Stronger Together chapter 76 (Patreon)

The trek back to the hotel felt much faster than the journey there.  Part of that was distraction I assume, and part of it was that we were  heading downhill. Regardless we made it back in what felt like twenty  minutes as opposed to the grueling hour of our first journey. Everyone  seemed quiet on the walk back, knowing we would be here for weeks was  unfortunate. I already missed Raven, Yang, and the vampires and I  resolved to call my girlfriend later tonight so I could hear her voice. I  was sure Barb would want to talk to her too.

In  the meantime though I had a feeling I'd be pretty damn busy. As I  expected from his expression Harry had come up with a plan to use this  time as a way to work on our training. He hung back to talk to me in  Barb's earshot as we headed back. "Hey Cam, so I was talking to River  Shoulders and the council members and we figured this would be a good  opportunity to train you and Barbara up a bit. If we're stuck here  anyway we might as well work on your magic skills. I'm a bit bummed Yang  won't be here to work with us but I'm sure between the three of us we  can catch her up once we get back. In the meantime the extra skills will  be important when we can finally find the Skinwalker."

I  nodded "I figured, and it sounds like a good idea. I was planning to  call Yang and tell her what we worked on each day, I figured Raven would  be able to tutor her if she has your lesson plan. The magic is  different here but if she knows what Yang needs to work on she should be  able to help. What about Cinder? She's damn powerful and doesn't know  too much about magic here, is there a way we could work with her too?  She'll be a huge asset in the fight like River said." I knew he had some  issues with Cinder still but I genuinely wanted to help her, and she  would be a huge help when we finally faced the monster so leaving her  out was clearly the wrong move.

Harry  sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I know. I don't like it much  but you're not wrong. River and I actually talked about it, despite her  actions in Chicago she hasn't actually broken any of the laws directly  that I know of. I have no reason to withhold training but honestly her  most potent abilities are her elemental powers and they don't really  work the same way my magic does. River said that her abilities are more  natural and organic and they resemble his in some ways, so he's going to  take over training her while the council members and I train you and  Barb." My eyes widened at that, honestly I was a bit jealous, personal  training from River Shoulders was going to be pretty intense.

Once  we got back to the hotel we divided up along those lines. River took  Cinder with him to get started on her training and after a quick  conversation with her about it she agreed that was the best move. She  already had some experience with the maiden powers and had a better  chance of getting up to snuff in time with them than trying to learn  soulfire magic from the ground up. Barb and I dropped our Aura's and  followed the wizards out to an empty stretch of clearing behind the  hotel Ebenezar had mentioned to us as a solid place to learn.

Harry  was the one who got up in front of us first, since he knew what we  could do. "Now, you both have some magical abilities you can channel  through your Aura. During this time what we need to do is teach you two  things. One is modulating your output. Your spells are far too powerful,  especially you Cam. The second thing is teaching you to form a proper  basic spell without your Aura as a crutch. Once you can control how much  power you put into a spell you'll be ready to learn to cast spells  other than just the subconscious outlet your magic chose as your first  casting. My teacher and the other council members haven't seen you do  your thing so why don't you show them how your Aura works before we  start."

That  was fair enough. I nodded to the group of older wizards. "Ok, you know  we aren't from around here, the power we use is called Aura, and it's  from a different world. The important thing to note is Aura works using  the soul, so when you cast magic with it in the style of this world it  converts to soulfire since that's the closest combination of the two." I  conjured my cloak of lightning "The issue is we have no idea how to  control the amount we use. If we tap out we die, there's a loophole  because our Aura has a passive shield that modulates Aura output to  prevent people from draining themselves so when we channel magic through  it we can use power without worrying about killing ourselves."

Ebenezar  responded first "Well, that is a bit of a pickle. But hoss was a bit of  a wrecking ball as a boy too even after he got to me, so I bet I can  teach you a thing or two. First let down that field. Now you can already  cast a spell, at least one, based on what you said. You just have  trouble controlling the power. What I want you to do is close your eyes  and try to remember the spell. Focus on the image of how it felt." I  followed directions. " I want you to imagine the memory in black and  white, empty and lifeless, just an image of the spell with no energy to  it. Now, I want you to shade the image a bit, just a touch, the blandest  weakest colors you can imagine. Good. Nothing yet? Try making the  colors just a touch more vivid, dial the detail up a tiny bit at a  time."

Barb  had less trouble with control especially with the nature of her talent  so Listens-to-Wind took her aside to work with her separately as I  worked with Ebenezar. Liberty followed him and Harry stayed back  watching us as I spent the next hour trying different mental exercises  to try to slowly dial in power. I had a few sparks and one or two sharp  spikes of lightning that would have been too much to sustain for more  than a second but I was still mostly ok. Finally after about a dozen  attempts I managed to get a sustained spark or green white lightningfire  to run between my hands for a full thirty seconds. It wasn't much to  look at but that was the point.

Ebenezar  grinned at me "Well done boy! You have a gift for this. This big lummox  over here took weeks to get his fool head around that kind of fine  control." He shot Harry a sad look. "Didn't have much need for holding  back where he was before I suppose." He shook of the melancholy as  quickly as it came, melting back into the confident master wizard.  "Anyhow, now that you got a bit of control we're gonna try using it on  something a bit different. You can walk a bit but we won't go straight  to runnin'. I'm going to get you started on trying a basic force spell.  Since you got electricity force should be an easier jump to make. Fire  would have been a better start but lightning ain't bad either."

He  looked at me sternly as he started his instruction, clearly more  serious about this particular feat than the last. "Ok, boy, now you need  to be real careful here. Force is one of the easiest mediums to start  with, but that has its own dangers. Magic is about intent and emotion,  and force is an easy thing to equate to emotion since we can exert it  with our bodies. Because of that easy connection though it's easy to go  overboard and use too big a spell. That's especially bad for you since  using up all your power would kill you. Before we get you started here I  have some meditation exercises I want you to go through to help calm  your nerves and get in the right headspace for delicacy."

He  sat down on the snowy ground, gesturing Harry and I to do the same. It  made me smile to see my teacher so attentive even to beginner magic  lessons. He really idolized the old man, it was sad to me that he would  lose that, but that particular butterfly flapped it's wings long ago. I  couldn't control the shattering of that illusion, only let him hold onto  it for as long as he could. I heard the old mans voice drifting into my  ears on the wind, calm and collected and even, and I lost myself in the  cadence. I followed the low rumble of his drawl down into the  meditation he described, slowly sinking into the mental space he wanted  me in.

I  could still see my body, still feel my emotions and think but there was a  disconnect between flesh and mind. Despite the break I could feel my  physical senses even more acutely, like I had two selves and one was in  each part of me. I felt the cold on my skin, heard the rustle of leaves,  smelled the pine needles and the storm on the air. Every sensation was  heightened but somehow completely disconnected from my brain at the same  time. Ebenezar kept talking, and I listened as he started to describe  force, to talk about it's being and what it meant, slowly getting me in  tune with the concept he needed me to exploit and illuminating me on its  degrees and importance.

His  voice was still even and measured "Force is all things. Force is the  motion that gives birth to flame, which lights our world, force is every  step you take and every sensation you feel. It is large and small, from  the most minute particle to the largest celestial body Force acts on  all things. Force is acting on you now, holding you to the ground,  keeping you in place as force acts on the planet and spins it through  space. You must understand force to wield it, you must know a thing to  make it bend. Put out your hands." I did as I was told. "Now feel the  force weighing on your arms, pressed against your skin. Feel as it coils  through your muscles to move you. Flex your hands. Feel the force move  the air, like an almost insubstantial bubble you pop with your palm."

I  could see now why he had put me in this state, because I needed this  hyper awareness of both body and mind to connect the words to the  sensations he was describing. I needed to be in two frames of mind, and  it gave me a real appreciation for the complexity of magic. With a deep  breath I followed his directions to the letter, feeling every sensation  and going through every step, and when I did the last part, I felt it.

I  felt the pop of the bubble against my palm, the non existent plane I  had to break when I moved, and as I did I felt the distortion from the  force traveling through the air. It was the hardest thing I'd ever done  to take that same discipline and control I'd earned on my lightning  spell and push it into the ripples of force radiating out from my palms  when I moved them. A wave of shimmering invisible air gently disturbed  the snow on the ground and shook a few leaves from the tree as the power  rushed out, and I opened my eyes to see Ebenezar and Harry grinning  down at me. I'd done it, but this was just the beginning.