The Origin of Magic
原初の魔法
Then God said, "Let there be light,"
and there was light.
—The Old Testament, Genesis 1:3
"How did you do that!?"
"I-I don't know."
When I moved my head over to Ai in excitement, Ai looked at me, her body frozen as though she was frightened.
"Hey, settle down."
My horn suddenly yanked by Nina, I calmed down.
"Sorry. Did I frighten you?"
"No..."
Ai had put her hand over her heart like she was trying to keep it from exploding out of her chest.
Even if she's gotten accustomed to me, I really do look like a terrifying dragon.
Of course she would react like that when I get closer to her so suddenly.
I wind up forgetting about it since I can't see myself, but I have to be mindful of it.
"It's alright, let's go through it piece by piece, okay? Are you able to stop doing it?"
"Yeah."
Following Ai's response, the leaf that was dancing about on her hand stopped moving.
"Can you do it once again?"
"Umm... this, okay?"
"Amazing...!"
Seeing the leaf start moving again, I let out a sigh of admiration.
"Hey! Don't I keep telling you about your fire!?"
"Whoops, sorry."
"Come on! Are you trying to burn down our house after all the effort we put into it!?"
"No, really, I'm sorry."
I apologized to Nina, who was standing there and scolding me with her hands on her hips.
"But Nina, this is a huge step in the history of magic. It'd be impossible for me to not be excited."
"What are you talking about? Can't I do that too?"
Holding up her hand, a tree branch came in through the window, making rustling sounds all the while.
"Ai, can you do the same thing as her?"
"I will, try."
Knitting her brows as she focused, Ai performed a gesture that looked like she was praying. With that, the branch that Nina had guided inside began to move slowly and awkwardly.
As would be expected, there was a noticeable difference in its precision between Ai and the more experienced Nina.
"Do you think that you could explain how you did it for me?"
Ai looked somewhat troubled when I asked her that question.
"Umm... like this..."
After moving her hands around like she wanted to demonstrate something, her shoulders drooped.
"I can't, say it..."
"I can't explain how I do mine either, so please don't worry about it, alright?"
Trying to explain the sensation behind using magic would be like telling someone to explain how they move their arms. It's something extremely difficult to put into words and is something that you'd have to experience with your own body.
