Magic Discovered

Chapter 6

After his first full day of classes, James returned to the Moonglade, where he met up with Delta, Lydia, and Algon. They all teleported to Cerellus Park, where they sat in a circle in one of the gazebos.

"Man, I am so excited to learn Aetherling magic! Master Filgoth told us that Aetherlings use an alternate dimension to move quickly, someplace called the Aether Realm. Apparently, we ride the magical currents of energy and use their power to boost our speeds to unimaginable levels!" 

"WELL, I BET MY DAY TOPS YOURS! WEIRDS ARE THESE CRAZY INVENTOR DUDES CREATE NEW THINGS AND BLOW STUFF UP!!! IT SOUNDS AMAZING!" 

"And maybe the explosions you make will be louder than your voice." 

"OH, SHUT UP DELTA. WHAT ABOUT YOU ALGON?" 

Algon blinked. "Well, we mainly focused on the different types of Elementalism." He looked over at James. "I assume that you went through the same thing, right?" 

James nodded. "Yeah. Basically, Algon uses something called Composite Elementalism, which auto-combines elements. In his case, they combine into fire. But for me, I can control every element, but I have to tell them what to do myself." 

Delta and Lydia didn't get it.  

James rolled his eyes. "In order to make fire, I have to combine hydrogen, oxygen, and an assortment of other elements into my hand using my energy. Manually." 

"That sounds tough." 

"Yeah, no kidding. And it's mostly individual work too because I have to get my own method for controlling each element." 

"WAIT. HOW MANY KIDS ARE IN YOUR CLASS? MINE HAS AROUND 200, AND IT'S ONLY ONE OF MANY." 

"There were only 14 other kids besides me, and I'm the youngest. And apparently, that's all of the Pure Elementalists in the universe. They're really rare." 

"That explains the reaction at the Analysis then." 

"Yeah, no kidding." 

"Hey guys," Algon said. Everyone immediately became quiet; he tended to not talk much. "Eventually, once we learn more magic, we can train together in the Darkessia." 

"Heck yeah! That sounds AWESOME!" 

"I THINK THAT WOULD BE FUN AS WELL. BUT I PROBABLY WOULD JUST WATCH; WEIRDS ARE MORE ABOUT INVENTING. ALTHOUGH I SUPPOSE I CAN TEST GADGETS WITH YOU GUYS." 

"Make me a flamethrower!" 

Lydia cracked up and Algon smiled. Delta just frowned. "Did the spell break? That didn't translate at all." 

That only made them laugh harder. 

However, James was soon to learn that as amazing as Pure Elementalism sounded, it was infinitely more complicated in practice. Sensing specific elements was difficult, but grabbing hold of them was like trying to pick up water with a bare hand. 

"James, you need to relax when gathering elements in your palm, regardless of their properties." James scowled as he tried and failed once again to gather a tiny ball of hydrogen in his palm. "You're too tense. When you tighten up, you lose concentration and then panic. It needs to come naturally, so don't panic when you lose control." 

"I know. It's the same thing you've told me for the past month." 

Indeed, James had been working on gathering this little tiny ball since the beginning of the school year. He had only been taught a little before being thrust directly into lessons, most of his theory coming from his science classes. And holy hell was it hard. It had taken him this entire time to figure out how to move the elements he could Sense, and it was taking even longer to finally gather them into a shape that he could use. Every day he went back to meet up with Lydia, Delta, and Algon completely exhausted, and he could only worry about how much harder it would get when he actually had to light the thing on fire.