23. Learning Flame Magic
A few days passed and Thalor had finally recovered from his injuries and it was time for him to leave the unforgiving icy mountains to return back to his role as captain of the castle guards. His departure was long overdue, Eryndor did not sit well with it but he also did not have much of a choice. In the short time they had spent together he had grown fond of the guard.
Their goodbyes were short lived and Eryndor quickly adjusted to the fact that he was alone with his uncle Thalvarin. He was sitting before the fireplace for warmth when his uncle returned from escorting Thalor back to the carriage.
"Get up, we train now." It was so sudden that Eryndor was ill prepared for it. "You do want to learn to survive here."
Eryndor rose to his feet with very little hesitation and looked at his uncle with confused eyes. "So soon?" He then realised that his uncle always had intentions of training him, just not in front of his guard. Why did he adopt this strange behaviour, Eryndor thought if there was a strange logic behind this. He wondered if perhaps Thalvarin was afraid of his technique getting stolen or something. Or was his technique someiso precious that he could not risk it being exposed.
Thalvarin vanished into the kitchen and came back with a lit candle, he hurriedly walked up to Eryndor and handed him the candle rather roughly. Eryndor almost dropped it then as hot wax dropped on his hands but he tried to endure the pain the best he could. Next Thalvarin snapped his fingers causing the fireplace place to go out cold crept into the room immediately. The darkness grew further and the only source of light being the candle in Eryndor's hands.
Eryndor tried to calm himself, no point losing his cool after he had sacrificed so much to get here. He exhaled deeply and spoke in a calm tone. "What's the point in doing this?"
He could not see Thalvarin through the darkness but he could hear his heavy breathing at a corner hidden in the shadows of darkness. "I want to test your aptitude for flame magic, the earlier I start to see results the better. The room is dark and cold and you alone bear the only light in the room. I want you to increase the level of the flame on the wick."
Eryndor almost laughed at his uncle's words. "You know I can't use flame magic, I can barely even work my own magic." He snorted.
Thalvarin replied gruffly. "In a true battle surrounded by a great number of enemies, the world around you will black out just like this one. Now tell me son of Altharion will you let your flame quench because of your weakness or will you fight back and burn brighter."
Eryndor did not think he would ever be in a situation where he would be surrounded by great numbers of enemies but he could still find some meaning in what his uncle said, there there was just one tiny problem. "I have never connected to the flame element before."
"The fire comes from the heart, if you truly are a true holy elf you can feel the flames from candle, connect to it and fill it up with mana. This is your own journey to discover fire." Thalvarin said before going dead silent.
Eryndor stood there and tried to connect with the small flame, trying to follow it's every flicker with his mind and magic but nothing happened. Not giving any other ideas he tried to connect with the flame as much as he could. It was a new feeling to him and very hard to grasp. Till the candle died out he did not make any progress, leaving him greatly frustrated.
They would repeat this routine every day at least once or twice, soon it became the only thing on Eryndor's thoughts. He failed to channel mana into the flame let alone control it.
A week passed by and just like that he missed his birthday. He was too busy to even remember it. After a while on one of the days he had with the candle. He poured everything bit of mana he had into the small flickering flame but nothing happened. Every time he was on the verge of giving up he would try to remember the expectations his family had for him.
This time he chose to take a different approach, the Cinder King might be a living legend but he also had an expert in flame magic. His left eye buzzed with excitement as it spoke:
["You want my help disciple, now that's adorable"]
Eryndor rolled his eyes and sighed inwardly. "If you are done making fun of me then give me some idea. I'm on the verge of giving up here."
The left eye buzzed again uttered moments later.
["Testing your affinity to flame is a bit tricky. You need to be able to connect with flames on a base level, there are those that can naturally do this, too an extent I expected this to be much easier for you"]
Eryndor raised a questioning brow. "How so?"
["You might not have experience with flames but you did have experience with a similar element and one that compliments fire."]
It was then Eryndor realized what he was aiming at. "You're saying I can learn flame magic through using wind magic. Won't that be training two elements at once, I won't be able to keep up."
["And that will be the limit of your potential, I have given you a suggestion and it's your choice to take it]
Eryndor did not argue and instead commanded the wind to grow around the fire, at first it was hard because the flames would constantly devour the poor imitation of a light breeze he mustered. After a moment he was able to control the air much easier and augment the amount of it he fed to the flame. The flame continued to grow and become brighter, after an hour of intense control Eryndor had already started to control two elemental affinity.
The first was his basic wind magic which he spun around the body of the flame restricing it's flow. And the second was the flame itself, Eryndor was controlling the rise and fall of the fire in a very subtle manner.
The moment he realised that he was controlling not one but two elements in one hand he started to laught happily. "I guess I'm not hopeless after all." And soon his mana reserve depleted but he had made a considerable growth in a week.
Thalvarin who had been lurking in the shadows snapped his fingers causing the woods in the fireplace to ignite bathing the room in light and warmth.
"Wielding two forms of magic at your level, even at such a low level is not genius but also not bad." He encouraged his little nephew. "Tomorrow we temper your body with fire and get started with the basics."
Eryndor smiled and boomed, "Bring it on!"
Little did he know he would soon come to hate those words very soon.