Trying out a new type of dark magic

I was currently sitting in my usual dark magic classroom deep in the palace. Mom and Tia are here with me. Tia recently started learning future sight magic. This one is tricky because there is almost no information on it. Everything that Mom found through research was that the future sight magic user must reach a meditative state to take a glimpse into the future voluntarily. How one can achieve that is not mentioned. The progress has been slow for Tia. There were some results though. She accurately predicted several times what the weather was going to be in the next several days. She also saw a vision of me being knocked over at the martial training by Owen. She described to me what Owen did and, during my next training, I managed to avoid this move.

As for me, I chose to continue studying gravity and illusion magic. Having stopped training telekinesis opened a slot. I am currently sitting at the table discussing this with my mom. Tia is sitting in the corner and meditating.

“Let’s go over your options. I have compiled a list of every known dark magic type. We know that you don’t seem to have an affinity for future sight and that you have affinities for gravity, telekinesis, and illusion magic,” Mom lists. “Else, there are taming, teleportation, shadow, and mind control magic. Mind control magic is forbidden by the Invian Church. I did find some short information about it. We can try it if you want just to see if something happened. Other than that, you can choose between taming, teleportation, and shadow magic. Teleportation is the hardest among these three. It is not as rare as future sight magic, but it is close. There was a little bit more information on it. Taming and shadow magic are more straightforward.”

What type of magic do I want to try? Mind control magic doesn’t sit well with me. I might try it out of curiosity. There is an argument to be made that I can learn it at least a little bit so that I can resist it being used against me in the future. I might try to in the future, but not now. Among the other three types, teleportation calls for me the most. Being able to tame animals or manipulate shadows sounds cool, but teleportation has a lot more utilities to it. First of all, it shortens the travel time. Second, it is great for infiltration. With that line of thinking, my decision is made.

“I want to try learning teleportation magic,” I say. “I might give mind control a try in the future just to be prepared for someone using it against me.”

Mom nods. “Alright, let’s begin with teleportation magic.”

Against all odds, I managed to create a small portal on my first try. I was so surprised by a small rippling area the size of the coin in front of me that I fell off my chair. Mom was equally surprised but stayed in her chair. The commotion brought Tia out of her meditative state.

“What happened?” she asks looking at me lying on the floor.

As I was standing up and putting the chair back up straight, Mom answered. “Your brother managed to create a portal on his first try.”

“Of course, he would. Big brother is amazing,” Tia replies and goes back to meditating.

“He sure is,” Mom chuckles. I sit and get back into my chair. The small portal is still hovering in mid-air. “Where did you try for this portal to lead?”

“To that corner,” I say pointing at the upper right corner of the room. “Should I try throwing something into the portal?”

Mom looks around and picks a wooden splinter from the floor. “Try this.”

I throw this piece of wood into the portal. It flies into it and comes out from the corner that I pointed at.

“Congratulations. You manage to create a working portal. From what I have read, a working portal is only possible to create at the adept level,” she says and crosses her arms in disbelief.

“Has something like that ever happened before? I mean, reaching the adept level in a magical element on the first try,” I ask shocked.

“Not to my knowledge,” Mom replies. “I had a feeling something like that was bound to happen with you. You are anything but ordinary,” she says chuckling.

“Right, I wonder if I will have similar luck with mind control magic,” I say in an even tone.

Mom stopped laughing at the realization that it could be true.

“I am kidding,” I chuckle. “Or am I?”

“Don’t joke about mind controlling, Zen,” Mom chastises me.

“You should have seen your face,” I laughed.

Mom starts laughing with me. Don’t know how Tia manages to keep meditating with all the ruckus in the room.

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