Chapter 58. Magic at the hot springs ( II )
"My mana influenced her awakening... what if she ends up like me, unable to properly control the element?" Alaric feared the worst, praying it wasn’t so.
Kai ending up like him!
This would mean he had destroyed the girl’s path to a normal life and now her life as a mage.
She would, just like him, need someone to convert the element to steam before she could use it.
Basically handicapped, needing the assistance of another for basic spells.
"Would you demonstrate it?" He turned to Kai with a smile, though internally he had his fingers crossed, hoping for the best.
"Let’s watch and see, our situations are different after all..." He calmed himself.
He was a child born of fire, embraced by water, and she was a purebred water mage influenced by his mana.
The situations were completely different.
"You are right, I didn’t move the water like Mother back then..." she exclaimed, her bright blue eyes widening in realization.
"Yeah..." Lilly nodded, it had completely slipped her mind, considering the series of events that had transpired.
"Wait, let’s clear the steam..." Alaric waved his hand, the steam that enveloped the hot springs swirling like a whirlpool.
Like clouds dancing to the rhythm of the wind, it spiraled up to the ceiling, breaking into the mist it was made of, covering the ceiling like the vast whiteness of snow, except it was alive.
Lilly and her daughter craned their necks, looking up at the spectacle the young boy had created. Like synchronized puppets, they turned towards Alaric, looking at him in disbelief.
"How did you do that?" Lilly was the first to break their stupefied state.
"You can do it too..." Alaric, who had deliberately put on a show, smiled.
"Can I..." Kai turned to her mother. "...but I have never seen Mother do that..."
Alaric tilted his head in confusion.
"What’s your rank?"
"She is second resonance..." Raika interjected, already soaking in the now steamless hot spring.
The little vapor that formed joined the spiral to the vast whiteness above.
Like an invisible spiral elevator, Alaric’s magic continued.
"Isn’t vapor water?"
"Madam Lilly, can you control vapor?" He asked, wishing to confirm a thought.
"No, Young Lord, I am sorry, my aptitude is low. As the princess said, I am only a second resonance. I don’t have the aptitude for fourth resonance..." She bowed in apology.
Alaric’s thoughts confirmed.
His vapor control was considered a variant.
But he was but a first resonance mage.
"I didn’t realize..." He narrowed his eyes in thought.
Vapor and water should be the same, yet Lilly believed vapor control to be a variant of water.
He wondered why.
Steam is more of a gas than a liquid.
The answer came to him, but then how could he, a water mage, control it?
It had the properties of water and heat, a perfect element for his constitution.
The lightness of fire and the property of water.
"I have done it!" Kai’s excited voice cut through his thoughts, his attention turning to the spiral of water climbing up from the hot springs, ending in a fountain as it was too short to reach the ceiling.
Alaric let out a soft sigh of relief.
Luckily, Kai’s path to becoming a water mage had not been corrupted.
Raika scoffed at the spectacle; she still didn’t like the little girl, while Lilly was petrified in shock.
"How did you do that..." She turned to the smiling Kai, her face a mixture of confusion and shock.
"I just followed what the prince did..." Kai said, her smile breaking into a frown as she looked up. "...I couldn’t reach the ceiling," she sulked.
"You can’t do that, can you?" Alaric asked.
"Yes, Young Lord..." She bowed her head in dejection.
She was a second resonance mage.
Capable of creating water out of mana, yet she could only make a floating ball of water. The best she had ever done was create a column of water.
"I guess creativity affects control," Alaric deduced, remembering the fight with the earth mages.
Though Dune was a second resonance mage, his control and creativity were far superior to those of Aren, who was of a higher rank.
Though Alaric believed it to be creativity, it was more an understanding of the element.
One may jump tiers after understanding the principle needed for the transition, yet still not have full mastery of the element.
For some reason, most commoners had barely made it past the second resonance, and those who did had only a basic understanding of the element.
"It ain’t aptitude, you are just lazy..." Raika snickered at Lilly.
In a way, she was right. If Lilly had taken the time to meditate and understand the element more, then she might be able to do what Kai did.
"..." Lilly kept mute, only looking down in dejection.
Raika’s words weren’t meant to hurt her; she was only stating a fact, but her blunt nature made it sound like mockery.
When she noticed Lilly’s dejection, she rolled her eyes in irritation.
"Join me in the water, maybe you will learn a thing or two..." She gestured for Lilly to join her.
Though hesitant, she could only walk into the water, averting her gaze from Kai, who looked at her wide-eyed.
"Sit in a meditative position and try to understand the water around you..." Raika pushed closer to her, guiding her form.
"She is kind in her own way..." Alaric smiled at Raika’s show of kindness.
He then turned to the confused Kai, who was wondering if she had done something wrong, her water fountain long since fallen.
"Why don’t we play here as well..." Alaric pulled her to his side as they walked to the other side of the large pool.
"She should like flowers."
Trying to distract her from her mother, Alaric pulled a strand of mist from the whiteness above, shaping into a rose.
At his will, the mist twisted, intertwining as if they followed a predetermined path.
Within seconds a rose formed before him.
Though intangible, he held it in his hands, the white misty rose flickering with an ethereal beauty.
"Wow," Kai’s eyes sparkled as she saw the roses.
"You can have it."
She was already poised to take it anyway, so at Alaric’s words, she tried to take it from him, but like the mist it was, her hand passed through it, leaving only a stinging sensation on her reddened fingers.
"Hahaha..." Alaric let out a hearty laugh. Kai, who was sucking on her reddened fingers, looked at him in confusion.
Then, realization dawned on her. "You tricked me..." She pouted.
"Of course... No one can hold steam." He flicked her forehead playfully.
"...I will make my own and won’t share..." She stamped her feet in frustration, her little tantrum bringing a smile to Alaric’s face.
"Is this how Jake felt... It wouldn’t have been bad if I had a child too..." Alaric reminisced about his navy days.
A bachelor till death, never once having a child. Maybe he did, he wouldn’t remember, as he never stayed in one place, and he had made sure to use protection in every match he played.
He observed Kai with a smile, his gaze warm, like a father watching his daughter play.
Kai moved closer to the pool, squatting for concentration.
At her will, a ball of water separated from the mass, levitating above her palm, just like she had seen her mother do countless times.
Alaric looked at it intently, his eyes glowing a subtle hue as he observed the mana threads linking the girl to the water.
In his vision, similar to his own, Kai’s threads formed a small blanket around the levitating ball, moving as she willed, like the tendrils of an octopus. It felt like she had multiple hands.
The blue threads twisted around the water, morphing, forming the perfect outline of a rose flower, yet...
"Ahh..." Kai let out a disappointed wail as the ball of water fell, unable to form the construct she had in mind.
"What happened..." Alaric wondered.
In his vision, the construct was already made, so how come the water couldn’t hold up?
"Can you try aga..." He wanted Kai to try again, but before his words fell, Kai had already crouched down, a ball of water separating from the mass.
Alaric observed once more, the same thing happening for the second time.
"What happened..."
Alaric’s brows creased in confusion.
The intent was there, the mana construct made, yet the element didn’t obey.
He turned to her, wishing to observe more.
He didn’t even have to tell her to try again, a ball of water was already levitating above her hands.
With a strained expression, she tried once more.
Alaric smiled at her perseverance, once again observing her elemental control.
This time, he decided to look at the element as it was, not the mana threads controlling it.
The ball of water morphed, compressing to form the crude outline of a rose, but before it could complete its transformation...
Splash!!
It burst, falling into the water below.
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Q/
What do you think is the problem with the water’s inability to form the construct of the rose?
Just wanted to pose a question today... The nerd in me is out today.( Though I am sure I am a full nerd) (≧◡≦)
Only one Chapter today, so I made it 1,500 words.