Her magic, it seemed, was equally enthusiastic. As Anika’s hands moved upwards, a large half-sphere of water burst into the air, the traumatic separation of the water from the rest of the pool making the remaining water crash and boil under her sphere, sending waves of water rebounding and crashing back into the sides of the pool after colliding in the void left behind.
The magical bowl of water that arrived in front of Anika’s eyes was larger than Leka’s demonstration had been. Not by a lot, but it didn’t need to be larger by much to be drastically larger than anyone would have expected. At her level, the average manipulation ability was just over a cubic foot of water. In front of her hovered nearly four cubic feet of water. Leka, usually quick with an answer or explanation, just turned to stare at Anika, her mouth slightly agape, as if she had already planned her feedback on the attempt and instead was left speechless.
Anika, in turn, was staring at her gigantic blob of water. She had put all her effort and focus into this first try, but had not expected to be nearly this successful. She had definitely not expected to lift quite so much water, though she had been trying to raise as much as possible by imagining a giant bowl, taking Leka’s lesson about coloring over the lines to heart. She noticed Leka staring at her and, misinterpreting the expression to believe she may have done something wrong, dropped her hands back down to her sides. The water in front of her dropped like a cannonball, sending a huge surge of water back up from all sides, splashing wildly up and out of the pool.
Leka snapped out of it in enough time to prevent the two of them from being soaked by the water surging to meet them on their platform. She quickly erected a magical shield that collected the water and diverted it back into the pool like a waterfall. The commotion of crashing waves and splashing water drew the attention of the other trainees practicing in their cubicles, and they turned to stare.
Anika, for her part, wanted to melt into the floor. She had just wanted to prove she wasn’t useless, but now everyone was staring at her and it was not a sensation she liked. A small part of her rational mind knew that they were not staring at her for a negative reason (other than losing control and slamming the water back into the pool, of course). Logically, people lose control a lot while learning magic. But she still felt the bubbling of anxiety in her that happened when her mind was convinced she had done something wrong. She had clearly proven she had strong magic but did she also demonstrate a lack of will power by losing it so quickly? She internally berated herself, starting a bit of a negative spiral, her anxiety increasing. She knew the other trainees were still staring, and being the center of attention was not her thing.
“Well,” Leka finally spoke. “That was exciting.”
Anika remembered hearing her say those exact words earlier in the day after they fought the Scurry Captain. She wasn’t sure how she felt about Leka’s idea of excitement.
“Umm, sorry,” Anika said quietly, turning her back to the other trainees staring across the room. They were clearly trying to listen in.
“No need to apologize! I admit that was unexpected, but what a spectacular display of magical aptitude! You have the highest natural ability I’ve ever seen, by far! The amount of water you were able to manipulate for your level is completely unheard of. This is all very exciting. If you can apply your will and refine your manipulation to match your natural ability, you will be able to do things no one has been able to do before!” Leka beamed and spoke excitedly, clearly thrilled with the prospect of working with a student with Anika’s magical power.
“Thanks?” Anika said questioningly. She had not expected quite so much enthusiasm and it was a bit overwhelming when contrasted with her anxiety over having done something wrong. The amount of emotions she had been through today was really taking its toll, and she was becoming a bit overstimulated, especially with the feeling of being watched, and potentially judged, by the trainees in the stalls.. She wasn’t quite sure how to respond to Leka’s excitement, so ‘thanks’ was the best neutral word she was able to get out.
Leka turned slightly to step around Anika and addressed the onlookers, “Enough of that! You’re clearly too distracted from your practice to continue. Dinner will be set soon - go prepare to eat.” Her tone demanded no reply other than compliance, and the group of young trainees quickly filed out of the room.
Leka stepped back and turned her attention back to Anika, “Now, where were we… “ she looked down at the pool, where the remnants of waves rippled near the stone edges. “Right! That was an excellent first use of Manipulate Water. You will be able to advance quickly in your gross manipulation skills. You may find it harder to learn fine control, however, as you are starting from such a large capacity. We will need to focus on turning your ability into a club before it can be honed to a knife.” Leka chuckled, patting Anika on the shoulder.
Anika, for her part, was relieved that the other students had left and tried to refocus herself, taking deep, slow breaths in through her nose and out through her mouth. Leka allowed Anika the time to collect herself before giving a response, which Anika appreciated.
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“So, what do I do?” Anika asked, looking out at the pool to avoid having to make eye contact with Leka.
“Well, the first thing to do is repeat what you just did! Then, try to change the magic using your hands, like I demonstrated. Aim for slow, steady control of the movement. Try to move the water and morph the shapes slowly rather than quickly, as you did the first time.”
Anika nodded, putting her full attention back on the pool in front of her. She focused her will on the water in front of her, imagining the same big bowl as she brought her hands together into a cup. She wondered if she could lift even more water this time, just to satisfy the nagging anxiety still pricking the edges of her consciousness. She tried to push the feeling aside, taking more deep breaths as she focused on the shape of her magical bowl and plunged it down into the water, seeing the satisfying ripple indicating her ability was working. She focused on the shape of the bowl and, this time, tried to lift it slowly and steadily out of the water, raising her arms steadily in front of her.
The water lifted out of the pool, less turbulent this time, leaving a rushing waterfall to fill the space instead of the violent crashing that had shook the remaining waters of the pool the first time. The water reached eye level as her hands did, and she noted with some sadness that the water appeared to be taking up the same amount of space as the first time. Pushing aside the disappointment that she had not been able to lift more water, she tried to shape the water as Leka had.
She slowly brought her hands closer together, moving them from their horizontal position into a position that was about 45 degrees from vertical. The water moved in waves, undulating and rippling into a rough trench rather than maintaining the smooth, glasslike edges that Leka had demonstrated. She focused on calming the turbulence, attempting to achieve the clean lines she had observed. A particularly unruly section of water bulged outward as she tried to shape the water, and she resisted the urge to mentally smash the ballooning water, figuring that was likely to lead to another loss of control.
After a few minutes of polite magical whack-a-mole with small projections of water in her trench, she had achieved a somewhat smooth, mostly stationary shape in front of her, though it looked more like a trough drawn by a 4-year-old than the clean, sharp lines and pointed bottom that Leka had demonstrated. Not daring to take her eyes off the water, she spoke, “How does it look?”
Leka nodded, though Anika did not see it, and answered, “Quite good for a first attempt! Water can be an unruly element to contain, and you managed to shape it in a good amount of time! It will be faster and more defined the more you practice, but for now, try morphing it into a sphere.”
Anika made an affirmative sound and began to separate her hands, returning them to a cupped shape but moving into the position of holding an invisible ball. She did not quite maintain control over all the water this time, however, and a section of water fell out of her magical grasp back into the pool, leaving her with something more resembling a deflated basketball than a plump beach ball, as she had intended.
She gritted her teeth and reasserted her will on the water, imagining the ball in front of her, and packed it together like she would a snowball. This seemed to work, as the remaining water formed into a rough ball. She was not quite ready to call it a sphere, lopsided as it was, so she continued to focus on it, moving her hands around her invisible ball and willing the magic to work the water into a perfect sphere. Ripples moved across the surface of the water each time she worked her hands around the ball in front of her, but slowly the blob became more spherical and the ripples subsided.
As soon as the water had reached its intended shape, Leka spoke, not waiting for Anika to indicate she had completed the task. “Very good! The sphere is often easier to imagine and a shape that water prefers. Now, place the water back into the pool gently. When the sphere reaches the surface of the pool, imagine it running out of the bottom, as if the sphere was a leaky bucket, until it has all returned to the pool.”
Anika slowly began moving her hands downward, and the sphere mirrored her movements until it was resting on the surface of the pool. Moving the water was much easier than shaping it. She did as instructed and imagined a small hole in the bottom of her magic, instructing the water to pour out of the hole and into the pool. The water obliged and the sphere quickly emptied into the pool, not quite as gracefully as she had hoped, but with far less splashing than she had feared after her first cannonball return. Once the water had all returned to the pool, she dropped her arms to her sides and looked at Leka.
“Not bad for a first attempt!”
“Second,” Anika corrected without thinking about it, then realized she had interrupted, “Sorry.”
“Your first attempt shaping water and you managed to morph it into two shapes. You made good time - I’ve certainly seen folks take far longer, or not be able to achieve the first shape at all! Sometimes less is more, and controlling a smaller mass tends to be less unruly, but it seems your magic naturally wants to be big and bold. That’s not a bad thing!” Leka had noticed the momentary look of panic on Anika’s face when she said the magic was big and bold.
“So how do I get better? What’s the next step?” Anika tried to focus on the training, though she was starting to become aware of the rumbling in her stomach and wondered how long she had been in the training room. Her time sense being less than stellar, she had no concept if it had been minutes or hours to shape the water.
“We have some more time before dinner, so you can continue to practice a bit more, if you would like. And further, the next step is just that - practice! You practice manipulating the shape of the water until you can form the starter shapes smoothly and easily. Then, you take away the hand movements and focus on repeating the process with only the feel of your magic.
From there, you try to form different shapes with the water - more intricate figures that start to require a small amount of fine control. You’ll also, at that time, start to work on segmenting and separating the water you lift into smaller pieces. Of course, you’ll also want to practice with different amounts of water, so you can learn how different amounts of water feel to your magic sense. As you practice, your ability to recognize the magic in yourself and around you will grow; all this is the prerequisite to future lessons.”
Anika nodded along, the progression of practice making sense to her. “I will try some more before dinner, but I am very hungry, so don’t let me miss it!”
“Of course not,” Leka laughed, “getting plenty of nourishment is important for restoring our mana! I’ll watch from over there,” Leka gestured towards a bench along the side of the pool, “and I’ll stop you when it’s time for dinner.
Anika nodded, turning back to the water in front of her. She would focus on improving the speed of her water shaping, and then she could finally enjoy some dinner and find out how Lily had spent her time in the Aether practice room.
This sweet and clean romance was inspired by the old tale of "The Elves and the Shoemaker," but it is too far afield to be considered a retelling.
Read if you like:
- ? High Fantasy
- ? Humorous Banter
- ? Slow Burn Romance
- ? Exploration of elven customs and lands
- ? Random Acts of Kindness
- ? Found Family
Release Schedule:
Sometimes the smallest steps lead to the biggest changes.