The question had come out from nowhere. And yet, Trixie of course knew what that was!

  "Magic is something that gets people their wishes fulfilled!" Trixie answered with a bright smile, "Magic is what fuels the happy dreams of people!"

  That was what Magic was, and no one could convince Trixie otherwise! Why? Because the most important person in Trixie's life said so!

  The old woman nodded at Trixie's answer.

  "My name is Mary Lindon Tayer, you may refer to me as Miss Mary, Nanny Mary or Lady Lindon," The old woman said to Trixie, followed by a scowl, "If those are too hard, just Mary would work too, albeit that would be somewhat rude to use."

  What was the ol- "Nanny Mary." .... Was she... Was the ol- "Miss Mary."

  .... she was...?

  "Yes," ... Nanny Mary's scowl receded when Trixie thought about her as such, "Good, that feels better."

  How was she? She was cheating! That was the only possible answer! She was also a cheater! But a cheater of the worst kind! One that interrupted Trixie's machinations!

  "Not really," Nanny Mary said with a small laughter, "It is thanks to Magic, as you said. It is the ultimate way to fulfill the wishes of one."

  Magic?

  She was a witch!

  Burn that witch!

  "That is a very rude and outdated way of thinking for a girl as young as you." Nanny Mary said shaking her head, "What I am doing is something more simple, I just used a spell that allows me to know whenever you think of something rude to refer to me in your cute little head."

  She was peeking at Trixie's brain juices?!?!?

  "Not so much as reading your mind, but more whenever you thought about me and used a way to name me that was less than stellar, I got a message about it." Nanny Mary said snapping her fingers and there a weird shining circle filled with weird squiggles and figures like squares, triangles and what not manifested atop Nanny Mary's fingies, "See, it was this spell. One of my favorites whenever I need to teach new kids. Respect is the best way to move forward with the classes after all."

  So she was... kind of cheating? Trixie wasn't sure what to think about this.

  "And while it is a good way to see magic, it is not the only way." Nanny Mary put down her teacup and fully turned her attention to Trixie. "You are aware that most of your Knights use magic right?"

  Trixie knew that of course, it was what made them knights! The fact that they could do things that normal people like Trixie couldn't!

  Even if they were Trixie's toys, they still did things she couldn't do! That was because they were Knights and Trixie was not!

  "Yes!" Trixie answered, "Like that Knight is one of Trixie's favorites, he can use anything as if it was a sword! Trixie saw him picking up a stick and using it as a sword to defeat one of the newbies the other day!"

  The Knight in question was the one that Papa had put as their bodyguard for the picnic! The toy in question bowed to Trixie and lifted one of the tree branches near him and showcased what Trixie had said.

  *Swish-woosh-split*

  "Impressive," Nanny Mary said as the Knight cut a branch from a nearby tree with the stick, and before the branch hit the ground, he had already cut it into smaller pieces. "They sure are well trained... But then again..."

  Nanny Mary turned to look at Trixie who was admiring the coolz technique of the Knight.

  "Okay, so Magic is what allows him to use those techniques, that one is using 'Sharpness' as the spell for that. He brings the concept of Sharpness in whatever he is holding." Nanny Mary said drawing a circle in the air, Trixie felt... As if that thing could cut whatever it touched, which was weird, because it was just a squiggle in the air, "So if he picks a branch, that branch will have the concept of Sharpness added to it, usually it is a spell used to increase the Sharpness of a soldier's sword to ensure they can stay fighting longer... He is using it as a way to surprise whoever he is fighting."

  Nanny Mary nodded at the Knight, who in turn nodded back.

  "But, if I used it like this..." Nanny Mary then grabbed a napkin and threw it towards the tree trunk. The napkin turned stiff midway through travel and embedded itself into the tree trunk, "I got a very sharp projectile, could your knight do that?"

  Trixie turned to stare at the Knight... She got the impression that he couldn't do it, more so since Trixie herself couldn't imagine how that worked.

  "I don't think so," Trixie answered, then just in case turned to the Knight in question, "Can you?"

  "I am afraid not Lady of White," The Knight answered as thus, "I will endeavour to learn how to achieve that effect."

  Trixie was sure that he would.

  "This is a more advanced use of that spell, usually one learns to do this around the third or fourth circle, should one learn the Sharpness spell as first or second circle." Nanny Mary said nodding at the Knight, "I doubt he will manage to achieve this, your Father may be able to do something similar, but using different mediums. But that is more so because he is a Fifth Circle user and not because he knows these spells."

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  Papa surely could do it, he was Papa and he was The King of White! What else would one need to achieve that? Nothing else! Because Papa was coolz like that!

  "Then why does it matter?" Trixie asked, confused, why it mattered what or how they did that? If Papa could do it, then it didn't matter if the Knight could or couldn't!

  "Because one needs to understand the magic they wield, or they may end up committing mistakes that can't be fixed." Nanny Mary sighed as she said that, "What would happen if instead of 'Sharpness' he would have picked up something like 'Liquid manipulation'?"

  Trixie stopped to think about that, "He could manipulate water?" Was the answer that Trixie arrived at, that didn't sound dangerous, if anything it sounded weak.

  "But blood is a liquid," Nanny Mary pointed in a grim tone, "If he had picked up that spell instead, and pulled very hard, he may just kill himself."

  ....Yeah, that was bad, killing themselves was bad, they wouldn't be able to play with Trixie or get Trixie any candy like that!

  "So we must learn and understand what our circle does before picking them up." Nanny Mary said in a more serious tone, "Usually all the acolytes that arrive at the Tower start by learning all the possible spells they can pick. We check their affinities and decide what is the most fit for them... or we used to anyway."

  Nanny Mary had said that last part somewhat angry.

  "Nowadays they are standardizing the education, teaching fish how to climb trees." Nanny Mary scoffed at that phrase, "Imagine..."

  Trixie did imagine...

  "Won't the fishies have a hard time climbing the tree?" Trixie didn't know how a fishie would even climb a tree, if they were monkeys or kitty cats then maybe they could climb it, but fishies didn't had hands! How were they supposed to climb the tree?!?!?!?

  "Exactly," Nanny Mary nodded at Trixie, "But that is neither here nor there. I have a better way to do that."

  "A better way to teach a fish how to climb a tree?" Trixie asked intrigued, she wanted to know how a fishie could climb a tree too!

  "Yes," Nanny Mary said nodding, "I teach the fish not how to climb a tree, but how to swim, and if the fish wants to climb the tree or the mountain, then they will have the correct way to do so later. Be it by jumping through the dragon's gate at the top of the mountain or by sinking the tree into the ocean."

  ....Nice.

  "So... is Trixie... a fish? A monkey or a birb?" Trixie asked, she was sure that she was something in that example! If not why bring it out? She hoped that she was a cute kitty cat. She loved cats!

  "You are..." Nanny Mary said slowly, setting up the scene, "I am unsure, we will find out as we learn more I guess."

  Boooo!

  "Boooo!" Trixie booed! She booed with all her might!

  "I just met you today, Trixie," Nanny Mary said, laughing at Trixie's boos. "I need to learn more about you to decide. So far, you seem to be a normal girl, one who pays attention, so for now, you are a cute student. Better than I expected even."

  Of course Trixie knew how to pay attention, she was not a dumb girl. She knew that one should listen to the teachers when they spoke, or they would get angry and put Trixie in detention! and that wasn't good for Trixie! Then she would be late for her duties!

  Then the head maid would be angry and not let Trixie eat her yumyums!

  "Okay, let's go back to Magic." Nanny Mary said nodding at Trixie, "So, what is magic?"

  Trixie had already answered that one!

  But... if she was asking again... did it meant that Trixie would need to give a different answer? What had Trixie learned after their conversation?

  Magic was what allowed the Knight of White behind them to pick a stick and use it as a sword...

  Magic was what allowed Nanny Mary to know whenever Trixie thought of her as what she was...

  "Magic is... when people do something that a Trixie can't do." Trixie decided to summarize it as such.

  "Good." Nanny Mary said nodding at Trixie, "That is a good way of thinking about it. Magic is the act of bringing a change upon our reality, then what is the means to bring these changes upon reality?"

  "The squiggles?" Trixie asked, half confused, half sure, every time she had seen someone use their superpowers, they always did it like that.

  "Pfft..." Nanny Mary almost choked on her Tea, "Yeah... I guess you would call them like that."

  Then Nanny Mary picked up a new napkin and cleaned herself, a few droplets of Tea had fallen on her chin when she choked on her Tea.

  "Yeah, Magic Circles are what we use to affect reality. But even without them, if you know how something looks like you can reproduce the effect even without having that particular Magic Circle." Nanny Mary then drew a new squiggle in the air, "This one is 'Plant Control'. A common Magic Circle used in these areas thanks to the GreenHaven Association, and it's one Circle I don't have."

  Then pushing it towards the grass near them, the squiggle fell into the ground, a second later there was a few flowers blooming, these twisted themselves and soon there was now a crown of flowers. That was kind of neat...

  "See?" Nanny Mary then picked up that crown of flowers, "I know how it looks, what it does. So I can create it, but what do I use to bring this effect upon reality if I don't have the Magic Circle in question?"

  Drawings?

  Trixie was really tempted to say that she had drawn the squiggle, but she didn't because that was a trap! She knew better!

  Why did she know that was a trap? Because she had tried to do it before! She had copied the squiggles of one of the Knights of White and tried to use their superpowers, but had failed to do so!

  Trixie could change things thanks to the ToyBox and ToyChest, but somehow, the superpowers of the Knights of White was something she couldn't use!

  And she didn't know why! She had seen them using their superpowers several times since they moved to the mansion and Papa started working as the Knight of White.

  But she hadn't been able to use those superpowers! She also wanted to do cool things like that!

  More so because Papa didn't let Trixie use the ToyBox to play around!

  "I dunno," Trixie ended up saying, she didn't know okay! If she knew, she would have used them too!

  "Mana," Nanny Mary said with a smile on her face, "Some call it Ether, some call it Chi, Qi or Ki. A few call it Chakra, Reiki or Spirit Particles."

  Then as if to exemplify what she was talking about, Trixie saw Nanny Mary raise a finger and atop said finger a small blob of white...thing was formed.

  "This is what we refer as Magical Energy in this case, whatever you want to call it." Nanny Mary then pushed the small sphere towards Trixie, "After forming the first circle a mage gets access to this energy. Then using this energy one starts to be able to use spells and prepare to form the second circle."

  "Then what does a Knight use?" Trixie said pointing to the Knight of White that Papa had set up to keep Trixie safe. "Trixie hasn't seen them use something like this."

  Or well, now that Trixie was seeing it up close, she remembered seeing that the Knights of White seemed to focus something in their body before using their superpowers. The cheater had also done something like that.

  Trixie had seen it and thought it was something about the knights and didn't think it was something like this....

  "There is no distinction between a first circle knight and a first circle mage." Nanny Mary said, shrugging, "No matter what the Mage Tower or the Knight Association wants you to think. What differentiates them is what they do to get more power."

  So the difference was about how they got more power? Then what about all the toys that Trixie had drawn new squiggles in?

  "A Knight uses the newly acquired Mana to draw more First Circle spells, more often than not they focus on either power-ups or things that don't require too much energy to cast." Nanny Mary then drew a series of Magic Circles in the air next. Each one had words besides them.

  -Affinity up

  -Strength up

  -Agility up

  -Sharpness

  -Amp

  -Power Up

  "While Mages focus on refining what they have, if they picked as their First Circle the spell 'Fireball', then the second circle is drawn atop the first and refined." Nanny Mary then drew a new squiggle and wrote beside them Fireball, then atop that first squiggle she drew a new one. This time the second squiggle was standing atop the first. "To help them not get confused, they usually draw the second circle on a different axis. If the first circle is on the X axis, the second will be on the Y axis."

  ....The what axe?

  "The first circle will be lying down while the second one will be standing up." Nanny Mary explained in simpler, normal words, "In this example, Fire Ball will then evolve to Fire Spear, or maybe Faster Fire Ball. A smart mage will capitalize in what they already have and enhance it."

  Well, that was simple enough. Why didn't more people do that? Actually, couldn't a Knight do that too?

  "Why doesn't a Knight do that then?" Trixie decided to ask, she turned to look at their Knight of White, "Actually, why doesn't he do that?"

  That was the question, it didn't seem that hard after all.