Phoenix of Olympus (PJO/Harry Potter) UNEDITED (PJ FANFICTION)

Ch.18- Obscurial

Before we start the chapter, I want your guesses as to why this chapter is titled what it is

Humor me

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If I were to be made a knight, I should pray to god to let me encounter all the evil in the world in my own person, so that if I conquered there would be none left and, if I were to be defeated, I would be the one to suffer for it. ~Criminal Minds    ~The Once and Future King by T.H. White 

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"I don't know what you are, and that's the most puzzling thing of all." She answered earnestly. "Because I should know, or better yet, you should just be an amateur wizard. But you're not. You're powerful, beyond powerful. You can see and interact with creatures of death, animals that normally remain solitary. You wander the Forbidden Forest as if it were your home. You've mastered nearly every weapon known in human history, a large majority of them unconventional for such modernized times, and you tend to avoid your wand. I initially thought you were an Elemental, but there's so little information regarding them, I can't confirm my theory without asking you outright. And-"

"Why an Elemental?" Percy interrupted again. 

"What? Why? Why not? It would make the most logical sense." Percy tilted his head with a critical eye, a curious and calculating gleam reflecting across them as he looked at her. 

"Explain." She blinked at him, a little unsure how to continue. She mulled over her options. If he was an Elemental, he could be trying to gauge how much she knew and if she said something wrong with confidence, she'd embarrass herself; however, if she was completely off the marker and he wasn't an Elemental at all, then it'd be humiliating and she'd be back at the starting line trying to figure out what he was. 

She thought back to a torn page of notes she had found in a book where elementals had briefly been mentioned, and she remembered being astonished at the fact that the notes had more information then the book. 

As long as magic itself, one of the most fundamental abilities of a magician has been to attempt to control the four raw powers of the elemental system. The four refer to Fire, Air, Earth, and Water. The ability to feel these energies, understand them, and to move them is the study of the Elemental Mage. Throughout their practice, different casters will experience different degrees of success no matter which art is practiced, but Elemental magic is often considered one of the most difficult arts to progress in, and thus, there are few practitioners. It is also difficult because of the nature of the magic itself: it deals purely with the real and tangible facets of the four elemental powers, not with the ethereal correspondences of the elements as an Enchanter  or regular wizard would. As such, it tends to be seen as an "all or nothing" art where you clearly succeed or fail every time. Also, as a matter of practicality, few have a real need for this kind of power anymore (due to many of the necessities being provided for by technology and more 'advanced' magical practices) and thus the caste tends to be left behind to a certain extent. 

Focussing only on the physical manifestations of the four elements, each has its own unique uses and capabilities when properly applied. "Heat" energy, as we know it, is not perfectly synonymous with Fire magic. Though to an Elemental Mage the two are very similar, there is a missing aspect in the concept of heat which restricts it to this level. For the Elemental Mage, all things which produce heat are also giving off the mystical equivalent of heat energy. In this way, Fire energy can also be used to metaphysically detect things which produce heat, and even, in extreme circumstances, to focus the ethereal form of heat into a physical manifestation of flame itself, thus creating pure flame from seemingly nothing. Keeping in mind the physical principles governing combustion it becomes readily apparent why feats of this nature are rare, at best. Through enough practice and concentration, however, the Elemental mage learns how to absorb heat energy from all things around them (which in turn can turn the things around them colder, as cold is the absence of heat), as a unified action, and bring it to bear against a target. This can be to warm the caster, to warm an inanimate target, or a friend. It can be used to find things generating heat, and to control preexisting sources of heat such as flame and mirage.