The encounter with Theron had filled Seth with a mixture of hope and uncertainty. Argovarn, a school for magic – could this be the place where he would find answers to his questions? Could he learn to control the power that had awakened within him?
As the wagon bumped along through the forest, Seth let his thoughts wander. He remembered the moment his hands had first begun to glow. The fear, the despair, and then that sudden surge of energy that had caused the tree trunk to crumble to dust. Had that really been magic? And if so, how could he consciously use it?
He felt a tingling in his palms, a familiar prickling that had accompanied him since the Kik attack. He closed his eyes and concentrated on this feeling, trying to sense the energy within him, to direct it. But nothing happened. The magic seemed to elude him.
Frustrated, he opened his eyes. "It's not working," he muttered.
Eldric, who was sitting next to him, looked at him questioningly. "What's not working?"
"I'm trying to summon the magic again," Seth explained. "But I can't do it."Eldric shrugged. "Maybe you just need more practice," he said. "You've only just begun."
Seth nodded. Eldric was right. He had to be patient and practice. He couldn't expect to master magic right away.Seth spent the next two days immersing himself in magic. Again and again, he closed his eyes, meditated, and tried to feel the energy within him. He imagined the moment of the attack, the fear, the despair, the surge of energy. He tried to evoke those feelings again to ignite the magic.
It was a laborious process, marked by frustration and self-doubt. But Seth didn't give up. He felt that the magic was within him; he just had to learn to control it.
Finally, on the evening of the second day, he felt a breakthrough. While meditating, he felt a familiar tingling in his hands. He opened his eyes and saw that his palms were glowing with a faint, bluish light.
Concentrating, he tried to shape the energy, to focus it. He imagined a lightning bolt, a concentrated beam of energy. And suddenly, a small, bluish bolt of lightning shot out of his hand, sizzling through the air and striking a tree trunk by the roadside.
The lightning bolt was small, barely twenty centimeters long, and uncontrolled. He hadn't been able to direct it deliberately; it had simply shot off in a random direction. But Seth was overjoyed. He had done it! He had consciously cast a spell for the first time.
Exhausted but satisfied, he leaned back. He knew he still had a long way to go before he truly mastered magic. But he had taken the first step. He had opened the door to the world of magic, and he was ready to explore it.