Loki held his head in his hands as he stared at the index of the book that Walburga had tossed at him.
'Which chapter should I start with?'
Since it wasn't possible to read the entire book in two hours, Loki began to look at the index to shorten the number of chapters he had to read to get his answers.
'Since she told me to find the answer in two hours, it should be possible.'
'But which chapter would give me the answer?'
'Chapter 1: An Intro To Magic? No that seems too broad.'
'Chapter 3: What is Magic? How does it work? Hmm…this chapter seems related to magic, not wand movements.'
'Oh! Chapter 6: A guide to wand movements, this might be it?'
'Let's look through it. Page number… ninety-one?'
Loki flipped the pages and upon reaching the chapter he started to skim through it.
[Wands are partially sentient tools that with the help of the remnant will of their cores help the wizard control their magical output.]
"So they are just low-risk mystical items that help in controlling spirituality output? That's what Walburga said too right? But I need to figure out why I need to do such a thing. What benefit does controlling spirituality have?" Loki mumbled.
[Broadly categorised, wand movements are of four types, curves, lines, points, and rotations.]
[They are also commonly called, swish, flick, stab and twist.]
[Combinations of these movements while expelling spirituality from the tips of the wands create complex patterns.]
[Since different spells need different shapes of spirituality, along with the right intent, each spell has a different set of movements that must be performed to activate it.]
"Huh? So each spell can be broken down into a set of wand movements that create a unique pattern out of spirituality?"
'Is this the answer?'
'But then why did pouring out my spirituality without any patterns still activate the spells that I envisioned?'
Flipping the pages back towards the index, Loki began reading the chapter titles once again.
'Chapter 3: What is Magic? How does it work?...Page number forty-six?'
Flipping the pages again, Loki arrived at the chapter and began reading through the highlighted points.
[Magic! A phenomenon that performs the impossible that our mind envisions with the help of our spirituality. It can turn a mice into a cup and a pin into a porcupine. It can make you giggle and also make you spill your deepest and darkest secrets.]
'There's a truth spell? Why don't all people use it then? Why didn't Walburga use it on me then? Couldn't she have just used it on me to make me spill my secrets?'
[It can vanish the most important of things including your memories. It can give you immortality and also take away your life, all in an instant.]
'Immortality? Is the book just making things up?' Loki skipped the line and focused on something that stood out more to him.
'And it can vanish memories?'
'What the heck! I need to think of a counter to this fast!'
'Can I develop an anti-mind messing spell?'
'But how do you keep such a spell powered all the time?'
'And how do I protect myself before I develop such a spell!?'
'Wait! Can't I use a watch? If someone erases my memory, I will lose track of time by suddenly jumping a bit forward in time?'
"You've used up an hour." Walburga reminded breaking Loki out of his thoughtful planning.
"Oh.", Loki responded with a slightly surprised tone and then went back to thinking about the memory-erasing problem since Walburga inadvertently pointed out a mistake in his thought process.
'So using a watch is a no-go since I can't differentiate between when I'm lost in researching something and when someone actually wipes my memories.'
'So what else can I do?'
Loki began to look around the room for ideas and then he spotted Walburga filling away her nails.
'Oh! I could do something that leaves behind a permanent change on my body!'
'Like draw up a tally on my hand using a pen so that each time someone changes my memories I see that the tally on my hand is different than I remember it!'
'Ha! I'm a good at this!'
"You have fifteen minutes remaining you brat.", Walburga said again as she uninterestedly continued to file her nails away.
"What!? Already!?" Loki asked shocked.
"If you still haven't found it, I suggest you give up.", Walburga said in a bland tone.
"No!"
Loki went back to looking at the page that was open but then he looked confused.
'Wait, why did I open this chapter again?'
'Oh yeah, I wanted to figure out why I was able to perform magic just by expelling spirituality out of my body.'
'Wait a second. Even Walburga herself, when she used that shield spell, did she ever move her wand at all!? Then how did she create the patterns of spirituality that magic requires?'
'She just pulled out her wand and *Bam* the shield was there.'
Loki flipped to the index again and began to search for something in particular.
'Is there no advanced concepts chapter?'
'Wait Walburga didn't say I could only use this book or did she? Anyway-'
"Misses Black!" Loki shouted.
"Huh? What happened? You only have ten minutes left, don't ask for an extension."
"No! I mean yes! Wait I mean, could you perform that shield spell once again!?"
"Huh? Sure." Walburga nodded and flicked her wand out of its holster causing a semi-transparent white spherical shield to appear in front of her with the tip of the wand at its centre.
'I was right? She doesn't move her hand at all…but then how does she shape the spirituality that is pushed out of her wand for the spell?'
'Is she able to mould it using her wand?'
Suddenly, as if all the pieces of the puzzle fit into Loki's mind he exclaimed, "I GOT-"
But before he could finish his sentence, Walburga flicked her wand and caused Loki's mouth to vanish, making the only sound that came out of him a muffled excited shout.
"MUF MUf Muf Muf!!!"
"Don't shout! It is unbecoming of a person associated with the Black Family to shout like a filt- commoner."
Loki quickly nodded since it felt extremely weird having his mouth vanished shut. It honestly felt suffocating and stifling.
"Good.", Walbura said seeing Loki become silent again as she flicked her wand and allowed his mouth to reappear.
"I got it!!?" Loki said excitedly but this time making sure to keep his voice softer.
"Oh?" Walburga raised her eyebrows, "Did you figure out why you need a wand to do magic?"
"Yes! The book said magic happens when spirituality forms patterns."
"And so?"
"Your wand forms the patterns of spirituality based on your intent because it is a half-sentient item."
"Don't tell me that's all you figured out." Walburga complained with a dull face. "If that was the case why can you do magic without a wand? Clearly, you don't even know any of the patterns."
"No that's not all! The next clue I got from how I do magic myself. The way I do magic is toss a lot of spirituality into the air and then think about what I want to happen really hard."
"So what? I already told you that."
"Well the thing is with the way I do magic, it isn't instantaneous, magic takes time for me to happen, I mean there's at least half a second of delay for magic to happen when I cast magic."
"What about the delay?" Walburga asked with a smile hinting at the fact that she had figured out what Loki was going to say next.
"Because although our methods appear similar at first glance as we both push out our spirituality, there's a big difference! Whenever I push out my spirituality into the air the pattern forms by luck as my spirituality dissipates into the air, and depending on my intent the magic happens after the pattern forms!"
"While when you do it, you expel only the exact amount of spirituality and with the help of the wand mould it into the perfect shape after adding the right intent to perform the magic."
"Good job.", Walburga said with a proud smile on her face.
"Haha! Aren't I a genius!?"
"Hmpf. Maybe you have a little brain in there. But don't become too proud, this is just the beginning."
"Hehehe~" Loki looked positively happy as he giggled to himself while looking at Walburga.
Although not direct, Loki could tell that Walburga to some extent enjoyed teaching him. It felt like she was doing something that she had never gotten the opportunity to do earlier and it was only now that she was able to act out her wishes.
'Perhaps she is a decent human being as long as she is not affected by the loss of control as a beyonder.'