Mark of the Rising Sun

It took over a week for everyone in classes to be able to embrace the magic the way the teachers wanted us to, so I was pretty bored with classes during the time. I tried to help people, but really, it was a journey that one had to do alone. They had to find their own path to the magical world, and I could only watch helplessly and wait.

The day came when we could finally take the next step in our education. Wind class was first. “Class, now that you are all pretty good at connecting with the wind, it is now time to begin actually using it, and molding it to your whims. We will start simple, with the most basic of spells. I want you to make a small puff of wind. Now you might ask how to do this. It is simple, when you connect to the wind, gather some of it together and then push it out away from you. Use your focus as the focal point to gather it around. Then just release it.”

Even though it may have been simple, it certainly wasn’t easy. Even though I felt really connected to the wind, I was having a hard time getting it to do what I wanted, and I still couldn’t figure out how the Focus came into play. I struggled at it for the whole hour and a half with not real progress being made until the buzzer went off and class ended. The professor was not deterred by the lack of success with the students as he revealed that even the most powerful of magic users take time to hone their craft and work with magic. He would have been surprised if someone had been able to do it in the first class.

It was several days of relentless work to finally figure it out. While I was searching around for the magic, I looked down at myself and noticed that my Focus was radiating its own power. I connected to that power, and through it saw the wind in a different light. All of a sudden, it became tangible to me and I gathered some of it to myself. I collated it into a small ball and then I pushed it away. I could hear a noise outside of myself and opened my eyes. The pile of papers in front of me had fallen onto the floor, knocked over by the small gust of wind that I had created.

“Excellent, excellent. Ms. Greene has done it. Congratulations. Now could you tell the class how you did it?”

I cleared my throat and spoke, “Well, it’s kind of hard to explain, but I’ll try. You need to connect with the magical nature of your focus. Draw on that power and the wind will bend more to your will and you can manipulate it more easily. Without that connection, you can’t really connect with the wind in a tangible way.”

“Exactly, the Focus is the key. This is why half witches and wizards have a hard time with magic. The majority of them cannot connect to a Focus and therefore struggle with even the easiest of spells. The Focus lets you use the energy and bend it to your will. Even with the Focus in hand, you are still limited by the strength of the magic in your body. The combination of the two determine what spells, and how powerful the spells you can use.”

Now that I had the basics down, I could do a lot of the basic spells that the teachers were having us do. I could make a small light out of thin air, make gusts of wind on a whim, and even levitate objects for small amounts of time. Even though I was doing the simplest of spells, my teachers were adamant that I was actually a natural at magic, and that I would go far no matter what field I decided to go into. Although this made sense, it was still good to hear the praise from the teachers. I tried to help others along the path, but the journey, at least at the beginning was a personal one.

Hope was also a good guide for me. When I faltered, I could feel her bolstering my strength and helping me as a guide. Between the two of us, we learned quickly and were moving fast. Kat became more distant the more she struggled, and even though I was doing the best I could to assist her, she became more and more discouraged. I think a part of her was jealous of how easily things were coming to me compared to her.

The day came when the teachers announced we had come to the halfway mark in our first semester. If we weren’t at a certain level of ability by the end of the week, we would be dismissed and sent to a smaller school that wasn’t as strict. There were only a few of the students in my classes who were not up to the standards yet, but Kat was one of those students, and I wasn’t about to let my first magical friend flunk out of our school.

I came back to the dorm at the end of classes that day to find Kat crying on her bed, her stuff pack haphazardly into her bags. She looked a mess, and I knew what I had to do. I sat down on her bed next to her and wrapped an arm around her. All the mean things she had said lately were forgotten, and I was focused on making her happy. We sat there, me waiting for her to say something.

She did, “Oh, it’s hopeless. I just can’t do this. I’m too stupid to be at the school and I can’t do anything right.”

I turned her face towards mine. “Don’t you dare talk that way. You were accepted to this school when so many others failed to get in. Obviously you have the potential to excel at this school. Don’t you give up now, not when we still have a week to get through this. You can do this , and together we can become the greatest magicians of this age.” I didn’t know if this was true, but I wanted to bolster her spirit, to get her out of the funk she was in.

“Okay, I won’t give up. You are right, we have a week to get this straight and I will not fail. They wouldn’t have accepted me if they thought I would fail at the beginning. I will work at this for as long as necessary until I get it down.”

“That’s the spirit. Now, focus, let’s immerse ourselves in the magic and figure out what it is you are doing wrong.”

Still holding her, I closed my eyes and felt the magic around me. To my surprise, I felt Kat doing the same next to me. I looked at her and saw her in a different light than I ever had before. I reached out to her in the magical sense and felt her presence. Then I thought, Man this is weird.

Kat’s voice replied to me in my head, You’re telling me. I am still finding it hard to get used to this feeling. A pause, then Wait, are you talking to me out loud?

No, it seems to me that we are connecting mentally, like I do with Hope. Maybe it’s because of the physical connection that we have.

But…but…but, this shouldn’t be possible. The teachers haven’t said anything about this.

Maybe not everyone can do it, or maybe it is a more advanced form of magic that they aren’t ready to teach us yet, but that we’ll learn about later. Regardless, this is our chance.

What do you mean?

Now I can see and feel what you are doing and help you in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to do it before. Show me what you are doing and maybe I can figure out where you are going wrong.

I waited as she prepared herself to begin again. I saw and heard her willing the Focus to work and the wind to obey her command. It was as if she was trying to take control pf everything instead of guiding it and letting it guide her.

Stop, you’ll never get anywhere like that, she stopped in mid thought, and I could feel her questioning glance at me. Now look at the Focus, focus on it.

I drew her mind to the Focus and waited. Oh, I think I get it now. I see what you see, and feel the Focus’s power. I watched as she started forming a ball of wind and I felt happy as I saw her release the ball into a small gust of wind.

You see, I knew you could do it. You aren’t worthless, you can do this, and we will be work on this together for the rest of our time here at this school.

I felt a sudden disconnection and returned to the real world. Kat had removed my arm from around her and stood up. Then she turned around and wrapped me up in a huge hug. Tears of joy were pouring down her face and a big smile took over. “Thank you, thank you so much Angela. You are the greatest friend ever and I don’t know how to repay you. I’m sorry for how I’ve treated you lately, it has just been so frustrating.”

“It’s okay Kat, I forgive you. What are friends for? Anytime you need help, just come to me, and I will do whatever I can to help you.” With that the two of us had our friendship renewed, and we became closer than before. By bedtime we were gossiping like a couple of schoolgirls and just being happy. I fell asleep feeling better about things and wondering what had happened between the two of us, and whether or not I could do it again with others.