19. Kal: Emotions

  Kal’s second first day of school turned out to be…amazing?

  It was a short school day – only four hours – but after they finished their writing and reading exercises and moved to simple arithmetic, Kal once again shocked everyone, getting more praise from his teacher.

  He didn’t understand what the big deal was. Or rather, he did, but he just found it weird. He had done nothing special. It was just basic grade school math. No one should be praised so much for doing simple arithmetic.

  Still, it felt nice. Not how school usually went for him.

  It became even better when Mrs. Keller stopped his mother after class when she came to pick him up, carrying Lucas, just to praise him. She asked Elara how she had taught him to write so well over the summer, looking genuinely impressed.

  Watching Elara’s smile widen with pride had filled his heart with warmth.

  But then…he overheard something that nearly made him choke.

  “It’s still early to say, but if he continues at this pace, he might be able to skip a year or even two and move up to the 9-12 class sooner.” Mrs. Keller said.

  Kal stiffened.

  ‘Nope. No thanks!’

  Higher class meant more homework. More homework meant less time for music. Less time for music meant the destruction of his spirit.

  ‘Absolutely not!’

  He quickly latched onto Elara’s hand, tugging her away before she could agree to anything that could ruin his new life.

  “Goodbye, Mrs. Keller! See you tomorrow!” He called hurriedly, forcing a bright smile as he practically dragged his mother and brother toward the door.

  The teacher laughed. “See you tomorrow, Kal!”

  As soon as they were out of earshot, Kal sighed in relief. ‘Crisis averted.’

  Now, he could finally spend the rest of the day focusing on what truly mattered.

  After music, of course.

  Magic.

  His heart raced at the thought.

  He was going to learn magic with Azmira.

  ***

  Azmira sighed loudly, her arms crossed as she tapped her fingers on her arms, her expression unimpressed.

  They were seated on the wooden floor of Kal’s room. Alone. Together.

  Normally – at least that’s what Azmira said – practicing outside would’ve been better. But since Kal’s parents wanted to keep Kal being a mage a secret from the village, the house was the only place they could practice in.

  “I really thought this was going to be more exciting.” She suddenly said.

  Kal swallowed, shifting with unease. “Uh…what do you mean?”

  Azmira leaned forward, resting her chin on her palm. “I mean, here I am, expecting a promising young mage to teach, and instead, I get you.”

  Kal’s heart stammered a bit. He had been waiting all day to sit down with her like this. And yet, here she was, so thoroughly unimpressed with him…

  “I – I thought I was doing fine?” He asked hesitantly.

  Azmira groaned. “That’s the problem! You are doing fine! You’re doing too fine! You’re infuriatingly fine, and you’re just six!” She waved her hands dramatically before crossing her arms again. “Do you know how long it took me to get a first feel for my Threads? I’m considered a genius, and it took me a week! You?” She flicked his forehead lightly. “Less than an hour!”

  Kal’s face flushed red from her touch, oblivious to the fact it could’ve been interpreted as an insult. “But…isn’t that a good thing?”

  Azmira rolled her eyes. “It’s a great thing. Infuriatingly great. If I’m a genius, then what are you?!” She shook her head. “Here I was, thinking I found myself a side-quest until your damn barley grows. But noooo, you just get everything instantly.”

  Kal swallowed hard, worried that his time with Azmira was coming to an end after just one meeting. “I still need training, though! Without you I’ll just keep breaking wooden arcs, right? Please, keep teaching me, Master!”

  Azmira looked like she was struggling to keep her serious expression as hints of a smile constantly kept breaking through her fa?ade.

  “Okay, okay, I’ll keep teaching you. Don’t get all puppy-eyed about it.”

  Kal instinctively smiled. He couldn’t help it. She was so cool. So pretty. She was a real mage. And she was here, spending time with him.

  He wasn’t stupid – he knew she only saw him as a kid – that much was obvious. But still…if she was going to be his teacher, maybe one day, when he was older –

  Azmira suddenly clapped her hands together, pulling him out of his thoughts.

  “Okay, since it seems like you find it waaay too easy to enter your Inner Eye, and you already grasp most of the basic theory, we’ll move straight to practicing.” She declared. “Which Threads did you say were the thickest in your Inner Eye?”

  “Three in Rhythm and four in Emotion.” Kal replied quickly.

  “Hmmm.” She made a thoughtful gesture, then leaned back on her hands. “I don’t know much about Rhythm, but Emotion magic is fun. People often confuse it with Persuasion, but it’s actually two completely different things. Do you know why?”

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  “Because emotion is a feeling, while persuasion is a thought?” Kal answered with a question, then immediately continued. “The first one nudges people, the other pushes them forcefully.”

  Azmira rolled her eyes. “Of course, you understand this, why do I even ask?!” Then she groaned. “How are you six?!”

  Kal shifted under her scrutiny, suddenly feeling like he was under a magnifying glass. He briefly wondered if he should just tell her the truth – about everything. Surely, she’d find it interesting to know he was actually eighteen inside, that he wasn’t really a six-year-old, that he had lived an entirely different life before this one.

  Maybe she’d even look at him differently if he did…

  But in the end, this thought was the exact one to push the idea away and flush it in the toilet.

  What if she does look at him differently but not in the way he wants? Maybe she’d think he’s crazy – a complete coocoo – for even suggesting this as a possibility. But even if she did believe him, wouldn’t it just make him seem weird? Some grown man pretending to be a child in a farmers' village for six years?

  ‘Yeah, no thanks.’

  Luckily, Azmira switched back to her teacher mode. “We’ll start practicing your Emotion Thread. It should be the easiest for you since you understand it better than anything else.”

  Kal straightened, ready.

  “But before we begin, you need to understand something.” She pointed at him. “Even though you have four Threads in Emotion – which is insanely incredible for any mage, not just a six-year-old – that doesn’t mean you can just jump to the fourth level of Emotion Magic. You need to build your skill from the bottom up. Think of it as playing your lyroca – you don’t just go pick it up for the first time and start composing symphonies. You first begin with the basics, right?”

  Kal nodded, enjoying her approach to it. He didn’t know if it was because he had a crush on her, but so far, she seemed like a much better teacher than all his previous ones.

  “Do you have an Emotion Thread?” He asked her out of curiosity.

  Azmira snorted at his question. “Nope. Why would you think that?”

  “Really?” Kal frowned. “You just sound like you know so much about it…”

  She gave him a pointed look. “Because I studied, obviously. Just because someone doesn’t have a certain Thread doesn’t mean they don’t understand how it works. As the great Eludranth said himself, ‘Knowledge is not the same as understanding, but having knowledge is better than staying ignorant’.” She folded her arms. “Which brings me to something important – you shouldn’t go around asking mages what Threads they have. It’s considered rude.”

  Kal immediately felt uncomfortable. “Why?”

  “Because it’s personal.” She explained. “Threads represent the mage’s inner world – their strengths, their weaknesses, who they are. Asking someone what Threads they have is like prying into their mind – it’s not your business unless they choose to tell you. Or unless you’re a Thread Reaver, which you’re luckily not and won’t ever be.”

  A chill ran down Kal’s spine at the term. “A Thread Reaver?”

  Azmira shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. Sorry I brought it up. Let’s focus back on you.” She pointed at him. “So, for the first level of Emotion magic, you need to focus on a specific feeling you want the other person to experience, but you also need your words to align with the emotion you’re trying to create. For example, if you want to make someone feel sad, you need to say something sad, something that resonates with them.”

  Kal narrowed his eyes. “But how is that different from…normal talking? I don’t get where the magic – “

  Azmira suddenly laughed and Kal couldn’t stop staring at her beautiful smile, forgetting the rest of what he was about to say.

  “In all types of magic, the first levels will be simple enhancers of what already exists.” She began explaining once she calmed down. “It’s similar to how in Water Magic’s first level, I couldn’t create water from nothing. I had to use existing water sources and manipulate them. Emotion is the same. First level will enhance the effect of your speech, body language, and all other human communication methods.”

  Kal nodded slowly. It made sense to him.

  “At higher levels, though, that restriction would disappear for you.” She added. “You would be able to say something completely different, like…’Turnip Stew’, and still make someone – not just me – feel despair.”

  Kal blinked. “Turnip Stew?”

  Azmira shook her head. “Long story…”

  He narrowed his eyes again, growing curious.

  “But let’s start small.” She smirked and pointed at him again. “Try making me feel sad.”

  Kal tensed. “Sad?”

  “Yeah.”

  He hesitated, shifting uncomfortably. “I…don’t want to do that.”

  Azmira raised an eyebrow. “Why not? It’s just practice.”

  Kal frowned. “Because sadness is something that clings to people. Sometimes, even when they forget, it never really leaves.” He looked away. “I don’t want to make you feel like that just for the sake of training. I don’t want you to remember me as someone who had made you sad.”

  Azmira stared at him, her cheeks blushing weakly.

  “What?” He asked after she remained silent for too long.

  She cleared her throat, turning her head slightly. “Nothing. You just…sound way too mature for your age. Or maybe it’s me who is too childish for mine…”

  Kal felt heat creep up his neck.

  “Anyway!” Azmira clapped her hands suddenly. “Sadness is out the window. What do you want to try instead?”

  Kal brightened. “Joy?”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’m already joyful ninety-five percent of the day. We wouldn’t notice the difference!”

  “And the other five?”

  “Sulking. Mostly.”

  Kal’s eyes brightened with an idea. “Then how about excitement?”

  She made a thoughtful expression and then nodded. “Alright. Go for it.”

  Kal took a deep breath and focused.

  ‘Excitement. I need to make her excited.’

  He grinned, focusing on the feeling he wanted to make her feel and channelling it. “Imagine you just got…an epiphany! Suddenly, you had achieved your fifth Thread in Water Magic!”

  Azmira raised an eyebrow, but remained unimpressed. “I mean, that’d be nice, I guess.”

  Kal narrowed his eyes on her. ‘No way she wasn’t excited by that.’

  He tried again, shifting strategies. “Then what if…what if the most powerful mage in the world personally picked you as their apprentice?”

  She smirked. “She’d be honored, obviously.”

  Kal groaned, trying a few other approaches, but nothing worked.

  “Is this even working? Am I even doing anything to you?”

  Azmira chuckled. “Oh, it’s working, kiddo. You just suck it.”

  ‘Ow, ‘kiddo’…my heart…my soul…’

  He scowled. “That was not very teachery of you.”

  “I know. But it is fun.” She beamed. “You know what, let’s make it interesting. I’ll give you a wager. If you manage to make me truly excited – so much I’d want to dance, I’ll give you a trinket – something to remember me by after I leave.”

  Kal eyes widened. ‘A keepsake from Azmira?!’ His heart skipped a beat. ‘No way I’m losing this!’

  Then, an idea struck him. If words weren’t enough…he’d use his music.

  He darted off and grabbed his lyroca.

  “You cheater.” She called after him, but he ignored her.

  Sitting on his bed he strummed the notes of a bright and quick melody. A song Reinar played for him on the voutar many times, and he had learned on the lyroca. The song was meant to uplift spirits. ‘Surely, this will make you dance!’

  As he enhanced the music with his magic, he felt a change in Azmira’s reactions.

  A grin spread across her face as she started bopping her head to the melody.

  But then – she stopped. She folded her arms and sat completely still.

  Kal, confused, continued playing, focusing even harder on making her feel excitement, but nothing changed. She remained motionless for the rest of the song.

  “I win.” Azmira declared, her grin widening even further.

  “I don’t understand…” He muttered. “One moment, I saw your head moving, and then…Did you just tease me on purpose?! You never tease a musician!”

  “Oh, no.” She crossed her arms behind her head, looking smug. “I was actually really close to losing, but if there’s one thing I hate more than being called short, a kid, and four other degrading nicknames I won’t mention here, it’s losing.”

  She tapped her chest, pulling out a small medallion that had been tucked beneath her tunic.

  Kal squinted at it. “What’s this?”

  “This,” she said, her expression turning serious, “is taelium.”

  She let him take a closer look at the dull, silvery metal. “I know I only used it to beat your ass, but let’s turn this into a lesson.”

  “What’s the lesson?” Kal asked, still staring at the medallion. There was nothing special about it – just a clear piece of metal with the size and shape of a coin.

  Azmira smirked. “Taelium is a rare metal. Depending on how well it’s refined, it can block different levels of magic.”

  Kal analyzed the new information, surprised by the revelation.

  Before, he assumed mages ruled the world. That magic was the ultimate advantage. But seeing this small piece of metal, he wasn’t so sure anymore.

  If something like this could nullify magic, then anyone – mage or not – could level the playing field.