Xynar's reality

magic?

-if you say so... but now, I don't know, what do I do? I have a thousand more questions, but I need to help you guys, or should I learn the magic first? I'm so confused

-don't worry, it will all answer itself eventually, for now, follow me..

Elder Quintria walked Alan through the village, introducing him to people, he showed a lot of shyness and looked perplexed, his head and back were arched down and he looked overall uncomfortable.

"I can feel beyond what regular beings can feel, I can feel spirits, including yours, and I can tell you're not necessarily enjoying this, I wish I had a spell to ease you in, but unfortunately spells cannot contribute to emotional change, no spell goes beyond the physical, or else it would be uncontrollably overpowered.

...

As you can see houses are modest, and the village has a wall around it, this wall has been built by our ancestors, the wall is sky high and no one has ever been able to get it to scratch, break, age, chip, snip, decay or fall apart.

Ancestors had way stronger and more permanent magic, hopefully I would be able to understand it one day..

Anyway, the only entrance is through the tunnel we came from, it's quite safe because if we're ever under attack, my magic can close all the tunnel, which makes getting in from the outside unachievable.

-what if you get attacked from the air?

-no creature can fly here except for the Island's fireflies, we only got one attack from the Terraformers in the past, when the wall wasn't as elevated yet

-what if someone somehow, whether it's be a device or a spell, gets to fly in?

-well then I guess we'll have to wait until that happens and then we'll see how to deal with it

-what if someone climbs in from the outside?

-did you not pay attention? I told you the wall cannot even get scratched

-you didn't say it was slippery, or that it doesn't naturally have dents where someone can cling onto

-you're more nervous than I thought, keeping your guard up, and making yourself even more nervous by your own thoughts, remember that squeezing a bubble too hard gets it to pop.

...

We're here."

There was a fenced field, they entered, and from what he saw Alan concluded it's a practice area, there were combustion marks, stacked barrels, shaped rocks, unusual dents on the ground, etc.

"Let me see the Guenara rock of yours"

Alan handed her the rock, she admired it for a second, then turned it around a couple of time to examine it.

"Quite a catch isn't it? You got one that isn't chipped or roughened up, it's smooth all around.

-can I have it back now?

-sure, here. Now I want to tell you a bit about magic.

It generates and amplifies from within, it manifests on the outside, so before you could try it on the outside, you need to find it on the inside.

Hold the Guenara rock in between your hands, cover it with them, and close your eyes"

Alan did as she said, he kept listening to her as she spoke

"Stop trembling, you can close your eyes and trust that nothing would happen to you, take a deep breath, keep it in then let it out. There you go, that's better. Closing your eyes removes material distractions, and now to the next step that will separate you even more from the seen, touched and heard; feel the core of the rock, you cannot touch it or get to it with your hands, but you can touch it with your spirit, activate your spirit, find it. Once you feel it, I want you to open your eyes and lower one of your hands down, keeping Guenara held in the other one"

Alan felt his hands sink, closing on each other, going through the rock, they got so close until he felt them touch, it wasn't his hands, it was his soul's hands. Once they touched he freaked out a bit because he couldn't feel Guenara, then he proceeded to open his eyes and do what Quintria told him to do

"Do you feel it?" She asked, to which he replied with a nod

"Try moving the bits of hay

-MOVE!" he said as he pointed his finger at the hay, nothing happened

-oh, no child, it doesn't work like that, the beauty of magic requires a beauty of sound, which means calm and rhythmic wording, both are essential, and you had neither.

-rhythmic? How can I come up with rhythmic phrasing in every situation I need to cast a spell in?

-you will, trust me, you will. Now, think of something and try again"

Alan took a few moments of silence, then he spoke

"May these stalks of hay

Get out of the way

move around, sway"

Once again, nothing happened. Alan looked disappointed. The elder asked:

"What? You expected to nail it first try?

-I did, but look at me standing here like a loser

-Once again, you're squeezing too hard on the bubble. When you set up unachievable unrealistic goals you're setting yourself up for disappointment and failure. The suns will rise and you will have another opportunity to try again, and possibly fail, but practice creates evolution, and evolving is the key. You're too hard on yourself, your spirit is broken..

-alright let's stop here, getting a bit too personally involved aren't we? I want to drink and eat right now, that's all I want"

The elder nodded and asked him to follow her. They returned to her house where food was on the table. While eating she sat on the opposites side of him, and spoke

"Eat slow so it fills you up more, as I said before we're in a sticky situation...

..So, tell me, which island do you come from?

-island..? what do you mean?

-it's not hard to understand, which island are you from?

-I'm not from any island

-you're not? Then where are you from?

-I'm not even from this universe.

-are you fooling around?

-does it sound like I am?

-yes, yes it does

-that was a rhetorical question I didn't really want you to answer

-you're not making any sense

-alright I'll tell you my story, but before I do I want you to know something I heard a guy's mom once tell him, she said "if you tell someone the truth, and they don't believe you, it's not your problem".

I was sleeping in a library, don't ask why, when I heard this book making some noise, I went to inspect it, found it, and its first page stated that flipping to the second means I'm challenging a high source of power that will reshape my existence, I, idiotically, flipped the page and here I am, it sucked me and swallowed me in and put me here, the book stated that it narrated every meaningful life event I experience, and that it will let me out once I gather enough experience to fill all of its pages up. There is no magic in my world, at least that's what I thought, so you can tell that I'm doing a lot more than it seems to preserve what's left from my sanity. I know your next question will be to see the book, so here"

He threw it at the table, and it landed in front of her. The second she attempted to touch it, it burned her, making her scream and making Alan choke on his food because it caught him by surprise.