Ready

Looking at the empty space that previously had the magic circle before him, Rethys was very proud of what seemed to be a successful spellcast.

"It worked, right Sevi?" He asked, his voice full of enthusiasm.

"Yes... yes it did..." She sighed.

"Is something wrong?" Rethys questioned as detected the confusion in the trapped mage's voice.

"No, not at all. Congratulations on your success. Although, this is but the first step, as you'll need to be able to produce perfect replicas of that effect for it to be considered a stable spell, ready for use." Sevi said, her voice filled with clear unease.

Rethys could practically feel the tension brewing the air and wondered if he had done something wrong. Before he could ask her about it however, Sevi conjured another, different magic circle floating in front of him.

"The way to stabilize a spell is simple repetition. Casting the ability on different targets will also help verify its stability. Once the spell is completely stabilized and familair enough, you become capable of not only calling upon it with just a thought or word, but also of sharing it with others." She explained in a uncharacteristically unenthusiastic voice.

Ignoring the faint pressure in the air, Rethys decided to simply go on with the magic training, as Sevi herself seemed to not want to get into it.

Reaching towards the new circle, he went through the same motions he did the last time, forming a sphere in his hands and instilling into it the instructions needed to dismantle the magic circle in front of him. Making the finishing touches by commanding the spell to not accept further changes, he was ready to unleash it again.

Just as he pushed his hand forwards towards the floating circle of runes, Rethys let the spell loose, and watched as the sphere transformed into thin strands of ether that flew and surrounded their target.

Once again, the spell successfully disarmed the magic circle without triggering it.

"Good... Now repeat it again." Sevi declared as she conjured a slightly different magic circle.

Approaching the third circle however, Rethys felt that something was different. Looking at the magic structure hovering in the air in front of him, he felt that he could do things differently now. He felt as if he needed only to reach out with his hand to disable it.

Leaning into the sensation he had when staring at the magic circle, Rethys pointed his hand outwards, not bothering to form the sphere upon it. He then closed his eyes, and focused.

'How to do this...' He thought as he wracked his mind over it. 'No, not like this. I need to relax. Remember what Sevi said.'

"Rethys? What are you doing?" Sevi asked, seeing the boy gesturing the air wildly with his hands.

"Hold on Sevi, I think I've got it." Rethys grunted.

"Got what Rethys? What do you think you-" Sevi started to ask, but was interrupted by a burst of ether running through the room.

A wave of ether left from Rethys' open right palm and flew towards the magic circle, enveloping it and breaking it apart. Two more waves followed, seemingly uncontrollably, though unlike the first one, they lacked targets and simply fizzled out into the ambient ether.

"Is that a stable spell, Sevi?" He asked amidst deep breaths, the magic practice making him run low on energy.

Looking at his hand, Rethys felt that he conjure up the spell again, only this time effortlessly. He didn't memorize it like Sevi said, far from it, but felt that he could call upon the same feeling he felt when he disarmed the first circle. His senses also confirmed his hypothesis, as whenever he thought of summoning the same spell again, the ether within him moved to match his thoughts.

"Can you make another circle Sevi?"

He felt that if he got used to it, he could cast the spell with but a thought. And if he could cast the disarming spell so quickly, he could do the same to his tranquilizing ether. The thought truly excited him, after all, he would be able to disable creatures effectively, and from a distance at that.

After the excitement from his advancement died down however, he found himself in an eerily silent room. He didn't even feel the azure gem's stare he had gotten used to at this point.

"Sevi?" Rethys called.

"Hm?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Nothing is wrong. Your talent in magic simply astonished me, that is all. It is very impressive how you learned spellcasting in but a few attempts." The trapped mage answered.

Rethys didn't like how she once again avoided addressing the very clear awkwardness hanging in the room, but once again let it slide. She herself was quite considerate towards him after all.

"Never mind that, we need to make sure you have a handle on things, so let us try again." She said as she created another circle.

Once again, Rethys pointed his hand towards the floating runes and called upon the motion that he emitted the last time. And as expected, the spell was executed perfectly, breaking the circle apart and leaving its energy to disperse into the air.

"Again." Sevi declared as she created yet another magic circle. "We need to know for certain if your spell is stable. I cannot let you delve into the ritual rooms unprepared."

Rethys nodded as readied himself to cast his dispersion spell. And as he continued to disarm more and more magic circles, the spell he was repeating became increasingly easier to summon, eventually needing but a thought to fly out of his hand.

"Good. Now try to disable this circle." She said as she summoned a huge magic circle composed of a myriad of runes with many concentric rings surrounding them.

As Rethys looked at the much larger magic circle before him, he realized he was running low on energy. He could tell that he had enough for a couple of more spellcasts before he ran completely dry, but could nonetheless instantly tell that his spell could not manage this circle.

Regardless, he still aimed his hand towards it and let loose his dispersion spell. The ether flew towards the large magical installation and enveloped it. It disabled much of the circle, heavily weakening many circuits and runes and erasing some entirely. It wasn't quite enough however, as the circle still managed to burst outwards with a wave of mind magic that harmlessly flowed around Rethys.

"Your spell's etheric load is not enough to handle this circle. Try again, except this time inserting more energy into the spell to match the target's difficulty." Sevi instructed as she restored the large magic circle.

Doing as she asked, he cast his dispersion spell again towards the new circle while inserting more energy into it. The act of adding more energy came to him naturally, and didn't need any altering of the spell's structure or commands.

His attempt however did not work, as the spell went haywire when he tried to charge it with more energy than it had. The mass of ether manifested outwards on his hand, convulsing a little before completely fizzling out into the ambient ether.

"Good..." Sevi sighed with almost tangible relief. "I would not know what to do if you turned out to be capable of manipulating your spells as well."

"What's the problem, Sevi?" Rethys asked as he now had an inkling of what was the matter with her.

"It is difficult to explain to you." She declared, but after much deliberation, thought to actually elaborate. "You see, Rethys, you were not supposed to be able to stabilize a spell that quickly, no one should be able to communicate with the ether so effortlessly. Even accounting for your unique element, this is still quite outrageous."

"Isn't that a good thing? Having talent, I mean." Rethys asked in genuine confusion.

"Yes, it is good, of course it is. I might even go as far as saying that you could pioneer wholly new methods of practice for magic among the mages of the world." Sevi continued.

"That sounds like a very good thing Sevi, what am I missing?" Rethys questioned, not liking at all where he suspected the conversation was heading.

"It is that, for your current goal of getting out of here, you having unique powers does not help you at all. You continue to confuse me and make me contradict all that I know, and that makes me less capable of helping and instructing you. While the uniqueness of your powers certainly is fascinating, and pioneering a new method of magic is a great honor, it simply means that you may have to rely only on yourself eventually." Sevi explained.

"Oh..." Rethys sighed in understanding.

That did not sound good at all.

"Yes, it is very worrying, for you I mean. But enough of that for now, and let us return to discussing magic. As you can see Rethys, spells, although very useful and easy to use, are limited in what they can do. They are rigid, and if you were to try and increase the etherical load, the spell would break apart, as your attempts at modifying it would cause it more stress than the etherical structure can withstand.

"If you wish to alter a spell, you would have to simply make a new one with different parameters." Sevi explained.

"So spells are easy and quick to use but need remembering-"

"Stabilizing." Sevi corrected him.

"Yes, they need stabilizing and they can't be changed on the spot, right?" Rethys asked.

"A rudimentary explanation, but yes, that is so." Sevi answered.

Walking back to his spot in the room, Rethys plopped down on the soft padding of his sleeping bag. All the training since he woke up from the core evolution had exhausted him, and though he usually didn't like taking breaks, this one felt more than just earned.

Drinking his fill of water and going through the ordeal that was food, his mind instantly wandered to what he would do next.

"So is this enough to get to the lexicon?" He asked.

"Only one way to know for certain, I'm afraid. You will have to go there and search the ritual rooms to discover anything useful. The runic lexicon is most certainly there, but may be hidden deeper inside, guarded by enchantments that you cannot manage, even with your new abilities. Though now you stand a chance at surviving what may dwell there." Sevi answered.

Rethys pondered her words deeply, and though his mind tried its hardest to convince him to stay for longer, he felt that it was enough delaying.

"Time to move." He said as he reached towards his things.

"Going out so soon? Not going to wait until you grow more accustomed to your new powers?" Sevi asked.

"I'll have plenty of time to find things out as I go. And I can always just avoid fights if I need to." Rethys answered as readied himself, packing in his satchel only the essentials of water, food and healing.

He didn't bother packing any of the ingredient cutter knives he had brought with him from the workshops, as the enchantment that made them extremely sharp against most objects was useless against sufficiently strong enemies. This made it so that the only true weapon he had aside from his fists was the shock baton, which was unreliable at best.

What he did appreciate having however was the very useful talisman of strength, and wearing the magical tool around his neck, he felt safer and stronger already.

Combined with his ability to cast spells now, he figured he'd have a decent shot of fending off whatever it is he came across, especially after testing his magic against a few weaker creatures first. And even for those he couldn't fend off, his ability to quite literally see through walls helped a lot.

"Very well, good luck then. And make sure to keep your eyes open for any other Linker discs you may find, especially the larger ones." Sevi reminded him.