"So, what are we doing today, Omb?" I asked my friend, who, in this case, I had to treat as a teacher. He hasn't done anything but eat since I met up with him and I was growing impatient. I had made a lot of progress in regards to my ice magic. But, he was growing increasingly confusing.
"I'm going to eat and be full." he told me with a smile before he finely cut a slice of meat out of his meal. Not one bit of its fatty juices and sauce covered skin dripping down on the way up.
"Not you, we!" I repeated before I groaned as my cheek rested against my knuckle.
"I don't know what you're going to be doing." he chuckled out before he ate another slice.
"Oh, you know. That thing we agreed to do since we met up on the ship to this land? That thing I had to pester you about for weeks and weeks before I got an answer?" I sarcastically let out as icy mist began to emit from my hands.
"And what was that?" he asked me with a knowing smile before my head fell to the table.
"Do you just not want to teach me anything today? You could have just made that clear!" I tell him, irritated by the waste of my time. And I made it clear by slamming my palms against the table. A thin layer of quickly-melting frost has been left behind.
"Oh, I intend to teach you. But, we need to know that you are learning." he says with a serious tone as he puts him utensils down.
"Oh? Am I learning? I don't know." I trap off as mist comes back to my palms.
"Not like that, Tiyanat. What I mean is, it is important for you to develop something on your own. I have passed on my knowledge of heat to you by working alongside you. But, you need to bear in mind that ice is not fire." he says to me with a respectful tone. But, his choice of words only made me think that he was treating me like an idiot. Of course, I was fully aware ice was not fire!
"I can cast this magic fine, though. I don't need to figure anything out." I tell him with confused frustration. Flicking my hand towards my sister as she played with the water in the sink.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed as her hands were encased in a block of ice. Ice Omb quickly melted with an increasingly rare display of magic.
"Th-Thank you..." Larishazza cried out before laughing as she played up the pain she felt.
"My pleasure, Cheerful!" he told my sister before he turned back to me, "But, Tiyanat. You need to remember where you came from. So it will be best for you to go train on your own. Independent of my influence."
"Independent of it...? My magic has been irrevocably changed by yours! How am I meant to be independent of it!?" I asked him in an almost pleading like manner.
"You'll need to figure that out on your own." he told me with what was clearly the final thing he would be saying to me. As, once his mouth closed, he opened it up again only for a bowl of noodle soup...
"Fine, then. I'll do it on my own." I let out, annoyed by this unhelpful, so-called lesson. And, in a display of pettiness so I could get my frustration out. I froze his soup as it was going down his mouth.
"Hm, interesting. Never had a slushed soup before." he laughed out when his magic quickly melted it after. But all I had was a groan which I made sure he heard before I stopped it once I got outside the dorm. And, I stood there for a little bit, unsure of what to do as my foot tapped the stairs harshly. Then, with a click of my tongue, I walked away from the dorm.
He wanted me to go and do something on my own. So, surely, that meant I should head on over to a training centre, no? I should go there, set up some targets and freeze them? That's all I really could do, no?
"You frustrating Holeman." I groaned as my fingers flexed about and or squeezed my palms. A subtle behaviour that I kept up until reached my destination. It was one I wasn't too happy to see, either. Because I found it more fun with Omb as we often did day trips down into the lands below.
The progress I made became a briefly immutable characteristic of the land. We could walk past the places I froze and watch as the sights steadily got more impressive. Of course, my earliest days had no presence here. Because Omb first started teaching me while we were sailing.
So the least impressive marks of my power were not the feeblest of them. But, they served the same purpose. I could reference them as we walked to a new place to train our power. Yet, I suppose that was his point, I was training our power, not mine.
Stupid as a point it was, I think I was starting to unravel his meaning. Assuming he had a meaning at all. If he didn't, I would scare him all the way back to his hole. If he did, well, a silent thanks would do.
"Now, about you..." I muttered as I fiddled around with the controls of one of the fancy training rooms. All of it was mine to command but so much choice was paralyzing. However, I quickly figured out something I could do. Because thinking of the older me reminded me of what I used to do.
I could not make ice so casually when I first started. I just made water cold or warm, not that it mattered. Water magic was always in tune, really, with its surrounding weather. Cold when moody, warm when bright.
But, I have long since figured out how to truly alter its temperature. And, the result was my ice magic. Something I struggled with at first as solid objects, frankly, felt weird magically. I was raised to work with fuilidity.
"So why did I do this? It was no issue at all?" I asked myself as I paced about the flooded training room. My steps were freezing the surface of the water and I solidified it all the way down to the floor. A pair of suddenly forming stilts for each step I took. And, just to prove nothing to myself, I melted the ice I was no longer on.
And, I found myself getting annoyed again because I still did not know what to do. So I stopped using my ice magic and fell into the water. I then easily floated on my back once it had calmed down. It did not matter if I got wet, really, I could just heat the room up...
Then, all of a sudden, I sat up in the water and fell to the bottom. My eyes just barely reached above the surface before I rose up. Was that perhaps what he meant? If Larishazza got unnecessarily soaked, she used her magic to dry herself.
I, however, had Omb do it... I found someone else or something else to do it or I waited. I did not actually use my magic to do it. I did not call upon my knowledge of water to take it off my skin and out of the fibres of my clothes.
"Okay, let's try something else." I said to no one as there was no one but me. And, once again I messed around with the room controls and isolated the water. Now, instead of flooding the place, I had basically made a swimming pool. But this was so I could make a spot to dry myself while not getting wet again.
Yet, as I was still wet from before, I gave it a go before using my newly set up tools. I focused on my hands at first, as I could focus the most on them. I could watch my progress and feel it better. The hands had a very important role in magic, but, not the most important.
However, to my confusion, I had trouble feeling out the water unless I froze it. Which, made it very clear that this was probably what he meant. I couldn't use my water magic anymore, really. And, to be frank, I was not sure how I was ever going to learn to use it again.
I was determined to be a great practitioner of ice magic, so reversing that progress was off the table. Yet, maybe there was a way I could make this work. Ice was just frozen water, so what if I just manipulated the ice I made? But, as the frozen water flaked off of me, I couldn't help but feel like I did something wrong.
"Damn you and your mind-jogging thought experiments..." I complained with a sigh while my finger spun the pool water about. Even with this much water, I could not sense it unless I froze it or chilled the water. And, as I spun it about, I steadily started to freeze it until I had mostly frozen, but sludgy water.
So, then, I tried practising with that as that seemed to be the closest I could get to actual liquid water. And, I copied my sister a little and danced about with the partially frozen water snaking about. An arcane grip directed it all over the room until my open palm made it explode into snow. Then, I groaned in thought once again as I was only making myself lost.
"No... He had to have been messing with me... He just wanted to enjoy his food in quiet, surely?" I asked myself as I began to get ready to leave. But, when I got back to the console, my pride withheld me from further action. I just couldn't muster the strength to push the Exit button. Then, I swore under my breath as I went back to it.
This time, however, I just raised my hand and shot ice out of it. Very slowly and methodically transitioning it into sludge again. Then, eventually, I was able to have a stream of chilly water shoot from my palm. But, the joy of doing it made it become ice again.
I did not care, though, I had managed to accomplish my goal and potentially learn the lesson. This experience, however, had given me an idea. What if I learned to go back to water magic but used it as a means to spread ice magic? I could fool others and easily practise it on my mentally-out-of-it sister.
"Well, it's better than nothing." I tutted out before I turned to leave once again. Only to then rush towards the pool and jump in it. Quickly getting out of it with a shiver and then just standing there. Dripping from head to toe with chilly water.
And, with a slow breath and rattling teeth, I was able to take the water off. I had managed to do what my sister does so casually! It almost made me want to prance about cheering. But, I couldn't help but think about how I did it.
"I still felt out the temperature of it, not the fact it was water..." I commented as I shivered on the way to the console once again. And I was left humming in thought as I set up the means to warm myself up. And I was left even more confused as the heat source could not be felt out. It was, too warm if that somehow made sense...?
I guess it didn't matter, for now, I had some time to learn what I was apparently doing wrong. Maybe I would figure it out in time, or maybe I would not. It's not like it is a crippling issue. Just one that has my mind abuzz with confused thoughts.