The young girl looked over nervously towards the severed head. It was now not much more than blackened-bone coated in a thick sludge, but Divina ignored the outburst, continuing the lesson as if nothing were happening. “Abjuration can be a tricky form of magic but luckily for you I excelled in both Abjuration and Evocation. Which from the looks of things,” she gestured to the burning buildings, “evocation might be your strength.”

“I—I’m sorry.” Philippa stuttered an uneasy interruption, “b-but I don’t know what those words mean.”

Slightly deflated Divina looked tiredly at the girl mustering all of her patience. “Oh my, yes. Back to basics.” She carried on as if the interruption had been a planned part of the lesson. “Evocation is used to call forth all manner of objects or energies.” The words could have come from a textbook. “While abjuration is the school of magic which is used to nullify and halt the physical world and energies of magic.”

The demon continued to scream trying to distract from the task at hand.

Divina glanced at the fiend, wishing she had the energy to rebuke it into silence again. She drew her attention back to Phillipa, to see that her attention was enraptured with the lesson. Divina could see why Akkoni had enjoyed this part of her work so much.

“So that means,” said Philippa, “that you’ll use this spell to stop the energies that will heal Askathstral?”

A look of mild surprise flashed across Divina’s face “Correct, you catch on quick.”

“Ahh, I will dine on your warm entrails, like the cattle you are! I’ll make you watch while I feast and you will be forced to endure every second of your own exquisitely delicious agony!”

“Ignore whatever it says.” Divina instructed the girl. Adding, “We still have several minutes before it is able to begin to regenerate its body.”

“How do you know that?” Asked Philippa.

“Experience.” Divina answered.

She continued her lesson, “Now I have set up the runic components of the seal—” She looked back to the girl who was clearly unsure and required further clarification. “I see you have more questions Philippa. That is good, but for now, we must finish this seal and leave this place.” She coughed. The fire had grown so large and heavy, black smoke now filled the air over the town square. “We will have time to discuss and review all the basic terms and concepts of the art soon enough. Once we are far away from here.”

She drew the young girls attention back to the sigils. “These Runes need mana to work and I’m afraid that I've reached my limit. I need you to finish this, I need you to feed your elemental energy into the sigils.”

“But I can’t,” she whined, “I don’t know how.”

“Philippa, stop it.” snapped the Paladin “You can do it. As long as I’m here to guide you.”

Divina looked around taking in her surroundings. All the town’s buildings now began to crumble in the fire, blazing with wild, untethered energy.

“Let’s start with elemental energy evocation. We have plenty of energy all around us. Fire is the most malleable of the elements to direct.” She paused to take note of the distant chittering that rasped against her enhanced, divine senses. More beasts were on their way, but it wouldn’t help to tell the girl now. She needed her full attention on the abjuration of the demon. She decided to press on with the makeshift lesson. She took a shallow, pained breath and continued. “You, Philippa, are made of magic. It flows through each one of us. It is the life-energy that exists in this world, in each living thing. At your centre is your spirit. The true essence of who you are. Despite what you might have been told by others, you are not a body with a soul, but rather, an immutable soul that possesses this physical body for a short time.” She gestured for Philippa to take note of her physical form. “It is your soul; your spirit; your infinite, mortal will that has the power to impose itself upon the order of the world around you. It is this imposition that is the first step to what we collectively refer to as magic. Are you able to follow what I am saying?”

“Ahhhh! She is a stupid cow of a girl. She doesn't understand.” Screamed Askathstral.

Philippa thought for a moment and then nodded.

“Good. As we continue our lessons you will learn about the specific types of magic you are most attuned with, as well as exploring the most efficient ways for you to channel magic.” The chittering grew louder and Divina knew that the danger they faced next grew greater by the second. “But for now, I want you to draw the fire that burns around us to you. You need to use your will to instruct the flames to come to you. We call this Invocation.”

“Okay?” She looked around at the flames. “I, um, guess I’ll give it a go.”

The world was anything but silent. A far cry from the quiet room that Divina had used to practice shaping the universe to her will for the first three years of her training. Curses rang out. The demon desperately yelled blasphemous words at the two girls. The flames chewed through timbers and crackled in the darkness. But the girl closed her eyes and tried her best. Moments of excruciating concentration passed before the girl, gasped in frustration. It turned out she had been holding her breath the entire time..

“Nothing’s happening.” Frustration edged her voice. “ I think I’m doing it wrong.”

“Ahhhh, you have failed and the flames come to take you!”

“Not at all.”

“But it’s not listening.”

“Oh child, don’t feel bad. Commanding magic with your mind is a very rare gift for first time practitioners, and often takes years to master properly, but we had to start somewhere.” She thought for a moment, and then said to herself. “Yes, let’s start with incantations. Incantations are a lot easier to learn.”

In the distance Divina could hear the flames begin to spread to the forest around them. She needed to hurry up and finish the lesson if she was going to seal the demon's stolen heart, and make it out of the trees before the approaching beasts or the growing flames made it impossible to escape this dead town.

She turned back to Philippa, who wore a look of polite confusion.

“Incantations are simply the words of magic.” She explained. “I’ll teach you the name of fire that I learned from my teachers.” She coughed again. Clearly the smoke was growing thicker by the moment and it had begun to irritate her lungs. Philippa moved and tried to help Divina sit up. “I’m okay.” She pushed her away irritably. “I’ll be fine. Focus on the lesson. Okay. This time call the fire's true name.”

“It's true name?” Asked Philippa in quiet awe.

“Yes. A true name is a spoken word assigned to an aspect of creation. The true names I have learned are all expressed in Primordial, the ancient language of the elemental gods. Over the last fifteen hundred years, a few words of power have been imparted to us as gifts by our goddess, Audrashni.” Thunder rumbled in the distance. “The words are a closely guarded secret and so you must never share them with another. As my student I am permitted to impart them to you. That will allow you to speak to them and combine them with your energy.”

“But when I speak the words to make the magic happen, won’t other people hear them?” The fledgling apprentice asked.

“You would think so.” The Paladin looked impressed again. “But unless you impart them to another, the words just, sort of, well, they don’t make sense to someone who hears them. It’s part of the magic itself.”

“Oh. I guess that makes sense.”

“Good. Come closer.”

Divina leaned close to Philippa and whispered the word with the briefest of divine ceremonies. Unnoticed flames leaned closer in fascination as the word floated through the short distance from lips to ear. A spark flashed in the dark pools of Philippa's eyes, and then the word was hers. The young girl quietly mimicked the sound trying to wrap her mouth around the unusual consonants. She looked back to her teacher with disappointment. “Nothing happened.” Fresh sets of frustrated tears threatened to fill her eyes. “Maybe I’m not worthy to be your apprentice after all.”

“Ahhhh, You are a failure.” Gloated Askrathal’s skull.

Divina glared in the direction of the demon. “Nonsense. The words are only one part of the spell.” She looked into the girl's face. It was stained with blood and soot. “You didn’t add your will to the words. Remember, your will is the first step to achieving your goals. Try again and this time, reach into your emotions.”

With a deep breath, the young girl turned back to the flames that leered over her exposed heart. Slowly a look of sheer determination set on her wide face.

“Push the world away. It only serves as a distraction.” The paladin spoke with a calm and measured metre. “Don’t focus on the fire as a whole, but on the individual flames. Find one flame and call to it with all that you are. Your mind, your voice, and your spirit must be in agreement. If you need to, focus on the flame leaping into your hands.”

Philippa stared at the centre of her palms. Imagining flame dancing and moving, and rising and falling in their centres. Sweat formed on her brow. The blood from the lacerations that covered her pale skin mixed and mingled as she whispered over and over again.

“Ahhhhhh! You are a useless child!” Screamed the panic of the demon.

“Don’t listen, Philippa. You can do this.” Exhaustion or discipline, Divina could no longer tell which one kept her voice in check.

Philippa muttered the word over and over. Her strain became physical as she began to shake.

The Demon screamed in outrage. “Ahhhhhh! You abysmal bitch! You are what happened to this place. You brought me here. This is your fault!”

“He’s right Philippa. And that’s what makes him most afraid.” Divina was shocked at her own words and realization. She hesitated to speak the next words.

Philippa continued to chant but her eyes snapped open and were suddenly full of weary distrust as her mind raced to where Divina’s words would lead.

Through another cough Divina continued. “Remember, you have done this before. You called the demon from beyond the veil with no training or guidance. You had nothing more than a moment of happenstance, combined with your wit and your will. Askrathal knows you have called a true name once before." She carefully punctuated the next three words. "Askrathal's. True. Name." The words hung in the air.  Now it's afraid that you could do it again.”

Divina’s words of truth sank in and then, nothing happened.

The fire didn’t manifest in her hands, the world didn't bend at her will. And so, Phillippa's command of the primal element grew louder with every aching breath. She released every once of her frustration along side the words until she was yelling with all of her fury at the flames. Her eyes burned with hot tears blurring her vision. She screwed up her face in raw concentration. 

Divina could see the arcane come pouring from her mouth. She watched as the words she spoke bubbled up from her chest and erupted into the thick, heavy air where they swirled around the roar of the flames and drowned out the sickening quarrel of the demon. Phillipa continued screaming until there was nothing left in her lungs but great, gasping sobs of a fate embraced.