Casters Book Two: Shadow Caster

Chapter Eleven

"You're overthinking it, just let it out."

"I don't even know what that means!" I say in frustration.

"You already do it subconsciously, all I'm asking is for you to do it consciously," she says equally frustrated.

"I'm trying!" I close my eyes and try to project my energy, but it's not working.

She groans in annoyance.

"Well, I see you two made progress." Cyrene comes in, freshly showered and in different clothes than she was in before. But on the bright side, she does have food with her.

"Save me," Lorelei pouts.

Cyrene laughs.

"Can we just go back to the beginning?" I sigh.

Lorelei pretends like she wants to choke me before taking a break and going to grab the food. She pecks Cyrene on the lips before taking the drinks out of her hand.

I silently sit down and eye Cyrene.

"Okay," Lorelei says after a sip of soda. "Energy projection is the simplest most basic skill as it gets when it comes to being a Caster. As I said, you already do it subconsciously. Everyone does at first. That's how any Caster can sense you coming from miles away."

"Why do I need to know this?" I whine as I take my own drink.

"Okay, here's a true story I tell all my first-year students. My great grandfather went hiking and got lost in the mountains after an avalanche. Every half-hour he would project his energy for several minutes. It's how they found him before he froze to death. So yeah, this is something that can actually save your life." She explains.

I sigh.

"You're overthinking it," Cyrene says around a French fry.

"Thank you!" Lorelei says.

I frown at them.

"Energy projection is need-to-know. Because you are new at this, you are projecting your energy 24/7, which drains you a lot faster than it needs to. It's kind of similar to Energy masking, you said you wanted to learn energy masking, right?" Cyrene says.

I nod.

"This is the other side of that. Energy masking is completely hiding your energy, energy projection is the opposite. Once you understand energy projection you'll be able to lower your guard around other Casters and eventually learn how to mask your energy."

"Don't give her false hope. Her pea brain can't even grasp this simple concept." Lorelei grumbles.

I glare at her.

"Emery your energy is always running on high, we want to turn it down to moderate. Once you grasp what Energy Projection is, you'll be able to consciously stop doing it all the time. Then it will just come naturally." Cyrene shrugs.

"I already told her that," Lorelei says.

"Okay! I'll try again, geez. I get it, life-saving, energy-saving, time-saving, got it."

I get up and once again stand in the stance Lorelei had me stand in. Up straight, legs apart, arms out. Supposedly I have to feel the energy field around me, I'm already subconsciously doing it, I just need to feel the field, acknowledge it. That's step one, what we've been working on for the past hour.

"What took you so long?" I hear Lorelei whisper as I'm trying to concentrate.

"Oh, uh, I accidentally spilled something on myself and I had to take a quick shower. Jerk driving in front of me slammed on his breaks and I spilled my drink everywhere. Sorry. Then I had to go back to the store and get new food because the other food got all soggy. Anyway, my car probably smells like soda now." Cyrene rambles on.