24. Body Tempering
Eryndor stood shivering in front of the cottage, the icy wind blowing heavily threatening to freeze his insides. Not far away was Thalvarin who appeared to be shirtless. Eryndor wondered if he really was unbothered by the weather, normally he should be freezing but he was fine.
"How are you fine? You should be freezing." Eryndor managed to say after a while. Initially he wanted to shout at the old elf but his curiosity got the better of him.
Thalvarin surveyed his environment which was nothing but a sea of white and some trees coated in white snow. He abused and turned to face the young prince. "After I left the royal grounds I sought for a way to master my flames. Eventually I came here and learned a neat trick, many people believe flame magic to be an external force, I managed to birth an ember of flame in my heart. Does that make any sense?"
From his short time spent with the muscular elf who had become his teacher, unfortunately. Eryndor had come to learn one simple thing, his uncle was a terrible teacher. He would have to be constantly thinking to be able to understand what he was saying.
"So you're saying that you're a walking solar panel? That's neat, I guess." Eryndor's bitter sarcasm was swept away by the cold wind.
His uncle did not notice the sarcasm, his voice was still neutral as he spoke. "I can create fire from my heart and use it to temper my body making it impervious to this cold. It's a tricky thing to learn."
Eryndor who had yet to grasp the basics of well— basic magic. And now he was supposed to know the tricky bit. "This is a scam, how do you expect me to do this when. I can't even control a candle flame?"
His uncle's reply was simple. "The body is a natural heat generator, many people waste its potential and try to use the natural elements. I simply connect with it, you have to find a way to become one with fire."
Eryndor paused and thought out loud. "If I try to understand what you're saying you mean that mages in general our cores are adapted to utilize the elemental forces but many mages never actually activated their innate potential. You want me to activate the flame attribute of my core? Shouldn't it be impossible for a dormant core to control more than one element?"
Thalvarin looked at him for a short while before laughing out loud. "If you really believed in such foolish prospects then you would not be here. Quit making excuses and just do it."
Normally a beginner mage would have a dormant mana core that could accompany one elemental affinity at most, only after mastering this level can one break through to the next level. And intermediate Mage was the second step in the evolution with the core becoming awakened and having another layer within it to accompany another elemental affinity. This was the normal progression but there were those who chose to break this normality and have as many as three elemental affinity by the time they on the intermediate Mage level.
Eryndor cursed himself for his limited thinking capacity, the old him always looked for excuses to make him look more basic than he was and he was going to change that.
Eryndor noticed his uncle not paying him any attention, instead of watching his student he was at a corner sparing against an imaginary enemy. Eryndor was astonished by the footwork and speed, he could feel the heat emanating from where his uncle trained— it was like having a human sized sun on the surface of the earth.
Eryndor remarked at how one elf could actually carry such incredible power. "I guess he really is worthy of the title of the Cinder King." He muttered to himself.
He still had problem getting used to Thalvarin giving him vague tips and leaving him to figure it out on his own, Eryndor liked this mode of teaching very well. He hated being told everything, it might have been harder to learn this way but solving the problem with only half the truths could yield greater results in the long run.
Instead of curling up and fighting against the cold. Eryndor opened himself and widened his stance. He tried to fight the cold by running the sensation he felt by controlling the candle flame over and over in his mind not knowing whether it could work or not.
The only assurance he had that his poor bones would not freeze over was the fact that the heat generated from his uncle's beautiful training was just about enough to give him a little warmth.
Hours passed in the blink of an eye but to Eryndor it felt like days, while one would think he was trying the same method of summoning the flame attribute in his core to spark he was doing something entirely different. Eryndor did not believe he could achieve such a feat at his level and honestly he was not trying to.
What he did was simply to reverse the flow, instead of repelling the cold energy he absorbed it. Taking his time to trace it's flow from the pores of his body to the very center of his being. Multiple times he would lose track of the path and every single time he would start all over. He had the time to spare. By the time he had made progress eight hours had passed and he held a wide grin on his face, he might not have generated his own heat but he had done something far beyond his level.
Eryndor had always had an open mind and high aptitude for mana control, due to his playfulness he had underused his own talent. In his eight hours enduring the blistering cold Eryndor had memorized every single magic vein in his body.
Magic veins were the paths that directed the flow of magic through the body of a mage, the working of spells was made possible through these veins. Memorising all the vein paths at such a young age was nothing short of genius but Eryndor was oblivious to this fact. To him he was just doing the homework he had neglected for so long.