We had ended up heading back to my room as soon as my tears had dried up. I slept curled up against her. Her tails slowly moving up and down my back. I was comfortable and content. Almost nothing could have moved me. My bladder was one of them. Either my bladder had shrank or the smoothy was going right through me.

  Carefully extricating myself from her arms, I moved to the bathroom and emptied my bladder. Something about my reflection in the mirror caught my attention. A pair of something was sticking slightly out of the top of my head. Tentatively, I reached up and felt one.

  They felt soft and flexed easily with a little bit of pressure. I could also feel my fingers as they touched and pushed, but only vaguely. Another hand joined mine on the top of my head.

  “I see that your ears are growing in.” Kyla said from behind me. Her eyes looking into mine from above my head. Standing on her toes, she blew on one of the nubs and I felt a light tickling sensation.

  Ducking down, I spun as I moved slightly away from her. “What is with you trying to find all my ticklish spots.” I whined.

  Her smile turned devilish. “Just wait until they are fully grown.” Yep, she was going to use those ears to torture me whenever she could. Then again, were her ears as sensitive as mine?

  She probably expected me to go after her ears in retaliation, I instead pushed the impulse down. I would get her when she least expected it. “Is there anything I need to know about taking care of my new ears?”

  “They are really not much different than your normal ears. Just make sure that you dry them after showing.” Taking the end of her towel, she showed me how she dried hers. As soon as we were dried and dressed, she led me down the halls and into another room.

  The room was larger than the gym in my middle school but smaller than the flight bay that had been where my high school stored the shuttles every student learned to fly. My eyes scanned all over the room. Each wall had similar diagrams all over. Looking closer, I was presented with the same information box for each.

  Given the range, each shield probably covered one wall. “These rooms are designed for anyone to come in and practice. They will block most anything a tier two mage and below can cast.” Kyla said as she gestured around. “To activate the shields, just focus on the status of one and toggle it. The system that maintains and monitors each shield will activate and deactivate the rest as you toggle one.”

  Focusing on the shield dialog box, I pulled up the note on its status. A simple toggle switch popped up next to the passive note. Flipping the switch changed it from passive to active.

  Instantly the walls, floor, and ceiling all started to shimmer a dull blue. “Why are the shields blue?”

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “Most system-generated shields have blue in them. Probably has something to do with how the spell is built…” she shrugged, “You would have to as a spell designer. I think today, I am going to go over some basic spell crafting. Of course, you won’t be able to cast the spells yourself, but you should be able to use spells others cast for you.”

  “Manual spell casting is a mix of intent and symbolism. If you want a ball of fire, you need to visualize fire and not water. Feel the heat of the flame on your fingers. While you do that, you need to draw the spell in the air.” Kyla continued, “Of course, this is where it gets a bit murky. Just because you learn the spell one way does not mean that you cannot do it another way. In fact, I know of at least fifteen different ways to cast a simple ball of fire.”

  “Now, holding the image of the fire in your mind, feel for your nanites. Pull them through your body and out your finger, or whatever you are using to cast, and draw the spell circle with them. The more nanites you use, the more power you will push into the spell.”

  She used a single finger to draw a circle in the air. A thin silvery sheen trailed after her hand. As soon as the ends of the circle connected, she moved her hand down and made a few swift motions. The entire circle shimmered before shrinking to a single point. That point blossomed into a small ball of fire that just hung there.

  “How long will the fire last?” I asked as I watched the orange-red flames licking across its surface.

  “As long as the spell has fuel and power. Given that I provided almost no nanites, probably another minute.”

  “What is it using for fuel?”

  “This version is pulling apart carbon dioxide before burning it.”

  I pinched my brow, “How is that even remotely effective? The amount of energy required to do such a thing is not worth the amount you get from burning it.”

  “True, but we are not providing the power. The nanites get their power from the system. All we are doing is having the nanites turn that energy into something we want. In this case, fire. And before you ask, yes, there are more efficient ways to cast this spell.”

  “What happens when the nanites run out of power?” As I asked this, the ball of fire flared before winking out.

  “As I already said, the spell would end once it runs out of power. At that point, the nanites will make their way back to you. Once they return, they will recharge. In our case, they will use our tails to do so.”

  “And if they can’t return?” I was imagining people running and leaving piles of nanites in places they would never return to.

  “The nanites will find typically pop into and out of the network to get back if you are farther than a few feet away. Doing so makes it so others cannot attack your nanite supply as easily.”

  “So, is there no way to stop someone’s nanites from returning?”

  “There is, one would just need to the target's network connection. Without a way to communicate, the nanites would not know where to go. For now, though, let's just practice manipulating spells.” She reformed the fireball spell but didn’t cast it. “Try to activate the spell.”

  Reaching a hand forward, I tried to physically touch the circle. As soon as I was within an inch of the circle, it fell apart. All the nanites disappearing. Kyla smiled as she reformed the spell. Frowning, I moved my finger to where she had pulled her hand away from. Again, the nanites dispersed, and again, she reformed it.

  “Are you going to give me any hints on how to do this?” I asked, a bit annoyed as I tried to reach through the spell, avoiding all the nanites this time. As soon as I passed through the plane of the spell, it broke apart.

  “I told you that you need to feel for the nanites when casting the spell. Did you think that interacting with an active spell would be any different?”

  Instead of just rushing to push my hand into the new spell, I slowly moved my hand forward. I closed my eyes and tried to feel the nanites, whatever that meant. A fleeting feeling of something brushing against my hand caused me to open my eyes in surprise. As soon as I did so, the feeling disappeared, and the spell broke apart.

  She didn’t say anything as she reformed the spell for me over and over again. I don’t know how long we stayed in that room. Her forming the spell and me trying to feel for it. Finally, though, she said, “We should probably get some food and try this again tomorrow.”

  Surprised, I looked around. At some point, we had both sat on the floor with our backs to the wall. I didn’t even remember moving. Confused, I asked, “Wait, how long have we been here?”

  “About ten hours.” She chuckled, “There were times that you seemed to get lost in feeling for the spell. You can try some more tomorrow.” With a simple glance from her, the walls lost their blue shimmer as the shields all dropped. Dinner was yet another smoothy. This time served with some sort of herb-crusted fish.