Lesson

"Now, before we begin, proper introductions are in order. A bit of courtesy never hurt, even in this dreary place." The ancient mage said. "What is your name boy?"

"I'm Rethys, lady mage." He said in the most servile tone he could manage, even adding to it a small bow.

"And you may call me Sevi." She declared. "Now, Rethys, show me how you have been using your element thus far."

To answer Sevi's question, Rethys extended his hand outwards and let his ether pour out of it in no particular direction. Flowing through his fingers, the intangible substance softly floated downwards, some of it dissipating into the room's ether before it could touch the stone ground, while some simply fell into and through the stone as if it wasn't even there.

Seeing this, Rethys noted how his ether could go through solid matter as he had seen, but could not do the same to his body. He guessed it was because of the soul but suppressed his curiosity.

"I just use it like this and send it at their heads to knock them out, or to their chests to release their souls." He explained.

"I see. Your method of using ether is the most basic way, referred to as emission. Like the name implies it is simple emission of ether without Intent or Control, raw magic so to speak. The easiest example I could think of to explain this would be the ethereal element of Malice, which represents the will to harm.

"It could be harnessed to inflict all manner of debilitating effects through channeling and spellcasting. In its raw form of emission however, it could only ever inflict pain, not true harm. No matter how much ether you send out, it will only ever intensify the pain and in the end leave your target fully unharmed, unless your energy expenditure was beyond absurd and the pain was too much for them to bear. Even then, Malice has the potential to inflict much greater pain through lesser but more targeted effort, infused with Intent.

"And your element of Origin obeys the very same rules. You may have seen that the elemental that brought you here was capable of much more than only disrupting ether as you do. As for how you can free the souls of those trapped here, the ability is either gifted to you by that higher entity of Origin, or is simply a peculiarity of your element."

Rethys nodded, remembering the elemental's ability to control other creatures as he had seen it do against the expedition.

"And so, the most important aspect of magic is Intent. Magic in the end, is a tool we use to enforce our vision upon the world, through our ether, guided by our will. The first step to learning how to truly use magic is learning to infuse your ether with your Intent, to communicate to it what is it you want from it.

"For your element is not some foreign power granted to you by some god above. No, it is yours, fully and without question. Even in your case Rethys, the entity trying to control you does not own your element, hence why you can still use it. Even in the worst case, that creature would only be a very powerful elemental, the only one of its kind I would presume, to have such dominion over its element.

"But enough getting sidetracked. To conclude what I said thus far, Ether, when emitted without Intent, as you have seen more clearly happen with the Restoration stone you used, would seek only to fulfill itself, but guided by your will, it would fulfill your vision instead. Thus, your first true lesson would be to try and take control of your ether"

Rethys sat there, his eyes wide open as he listened in to Sevi's seemingly very impassioned speech about magic. It was after all his first true lesson of magic, and thus far it did not disappoint, answering many questions he had been wondering about ever since he could use his own magic.

This was also not at all what he expected from a creature he guessed was manipulating him to achieve its freedom. Her speech felt sincere, and her intentions genuine. It gave him the impression that she truly loved magic, as her words carried a certain reverence towards it.

Snapping out of his thoughts, he cleared his throat awkwardly before responding to her.

"How can I do that, lady Sevi?"

"You could begin by establishing first your control over your ether, to rise from simple emission into focused channeling. And that would necessitate you first become capable of bending it to your will. I will leave it up to you to grasp how to go about it. Your Intent will naturally be infused into it with repeated use in a certain task, until eventually you can simply grab hold of it as if it were the reins of a horse.

"Alternatively, I could suggest to you a good exercise. When emitting ether, go about trying to keep it in your hand, rather than let it have its way. Vague and unhelpful as that may sound, it may help you. Once you could manage to keep it stable, you could begin attempting to manipulate it any shape that you would like.

"Your element is akin to another limb of yours, only atrophied from underuse, hence why magic is taught at an age much younger than your own. It is never too late however, and I have given you now all you need to know to advance. You will be ready to move to the next stage when you could shape your ether into any complex shape, and then have that shape in turn take another form, thus displaying your ability for extended control.

"As for those etherstones you brought with you, you will need to learn proper control before you could use them correctly. In the meantime, use them as you did before but only in emergencies, I can heal any wound you may have as long as you return here intact.

"That is... all, for now." The ancient mage said, concluding her lecture.

"Thank you, lady Sevi." Said Rethys as he tried to do as she instructed him.

He tried time and time again and only failed. Sevi seemed content with just watching, as she didn't bother disturbing Rethys' repeated attempts.

Despite the failures however, he could now vividly feel something new tugging at his senses every time he tried to grab control of the formless ether. It seemed like it would take a lot of time to achieve it, as that feeling was just as fleeting as the ether itself.

'But I can do it.' He declared in his mind as he took a swig from his silver flask.

The water tasted good, and he felt much better.

Then a part of his mind reminded him he was still stuck in an underground stone maze in blasted Yvtar of all places, and the memory of his mentor stuck to his mind like glue, the vision of his burnt figure appearing quite often whenever he closed his eyes.

'Damn it all...'

Just as quickly however, he also remembered his two most promising finds from the workshop he looted.

Taking a break from magic training, he reached into his satchel and pulled out the journal and map he found. Deciding to start with the journal for no particular reason, he set down and began reading, slowly making sense of the foreign script.

Sometime after, he set down the journal with a frown.

Despite having picked the one that seemed to have the most comprehensive contents that weren't just magic notes and observations, the journal was still full of them. And what little useful information the journal contained was cryptic and full of holes.

'Well, not like I would've found some handy explanation of everything written just for me.' He concluded, having gotten more or less what he expected out of the journal, but still being disappointed.

Comforting himself that it would become more understandable the more information he acquired, he moved on towards the map, this time approaching Sevi's blade to try and get her help in deciphering it.

"Hmm, I see." She remarked. "This is not only a map of this level of the catacombs, but also two more levels, as well as the delineations of their ether flows and ley lines. You see, the second to last vertical line on the left is.."

Deciphering the map of the underground complex took a while, and by the end of it, Rethys had for himself a serviceable map of the level he was on, complete with passages to workshops, labs and stashes of supplies that Sevi pointed out to him.

It also had many of the dangers he needed to watch out for marked on it, including passages downwards as well as many things Sevi advised him to steer clear from, on account of her attempts to scan these locations always returning blank.

A very good tool to help him in the catacombs, even if it would take him a few minutes to decode from it where the hell his position was.

Appreciative of her help, he returned to his spot in the room and took a moment to check up on his body again.

His arms had healed nicely and regained most of their mobility, only still feeling sore when overexerted, they also bore quite the vicious scars now. His body had also recovered nicely from the overuse of Infusion magic, as most of the swells disappeared, which conversely highlighted the spots of numbness even further, causing him to frown at their sight.

However, none of that annoyed him more than the hunger that was now pulling on his insides. It was not at the level of being debilitating yet, but it was reaching the stage of becoming barely bearable. He would need to find something to eat, and fast.

As if sensing his thoughts, Sevi once again reminded him of her offer.

"I can clearly see your body growing frail from hunger. It would be a shame to have you fall of simple hunger somewhere in these halls, especially now that I have invested in you my teachings. Why not surrender your apprehensions and ease your worries, clinging stubbornly to these notions you have will do you no good, as I would assume you would need to do even viler things further onwards, if you truly wish to survive in this place."

Rethys frowned upon hearing her words. Her very simple solution seemed so easy, yet he didn't like trusting her when he knew so little.

'What's her angle?' He wondered.

He could accept it if it was about keeping him alive to help her escape or to entirely use him to escape. As absurd as it would sound outside of his head, he thought he could deal with that.

But what if it was something else, telling him to bring dead corpses to this room to "help" him sounded more than just a little ominous.

Yet his worries aside, he couldn't just sit on his ass and do nothing. The workplaces of mages within the catacombs were almost guaranteed to have nothing edible inside of them, and he wasn't about to leave his survival to chance by relying on wishful thinking.

'It's fine, I'm damned anyway...' He sighed gravely before standing and heading out, knife in hand.