"She's right, Nalrond. Besides, you don't know the first thing about fake magic. Even if you had a wand, you wouldn't be able to draw runes with it, correct?" Faluel said.
"Correct. I never chanted nor performed hand signs my whole life." He realized they all had a point, but the Rezar still felt pissed off.
"Good. Now, let's resume your lesson." Faluel nodded. "Spirit Magic is more than just offense. Being comprised solely by your mana and carrying your will by nature, it can also be used as a means of communication.
"Quylla, Lith, Solus, and Nalrond have experienced it when you helped me with Rena's baby."
"Was that really Spirit Magic as well?" The more Nalrond learned about how useful the seventh element was, the worse his mood became.
'Now the chances of me teaching Light Mastery to the girls are a solid zero. They can keep their fucking wands just as I can keep my secrets.' He thought.
"Yes. Believe it or not, that's also first magic and the first exercise you have to complete. It will teach you how to pace yourself and avoid wasting mana or worse, injuring others." Faluel said.
"In the past, this branch of Spirit Magic was called telepathy. The theory behind it is very simple, you just have to create a tendril of Spirit Magic and connect it to your target. Putting it into practice, however, is complex and dangerous.
"Contrary to what you might think, the tendril shouldn't go to the other person's head, but to their core. That's because you are not really sharing your thoughts, but using the willpower imbued within your mana to communicate.
"The problem with such method is that, if not properly done, it can share more than you'd like to, flood your mind with your target's thoughts and drive you crazy, or cause mana poisoning to either of you if not both." Faluel created several visible tendrils of mana and left one floating in front of each of her students.
'Good thing I never experimented it on my own.' Lith thought. 'The consequences of failure are even worse than I predicted. Choosing Faluel as my mentor was the right thing to do. The Kingdom could have never taught me any of this.'
"Now, those of you who can produce their own tendril and connect it to mine. If you use too much mana my tendril will fade, too little and it will be yours to disappear.
"I'm keeping them just strong enough to form a mind link so that when you practice among yourselves, the risk of accidents should be minimal." Faluel said.
"What about me?" Nalrond asked.
"Some individuals are capable of projecting their conscience outwards without the need of using mana as a focus, so your task is to try and connect with the tendril on your own. Once you get sick of it, your real exercise will begin.
"You must also learn how to defend in the case someone attempts to manipulate your mind." Faluel said.
"Attack how?" Solus asked.
"The same principle behind the mind link can be used to confuse the opponent or break their focus to keep them from casting spells. Some creatures are so expert with Spirit Magic that they have developed techniques similar to hypnosis.
"You must learn how to recognize when someone is attempting to influence you and resist the suggestion they try to plant into your mind. That's something that anyone can do, non-Awakened included."
"I experienced something similar in Othre, when the thrall of a Vampire tried to hit on Kamila." Lith said. "How can a wannabe undead use Spirit Magic and how is it different from the mind link between Solus and me?"
"Unless they are also Awakened, undead can't use Spirit Magic, let alone their thralls. However, all of them are masters at manipulating the life force. They can use it to convey their will, but it requires physical contact to pass the energy from their blood cores.
"Another difference is that their victim must hear their command since life force carries the willpower but not the thought. Otherwise, Dragons might use Origin Flames to communicate.
"As for your mind link with Solus, it could be achieved with Spirit Magic, but it would kill the recipient. The more information you share, the more mana is required, causing mana poisoning.
"You two don't have such a problem because you have the very same mana signature so no matter how much mana you use, it can flow freely from one to the other without the exchange affecting your reserves.
"Enough talk. Get to work." Faluel said.
Lith and Solus burned Faluel's tendril on their first attempt. They were used to just point and shoot their thoughts. They had no need for finesse between them.
Phloria and Tista were beginners with Spirit Magic so their tendril didn't survive the encounter with Faluel's. Tista had joined them for the lesson since Spirit Magic was one of the few disciplines her knowledge of which was on par with Lith's.
While Friya still tried to understand how to obtain a silver strand from her wand, Quylla shaped her mana according to Faluel's until the two tendrils matched in size. Only then did she make contact and obliterated her target.
"Nice try, but while I decide how my tendril looks like, yours is dependent on the wand. Start small and increase the output gradually, otherwise you'll run out of mana quickly." Faluel said.
'Even if Quylla doesn't allow me to examine her wand, I can still use the exercises to put to the test how close Royal Forgemasters are to Spirit Magic.' She thought.
Meanwhile, Nalrond used his enhanced senses to perceive the mana tendril and the message it held.
He tried to stimulate both of his cores, but to no avail. Then, he used a tendril of light to connect with the Spirit Magic, hoping that the two disciplines shared enough similarities to allow him to overcome his limits.
Unfortunately for Nalrond, each one of his attempts garnered him Faluel's praise but no success.
"I give up. Let's move to the next phase." He said after over one hour of constant failures.
"In your shoes, I would try a bit longer but if that's what you want, I'm okay with it. Are you ready?" Faluel moved the tendril right in the middle of his eyes, barely a few millimeters from his skin.
"What does this mean? You said that the link is established between cores." He said.
"Yeah, but you have two cores. Using the usual approach on you would mean double the mana and the chances of poisoning. I'm skilled enough to work with your brain so it will work just the same.
"On top of that, I would have moved the tendril anyway as soon as you get used to my influence. A person links with your core only if they want to communicate, but if they want to harm you, they aim for the brain.
"It's where your cognitive process happens and being it far from the core, attacking the brain makes the suggestion more effective." Faluel said.
It took the rest of the class several attempts to successfully establish contact without harming either mana tendril and by the time everyone succeeded ten times out of ten, it was already lunchtime.
