A Legacy of Pain: Rising from the Ashes

Chapter 22: On the Path of Healing

Last Time: Elizabeth went back home to speak with her mother. While there she told Evelyn vaguely about what had happened with Callista and her being at the school as well as being a part of the Founders Festival. While the mother wanted to immediately go to the school and complain, a frightened Elizabeth convinced her not to. Before leaving Elizabeth discovered the Evelyn had stopped taking the tincture before because it tasted off. Upon inspecting the bottles Lizzy discovered they had been tampered with and helped Evelyn to secure her further medication. Back at school she ran into Callista and was threatened by he woman before retreating to the library where she found Anne. The brunette had been trying to access her ancient magic in the restricted section so they went tot he undercroft to recover. There Isidora's portrait finally revealed itself and the three witches spoke before parting for dinner. That Evening Emery met with Callista and Isidora to reveal what Poppy had told him. A furious Isidora restrained and then punished Callista by forcing emotional energies into her once more.

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"Marvellous. You are progressing very quickly Ellie. It appears you have quite the talent for this." Isidora grinned from her portrait as Ellie rather effortlessly used her ancient magic to create a series of three pillars around the pensieve in the precise locations she had previously marked. "This is a fairly basic use of our abilities; but one which helps to teach control and precision." The ancient witch explained while the ravenclaw began to use that same well of power within her to dissolve the pillars she had just created, finding them more difficult to get rid of than to create. While it would have been simple to get rid of them with a vanishing charm, that would defeat the purpose of the training she had been undergoing the past couple of weeks.

"Thank you Dora." Ellie grinned, finally getting the first of the pillars to dissolve into motes of silvery light after a couple of tries and moving on to the second. It was still odd to call the witch she had admired for so long by such a nickname; but the portrait had insisted she do so after they had begun using the nickname Anne had for her. "Creating them is close enough to conjuration and the instinctual use of ancient magic I have been using up to this point that it was rather simple to pick up. Vanishing them however... that is more difficult despite my already knowing the vanishing charm for normal spellcasting." She furrowed her brow as she finally managed to dissipate the second as it also dissolved piece by piece into motes of light. "That said, I am surprised you are having me create pretty pillars for practice." The auburn and purple tressed witch teased with the information she had received from the memories she viewed last year.

Isidora chuckled from her portrait at Ellie's words. "Creating pillars and dissolving them is an excellent way to gain control and establish the fundamentals; but it is simply the beginning. Do not worry, I won't have you creating them nearly as long as Percival forced me to." The ancient witch winked at her from the portrait. "As for getting rid of the pillars, perhaps if you changed your way of thinking around the principle it might become easier to do. Rather than thinking of vanishing the pillars, imagine that you are converting them. This power we wield operates on similar yet different principles than the typical form. It is closer to nature and follows more of its laws. You are not making the material of the pillar vanish into thin air but rather converting it into light which then naturally dissipates as it runs out of the energy fueling it."

The young witch nodded as she listened to Isidora and took a deep breath as she closed her violet eyes before releasing the breath and reopening her eyes once she had the proper mental image in place. Keeping her mentor's words in mind, Ellie began to dissolve the third pillar and was amazed at how much easier and quicker the process was this time. "I believe I understand what you mean now. That was a lot easier. I think I need more practice with the visualisation process but I am getting there." She grinned proudly before beginning to repeat the process by creating another set of pillars once the last three were gone.