A Heart Like Glass [Book 1]

Chapter 9

"As I mentioned before, King Percival of Endura had the rare magic of a cerulean empyrean: the blue flame," Mrs. Claviot said before sauntering towards the green board and flipping it around. "Ceruleans have the frightening power of conjuring a fire much hotter than those of the other abnormal empyreans. If that is not terrifying enough, they can conjure and manipulate natural lightning. With this power, they can disintegrate objects."

We all sat in silence until Olivier raised his hand.

"Yes, Olivier?"

"Can they use their lighting to disintegrate people?" He asked the teacher out of what seemed to be genuine curiosity.

"That is actually a good question," she said while pushing the bridge of her glasses up her nose. "Remember when we learned about the Magic Laws?"

Silence filled the room. This is something I don't know.

"Do either of you remember the tenth law?" She looked between Olivier and me before sighing as we shook our heads in response. A frown formed on her face as she said, "I will give you a hint, it is about conjured abilities. As you all know, those with an affinity for fire are more likely to conjure their abilities rather than drawing a flame from a natural source of fire."

When Olivier and I still failed to answer, she eyed Keelan. She was right to look to him for the answer. I sure didn't know it. From the tiny beads of sweat that were once again forming on Olivier's forehead, I assumed he couldn't remember it either.

And as we all expected, Keelan spilled out the information as if he were a living encyclopedia.

"The purely conjured abilities of solastas, empyreans, and mages," he started, "are usually able to inflict only minor, direct injuries to the body of someone with manifested magic. While tareahs and aequoreals as well as naturists – who simply move and interact with those elements in nature – can inflict deadlier direct injuries. The only explanation that mages have come up with is that a magic flame has a difficult time burning someone with magic inside of them. Rock, water, and plants - that are moved and manipulated by tareahs, aequoreals, and naturists – cut through skin naturally. However, a magic flame burns the body differently than a natural one. Remember, all magic wielders constantly have magic channeling through their bodies, which allows them to use their affinity. So, while a wielder can be hurt when attacked with conjured magic, the magic in their body begins to instantly heal them by absorbing the magic from the attack and using it to heal the damaged area. That's why a wielder can easily heal from nonfatal wounds caused by conjured magic attacks. Because there is little magic to no magic to be absorbed, the body is slower to heal from a wound made by an element (rock, water, plants) that a wielder took directly from nature. However, the magic that is absorbed and redirected has its limits, which are different for every individual. A wielder can still die easily when facing a prolonged or strong magic attack, or by taking a fatal hit. The rate of recovery from conjured and non-conjured attacks all depends on the strength of the wielder's magic. That's why most people with manifestation choose occupations that don't involve danger. Because their body doesn't contain strong enough magic to recuperate quickly."

Seeing the confused expressions on our faces, Keelan shot Oliver and me a deadpan look before closing his eyes. Then his hand reached to his head as if he were pained by our stupidity.

I can't blame him. This is a tricky subject to understand.

"How can I explain this better..." he trailed off before putting his hand down. Then he looked back up to us. "Okay, first you need to remember that magic is sentient and that all pure magic was a gift from God. This means that all magic is derived from the same source." He leaned his head against his hand. "Those who have manifested magic can be considered as vessels. Now let's say that one person, or vessel one, conjures magic to attack another vessel, which we will call vessel two. Remember, the magic in both vessels is from the same source. So, when the conjured magic of vessel one hits vessel two, the magic being channeled in vessel two recognizes itself in a vessel one's conjured attack. Not wanting to hurt itself, the magic in vessel two redirects the conjured magic from vessel one and uses it to heal itself. The textbook term for this is the theory of redirection healing. Of course, being sentient, the magic does this all on its own without any effort required of the vessel, or um... person."