"Are you two just going to hug the entire time?!" Eliza called down from up above, and Tallia pulled back from me.
"Yes, you are supposed to be teaching me," Tallia said as she backed up, and my tails swished. The thing had a mind of its own, moving with my emotions more than my thoughts.
"Then come at me," I said with a smile, and Tallia nodded, dashing forward to punch straight at my face.
I raised a hand, catching Tallia's fist, twisting, and tossing her over my shoulder. Tallia flipped in that air, and the moment that she landed, she dove at me again, going for the same attack on my face.
I sidestepped Tallia, and it looked like she was going to fly by me, but she planted a knee in my chest as she passed. I caught the knee, flipped backward, slammed Tallia to the ground, bounced away, and back on her feet.
"You aren't even using your strength against me!" Tallia snapped as she got off the ground.
"Am I supposed to? I am trying to teach you some lessons, but I must know where you lack first. Why are you just coming at me with fists? Where is the rest of your power?" I asked curiously as I dusted my sweats off.
"You want me to go all out?" Tallia growled, and I nodded.
"Yes, but with less growling, or you will end up on your ass again. You have to stay calm in a fight, or you will lose more than your head," I said, and I could see Tallia visibly relaxed. "Much better. Now, come at me with some magic. Don't worry about hurting me."
Tallia nodded, and I could feel the magic she was pulling in. I prepared myself, doing the same, and placing wards and shields up to protect me from whatever was coming.
"Blinding Lights!" Tallia called, stabbing her hand in the air and dropping it to point at me.
Points of light appeared in the air around Tallia and then shot at me. This high-level binding spell would be used on a giant monster.
The pins of light slammed into me but exploded on my shields, having no effect on me, but that wasn't it. More points of light started to pepper me, tearing off layers of shielding. Tallia was multi-casting and doing a splendid job, but she was just using the basic spell.
As my shields started to get down to the wards, I raised my hand into the air the same as Tallia did. This time, hundreds of points of light appeared around me, and Tallia stopped casting.
"How can you make so many of them?!" Tallia gasped as she panted.
"You are very skilled to be able to multicast this spell over and over, but you should have changed the spell after the first time failed. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity," I explained, dropping my spell.
"How am I supposed to change the spell?! You talk as if this is common knowledge!" Tallia snapped, and I walked over to her, moving behind her.
"Sorry, I don't mean to make things seem like they are easy," I said, taking her arms in mine.
"What are you doing? Just because we had that talk doesn't mean I am ready for you to start treating me like the others!" Tallia growled, and I laughed.
"Yes, I get that, but that is not what I am doing here. If you want to learn how to change the spell, I need to show you how it works," I smiled.
"Fine, but don't get any strange ideas about this!" Tallia shot back, and I sighed. I wanted nothing more than to bury my face into her neck and surround her with my arms, but I would settle with this.
I called Pure Magic to me, and I could feel Tallia do the same. Changing a spell was not as easy as I made it look, but I had eons of practice.
"First, you need to create the spell without casting it. Do you understand what I mean?" I asked, and Tallia nodded.
"You mean to prepare the spell?"
"Yes. Let's start with something basic and easy to change. Both of us will create a Firebolt," I explained, and did just that, a small red magic circle appearing in the air.
"Firebolt," Tallia said, and the same circle appeared, but she looked back at me. "Why don't you have to speak to cast your spells?"
"Comes with experience and mastery. You can't wordlessly cast because you don't understand the principles of what you are doing. If you did, then you would be able to shape anything from magic. The spells that are taught are the basics of what the spell is. This means that they always do exactly what they are supposed to. When you understand what you are casting, you can change the existing values and add new ones," I explained, and Tallia nodded.
"I think I understand what you mean, but then why doesn't anyone else know how to do this? You can't tell me that there aren't people in this world that understand magic like this, right?" Tallia asked, and I shrugged.
"There might be, but your world is so divided right now that most of you have no clue what the other is doing. Even though you are all connected through the Vine, you all act like you are living in separate worlds. What is the point of learning something if you can't share it with others?" I asked, but it was Tallia's turn to shrug this time.
"I can see your point, but I am only one person. There is not much that I can do about this," Tallia said with a sigh, but Eliza called down from up above.
"Galio! They found Lady Katarina! She is being taken to the Barracks right now!" Eliza shouted with her hands cupped around her mouth.
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