12 So Close?

—

After talking with Margarita for about thirty minutes, with her mostly explaining things to him, William finally was able to draw the conclusion on how to be a mage. That is, building a personal philosophy in which the fundamental questions will be answered as the person goes deep into the arcane.

Because apparently, there are no definitive or systematic answers to become a mage. Everyone has their own way to develop their own Magicka or the Sources. But, since they all live in a society that already has its own philosophy system, sometimes that way will not be far off from what has already been discovered.

Like a person who lives in Cyrodiil or, more specifically, someone who always listens to the Blade story in their childhood, the organization that is heavily influenced by Akaviri people. Then, the method that person will discover and developed mostly involves meditation breathing techniques to improve their Magicka.

Or a Nord who worships Talos as their deity will discover that the method that suits them is taking the essence of the world. Because it's already ingrained in their psyche since they were just a babe, the story of how Tiber Septim took the essence of the dragon that he just slain. That is very compatible with the first method that Tissaia talked about.

Or an Altmer who believes themselves to be a direct descendant from Auri-El, or with another distinct name, Akatosh, eventually discovers that their Magicka will improve as time goes on. Since the deity that they believe in is the god of time, this created the method to become Magicka, with age as a distinctive factor, making anyone who is already advanced in their life more powerful than any of them.

So, once again, in conclusion, there is no structured way to become a mage because individuals need to identify a method that is highly compatible with them and develop from that point onward. And, since a person's personal philosophy is changing as everyone experiences the wisdom of life, the method that they used when they start walking in arcane arts will eventually wither down and be unable to be used.

Essentially, making anyone that walked in the path of a mage will revise their own method at every step of the way, that is, if they still want to improve.

But this is what William found interesting since he read the book that Tissaia wrote. While everyone at the start of their journey to become a mage will begin by looking for a suitable method, she instead talked about creating the method from the start of the journey. With the initial factor is understanding the existence of oneself and how it interacts with every part of the world around that person.

So, taking a deep breath, William closed his eyes and tried to imagine his surroundings in his brain. The book, the shelves, the library—everything slowly started forming inside his head, creating the scene that his eyes had just seen a moment ago. Then, looking at the book, he did not try to understand the properties of that book but willed the existence of that book to explain to himself.

And, he feels like an idiot trying to make the inanimate objects explain themselves. But still, he maintains the state that he was in, hoping that something might happen. However, seeing there is no progress after five minutes of constant will, he decided to change his approach—that is, explaining to them his existence. Essentially, making it look like having a conversation, with him being the first one to introduce.

He then explains to them inside his head where he was born, who his professor father is, his housewife mother, and even his father's 'acquaintance' that accidentally is also his great-great-grandmother. Even then, there is no reaction whatsoever from the world around him, like how Tissia mentions in the book or like Margarita tells him how it is done.

Minutes go by, with him losing hope that maybe he is not fit to become a mage. He then shifted the conversation to touch on the topic of his past life. And with no warning whatsoever, a torrent of information flowed outward from the world around him, in the form of written scrolls, dancing in front of him like a gushing river.

Perplexed, he stumbles backward from his chair, opening his eyes, and exclaims, "What the heck is that?"

Looking at her watch, Margarita was impressed, "Wow, fifteen minutes. Definitely on par with my talent."

Standing up to help him, Margarita looks deep within William's heart and congratulates him, "Congratulations. You are now officially stepping into the path of the arcane."

Receiving the help from her, William looks confused and says, "Huh?"

Instead of explaining, she starts walking out of the library, saying, "Come. Let's go to the training ground."

—

Arriving at the empty open field with many instruments to train student spells, Margarita then starts instructing William to create a small spark of fire. After a couple of tries, he succeeds, leaving him confused about the sensation he was feeling.

Because, for the better part of his life, he had always tried to will the fire into his finger with the same mindset, but only now was he able to succeed. This made him very, very confused about why only now he could do magic.

"Is this Magicka?"

"Yes."

"But how? I didn't even try to understand the existence all around me. I just have a split second to glance around, and that's it. Nothing more. So, how?"

Nodding her head, understanding William's confusion, Margarita starts her explanation, "It is our metaphorical understanding that holds the answers. As long as we confine ourselves to alphabet wording, there is no way we can completely understand how it is done."

Walking near William, Margarita then touches his forehead, saying, "Here, let me show you."

A minute after closing his eyes, William opens his eyes in amazement, saying, "Fascinating."

If he could put it into words, the Magicka that lay dormant inside his body, or more specifically, lie dormant inside the flesh of his body, is resonating with the Magicka all around him. Like the small trickle of Magicka in the normal book that he held earlier, it now gushes like a fountain, showing William what it is that they possess.

Even though the form that it will take differs from person to person, with him being scrolls that hold the information about that book, it still shows that because he is not in the right mindset, he never touches upon that mysticism. And since he rarely thinks about his past life, with the frequent thoughts only focused on surviving the political understanding of the world, he never stumbles upon the Magicka.

'Wait a minute.'

Connecting his fingers to one another, William suddenly sees the world around him producing a gushing river of scrolls that dance in front of him. From time to time, a word comes out of those numerous scrolls into his brain, delivering information one after the other about what they are, who they are, and why they are.

Sighing in realization about how he is this close to the Magicka, he just lets out, "Ahh, I see. So, that's how it is. What a really fucking drag."

—