“A fire bullet,” Silvia said, “I thought you preferred wind.”

I shrugged. “I guess my affinity changed.”

“I haven’t heard of that happening before, but I suppose it is possible. There are a lot of unique things about your situation.”

I nodded and continued skimming the page.

Creating different spell forms requires a mage to also manipulate the shape and type of mana. Mana manipulation wasn’t exactly straightforward though as it was more about maintaining a specific mental image rather than actually molding the mana into the form you wanted.

I was familiar with this concept as well, the more I read, the more I recalled about magic and how it worked. The book outlined another easy spell that could be cast with any basic element.

Pulling mana from my core, I drew a line in the air, forming the mana into a blade as I pushed out from my fingers. Like the air bullet, it shot forward, cutting a straight path through the air. Again, I didn’t worry about the type of mana. I excepted a flame blade since the bullet had come out with fire mana; instead it was a water blade.

“Congratulations, looks like you got it down.” Silvia clapped her hands together, a smile spreading across her lips.

After testing my ability with other elements, I tried using a more advanced type of magic, object creation. At first I struggled, but on the fourth attempt I managed to create a spear-like object made entirely of ice.

“Impressive, Sam. Ice magic is considered an intermediate level. It usually takes a fair amount of skill to master, but you seem to be picking it up easily.”

A sense of pride at my accomplishment bubbled up inside of me. Even though I barely knew anything about magic, having learned new skills already filled me with confidence.

“I thought it would be more difficult, but it feels like I learned all of this already.”

Silvia furrowed her eyebrows and nibbled the corner of her lip.

“Is something wrong,” I asked.

She sighed. “You’ve studied magic before, but you weren’t able to use fire magic when you were younger, and you hadn’t learned creation magic either; you definitely hadn’t reached element variants, like ice, yet. I’m just worried that maybe this has something to do with—no…nevermind.”

‘No, please tell me, whatever it is, I can handle it. Is it what you said before, about dark magic in my core? Or something to do with my uncle?”

Silva shook her head. “It’s nothing. Forget what I said.”

“That‘s not very convincing.” I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair. “You’re acting like the queen…like mom—” making direct eye contact, I finished sharply. “—but she’s better at hiding it when she lies.”

“That’s not fair!” Silvia said in protest. “Neither of us is deliberately trying to deceive you, we just…We want to protect you—keep you safe.”

“Then why are you keeping me in the dark?”

With a sigh, her shoulders dropped. “It’s nothing important, I promise.” Perking back up she said, “Instead of worrying about the speed of your progress you should be proud.” Silvia pointed at my chest. “First of all, your mana core is already at the fourth stage. There are many mages that take an entire lifetime just to reach that kind of core strength. Among elves, it’s more common, but only dedicated mages make it that far. I’m at the fifth stage currently, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you reach the sixth before me.”

“Is it really that rare? How long did it take you?”

She glared at me, reminding me that it was rude to ask questions that might reveal a ladies age.

Changing directions, I asked, “What about Vorlin?”

Silvia chuckled. “He’s a magic swordsman. He focuses more on swordsmanship, so the comparison isn’t really fair, but as far as I know, he’s at the third level. That doesn’t mean he’s weak though, his skill set is just different.”

I nodded in understanding. “You said ‘first’ before, so what else is there?”

“Well, if you need me to spell it out…” she paused and made eye contact as if to ask if I wanted her to go on. I nodded so she continued, “…you’re a quadra-elemental that learned the basics of object creation experimentally, and in just a few hours. To top it all off, you’re bonded with a dragon. Most mages your age, even the talented ones, haven’t even started working on object creation yet.”

“When you say it like that, I guess I do sound pretty amazing.”

“Don’t get cocky, Sammy. you’re still behind in other ways. Body enhancement being one of the more important ones.”

“Right, speaking of which, I should probably be getting to the training field.”

Silvia shook her head. “Not today—” with a nod, she drew my attention toward the door. Lumia was leaning against the frame, her arms crossed over her chest and a scowl etched on her face. “—looks like you’ve got something more important to take care of.”

Earlier I’d been too panicked to notice, but the sight of Lumia made my heart beat stop. Her silky black hair fell in bouncy waves around her four onyx horns and down to her shoulders. Her eyes, both piercing and gentle, glimmered like red rubies and were complimented by her plump pink lips. Her skin was pale—delicate—and she wore a white dress that seemed tailored to fit her curves perfectly.

Her breasts were rounder now too, causing me to realize she wasn’t the same Lumia from my dream. She had aged, as I had and was no longer the young girl I remembered. However, she still exuded the same aura of beauty that captivated me six years ago.

Shifting her weight and looking me in the eyes, she asked. “Is staring like that some kind of earth custom? Because if so, I don’t like it.”

“No, sorry. I didn’t mean to stare, I was just…you’re beautiful.”

She smiled sweetly. "Come on, let’s go."

Lumia turned and walked away leaving me stunned.