On the seventh day, he had decided it was enough. It was time to continue to the second stage, and probably the cruelest.

“Well… So, you must be asking yourselves why I’m making you go into the sea at this hour, the reason is… it’s because the water isn’t that cold, and because today we begin the second part of [water ball] training,”

The teacher and his two students had changed their place of practice, from the quietness and beauty of grandfather Amos backyard to a small beach close to town, nonetheless calling it a “beach” was probably far too kind, this place just offered easy access to the water, it was covered by trees and shrubbery and had a small sandy part that rapidly descended in depth until the water, reached far past Edwin’s and Lan’s waist, you probably wouldn’t see anyone using it to bathe.

“Teacher Taft, couldn’t you just have made a hole in the ground and filled it with water?” Lan spoke in a bitter tone.

Taft thought about it too, but by the time he had that idea they were already on their way to the shore, he also didn’t want to do something that would anger Sir Amos. As making a huge pool in his garden, probably would.

“Lan, don’t talk to teacher that way, I’m sure he has his reasons,"

Feeling a little ashamed of himself, but not ready to admit it, he clapped to get his apprentice's attention.

“Now, you guys already learned the incantation, what we are going to do now is just to repeat it until it works, magic is all about repetition, the more you practice a spell, the more intimate you get with it, the easier it gets to do other spells, the faster you become at casting it and the more powerful it becomes, back when I was still studying there was a teacher that could cast [water ball] with no incantation, and he could make the ball the size of a small house it was amazing,"

The training began after another showing of the spell from Taft. He would cast [water ball] The kids would observe carefully and try to imitate it as best as they could.

The methodology Taft was practicing with Ed and Lan wasn’t the standard way of magic teaching. He was testing new ideas he came up with during his travels.

Normally when a new practician started training in the path of magic, they would first be taught all about magic history and theory. That’s believed in Ostara. They would spend months practicing magic channeling, and maybe at one year into their studies they would start with spell casting.

Taft thought he didn’t have time for this. If he wanted to become a renowned teacher, he had to find a way to speed things up. He couldn’t spend several years teaching one kid.

While thinking this during he developed a way of teaching, he thought that the more intimate you got with an element, the easier it is to cast it, this was a widespread belief in the magic school, but there, no one would think of making the students cast spells while waist-deep in mud, or in the ocean or covered in dirt, they were nobles or heirs of important aristocratic figures, certain protocols where to be followed at all times.

Taft didn’t care for protocol or status, lately, he didn’t seem to care that much about race either, that’s why, he would start a rigorous, hardy, arduous if needed, downright deadly training regime, and if it were to work, could teach these kids all types of elemental spells in a record time.

And now, 3 days of training later, his first student managed to cast a spell.

It was, against all odds, providence, and probability, Edwin.

He was standing on the water, complaining about not being able to do it. Lan was chastising him for giving up so much.

“I’m not a cry-baby, it’s just that you can say that because you’re good at this,"

“Then stop throwing tantrums and keep training or you will never be able to, don’t you want to learn magic? Or have you already gotten bored with it?”

“NO!” Edwin shouted at his sister. This was the first time he had gotten emotional over something, so everyone got a little shocked. “Just because Lan and Lucius are good at everything, you guys get to look down on me! you’ll see”

That’s when it happened. He closed his eyes like all the previous times, re-open them, he did that because he was copying Taft.

He chanted away, a little of water went up a few drops at a time, when all was said and done, a small sphere formed, the size was around a small fist.

“Ran, you did it!” Both Taft and Lan said, excited at the sudden event.

The small orb was launched all the great distance of ten centimeters before falling limply on the water again with an anticlimactic plop sound.

But Edwin was not discouraged by this, he wasn’t even elated, he was shocked, and his shock soon filled the corners of his eyes, started to sniff and whimper, “I did it teacher!” just that.

Taft had never felt quite this level of pride before. This was the feeling of fulfillment he thought only teaching seasoned magicians could bring him. Hell, it was even bigger than that, he felt satisfaction and repayment of his effort, not only was his methodology paying off, but this little kid was learning actual magic, it didn’t matter if the ball splashed or didn’t move more than a short distance, what mattered was that he had done it, all he had to do now, was just get better, to never stop improving himself.

“Yes kid, you did,”