"You're having hells of a time with this aren't you, girl?" Warran said, sitting on a stone bench with a book in his hand while Celestine stood sweating and trying to make the magic ball do what she wanted it to.

  "Mrrrrrrr..." She grumbled after the Nth failed attempt. I stopped counting.

   She cried.

  I had been making it a point to not help her in her magic studies. It was something she needed to learn, not me. But at this point, I don't see the harm in giving her a bit of advice, whether it is helpful or not.

  

  

  

  She held her hand out in front of her and curled her fingers a bit. I tapped into her thinking a little more than I usually do. She was thinking specifically of the light, staying in place, with the light lasting the set amount of time. Note this isn't an hour like an Earth hour, but I think it might be close? GAH, I hate how I have no references to Earth time here!

  She forced the will of the three part spell into her hand and a dim ball of light formed between her fingers, following the feeling of something giving way in her arm. She moved her hand back and the ball of light stayed perfectly still. She looked to Warran and he was completely engrossed in his book.

   I said.

   She chuckled lightly in her head.

  

  

  

   She said softly, a bit bored and annoyed at my lengthy description. It probably went in one ear and out the other.

  She performed the spell like I told her to, though, and the new ball of light flew straight at Warran at about running-speed. That was an extra variable that was missing in my suggestion that she figured out after trying the spell twice. Description of the spell, how much energy it holds to sustain itself, direction of travel with the speed.

  The ball of light flashed in front of the old elf and surprised him. He jumped back and landed on his back behind the bench. Celestine started giggling at his overreaction.

  He stood up with a smile on his face like nothing happened. His hair was a mess though and I think he lost his position in his book. "Wow, good job! You even went beyond what I told you to." He spotted the barely visible stationary light ball in front of Celestine. "You did what I told you to and you decided to use a spell to get my attention. I see, I see. Go on to your carving lesson. We will start the next lesson tomorrow. I want to get out of this heat."

  The lesson with Duc'kaal started out mostly just planning out the various pieces for the chess set. Celestine told him she would need bones to be two different colors to make two sets of pieces. Originally she planned to paint the pieces, but Duc'kaal said there are some creatures with different colored bones that would be perfect and would look better than any painted piece. He would need to leave to go hunting for them later. Celestine asked to go with him, which he refused, to her disappointment. It would have been good life experience for her, but Mother would never allow it, he said.

  Celestine ended the day carving chunks of antlers into the size she would need them to be roughly for pawns. Duc'kaal didn't stay at the mansion that night.

  The next day began with breakfast and then standing out in the heat of the day waiting for Warran to collect his thoughts.

  He clapped his hands. "Now we will skip the lesson on making a moving spell like that since you seem to have figured it out on your own. We will continue on to the next school of magic. Elementalism! This school encompasses a lot of magic, so this will take some time. There are four basic parts. Earth, fire, wind, and water. With these four basic parts, we can derive other effects from them such as lightning, which your mother... displayed the other day. Mages usually pick a specific element in this school to master completely for use in battles and monster subjugation. For safety reasons, we will be avoiding fire. I doubt you've even seen fire before in this desert, though, so you wouldn't even be able to use it. Know this, Celestine. Magic is a phenomenon based on your experiences and knowledge. The more you know about a school, or element of magic, the more proficient you become in it. We will start with something you are the most familiar with. Wind."

  Arranged in the backyard were some hastily made flat stone markers placed in different locations, each a little bit further away from Celestine than the last. Target practice?

  "Wind encompasses air flow. The very air your breathe can become a weapon if you study it enough. What I want you to do right now is to make wind with your magic." He said. He held his hand out in front of him and a blast of wind blew into Celestine's face. She squinted her eyes and had to reposition her feet to stay standing up. The wind stopped as soon as it came. Celestine quickly readjusted her hair while giving the old elf a glare.

  After her hair was a bit more presentable, she began mulling about in her mind how to make magic become air. Light is easy to make now because she sees it. The sun and other light crystals make great visual aides. She also has experience with her own magic. She was actually playing with the light balls before bed last night. But this was a whole other school of magic now. Elementalism, huh?

   She was about to ask for help.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

   I said while interrupting her.

   She cried.

  She turned her attention to the task at hand. He just wanted her to make wind. She closed her eyes and tried to visualize the air. Of course you cannot see wind, but you can feel it on your skin and see its effects around you. I think that is the key here for creating wind. Instead of visualizing the element, you need to think about feeling the element. She couldn't figure that out, though. And for the entirety of magic class, she was trying to visualize wind as lines of movement in the air instead of just the feeling of it. So nothing was accomplished and we moved onto carving class.

  Duc'kaal wasn't there. So she just sat in her usual spot and continued to carve away the bits of bone she didn't need in order to create the pawns. This proved to be more difficult than the pendant because nothing was really coming out all too symmetrical. Humans on Earth take for granted the various tools we have that can easily make something like chess pieces. I wonder if making lathes is even possible here.

  Well, a lathe is probably possible, probably common in areas with a lot of trees, but I doubt a lathe would be very useful with bone unless it can get up to crazy speeds. Not that I would even begin to know how to use a lathe.

  She continued to whittle down the bone with her various tools and compared the piece she was working with with her drawings. She tried to draw the pieces to scale with each other to keep the general look at the game intact. Pawns, being the smallest pieces, then the rooks, knights, bishops, queen, then king. While planning this out, she came to the realization that she wasn't a very good drawer, so she declared that practicing her drawing ability will be her next goal after making the chess set for Sullivan.

  While trying to round out the head of the pawn she was working on, and carving near the base to round it out, she cut too close to the middle of the antler and accidentally broke it. A loud sigh escaped her lips. The once one piece, now two pieces, of pawn were placed onto the table. She leaned back in the couch and took another deep breath. Yes this whole time of learning how to carve bone she learned how to be more patient, but anyone can get frustrated after a failure like that.

   I asked, trying to cheer her up.

  She responded with another sigh while piling all the bone shavings into a cloth bag. She was back to square one with this.

   She thought, noticing how the inside of the antler she had been working on was softer than the outside.

  

   She complained while dropping the piece into the bag with the other shavings and dust.

   I said the last sentence without meaning to.

   She declared while looking at her hands. She sniffed her fingers for a bit before recoiling. Ah, that's right. Bone smells horrible when you are carving it. The smell got into her hands.

  After cleaning all the mess from her carving and washing her hands, there was nothing else left to do today besides to read or visit with the last remaining class taking place in the mansion.

  Celestine approached the door to the work area that belonged to Daemon. A realization crossed her mind. She had never been inside this room before. She always had her own things to do, whether they be reading, being taught by Mother, or now she had her magic and carving lessons. This was actually a rarity for her to have free time.

  The door was always partially open for airflow. She approached and knocked on it lightly. When she received no answer, she just pushed it open and entered.

  The entire room was covered in flasks of various colored liquids, many glass tubes, small fire flames for heating said tubes, test tubes, and machines that I had no word for. Shelves lined the walls with books, bowls, and other tools. A glass cabinet was stuffed with dried plants and other unknown ingredients. There were several stone tables littering the room. There were large windows in the room that opened to the outside, but the blinds were closed and a black cloth was used to keep the light out. It had a very dreary atmosphere. Not quite a witch's lab, more of a lab you would expect of a medieval mad scientist.

  At one table I saw a man in a white coat hunched over a young boy, also in a white coat. The man was Daemon, but he had dark spots under his eyes. The dark lighting conditions of the room made Celestine more aware of his wrinkling face and light stubble on his cheeks. The boy was Sullivan. He was patiently working on mixing some chemicals together. The two were so engrossed in their work they never even heard her come in. Celestine looked around for someplace to sit and she found a chair by the window that overlooked the room.

  She just sat there quietly with her hands on her legs and watched them work. They were very quiet. Daemon would eventually whisper in Sullivan's ear to let him know what needs to be done next and Sullivan would silently follow his instructions. Daemon really did nothing but observe and let Sullivan do all the work here.

  Without warning, the compound Sullivan was working on started to give off a black smoke, which caused Daemon to immediately cover the whole thing with a glass dome. Sullivan recoiled his hands and started trembling quite noticeably, like he was afraid of making a mistake like this. What followed was just Daemon softly patting the boy's blond head followed by saying, "No worries. This is a difficult one. We'll try again in a bit." Sullivan's episode stopped and Daemon turned to go collect more ingredients from the glass cabinet.

  I don't even have to guess at the reason for Sullivan's reaction. I've had lives like that back on Earth. Daemon has hurt Sullivan before when he fails and that trembling was him fearing another beating. Luckily Celestine is too innocent to know these kind of signs, but Daemon just went down a rung on the likable scale in my book. Though I am glad he held himself back. But the mental damage is already done. I sighed and just kept watching the scene. This is sad.

  Not to say Mother is innocent in the punishment department, but this is completely different. When Mother punishes Celestine, she deserves it in some way. This is just a class to teach Sullivan Daemon's craft, isn't it?

  The memory of the boy shaking is still fresh in my head. I'm not going to play devil's advocate here anymore.

  Sullivan was quietly watching the smoke billowing out of the flask he had just been holding. He watched the dance of the smoke twirl about in the glass dome before it started to disappear into a small marble at the top of the dome. A tool that absorbs noxious fumes, I assume. Sullivan's gaze shifted and he finally spied Celestine sitting quietly in the chair. He blinked a bit before it finally registered in his head. "Sis?"

  Celestine responded with a smile and a small wave. "Hey Bubby, what'cha makin?"

  Sullivan started fidgeting and then Daemon finally saw her. "Celestine!" It was like watching a flower bloom in a second. He was not the sulking old man teaching a boy his trade, he was now the Daemon she knew again. "What are you doing here? What about your carving? You've been so into that lately you barely respond when we come to see you!"

  "Duc'kaal left for a bit and I got frustrated after I broke what I was working on, so I decided to come see what you two are up to!"

  "I see, I see..."

  "What about magic?" Sullivan asked timidly.

  "I only have a short class with Warran in the mornings then I carve the rest of the day." She explained. "So what'cha making?"

  "Oh a beautiful flower like you shouldn't need to concern yourself with what we're making! In fact, it's probably best if you not worry about it at all. Ah if I wouldn't miss you so much I would ask you to leave but I just can't! Celestine, feel free to watch while we get back to work, but please keep quiet. Sullivan needs complete concentration to complete it." Daemon said in a bit of the sing-songy way he occasionally uses when he's talking to her.

  "Well don't let me distract you then." She said, sitting quietly while the two got back to work. Daemon emptied the dome's vapor contents into a little chimney by the wall that I suspect has seen a great many noxious fumes fly up to the sky. I wonder if there's some environmental hazard we should be concerned about.

  They continued to mix plants and chemicals the rest of the day while Celestine sat quietly. The two seemed to be in a better mood than before and Sullivan didn't tremble when he messed up. So at least something good came out of her visit.