66 - New Skill

66 - New Skill
“First, you’ll need to stand straight, arms to your side.” Reverie instructed before showing Clare how to stand.
Clare gazed over at Reverie’s stance before she straightened herself up, ignoring the pain spiking around her right shoulder. She then let her arms fall to the side and kept her feet together.
“Good.” Reverie nodded in approval. “Now I want you to close your eyes and allow the magic to course through your body. You at least know how to do this?”
“I do…” Clare answered.
Although she had never really done this standing up. However, it was worth a try so Clare closed her eyes and took a deep breath before looking inward.
She listened to her heartbeat, counting it as normal before she followed her blood, allowing her magic to rise within her.
With all the practice she had been doing the past few days to grow her plant, Clare found the process much easier. She found that she didn’t have to focus as much to feel her magic.
“A little slow but practice will help with that.” Reverie mused. “Now keep your eyes closed and instead of drawing the magic around you, release a bit of your magic. You’ll need to manipulate this magic as a six sense to help you in places you lack and get rid of any blind spots.”
Clare frowned. “How do I manipulate it?”
“Just release a bit of your magic. Think of it as throwing a line out.” Reverie sighed. “I’ll go step by step with the manipulation part… Honestly what has Frey been doing?”
Reverie said the last part in a lower tone but Clare was still able to catch her words. She felt a little sorry for Frey, knowing he had been trying to teach her basically everything in the span of about two weeks.
The thought made Clare more determined to master this skill Reverie was teaching her. It would mean one less thing for Frey to worry about and Clare would gain something invaluable.
Thus, she took a deep breath, visualizing her magic as a line she was throwing out. It took a while but eventually she felt a wisp of her magic move out her hand and merge with some of the outside magic, the wisp of magic swaying around as if it was caught on a breeze.
“Like this?” Clare asked, unsure if she had gotten it right.
“Yes, you’ve got it right.” Reverie responded. “It’ll be good if you create several more of these strands of magic however you must remember not to use too much magic. You’ll use these strands to feel your way around so to speak but they’ll be pointless if they’re draining you of your power.”
Clare silently nodded her head in understanding. Reverie’s point did make sense. She would still need to use her magic for other things so she couldn’t have the strands of magic get in her way or risk them draining her of her magic.
There were dire consequences if she lost all her magic after all.
With that in mind, Clare decided to keep the strands of magic to three for now. Her magic was still weak so it was better for her to start small and increase the strands as her magic grew.
“Alright… what’s the next step?” Clare asked, her eyes still closed.
“Now I want you to move the strands around as if they were your arms and hands.” Reverie replied. “You’ll need to use your magic to find me while keeping your eyes close. Your task will be to see if you can able to find and wrap a strand of magic around me.”
Clare was starting to see where Reverie was going with this. The strands of magic were like what a walking cane was to a blind person. She wouldn’t be able to see things like when she had her eyes open but they would allow her to walk around and notice objects.
This would allow her to ‘see’ things around her that she wouldn’t normally be able to, like attacks from behind, and in cases that she wasn’t able to see because something was wrong with her sight.
Now understanding how she could manipulate her magic, Clare tried to move her strands of magic around, seeing if she could feel anything. However, the task was easier said than done.
Clare found it difficult to move the strands of magic let alone use them to feel her way around. Reverie seemed to notice this too.
“You’re using too many big movements. Try using smaller movements.” Reverie instructed. “These strands are like an extension of your body. Try moving one up and down first. Then slowly throw in the other two until you can move all three.”
Clare did as instructed. She focused on one of the strands, slowly moving it up and down like she was flexing an arm. It was exhausting to do so but after a few tries she was able to get the hang of moving the strand of magic around with ease.
It’s almost as if I’m exercising a muscle. Clare mused to herself as she turned her attention to another one of the magic strands.
She tried moving the two magic strands as she had done before but found it much harder to do so. It did not stop her through. Clare kept pushing herself, wanting to be able to move the magic strands until it became like second nature.
But Reverie stopped her. “Enough! Release your magic.”
Clare didn’t want to but Reverie’s tone told her she would regret not listening. So, she slowly let go of the magic until there was nothing swirling around in her.
“Why did you stop me?” Clare questioned as she opened her eyes once more.
Her vision was blurry for a moment and the first thing she saw when it cleared was Reverie’s frowning face. It made Clare cringed inwardly.
“Why?” Reverie mused. “Because you were going to drain yourself of magic. You don’t seem to know when your body is at its limit. That’s dangerous and I’m not willing to teach you unless you learn how to control how much your magic drains you.”
Clare was speechless at her words. Had she really been draining herself? But she hadn’t felt it…
Before she could think about it any further, Reverie said, “For now, go to Frey to continue with your normal lessons. Do not try using what I’ve taught you alone. You need to learn this skill properly or you’re going to kill yourself.”
“Understood.” Clare murmured, a little upset.
She had been wanting to master this manipulation skill but it seemed she would have to wait another day. Still, it was a good thing she knew about it.