After the long awkward walk back to room 121, Tina wordlessly grabbed a few books off her desk and two pillows placing them on the stone floor plopped herself on one of the pillows. She then threw her hands up in annoyed frustration and begun to complain.
"Ahh, why did my father have to make this weird!? I just wanted to have a normal time studying with my new Study Buddy Theo!"
hearing the term Study Buddy Theo let out a slight chuckle and sat down on the other pillow. excited to see how magic differs from his earth's science Theo said with a beaming smile.
"Forget out what your goofy dad said! We got to get studying Study Buddy!"
Tina seeing that the awkward atmosphere had dissipated she picked up one of the books from the pile next to her and handed it to Theo with her bubbly attitude she explained.
"Ok, but since you lost your Grimoire you can use one of my old ones till you can scribe yourself a new one. Ya know you should always make copies of your Grimoire just in case your first one gets lost or destroyed."
With a wry smile, Theo took the old leather journal he began to read over Tina's old Grimoire. It was then Theo noticed that the descriptions on how to cast a spell are really short and vague. For example, the process for casting the FireBolt spell simply states;
"Take hold of your Arcane Focus and feel the mana flow through you. Then begin imagining a small candle flame flickering alight in the palm of your other hand, feel its warmth but don't let it burn you. Let the small flame grow in size until the flame is as big as your clenched fist. Finally, the conjured flame in hand, imagine it bolting over toward the target."
Theo was surprised to find that magic was this simply achieved and began to think.
'All the spells in this Grimoire more or less boiled down to the simple concept of mind over matter! It can't really be that simple? No way that is correct! I have got to be missing something, right?'
Theo took another few minutes to reread the Grimoire. On his third reread he realized something.
'It seems that before the visualizing part of any spell you need to hold an Arcane Focus and let Mana flow through you. It seems like the key to casting magic is this Arcane Focus and this Mana stuff.'
Theo needing more information looked up from his Grimoire at Tina and asked.
"Hey, Tina I was wondering what an Arcane Focus is and why it's needed to cast spells?"
Tina looked up from her book with a raised eyebrow replied plainly.
"A mage's Arcane Focus is what allows them to channel and control the surrounding Mana in the area letting the mage perform magic. Without their Arcane Focus, a mage is just a normal civilian."
As Theo listened to Tina's reply he realized that somehow the Arcane Focus allows a Mage to use their thoughts to control and alter the normal forces of the universe! However, this version of the earth has a limited understanding of concepts like electromagnetism, gravity, or the strong and weak nuclear forces. So, when a Mage casts a spell they don't have a full understanding of what is actually happening and are limited in what they can control! That means since he has a more complete understanding of the universal forces he should be able to have more complete control of the universal forces!
Still staring at him Tina asked a hint of curiosity in her voice.
"Theo did you not use an Arcane Focus when casting that flashy Teleport spell you used to arrive here?"
Stapping back to attention Theo said with a wry smile.
"Nope, where I come from Magic is done a bit differently. However, having an Arcane Focus would make Magic so much less complicated and time-consuming."
Hearing this Tina closed her Grimoire she stared up at Theo. Her big brown eyes sparkling with curiosity telling him to tell more. Theo let out a heavy sigh and begin to explain.
"Where I come from people have to have a complete understanding of the Universal Forces as well as specific equipment to use magic. In addition, one needs a lot of patience since casting one spell can take anywhere from a single moment to full years to cast. That flashy Teleport spell you mention took me years to complete and I needed to gather things like Temporal Sand as well as a device to contain and use it. However, the spell that got me here once completed would have let me do way more than teleport. Once all the full Spell was completed I could have used it to travel anywhere in time and space as much as I wanted! If I had to give it a name I would call the spell Space-Time Winder or just Time Winder for short..."
Tine was at a loss for words as her mouth hang agape unable to fully grasp the idea of Theo's version of magic. However, her eyes sparkled with wonder as she imagined being able to go anywhere and anytime forever with one spell! Eager to learn more she asked nearly able to hold back her excitement.
"Hey, Theo just curious aside from your Time Winder spell what other spells can you cast with your version of magic, and what do they do?"
Seeing Tina take an interest in what his world's "Magic" Theo smiled warmly said with a hint of pride in his voice.
"Back home there are spells that can allow hundreds of people to fly through the sky at incredible speeds crossing the sea to another land in a few hours! There are spells that can allow someone to have a live conversation with another person regardless of where the two are in the world!"
Tina was hanging on Theo's every word completely engrossed by the descriptions of these incredible spells. Her eyes were sparkled with wonder and excitement. Seeing this Theo decided to change the topic thinking Tina's eyes would pop if they got any bigger.
"Anyways, true the way I used to cast magic can produce incredible effects but so can magic that uses an Arcane Focus. The only reason I can see why Mages here are not able to do the things I just described is due to a lack of understanding of the Forces of the Universe or as it is also called Mana."
Hearing this Tina's expression shifted to that of confusion as she tilted her head and asked.
"I have a lack of understanding of Mana?"
Seeing Tina's confused face Theo nodded seriously as he went into full professor mode.
"Precisely! However, It is not just you the Mages here don't seem to fully understand what they are truly doing when they use an Arcane Focus to cast a spell! Do you want to know how this happened?"
Gripped with cirosity Tina nodded her head urging Theo to continue.
"It is because with the Arcane Focus someone can control and bend the laws that govern the universe without knowing what the laws are themselves. Let's take fire instance, tell me what makes a flame?"
With a puzzled expression, Tina thought for a moment then said plainly.
"A match?"
Hearing Tina's reply Theo let out a heavy sigh as he went back into professor mode to explain.
"Incorrect! Matches are tools that can be used to start a fire, yes. However, do you know why when you strike a match it catches fire?"
After thinking for a few minutes Tina let out a sigh of resignation as she replied with a bit of disappointment in her voice.
"I don't know..."
Seeing the dejected look on Tina's face feeling kind of guilty Theo smiled wryly and said.
"There is nothing wrong with not knowing the answer. All that just means is that you have more to discover about the wonders of the universe! I mean I may have a lot of the answers but never all of them! Do you boring it would be if someone knew all the answers!? There would be no surprise or wonder!? So don't feel sad that you don't know the answer. Instead, be excited for the wonders to come when you find it!"
Hearing Theo's reassuring speech Tina beamed a wide smile she said with a thumbs up.
"You're right Theo! Just because I don't know now doesn't mean I can't learn later!"
Seeing that Tina was back to her normal cheery self Theo smiled warmly while nodding sagely he said.
"Exactly! Ok, Study Buddy are you ready to learn!?"