Learn basic spell casting

“You have any skill at magic?” he asked.

I nodded. “I have two spells. Spark Lance and Mend.”

He furrowed his brow. “Show me Spark Lance.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“At the dummy down there.” He pointed toward a wooden training dummy.

“Right. The other dummy,” I muttered.

I relaxed my shoulders, adjusted my footing, and…

I had absolutely no idea how to cast a spell.

I frowned.

I thought about character creation, and a translucent character sheet appeared in front of me.

Yep. Spark Lance and Mend. Right there. That didn't mean I knew what the hell to do with them.

“Problem?” he asked.

“Uh… yeah.” I felt my face flush. “I’m, uh, not entirely sure how to cast them.”

“You know two spells but you don’t know how to cast them?” His voice sounded about as incredulous as it should have.

“Yup.”

I relaxed. This was a game. And the tutorial at that. It was practically guaranteed to have some kind of guide, right?

I thought about a guide, but nothing happened.

Help?

Nothing.

I thought about the character sheet, and it popped up in front of me again.

Journal?

Nope.

No guide.

I dismissed the character sheet.

Cassian sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Think about the spell. Gather it in your mind. Relax. And let your body do what comes naturally.” His face went slack as he spoke. His voice didn't even sound like his. He sounded like…

…a woman?

He shook his head. “You know two spells but you don’t know how to cast them?”

It was the exact same words, in the exact same cadence, like he'd somehow glitched and repeated the previous conversation.

I stared at him for a second before deciding I probably shouldn't question it.

I thought about Spark Lance. Tried to relax. I flexed the fingers of my left hand, but they weren't really flexing. They were moving in a distinctive pattern.

I stopped.

For a moment, it was almost like I'd forgotten what I was doing. Only I knew I'd just been casting a spell.

I tried again, bringing Spark Lance to the forefront of my mind.

My finger twitched. Then it started moving through the pattern again. Sounds sprang from my lips, even though I had no idea what they meant.

A few seconds later, a brilliant bolt of yellow light shot from my hand and slammed into the dummy. It exploded on impact.

“Hell yeah!” I shouted.

The dummy's chest had a small burned patch that smoked faintly.

“Better than the sword, at least,” Cassian said. “Again.”

I did, and another bolt of yellow light shot out and struck the dummy.

It seemed to take about two seconds to finish the spell. Not great, but not bad.

“Again.”

I sent another bolt of light toward the dummy. A few small embers flickered across its chest before sputtering out and turning to ash.

Warmth? That seemed pretty crappy.

“All right. That's something we can probably work with.” He turned and crossed the room. “Now, what do you know about-”

A bell rang in the distance.

Cassian froze.

It rang again.

“That’s not a drill,” he said, fear tinging his voice. “Stay here.” He rushed out of the training room.

Yep. Phase two of the tutorial.

Classic formula. Learn how to attack and cast spells, then something bad happens and you put that knowledge to the test.

This was a city. Or at least a town. That meant it probably wasn't going to be rats or wolves.

Undead?

Maybe.

Hopefully they didn't do the whole dragon thing. As cool as that had been in Skyrim, it was pretty overdone at this point.

I dismissed the pop-up, walked back over to the barrel, and pulled the sword out. No sense in leaving a valuable resource behind.

The floor shook.

Whatever it was, it was big.

A tremor ran through the floor again. The wall beside me cracked.

I unconsciously took a few steps back. I was pretty sure the tutorial wouldn't crush me with a collapsing wall, but I wasn't about to take any chances.

A final blow shattered the wall, raining chunks of plaster and brick down around me.

Then a multilayered voice called out, like three people screaming at once.

“WAAAYFAAAIRRRERRR!”