As soon as we reached the village, Mirthia and I parted ways. I sat at the entrance of her house and watched her walk away into the woods again.
'If she's going back to the forest, we could have continued hunting for a while longer,' I complained to myself.
It crossed my mind to try begging at her a bit, but before I could raise my voice, one of the village cats approached her.
'A friend of her?'
They both exchanged words and laughed a bit before continuing to walk forward. However, that cat turned around for a second and glared directly at me with a look that made all my hair stand on end. Still, he immediately turned back and continued on his way with Mirthia.
'Ah, now I understand what's going on.'
I flopped down on the grass in front of the house and sighed looking up at the sky. The calm of the place immediately relaxed me, finally making me cease my urges to continue killing bugs.
'True, it is useless to continue collecting energy if I don't know how to use it.'
Although Mirthia had told me the theory, I didn't know anything about the practice yet, and that's not taking into account that I was still quite doubtful about some parts. After all, her knowledge didn't seem to be as deep as I first thought.
"But it's not like I'm going to find answers just by lying here," I murmured.
In the end, I decided that the best and fastest thing would be to ask one more time. Although I was reluctant to do so at first, mindless pride would lead me nowhere, so I decided to go directly to the person who could probably help me more than Mirthia: Raidha.
"Okay, let's go," I muttered again as I got up.
I went into the house and walked directly to Raidha, who was still in bed. She was better, but the wound on her side seemed to be more serious than I thought. Despite being in no danger and being able to move around a bit, she would still take a little time to fully recover. After all, a normal person does not heal in four days.
"How are you?" I asked as I sat next to the bed.
"Fine, although it could be better... like you," she replied somewhat sulkily.
I laughed wryly at such a comment. I couldn't refute that and I didn't want to risk her getting upset, at least not before she answered my questions.
"Listen, Raidha, you're the one who knows the most about magic around here, right?"
"Of course."
"So could you explain a bit?"
"About what?"
"Everything... Well, Mirthia explained a little to me. Although she doesn't seem to know much. She told me the basics of mana and the affinities of earth, air, water, and fire, but she didn't seem to have a clue about light and darkness. I found it strange that she only knows those magics."
"That will be because around here they only know elemental magic. Obviously magic goes beyond controlling the elements. Elemental magic is the most basic and it could be said that it is the basis for all the others. Light and dark magics are a kind of magic a bit special, many young races don't know about them. Apart from the Silphens and Katrydes, there are not many who use it. There are also other more advanced types of magic that not many people can use on their own."
"I understand ... So, can you tell me about the existing magics and how they are used?"
"Well, I'll tell you about the basics. Let's see, let me recall a bit."
She slowly got up from the bed and sat on the edge of it, right next to me.
"Where should I begin? Well, as Mirthia told you, we have elemental magic first. It is the most basic magic, and as its name indicates, it allows you to control the magical elements. Each element is different and suitable for different things. There are four basic elements and three variants, or what we could call advanced elements."
Raida was silent for a moment and raised her index finger at me.
"First we have earth magic. This magic is quite focused on defense. Apart from manipulating the earth, it also allows, for example, to increase the hardness of the body. It has a variant called wood, which allows you to control plants. In short, it is magic to play with mud and little trees."
She raised another finger before continuing to speak.
"Second we have air magic. This magic allows you to exercise control over the atmosphere itself. It can create tornadoes, hurricanes, and that sort of thing. Its biggest advantage is the ability to increase mobility and it can even allow you to fly. The variant of it would be lightning. It's pretty clear what it does, throwing lightning bolts."
A third finger also went up.
"Third, the water magic. This magic is quite adaptable. You can use both to attack and defend, among many other things. Its variant, obviously, is ice."
And another fourth finger came up a moment later.
"Last is the fire. This is the deadliest elemental magic. It is purely specialized in attacking and destroying. It has no known variants but is normally associated with life itself. Those with an affinity for fire tend to have great vitality and even longer lives."
I nodded silently. Raidha's explanation was somewhat more complete than Mirthia's.
"After basic elemental magic would come what is called pure or arcane magic. This is magic that doesn't require affinity. It can be used in many ways, from simply a small body buff or pure mana attacks, to creating spatial rifts like the one we used above. Although it sounds simple, it is complex magic that requires great knowledge and control of magical power or certain artifacts to be able to use it at its full potential, such as those Katryde ships that you saw."
"So what are light and dark magics like?"
"Those two magics are somewhat more complicated to explain. It could be said that they share properties with all other magics. They are not specialized in anything, but at the same time, they surpass all the others. Objectively speaking, they are not very different from each other, but they are opposites."
Raidha raised her hand and began to create a black sphere in her hand as she continued to explain.
"The way we Silphen and Katryde use this magic is also a bit special. Silphens add dark energy along with mana, and Katrydes probably do something similar, so if you don't have this kind of energy there is no way you can use it. It must also be said that both energies repel each other, making it impossible for us to use both magics at the same time."
I laughed wryly when I imagined a being with a black wing and a white one.
"I can't speak much about light magic, but I heard that its greatest exponent is known as stellar magic. It's said that it allows the user to unleash the same destructive power as a true star. Luckily, nowadays there is no one capable of using that power... Anyway, it seems that it also damages the user himself and even takes his life with it if it is released at full power. It is the Katrydes' last resort, but there is nothing that can stop that magic, except if you are a Silphen with great power."
'Yes, yes, Silphens are incredible…'
"Obviously we are not far behind. As for the dark magic, its maximum exponent is called spectral magic. With this magic you can transform yourself into pure darkness, turning into something like a ghost. In that state, you are completely immune to attack and can even pass through solid objects. That would probably be the only defense against stellar magic. It is not a magic that can be used carelessly anyway. If you make a mistake, you could get trapped inside an object or just disappear!" She said as he spread his arms exaggeratedly. "It takes a lot of effort to control it. I only know my father that has been able to use that magic and only for a few minutes."
"Yeah, it sounds pretty dangerous..."
Quite. Well, there are also other ways to use magic, such as combined magic or the creation of magic items, but in general this is all you need to know for now. Going into more detail if you don't know enough won't do you any good.
"Don't worry, this is enough, thank you."
I wasn't even able to control the mana, so that was enough for the moment. I knew Raidha was worth asking, no doubt her knowledge was far beyond Mirthia's. Still, my true intention only was to satisfy my curiosity and eliminate my doubts, that was only the first step of a long way to go before being able to use that mysterious power called magic.
'But… this energy…'
I opened and closed my hand a couple of times as I let my gaze lose itself on the ceiling. My biggest doubt remained unresolved and probably not even Raidha could do it.