The following chapter is a return to Kat's perspective.
--------------------------
Winding back the clock a bit, to when Green was still searching for Judge's hall Kat was watching intently but her interest was fading. There was only so long you could watch someone sneak around a repetitive surrounding without getting a bit bored. Originally Kat was going to try admiring the planes, but there wasn't much of anything to see… and she had a better idea.
"So, Nixilei, can you explain how exactly Green is casting those spells of hers?" asked Kat
Nixilei turned away from the screen displaying the competitors to focus on Kat and said "Green is not casting any spells, so I would have to ask what you might mean by that?"
"Well, sure she isn't casting spells right now, but she was, like back when she was levitating" said Kat
"Well, no even then Green wasn't casting any spells. But you have access to spellcasting do you not? I have seen you summon flames without enchantments layered onto your outfit, and I detect no runes within the patterns of your robes, so surely it is only possible with magic" said Nixilei
"Ah, um no, I don't cast spells like you do I can just summon it" said Kat as she willed a bit of energy to appear on her finger. A bright purple flame appeared, chilling the air slightly with it's presence but giving off a relaxing feeling to those gazing into it.
"Hmm" Nixilei study the flame intently, before bending down and pulling a clump of grass from the ground. Holding a single blade she then carefully dropped it into Kat's fire where it promptly froze, fell to the ground, and shattered. "Fascinating. You have not called upon an element, and you should not be sufficiently skilled to call forth and combine multiple. Indeed it does seem to be a different system to mana
"How should I explain then? Covering the scholastic study of mana is likely not to your interest, but at the same time I doubt that you would be satisfied with the truly standard answer that you pull it through runes or sigils to perform miracles?" Nixilei watched Kat shake her head.
"Of course, I would expect nothing less from you, considering you seem actually willing to listen to my lessons and you are in fact supposed to be our mage I suppose I shall inform you of some intricacies of the craft
"Firstly" said Nixilei as she summoned a runic circle with a number of characters imbued within it "Healing works differently, try to ignore that. For some reason it is a power that we can use earlier than should be possible as we combine multiple elements for it to function. Many people theorize as to why this might be, but nonetheless healing is something we are capable of, with additional training
"Wait do I need to go over that as well? How people actually become wizards?" asked Nixilei
"Yes please" said Kat
"Well, right, so most sentients are born with the power to feel mana in their own bodies, a very small number can feel nothing, and an even smaller number can feel the mana around them. You are capable of training yourself from nothing, to internal, to external but these things all take unbelievable amounts of time, especially once your magic matures at around our age.
"Most wizards are those who started being able to feel mana outside of themselves, however some stronger families or dedicated commoners manage to achieve it within a reasonable time. Once you can sense mana outside of your body the next step is learning to manipulate it outside your body. Once again, this might sound easy to someone with the capacity as you seem to, but that jump is exceptionally difficult even for those like myself who were born with external mana observation.
"Once you can move your mana outside of your body, you may form it into a sigil with mana and then charge it further to produce an effect. Think of sigils like a language. You add runic characters to the sigil for different effects. Say you want a fireball, you might want to add runes to increase the size, or perhaps you are a water mage, you add the central rune water, and then the extra runes focus on changing it into a spike and lowering the temperature. Does that all make sense?" said Nixilei
"Yeah I mean, I guess so? Though, if you have a water mage, and you also have a water rune, why do sigils need to match the mage type? Can't you use whatever type you want?" asked Kat
"Well, yes and no. If you are aware of those runes you may in fact cast a spell with them but everyone has their mana… tainted? No I don't like that… coloured? No I dislike that, though it is a favourite of many…" Nixilei trailed off into mumbling as she tried to find the best word.
"Gah" Nixilei threw her arms up "Truly, there is no great word for it, but each individual is more adept at using a particular element. As you use that more and more, you find the mana changing towards that type quicker. Think of it like a muscle, the more you work on it, the stronger it becomes, however for some reason each person is born with one 'muscle' if we have to use that word, that has already been exercised. Though it normally has the greatest capacity as well"
"Right… that makes some sense, but if that is the case why does Green pool mana around her occasionally? And how does she cast spells? I mean, you said she wasn't but can you elaborate" asked Kat
"You are asking to very different and branching questions there Kat, could you perhaps focus on one?" asked Nixilei but then immediately continued speaking "No, never mind I will just explain. Firstly, you saw Green pooling mana around areas, which is impressive you could actually view it in the first place, because internal manipulation of mana enhances that area of the body. Pushing it towards the legs lets you run faster, the arms punch harder, and the eyes see further. You cannot place it within the mind though… for some reason it resists improvements.
"Though if I am honest, it does not provide the sort of boost you would desire. For most the effects are minimal, unless you poor obscene amounts of mana into the task. It is simply not worth it when enchantments exist though they are slower to activate. You may see Green doing this more than usual because for someone with only internal mana manipulation she has a shocking pool of it to draw upon
"In fact, I do doubt she is actually limited to internal manipulation, but that isn't something I am willing to discuss further. As to how she is casting spells, well any spell can be inscribed onto a piece of armour, or a trinket and then later empowered with mana. The way they are designed the sigils automatically suck in nearby mana, so by manipulating it under the skin to the closest point to the sigil you can charge it.
"This will then cast the spell, and you receive the effects. They tend to be either inefficient for the mana cost, or ineffective compared to their spelled counterparts, but most simply lack the ability to truly cast so it is still a very powerful tool to them" said Nixilei
"So, why not just have a tonne of sigils on your armour? Then you can cast a bunch of spells" asked Kat
"Well, you can only have one sigil per item. Now some exceptions do apply but, that is how it is for the most part" said Nixilei
Kat stared at the multiple sigils sewn into Nixilei's robe and then back at her face waiting for a follow up. *How can you just say that you get one sigil and then walk around wearing that. And all the mages have these. How is this an exception?*
"Well, please understand that mages and healers cheat a little with our robes. Technically speaking the robe is one item, and the sigils are sewn in separately, with special material to count as an accessory all on their own. A warrior could not utilise this system because the mage has to pull out their mana and channel it outside their body and into the sigils on our robes. They consist of favoured spells, with generic variations. So fireball straight ahead for a fire mage, or in my case a generic boost to the bodies regeneration as one of mine"
"Ok that makes sense, is there anything else I should know?" asked Kat
"Hmm, well I suppose the only other thing is that a measure of a mage's strength is how many circles appear within their spellcasting" said Nixilei as she pulled up a spell with three rings "This is considered a two-ring spell"
Kat opened her mouth to interject but Nixilei stopped her with a hand "Yes I know, everyone asks that question. The answer is that the centre circle containing the element doesn't count as a ring. You may notice that my central rune is in fact multiple, that is a unique feature of two ring healers, other kinds of mages only acquire that ability at around five rings, and then they only get two"
"Well that isn't confusing at all" said Kat Though at least I know it all now.
