kindred Magic

Chapter 10

"I think I have an idea..." Dimitri slowly realized, but his face looked blank enough to be still searching the back of his memory. He felt nervous with everyone waiting for him to do something, but also, he was resisting the urge to remove his clothing since the hot spring island was beginning to accelerate how warm he was becoming. He would either get frostbite, heat exhaustion, or both simultaneously.

"Are you sure?" Wyllow asked with a raised brow that didn't go down until Dimitri looked more confident. Wyllow looked Dimitri up and down with his eyes, then led the group to a small volleyball-like court with packed dirt. It was one of the few places without a plant besides the natural paths along their property. Wyllow and Dimitri stood in the center; Wyllow opened his palm towards their moat and waved it slowly toward them like a rope. When the water trail got closer, he brought his other hand up to the one already directing the water, then brought them down away slowly. The trial of water broke into two different columns that matched their height.

"Should I do the same movement?" Dimitri asked.

"You can, but I don't know if anything will happen. Every element feels different, and it varies from person to person. Please do what you have imagined and make it happen naturally. Don't overthink it. Overthinking is the worst enemy to a mage's magic." Wyllow advised, then took a step back to watch with the others.

Dimitri looked down at his hands and wondered what in the world he was supposed to do. This was just another embarrassing moment of the day with three seasoned mages for him to do something; all he was doing was staring at his damn hands. His chest started to feel heavy as he began to get frustrated with himself. What was wrong with him? Why can't he do anything? Was he even a mage, as they said? Why is he always embarrassing enough? The thoughts swirled in his head repeatedly until he realized he was overthinking as Wyllow told him not to do. He couldn't even pay attention. Finally, he boiled over and punched the air at the pillar on the right, and a large plume of fire escaped from his knuckles. He shouted at himself while he unloaded everything for half a minute until he collapsed onto the ground, facing the sky.

While he was on the ground, Wyllow redirected the water back into his moat, then handed Dimitri a two-ounce sized corked glass vial with dark blue liquid inside of it, "Usually we try to have your body replenish the magic naturally, but since I had you empty yourself completely, I gave you a potion to help it replenish faster." Wyllow explained while Dimitri looked at the bottle, hesitant to drink it.

He uncorked the bottle, then smelled the top of the glass. It smelled sweet, like blueberries with a hint of vanilla flavoring. At least they flavored it for him. "How much would a bottle like this cost?" Dimitri asked, throwing his head back to take a shot of the potion, which was sourer than he expected, like a punch in the face going right into the pit of his stomach. "Did I even do anything to those pillars?" Dimitri asked.

Wyllow scoffed and shook his head, "All you did was make a little bit of steam." He answered while looking at the courtyard. He held both his hands palm down at the ground, followed by a stomp that shook the whole area. Four pillars of pebbles mixed with sand popped out of the ground at the same height as the water columns. "These are going to be the ones you have to break," Wyllow instructed, stepping aside to make room for Dimitri to dance to the first one.

Using the same sensation he felt from his frustration, he punched his hand at the pillar, this time watching the fire bake the sand and stones. It was brilliantly bright, and warmth flowed from the bottom of his stomach, through his heart, and then out of his knuckles. The pillar crumbles all over the ground within four seconds of continuous battering from the flames. He moved to the other one with the same tenacity, only taking another four seconds to turn the second pillar into a pile of debris. Then two seconds for the third one since he used both hands to push out an even more enormous plume of fire, but now he felt drained again. He squeezed out a decent amount of fire to partially cause the last pillar to crackle. He had to take a moment to breathe and catch his breath since he was now all out of his magic. It was annoying that he managed to make it this far, but he wondered what Wyllow was testing this time. It took another minute before he could finally break the last obstacle, much to the indiscriminate response from the three mages behind him.

"You should have waited longer before trying again. Every time you try to squeeze out what you barely have, your body resets the replenishment process." Wyllow explained. He crushed an invisible ball in his hand while, at the same time, the segments of the broken pillars collected into an enormous levitating mass. He began to sweat while trying to contain a certain pressure until it exploded into a plume of sand with a loud pop.

"What was the point?" Dimitri questioned curiously.

"The more you use your magic, the larger your capacity increases. If you don't use and properly strengthen yourself, you'll sit at a certain point and can't increase what you can do." Wyllow explained while sitting on a log-turned bench on the side of the court.

"How will I learn more than this knuckle spray I'm doing currently," Dimitri asked, prompting Sarah's giggle.

"I can only make targets for you to practice releasing magic and budgeting how much you use for a task, but anything else will have to be for when Drake gets here," Wyllow answered, which made Dimitri wonder what was so special about this mystical Drake he had heard about all day.

"How's your magic?" Sarah asked.

"It's doing pretty fine now. Going back and forth between tired and not tired is pretty confusing." He pointed out as he looked around at the forest on the other side of the moat.

"You'll get used to it. Not going to your limit will help." Sarah advised, standing next to him and looking at the same lakeside.

"As a few of the best mages in town, we'll ensure your capacity increases," Soyuvnik reassured him, but the gears in Dimitri's head began spinning. Being in a magical town, he had seen a disappointing amount of magic being used. He was ready to see magic at its full potential.

"But between the two of you, who's the best?" Dimitri turned around to ask. The two men looked at each other, calculating what to say.

"Naturally, I am." Soyuvnik boasted confidently. Wyllow only shrugged, disinterested in proving himself, "What? You don't think so?" Soyuvnik quickly demanded to know. Wyllow turned around and thought about his following words.

"We both have qualities that qualify us as the top few mages, but I didn't think a ranking system was in place. If anything, we cancel each other out." Wyllow carefully crafted his words to be political without enticing Soyuvnik to fight.

"You two could fight to see," Dimitri recommended, which made Sarah look at the two men with panic.

"That could work... As long as you're up for it." Soyuvnik agreed with Dimitri. All eyes were on Wyllow as he contemplated his decision.

"Sure." He replied. He brought a string of water from the moat Soyuvnik pierced with a white beam, turning it into powdered snow falling onto the court. Soyuvnik stood on one side while Wyllow took position on the other side. Dimitri and Sarah sped, walked between them, and sat on the bench underneath a protective dome Sarah had created.