart.
Now, for the fun and interesting part of magic, using it to create simple elements such as: water, wind, earth, and fire, or you could create complex spectacles such as: electricity, gravity, teleportation, and much more. Although, the complex ones require more talent, time, magic, and energy to cast them.
As you can see, the ways to use magic are many and vast, the only thing between you and its limits is your imagination.
Casting magic is quite simply the easiest part, you just need to possess at least one ring in order to do so. The complexity and time varies with however many rings you have, but you’d still be able to use magic with any amount of rings, albeit simple spells.
For the part of actually using it.”
Finally! I’ve been waiting for this part so impatiently. But there’s a big obstacle right now…
The maid standing right next to the exit of the library, what’d happen if she noticed me casting magic spells?
Hmmm… I need to distract her somehow.
I looked at the maid and noticed her zoning out a bit, a product of standing in place for hours.
“Hey, Rose!” I shout in her direction.
“Yes, Princess?” Rosaline immediately snapped back to reality. “I apologize, I wasn’t paying attention.”
“It’s alright! But anyway, can you bring me a snack? I wanna eat something as I read.”
“Of course, Your Highness. What type of snack do you want?”
“Anything will do!”
Rosaline stood there for a bit, thinking for a few moments.
“I understand, Princess. I’ll be back shortly with your snack.” With her finishing remarks, the maid turns around, opens the door, heads out, and gently shuts the door behind her.
Now, I need to use this alone time wisely!!
Turning my attention back to the book, I hurriedly started reading every line before the inevitable return of Rosaline.
“Magic and its casting processes rely heavily on the caster’s imagination and bodily sensitivity, the vaster their imagination and the higher their physical sensitivity, the greater magic talent they’re bound to have.
In order to cast magic, first you need to imagine how a spell would feel when applied on yourself.
For example, if you want to cast water, imagine the moistness and wetness of droplets of water on your skin.
Casting wind means feeling a breeze or a gust of wind rub across your whole body.
Casting fire means feeling your inner and outer body temperature rise relative to your surroundings.
Casting earth means feeling gravel, soil, or anything coarse and earthly grazing your skin.
Other complex elements require more complicated manners of sensitivity. However, let’s focus on the simple for now.
After focusing on the feeling of the simple spell you desire to cast, feel your rings, subconsciously, revolve around your heart.
The duration, energy sunk into the spell, and its power depends on your ring count.
To cast a spell, your rings must complete one full revolution around the heart. The more rings you have, the shorter the duration, the more energy it’ll absorb, and the higher the power. Each ring spins on its own and the total spin for each ring is added together to form a spell.
For example, If one spell takes 4 seconds to cast using only one ring, then two rings would take only 2-3 seconds, and so on and so forth.
There are other useful cases for having multiple rings, however, for now we will move on to something more exciting.
Now, choose a spell to cast.”
Hmmmm… which spell should I attempt first? My god, this is so exciting!!
Fire is an absolute no-no. Casting fire in a closed place filled with wooden architecture and furniture would cause the entire manor to go up in flames.
Water, although sounds safe, seems like it’d cause a bit of destruction. And once again, wood. It’d seep into the wooden floors and ruin them.
Earth sounds like a pain to clean up so I’ll just bench it.
That finally leaves, wind!
It dissipates quickly, unnoticeable, and shouldn’t cost too much magic to cast!
Also, I’ve seen a direct presentation of it with Rosaline. Her control seemed incredible, I hope I can replicate that.
Here goes nothing.
I take a deep breath in and let it all out, looking straight down at my chest to inspect my rings, still three and shiny, radiant white.
I close my eyes and start imagining how the wind feels on my skin. I’ve been walking around all day in this dress, so I have a clear idea on how it feels.
The book didn’t specify the exact location the spell will be cast at. I’m assuming wherever I imagine the feeling is where it’ll appear.
So, I raise my hand, with my palm open towards the ceiling, then I imagine a strong wind breeze.
First my wrist, then my palm, ending with the tips of my fingers.
Suddenly, I feel my rings accelerate. I open my eyes to inspect them and indeed they are spinning a lot faster than normal.
I started feeling strong wind currents on my hand and then, without warning, they got stronger and stronger.
One revolution, two revolutions, three revolutions. My rings kept spinning, adding more and more intensity to the wind spell.
Four revolutions, five revolutions. The wind on my hand got even more intense.
My short, white hair started fluttering around, like a flag in a tornado.
WAIT WAIT WAIT!!
Six revolutions, seven revolutions…
Fuck fuck fuck, how do I stop this?!?!
I hurriedly got up from my chair, it was immediately knocked over due to the strong wind alongside the table.
How do I make it weaker?!?!? Or even dispel it? Shit shit, I should’ve fucking read more. What the hell do I do?!?!?!
And with that final thought…
The wind left my hand immediately and roared across the entire library, knocking over all the bookshelves and spilling out all the books into the floor.
SHIT SHIT FUCK!! WHAT THE FUCK HAVE I DONE???
The bookshelves tumbled down onto each other, like dominoes. Even the ones on the upper floor weren’t safe.
NONONONONO!! I DIDN’T MEAN FOR THIS TO HAPPEN AT ALL!!!!
The beautiful crystal chandelier snapped from the ceiling and fell straight toward the library floor with a loud CRASH.
The strong currents finally ceased and all that was left of the beautiful library was now just debris, lost due to my own incompetence.
I rush over to the now completely felled bookshelves, holding onto one of them on the ground floor. I desperately try to fix it by lifting it off the ground.
Please… come on…
Surprisingly, I managed to lift the bookshelf. However, it immediately fell back, straight onto the one behind it. Making things even worse.
The doors to the library were suddenly slammed open, and a few individuals rushed in.
“PRINCESS? WE HEARD A LOT OF RUCKUS. ARE YOU ALRIGHT?” One of them exclaimed loudly. They were the forces that the queen was training a few hours ago.
“Dear lord…” They noticed the ruined library and me failing to fix it.
“I’M SORRY, I’M SORRY! I DIDN’T MEAN TO, I SWEAR!” I fell to the ground, lying there in complete defeat, in front of the bookshelf I just failed to erect.
“I PROMISE I DIDN’T MEAN TO…”
“Princess! It’s okay!! Are you hur–” The man approached me cautiously.
But before he could finish his sentence, a loud WOOSH sound came from the outside of the library and a massive gust of wind blew past the entrance.
“ASTARIA?? SWEETHEART??” in rushed a tall man with golden eyes and fluttering, long, black hair with a few white strands. His pupils, completely compressed, like that of a cat’s.
He noticed the queen’s forces approaching me as I laid there, the bookshelves fallen, hands clamped on my ears, and tears streaming down my face.
His expression changed from worry and concern to that of extreme wrath, he gritted his teeth and yelled out, addressing the forces.
“CYRUS, GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY DAUGHER!!!”
“But your majest–!”
“I COULD NOT CARE LESS WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY, TAKE YOUR COMRADES, AND GET LOST!!! THIS IS A ROYAL DECREE!!!”
With fear obvious on their faces, the forces collected themselves. The king stepped aside for them to leave and they rushed back out the same way they rushed in.
The moment they left, the king’s expression softened majorly, the rage in his eyes and voice melted to that of worry and care.
My eyes met his gaze and I immediately averted them, shutting them violently, and even more tears now running down my face.
“Dear, are you alright? I heard the ruckus and immediately came rushing here.” The king froze momentarily after seeing my state, but he marched on, taking a step toward me.
“Ha… haa… I’m so sorry…” My breathing became more erratic, and my chest heaved like a stressed animal.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s me, your dad. Nobody here can hurt you.” I opened my eyes and he took another step toward me.
He had a painful and sad expression on his face while slowly approaching me.
“You’re okay, you’re fine.”
“I didn’t mean to…”
I’m sorry…
And with that final thought.
My mind went completely blank.
