I went home and immediately went to bed, as I was exhausted from reading that day. I had spent the whole day at the library, reading books on history and trying to decipher the mysterious book. I had learned a lot, but I still had many questions and doubts.
I fell asleep holding the mysterious book in my hands, hoping that I could find some answers in my dreams.
The next day, I woke up feeling refreshed and curious. I decided to try to read the mysterious book again, hoping that I could make some sense of it.
I opened the book to the page I left of at and saw the symbols. They looked like instructions, telling me what to say and what to do. Some of the words were unclear, but some of them were familiar. They sounded like chants and hand gestures.
I decided to follow the instructions carefully and see what would happen. I hoped that nothing bad would happen.
I read the words in my mind and repeated them out loud. I moved my hands according to the symbols and felt a strange sensation in my palms. I felt something warm and wet, like water.
I looked at my hands and saw droplets of water on them. I felt the moisture in the room condense onto my hands.
I gasped and dropped the book.
What did I just do?
I realized that I might have just used magic, "forbidden magic of the devil worshippers". The kind of magic that the Church hated and feared, the kind of magic that they fought and killed for.
I felt a surge of panic and fear.
What if they found out? What if they came for me? What if they burned me at the stake?
I decided to hide the fact that I could now practice magic, although I was very weak. I decided to never use it again, or at least not in front of anyone. I decided to pretend that nothing had happened, that everything was normal.
But I also felt a spark of curiosity and wonder.
How did I do it? How did it work? Where did it come from?
I decided to keep the book, but hide it somewhere safe. I decided to study it more, but only when I was alone. I decided to learn more about it, but only for myself.
But I also felt a flicker of guilt and doubt.
Was it wrong? Was it evil? Was it against God?
I didn't know what to think, or what to feel.
I only knew one thing for sure.
I had a secret, a dangerous secret.
And I had to keep it hidden.
I was curious as to how magic worked, why did water condense the way it did, could I modify it in any way and did I have to say the chants out loud, and were the hand gestures necessary. Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to experiment. I believed that as I was very weak I couldn't cause too much damage.
I waited until nightfall, when everyone was asleep. I sneaked out of my room and went to the backyard, where there was a well and a bucket. I filled the bucket with water and brought it to a secluded spot, where no one could see me.
I took out the mysterious book and opened it to the page that had the instructions for the water spell. I read them again and tried to understand them.
The instructions were composed of three parts: a chant, a gesture, and a symbol. The chant was a series of words that sounded like gibberish, but they had some rhythm and rhyme to them. The gesture was a series of movements that involved waving my hands in different directions and shapes. The symbol was a single character that looked like a rune or a letter.
I wondered what each part meant, and how they affected the spell. I wondered if I could change them, and what would happen if I did.
I decided to try to prolong the duration of the spell. I remembered that the chants included some numbers. I wondered what would happen if I changed those. I didn't dare to change them drastically, as I didn't know what I was changing.
I changed the first number from 10 to 12, keeping the rest the same. I hoped that it would make the spell last longer, or maybe make it stronger.
I said the chant out loud and made the gesture with my hands. I felt a strange sensation in my palms, like before. I felt something warm and wet, like water.
I looked at my hands and saw droplets of water on them. I felt the moisture in the air condense onto my hands. That's right.. it didn't come from the bucket of water right in front of me
But this time, something was different.
The water didn't stop growing when it reached a certain size, like before. It kept growing and growing, until it was almost twice the size of the original water ball.
I gasped and dropped the book.
What did I just do?
I realized that I had just changed the spell, made it more powerful. I realized that the first number had something to do with the radius of the water ball.
"Woah." I said to myself. "That's interesting. I guess it's about 70% bigger than before"
I felt a surge of excitement and wonder.
What else could I do? What else could I change?
I decided to try to change other parts of the spell, see what would happen.
But before I could pick up the book again, I felt a sharp pain in my head. It felt like someone had stabbed me with a needle.
"Fuck." I said to myself. "Why does it hurt so much?"
I realized that using magic had a cost, a price. It drained my energy, my life force. It hurt me, physically and mentally.
I decided to stop for now, and continue tomorrow. I hoped that the pain would go away by then.
I picked up the book and hid it under my shirt. I emptied the bucket of water and returned it to its place. I sneaked back into my room and went to bed.
I fell asleep holding the book in my hands, hoping that no one would find out about it.