Lilia's hand jerked this way and that, surrounded by golden energy. "Again!", Ylfres shouted. In a room bristling with wolven fur standing on end, a young human girl stood in the center of a circle of wolves. Portraits of past wolf tribe leaders hung on the dirt walls, setting the mood. In the center of the meeting table that served as the room's main element, there sat an apple. Again, as Ylfres had commanded, Lilia said, "Apple.", and stared at the fruit.
The apple rose, spun, darted around the room, then finally exploded, showering everybody present with its fragrant flesh. Somebody in the crowd shuffled a new apple onto the table, and the process began anew. Her amber gaze cast over the apple, but this time, something changed. She felt more assured. She felt more locked-in.
After a breath, she said again, "Apple." This time, the fruit rose, spun, and began to slowly push in on itself, imploding. "Yes, yes!", Ylfres cried, watching rapt with the other wolves. At his words, the apple shuddered violently in the air. "Control, Lilia!", he shouted, being chased by the rogue fruit, "Control!" It embedded itself in his side, then exploded violently. The wolf leader collapsed. "Heal me...", he grunted, "And continue..."
Lilia searched her memory for the healing magick, pictured Ylfres whole again, then locked her eyes onto his wounds. Blood poured from the gaping hole in his side, his ribs and lungs exposed for all to see. This was surely a mortal wound under any other circumstances, but nobody batted an eyelash. The room was filled to the brim with wolven mages that could heal Ylfres with a blink of their eyes merely by thinking his name.
They didn't want to do that, though. They instead looked to the human girl at the center of the room, who was currently deep in thought. Finally, the wolf leader's name crossed her lips and he rose, enveloped in golden light. In a flash of gold, he was set back down on his paws. He stood solid, free from the life-threatening injuries he had sustained. Even their evidence, the blood that had hit the floor, was gone. He cleared his throat and shook his head, then leveled his gaze on Lilia. "Again."
Her determination spiked. Something was different this time, she could feel it. Her amber eyes, cast gold by the magical light, focused on the new apple that had been placed upon the table. The golden light enveloped her body before she had spoken the first breath of the word. Suddenly, everything about the apple was clear to her. Its structure, its chemical makeup, its flavor, its history. She saw it all in her mind's eye, and the word rang out inside her head. 'Apple' It sounded, over and over, more clearly than any bell.
The golden light beamed from her eyes as she focused on the fruit yet again. "Apple.", she sighed, almost silently. The whispered word of power was enough to send the fruit into the air, spinning faster and more steadily than any of her previous attempts. The fruit began to push in on itself, growing smaller and smaller, until finally, it became so infinitesimally small that it could no longer be seen.
The room erupted in an earth-shaking cacophony of howls. The excited wolves howled their praise, and Lilia blushed. While she was humbled, she couldn't help but feel like she had earned this acclaim. She had worked hard at mastering wolven magic, studying hard under each of the masters that Ylfres had summoned. Now, after days of grueling work, she neared the end of the first stage.
She had learned the basics of wolven magic, and now she was gaining control. She was feeling out the finer points of how her body interacted with the magical energy, and figuring out how to bend the energies to her will. At long last, she had worked her way to the final of wolven magic's four pillars, creating and destroying matter.
"You've begun your journey into the fourth pillar.", Ylfres' voice rang out above the rest. "Now, let's reinforce everything you've learned thus far." He gestured with his snout, and the room emptied. The table was removed by four servants, and all the wolves filed into a chamber above to watch what was about to unfold.
Lilia knew what was coming. Ylfres fell into his feral stance and braced himself. "First, we will practice the four pillars.", he called across the chamber. "Defend!" With that word, he threw himself at Lilia. "Fangs!", she shouted, and Ylfres' ferocious mouth slammed shut. "Bones!", she shouted, and the wolf leader himself suddenly halted, unable to go any further. "Lightning!", he roared, and a wild arc of electricity shot from his mouth. It hurdled right toward her, but she kept her cool. Her now-golden eyes focused on the sparks, and she said calmly, "Electricity." The word was enough to scatter the voltage, raining small sparks all over the chamber.
"Now, the pillar of offense.", Ylfres said with authority. Lilia obeyed. "Metal!", she shouted, and blades burst from the ground in search of the wolf. He in turn called upon the metal, and it fell to the ground. Lilia's next attack, a burst of ice summoned from the moisture in the air, was met with intense flames that melted it into a harmless puddle. Ylfres grinned as he met Lilia's next attack, a wave of lightning that dwarfed his own. The wolf leader whispered "Earth", and erected a shield of dirt around himself. When the crackling voltage subsided, his shield fell, and he nodded.
"The third pillar, healing. Show me." Lilia nodded, then looked down nervously. At length, she whispered, "Blades." A length of metal licked out of the ground at a barely perceptible speed, leaving a bloody stream in its wake across Lilia's outstretched arm. The pain lanced through her like a fiery javelin, pushing its way up through her arm to her chest, then her brain. She couldn't help but cry out, but she steadied herself and hissed in a breath a second later. With a golden glow in her eyes, she muttered, "Restoration.", and the wound sealed up almost instantly. Ylfres nodded his approval.
Ylfres placed yet another apple before Lilia. "Your mastery of the first three pillars is more than sufficient, child. Concentrate. Synthesize. Let the fourth pillar erect within the temple of your mind, as much a part of you as your breath. She nodded, then locked her gaze on the apple. "Apple...", she whispered hazily, letting the sound drift away into the ether. The apple's size increased just a little at first, but then massively. It grew to be as large as Lilia herself in a matter of seconds.
Lilia tried to keep a straight face, not letting it show just how pleased she was with herself. "The fourth pillar suits you.", Ylfres said with a bow. "You have achieved a level of mastery that even I cannot boast. But now, the greatest challenge begins. Rather than reducing and enlarging, you shall move on to learning how to create matter from nothing, and how to wipe matter from existence. Only then will your mastery of wolven magic be complete."