At first hour in the morning the camp was dismantled and the band resumed the journey. Usually, Kal was "accommodated" in one of the supply wagons accompanied, of course, by a random fellow whose job was to survey "the cargo". In the eyes of Gil, Kal was a flying risk and needed to be placed under constant observation. Obviously Kal did plan many times to scape, but truth be told, he wasn't treated badly and he had nowhere else to go. Travelling in the wagon, with his everlasting silent companion, was extremely boring and all he could from time to time was to see the road, which was being left behind, and listen to whatever conversation the chauffeur was having, however, this day, it was different.
Leading the group was Gil closely followed by four men, two carrying halberds and the other two longbows, then eight men escorting a weapon wagon and behind them was Kal. It was a nice change of scenery, he was placed in the back of some lizard-like creature that could accommodate 5 people in its saddle. Along with him there were two men and two women, one of the men seemed to be indisposed and was being attended by one of the females, the other girl was paying attention to the surroundings and the other man sat close to Kal and seemed eager to start a conversation.
"Hey there! I'm Landy" suddenly said the man raising his right hand up to his shoulder similarly to the "high five" gesture. Kal was confused, he didn't expect people to greet others with handshakes but a high five was weird. In fact that was all, it was commonly used to show that the speaker carried no weapon and that came in peace, but Kal was still oblivious regarding these sort of things.
"Hi" half-stuttered Kal.
"You are the ORP guy. Uh!? Everyone is talking about you. Well, maybe just a couple people, hehehe."
"Really? Why is that?" asked Kal.
"Well, we are about to attempt to complete the most important mission in the Redpaws career and it is odd that the captain decided to recruit you, an ORP, juts now. Well, caps doesn't explain himself to anyone and we follow him without hesitation, which makes me wonder. What is it that you have, or can do, that he took such a risk?"
"I'm a mage" -said Kal earnestly- "Well, a novice one anyway. He has plans for me but I have no idea what they are. Due to my lack of abilities I'm seriously wondering if he is putting too much faith on me."
"Don't worry, you won't get killed, I think-"
"You think!?" interrupted Kal.
"I mean, caps wouldn't have made you come with him just to put you in the slaughter, it is not his style" replied Landy.
"We'll see. It is not like if I'm going to sit quietly waiting for my dead, at the first sign of danger I'll scape" thought Kal
"Oh! C'mon, don't make that face. I promise. Caps don't use people like that, in fact, whatever he can do on his own he'll do it. We, The Redpaws, are very proud of our captain, in 8 years we haven't lost a single man, not because the missions were easy but due his leadership and the fact that he always do the riskiest part" finished Landy his speech.
Kal wasn't "that" cynical and in the little time he had passed with The Redpaws, he saw their comradeship and their praise, maybe blinded by their faith, for their captain, so, he somewhat believed in Landy's words; however, Kal was still a stranger among them and he wasn't sure if he was to be included in the captain's "ensure policy". Nevertheless, Kal was confident in his ability to scape and in the next few days he was planning to improve his blink but things were not going to be so easy.
"Haven't you heard what I've just said? You cannot, and I emphasize, CANNOT use your space magic" said in a rabid tone Cyrus. It was already night and after many hours travelling, Kal barely had any time to rest when Cyrus summoned him for his daily, or better said, nightly lesson.
"I know that I'm new in this but why would I stop improving my best magic. It makes no sense" said Kal. Without further training his blinks, he might not be able to ensure a safe scape, which is why Kal was shocked when he heard Cyrus's command.
"Oh! Right! I forgot. You are a toddler" -said Cyrus while mustering any little patient he had, then continued- "Listen well because I will explain this only once. Due to the ORP process your magical energies were reset which is to say that, magically, you are a new-born. Sometimes some mages that are unpleased with their progress decided to go through the ORP procedure to start over, of course, this can only be done once and because most memories get lost in the process they tent to repeat the same mistakes. Fortunately for YOU, I am your guide, for the moment at least, and since you already are an ORP this is your last chance, so, listen carefully" explained the stressed teacher to his confounded student.
"Right now your magical energy is in, what some mages call, the soft state, which is to say that its malleability is at its peak, so, any training toward one element will redirect your energy's focus to said element. Simply put, if you were to train with your space element your affinity towards it will increase greatly, HOWEVER, there is a phenomenon called elemental disruption that could cause you troubles. To understand it you have to know how magic works. People thinks that one has one type of energy in our bodies for each element and that the existence of it determines the mage's affinity towards the elements. That is unequivocally wrong and it is the reason why most mages fail in their progress. Understand this, we only have ONE, and only one, type of energy within and what defines the affinity with the elements is its capacity to resonate with them, exactly there is where the problem lies. Each element has its opposite, when you increase your affinity with an element, you are increasing the capacity of your own energy to resonate with said element but, at the same time, you are disturbing the resonance of its opposite."
"So, if I were to be a good fire user I couldn't train ever with the water element?" interrupted Kal.
"If you were so kind to let me finish I would have explained you that" replied Cyrus annoyed.
"Sorry master, I'm just a bit anxious. Please continue, I'll no longer interject"
"Very well"-calmed Cyrus-"Where was I? Oh, yes! When mages start their training they neglect his weakest element, usually those are the ones who believe in the theory of multi-elemental energies, which is why they tent to lose the ability to use one or more elements. Don't get me wrong, although those mages lose versatility, they gain power. Since the magic energy is focused in just one element its resonance towards it increases exponentially, however, at certain moment their energy will no longer resonate with the opposite element, and if they continue with its practice they lose almost all others; it is the price they pay for a fast growth in power. You, who are gifted with a natural affinity toward a specific element, have most of your resonance capability redirected to that element, which is why you were barely able to hold the stones. Consider yourself fortunate, if you were to be just a bit more compatible with space you wouldn't have been able to use others. This is the reason why I forbade you from practicing space magic. If you improve your element any further, you will lose any chances to handle the other ones. Unless, of course, it is what you want."
Cyrus stood for a while as if expecting an answer. Kal, however, was silent. He had learnt his lesson and he was not planning to interrupt Cyrus anymore and though all this explanation was getting a bit complicated, he was planning to understand it a full.
"There is a way for you, and all mages, to increase their power without losing control over any element, you have to increase your affinity towards them simultaneously. For instance, in your case, you hold the fire stone for 8 seconds and the water for 27. You will have to start with fire and as you improve your affinity with it you will notice that your water one will decrease, however, if you do as I instruct you the amount you lose in one element will be much smaller than the amount that you gain with its opposite. The goal is to make you reach the 2 minutes mark with each stone at the same time. Let me say this, it is not easy, but it is the first mark so it won't be hard, although, in your case, I'm not sure; you already have a major affinity with space and that might complicate things. Ah, and don't worry, once an element has reached the affinity you have with space, it will not decrease unless something extraordinary happens. Now, any questions?" Cyrus made a gesture to suggest that it wasn't irony.
"Well, yes. I have a question"-Kal ventured to ask- "You said yesterday that your main element was air, so, you have not followed that path of training?"
"Good question, but I see your confusion"-said Cyrus and begin to explain once more-"Yes, my main element is air, the same way that yours will always be space. In theory any mage can reach the 2 minutes with all elements simultaneously without much effort, however, the higher the time mark the more complicated it becomes. As I already told you yesterday, usually it takes a year of training to increase 1 minute, but that is with my method which will allow you to not lose control over other elements. If you were to neglect some and focus in just one or two, the time need it will decrease drastically; instead of taking 30 years, the 30 minutes mark could be reached in 10 or 5 years probably, depending with how many elements you train. In my case I only manage to push the four basic elements up to the 20 minutes mark, the fire got stuck in 25 minutes and only with air I manage to get to 30 minutes. Since I "solidified" my energy in the 20 minutes mark with all four elements I will never lose them, unfortunately, I will never be able to improve them anymore. Once I reach the 45 minutes mark with the air my fire would be able to reach 30 minutes but that is a big if."
"Master. If I'm going to train by your method, would I have to wait 2 years to reach the 2 minutes barrier?" asked worriedly Kal.
"Hahahaha"-laugh Cyrus-"Well, normally yes, but in our case we will take a shortcut. It will be difficult and dangerous, but if everything goes well, you should reach the 2 minute barrier before reaching our destination."
"Now, this is what I want you to do" said Cyrus while a gust of air started to leave his right hand.
"In normal circumstances you would have to start with fire, however, I have a trick. Fire can be trained along with air because their resonance do not disrupt each other, the same can be said about air and water, so, I came up with a little spell that uses the three elements at the same time thus improving their affinity simultaneously. Once you manage to pair the three of them, you will move to earth, then to the trio and back to earth until you get to the 2 minutes barrier. Now, I will show you the spell."
The spell, at first glance, seemed simple. The gust of air started circling slowly between Cyrus's hands. Later, a reddish light could be seen in his left hand and a bluish in the right one. The air was been heated up and cooled down simultaneously while the air cycle kept circling around both of them. Kal realised that learning how to control three elements at once wasn't going to be easy. When the demonstration was finished he suddenly realised that, whether it would help him to improve or not, at least his nights of chills and days of suffocating heat were coming soon to an end.
"Master, I still have a couple questions before I start training" said Kal shyly.
"What is it?" responded Cyrus unwillingly.
"Well, we have been talking about elements, affinity, resonance and such but; where is the purity in all this? Also, you talk about the four elements but you never said anything specific regarding mine" said Kal confounded.
"I'll try to explain quickly, the night will end soon and we haven't started your practice yet"- muttered Cyrus and then continued-"There are other elements of course. I didn't bring that subject up because it is not required at this moment, but since you asked… Elements are grouped in four categories: basics, derivatives, advanced and celestials. Derivatives, as its name implies, are those that come from others, example: lighting is a mix of air and fire, the poison element comes from earth and water. Life, light and darkness are examples of advanced ones. Finally we have the celestials, they are called like that due their self-isolated nature: space, time and arcane. These last ones tent to be difficult to master and have their peculiarities, for instance, the time element can't be learn unless you are born with it and its affinity will never vary, the arcane affinity is rather easy to increase but its spells are extremely difficult to learn. Finally it is yours, and I'm not saying this to discourage you, but, space has the particularity of being the most exhausting and volatile of elements. The amount of energy you need to cast the simplest of space spells is, at least, five times bigger than any of the other ones; its spells are not as complex as the arcane ones but their outcomes are, almost, always unpredictable."
Kal face darkened when he heard that but he was not going to despair juts now. Maybe in the future he will have to come up with a way of dealing with his best element but that was tomorrow's problem, and he was excellent procrastinating.
"About the purity is rather simple. As you know, well, I'm not sure if you do, all people are born with a fix amount of magic energy. This energy tent to increase up to some degree as you improve your affinity toward the elements, however, the increased amount is barely noticeable. I'll just explain it numerically in order to make it simple. Let's assume your energy could be quantified and it has the value of 10. With your actual fire affinity, conjuring a small flame would probably take 8 out of the ten but, if you were to improve your resonance your energy consumption would decrease. This creates the illusion of having more energy when improving the affinity but this is false, you are just using less to cast the same spell. Now, the purity is what allows you to command the element itself. If your time marked in, let's say, the air element were to be in 30 minutes, as mine, but your purity were in the first shade of intensity you wouldn't be able to cast air based spells; your performance would be limited to a simple air manipulation. Purity is what allows you to perceive the element, to feel it and to commune with it which is essential when casting complex spells."
That explanation gave Kal a bit of a headache but this was just his second day of lessons, so, he was going to take it slowly.
After answering Kal's questions Cyrus explained him how to manipulate the basic elements and since Kal had already learnt to manipulate space, up to some degree, he had an idea of what to do. He started with water, since it was his second best, and after a couple minutes he could manage to manipulate it moving the water from one full glass to an empty one. Then, Cyrus instructed him to manipulate a bonfire that was lit there and to his surprise, it took him over half an hour to move around, just a bit, a small flame; the earth and air proved less difficult. It was getting late and Cyrus left not without telling him to practice on his own for the next couple of days until he could manage to manipulate all elements easily.