Over 80% of people under thirty find that the greatest inconvenience of eating at a table without chairs is the inability to play footsie with the cutie across from them. In this case, the subject was Jasson and the cutie was Petra, so footsie was out of the question. Instead, Jasson felt the urge of 99% percent of all humanity, old and young. That, upon being fed excessively with a meal of great delight, mankind desires to put their feet up and promise that they won’t fall asleep. 

Regrettably, Petra chose this sluggish time to proceed with her lesson.

“Listen well because I won’t be repeating myself.” Petra said as Clara cleaned the table, “Magic depends on three things, all of which are exhaustible. The first is Mana. This is like fuel for the fire and is the determining factor of how powerful a mage can be. Mana can be increased slowly over a lifetime, although it is known to skyrocket after rare life-changing events. You can replenish Mana through rest or special Mana Crystals, although these days most people just use potions.”

Jasson tried to open his phone, whether to take notes or scroll he wasn’t sure. But the black screen forced him to turn back to Petra and look her in the eyes. Then, deciding that the eyes were too intense, looked her in the nose instead.

“Okay,” Jasson said, handing Clara his plate, “But can we sit down for this? We’re not eating at the table anymore.”

“Wuss,” Petra said, walking over to the beds, “Always needing to rest. You’re wasting your Q&A time. You can sit on that one by the way, I doubt Clara will care.”

The apprehension of every boy sitting on a girl's bed flitted through Jasson, but Petra’s suspicious glare burned it away like fog at noon.

“I wouldn’t want to waste my Q&A,” Jasson said, plopping down on the mattress, “Please go on.”

“Only because I have to,” Petra said, smiling fractionally, “Glad I have your attention though. Let's see...the second part of Magic is the Mind. Your Mind. Magic is controlled by envisioning its shape mentally and willing it to do so. If you were to take a Water Crystal and try to fill a glass using magic, then the crystal would pour water from every side and get your hands wet. Nothing terrible, but when you use fire…”

“Ah,” Jasson said, “I see.”

“Exactly.” Petra said, poking Jasson’s forehead, “You need to envision it perfectly, otherwise it will go wild. My scars are proof enough of that. The more dangerous and volatile the element, the less control the mages have. Beware a Water Wizard, they are often the most skilled at control, no matter the experience level. To be honest, run if you see a Water mage. They have a nasty habit of drowning you.”

Jasson felt chills at the thought of drowning. He’d always felt that, if not number one, drowning was up there as a top five worst way to die. Surely above falling from a great height, although definitely less than being buried alive.

“And finally,” Petra said, reaching into a pocket, “There are Magic Crystals. Manifestation Crystals to be precise.”

Petra took a bag from her pocket and shook it out on the bedsheet, spilling a rainbow of sparkling crystals. Ten of them glinted in disarray, most about the size of Jasson’s thumb. Petra tried to line the crystals up on the bedsheets, but they rolled too easily like cylindrical Skittles.

“Boulderdash,” Petra said, “This is why I wanted to teach you on the table.”

Jasson raised an eyebrow and said, “We can move back if this is too hard for you.”

Petra glared at Jasson, then smirked and said, “As if. I’ll just group them by category so I don’t have to worry about the rest. Where to start…hmmm.”

Petra lined up a Blue, Green, Orange, and Clear Crystal, holding them steady as the rest tumbled between her crossed legs.

Petra touched each in succession and said, “The Base Elements: Water, Earth, Fire, Air. The main reason I lost my bet. There’s no way you would have gotten seven without these.”

“I absolutely agree,” Jasson said, “Without those four there’s only six others to guess.”

Petra rolled her eyes and let the crystals tumble as she gathered three more.

“Oh shut up,” Petra said, lining up the next three, “The other Elemental type Crystals: Light, Darkness, and Cold more commonly known as Ice. These are the last ones which are classically called elements.”

They glittered from the bed, facets turning as Petra shifted. Yellow for Light and Black for Darkness. Not quite the balance Jasson had imagined, more of a bumblebee than the diametric opposition fundamental to the universe. Jasson had been expecting white and black, like Yin and Yang. Instead White was for Ice rather than Light. As big as Jasson’s pointer finger and fully opaque, the Cold crystal lacked any patterns that looked like ice. The crystals tried to roll again as Petra prepared the rest, but she caught them this time.

“Stay,” Petra said, then pushed forward the final group, “These are the weird ones. Healing, Gravity*,  and Raw Magic. Healing is quite normal, and gravity seems to move things around, but Raw Magic? There are no limits, and very few people are good at it. I only have a Raw Magic Crystal to complete the set, which is why it’s so small.”

*(Due to its presence in magical theory, Gravity was discovered long before apples were. Not that they understood anything about the nature of Gravity. Most scholars thought there was a giant purple crystal in the core of the world. Since crystals were found in the ground, modern scholars found it much more sensible than some insane liquid rock and Iron core theory.)

Red for Healing, Purple for Gravity, and what looked like solidified Glitter for the last one. The Raw Magic crystal sparkled brilliantly but was absolutely tiny. The size of Jasson’s pinky nail when the other Crystals were at least thumb-sized. The Raw Magic Crystal didn’t even roll since it was flat, making it even smaller.

In short, Jasson thought, the crystals are all the basic combinations of red, yellow, and blue. That’s not hard to keep track of, even with black and white thrown in. The only major color missing is brown and…Pink? Or is pink considered a lighter shade of red?

“Interesting,” Jasson said, “So I take it that you can only use one at a time?”

“Obviously,” Petra said, “but I’m not done explaining yet.”

Jasson rolled his eyes and said, “Go on. I’d hate to waste my time for questions with questions.”

“You little- fine!” Petra crossed her arms, “Lecture over. You have two more minutes, ask away.”

Crap, Jasson thought, I don’t have any good questions ready.

“Umm,” Jasson grabbed his phone from his pocket and tried to scroll.

Right, Jasson thought, no power. What if-

“All right,” Jasson held up his phone, “how would I charge this? What crystal produces electricity?”

“Electricity?” Petra frowned, “What’s that?”

“Oh,” Jasson thought then said, “I guess you’d probably call it lightning.”

Recognition dawned in Petra’s eyes and she said “Oh, Lightning. Oh gee. I wonder which crystal Light-ning comes from. It’s a puzzle.”

“Hey,” Jasson said, “You didn’t even know what electricity was.”

“That’s just a regional word for lightning,” Petra said, “I can’t be expected to know every backwater term.”

“Backwater?” Jasson said, “It’s the scientific name for…well for electricity! Lightning is a type of electricity. Whatever, can I see that Light Crystal? I want to charge my phone.”

“Sure,” Petra said, holding the crystal out, “it didn’t cost that much so you should be able to afford it when you break it.”

“I’m not going to break it,” Jasson said, taking the yellow crystal, “besides, I don’t have any money right now.”

“Then you’ll just have to work off your debt to me,” Petra said, grinning, “I promise to not be too demanding.”

Jasson ignored Petra and held the Manifestation Crystal to his phone. It wouldn’t go in being the size of his thumb, so Jasson held it against the Thunder charger port. Nothing happened.

“How would I go about putting a small amount of lightning into my phone,” Jasson said, “Is there a spell for it?”

“That’s a Viewing Crystal right?” Petra said, leaning over as she scooped the other crystals into the bag, “It’s a simple spell. Just imagine that feeling of a static shock and try to visualize it more powerfully. Envision it going into your Viewing Crystal and lighting it up. It will hurt when you do it wrong, but I doubt that you’ll need healing if so. I’m not gonna charge it for you if you can’t manage, so you might get rather sore from this.”

Jasson tried, but couldn’t seem to get the hang of it. Send the electricity into the port and light it up. What was he supposed to envision with that?

Jasson felt Petra watching him, and then Petra said, “Look, usually Mages use words that encapsulate the meaning of the spell. It helps separate spells subconsciously, which prevents crossover. What do you want to do? Why do you want to do it? What does it look like? What word will fit? That sort of thing. If you pick a good word it can even become iconic enough for others to copy it.”

Most protagonists would have come up with some cool name, power move, or something clever. Lightning Blood Infusion, Electric Awakening, Ionic Ressurection. Jasson, although decently clever, was not feeling like being creative at the moment. He was feeling tired and dirty, and wanted to scroll through his favorite creators instead of listening to Petra degrading him.

Besides, there’s only one word to use for refilling his phone’s battery and it’s not ‘Wattage Whirlwind’.

“Charge.” Jasson said, and with the will of mountains and the hope of half a dozen religions, he pushed electricity into his phone.

Please, Jasson thought, I need this!

Doot

The little battery icon popped up saying 9% and charging. Hope surged like a victorious army, triumphantly roaring as they looked forward to a banquet of minute-long dopamine hits.

“Wow,” Petra said, “Nice.”

Jasson said, “I thought you’d say 'getting it to charge on the first try is the bare minimum' or something.”

Instead of backing off in irritation, Petra thumped Jasson on the shoulder and said, “Well it’s not. In fact, it’s rather impressive. And not because this is your first time casting a spell, but because you didn’t get shocked while doing it. You envisioned it perfectly, not letting an invisible fraction escape elsewhere. On top of that, you’re maintaining the charge subconsciously! As if it’s the most natural thing in the world. I’ll give you praise when you deserve it, not for basic things. This is something worth being proud of, but only for a couple of minutes. Don’t let it get to your head.”

Jasson felt a rush of pride as he watched his phone charge. Petra had given him a real compliment, one he'd earned through actual achievement. Yes, the achievement had come naturally. But Jasson had spent most of his life charging his phone, so why wouldn’t it be natural? This was right. 

Jasson watched, hypnotized as he waited for the charge to increase. Petra stood a minute later, leaving Jasson to discover that his phone charged at an excruciating pace. He didn’t know exactly how fast it had charged in his past life, but now? It seemed like an eternity passed for each percent, and he had to hold the crystal against the phone the whole time. The charge had barely crept over 15% when Clara approached him.

“All right you,” Clara dried her hands off on a towel, smiling, “It’s time for us to get ready for bed. I take it you don’t have any pajamas?”

“I don’t have anything,” Jasson said, “Just my phone and wallet.”

“All right,” Clara shrugged, “well, it’s not like we have our father’s old clothes in the attic. You’ll just have to make do. Come on, Petra insists that you and I stand guard outside while she gets ready for bed.”

Ah, Jasson thought, They need to change clothes. So they’ll take turns guarding me to make sure I don’t try to peak. That’s…relieving. Not as much pressure on me, and more security for them.

Jasson said, “Wise. I wasn’t going to peep, but I’m grateful that you’re removing the option.”

Jasson stood from the bed, marveling that his legs weren’t asleep. Clara’s smile disappeared with the realization and she gasped.

“Oh!” Clara said, covering her mouth with her hand, “You’re right! I’m so sorry. I thought she was only talking about guarding in general. I’m going to go tell her that you’re perfectly safe and-”

“Please don’t,” Jasson said, “I could be a sus guy for you. Legit, thanks for the help.”

Then Jasson left the room with Clara trailing, stunned. Now, even in the back of their minds, they would have peace.