Burn.
Melanie felt a powerful wave as she uttered the incantation. The room lit up brightly as a large fireball emerged from the sceptre and blasted its way towards the pot at high speed.
"Good heavens, Thal have mercy!" Cocobuki gasped with his mouth agape and eyes wide in horror as the fireball struck the pot in a blinding explosion, incinerating it with such a force that it sent Cocobuki flying backwards slamming against the wall and blew apart the door behind him, splintering it into thousands of pieces.
"Oh my god, Cocobuki!" Melanie panicked as she stumbled across the room to aid him.
Cocobuki was lying on the floor on his back with his arms outstretched gazing towards the ceiling. "I think I just saw my life flash before my eyes" he said without averting his gaze. Melanie grabbed onto one of his arms and together she helped him back onto his feet again. After recovering from his shock he dusted his robes down.
"I'm so sorry, I don't know what just happened" Melanie wept apologetically. Her face had gone a deep red in embarassment and shame and she was in a complete fluster. She felt terrible at what she'd just done.
"No no, it is quite alright" Cocobuki said reasurringly as he finished brushing off his robes with his hands, almost as if something like this had already happened once before and he was quite used to it. He let out a deep breath and looked up at her with a light smile. "At least now the matter over whether you can cast spells is without question, however your ability to control them is a different one altogether. With that kind of strength we can't just let you go around completely destroying everything around you. People will start to ask questions as well as that kind of raw and untamed magic being extremely dangerous and destructive." Melanie lowered her head still feeling ashamed at what she'd done.
Other mages of the order began rushing into the once sealed room looking worried and bewildered about what just happened and gasping at the charred mess that now lined the room from top to bottom. Cocobuki waved them away and then turned his attention back to his new student. "We should probably head into another room. You'd best cover your head so nobody sees your face" he said and motioned Melanie to follow him.
In the main hall a few of the mages started to mutter amongst themselves and were pointing towards the now burned-out husk of the room. Melanie sheepishly lowered her head and pulled her hood over to hide her face. Cocobuki unlocked another door across the other side of hall and hurriedly ushered Melanie inside then locked the door behind them.
"Alright, we should be safe in here now" he said. Melanie pulled her hood down and let out a sigh of relief. She was still shaken up about what had just taken place. The rush of adrenaline was making her feel jittery that she was too restless to stay still. "I could feel it, I could feel the aether! I don't know how but I knew it was there and I was able to touch it" she said excitedly as she lightly danced on the spot and rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
"You have done well to have come this far so quickly. Very few students have been able to create as much a spark on their first day. Before we do anything else though we're going to have to do something to dampen the strength of your magic." Cocobuki began to fumble around some nearby shelves that were lining the walls. "Now, where did I put them..." Cocobuki pulled out one or two items before landing his hands on a small ornate box and pulled it down from the shelf. He opened up the box in front of Melanie and pulled out a small brass ring with a single white crystal embedded in it and handed it over to her. "Here, put this on" he said as he closed the box and placed it back on the shelf. "That is what we call a "Training Band." We only ususally hand these out to mentors so they don't overpower new recruits during training. They adjust for all jobs and professions so you can use this for any other jobs you might decide to undertake if that is to your decison. Over time the ring will adjust to your skills and that of any fellow comrades in your company."
Melanie placed the ring on her ring finger and gazed down at it. It was just a plain brass band with an indent in it and a clear square cut crystal set inside the indentation.
"Now then, let us test this out one more time." Cocobuki dragged another pot from the back of the room and had a quick peek inside it to make sure there wasn't anything of value still in it, then took a few steps backwards, pondered for a moment and backed himself all the way to the very rear end of the room so his back was against the wall. "Now, try not to obliterate this room if you can help it, I really do like this room" he said with a slight grin.
"Okay" Melanie raised her sceptre in front of her and readied herself once more. "I do hope this ring works!" She began breathing heavily with anticipation and after a few deep breaths to calm herself down began to meditate whilst reaching out with her other hand feeling for the same energy. It didn't take as long for her this time to reach out to the fire aspect now that she'd experienced it once already, and once again she started the incantation. "Burn." The air around her crackled again with a firey glow and the sceptre glowed in response. This time a smaller fireball hurled its way towards the pot shattering it into a dozen large pieces that harmlessly fell to the ground. Melanie was so excited she lept on the spot with a big smile on her face, however she also noticed that she was starting to feel a little fatigued.
"It looks like we are onto a winner here" Cocobuki grinned as he emerged from the room's rear. He then looked up at Melanie seeing that she was looking a bit peaky. "As you have just experienced, each time we use magic drains us from a small amount of our aether, which is why you are feeling a little fatigued right now. As part of our practice it's vital that you use both types of aether when spell weaving. To try it any other way can be potentially hazardous to both you and the land itself. Now, I want you to repeat what you did with fire magic, only this time I want you to focus on the ice aspect and incant an ice spell on those pot shards."
"You're not going to hand me another scroll with a single word on it are you?" Melanie asked narrowing her eyes at him, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Cocobuki grinned like a cheeky child. "I am sure you will remember this one easily enough. The incantation is "Freeze.""
Melanie rolled her eyes and readied herself once more with her sceptre in hand. She started to meditate whilst feeling around for the ice aspect. Her fingers danced lightly in the air as if gently playing an instrument until she felt a cold snap. She pulled her sceptre inwards towards her and then spoke out the incantation "Freeze". The ground and air around her started to go cold and misty and a bolt of ice sped through the air and shattered the pot fragments into even smaller pieces and covered them in a light layer of frost. Melanie felt herself become more invigorated and eager to learn more.
"As you saw your ice spell not only restored your aether but did a much smaller fraction of damage. Were you to have cast a fire spell instead those shards would've been reduced to nothing more than a pile of ash and dust but at the cost of using more of your aether." Cocobuki walked over to a wall where a tapestry showing various elements was on display. "Now that you've mastered how to cast basic fire and ice spells it is time to explain how we practice our magic. Aether is what gives us and everything else around us life. Drain too much of it at once and you can pretty much guess what would happen, which is why we restrict ourselves to only use the latent ather that's within us and the ambient aether that's around us. Recognise this depiction?" he pointed up towards the tapesty. Melanie looked at the tapestry and recognising its signifiance nodded. "It's the elemental wheel" she replied.
"That is correct" Cocobuki replied with a smile. "As well as displaying each elemental's strengths and weaknesses there are also two different pairs of magic - those that are aligned with the astrral and those that are aligned with the umbral. Magics that are aligned with the astral consume and are used in producing devastating and powerful spells whilst magics that are aligned with the umbral replenish and are used for lesser powerful spells. In other words fire spells are your go-to in combat and once you've depleted your aether through fire magic you must then replenish it through use of ice magic. This way we can maintain a balance without risking becoming vulnerable or completely depleting our own aether. Aether can also be replenished through general rest and consumption of food and ether potions, however during the midst of battle it's not going to be possible to just stop what you're doing and take a nap or grab a snack and ether potions can have some nauseating side effects if they are being consumed too quickly in succession, so it is important that you reserve enough of your aether to be able to switch alignment and don't push yourself beyond your own limitations. Am I making this clear to you?"
"How will I know if I'm reaching my limits so I don't push myself too hard by mistake?"
"You will know because you will become too exhausted to continue. If you were to keep on pushing beyond that point then you would most likely collapse and cease to exist, so try not to let it come to that."
Melanie felt a cold wave rush through her body that made her shudder and swallowed hard at the thoughts of getting herself killed by overworking herself.
"Now, go out there and go practice meditating and using your spells. Remember what I said about using both types of aether and not allowing yourself to get completely drained, however in the event that does happen and you're still alive and your enemy has not been defeated then I can only offer you this one single piece of advice..."
Run.
