Across the Threshold

Magical Introduction

Shade concentrated and lifted his arm. He shot an Arcane Beam out of his hand and hit the practice dummy directly in the chest.

"Very good," Lance told him. "Now, fire multiple beams in quick succession.

Shade complied, hitting the next four targets in less than a second.

"Impressive," Lance said. "Your advancing quickly."

Shade felt a surge of pride at his words. He had been practicing for only a week, and he had already mastered much of Arcane Magic. He could now draw upon his End Crystal at will. It seemed like it was only a matter of time untill they were searching for the rest of the End Crystals.

And hopefully a way back home.

Shade hadn't thought of this much recently, but he was really starting to miss home. He hadn't told anyone, but it was always there, like an itch that he couldn't scratch.

He knew that helping his new friends came first, but he wondered. If he found a way home, would he just take it? Would he leave this world to fend for itself? He wasn't sure.

"Now, we can move on to more advanced magic," Lance continued. "We'll start-"

"I don't see how any of this is helping us find the End Crystals," a voice interrupted. Shade turned to see Ceris enter the training arena. She stalked over, glaring at Lance.

Lance sighed, "I told you, tracking magic is extremely advanced. It's not something you can just do, you have to build up to it."

Shade watched the argument carefully. This happened most days.

"Well if course he won't learn if you don't teach him," Ceris demanded.

"He's not ready," Lance replied. "Tracking magic is more than just summoning a beam of energy. You have to forge a connection with the item that you are tracking, and then you have to set up a magical resonance field."

Shade was surprised. That was the most that he had ever heard about tracking magic. Whenever he asked, Lance just told him that he wasn't ready yet.

Shade thought for a moment, and then said, "So, it's like a magic radar." Both Ceris and Lance looked at him like he was crazy. Shade backed off, hands raised. "Forget I said anything."

Ceris shook her head, continuing her argument with Lance.

Shade walked away, thinking about what Lance had said. He needed a connection and a resonance field. Well, he had one End Crystal inside of him. That surly had a connection to the other Crystals. In fact, now that he was looking for it, he could feel the connection.

Next he needed a resonance field. He tried sending out a pulse of energy. He felt the energy pulse outward in a blast. He softened, imagining they were the pulses of a radar. It worked, small waves of energy radiating outward from him like ripples. Now, how to locate things?

Shade picked up a rock from the ground. He focused on the rock, using his Crystal to connect with it. Then he tried to infuse that connection into his pulses. He felt the Crystal guiding him. Suddenly, he felt a magical ping in the rock's location. He had somehow made the rock resonate with his magic. Or maybe the magic resonated with the rock?

No matter. He threw the rock in a random direction, and found that he could still feel where the rock was. He walked over and picked it back up. Shade disconnected from his magic, stopping the pulses. He tried to connect with the rock again, and found the "frequency" stored in the Crystal. He reconnected to the rock easily.

He tried placing the rock on the ground and then connecting with it, but he couldn't reforge the connection. He picked the rock back up. It seemed that he needed more practice to connect with objects at a distance.

Shade tried attuning his magic to the other End Crystals, but he couldn't do it. Something was blocking him.

Ceris stormed off, looking angry. It appeared that she had lost her argument with Lance.

The Gorf hopped over to Shade, also looking mad, or as mad as a frog could look.

"That's it for today," Lance told him. "Training begins again at the same time tomorrow."

"But-" Shade began, but he was cut off.

"No buts," Lance said. "Go home and get some rest."

Shade sighed, but did as he was told. As he left the main complex of Dreadfort, he ran into Kane and Ciara.

"Did it happen again?" Ciara asked eagerly. "I thought I heard shouting."

"They did get into an argument again," Shade replied.

"Who won?" She demanded.

"Lance again." Shade told her.

"Ha!" she jabbed Kane in the ribs with her elbow. "You owe me two coins!"

Kane sighed, "One of these day, you'll be paying me."

"What makes you think that?" Ciara demanded, hands on her hips.

"Ceris will eventually wear Lance down," Kane replied. "Have you seen how she acts when she's angry?"

"Oh, I don't doubt that," Ciara replied, "but what makes you think that I'll give you any money? Remember the whole thing with the Piglins?"

Shade smiled, and left them to argue. He made his way twords his house to rest.

He passed Rain on his way to sword practice. He still needed some work with that big sword of his. They greeted each other and talked for a bit. Shade gave him the basics of what happened, though he left out the part about the tracking magic.

Rain eventually bid him farewell, and continue twords the arena. Shade continued down the street, waving to the people that he passed.

Shade arrived at his house and unlocked the door. He put the rock he had on a shelf near the door. The shelf held a few other interesting things and mementos. A strange rock, a twisted and gnarled branch, and an End rock that had somehow ended up in his pocket. He'd always collected things. That was one of the main reasons that he missed home. He no longer had his collection.

Shade glanced at his watch. It normally would have run out of power by now, but he was using magic to keep it going. It wasn't even dinner time yet. Lance must have been really upset to have released him this early.

Shade decided to practice his tracking magic some more. As he looked for something that he could practice with, he thought about why he hasn't told anyone about this.

As Shade decided to practice on an apple, he realized that the reason that he was keeping his new ability a secret was because he wanted to learn it before Lance thought it to him. Yes, it was childish, but it was also a challenge.

And Shade never backed down from a challenge.