'Faluel attacked me non-stop while teaching to two people and keeping an eye on the others. What kind of monster can do so many things at the same time and yet have focus to spare?' He thought before losing consciousness.
'What a silly child. He could have quit whenever he wanted but his pride clouded his judgment.' Faluel said to Friya.
'Are you still talking about Nalrond?' Friya knew that those words applied to her as well.
Keeping up with Faluel's chat, showing her memories to the Hydra, and trying to accomplish each task the moment it was issued, had quickly drained her mana. Friya was already running on fumes.
'Mostly.' Faluel said with a chuckle.
"I need a break as well." Friya said, dispelling the mana strand and finding herself covered in sweat.
Her knees shook so hard from exhaustion that she didn't fall ass-first on the ground only because she was still sitting on her chair.
Lith and Solus, instead, had consumed very little mana. Years of experience with Spirit Magic and mind links allowed them to communicate freely using the minimum amount of focus necessary.
The only problem they had was to keep in check their mana and don't flood their partner. They had no such issue between them since their mana would just flow in a loop.
Seeing her sister panting like a bellows made Phloria realize how tired she was and interrupt the mind link.
Tista didn't like the idea of quitting right after Friya. She kept practicing until she managed to share with Faluel a detailed mental image of a contingency plan she had devised during her travels.
"I hope this qualifies as a complex thought, because I'm beat." She said.
"Don't worry. That's exactly what I wanted. We're done for now." Faluel said.
'First Friya, then Phloria, and now Tista. They quit first, so even if I stop now, I would have still performed better than them.' Quylla thought with a smug grin on her mind.
'That's not a nice thing to say about your companions. Being competitive is one thing, being mean is another.' Solus replied, making Quylla blush up to her ears.
"You weren't supposed to hear that either. We need to break up!" Quylla's words after abruptly interrupting their connection made everyone chuckle.
"I meant the mind link. We didn't have a mind flirt or anything." She rushed to explain, regretting her words the moment they came out of her mouth.
"Oh, my!" Lith said with a sly smile. "Solus, I expect a full report about that juicy blushing between you two."
"Don't you dare!" The more Quylla got flustered, the harder he laughed.
"Enough picking on her." Faluel clapped her hands to get their attention. "Ten minutes of break before moving on to the next subject."
"What do you mean, next subject? I'm tired." Quylla blurted out.
"What do you think Invigoration is for? I need only a couple of breaths to have you back in your peak condition." Faluel's usual warm smile had never looked so scary.
"What about me?" Phloria asked.
"If you shut up and meditate you will not need Invigoration. Drink this." Faluel gave her a tonic, making Phloria curse like a truck driver.
"Solus?" Lith said with a worried tone.
"I'm fine. At this distance is no different from being at your finger, but thanks for your kindness." Solus's stone doll jumped on Lith's back, sitting on his shoulder while he walked through the lair to stretch his legs.
'By my maker, I missed you so badly. I never considered that being free also means being often alone.' Solus said.
'I missed you more. Sometimes the silence in my head is scary. When you are away from me, a mean voice tells me how stupid I am for trusting others and that it will only lead to more pain.' Lith replied.
'That makes the two of us. Mine says that I'll never be able to walk among people nor have a normal life.' She sighed.
They spent the rest of the time in silence, simply appreciating each other's company and the feeling of security that their bond granted them.
"How do you feel?" Faluel asked.
Lith and Solus gave her a thumbs up, Nalrond kept sleeping, while the others assumed a foetal position, hiding their faces between their knees.
"Excellent!" Faluel used Invigoration on the non-Awakened and resumed speaking before Nalrond could realize that the nightmare in front of his eyes was real.
"Now that you are accustomed to the basics of Spirit Magic, let's move to something more complex. As I said earlier, Spirit Magic is the seventh element and it can be mixed with the others.
"I'll only teach you how to cast mixed spells and up to tier three. Upper tiers are part of my legacy and I'm not going to share them. I will still provide you with all the means to come up with your own spells, or in the case of the non-Awakened, the means to defend themselves.
"First, a quick recap. Normal spells are obtained by mixing your mana with the external elemental energies. Like this." A sphere of thunder appeared in Faluel's left palm.
"This is something anyone can do. Fake mages, true mages, and Awakened. What only Awakened can do, is to replace their mana with Spirit Magic, use it to bond with the elemental energies, and then coat them with it."
Faluel waved her hand and a small air blade the size of a saucer struck at one of the walls, leaving a small cut in the rock.
"That's regular first magic."
A second wave generated another small blade the features of which were visible to the naked eye. The air blade struck the wall and after leaving a deeper cut that formed an X with the other, it returned to Faluel like an obedient dog.
"While that is Spirit Magic mixed with first magic. As you can see, it allows me to bend or ignore some of the rules the elements usually abide by. Air blades don't disappear after a single hit, darkness becomes fast, and well, you know the rest.
"Your task is simply to use Spirit Magic instead of mana to cast your favorite first magic spell. If you succeed, remember that you'll need to coat the conjured elemental energy with the same amount of Spirit Magic, or the differences with a normal spell will be negligible." Faluel said.
"Why can't we just conjure a first magic spell as usual and just coat it with Spirit Magic?" Quylla asked while Lith had already started practicing.
"Because that would mean mixing three different energies. The exercise is already difficult as it is, there's no need to further complicate it." Faluel replied
"On top of that, the foundation of Spirit Magic allows the rest to be spread evenly whereas the mana in a normal spell is bound to the elemental energy so strongly that the Spirit Magic can't take root."
'This is more difficult than I thought.' Solus considered herself a master of tier zero Spirit Magic, yet the exercise baffled her. 'Normally, my mana mixes with the elemental energy as soon as it leaves my body, while now I have to conjure them one at a time.
'To weave a lightning bolt, I visualize one as I emit the mana whereas here, I have to focus on the strand of Spirit Magic and only then visualize the bolt. The two thoughts don't combine easily and solidified mana don't seem very good at conjuring the elements.'
