Today’s practice of mysticism was different. Haruaki had told her in advance that he would go over the primary methods of mysticism. This way, even if she left Spiritus, only able to make basic barriers, she would know how to figure out the other two independently.
“Now give me an overview on barriers.” Haruaki ordered as he watched Lila get her breath back faster now that she was starting to acclimate to the physical training.
“Barriers are primarily in the shapes of cubes but can be created in a variety of geometric patterns. While their primary purpose is defense, they can be used for offense when dispelled, to seal someone when cast around them, and to either enhance or hinder movement when left in the area.”
“A passing grade indeed. Show me what you can do with them.” Haruaki ordered as he gave Lila room to show off.
The barrier she made was only about half a foot wide but paper-thin. When it was done, she grinned as she was pleased with herself.
While Haruaki was also pleased with her progress, he was more intrigued by how her eyes changed colors. He theorized that the base color changed with her emotions, whereas her sclera turned black when she was either fighting or under intense focus.
What he was struggling to figure out was why there was a tinge of another color when she was casting magic. In the case of barriers, her eyes got a tinge of teal in them. If he had more time to train her, he might have figured it out, but as he suspected, this was one of the fae traits she inherited it would be figured out in Tuatha.
“I will call that a C-. While it is enough to be used, I would not rely on it.” Haruaki informed her as he sent a bit of his own mana to hit her barrier, causing it to shatter. “Still, it’s good progress.”
Lila was happy to get some praise from him. The closest she gets to praise from him is when he mocks her for being recklessly aggressive. He mocks her with backhanded compliments that hint that most kitsunes tend to miss good opportunities due to an overly cautious nature from relying on tricks.
While Lila is not above using tricks, she was a firm believer that brute forcing a situation was a great way to grasp a situation before thinking about it. It kept things from getting overly complicated, especially when some people forget that sometimes working smarter does mean working harder.
“Onto the next topic. Prayers. Through mysticism, we acknowledge that there is an intention behind the way mana moves. In the old days, people called these intentions spirits or kami. We now know it’s more like how the types of mana flow. Just like how a fire will spread faster in the direction of the most flammable paths or lightning is guided to metal objects over other things.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
While I could go on, I’m sure you will get the idea. I mention this because when we pray in mysticism, we are actually guiding the mana with our intentions. It is easier to guide lightning through some metals than others. This is why we still use the same incantations for our prayers. It hones our intent while creating a path for mana.
With the right incantation, you can buff, restrain, or heal others.”
When he was done explaining, he pulled out a book about the size of the average light novel and handed it to Lila.
“While there are many more incantations out there, this condensed book should be more than you need unless you choose to follow the path of the omnyouji.
Lila quickly skimmed the first few pages. Some of the incantations were short, only a few sentences. Meanwhile, others took up entire pages. She was grateful to have this ‘spell book’ and decided to keep it in her back pocket wherever she went so she could read it to pass the time now and then.
Some of the incantations even talked about spells that deviated from what she was told mysticism specialized in.
‘Guess it makes sense for there to be deviations to find the limits. Some do seem useful enough to still use anyway.’ As she thought this, Haruaki coughed to get her attention back on the lesson at hand.
“Practice those when you find some time and you should be well off in using our magic arts. Now the next topic should be more exciting. Shikigami’s.”
At the mention of this, Lila’s ears perked up as her eyes changed to a vibrant orange.
Ever since she saw Haruaki’s lightning fox, she wanted to learn to summon her own shikigami.
“When summoning a shikigami it's tradition to give them a name. This way it’s easier for you to conjure them without having to imagine it on the fly. Same with ordering them. Though with time you won’t even need to say anything to summon or command them.”
To prove his point, he made the same lightning fox appear in a burst of energy. Lila was overjoyed to see this happen.
“However, it’s very taxing to summon shinigami, so we use a medium to aid us. Talismans are quite common. If you’re good at making them, you can even use them to bypass the incantation for prayers.”
“What other kinds of mediums can be used?” Lila started forming ideas of using various armor and weapons as mediums for her future shikigami.
“I have a fair idea of what you’re thinking, and the answer is yes. However, you must inscribe the talisman marking on the object for it to work. While paper may be lacking for anything more than a single use, you can have many of them at your disposal, and it will leave your foes questioning what you’re going to do next.
So, if you plan to make equipment with talisman marking make sure you design it in a way that has multiple uses and not just for summoning a shikigami. It’s why I advised Lady Kon to give you the Rune Smithing skill after all.”
As he finished this description, he pulled out another book, this one being much thicker. When Lila read it, she realized that talisman markings were just the yokai version of runes. There was no way she wasn’t going to read this later and not design some prototypes.
After this Haruaki explained how to use prayers and gave advice for making her first shikigami until it was time for the evening workout and sparring.
