It is not the type of thing that can just be grabbed and forced to do whatever you want. Magic isn't alive in the way I am, but more of a consciousness that is aware and does not like to be forced. For shapers like us, to "grapple" magic as we call it, meaning exerting more will than is needed or going too fast without having full control can have consequences.
In an event like this, the stream breaks because of the overexertion of your will. This causes the stream to lose the shape of the idea or notion of what you want. After that, it releases as pressure, the blast of force that can knock a person off their feet. The greater the task, the greater the exertion. People have died more times to their stupidity or bravado than any natural disaster.
Needless to say, when we started, many sore and envious students blew themselves and each other up. This happened across the meadows while trying to move a rock the size of an apple. The first thing you do in shaping is to learn to lift things, and starting with a small stone is the best way. This way, none of the injuries will be too bad, more bruised back-sides and egos than real danger.
We practice magic for everything, from our fires to cook to helping with the fields. Everyone has the ability to shape raw magic because the air is so thick with it. You can concentrate your will to make it assist with a minor task.
The thing that makes the capital the place to be is that you can learn to do more than merely force it and move it. The professors at the academy instruct the students to gather in the magic to an unusual book. These are special tomes made to store magic that has been translated into words.
At that point, they record the magic into these unique words and phrases that allowed almost anything that the mind can think up, but it has to be possible. You can't will something into being that is not there. Everything has to come from somewhere and go somewhere.
If you wanted to get rid of a rock in your path, you can't just make it disappear. A person could use magic to hoist it out of the way or shatter it into more insignificant pieces, even dust. Instead, if a person would try to remove the rock from existence, it would just not be so, and nothing would happen.
You can't do something that defies the laws of equivalency. The combined amount of mass of everything everywhere is always the same, so one can't add to it or take from it, we can only change it or the way others see it.
The most significant rules are those that deal with the soul. When a soul leaves the body, it cannot go back. Magic can perform many things, even reanimate a once-dead body, but it will not be the soul that inhabited it before. Though it may seem strange with all these limitations, for us, the sky was the limit.
Stell and I stood off away from the rest of the group. Then we began to toss the stone back and forth, making it move in a figure-eight shaped pattern. Stell grinned, and soon we had eight stones all following in the design, and sister Glendra; our teacher, smiled and gave us a small applaud.
The other students were not impressed, and we could see the envy in their eyes. After that, Stell and I were set apart from the rest and gave different lessons. Now the others looked at us like we were freaks, but as I told Stell.
"Envy is just a lost dream found in someone else."
Regardless of what the others thought, Stell and I made the best of our years as children studying hard. We always had our eyes on the horizon. The plan was to receive our tomes and make our way to Valkira. From there, become master shapers or branch out into one of the many other divisions of magical studies. Our tomes are the books we use to record our will infused words, and we get them on our day of passing.
The day of passing is for students that have learned how to properly manipulate the energy around them and shape without an accident. Sister Glendra completed the testing for each of us individually, and everyone's test was separate. Sometimes, if the class was small enough, the sister would take them all in and test each individually.
The point was to challenge you on the things you were most deficient in. Also, to prove that even using your weakest skills, you could still channel the energy without overexertion. While most tests were based on manipulating magic, some were different, and no child's trial was the same.
My test was perplexing. As I have said, Stell and I were comparatively good at shaping, but we all accept our faults. My test was a particular question.
"Dak, what is your plan?" She asked with a gentle voice. Now, if you know Sister Glendra as I do, this is no simple, " I'm going to go be a master shaper at Valkira."
No, that wasn't what she indicated or the answer she desired. She wanted to perceive what I planned on doing with the power after I found it. To be honest, I didn't possess a clue. I just thought I needed to be good at something, and that was all I needed. Things would merely happen after, right?
Something had always itched at the back of my mind hinting at...Something more, but I felt no particular urgency towards anything, except knowledge. The power in information was boundless. The proof was in the tomes everyone valued above all else. Unique words could start a fire, construct a road, or produce a tree, and these are just single words! Combining more words allows users to give magic, complicated instructions. This helps to design and develop things like bridges, towers, or even a real oasis in minutes from your mind with the words. The power stored in words acts as a focal point to draw the idea from and shape it from the surrounding using the image in your mind.
Indeed, with this power at our fingertips, we have barely even scratched the surface of what we might be capable of doing. How do you think of an idea that's never been imagined? We consider the world we live in is Loranth, and it's just a minor planet in our small galaxy. There have to be more people in other places besides Loranth. There has to be an unknown place with new ideas.
"I want to discover new ideas. I don't feel I can be happy with the things we know when there is so much we don't. " I ultimately said after a lengthy pause.
"I'm gratified you feel that way, child," the sister said as she patted my arm.
And that was it. My life as a mage was about to begin.