Nona looked at Cala with confusion. "What is a genasi?"
"That becomes hard to explain. We are descendents of the elementals who conceived children with other races which produced the djinn. They in turn diluted the blood further producing our race. We are tied to each of the elements but not nearly as strongly" Cala lectured.
"That seems pretty straightforward to me."
"Good now it's your turn."
Nona told her the story of bonding with Aquiline and going to sleep. How he woke up to being bit and burned himself to stop the bleeding. He left out the part about him being a dragon and the two people he was with before, and apologized profusely for not know how Aquiline ended up in such a state.
"Well that part seems obvious now. He was probably so worried about you that he didn't dodge any snakes he encountered on his was here. I cannot fault you for your thinking with fire since indeed that is the most common way it is used to heal but doing it without looking and control was reckless. Your parents should have taught you the basics of healing before letting you travel alone.
"Well they couldn't teach me anything. I am an orphan." He grew up with everyone knowing that fact about him that it was no big deal saying, but now he wondered. Could his parents actually be alive? Waiting for him to break the banishment that had forced them to leave this world. If so weren't they asking to much from a child who knew nothing?
"But you do not know nothing. Already you can commune with blessed animals and as your strength grows so to will the knowledge of your ancestors. If they are alive they knew you could access these memories and survive." The voice of the doppelganger echoed in Nona's mind.
"Well than while you are recovering I shall cover the basics of healing," Cala responded to the orphan comment. "The first thing to know is that each element heals in a different way. The same as in all things."
"Wait that is not true. Fire cannot freeze any more than water can burn." Nona interrupts.
Cala lets out a groan and smacks her forehead. "If you are this ignorant of the elements how are you able to use magic at all?"
"I will them to do what I want."
Cala looks at him for a long while before responding. "Though, there is some benefits to using willpower over chanting, ignorance can be the most costly in that form of casting. Forcing an element to do something in a way that it was not meant to requires more will."
"You keep saying how the elements are meant to what does that mean?"
"I will give you a simple example. If you wanted to destroy a boulder you could simply use earth to force it to shatter. If instead you had to use wind you would have to force a powerful force of wind to slice it up, or you could use fire to melt it. All of these things accomplish the destruction of the boulder but each in a different way. If you tried to shatter the stone with fire it would take you far longer and exhaust you more to force the little heat inside it to get hot enough to explode."
Nona felt a headache coming on, but he could not refute the logic behind the woman's words. "OK so how does each element heal?"
"That is the very question whose answer I will drill so far into your head that you will know it even in your sleep." Cala gave a sinister smile that reminded Nona of Skelly just before a grueling training session.
letting out a audible gulp Nona finally responded. "When do we start?"
"As soon as I have gathered up enough mana. Healing you and keeping your griffin alive has exhausted my reserves. With this constant state of war its becoming harder and harder to gather some together."
"Why not gather it from inside yourself?" Nona asked puzzled since he knew nothing of such difficulty.
"Ha lad if I could do that than there wouldn't be a problem, but the fact is no one has that much mana inside them anymore. Since the time of myths all races could only manipulate the mana around them." Cala laughed as if it was the funniest joke she ever heard. "Your village did a lousy job of teaching you if you do not know that. Even orphans should know."
"Well no one really wanted to teach me anything. I can hunt and forage for food but that is about it."
"How can you hunt with no weapon? How does one forage for food in unfamiliar places? Lad you must have had it rough to leave so unprepared."
"Well anyway if possible you can use the mana inside of me. It's what I have been using to cast my spells so it should work." Nona deflected that line of talk not wanting to think how impulsive he had been.
Rolling her eyes Cala placed a hand on Nona before speaking. "Lad your awfully full of you... This cannot be. How do you have so much mana?"
"I do not know what race I am." Nona began to lie. "But since I received my name I have had a wellspring of mana."
"You must be one of the mythological races. It's the only explanation." Cala was getting excited. "With you here I could cast all the healing spells I needed too."
Panic started to cloud Nona's mind as the thought of being held against his will started to form. He had to fight the urge to get out of his restraints and run in the direction above his head. Mentally fighting for a clear head he filed the direction he wanted to run away for review at a later time. "I am willing to allow you to use my mana while I am learning but no further."
"Relax lad I have no intention of forcing you to stay. I do not have the knowledge or power to be able to hold you here. Meaning the more you know the harder you would be to control. Just be cautious as there is spells out there that can enslave you."
Cala's warning tickled the back of Nona's mind, but he ignored it since it did not make sense. "OK well I am ready to begin my first lesson." Nona tried to bring the conversation back to the original topic.
"The art of healing is complicated first you must know how each element heals. Fire burns as you found out, water washes away, earth strengthens, wind rejuvenates, light purifies, and dark surpresses."
"What about the neutral element?"
"That one varies depending on which type of neutral you use and is considered to be advanced healing as well as dangerous."