Shewit had walked into the training square, her demeanor as still and quiet as usual. Upon getting to Lull, she had bowed and said:
“Greetings, Lull.”
“Greetings,” Lull replied. “I take it you have had a splendid rest, yes?”
“Yes,” she replied.
A few of Lull’s men trained farther away to her left and right, in training grounds annexed to hers. Once in a while, she would hear the noise of magic being worked, and feel a slight thrill go through her body.
“For today’s lesson,” Lull started, “I would be teaching you how to control the element of air. Like we established during your theoretical teachings, there are generally two types of magic,” he looked at Shewit, indicating that she complete his sentence.
“Ordinary and battle,” Shewit replied.
“Good,” Lull said, giving a satisfied nod. “And you also know that there are other groups of magic that exist, more special in forms than the general classifications, yes?”
“Yes,” Shewit said.
“In what class of magic would you put the control of air?” Lull asked.
“Elemental or Nature magic.”
“Good. Now, I want you to observe. The air in this room is free and soft, almost unnoticeable, and difficult to catch unless you are paying extra attention to detail. An ordinary magic-user can reduce the flow of air, or increase it. That’s about the extent of control an ordinary magic-user has over nature magic. However, as the being of Balance and Chaos, or any other magician with access to battle magic, like me, we have the power to not only increase and decrease the flow but to shape the air, to weaponize it. You can control the air, for instance, into a club, a blade, depending on how good you are at precision. You can manipulate the air into shielding you from attacks. Some of us with access to battle magic use it as a shield, while sometimes you can also conjure a ball of energy to perform the same function. All that is needed here is your strength of will, imagination, and precision, and the elements are yours. When saying the spell, you have to feed your intent, the shape from your mind into it, and then you will have the shape of your desire.’
“Do you understand me?” he asked Shewit.
“Yes, Lull. I do.”
“Now watch,” he said.
Growing a little tense, Lull turned to the side and flayed his hands in the air. His movements were slow, deliberate. They would not be this way on a battlefield except if he was keen on dying. But here, he wanted Shewit to see his moves, every little thing that occurred before he made the magic work. He conjured the image he wanted in his mind, and then he spoke the magic words:
“Nefas qetin!”
At first, Shewit did not see anything, but then she noticed the rush of air increase around her, and then she saw it: a funnel of air hovering a little above Lull’s palm, almost invisible but for the flurry of its movement.
“See?” Lull told her.
Shewit nodded, her eyes wide with amazement. Lull watched her, a little girl, hair and eyes black as the night, smiling for the first time. She looked diminutive for the kind of power she possessed, still, she seemed to love training.
“Now, you try,” Lull said, releasing the funnel of air for it to dissipate at once.
Lull watched her get into position and began to prepare a comforting speech in his mind which he would use to placate the girl when she failed to shape the air around her. He already had the next lesson he would take her through to lessen the sting of her failure. Nothing had ever prepared him for what happened next.
Shewit had listened to everything that he had said, she had seen his moves, and more than that, she had seen through them as he worked the magic. She had felt the focus of his thoughts, and the way they had flowed with his moves, and how they had connected with the spell and then formed the shape of his imagination. She understood that all she needed was the focus, and that had never been a problem for her.
Widening her legs so she could achieve a more stable stance, she flayed her hands in the air, just as Lull had done a moment before. She conjured up an image of what she wanted, she stayed on it, willed it to occupy most of her mind, to flow from her mind, through her, and into reality, and then she said the words:
“Nefas qetin.”
Nothing had happened at first. But that was just a second’s delay as Shewit began to feel the rush of the air around her. Shewit continued to feed her intentions through the power of the spell until the shape was just as firm and sure as that which Lull had conjured. She turned to find Lull staring at the shape of air with an open mouth.
This was the first time since Lull picked up the career of training the beings of Balance and Chaos that one of them had successfully controlled air in their first ever try. Even the other mages who were training in the
