Trick 22: Getting Destroyed in a Magic Fight!

Ace stood across from the Ancient One, who smiled interestingly as she said "Please." Ace took out his wand saying "Alright, be careful please!" the Ancient One nodded and relaxed completely, making Ace's lips twitch.

He swung the wand in front of him and flicked it forward, shouting "Inflamare!" a little fire ball shot out from his wand and smashed into the Ancient One, who simply waved her fan and extinguished the flames easily.

Ace frowned and whipped his wand towards the ground, "Inflamare!" he flicked his wand a few more times, throwing flames everywhere before circling his wand and saying "Aguamenti!" a spout of water extinguished the flames, making smoke rise all around the Ancient One. She looked around at the smoke and fanned herself, smiling gently without moving as a white beam flew out from the smoke along with a faint shout "Expelliarmus!"

The Ancient One simply fanned the spell away without a care in the world.

A few more fireballs came out from the smoke, missing the Ancient One by a hair. She looked at the fireballs before muttering "Interesting." The fireballs suddenly extinguished and revealed cards stuck in the ground forming a rune.

The smoke spiraled into a ball over the Ancient One's head as Ace slashed his wand down, shouting "Incarceratus!"

The smoke formed chains and nailed to the cards before wrapping around the Ancient One's arms, legs, and torso. Ace was sweating as he stretched his palm out before clenching his fist.

A red light glowed on his chest as the smoke turned into iron chains.

He swished his wand and the stones on the ground floated up before falling to the ground as Ace collapsed to the ground, panting like a dog.

The Ancient One looked at Ace and nodded, "Not as bad as I expected!" as the Ancient One walked through the blockade, passing a layer of fractured glass as it shattered behind her taking all of Ace's attacks with it.

Ace stared at the scene, dumbfounded, "How did you?!" The Ancient One fanned herself and smiled calmly "The Mirror Dimension can be used in various ways, you will learn." Ace was even more confused, asking "Mirror Dimension?"

The Ancient One's smile had a bit more teasing in it now as she said "Forget what you think you know. Your training begins today." she waved her hand and Ace floated back up.

She walked over and tapped on his shirt, a string necklace with a big red crystal tied on it, "Using the Philosopher's Stone to augment your own innate powers, very clever." Ace sucked in air before explaining quickly "Well, I figured I don't have a use for it other than to get gold and transmute some things so since it can transmute and I can change things it should make a good pair, right?"

Ancient One's lips twitched unnoticeably as she replied "Yes… quite…" Ace smiled happily and she continued "At any rate, put on your robes, I will teach you myself for now." Ace's smile froze and he asked pleadingly "Can I not wear the robes?"

The Ancient One smiled at him and replied "Nope!"

The time passed like this very slowly, everyday Ace would train with the Ancient One in the morning till the afternoon and study in the library for the rest of the time.

When it was time to do combat training, Ace would train with Wong, otherwise he would be in the library for most of the time, reading the books and studying spells.

Turns out the magic all stemmed from one root.

There were branching paths for different lines of magic but they all came from the direct source which was 'Magic' as a whole, or rather, Aether Energy in the void.

Ace used the Time Turner in Kamar-Taj as well to get more time in the library.

Ace had even received a Sling Ring, although he didn't know if he would need it forever. He asked the Ancient One and was told that to enter and exit the mirror dimension, a Sling Ring was necessary. However, an extremely talented Mage may not need a Sling Ring to conjure a portal.

The Ancient One demonstrated herself casting a portal to another location without the use of a Sling Ring, but explained that the Sling Ring was essentially a funnel to focus your magic, therefore making your portal location more precise.

Otherwise you would end up in the wrong place by accident.

The Ancient One also warned Ace that it was extremely dangerous to even think about abandoning a Sling Ring without the proper expertise in magic.

Ace basically wrote everything the Ancient One said down. He asked many questions about what he didn't understand, everyday he had hundreds of questions for her to answer, even Wong wasn't spared.

Eventually, Wong started avoiding him as did most of the other mages.

Not because they didn't like Ace, but mostly because he never stopped talking, his enthusiasm was just too vigorous! He would question anything and everything before trying a different way.

By the end of his stay at Kamar-Taj, Ace had a few dozen notebooks full of notes on various magic topics.

The only thing Ace was upset about was that he had only read about 10% of the Library at Kamar-Taj. He didn't have a photographic memory, all he had was a pure love for magic, the Ancient one swore that she had never seen someone so interested in magic before.

Ace reminded her of herself a long time ago, which resulted in her paying more attention to him. She answered each and every single question he had, she was extremely patient with him.

On the last day of Ace's stay~

Ace was reading a book while writing down in his notebook, just as he closed the book, the Ancient One appeared with a calm smile, "Finished?" Ace sighed and looked up at her, saying "I don't have to leave, right?"

She retorted "You have commitments for the year. It's best to fulfill them, however, before you go, you have a lot to do." Ace looked at her in confusion as she walked away saying "Follow me."

Ace packed up his things and followed after her, he had only been here for 3 months unfortunately. He couldn't quite pin down the portal spell yet.

They came to the Artifact room once again. Ace turned to the Ancient One, asking strangely "Again?" She nodded, replying "Yes, many things must be done before you leave."

He followed her to the Pages of Fate, Box of Darkness, and Loom of Fate. The three artifacts started shaking erratically, moving towards Ace slowly.

He looked at them in surprise, asking "They recognized me???" the Ancient One smiled and looked at him, Ace looked at the three simple artifacts before picking them up.

The three artifacts rested in his hands and did nothing else.

Ace looked at the three and hummed to himself. The Papers of Fate were very strange and mysterious with abstract runes and drawings on them, the Box of Darkness was a box made of wood, and the Loom of Fate was an ancient looking wooden loom.

Ace turned to the Ancient One, seeming to understand something. She smiled at him and flicked her wrist, saying "Come along now, little one." before stepping through the portal.

Ace followed her through excitedly.