Elemental Eclipse

🌻Chapter Eight; Part One: Night Magick🌻

About a month or two passed since that night in the library with still no luck on figuring anything out. She hadn't seen her reflection since that night either, on the bright side though she did complete Spellwork 1A, and began her Sun-Att training with Professor Swan.

She approached the dome building, sighing at the long walk across campus. "I should have given slept in today I'm tired as hell..."

Professor Swan came up the stairs behind her, taking the stairs two at a time. "Sorry, Rachael! You know how it is. One minute you're watching the clock, the next a swarm of bubble-bugs has floated through your window!"

"Yeah...Can't relate..." Rachael mumbles.

Swan did a ridiculous hand gesture at the door and it slid open. "After you, Rachael. This room is all yours, after all."

Rachael walked into the large pure white room with large round pillars holding up the ceiling, the light reflecting from the wall openings and lighting up the walls. A small pillar in the middle of the shrine-like room.

"The smell of the morning sun is invigorating, don't you think?" Swan smiles.

"I'd be more invigorated by the smell of coffee, if you have some." Rachael jokes.

"I'm more of a tea person, myself. Now, I have a question for you before we begin. I'd appreciate your honesty..." Swan says. "With regards to these mysterious creatures that have been attacking you, have you stayed out of trouble and kept your head down?"

"Of course I have." Rachael says, she may have been lying, but not entirely. "Don't you trust me?"

"It isn't that I don't trust you. But a lot has happened to you, and I certainly wouldn't blame you for wanting to find answers yourself." Swan says.

"Well, I haven't done..." Rachael starts, her throat starting to tingle with the same warm feeling magick brought to her. "What's going- I've been spending every spare moment I can in the library with Beckett to find answer about the shadow monsters!"

She covered her hand with her mouth confused on why she even said that. Professor Swan shook her head at her disappointedly.

"You just did some sort of truth spell, didn't you?" Rachael sighs, feeling like that was an invasion of privacy.

"Rachael...I hope that you'll no longer feel the need to lie to me. And I'm disappointed that you haven't left the research to me like I asked." Swan sighs.

"You're disappointed in me?! I'm just trying to understand what the fuck is going on and if you're not going to be any help I'm going to try to help myself." Rachael huffs, crossing her arms.

Swan gasped at her staring for a moment, before a smile appears on her face. "We'll continue that conversation later. No use dwelling on gloomy thoughts when we're surrounded by so much sun! Now, you and I are here today because each Attuned's Attunements lends them special abilities. Being a Sun-Att predisposes you towards prescience! Which means that you innately have a certain degree of foresight about what's to come."

"Like a premonition?" Rachael asks.

"Hmm, no, not exactly. Prescience is more the feeling that something is going to happen. A gut feeling, if you will." Swan explains.

"So it's like a vibe?" Rachael asks.

Swan shrugged a smile forming on her lips. "Yes, actually. Though it's a muddy science. The degree of prescience attainable by each Sun-Att depends on your latent potentially, of course."

"Well apparently I have an 'ale tankard's' worth of magickal potential." Rachael says.

Swan clapped her hands together in excitement. "Wonderful! I've never trained a Sun-Att before! I can't wait to see how powerful you are! And prescience is the perfect way to start. Think of the sun as a marker of time passing. The day progresses as the sun moves through the sky. So tapping into your Sun abilities will give you a feeling for the future. But with practice, practice, and power of course, you may be able to get so much more than just a gut feeling."

"So then it could become like premonitions!" Rachael mumbles.

"Now, the very first step in developing your prescience is strengthening your connection with the sun. I find meditation to be quite helpful. Just lose your eyes and feel the sun's warmth sink into you, then work on merging your energy with it. Why don't you take a seat and try it?"

Rachael sat on the floor and closed her eyes, the light in the room shining through them.

"Now, focus inwards. If you're aware of sounds, sensations, anything outside of you, don't let them distract you." Swan instructs calmly.

She took a long slow breath, focusing on the back of her eyelids. The familiar warm sensation, that always seems to come with the use of magic, begins to fill her chest. The professor tried to make her lose her concentration, but she kept her focus. A strong hard light hits against her, almost blinding her threw her closed eyes, to regain her focus she starts to absorb the light. The warmth in her chest became hotter and spread through her body more as a result. All of the light she absorbed started to escape her, shooting out of her in a beam of light. She opened her eyes to find the light to have absorbed everything around her, it took a moment for it to die down slowly fading away.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Rachael asks confused.

Professor Swan nods slowly her mouth gaping open a bit. "I never expected...not on your very first try...Rachael! You just connected profoundly with the power of the Sun! This is beyond anything I imagined!"

"I felt so warm...like warmer than I've ever felt before." Rachael says, before Professor Swan continues with her lesson for the day.

After about an hour Swan looked down at her watch before turning to the young girl with a smile. "Thank you, Rachael, that's enough. We can finish up for today."

She stood up tiredly, doing some ballet stretches in attempt to wake herself up.

"I sense much potential in you. But remember, anybody who gets anywhere in life puts in that extra bit of work!" Swan smiles.

"And you're giving me homework...aren't you?" Rachael sighs.

"Think of it as independent study. And think of how future Rachael, who has full mastery of her prescience, will thank you! I'd like for you to continue your meditation regularly, begin by trying to foretell simple things, like what you're going to eat for an upcoming meal." Swan says, tilting her head confused at her when she stayed quiet seeming to be debating about something. "Rachael, is there more you haven't told me? You don't have to face things alone."

"I-Uh well there's more going on than just those shadow creatures..." Rachael sighs starting to tell her about her reflection.

"Oh my, Oh-Oh my! I need to- I should- Oh my goodness- Oh dear!" Swan gasps running out of the room, leaving her to stand alone in the glow of the sunlight filtering into the room.