"Before I help you cast, you need to learn the many different types," Kess said. "Of course, there are the four basic elements: Air, Earth, Water, and Fire. Air is the easiest to use, and Fire is the hardest. Aside from that, there are also many unique types of magic. There's blood magic— powerful spells at the cost of harm to your own body, light magic for helping yourself and others with healing and other forms of buffing, and dark magic for things like teleportation and debuffing others. Thunder magic exists, but it is the hardest form of magic to learn since you need to harness the power of lightning. Finally, there's Moon magic— which you can't learn. Only Starlight knows that, and she'll be the only person to ever know and use it."
The name "Starlight" sounded familiar to Flare, but he couldn't remember where he heard it. Flare was about to speak before being interrupted by Kess. "We'll start with something simple: An air bind. Trap your enemies in place with air magic." Kess walked to the desk and sat down on a chair behind it. Flare walked over and stood on the opposite side.
"Sit," Kess ordered. His hands began to tense and move. A chair suddenly appeared from the ground behind Flare. He stared at the chair in awe before sitting down. It pushed itself up to the desk.
"That was cool!" Flare said. "How did you do that?"
"Earth magic governs anything that comes from the ground," Kess replied. "Wood comes from trees and trees..."
"...Come from the ground?" Flare finished.
"Correct! Of course, it takes a bit of work to do something like that. I'm still practicing and trying to learn the 'Magic Pinnacle,' which is being able to use magic with only a single finger." Kess stood up and kept talking. "It's the highest point of power for every mage." He held his hand up. "Being able to control five different types of magic with only one hand— It's the greatest feeling in the world."
Kess sat back down. "What were we talking about again?"
"Air bind-" Flare said.
"Right, air binds!" Kess exclaimed. He rested his elbows on the desk and leaned forward. "By the way, why do you want to learn this stuff?"
"I'm on a journey," Flare said. "I..." He stopped to think.
"Want to defeat the Fallen Angels," Voice whispered.
"-Want to defeat the Fallen Angels." Flare said out loud.
"Woah," Kess said. He stood up in shock. "You want to defeat them? Why?"
"You want to avenge your family," Voice whispered again.
"I want to avenge my family," Flare said.
Kess turned around and looked out of the window. "I get that feeling— But the Fallen Angels are killing machines. You're going to need years of training if you want to even survive them for a few minutes."
"Well... I'm ready to do whatever. I need to defeat them to— Well, you know." Flare was confident in his abilities. He hadn't fought a Fallen Angel, at least not one he could remember, but he felt prepared with Voice on his side.
"Is your family popular?" Kess asked. "I would love to help you, but I need to know if I'm wasting my time or not."
"You can trust him, kid," Voice lied.
"I'm from the Winterbell bloodline," Flare answered. "I'm the last living member since Ae—"
"Stop," Kess interrupted. He held up a finger and drew a circle in the air. "Can... Can you repeat that last sentence? I don't think I heard you correctly."
"I'm from the Winterbell bloodline," Flare repeated.
Kess stared at Flare in disbelief. "You're..." He stopped and began to chuckle. "You're from the—" His chuckles turned to laughing. "One of them! Right in front of me!" He kept laughing. Flare tried to laugh with him but was unsure of what he was supposed to laugh at. Kess slowly stopped laughing and took a deep breath. "Oh my god... Oh..." He was calm again. He turned to look at Flare.
