Aaron and Quinn were already there, they stood near the large tree that they had training on yesterday.
“I learnt how to extract energy from within my body!” exclaimed Quinn. “But it disappears within seconds, I can’t hold it long enough. It’s quite difficult.”
“You are right! The energy eases out naturally but keeping it within the palm is hard. I don’t know what the trick is,” agreed Aaron.
As Aaron and Quinn discussed their problems with their homework, Grey approached them.
“Any luck on your training?” Aaron asked Grey.
“Not really,” replied Grey.
“So you are the same as us? You can’t get that energy ball to stay in a circular state,” said Quinn.
Grey blankly stared at Aaron and Quinn. He really had no clue what they were on about. He did not bother with the homework that Mage Arctus had proposed – he was too tired to try.
“I didn’t have the time to practice,” said Grey. “It was far too complicated. I did think about doing it but in the midst of thinking about it I fell into a deep sleep.”
This time Quinn asked a question, “So you did not do any of the homework that Mage Arctus said we should do?”
“Not at all. I don’t even know what he means by release the energy within your body,” said Grey, uninterested.
“It’s quite easy,” said Aaron. “I’ll show you how Grey. Even though I can’t shape it into a ball long enough.” Aaron opened his palm. “All you do is concentrate and be calm, you will start to feel something withdrawing from your chest into your veins.” A small white-reddish energy was released from Aaron’s veins onto his palm but after five seconds, it vanished. “Arhhhghh!” he cried, slouching his head in disappointment. “No matter how many times I’ve done it, it just won’t stay into a fixed ball or any real shape.”
Quinn also tried to extract the energy within, to his palm, but just like Aaron the white-reddish energy released would only stay for a brief few seconds and disappear. “You try it Grey!”
“Ah, okay,” Grey agreed, uncertain, opening his palm thinking on Aaron and Mage Arctus words. Concentrate and be calm. Grey closed his eyes in concentration, trying to feel the energy within his chest and calmly breathed in and out thinking about the fleeting clouds. Concentrate and be calm. Feel the energy within.
But as Grey tried to concentrate and feel the energy within, he could not feel anything. There was no extraction of energy, no tingling from his veins or chest.
He opened his eyes and blinked thrice. “Did anything happen?” he asked.
Aaron and Quinn both looked at him, displeased. “Nothing happened,” they said simultaneously. Instead of something igniting within Grey’s palm, there was absolutely nothing except the air on his palm.
“Stop joking around Grey,” Quinn said. “We are Mages, and Mages that will have to grow and learn from each other. You can’t pull a stunt like this so early in our lessons!”
“Practice seriously!” exclaimed Aaron.
Grey stared stupidly at his empty palm, he closed it then opened it again. His palm felt normal. There was no energy, there was no tingle as Aaron described. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. As he stared at his empty palm, a cough and a shuffling of footsteps entered the dome. It was Mage Arctus, he looked paler than yesterday and his cough was coarse.
“Sorry, I am late,” he coughed out. “I couldn’t get out of bed.”
All the students nodded, assuming it was because of his sickness.
“You are sick,” said Quinn, sympathetically.
“You’ve got it wrong. I am not sick. I have never had a sick day in my life. Never been to a doctor or an Ellver,” said Mage Arctus, coughing terribly and then proceeded to explain his reason. “I couldn’t get out of bed because of Conner.”
“Drill Sergeant Conner?” asked Grey. “The muscular Swordsmen with a knife?”
Mage Arctus coughed out in a laugh. “That’s him. He never changes, still showing his knives to impress the students. You’d be surprised to know we were school mates back in the day. He pinned my covers with his knives, I couldn’t get up. But after twenty minutes I managed to tear my duvet covers. He owes me new covers,” he said, humorously.
“Why would he do that?” asked Quinn.
Mage Arctus had a playful glint in his bloodshot eyes. “It’s a challenge we play. It started years ago when we were in junior high school. We were neighbours and always tried to delay the other from being on time for school. Those were the fun days,” he replied, fondly.
“Even old Mages like you do these things?”
“We were not born old. Even now I am not old,” said Mage Arctus, coughing. “But let’s move on to our lesson. We have the whole day to learn and explore the Mage powers. Everyone surround me in a circle.”
All the students made a circle around Mage Arctus. “Now let’s see who did their homework,” asked Mage Arctus.
All the students except for Grey, rose their hands excitedly and some chanted – Pick me.
Mage Arctus smiled yet a cough immersed from his throat interrupting his smile. “It seems most of you did the homework. And after you tried this, what did you discover?” he asked.
Aaron raised his hand and Mage Arctus allowed him to speak. “I easily released the energy within but as soon as it lands in my palm, I tried so many times to keep the ball shape but it won’t stay in a fixed shape,” said Aaron.
“Ah,” said Mage Arctus with a grin. “The ball shape depends on your concentration level. It doesn’t have to be a ball, it could be a square of energy, a triangle if you like angles or even a cat. But the key here is to increase your concentration without becoming anxious. Aaron, please come up and demonstrate what you did as your homework.”
Aaron walked towards Mage Arctus, he stood in the centre of the circle with Mage Arctus. “Now release your inner energy,” Mage Arctus told him.
Aaron did as he was instructed, he felt the tingle from his veins and chest then the white-reddish energy in his palm appeared, before it could formulate a shape, it disappeared.
Mage Arctus coughed then said, “Aaron what did you feel when you saw the energy within your palm?”
“Excited and anxious.”
“That’s where the problem lies. You need to control your feelings. The foundation of Mage powers is composed control. When the energy is in your palm, you should stay focused on tranquil thoughts. No feelings of anxiousness fear or anything else must be oozing from your body. Otherwise, there is a disruption in the energy and ultimately the energy transfer. Try again Aaron but this time think of a place that is calm and relaxing,” instructed Mage Arctus. “Like a farm of cats,” he added a suggestion.
Aaron tried again and still the energy within his palm did not take shape.
Mage Arctus coughed and raised an eyebrow at Aaron. “What’s wrong Aaron?” he asked.
“Sorry, Mage Arctus. Every time I try to concentrate, a picture of cats on a farm bursts into my mind and I can’t find it tranquil.”
Mage Arctus frowned. “You don’t find them tranquil?” He tried to think of a solution to young Aaron’s problem. “How many cats did you imagine on the farm?” he asked.
“I think they were twenty?” Aaron tried to recall the image he had imagined.
“Increase the number to fifty. Every cat farm should have fifty cats per farm. Oh, and what colours were the cats?”
Aaron stared at Mage Arctus perplexed. “They were black and ginger cats,” he responded.
Mage Arctus smiled as if he had found the solution to Aaron’s dilemma. “Maybe you should think of a black cat named Ginger,” he suggested, but before he could make any more suggestions Quinn raised his hand. Mage Arctus turned his head to the raised arm and allowed Quinn to speak.
“Sorry to intrude on the imagining of cats but how does this aid the rest of us? I don’t think we could all imagine cats.”
Arctus Mage coughed out at Quinn’s comment, he had obviously gotten carried away on his favourite hobby. He was the type that could have endless nights talking about cats and their features even though he was allergic to them and they would always scratch him.
“Quite right there. Excuse me my dear students,” said Mage Arctus.“Quinn has a point and this is a lesson for you all. You need to discover your own most tranquil place in order to enhance your concentration. It’s really a good thing we have the entire day. But before you practice, let me teach you about the Mage levels of master ship and the badges. But where to start?” He thought deeply stroking his beardless chin.
“The importance of energy transfer,” he decided and ushered Aaron back to the student circle. “Since you have all learnt the energy extraction from your inner self and your bloodline, it would be best to explain the importance and purpose of energy transfers and extraction. I am surprised you haven’t asked why,” he said, glancing at Quinn but then coughed uncontrollably and sneezed within the palm of his hands.
“Whoa! The air is thick,” he said, wiping the contents from his nose and mouth onto his tunic. “Tunics have many uses.” He grinned at his students. “Where were we? Ah, yes the importance of energy extraction and transfer. Well, it is to increase one’s own energy and to create something entirely different from the energy received.”
“What do you mean?” Quinn asked, not bothering to raise his hand.
“I will have to demonstrate. Let’s return to that tulip garden we stood around yesterday,” said Mage Arctus, leading his students to the patches of tulips. They all centered round him and watched curiously. Mage Arctus opened the palm of his hand and a white-reddish energy shaped in a form of a small cat glistened within his palm. “See. Once you find your tranquil place and gain full control and concentration, you will be able to shape your inner energy into any shape possible.”
“That’s so cool!” Aaron and a few others exclaimed.
“But that isn’t the only cool part,” Mage Arctus said demonstrating the rest of the cool parts; the bright white cat shaped energy split into two smaller cats. One of them ran off into a tulip while the other remained licking its paws. The running white cat collided within the tulip, then after a brief second, it leapt from the tulip into a much bigger cat almost four times its original size but the white tulip seemed drained of energy, it flopped its’ petals down as if tired.
The new sized cat run with vigor to its owner and finally reached its smaller twin cat. They merged and a bigger cat was formed within the palm of Mage Arctus.
“Wow!” Many of the students said amazed.
“How did that happen?” Quinn asked.
“This is what energy transfer means. Using your inner source of energy to extract a larger energy from a biotic component. I have taken some of the energy from the life source of the tulip and combined it with my own; increasing my own energy or power.”
“Amazing!” Aaron exclaimed, eager to attempt this.
“This is where you need to tread cautiously.”
“But why?” Both Aaron and Quinn exclaimed together.
“If you have no control over this Mage power, you might extract too much energy, endangering the life of the living. You also might extract too much of your inner energy which could lead to your own death. The responsibility of a Mage is to understand and create balance.”
“Are you saying that if I continued to practice extracting energy from my own body. I could have died?” Aaron asked, distraught.
Mage Arctus coughed but it came out as a laugh, he still had the white energy shaped as a big cat on his palm. “Well, you needed to practice to understand your own limitations. You would sense when your inner energy is depleted until you feel at the brink of death.”
“That’s a dangerous power,” Grey whispered his hidden thought at the revelation of the Mage power. “It’s far too complex and the responsibility of it, is burdensome.”
“Quite right, Grey,” said Mage Arctus. “But this power isn’t just dangerous, it provides a shelter for the weak and it allows the ability to create other objects.” Mage Arctus focused on his cat shaped energy, it ran towards the ground and turned into a wooden chair and a wooden stick. The sparkling white energy cat had vanished.
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